For phones we had we had the Palm Treo. And assorted crap early Android. And a few highly specialized keyboard/screen phones. And the blackberry with the rollerball. I loved my blackberries. Years later when they hadn't sold more than a few phones in the last 5 years, I still demanded a real blackberry with a rollerball when I had to get a separate phone for my BOA job.

And then the magic of those first decent Apple touch screens showed up along with somewhat readable icons. I fell for it. For a couple of years.

In those days the icons were focus grouped. They were agreed upon early on. They were supposedly aesthetically pleasing, at least to Jobs. And there was only a few of them.

A few years later the Android technology caught up and was much cheaper and you could see where they simply got the technology right, even though they weren't as pretty. Pretty could catch up.

For some reason I do not find the Apple structure discoverable. I can scroll around in menus on Android and pretty much read and understand what my next option will be. The Apple icons represent a brick wall of possible accidents that I might screw up on my wife's phone. So I have an initial hesitance to explore and I don't want to break anything.

I have learned to stay away from supporting anybody else's phone. In the case of my wife's Apple device right now, I am perfectly happy to suggest that she stops by the phone store to get any answers she needs if she can't figure it out herself. It's only a few blocks away from where she works anyway.

This has taught her to be self-sufficient. Previously the kids would handle the phone for her. The kids are gone. Actually one just came back but she's not handling the wife's phone. She does things in roundabout, silly ways due to cargo cult programming. But that's okay. She figures it out.