Monday 13 January 2014

PHONE - FRUSTRATIONS !

GALAXY POCKET NEO


Last week I treated myself to a birthday present, a Samsung Galaxy Pocket Neo - A Smartphone. Within in a few hours I was wondering why.
The instructions were far from clear, well not for old idiots like me, I was slightly confused to say the least. Mrs H says that I was swearing left,right and centre. I down loaded the manual read it and still there was no real clarity. So I called the help line and the person that I spoke to suggested that I had inserted the wrong Sim card into the phone. I told her that it was not possible because the Nokia Sim (from my old phone) was three times the size of the Samsung one. I went to bed, awoke at 2.30a.m and made my way into the kitchen where I opened the phone and this time I quite quickly and easily created the locking pin code. I returned to bed and slept soundly for six hours. 

On awakening and returning to the phone task I found that there was a whole range of questions that needed answering before I could actually and properly access the phone - gulp! To cut a long story short I engaged the help of a friends son who did a magnificent job.
What I have discovered throughout all of this mild techie stuff, is that every company uses different terms : thus on my WiFi what they call a security code is known as a Password to Samsung. So yes, this did make me swear an awful lot....!

I have now managed to send a few texts and have made some calls and am now looking forward in doing much more however, I do realise that just as my first two or three computers were PCs before graduating to AppleMacs and that eventually I shall move over to an i-Phone, whose technology will be easier to understand.


30 comments:

  1. Best of luck with your phone Mel....they are all double dutch to me. I keep with my old one.....sooooooo easy. I know I will have to replace it one day , and if all it can do is take pictures and send text messages I'll be very happy.
    Margaret x

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    1. Thank you Margaret. You will never know how many times that I threatened to throw it out of the window however, I am now more confident and discovering gadgets that I like and those that I will never (I think ?) use.

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  2. O how well I know the phone-acy of it all! . We have switched carriers and of course anything that was sent via messaging from december has long since gone. My phone also has a acquired a habit of 'dialing out' when It's turned on and in my pocket. Apparently it doesn't like being kept in the dark and has phoned a friend of mine (good thing it was not a business!) who in turn was regaled by our conversation between mr bear and myself while out walking!
    My old phone had a lock feature that prevented that. this doesn't. darn it. blessings on your new phone!

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    1. O how wonderful to hear from you Lady North!

      Mrs H had a phone that had a mind of it's own too it would send photo's to a person in Dublin. A perfect stranger with a sense of humour who never disclosed who he was and always sent her a jovial response. The outcome was that Vodafone issued her with a new phone & Mrs H's photos remained in her possession.

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    2. O My Goodness for Mrs H!
      It's probably a Good Thing that I don't use my phone for snapping shots: though I am sure my friend would love the shots of the lint, sand, assorted leaves and bills that are crammed into my pocket! Next time you are in Dublin, perhaps you should look up that 'jovially motivated' person and buy him a coffee for his trouble! Finally got Blugger to post proper like. grrr.

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    3. Lady North, I rather think that the mysterious gent may well have emigrated to either Australia or Canada. In which case if it is the latter you may have luck sourcing him yourself :-)

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  3. I very rarely use my mobile phone. For one thing I can't read the screen outside when the sun is shining. Also I think you need to be a small child to press the buttons. There is a lot to be said for answering emails when you get round to it.

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    1. I am considering in going back to Pigeons - only joking!

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  4. Hi Mel,
    Recently, after an unplanned session of trying to teach my phone to swim I had to go and buy a new (secondhand) phone. My previous phone was an HTC windows phone which I found was very user friendly and I managed to get used to it quite quickly. However, the phone that I have now is, like yours, made by Samsung. I have found it not at all as good or as easy to get to grips with with. I really do hope that you have better success with your Samsung than me.
    Tony.

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    1. Sorry to read about your non swimming phone Tony, Mrs H did that with her digital camera last year - it is a costly lesson.
      I am slowly getting to grips with the new phone by being selective with the apps, using only those that I feel are necessary.

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  5. I really don't know if you are going to get this comment since I seem to be ending up in spam with most blogs! I am having real problems with phones and IT at the moment and it has brought me to screaming point! BT have assured me that it can be fixed with a simple little cheque for approx £1000 (for something that everyone else gets for free!), I have just upgraded my ipad and iphone and am investing in a 3G Booster (who knew there was such a thing) and hoping that this might solve my problems and be a lot cheaper than BT. So I feel your pain and like you I will be getting a son to get it all up and going for me. Happy New Year xxx

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    1. Hello Fran really good to hear from you. National phone companies can really get into your hair at times, well that is my experience in that they bluff and tell lies to cover up their own ineptitude. A few years ago when I was having problems in getting on the net they gave me all manner of crazy reasons as to why it was impossible. That my phone extension lead 21ft was too long to us living too far from the exchange and yet strange I said that the phone works to which there was no reply. Eventually I sent a long snotty letter the sales director and that did the trick.

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    2. Hi Mel, believe me, I have already sent a really snotty email to the Chairman of BT, which was acted on. But BT are blaming OpenReach and OpenReach are blaming BT (they are both the same company!) and apparently it is the laws of the EU which has caused the difficulty, to which I replied that it was absolute rubbish that there was a LAW from the EU that they had to charge me. Anyway hopefully I can sort things without BT and I have cancelled the phone line at the house, so BT have lost not one but two lines. I am so glad that I can get through to you on my work email, there are so many blogs that I can't x

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    3. Sorry to read of your phone troubles Fran. I presume that you have been in touch with the UK phone regulator - OFCOM just in case here is the web site
      http://www.ofcom.org.uk
      They are a very useful and can be exceedingly helpful.

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  6. Mel, I must be the last person in the world who has never owned a cell phone or an Apple product.
    Hope using yours gets easier.

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    1. Ha' ha' I am sure that you are not, no not by a long chalk Gwen.

      I use an Apple-mac because of their efficiency and ease.
      A cell phone for similar reasons and also because I'm quite talkative and I also like to sit in my chair by the fire and chat to my friends around the world for small money, I mean like 1cent (Euro) a minute is very cheap compared to a phone call on a landline.

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    2. Wish they had prices like that in Canada... I would sign up.

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  7. With the exception of my Kindle HDX all my electronics are Apple for a very good reason, they were designed for duffers like me. All I have to do is open the box, turn the device on and use it. For years I fought with an Android Smart Phone and HATED it. Then a year and a half ago I broke down and bought an i-phone, it's wonderful, will never own any other brand. I know Apple's more expensive, but it's worth it.

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    1. Good to hear from you Janet and to receive your point of view, which I entirely agree with plus I will go one step further. Which is that as a customer I expect to be given the best, I do not expect to have to fight with the damn thing to get it to work and whilst I may use this piece of xx!!f** for awhile I shall not be returning to Samsung to be ripped off again.

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  8. Oh Mel, I so know what you mean! I have a Nokia and I'm sticking with it because it took me two years to figure it out so I'm blowed if I'm going to change it until it dies...and then I'll buy another Nokia! I use Apple computers too, but I don't like touch screens so don't have an iPad or iPhone. I've seen other people use them though, and they look very different from my MacBook system....I'm also running out of time on technology. It's hard to keep up, isn't it?

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    1. Hello Val, thank you for your comments. Yes, I know from Mrs H that she too is very attached to her MacBook and I have to say that this, that when she moved over to Ireland. She brought with her a iMac Graphite it was so easy to use that I bought a second hand one. Since then we have both upgraded. In regards to touch screens my 3 yr old grandson is quite adept at using his mother's iPad!
      Using touch screens is quite nice as there is a sensation similar to that of touching silk.

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  9. My phone only does calls, text and the radio-it's about as much as I can cope with, as the laptops, and cameras keep me busy enough, although my weather station manual is terrible. I think an iPhone will be well worth the wait.

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    1. Hello Suzie. Thank you for your thoughts which I completely agree with.

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  10. Hi Mel, nice to reconnect with you again (no pun intended). I've got to say, because the house (and the house geek who runs it) is Mac friendly, having my iPhone was a quick learning curve. I'm sadly rather now fond of it and all too often tethered to its shiny apps.

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    1. Hello Anne-Marie, Your non-pun understood :-)
      I envy you your ownership of an iPhone, for all things Apple are easy to use.

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  11. Having just got an iPad I can sympathise. I'm sure it will all come together in the end, it always does with Apple, but it's very different from my MacBopk. Hey Ho!

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    1. Thank you for your positivity Rusty Duck ! Actually there is an improvement with my handling of the Samsung today for Mrs H (whose other Nom de Plume is Chief Operator) twiddled with the phone and so things are now a bit easier :)

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  12. It sounds like you are getting to terms with the new fangled technology ;) i'll get ollie to show you how to use it properly in May, he's a whizz on his ummm my ipad! Xx

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    1. I can't wait can you send him over via air freight complete with iPad please ?
      For am certain that my 3yr old grandson has a lot to teach me :)

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