Missing something we no longer have

I guess I'll take it back to the shop and see if they can sort it out, or refund me, the thing is I think its windows 11 thats causing the problems. It wants to link everything via windows products, like edge, which I don't use, nor do I ever use bing, which is only the 2nd worst search engine after amazon silk. I think the reason I could get my email is because its a gmail account. It also wants to to link in to all my devices and dosen't like it as apart from my kindle I don't have any and I'm not letting it get its mucky paws on my ability to read books, which is all I use it for.

I don’t know what to say. I hope your situation gets resolved.

I miss the basic mobile/cell phone, which is simply to use. No Internet and social media. Only use vouchers for topping up or pay as you go direct debit. Hence I use Facebook. My smartphone kept on doing updates. 

Magazines used like Glamour as was £1 or £2 per month and thick. Now Magazines are thin. Not worth buying.

Basic TV channels. Now it's loads of TV channels. Some are paid for. Only have free view.

Library books in the 90s which was really good especially when you're doing a school project. Now it's full of fictional stories and less fiction.

Cheap bus and train fares was like 85p.

I could go on forever.....

I still can't use my new laptop, I've tried and tried and just end up the same loop where only my email will load, nothing else will, I get asked for passwords, I type in the password and it tells me its the wrong one and to reset it, so I do and it still won't accept it because it's not the "right" password. This laptop is dying and I don't know what I shall do when it does, I feel that I wasted £200 on the new one as I can't use it, I guess I'll just end up off line and be unable to access anything?

Thpsguy said:

Nothing about smart tech is done for our benefit it's all done for commercial reasons 

You are so right. 

Ever increasing obscene company profits and environmental damage from throw-away goods is the priority.

I'm dreading that too, I don't use a smart tv or streaming service, our house is built like a faraday cage with very poor signal so I guess it would be back to having multiple boosters and hardwiring it in like I have to now with my humax box

Not to mention the ever impending move to online only tv that means being forced to use a smart device where to watch a channel you have to wait for a menu yo list full of ads... Nothing about smart tech is done for our benefit it's all done for commercial reasons 

Whats an Evangelon Unit 0.1?

WHat if something happened to your face like a black eye or a broken nose, would your phone still recognise you or would it refuse to let you in? 

I used to have a plastic model of Evangelion Unit 01. Unfortunately, if broke, and ever since then I've been missing it a lot... it wasn't cheap either! cost roughly 50 pound!

Many things have become unnecessarily complicated and the loss of the home button is a step in the wrong direction.

I have an iPhone 12 Pro that needed too many software updates this last year. Sometimes the updates change my settings which is annoying, but I would be reluctant not to allow the updates as they may be necessary for security.

My screen went through a period of freezing every time I changed website pages in safari. Eventually a software update fixed the issue. 

I appreciate having a choice of many channels on catch up and I enjoy watching programmes in 4K, but it would be nice to go back to the push button TVs of the 1990s. When the TVs were turned on, it took them a short while to ‘warm up’, but after that the screens were free of annoying advertisements, flashing messages and bright led lights to indicate the state of the TV.

I miss having a home free of red, green and orange led lights and I wish white goods and kitchen appliances could automatically be beep free.

When my wife gets a new phone, I get her old one. It is a sort of delayed update, but it costs me nothing. I really begrudge spending any of my money on digital crap, when I could have used a similar amount to buy a 200 year old watch - whose technology I understand, can even repair and they look pretty. Shiny silver things that have a little beating heart, tick tock!

My phone says face recognition but my husband found he could reset to my old code.

I’m still using an old iPhone 8, it has a home button, I really do need to get a newer phone but they are swipe only. My wife has a work iPhone 15, it’s swipe and facial recognition, it’s got too many functions and you need both hands to use it, I can hold my old phone and use my thumb to go to the home page or open apps, all done with one hand. Some of my apps have started to not update so I suppose it’s only a matter of time.

I have managed to turn off the annoying sound ever time I do anything on the phone. It is under 'haptics'. That's one result.

Works in a power cut though and no batteries needed. We had torches like that. It was ok if you didn't mind occupying your hands regularly. 

It's a pity there aren't ones for those of us who just want something that works and has less chance of going wrong. One of our washing machines needed an update on the computer technology for it to work.

Martin said:

Looking flash and modern can result in the introduction of much lower usability and efficiency.

Indeed. Every appliance I buy needs an instruction book the size of a brick. I buy low tech whenever I can. Bought myself a hand crank radio [only problem is the exhaustion in winding ).

If you find you can use your laptop for any online things you need, it may be easier not to have a smart phone. I use my phone quite a lot because my laptop loses power quickly, but it is easy to make it do something I didn't want by hovering near. I have just had to correct words it replaced too.

One of the things that are sent sometimes are texts where you can complete forms, but they may be able do that via email instead.

They are quite expensive now too.

Just a small rant, OK? I'm still using my old flip top stupid phone, I know I will have to get a smart one eventually, but I keep putting it off as I simply don't understand them or how to use them, I resent the idea that I will have to get one for the sake of other peoples convenience and fork out all that money for something that I will barely use. 

Having just joined the AA, I'm going to have to contact them and find out if I can actually use thier service without a smart phone!

Working in a lab we used centrifuges a lot. The old ones took about two seconds to set, turn a knob to select the speed, turn another knob to select the time then press go! Then touch-screen digital controls arrived - up and down arrows to press for both speed and time meant overshooting and undershooting the setting you wanted all the time. The result, something that took a couple of seconds then took  a frustratingly long time to achieve. Not an improvement, just the opposite! Looking flash and modern can result in the introduction of much lower usability and efficiency.