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Useless Software Update: Getting a photo from phone to friend.

How many programs does it take to get to the bottom of a Toostie Roll Toostie Pop (or to send a picture to a friend)? The world may never know. One man's journey through useless software.

So I went to email my buddy Chris a picture of a guitar. No biggie, right? Happens every second all round the word. Well, I took the picture with my Razr 3Vi. So what, right? Yeah, well that's what I thought. Let the journey begin.

One great feature about this Razr is that it has a mini-USB port. So while it came with a charger, it also comes with a miniUSB-to-USB cord and I can charge it anywhere in the world I can find a computer (w/ a USB port). I didn't know that until I opened the box! But I digress. I bring the cord and phone to work and plug in. Well iTunes comes up automatically since the Razr has iTunes on it. That's good actually since I've listened to all the Barack Obama podcasts I had on it. So I took this opportunity to let my work iTunes sync with the Razr and let it add random songs on it. That's always a treat.

How do you like my incredible taste in music? Someday I'll blog about how a computer's definition of random is not the real definition of random. But not today.

There's no place in iTunes to access the pictures, so I eject the phone in iTunes and figure I'll load the disc that came with the phone. Surely it provides a way to transfer pictures from the phone to the computer. It may well perform that function, if you haven't died of old age during the installation process. Here's a visual summary:

Are we home yet? Jeez. I gave up before filling out their 32-point, personal information registration form. Why is it such a pain to get anything done in the modern age?

Anyway, I finally ran the software. Then all crazy stuff started happening, message boxes galore: "can't use with iTunes and this software" "preparing to install USB modem" and couple others I didn't catch. I finally get to what looks to be the "get things done" screen.

Okay, cool. My Computer on one side, Mobile Phone on the other, and a "picture" folder. I double click on "picture" folder and get this.

I double click on ".." folder and it takes me back to the previous screen. Whatever. I select the "picture" folder, click the mobile-to-computer icon in the middle there and get this:

Fine. I select the other folder and get the same message. Can you say "counter-intuitive"?

I definitely feel sorry for any non-tech-savvy person out there trying to figure this stuff out. I'm not all that tech-savvy myself, but since I worked on the iPod zChannel, I did learn a few things.

Anything recognized by iTunes shows up under My Computer (as a removable disk).
If you have "Show hidden files and folders" enabled, you can get quick access to anything. (My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View (tab) > check "Show hidden...)

So I closed all the phone related software, which switched the phone back into iTunes. I opened My Computer and clicked through to the picture folder. Then copy-n-pasted them to my desktop. At that point, I could finally send the email to Chris.

So as many of you know, a little experience with computers and software can go a long way. What I learned is that it also depends which computers and software you've come across.