Topic: Vegetables are so much easier please take with a large pinch of salt

[Digeroo]

So the phone arrived.  Mega it was much quicker than expected only ordered a couple of days ago.

[Digeroo]

The first instruction is to put in the battery and the sim.    Am I stupid but how does the back come off?   No instructions about that.     Broke a fingernail but finally managed it.  Done it several times now, does not seem to get any easier.

It could not find the sim though I had just put it in.  Do I need another type of sim?  Is there something wrong with my sim?  It worked a few minutes ago in my old phone.   Nothing in the instructions about trying the thing the other way up.  Does seem to work better when it is not upside down.   They should have realised I was into gardening and do not know which way a sim goes into the slot.  Normally they only go one way, which is why someone snipped a little piece off the corner.

Phone comes with an image of a slim, lithe young lady gryating about the place.  Now I am in deep depression.  Yes I was young and slim once and wore a miniskirt only millimetres longer than my knickers.   40 years have not done me any favours.

[Silverleaf]

Consider yourself lucky - I have never been slim! ;)

[Digeroo]

Doing well now - on a bit of a roll.  Got my home phone to ring.  This technology thing is very clever.

I was never very very slim was rather sporty, my brother ran a football team and said if all the team had thighs like mine he would be proud of them.

[Digeroo]

Getting highly technical now.  Managed to link into my home hub.   Only found out recently I would be able to do that.  Seems my daughter just connects as well when she is back here.   

Seems I can connect into 5 million BT hotspots as well so not much need to use up my Vodafone allowance.

Having a 'google' now. 

[Digeroo]

Still need an SD card will get that tomorrow.  Do not want too much excitement for one day.

Created a Google account so  I had to receive a text message.  Heard the device bleep no idea how to retrieve the messages.    Instruction booklet not very helpful. Oooh I pressed something and got a whole page full icons of goodies.  Got my message,  not sure I can do it again.

So hopefully I can now download 'apps'.  Getting into the jargon as well now.  Want the app which will detect the BT hotspots and log on to them automatically.   

Managed to get met office weather forecast and make a phone call.  Vodafone up the creek at the moment.    Looks like if you use it a lot you run the battery down.

Phoned my daughter she was expecting to have to teach me to use the thing, and is feeling redundant because I am muddling through on my own.

[Digeroo]

Upgraded my Vodafone account, got more minutes, more data and minutes of 0800 etc numbers for less.

Grrrrr I think they have been ripping me off.  I really wish that another network worked well here.

I do hate it when the bank, the phone and broadband etc, give you less interest or charge you more after certain times, they rip off their existing customers.  I am getting older I do not want to have to keep a check on these things all the time.  I think it is a form of age discrimination.   And why do sainsbury's thing I want two of everything.

Planted out some cabbages, ground as dry as bone, we missed the biblical deluges.

[ACE]

It has come to the point nowadays that some of the instructions handed out with a device are so complicated, I just don't bother reading them. But there are some very helpful people who put up youtube clips and show you step by step how to fathom out the easiest way to use things. Much more use than a poorly translated manual.

I have a watch that sets itself by a radio signal. It came with a large booklet that would rival any doorstop and after reading a couple of lines you loose the will to live. A quick trawl through youtube and I can now tell the time in any country, set the alarm, (still working on how to turn it off) and flick on the little light when it wakes me up in the middle of the night to tell me it is 8.30 in China.

[grannyjanny]

Digeroo. I take my hat off to you. I got s smart phone earlier this year. I can take pictures & email them from the plot for advice, I can make a call, send a text & Google but most of it is beyond me. I got mine from car phone warehouse, I pay £11 a month which is good as my bog standard phone was £10. I hope you've inspired me , we will see.

[galina]

You are on a roll!  Next you will be installing a Satnav App !!! 

.................. and by the way you look very distinguished    wish I could do that - I just look scruffy, even when I have tried to make an effort     

[Digeroo]

You are well ahead of me grannyjanny.  I have now managed to make a call, send and receive a text and log onto my homehub and taken one picture.  I am impressing myself with the speed of my techno prowess, definitely on a roll now.

But there are a huge number of options on the camera so I have not even begun boxes keep popping up all over the place.

Tried to log onto a BT fon hotspot but failed.  Seems I have to log out of bt on my computer hibernation is not good enough.  So I am off to try it after total disconnection.    Makes sense only being able to log into with one device at a time.  Though seems you can run several from the homehub.

I keep on calling up things and then not being able to get rid of them and having to go back to square one. 

Still have not managed to log into Google play and hence down load any apps.  Daughter is off to Paris so I may have to wait till she gets back.   

Good thing I bought a cheap one, seems to need a lot of other bits and pieces, leather cover, sd card, Bluetooth keyboard, spare cable, screen protectors etc etc.  maybe a spare battery. 

Battery usage seem to be fine if you do not use it.

There are some useful videos on youtube but their fingers seem to whizz round the screen like a demented bumble bee.   

Certainly want a satnav app.  That was one of the great pluses of getting it.  I out went with a friend recently and the sat nav on the phone was great.  Big minus is that we have a big hole in the 3G here, so mobile internet will not work. 

I do scuffy very well most of the time.  Jacket very good came from Asda had it for years, washes like a rag too.  My aunt had farm and people would arrive in welly boots and trench coats and sou'westers and come out of them for a party like a butterfly emerging.

[pumkinlover]

You are doing so well Digeroo!!    I am useless at all this techy stuff! 
The jacket is so you

[Digeroo]

I am on a roll again now managed to connect up a blue tooth keyboard.  Do hate the tiny finger operated thing.

But on the down side left the alarm app going while I went to water lottie and ran the battery down in a couple of hours.

Went on a U3A memory course a while ago and challenging your brain is apparently good for it. But I think mine is currently overheating.  I think there is steam coming out of my ears.

Took me several phone calls to BT to get the hotspot problem sorted.   Third operator sorted me out.  And after six months of problems another one sorted out the fact that my broadband disconnected when the phone rang.

But I haven't really got my head around apps yet.   Certainly I have not grasped the concept of why googleplay app store need your credit card number before letting you have something which is free.   

I had a huge problem making and receiving calls, thought there might have been some compatability problems with my cheapo Chinese gizmo.  Turns out they were upgrading the transmitter and we lost signal for most of three days.

Getting bold taking a pic everyday and changing the wallpaper.  Today its poppies.  Nothing like variety.

Hope to get a satnav up and running soon, then I can definitely avoid Aldridge.   Though Chriscross and his satnav did a brilliant job of getting me to Walsall road this year.