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I'm thinking I may have to get a smart phone

TheCatWoman

Please be gentle with me and try and explain in the language you'd use to someone who'd come 100 years into the future.

What would you recomend as a starter smart phone for someone like me who can crash a digital egg timer?

I know there are two types, apple and android and apple is more expensive although some find them easier to use.

I did have a smart phone once for a few weeks, but couldn't get on with it, I don't think it was set right as the screen kept going black whilst I was looking for things like settings and I never worked out how to answe a call on it as the screen was black and gave me no hints at all and it's connectivity was so bad I only had to be a couple of hundred yards away from the A55 for it to be useless. That was a few years ago now and I think conectivity has improved.

If I'm honest I don't want one for myself, but because it's becoming so hard not to have one now, I don't think I'd want it to do much, just calls texts and maybe whatsapp and a satnav. Later I suppose I'll have to have a banking and car park app too, but I think thats about it. I know previously when I asked a friend for help she freaked out because there was so little on it.

Apart from emails, a little shopping and here I don't really used the internet for anything else, I have a kindle and thats my lot, I don't even stream tv or music, to be honest I wouldn't know where to begin with either of them. I'm quite happy for it to be second hand, given the price of the things and how much I'd use one I don't think I could justify the cost of a new one. I'm not fussed about cameras or anything like that.

Thanks in advance for any help, but I'll understand if nobody wants to give any because I'm such a klutz and my understanding is so low, people often ask me "helpful questions" and they go right over my head. I may chicken out again, if it gets too technical or people get cross.

Parents

  • Do you know anyone else in real life with a smart phone? The best advice is getting something that someone can help you with -if family have apple phones, or android, get the same. 

    I think for you, it's not so much getting the best of anything, but the fact it works like theirs. Nothing worse than family trying to call you and it not working as you have a completely different system!

    (Or if people here will be your tech support on how to use it, go with that!)

  • in reply to Cinnabar_wing

    Thanks folks, my nearest support people are in Manchester so not so easy to reach if something goes wrong.

    I wondered about having a smart phone just for banking apps, mine and Mums as all our banks are shutting down and those that remain don't seem to do anything. It wouldn't leave the house, we'd continue to use our old phone for normal stuff. But I'm afraid I'd forget how to use the different apps, passwords etc, Mum can't use the doro clam shell stupid phone we've got now, so her money would be safe, mostly from her.

    We have a landline if people need us and mobiles aren't working, I think most people would just assume that I was somewhere with no signal if they couldn't get hold of me, mind you the signal in Manchester's pretty bad too.

    I don't want something that's going to sync up or try and sync up with every other device in the house, I think that was what went wrong a few weeks ago when nearly all my stuff disapeared.

  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    I am thinking that you probably have WiFi Broadband. If the smart phone would remain in your house and you aren’t going to use it for calls, you could connect it to your broadband rather than connecting to a mobile network. You can choose not to sync your phone with other devices, there would be an option to turn it off. 

    TheCatWoman said:
    But I'm afraid I'd forget how to use the different apps, passwords etc

    One way around this may be to keep a notebook and write down each press, click, swipe and other finger actions and it corresponding place on your phone screen that somebody may instruct you to do. If your instructor tells you to “Go to the App Store” for instance, you could write down something like “Find app with ‘off set A shape’ on top right hand corner of home screen”. This can be done for each action that you need to do.

    I used to write down all my passwords and disguised them in address books. Now I use a ‘password manager’ which is an app that comes with the phone and automatically inputs the password for me. The app uses facial recognition to do this. 

    Regular repetition makes remembering easier for most people.  If you don’t want to do that you would have your notes to fall back on. 

    If you aren’t going to use a smart phone for calls, you could consider a Tablet instead. Most work just like a smart phone and the bigger screen might be helpful. 

    Newer smart phones have AI embedded into the functionality. It is easy to find and you can either ask it something with your voice, type something or cut and paste text from elsewhere. If you don’t want it you can turn it off. It could be very useful once you get used to it. 

    The iPhones and probably other smart phones have a straightforward search space where you can ask the phone where to find an app or how to turn down the volume, brighten the screen etc.

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  • in reply to TheCatWoman

    I am thinking that you probably have WiFi Broadband. If the smart phone would remain in your house and you aren’t going to use it for calls, you could connect it to your broadband rather than connecting to a mobile network. You can choose not to sync your phone with other devices, there would be an option to turn it off. 

    TheCatWoman said:
    But I'm afraid I'd forget how to use the different apps, passwords etc

    One way around this may be to keep a notebook and write down each press, click, swipe and other finger actions and it corresponding place on your phone screen that somebody may instruct you to do. If your instructor tells you to “Go to the App Store” for instance, you could write down something like “Find app with ‘off set A shape’ on top right hand corner of home screen”. This can be done for each action that you need to do.

    I used to write down all my passwords and disguised them in address books. Now I use a ‘password manager’ which is an app that comes with the phone and automatically inputs the password for me. The app uses facial recognition to do this. 

    Regular repetition makes remembering easier for most people.  If you don’t want to do that you would have your notes to fall back on. 

    If you aren’t going to use a smart phone for calls, you could consider a Tablet instead. Most work just like a smart phone and the bigger screen might be helpful. 

    Newer smart phones have AI embedded into the functionality. It is easy to find and you can either ask it something with your voice, type something or cut and paste text from elsewhere. If you don’t want it you can turn it off. It could be very useful once you get used to it. 

    The iPhones and probably other smart phones have a straightforward search space where you can ask the phone where to find an app or how to turn down the volume, brighten the screen etc.

Children
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