Pages

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Smarter Than Us?

Recently, Grenville and I upgraded our “dumb” phones to smart ones. Grenville always got a big laugh in saying that his phone was so old it had a rotary dial. Take a minute and think about it.

We avoided an upgrade 2 years ago, but once again our contract was up. So it was time to consider a change.

We use other Apple products (iPad and MacBook), so we choose an iPhone. Rather than the “bargain” iPhone 4s, we opted for the most current (for now) model. iPhone 5s. We go the distance with contracts; our previous one was so old that it was grandfathered.
Grenville’s has the gray back model; mine is gold which only reflects the case color, not its cost. Thankfully, we qualified for upgrade pricing too, so the phone was (way below) retail cost. However, they are still pricey, so enough said.

iphone frontOf course, with cell phones there are always accessories.  Grenville’s is a red flip case. My choice was a wrap-around protective case in my favorite color — purple, both ordered from our favorite online retailer, Amazon.
And considering the cost of similar items at the phone store, these were big-time money-saving bargains, always a great thing for us.
Talking about cost, it seems that with the price of theseiphone guide devices, you would hope for a How To Use guide to be included. Sadly, as is the case today for most all electronics, camera, etc., there was only a very small one. So it was back to Amazon for an “after-market” manual; this one has over 500 pages. If we read it all, we should know a LOT about the phones — maybe even before there’s a newer model.

We won’t upgrade before 2 years, which also gives us time to master texting. Yes, many have been texting for years. No, we never texted on our older phones.

Texting has its own language, Emoji, with lots of images (not all “smiley or gloomy” faces) called emoticons that many add in their text messages. FYI, it’s found on the language keyboard of many smart phones and other devices.
Wonder if there’s a Rosetta Stone ® program for Emoji — Can you Emoji?

17 comments:

Montanagirl said...

I've had my smart phone for over two years, and it's still smarter than I am!!

NCmountainwoman said...

I have an iPod Touch that does everything an iPhone does except having a phone. We are one of those tiny areas of the US with no cell phone reception. So we keep our very old phones in the cars. But the day they give us reception is the day I'll get a smart phone.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

Although folks I know lost info like contacts when upgrades were done, I am thinking a 5 s or whatever is the latest when my contract was up. ...:)JP

William Kendall said...

I've done the odd thing with emoticons on computer, but not on my mobile.

DeniseinVA said...

We have had ours for a while but I am still getting used to mine. I saw another thing today when we went to the store. They had a 'reader' just for smart phones. You can now apparently, according to the cashier, pay directly from your bank by swiping your smart phone over the reader. He said it rarely gets used because people don't realize what it is or ask about it. I suppose credit cards will be a thing of the past.

Ludwig said...

This modern technology thingie gets worse! Our son just bought a new car, now his phone talks to the car and the car's voice is Siri.

Anonymous said...

I won't change phone until my old one breaks down and I'm afraid it will soon since I tend to drop it on concrete floors :-)

I've had it for almost three years now. I text a lot but only use the smiley but sometimes I do something wrong and suddenly one of those other emoji's show :-)

Over here it's Samsung tat's the big brand but Iphone is close behinde. I think I'll continue with Sony since that's what I've had for the three last phones I've had.

Have a great day!
Christer.

Dianna said...

My husband still uses a flip phone (perfect for him) and he also tells folks his has a rotary dial!! (Of course, younger folks have no idea what he's talking about...!)
I love texting, but did a much better job of it with my Blackberry than I do with this Droid that I now have.
Good luck!

Rebecca said...

I hate that you no longer get user manuals with new products and have to search on line for them. I may go back to a dumb phone next time. They are too big! But any smaller and I couldn't read it. sigh

LONDONLULU said...

I too finally gave in after years of a 'dumb phone' & have had my smarter-phone for the last 2 years. It was a bit of learning curve, but now I can't imagine life before smartphone!:)

Connie said...

Have fun learning all about your new phones. It's amazing what they can do.

Anonymous said...

I swear by my Samsung smart phone. I love the large screen.

Charlotte Wilson said...

I am sticking with my "dumb" phone for now. It has a camera and querty keyboard to text. It is all i need for $35 a month. The cell phone business is about to change. It will be a lot less expensive. Too bad you signed a contract. It is a rip off.
I love Amazon too.

have a wonderful week, you two!

Emma Springfield said...

My children have all that fancy stuff with their phones. All I need is a way to talk to someone else.

Wsprsweetly Of Cottages said...

I have the Iphone 4 and have the worst time. REading the directions would help a lot I am sure. Sometimes it makes me crazy and I never use it for more than just texting and answering phone call.
:) Mine fell in the toilet...so..you know. I skipped the iPhone5 and opted for the 4. Glad I did. One more compled thing to figure out and I would have thrown it in a ..well..back in the toilet!

Elaine said...

We're sticking with our dumb phones, and they don't even get turned on that often. If someone wants to talk to us they just have to wait until we're home. I guess that makes us a couple of old fogies, but we just don't feel we have to be connected every minute of the day, and we haven't found a compelling reason yet to go the smart phone route.

Mimsie said...

I'm with Elaine. Our landline phone is our contact with the outside world. We do have a mobile phone which only gets switched on when hubby goes out and we do take it with us when we go out together. I had a great Philips mobile phone years back and with it came a delightful illustrated instruction booklet so I was able to text at will and put in phone numbers and delete them etc etc. It got tired so we now have a small mobile with instructions that tell you nothing. I don't use it at all and as for texting.....I gave that up completely after several failed attempts. I realise I am now far too old for all this modern technology. We get very few calls anyway so not worth the expense of buying something that would be more of a worry than a joy.