Yeah. I know. I avoided getting a cell phone too. I just couldn't see the point. I was forced to get a cell phone by my employer, back in the days they & the service was much more expensive. But they wouldn't actually pay for the phone & service. They got tired of getting my answering machine. They didn't understand that the machine was on not only when I was not home, but if I was too busy to drop everything, sleeping, or simply didn't want to get calls from work 24/7.
Because the place I worked at, at the time was about 1/2 a city block long & wide, 3 stories high (with my office/workshop in the basement), & had a patio with an outdoor movie theater half the size of a football field, they had a hard time contacting me at work.
When I was on duty, it may be difficult to find me, or even if they knew where I was, it might be 1/2 a block away on another floor. Housing restaurants, nightclubs, & a movie theater, you couldn't just loudly page me through the PA, or use noisy 2-way radios without disturbing customers. A pager wouldn't work because sometimes 2-way conversations was necessary. I took care of all sorts of stuff there.
Over the years, it finally got to be I didn't need a mobile phone much anymore & gave it up again. But by the time I was getting ready to move soon, I discovered a mobile phone, & service, was cheaper than land line phone service. Plus I got unlimited international calling, texting, free answering service, & free facebook & twitter feeds. For the business I was in, texting was practically necessary now. My second mobile phone also took pictures, video, & was my portable music/video player.
Back then they were nice & small too, at about half the size of a wallet. My current phone is a little bigger with a 4" long screen but still easily fits in my pocket, & is smaller than a wallet. With good reading glasses I can read fine print on it. Don't need glasses at all for regular texting. It has a slide-out mini keyboard, so I get almost all laptop functions, without having to do crazy stuff on a tap screen. But to just text or post here with the phone, I tap the screen like everyone else. You get used to it remarkably fast, that's why you see so many tapping everywhere.
It sure makes things a lot quieter tapping around rather than having to put up with being surrounded by people talking way to loudly on their phone. They're called cell phone big-shots. Back in the day when they cost more, people talked loudly on them to clearly show off they had one.
Now that you can get one & the service cheap, the cell phone big-shots had to buy huge bright screens, to show off how important they are. And if it has an Apple logo on it, they expect you to think they're royalty.
People used to lean over my shoulder & ask why don't I buy a new phone. Why? Mine does everything theirs does & more - it still looks brand new too. I have a laptop if I need a bigger screen, can add more memory if I want it, & my phone has a real neat slide-out keyboard that I really love. The keyboard lights up too.
This is only my third mobile phone ever. I got my first one in 1997 for work, that one didn't get wifi or the internet. It ended its life rather abruptly, when after I got about the 30th call from work on my day off, I smashed the expensive piece of hardware to bits against a brick wall, & vowed never to get another cell phone again.
I get a phone call only about once or twice a month & have to call somebody every couple of months. Nobody calls anymore, they just text, Facebook, or tweet. Out of the few surviving family & friends I have, most of the female ones only use Facebook to contact or update people on stuff, or their private messaging system to contact people. So to keep up with most family & friends stuff, I have to be on Facebook, or at a family conversation, I won't know half of what they're talking about.
I found out my brother (I had several brothers) had cancer last year through my sister's Facebook messaging. Nobody bothered to call or e-mail anyone to let us know about it.
But I don't want to keep logging onto FB all day. So I have all Facebook stuff from family & the closest friends forwarded to my phone. With FB messages, ordinary texting messages, I get 25-50 text a day on the phone.
Of course, I send & recieve lots of e-mail too, & get private messages here at Betty's. I wish people would post more here rather than just gabbing away on our private messaging system all the time. It's all encrypted so I can't see what people are talking about or who they are, but I do get to see it's constantly being used. Only members can use it, but it wasn't intended to be a substitute for chatting at the board & replace it. Maybe I should just disable the private messaging here, but I don't have the heart because it's used so much & popular.
Last night we had a severe lightning storm. My lights got very dim for a few seconds a couple times. Not to risk damage to my modem or computers, I disconnected the internet, & outside line until the storm blew over.
I turned on my battery operated VHF-UHF scanner to listen to police, other emergency service's radio calls. I grab my phone to view the latest animated weather radar map, read the latest local emergency news feeds, & read about how everybody else was enduring the storm on Facebook. I posted on FB with my phone that I will be offline the rest of the night but am OK.
Before I got laid off, I would check Betty's on the phone during a long work day or night. I wouldn't be writing or installing software with it, but could do most moderator functions, & post with it. It works just like a tiny laptop. They had wifi, so I didn't need any expensive data plan. Most mobile phones, even without a carrier, or data plan, even with the SIMs chip removed, will still run as a tablet anywhere there's wifi.
It also doubles as a pocket media player. Watch a favorite comedy video while waiting in line, or listen to my favorite tunes. Can't carry a camera everywhere, but if I see something interesting I can take a picture, or make a video of it with the phone. It has a flash, so I can take night shots too. I got my Samsung phone for $45 (with a mail-in rebate), over 5 years ago. My current avatar was taken with my phone. I can also record sound, dictation or music with it. Near wifi, or with a data plan, even watch you-tube.
You can check your e-mail too, but I check that twice a day on my computers. It also has a light so doubles as a flashlight in the dark. Some of them even come with an FM radio tuner.
A few days after I moved to my place, Verizon went on strike. It would take almost 2 months for me to get the internet on. I got on the web with a temporary data plan on the phone tethered to my computer, & wifi at work.
I'm surprised you got anybody there at all, it could have been worse. They're on strike again.
http://www.delawareonline.com/story/money/business/2015/08/13/verizon-workers-pickett-wilmington-offices/31614733/For about $50-$60 T-mobile will sell you a nice Samsung smart phone, with a 1 year contract, & $34/mo. for their most basic service. But I had to give up the service due to budget cuts. I use it through some hack tricks or through wifi. I could pick up anybody's wifi within a block of me, & there's always a few with only simple wifi passwords that can be easily cracked.
I got wifi at home because somebody sent me a wifi router to review for free that I get to keep, & it works great. So as long as I'm within a block of my house, I use my phone through my own wifi.
A company sends me 1-3 items a month or 2 to review. I don't get paid anything, but get to keep the stuff. The reviews have to be 200 words long, & include pictures or a video. Sometimes it's only boxes of cereal, candy, soap, underwear, & T-shirts. But once in a while it's really cool stuff like a $159 wifi router, or $200 in free bedding, blankets, & pillows. Hey, to get free stuff, even if it's just cereal or panties, I'll write an honest review.
Betty's Pub 20.1
Topic: Well, I guess it’s safe to start the Spring Flickr now. (Read 28004 times)
