Thursday, April 4, 2013

Trying to figure out my new toy


With my books almost ready for publication, and the consequent need to be able to blog, e-mail and otherwise promote them at odd times of the day, plus the need to navigate to unfamiliar destinations now and then, I finally took the plunge and upgraded to a smartphone this morning.  It's very nice - a Samsung Galaxy Note II, big enough to serve as a small tablet computer in its own right.  Its large screen allows my aging eyes to see what's going on, even if I don't have my reading glasses to hand when I need them.

I've never used a smartphone before, so I'm still trying to figure out why the damn thing's beeping, burping and blapping at me at odd intervals as I try to enter my contact list.  I'm going to switch off most of the apps that came preinstalled - I've no desire whatsoever to have them running in the background, doing heaven knows what while I'm blissfully unaware.  I'll run only a very few of the ones I need.

If any of my friends try to call me over the next couple of days, please forgive me if you're cut off unexpectedly - and please excuse any exclamations or expletives you hear from my end as I try to figure out this thing.  (If I'm speaking Zulu, that means I've really lost my temper with it.  No, I won't translate!)





Peter

5 comments:

Carteach said...

I have one, and am managing to manage it. I'm sure you will enjoy it.

Yes, big enough for us old farts to read comfortably on it, and FAaaaast too.

Douglas2 said...

I got a similar sized android tablet, and it came with a little USB adapter that was ostensibly for loading data via a thumb drive. I was hoping to use a mouse with it, and was happy to find that a standard USB mouse and keyboard worked fine with it.
Very excitedly I tried the same adapter with my Android phone, but it didn't recognize either the mouse or keyboard.

Anyway, for tasks like entering contacts, it is quite useful to have a full-size keyboard if yours will recognize it. And if it won't, the adapter is still useful for transfer of photos and films.

Farm.Dad said...

I just love my GN2 . Hey Peter , hang in there , if need be we will sit down with them @ Blogarado and have a crash course .

Joe Texan said...

I've got the Galaxy Note from AT&T. I swapped out the SIM and now use it with StraightTalk. $45/month for unlimited talk, text, and data.

I installed Kindle and have read probably a dozen books on it since I got it. I wouldn't trade it for anything, except a GN2.

I have a DropBox account, so I installed the DropBox app from Google Play. Now all my pictures and videos are automatically uploaded to my DropBox, so I can access them from any PC.

joe said...

If your old phone has bluetooth, you should be able to pair them and transfer the contacts you want quickly and easily.