MAY 17, 20 .. GORD .. A PROMISE MADE IS A DEBT UNPAID
Gord, some many months ago I promised you that I would keep-you-posted as to my new Smart Phone adventure that began last Septemer the 25th 2019, because YOU Gord were at that time being ‘coaxed’ by your family members and / or friends to do what I did, purchase a Smart Phone.
So ..
THIS POST’S FOR YOU GORD .. OLD BUDDY OLD PAL ..
For all-I-know, you may already have a Smart Phone. If not maybe you’d like to read on.
Gord, I hope you (and anyone else reading along here) enjoy this blast-from-the-past, along with my current thoughts and feelings about my Smart Phone.
Way .. Way .. WAY BACK .. last September the 25th, 2019, I made a life-changing decision. In the first link below, is my first ever Post about purchasing my Samsung Galaxy A10 Smart Phone.
And so began my indoctrination, my learning-curve, on how to use a Smart Phone.
Below, just in case you want to go-back-in-time Gord, are links to several of my Smart Phone learning-curve Posts.
In the above Post (DEC 1, 19 .. SMART PHONE .. MY SAMSUNG A10 .. THERE WILL BE NO TURNING BACK ..) I full-well realized that there would be no turning back with regards to my Samsung Galaxy A10 Smart Phone.
SHALL WE BEGIN WITH MAYBE THE BAD NEWS GORD?
A few minutes ago I asked Patti ..
“Patti? Do you know where my Smart Phone is?”
Patti replied..
“Cap! It’s attached to your hand!!”
Gord, Patti’s above statement, made in a sense of jesting-with-me, may be more than just a tad accurate.
OK Gord, let’s begin by reading the below disclaimer from the User’s Manual for my Smart Phone.
This Samsung Galaxy Model A10 is for use in : Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistjan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Mongolia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Kazakhstan. This product should be activated with a SIM card issued from a mobile operator within the above 13 countries. If a SIM card issued from another region is used for activation, the phone may not work. In this case, the device will need to be released at the nearest Samsung service center.
Gord I actually thought, Gord I actually believed, that once I re-entered the United States, my Samsung Galaxy A10 would no longer be functional. No problem at all Gord, I have two other ‘Nokia-flip-phones’ that date back to late 2014 and neither will work here. No problem, I just keep them and, when I return overseas, I just put them back-into-service. So I figured I’d do the same with Samsung A10.
Gord, in my wildest imagination, it never-dawned-on-me that my Samsung Galaxy A10 (is far more than a) Smart Phone. My Samsung Galaxy A10 is a three-inch by six-inch, fully functioning, G5 speed, mini-laptop computer. All he wants-in-life is to connect to internet WiFi. He does not care-one-whit that he does not have a SIM Card (necessary for him to act as a telephone). This fact-of-life happened after I was back home here in the United States when he suddenly ‘found’ a WiFi source and was able to connect to it.
Shortly after I was back-home here, because for reasons unknown to me I had turned him on, he suddenly ‘erupted’ because a friend in Hong Kong successfully sent me a text message on WhatsApp (which does not need a Smart Phone to have a SIM card) because WhatsApp functions on WiFi. Gord it took me a few days to fully comprehend that I had, in-my-hand, an excellent, high-speed, 5G, mini-computer.
So out and off we two went.
Life was wonderful until Wednesday, April the 1st, when WhatsApp notified me that I had to download the latest, up-to-date verison, of WhatsApp.
And?
I could NOT download the newest version of WhatsApp.
So even though I lost the use of WhatsApp, I still had a mini-computer that will perform anything that my two laptops will perform.
Beginning April 1st, I began a fruitless endeavor (far too long and too complicated to get into here such as spending several hours on three occasions discussing this with Google staffers) to find out why I could not download the updated WhatsApp program.
Today Gord, Saturday, the 16th of May, 2020, suddenly I got a message that I could download the lastest version of WhatsApp and I did so successfully.
Thus, almost eight (8) months after purchasing my Smart Phone, I am still-on-the-learning-curve Gord.
Gord? Do you want, do you need, a Smart Phone?
Gord, even with this amazing Samsung mini-computer up-and-fully-functional, I still DO A LOT with my very simple, Tracfone, flip-phones. 100% of my cell phone calls and non WhatsApp text messages are made with my $10 Tracfones, each on a monthly limit of 80-minutes of use (unused minutes roll-over so when I was out of the country for 14-months my minutes accumulated into hundreds of minutes available).
Bottom Line Gord. If you don’t want an almost endless-learning-curve then you DO NOT WANT A SMART PHONE.
Gord, please let me know IF you ever get a Smart Phone so I can sympathize with you Old Buddy!
Smiling From Ear-To-Ear.
Cap