Lock in

In England a lock-in is a sublimely pleasant experience; the landlord shuts the curtains, locks the doors and serves late into the night.

In America lock-in means you’re being screwed by telephone supplier. They will sell you a phone but only if you subscribe to their network. The Apple iPhone is a classic example of this – you buy the phone and you have to sign up to a two year deal of high subscription costs and if you take out the locking software you’re left with a very expensive door stop, or iBrick as it’s known.

The reason all this came up is that J managed to drop her beloved Palm phone into the loo and it’s deader than a ‘Frankie says relax’ tshirt. So we spent a hour or three trying to find a replacement, and they were all locked into a US telco – which is bugger all use if you live in Australia.

Thankfully we found a sales bloke in a telephone showroom who hadn’t had an ethics bypass and he directed us to a store that sold unlocked phones, a small concern on the edge of the Tenderloin who was staffed by an excellent bloke.

Sadly he couldn’t sell her an unlocked device, but could get her the model she wanted and unlock it in 24 hours. He went even further and lent her a phone for the meantime. This chap is a find, and the shop gets five stars in my Yelp reviews.