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Yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and get a new mobile phone. The one I have is getting on a bit (it’s a Samsung S7, the latest one is S21 is I have had my monies worth) and is starting to be selective as to which texts/phone calls it lets me know have arrived and is getting very hot when used. So off we went to the EE shop.

Had a browse round the phones, came out in a bit of a hot sweat at the prices (some up to and over £1000) but finally narrowed it down to 2, stayed with Samsung found the other old one was okay and didn’t want an iPhone. Sorted out a contract, 2 years then will go on sim only. It probably would have worked out cheaper to buy the phone outright and go on sim straight away but am saving up for other things at the moment and didn’t want to take a lump sum out at this moment and don’t like paying interest on my credit card. 
The very nice assistant changed the SIM card over and started setting it up for me. She then asked me for my google account password etc. I do have one but don’t have a clue on password etc it is written down in my password book but that was at home so she couldn’t transfer my data apparently (didn’t know I had any - note to self find out what it is precisely). Do people memorise this information I wondered? So she wrote down the instructions on how to do it which involved downloading an app onto the old and new phone and then they could talk to each other apparently. If had any problems just to go back in with the relevant information and they would do it. 
So back home I went got out the instructions and commenced. Downloaded the app on the old phone okay and then onto the new phone. So far so good. Sorted it out on the new phone and git it ready to send but then I couldn’t find any apps on the new phone. It was telling me it had downloaded the thing but it was nowhere to be found.
I then proceeded to take the box to bits to find the instructions, found them and they told me how to put the battery in which would have been helpful if I needed to do that and nothing else. So I proceeded to mess around with the phone, kept getting stuck on strange things with no idea how to get back,  couldn’t find settings and managed to turn off the sound and then turn the phone off. All this time my old phone, bless it, was searching for something to transfer it’s data to.

I then tried to turn the phone on. A simple thing you would think, but no it gave me a load of options how to turn it on. Perhaps I am a simple soul but all I want is a button that says “on” that you touch. I don’t want face recognition or finger prints, the phone is already password protected (noted in my password book). I must admit by this point I was starting to think nostalgically about my old phone and wondering it this had been a good idea. So I phoned a friend and was told to try swiping the screen up/down and lo and behold there were the apps. So I set the new phone up and my old phone quite happily transferred whatever it was it transferred. I did feel a bit guilty, little did it know it was going to the phone graveyard after this. 
So now I have a shiny new phone, ordered case and screen protectors (pack of 3 so hopefully I will get one on properly, although perhaps I should have ordered 2 packs). 
I have all my phone numbers/pictures on it, have sorted out the covoid app, got to do WhatsApp (might need help with that) but have lost all the progress on the games I play which is a bit annoying having to start from the beginning again.

Hopefully it will be quite a few years before I have to go thru it again.

 

 

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That is a story and a half SG. It reminds me why I've stuck with my old Doro. Can phone, text, photograph or listen to a radio (if I remember me headphones). Other than that can't think what else to do with a phone. When I changed my car two weeks ago, the salesman said he would pair my phone with the car. He nearly fell off his chair when he saw my phone! He managed to pair up but said that I would have to tap in any number as the car couldn't lift my contacts list from my ancient phone.

Talking of apps, does anybody know anything about 'Viber'?

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It's certainly true about the lack of instructions with new phones. User manuals are non-existant.

 

The manufacturers assume everyone knows how to operate everything. You need to know how to operate the phone in order to tap on the relevant icons to find out how to use the thing.

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SG I didn’t even attempt to set up my new phone.  One of our sons and a grown up grandson came round and did it all.  They just asked me various questions as they did it - what background, ring tone, alerts, volume and font size etc.  They couldn’t transfer anything from my old phone as it wasn’t even a smart phone!   Then they synced it with Paul’s phone, Alexa and our iPad which is good until I’m doing a lot of messaging as it sounds like bellringing  practice as the alerts go off one after the other.

I think you are very talented doing most of it yourself.

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The next phone I buy will be a GPO Bakelite model. Black with a twisted cord, a little drawer for a message pad, a proper ring and a satisfying click when I put the receiver down.

 

I'm a dinosaur...but a herbivorous one!  ;)

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After forgetting my wallet one night and having to rush back to our hotel to collect it on my daughter's advice I decided to set up Apple Pay on our phones.

My wife loves it! Security is by face recognition, once set up no pin nor account numbers are required and will allow her to buy whatever, whenever and accepts her instructions no matter the mood. 

I think that I've just made myself dispensable.

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SG Ive had a similar experience in the last few days. A few years ago when my daughter updated her iphone she gave me her old one. I used it for ages then I couldnt update anything. So bought. Samsung, silly of me really because Id had one previosly and didnt like it. Anyway for two years Ive used it but hate it, I can never find what I want on it. So the other day we went to the phone shop and ended up with an iphone. Fine, the assistant asked me for my password and I gave it to her thinking that was it. On paying she gave me a slip,of paper with my name and a password to use for apps. Fine. Then went through all the apps and different things on my old phone and started to pass them to the new phone. There were quite a few so I was glad when I had finally finished. But no. Screen came up for security and suggested a thumb print. Proceeded to do it when a message came up that a password had been sent to my email. As we live in the country between 2 hills there is no signall until we go outside. So off I went armed with a note book and pencil and wrote down the code. Fail. Maybe Ive missed a number out, again fail. Didnt want to do it a third time so I left it and went back to the shop,in the morning. Apparently the p/w that came was for something else and the spaces for a p/w were for me to choose . So Id messed it up completely. Left the phone there and went back at 7 pm to collect it. Terrified of making another disaster i left it alone for a long while. Works fine although I still had to install some more things that hadnt been transferred including my covid green pass. 

Today I wanted to use my laptop and switched on .....password please, ok typed it in wobble wobble, ok again wobble wobble. It was the correct p/w but it just would not accept it. Tried all afternoon and suddenly after checking my P/W book found right in the corner in pencil another pw for security. Pressed that and voila' screen was on. Thankgoodness. It must have been the pw that I set up on my iphone and its appeared on my laptop. I'd forgotten.Strangely enough I couldnt understand anyway why this had come up as on the laptop I never use pw as I disabled it a long time ago. Stressful to say the least.

 

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