SWMBO's new phone

Posted by: Dungassin on 24 November 2013

We're awaiting the birth of grandchild #4, and SWMBO b*gg*red off to Wimbledon because Rowena thought she was in labour (I had an appointment so couldn't go immediately).  All turned out to be a false alarm, but she stayed there 3 days and then rang to say she was coming home last Friday, leaving Kings Cross at about 2pm, and she would ring me to collect her from Burton Railway station.

 

Well, come 6.30pm there was no phone call, so I rang my son-in-law, who said she had left them about 1pm.  He then kept me on the phone for ten minutes asking me various questions.  SWMBO arrived home via taxi at 7.30pm, and I was in deep doo doo, because I had been on the phone when she was trying to ring me!  She rang our daughter who said 'why don't you get a mobile phone, mum?'.  She's always said she doesn't need one, but dragged me out yesterday to buy one.  She was only willing to go as far as PC World, saying she couldn't stand the thought of Burton shopping centre on a Saturday.

 

Arrive in Currys/PC World, and eventually manage to get hold of a salesman after 20 minutes! (well, they were rather busy, I suppose).  SWMBO gave him a list of requirements, which mainly came down to "small size", "light weight", "big numbers so I can see them", "send text messages", and (as she had been looking at the models on display) "take photos".  I'd already told her that what she was describing probably meant a smart phone, and had suggested she have my iPhone 3GS and I'd get myself a new iPhone (went down like a lead balloon )

 

She eventually decided on a PAYG Sony Xperia J with Orange as her service, although I had tried to talk her out of it, because cell phone coverage in our village is spotty at best, and that phone didn't come with O2, which I know works reasonably well here, and our eldest daughter has an iPhone 4 on Orange, which often has difficulty connecting when they're with us.

 

Arrive back home, and I try to tell her that she'll have to learn how to use the phone herself, because I won't always be there to show her how.  She's 'allergic' to reading instructions, and always expects me to tell her how to work things.  So, I was 'being unreasonable' according to her.  In the end I finished up entering her phone numbers into the 'Contacts' bit for her, and showed her how to make calls, send text messages, and take photos and videos.  Not sure much of it sank in, but there you go.

 

Surprise, surprise.  She's now trying to tell me that her new bl**dy phone gets no reception at our house! Also, not she's not particularly impressed with the camera on the phone. So, I'm off to PC World tomorrow to see if I can change her phone for something that will actually work at our house.

 

Sigh ...  Suppose I should have put this in that 'current moan' thread, but can't remember what it was called.

 

John

Posted on: 24 November 2013 by Tony Lockhart
You have, of course, accepted that all this is your fault?
Posted on: 24 November 2013 by fatcat

Best to ditch the "smart phone" and buy a "stupid phone". The phone part of a smart phone doesn't actually work very well.

 

Maybe the problem is with orange, or whatever they're now called. if you have a mobile with another provider, try your sim card in her phone.

Posted on: 24 November 2013 by Dungassin
Originally Posted by Tony Lockhart:
You have, of course, accepted that all this is your fault?

According to her ...

Posted on: 24 November 2013 by Dungassin
Originally Posted by fatcat:

Best to ditch the "smart phone" and buy a "stupid phone". The phone part of a smart phone doesn't actually work very well.

 

Maybe the problem is with orange, or whatever they're now called. if you have a mobile with another provider, try your sim card in her phone.

As I said, PC world didn't offer O2 (which I use with my iPhone) as an option for her new phone.  Don't know why, because they seemed to offer all their other companies (Vodafone, Orange etc) with it.

 

Just tried the camera part myself.  I agree that it's not that good.

 

I should add that I did try her to use my old Siemens C45 mobile, but it is refusing to charge/switch on (so I suppose it's knackered), and when I tried to explain that it had no camera and how to send text messages using the phone keypad (multiple presses to get one letter etc) she threw up her hands in horror.   The Siemens is going to be finding it's way to the recycling bit of the local tip tomorrow.

 

Incidentally, I looked up our village on the coverage maps for O2 and Orange, and according to them we should be in a 3G area!  Strange, because even my iPhone only ever manages 2 bars, and that is 2G, not 3G.

 

John

Posted on: 24 November 2013 by Blueknowz

My SWMBO was persuaded by her brother she needed a better phone! so She could read her emails on the move

she had Nokia, which  was just the job, no he said you need a Blackberry! needless to say apart from having to get her reading glasses everytime she needed to use it,it was far too complicated for her, so she now has two smart phones she can't use, if she wants to send or receive text or emails she asks me to do it.

 

Posted on: 24 November 2013 by mista h

If your PC World/Dixons is anything like our one in Croydon i wish you the best of luck getting any help/service. Do let us all know how you get on.

Mista h

Posted on: 25 November 2013 by mista h

A young man wants to get his beautiful Blonde wife something nice for their first wedding aniversary,so he decided to buy her a cellphone. he showed her the phone,and explained to her all of its features.

 

Meg was excited to receive her gift ,and simply adored her new phone.

 

The next day meg went shopping and her phone rang. To her amazement it was her husband on the other end.

 

Hi darling,its me how do you like your new phone?

 

Meg replied,i just love it,its so small,and your voice is so clear. But there is just one thing i dont understand thou.

 

Whats that sweetie asked her husband?

 

how did you know i was in Wal-mart?

 

mista h

Posted on: 25 November 2013 by Dungassin

Well, this morning her phone is getting 4 bars!  Mind you, this is only in the back garden and conservatory.  Still no bars while in living room, kitchen, utility room etc.

 

So she's decided that she will stick with her current phone.  I give her till the weekend to change her mind again. 

 

Now all I have to do is figure out why my Epson 700 all-in-one printer has decided to give an error message every time I try to print something (yes, I have reset its wifi just in case that was the problem), and also why iTunes Store is no longer working on my laptop.  Suspect I'll finish up uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes, and changing the Epson's interface to USB rather than wifi.  (sigh)

 

John

Posted on: 25 November 2013 by Bruce Woodhouse

I'm sure SWMBO will be pleased to hear it is not just her who struggles with technology then.

 

 

Bruce

Posted on: 25 November 2013 by Dungassin

Yeah.  For instance :

 

I have various recurring problems with my NDS refusing to recognise that it has an Ethernet connection.  Usually involves switching off NDS and rebooting my Netgear router.  Then I have to go through a little rigmarole before my iPad recognises my wifi extender.  Everything else recognises it - why not the iPad or iPhone?

 

Managed to get my Epson printer working, by uninstalling and reinstalling.  However, it wouldn't recognise the wifi extender, and I now have it set up with a USB connection.  That's going to p*ss off SWMBO, because it means that if she wants to print something, she'll have to ask me!  I'll have to continue to work on that problem (tomorrow, when she's not here)

 

iTunes Store on my Windows 8.1 laptop not admitting I have a working internet connection, although I can access the Store via my iPad and iPhone?  Uninstalling and reinstalling iTunes didn't cure it.  Tried the various options I found on t'interweb (I'd already thought of most of them for myself).  Eventually (in desperation) cleared my Internet Explorer browsing history (all cookies etc).  That worked, but it means I'm going to have re-enter a shitload of passwords and login again to sites I access regularly.

 

Incidentally, why do Apple make it that you have to use iTunes to transfer stuff from your iDevice to your PC - either that or purchase some third party software to do it?  I seem to recall that at one time my iDevices would initially appear as an external drive and I could navigate them using File Explorer.  Made getting photos/videos off the iPhone easy and quick.  But that option seems to have disappeared.

 

John

Posted on: 01 December 2013 by Dungassin

And the saga continues ...

 

She's finally figured out how to make/receive phone calls, but texting is still a mystery to her.  As usual, she is almost totally unwilling to RTFM, and comes to me with every query.  She is still trying to insist that she can only compose a message when she has 'at least one bar', in spite of me telling her that only matters when she comes round to SENDING her missive. 

 

Me?  I'm not sure how to send messages from her (android) phone unless the intended recipient is in the Contacts list, and the manual isn't helpful on this point.  I only ask because she wants to stop Orange sending her adverts etc, and need to send a message "STOP" to 450 (where I assume 450 is the recipient)

 

I'm currently trying to extract the phone from her hands because it seems she may have some form of predictive text set up, and I need to turn it off for her, but she's resisting me, and saying 'tell me how to do it', all while totally misinterpreting what I'm saying to her about how to go about doing it.

 

She got very enthused because she could look at the news on her phone, but seemed totally surprised when I told her that this 'actually costs money' to do, and as she is on PAYG, 'might just be a little expensive', and that if she REALLY wants to do that, then perhaps she would be better with the Orange equivalent to O2 Simplicity.