Wednesday, November 4th, 2009
In Cairo showing off to Egyptian friends how easy it is to chane the language and keyboard on an iPhone. It is all soft keys so anyone can switch the phone in 10 seconds. I demonstrated it. It is true.
The phone changed all menus and keyboard on demand. Everyone was suitably impressed. Five minutes later I was ready to switch back. That was the problem. What was a logical menu structure in English was a collection of meaningless screens one after another after another. After ten minutes of trying every list to get back to the languages choice menu, panic set in. I tried to find someone else with an iPhone. No luck! So I accosted a total stranger who could speak Egyption and translate the menus back into English for me. But even then as we went from menu to menu most of the translated words did not seem to fit.
After 30 minutes we cracked it, and it went back to the familiar structure. My iPhone became my iPhone again.
What I learned: the menu structure without identification is incomprehensible however familiar you thought it was.
It is so easy to stumble from comfort to confusion without realizing it.
Think of the unpredicted consequences of your actions first!