Forum: Author Hangout

And now everyone demands a phone with a camera so they can do selfies. I have to admit that phones with video capability can be useful in certain situations.

And now everyone demands a phone with a camera so they can do selfies. I have to admit that phones with video capability can be useful in certain situations.

It's more than just that. I've long loved fancy cameras with large, professional lens, but the newer smart phones now have 'compensation' software (similar to what satellite cameras do to make faint images appear more pronounced so they can observe distance planets with little actual signal) that allows a phone to actually take better pictures than the most expensive SLRs.

The other important point, is that while home cable connections are cheaper, the modern 4G phone datalines are actually much faster than a high-speed data line. Imagine that, relaying a message through a string of cell-towers and receivers actually operates faster than a direct connection!

actually operates faster than a direct connection!

That's understandable, if by direct you mean wired.

I didn't particularly want a phone with a camera, but it wasn't worth paying extra for one without.

The big thing now, because ANY phone or computer can be hacked to record using your phone without your knowledge, is to tape over the camera lens. They've now proven that Alexa and Siri can be 'fooled' by basic music or 'talking blogs' to force the phones/computers to purchase items or install software without the owners permission. Maybe permanently turning off the volume controls isn't a bad idea either!

I will be very upset if my phone dies or my provider stops providing service for the phone's communication protocol.

My primary phone is a 'flip' type, but not the basic type. It has the standard numeric dialing buttons on the outside along with a small information screen, but when open, it has a full qwerty keyboard and a second, larger screen. I love this phone so much that when they were discontinued, I went on Ebay and bought 4 more just so I would have a replacement. I am down to to spares due to accidents making the others unusable (cell phones don't stand up too well against lawnmower blades). My carrier has been trying to get me to upgrade to a newer phone, but the ones they offer are either 'smart' phones or sliders that don't have the second screen.

Don't know what to recommend about if the provider stops supporting the comm. protocol. I don't see that happening anytime soon though - unless you are using an original 'brick' cell phone. I understand even those still work in some areas.

My phone is a flip-top Samsung - 5/8" x 1-3/4" x 3-3/4". Fits in my front pocket nicely. I think it is a couple of generations beyond the 'brick". I bought it before I moved to San Diego and that was in 2009, so call it about 10 years old. The only problem I've had with it is a button on its side. When I accidently pressed the button it asked me to give it a voice command. I hate devices that talk to me, so I glued the button in place so it can't be pressed.

I don't recall if it was the G3 or G4 protocol that was the big thing when I bought the phone. From what I read the G2 network was recently retired. I suspect the G3 and G4 protocols will shortly go bye-bye also.

Fits in my front pocket nicely.

I used to do that, but after having a pacemaker put in due to arrhythmia that was causing me to pass out, I'm not longer allowed to. Now, everything electronic goes in my back pocket where it spends most of the time being sat on! Still, phone are so sturdy nowadays, it really doesn't affect the useful life.

cell phones don't stand up too well against lawnmower blades

Can any stand up to Switch Blaydes? ;)

AJ

I understand. The question is will you have a choice.

At home I have effectively unlimited internet (I think the most download I've ever done is 250GB in one month) via cable modem for $60 per month, and I've unlimited data on our cell phones for $40 per line. I stream music on my phone, wife streams movies since due to her job at times she may have to wait 3 - 4 hours for a client to have a procedure done. (Nurse doing medical transport for elderly from assisted living to doctors and back.)

It's hard to get a one to one correlation on price or service etc., but my provider has the following services (NB: one of the cheaper services available too):

Sim card only service where you have your own phone bought elsewhere is $29.99 for 4GB per month, plus $10 per extra 1 GB each month.

ADSL is $59.99 for 500 GB per month on your landline.

Satellite service is $54.99 for 200 GB per month.

Cost for Internet access are not uniform the world over.

They are almost always the ones that have a permanently installed battery

After the recent scandal of Apple slowing down old phones 'to preserve the battery', they offered fixed-price battery replacement for £25 in the UK. However many people who have tried to avail themselves of the offer have been told that before the battery can be replaced, the phone must have other repair work done at extortionate rates, often exceeding the phone's value.

Apple know their market - people who are happy to overpay for products.

AJ

After the recent scandal of Apple slowing down old phones 'to preserve the battery', they offered fixed-price battery replacement for £25 in the UK. However many people who have tried to avail themselves of the offer have been told that before the battery can be replaced, the phone must have other repair work done at extortionate rates, often exceeding the phone's value.

Actually, it was to prevent a phone crash when the processor hit peak performance and drew more power than the battery could supply. As best I can tell from available information, the change was made by the bug-fixing team.

Apple's error was not putting this through the design team, and creating an information screen with a switch to allow you to turn on 'crash randomly' mode.

(Or you could argue non-removable batterie are the error, but that's the common situation these days).

(Or you could argue non-removable batterie are the error, but that's the common situation these days).

Non-removable batteries have more to do with the ever-decreasing size (thickness) of smart phones that it does with restricting access. If they make them easy to access, we'd still be dealing with bricks which aren't water-resistant! Personally, given the trade off, I'm glad to say goodbye to cracking open and screwing around with my camera.

Have a question in Walmart? Take a picture and text it to my wife and get the answer.

Yep. Wife writes the shopping list on the white board attached to the refrigerator. Take a picture of the white board and it's there for easy reference.

Got confusion? Shoot her a text or send a picture.

Also when doing shopping and you suspect something is overpriced but you'd like to have confirmation - use the Amazon app, scan the barcode, and you'll see what that item costs on Amazon. Got to have it now and you're in Best Buy? Take that picture with the Amazon price for the same item to the sales guy and have him match the price.

And of course the most compelling reason for having a phone on your camera - walking down the street and someone suddenly starts yelling at you because you're a Baby Killer for wearing your Cold War Veteran hat. Start recording, so when they touch you first - in a stand your ground state - you are free and clear for beating the shit out of them (AND for showing restraint in not shooting them). That may have happened to me once...

Have a question in Walmart? Take a picture and text it to my wife and get the answer.

Is that okay in the US? In the UK, retailers try to stop customers taking photos in stores. The official reason is to stop price-sensitive information being transmitted to rivals, but actually they're probably more concerned about covering up their slovenly practices.

AJ

Is that okay in the US? In the UK, retailers try to stop customers taking photos in stores.

Considering you'll probably see half the people walking through a store here have their phones out, I'd say try and stop them. Also, if a retailer told me to not take a picture, that'd be the last time I shopped at that retailer and he'd get a very nasty Google review.

We can tell how Wal-Mart here has adapted to the internet. I walk in and can usually see 4 or 5 Wal-Mart employees walking around with racks and bins, picking online orders for customers. The internet and shopping that way is here, so retailers have to either adapt to it or eventually suffer the fate of ShopGirl in 'You've Got Mail'. (Which begs the question on how well the big bookstore is now doing - probably not very well...)

Which begs the question on how well the big bookstore is now doing - probably not very well...

True. When assessing which reference book to purchase, I like to flick through candidates to make my own assessment of how well-written it is and how thoroughly it addresses its subject. With the demise of big bookstores, I'm reduced to the less satisfying Amazon reviews and 'look inside'.

AJ

With the demise of big bookstores, I'm reduced to the less satisfying Amazon reviews and 'look inside'.

We still have a Barnes & Noble relatively close. Maybe once every couple of months we'll go there, she'll get a caramel macchiato, I'll get a large decaf, and we'll browse. Other times we'll go to Half Price Books and see what people have traded in or sold them, just to get the smell of ink and paper in our systems.

I miss the Hachette Books warehouse sale. I don't think there wasn't a single year we didn't end up with at least a full box of books, sometimes two or three. They had pallets upon pallets of books, all for $1 (each book, not each pallet!).

They had pallets upon pallets of books, all for $1 (each book, not each pallet!).

That reminds me of an incident that happened to a friend. He went to a public auction where the city was selling off just about everything from a move to a new building. There were pallets of office equipment, filing cabinets, copiers, computers, etc. My friend decided he wanted one of the pallets of computers and placed a bid of $25 to open. Nobody bid against him. Imagine his surprise to find he had not only got the computers, but 1 pallet of copiers, 1 of printers and 1 of monitors as well. Not bad for $25, but boy was his wife pissed!

the computers, but 1 pallet of copiers, 1 of printers and 1 of monitors as well

That's when you get to have one HELL of a garage sale, or a great trip to a flea market.

I ended up doing something like that once. An entire shopping mall was closed, and they were auctioning everything left in it. There was a small stack (about 10) of 4' glass shelves in front of a clothing store and my wife wanted them so we could put up some display shelving at home. I won with a $20 bid. Turned out it was also all the glass shelving still IN the clothing store, too. Nobody wanted them because they were 25 pounds per shelf - it was 1/2" tempered glass.

342 of them.

Took me four trips and all day with my truck fully loaded weight wise each trip to get them home and unloaded. So two tanks of gas ($60) and 4 stitches ($100). The next Sunday we went to the local flea market at the 4H fairgrounds with half a dozen sheets and stuck a $10 per sheet price tag on them, with the note that more was available.

Lady was there from out of state that had just sold some animals at the 4H sheep auction. She owned several beauty salons in another state and had been pricing glass shelves. Back then, a single heavy duty shelf like these was about $120 EACH. She grabbed her husband, followed us back to our house with their trailer, and gave me $3,000 for 300 of them without even a quibble.