Much like me, my iPhone was eternally searching yesterday. Unlike me, it was searching for the ATT cellular network (I, sadly, have no idea what I’m searching for, though I’ve been searching for it for most of my life).
When I got to work yesterday, I stopped down to see the person who does the phone stuff, but, alas, she was out sick (a lot of that going on around here). As this was not only my work phone, but also a substitute for the non-existent land line at my house this presented a bit of a dilemma.
For one thing, I feel oddly insecure when I leave the house without a working phone (odd because I managed to survive the first two-thirds of my life without one – or even knowing that I desperately needed one). I also need to “authenticate” myself via a phone when I work from home (and I sure as hell don’t wanna have to come to work needlessly) and when I’m on-call for the week I need to be able to get my voice mail, since my work voice mail calls my cellphone every 15 minutes until I pick up the message.
And then of course you never know when the house might burn down, or you might suffer some horrible chainsaw-related accident, or a serial killer breaks in and you want your final terrified death screams recorded for posterity on a 911 call and broadcast on the lo-cal news.
So, being the eternal optimist that I am, I saw this not as a tragic dilemma, but as an opportunity. In other words, I used this as an excuse to do what I’ve wanted to do for a very long time – get an Android phone. So that’s what I did. I set it all up online and then went over to the phone store by where I work, and I was in business.
No need for the phone geek to set anything (much) up – I just logged into Google, and, whoosh – all my contacts, appointments, and settings and everything else were all magically there, and now I’m trying to remember all the apps that I actually use (far fewer than the number of apps I have installed) so I can download them to the phone.
So that’s cool. Plus “OK Google” is way, way smarter than Siri (Siri’s kind of a moron, truth be told).
Then I came into work today and the phone person was there, so she hooked me up with a loaner phone while a new iPhone 5s is on order. I don’t really want it (fairly content to stick with the 4s – especially now that I won’t actually ever have to use the iPhone outside of work crap), but, hey, it’s not like I’m getting a raise anytime soon (in actuality, on July 1st we get a 2% bump – first increase in something like six years. Fortunately, the cost of living hasn’t gone up at all in that time).
So now I’m back to two phones when I barely needed even one, but I’m paying what, in retrospect, seems like an awful lot of money a month for unlimited calls (I think I make an average of zero non-work-related call a month, and get maybe half a dozen incoming non-work and non-spam calls a year) and unlimited texts (even less useful to me than “voice” – my fingertip covers an area roughly the size of eight “keys.” How the hell these kids text so fast is beyond me, though I think not caring how atrociously terrible your spelling is, is the first step).
Anyhow, I do have a tidbit to pass along to you Apple folks out there (those that didn’t already know about it, at least – perhaps it’s common knowledge).
While at the phone store, I noticed they had an otoscope behind the desk (in case you don’t know, that’s the thingie with the light and the pointy end that’s a lot smaller than your elbow – but it’s OK ‘cuz they’re medical professionals – that they stick in your ear when you go to the doctor and they want to pretend whatever it is they’re looking at is worth the $250 they’re charging you).
So I asked, “hey, is this in case somebody gets an ear bud stuck in their ear, so you can find it and get it out?”
Turns out, no. It’s because Apple puts their “moisture” detectors in the bottom of the headphone jack, and they use the otoscope to check ’em out.
“Water – you lose, sucker!”
Did I mention I also went with the extra accidental damage (including water) coverage?
So I’m thinking you should cut the tip off some crappy old ear buds (say, the ones that Apple ships with their products) and keep your hole plugged (so to speak) when you’re not in need of sound.
Then maybe when your phone falls into the skimmer basket, there won’t be any evidence.
The great American songwriter Gerry Goffin passed today. He is being noted as Carole King’s ex-husband but he was far more than that. He collaborated on some of the greatest songs of our generation. Maybe my personal highlight of his career were the two songs ‘Going Back’ and ‘Wasn’t Born to Follow’ that were on the great ‘Notorious Byrd Brothers’ LP and figured into ‘Easy Rider’ at a very significant time of my formative years.
“Can I believe the magic of your size…”
A true classic.
I once was bit by the pink in the earplug hole. Grrrr. I’m still getting accustomed to my Android. ‘Tis a process. Some things I like better than the iPhone and other things not so much. For example, the Android phone Favorites takes you to the person’s entire address/phone number card. On the iPhone you set the Favorites to link to the phone numbers so it’s a one touch wonder to call someone. I rarely need an address for someone so why do I need to see it every time I want to call them? Also the password to unlock the entire phone is more streamlined on the iPhone, imo. Since I use those two functions multiple times a day, it’s a bit of a bother on the Android.,The screen and speakers are nice though.
Stephanie Kwolek, Chemist Who Created Kevlar, Dies At 90
I just use voice dialling on my phone (“call Joe Smith” – works surprisingly well). I do more and more with voice. The speech recognition works very well. Siri could never understand what the hell I was talking about, but OK Google is really good (though I notice that after I have a few cold frosties, it doesn’t hear as well).
I rarely bother going into the contacts/favorites, but when I go to favorites or “people,” I just see the person’s photo and name. If I short-click on the photo, I get the full contact page, but if I long-click on it (press until the menu pops up), I get whatever I have set up as the default action as the top option (say, call mobile) with other options available (send text, edit contact etc.).
The only thing I’m having trouble getting used to on my phone vs. the iPhone in terms of unlocking it is that I have to hit “enter” when I enter my PIN. But that’s because I can have a PIN with more than 4 digits, unlike the iPhone. Mine has lots of getures I can use to lock, unlock, get to the phone, get to the lock screen, etc.
Like, I swipe down when I pick it up and it goes to voice dialling mode. And if the phone rings and I pick it up and hold it to my ear, it automatically answers. Or if it’s on my desk and it rings and I want to ignore it, I just flip it over and it mutes (you can set it to mute just that one time, or stay muted until you pick it up again).
If I hold it sideways and hit the volume up, it goes into camera mode. You can also add widgets to the lock screen that you don’t have to unlock the phone to use, so you can put stuff there that you frequently use (calculator, calendar, maps, etc.). Two taps on the screen goes to the screen that shows the time, weather, notifications, etc. Two more taps turns the screen off.
I’m still trying to figure it all out. Plus you can use different launchers to change how the phone looks and works and then you can configure all that, too (I’m currently using Nova Launcher, and that changed a few things, but I like it better than the default that came with the phone, though that wasn’t bad either). It’ll take me a while to get it customized the way I want it. It’s easier with an iPhone, ‘cuz you just do what they tell you to do and that’s that. It’s funny how small the 4s I have now looks and feels to me now. I’ll have to see how the 5s is when I get it (though I’m quite content to just keep the 4s now that I only use it for work).
I’ll try that customization. The iPhone was definitely a “no brainer” phone by comparison. Thanks for the tutorial. I’ll keep working on it.
Each phone can be different based on the model and/or the manufacturer, too. It can be beyond confusing. And I’m no expert – that’s why I’ve been wanting to get an Android phone, so I can play around. I have a tablet, but that’s not really the same.
I’m trying to figger it all out. I can definitely see how people just want to be able to use the goddamn phone w/o having to spend a million hours figuring it out. Especially people who actually use the phone. Big advantage for me – nobody calls me, and I don’t call anybody else. I have the luxury of just playing around w/o having to get any work done.
But I like to tinker with shit, so that aspect appeals to me (and then I get everything so screwed up that it becomes unusable, and then I have to figure out how to un-fuck it up).
The one I settled on is the HTC One (M8). So far, I like it quite a bit. It’ll be interesting to compare it to the iPhone 5s.
Yay because I have the same phone I recently discovered a bunch of photo options. I’m going to start experimenting with those options.
Goodbye dere.
Eli Wallach dies at 98; actor best known for two classic westerns
I wish I had more friends.
Nah, never mind.
Is it meeting Wednesday? Hang in there pj!
No, stupid meeting day is next Wednesday, and will hopefully be cancelled yet again, since many of us are off next week, what with the Holiday and all.
Today is, however, late day, and I am “on call” this week to boot. Stuck here until 5:00, which is rather intolerable. Worse, the person who normally covers Thursdays is on vacation, so I’m stuck here late tomorrow, too.
Woe is me.
According to the news, Gov Christi is being investigated by the SEC for diverting funds from the Port Authority to repair the Pulaski Bridge which is not part of the responsibility of the PA. In doing so they misrepresented the repairs as being part of the Lincoln Tunnel when they issued a prospectus for bond holders. Christi says the deal was vetted by lawyers on both sides of the G. Washington, meaning NJ as well as NY. So…where was Cuomo on all of this? As long as they’re examining Christi shouldn’t someone look at Cuomo who has had nothing to say about any of this.
One can only hope that Christi might bring down a whole empire of corrupt slime. (no pun intended)
We had a little pleasure this afternoon when Tim Lincecum threw his second no-hitter at the San Diego Padres in less than two years. Timmy was
Is that against the regulations? Nahhhhh