imafan26
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Technology baffles me

Believe it or not, I actually have an AS in computer science. But, that was a long long time ago. I understand the basics, but aplications are really too complicated for my simple mind. My phone was a galaxy S5 that replaced a flip phone 3 years ago. There is nothing wrong with the phone except the battery life is getting shorter. However, when my Windows 8 computer got fried, I was forced to upgrade to the dreaded Windows 10. Windows 10 updates are killing me. My photos and some files disappeared. I found some of them on one drive, but Pictures has been replaced by photos and I don't know how to use that app. I can't find the control panel and can't find the phone.

Windows 10 refused to communicate with nighthawk 7000. I could only access the router as a guest. Then the power went out again and I had to reboot the router. Without the original computer and the passcodes, which I don't remember, I could not even access as a guest anymore. It took weeks to find out that the nighthawk 7000 will never talk to Windows 10 because it does not have any updates and will never have updates to make it compatible. I only had a router because the wireless printer would not talk to the Windows 8 computer, so I had to use the wifi and ultimately hardwire the router to the printer and then the computer.

I did not want to get another router so and the laptop does not have enough USB ports and I use a mouse. I ended up buying a USB bar and an adapter to turn one USB port into more. I hardwired the ethernet (which required another adapter), printer, and mouse into the USB bar and finally got everything to talk to each other. I don't like laptops, but since power outages continue to be happening frequently, I need the laptop's battery to be able to shutdown the computer so it won't crash.

When I went from Windows 7 to Windows 8, the computer stopped talking to my coolpix camera. I could not upload any pictures that were still in the camera. It could still take pictures. I just could not get them out. The camera software is no longer being updated so I basically had a useless camera. Then, I had to depend on my phone for pictures.

When I got my job, my flip phone did not have enough storage to download apps. It was a perfectly serviceable phone except for that. I ended up getting the Galaxy S5. It had what I needed and a phone and as long as I had the Windows 8, I could upload or email pictures for uploading to the computer. There are a lot of other features of the phone which I never used or even cared about. I do not live anywhere near my phone.

Windows 10 won't talk to S5, my pictures are stuck in the outbox and can't go anywhere because the app is no longer supported. It still worked as a phone, alarm clock, I could still take pictures that could never get printed or sent out. It pinged a lot because apparently it was sinced to my computer. How annoying!

I have to try to prep and make a powerpoint presentation for another class. It is still months away and I only have a topic right now. Unfortunately, now I really need to get the pictures out of the phone. I have run out of data a couple of times and had to purge the phone for more space. I think the phone has 32 GB.

Today, I bit the bullet and got a new phone. I ended up with a S10e. It is a good phone and has decent reviews. It is a little bigger than the S5, but the data was able to be transferred to the new phone. It was still $750 for a phone. I did get a screen protector and an otterbox for it which makes it a little bigger.

It took me 5 hours to figure out how to plug in the charger. The otter box hides the port and I did not know how to open it. I could not find any videos or any instructions on what the bottom of the phone looks like, so I had to try to figure out how to get the otterbox off, which is harder than you would think. I also found out, if I want to use the rear cameras, I will have to take the back cover off anyway. That only took about 30 minutes. I tried for 4 hours to figure out where to plug this C cable in. I could only see one opening on the bottom of the phone. I tried to connect every cable end into it and nothing fit. Well, for four hours I was trying to plug the phone into the speaker. Trying to get the otter box off, I accidentally figured out there were covers on the bottom and two more slots. one was round (I still don't know what that one is for but it definitely would not fit the cable ends which are not round. The other end should fit, but that was as simple as it looked on Youtube. I tried the adapter in the wall with and without the other small widget and it did not work. I put the USB cable onto the computer bar instead since my last phone could be charged from the computer before. I had to take the widget out and finally 5 hours later plugged the phone in.
It will only take 4 hours to charge.

The phone apparently has the thumbprint reader on the on switch so that is kinda nice, but it does not have a backup password lock, or at least I have not found one yet.

It took another useless internet hunt and unhelpful help and about 15 minutes to figure out how to access the pictures in the phone. I opened the pictures in the phone accidentally and I have no idea how I did that. Pictures does not exist anymore, along with almost all the pictures I had stored there. The internet instructions said to press "import" button. It did not tell me where that was. It took a few more minutes to find that.

Although I have the original apps from the other phone transferred to this phone, I have to figure out how to find the apps. I used to swipe down to access the finger print and the apps, now I have to do all the swiping up and to the side. That is ok, I just have to get used to it. I can't quite figure out where to tap or press to get the app to open. I'm glad this phone has Gorilla Glass, it is going to need it.

All I really need is a simple phone. I don't call people, and I don't miss the phone for days if I don't need it. I just need it to tell time, alarm functions, access apps I need, camera ( I am a terrible photographer, I just need a point and shoot), and the flashligt comes in handy (I haven't found that function on this phone yet. I hope it does have it). I really could lose most of the other functions. I would really have settled for a cheap phone without all the bells and whistles and no being forced to upgrade a perfectly adequate phone because of compatibility issues. Is that too much to ask?

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Gary350
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Technology is amazing. I took lots of technology classes in college. I took 2 years of electronic classes in Technology school & graduated. I took 4 years of technology classes & engineering and graduated. Then I took 2 years of technology classes just for the fun of it. I love technology, science, chemistry, biology, math, physics, electronics, engineering, I have a small library of books any time I want to learn something new I learn it on my own. I worked with technology at my job and home hobbies for years. I use to build computers and repair computers. I had no trouble installing windows and other programs on new built computers but I have a terrible time using a computer. After win 98 came out I was tired of relearning everything new every few months so I stopped trying to keep up with technology. Technology has moved on and left me in the stone age. 20 years later if my computer gives me trouble I have to get my son to fix it. I have to use another computer to search how to fix this one when it stops working. 8 years ago I finally got, pay as you go cell phone all it did was phone calls, no text. 2 years ago wife bought a new phone deal was she got 2 for price of 1 so I now have a cell phone that does about 4000 things but all I know how to do is make phone calls & do text message. I have no interest in learning all the things my cell phone does. My cell phone lays on the desk on charge all the time I never remember to take with me very often. When I leave wife reminds me, take your phone you might need it. When I return home there are message on my cell phone, how was your visit to Walmart, how was your visit to Lowe's, how was your visit to Auto zone. How was your visit to Mexican restaurant. How was visit to gas station. How was visit to garden store. How was you visit to the Medical clinic. My phone knows every place I have been.
Last edited by Gary350 on Sun Jan 19, 2020 7:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

Vanisle_BC
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We have:

A land line. Full coverage and still works when the power goes out. Only fails if the line goes down. Collects no information unless the cops can get a warrant.

A cell phone with $10/month accumulating PAGO plan, for emergencies and spontaneous long distance. It's only a phone; doesn't even text.

I love KISS, and MYOB.

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applestar
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I wish I could help, but I never really learned Windows. My specialty was and still is mostly (even though like Gary350 my tech knowledge/skills have been left behind) Macintosh and Apple products. In fact I started out with an Apple Lisa at work, and when my boss got the very first Macintosh, I learned how to use it until he got the 2 disk Mac for my use.

It seems like it’s always been possible to upload photos from cameras and cell phones to the Mac after a certain point. Probably because the Mac had been arts-oriented from the beginning. In fact, at one point, it was almost impossible to KEEP the Mac from sucking up all the photos from any device you connected to it. haha.

Although it seems like the norm to think of the cell phone as your point-and-shoot camera now, focus for available basic phone+ functions/features were varied at first. Once some of the mobile/cellular phones started concentrating on incorporating digital camera features, that’s been my focus, and for a while I had that same Nokia phone that got turned into an evil little gremlin bot in the first Transformers movie. But once I got an iPhone I haven’t been able to consider getting an Android even though some of them have had the better camera features recently. Ha.

Of course now I don’t feel the need for the best or the newest any more... and, too, I still have that skepticism/deep suspicion of the latest, just released new design/model and prefer to wait until the initial set of bugs and glitches have been ironed out.... :wink:

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applestar
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Hm. Just had an idea. Maybe it will be easier to use a photo thumb drive or flash drive as the go-between to transfer the photos. I realize that’s an extra step, but if you can find one that is designed to easily/smoothly connect and transfer files to/from both devices, it might save you the headache since the connectivity issues are taken care of by the drive and devices.

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have some of the older photos I saved on thumb drives and DVDs. This laptop still has an SD slot but not DVD drive. It still may not work because the formatting may not be compatible. I still have my picture albums with real pictures, but some of the pictures were only on the computer.

The power outages have all but fried my clock radio as well. I got another one, but I can't figure out how to program it without looking at the instructions every time. It also goes out when the power does. I had a clock/radio/ phone combo. Apparently that is a dinosaur. I even had a hard time finding a clock radio or even an old fashioned crank alarm clock. I have had to use the cell phone for an alarm clock when I had to get up early. I ended up going to bed at 1 a.m. last night fiddling with the phone and waiting for it to charge. I set the alarm for 5 a.m. I got up it was still dark but I heard traffic on the street which is unusual for a Saturday morning. My clock which still tells time if the power is on and the clock is set right said it was 11 minutes to 6 a.m. My new phone alarm did not go off. In fact, the phone clock said it was almost 6 a.m. but the alarm clock that was set for 5 a.m, said that it still had 11 minutes to go. I had to hurry and get dressed to go out for my 7:30 a.m. meeting. I googled why my phone has the correct time but my alarm thought it was an hour earlier. After a couple of searches it said that the date and time of the phone and the time for the alarm had to be set separately. It took a few attempts to get into the clock function and another google search to figure out how to navigate the alarm settings to set the date and time. The phone was apparently set for Greenwich mean time instead of local time. I took a few attempts before I was able to delete the London time that I never set. I wonder what new adventures I have in store tomorrow when I have to go to work. I need to use my phone at work, as well.

imafan26
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I finally figured out a few minutes ago how to turn off the alarm without deleting it from my phone or keep having to change the days so it won't ring today.

Vanisle_BC
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Every time the power goes out my 'desktop' PC (under the desk) resets its date to 2006. I usually forget it does that and I panic next time I look at my bookkeeping figures. Even restoring my backups doesn't fix them because the computer still presents 2006 numbers. I seem to recall there's a replaceable battery on the motherboard whose function it is to 'hold' the date etc when the power goes out. Presumably it needs replaced, meaning I'd have to disconnect all the peripherals, drag the PC onto the *desktop*, open it up, find & remove the battery and replace it with a new one. So what dumbo 'designer' didn't put the replaceable battery on the outside?? Maybe even program in a warning message when its power fades?

imafan26
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There is a battery in the computer. It should be replaced every 5 years or so. Otherwise it can leak and cause the motherboard to meltdown. It happened to me. I did not even know then there was a battery and I did end up having to replace the mother board with an upgrade. I can't even do that now. The place I went to to get the computer repaired closed, so did the other two places I went to afterwards. Geek Squad at Best Buy is a rip off. They only reset the computer to factory settings and they don't fix it. I could do that myself, if I wanted to lose everything on the computer and they charge almost $300 a year. I did back up my computer to disks and SD cards, but unless you upgrade and backup the backups, they also become out of date and are not formatted for the latest system, especially if like me, I don't upgrade to the latest system as long as the old one does what I need it to do. The batteries may have a longer life now, but it probably still is not leak free. The small battery in the desktop computer only has enough power to manage date and time. It is not enough back up power to safely power down and shut down a computer that is in use when the power failure happens. A back up power supply can be purchased, but it is big and clunky and much harder to dispose of at the end of its' life. The life of a laptop is shorter than a desktop usually and the desktop has more options for monitor sizes. Although, you can actually get around that by turning the laptop into a hard drive and connect an external monitor. I don't need the laptop to be portable, I would rather have the desktop with a potentially longer life.

This may not be true anymore since it seems even the desktop quality seems to have declined as well. It is now cheaper to buy a new computer than to fix the old one. Old desktops had expandable memory. Some of the new ones don't. New programs and updates are memory hungry and that can be a problem. In fact, when I went to buy a new computer, there were very few desktop choices. I don't like Window 10 because the way that it is sold, it is more like a conscription, every year you have to buy it again.

Vanisle_BC
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I suspect the newer motherboard 'date' batteries don't last as long as the old ones did, but I don't know for sure. Thanks for the tip about being sure to replace it.

Like you, imafan, I don't upgrade without a good reason. I even have a very old PC running Win98 because nothing else will run a couple of the programs I want to keep using.

In fact Win98 Is the only MS system I still use. I switched my other machines to linux mint years ago. It's a different learning curve and can have its own frustrations but, aside from all the free software that comes with it, there are few if any problems with backward compatibility; and it can read all my old windows files (except for some unique proprietary software formats.) The huge online community helps ease one's way into the different system.

Enough of that - I don't intend to proselytize or get into OS flame wars.

With laptops I'm into used units because newer ones don't offer DVD drives. I don't want to have to transpose all my DVDs & CDs onto something else, or buy an add-on external drive - Grrr!

Oh, and of course unless you spend an arm and a leg, the next computer you buy will have the latest version of Windows whether you want it or not. If you don't, you can spend many happy hours figuring how to delete all traces of it - or spend money having someone else do it for you. Grrr, Grrr.

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webmaster
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The batteries resemble a U.S. quarter, it's one of those flat round ones. Also it's important to open up the case and blow out all the dust. That'll help keep the computer running cool and quiet.

Motorola makes fine phones and some of them can be pretty basic. I used to have Samsung. When the batteries stop lasting just get a new one BUT they will be after market batteries for the older phones and in my experience they're not always reliable.

imafan26
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Oh yeah, that reminded me. My new laptop started making noise even though I keep it covered under a sheet when it is off. I had to blow out the fans with canned air to clear it and it was only a month and a half old. The thumbprint on the laptop lasted 2 weeks. I cleaned it but it still does not work well, so my computer is locked with a PIN instead.

Latest phone saga. I got an otter box and screen protector for the phone when I bought it. But it has been hard to use the alpha/numeric pad to key in anything especially the symbols on the rim. I asked some friends about that and they said it should not be that hard to use. The letters in the middle are easy to press, even though they are still too small. So, I went back to T-mobile and they said the problem was the otter box was interacting with the screen protector and lifting it up. They said I could take the screen protector off or take off the otter box. What was the point of getting protection anyway? I ended up getting a refund on the otter box. I went to Walmart and got a simple impact resistant case. There were only 3 models to choose from for my phone so I took the one with the best impact resistance which is only 10 ft. (I guess I better not drop it off a ladder). The otter box had better impact and water resistance (this case does not have any water resistance) and it protected the camera. None of the other cases protect the cameras in the back of the phone. So along with the impact case, I got a universal case, that is almost like a wallet to put the phone in so at least it won't get scratched in my purse. This has taken half of my day off. I am tired now.

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TomatoNut95
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My laptop is a Windows 7. It's old and the battery needs replacing but it still works. I REFUSE to get Windows 10. My cousin also still uses Windows 7 because she doesn't want it either. Just because the world is constantly pushing the latest gadget from China doesn't mean you have to buy it. My phone is a smartphone, but is a Tracphone. I have no need or desire for a fancy smancy phone that is smarter than I am.

People depend on technology too much. I'm tired of seeing screens on everything. Vehicles are nothing but drivable computers now. Household appliances can now run off WiFi. Stupid. Just plain, outrageously stupid. People need to learn to go back to basics and not be spoiled by all this technology. But technology is only going to get worse as years go by and will be there in everything and everywhere you turn. But they haven't built a machine yet that can grow a garden. But even if they did, I'd rather do my garden myself.



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