Mobile phone?

[Colin]

Hi,

Help please I'm way out of my depth. Years ago I bought a pay as you go Nokia mobile phone costing £5 new and even now struggle to make calls; I've never received a call on it and I don't know how to open or use text; I've only ever used this phone for about one minute per month whilst at Rufforth Auto Jumble to let Bron know I'm on my way home otherwise I only have it just for emergencies.

Bron has expressed a desire to own a mobile phone just in case of emergency so like mine I've just bought her a new pay as you go phone;

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TTsims-T...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

This new phone comes without charger but this isn't a problem because I already have a charger for my phone plus I can connect to the computer or even into the car.

What do I need please to get the new phone operational; I've been looking at Micro cards but there are so many and I don't want to buy the wrong card; no doubt all the information will come with the new phone but I'm keen to help Bron in any way I can. I confess I've zero interest in having a mobile phone welded to my ear and Bron only wants the new phone just in case it's needed; we're retired and never have holidays away from home nor do we travel far so our landline phone and emails are our communication.

I'm 70 and I'm a dinosaur so please be gentle with me. I could spend a lot of time on YouTube but thought it might generate a bit of interest on the forum.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

I can't really help you there Colin, as like you I've no interest in mobile phones other than for use in an emergency, or to check with my wife from the golf club car park before I return home, to see if she needs any "justgetmes."
To this end my ten year-old pay as you go phone I keep in the front ashtray of my car (it's old enough to have one). My wife has a mobile phone I bought her at the same time, when she went into hospital for a week, which came in useful, but now "she thinks it's probably in one of her handbags,"
I consider mobile phones an obsession with some. The number of couples we see in restaurants who spend more time individually looking at their phones than talking to each other.

Over the years I've had many letters published in the Daily Mail, they've all been about something that amused me or about what I considered ridiculous.
One a few years ago was an "inquiry."
I said "I was au fait with the appropriate location of the cutlery on restaurant table, but could someone advise me of the correct positioning of the mobile phone?
A few days later they published a response from a lady who had a similar sense of humour who said it should be in the water jug!
I think these phones are always all ready to go. It's just a case of loading the numbers you need into it and writing down your own. Then ring your landline to check it's working.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Many thanks Sean for your interesting and amusing reply; it brought a big grin to my face regarding the water jug and sums up my interest in mobile phones as it does yours.

I'm just trying to get everything together before the new phone arrives; it doesn't come with a card hence I'm trying to buy a card but don't know which card to buy; adding credit I can do online; shows just how brilliant I am with mobile phones; my first £10 was finally running out so I decided to go mad and buy another £10 of credit which I did online; I did well in paying Vodafone the £10 only to have it returned; I should have paid the money to O2; I don't mind admitting how thick I can be I'm now of an age I can claim a senior moment.

I have trouble using our TV remotes all five of them because we've got an android which was fun to setup; I'm a bit better working in the workshop and I've just joined the DIY sister site; I go back to being a child before electricity was invented in our home.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

I'm not a technophobe, my aversion to mobile phones is because I think they take up too much of many people's time, as do twitter and face book, to neither which do I subscribe .
However I do subscribe to a lot of "hobby boards," I have no problems using a laptop.

I've probably got more "kit" than many.

Apart from the TV, in our front room, under which I have a sound bar and sub-woofer, I've a Humax HDR with a dongle so I can access YouTube and I>Player from our Virgin hub under the big TV in our lounge,

I've also a DVD/CD player and a VHS recorder.

Note the 5 remotes. I've also a separate hard drive as a back up and some memory sticks for the TV which have over 3000 mp3s and a few films on them.


I've an auto selector under the TV table, so whichever remote you press, that takes over from whatever you were using the TV previously. As well as the sound bar there is a connection to my big wall speakers.

Then I've these two jukebox wall boxes,

Which are connected to this adapter, The quick-release connectors are to change over the wall boxes.

Then to any of these ipods (the middle one is for an additional wall box magazine which I can quickly change for either of the others).

The selector enables me to change from, radio, to record deck, cassette player (they are making a come-back I read) wall boxes, or TV

These are connected to my vintage tuner amp

and then to two of these big wall speakers.

Then of course I've my tenor sax all singin' and dancing leccy piano and it's sub-woofer which can rattle the windows!

Apart from under the piano, there's not a cable to be seen anywhere, it's all in unseen trunking.

I won't say I use the audio facilities that often, but they are there when I want them and I make sure they are all in perfect working order.

Oh.. and I can listen to music if I choose whilst I'm on the lap-top, in my "office" (our box bedroom). I push iTunes through a small amplifier and this old wall box in which I put in bigger speakers, in the shelf unit I built over my desk. The title cards I use as a telephone directory.

I've a very understanding wife.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

WOW Sean; do you ever go outside to play?

Very impressive kit; the two juke boxes look terrific; I've never previously seen this kind of juke box so thanks for sharing. We experienced lots of problems playing CD/DVD's through our smart blu ray DVD player; it had played them OK then started to ignore them; we ended up buying an Android which is brilliant so now the only disc player we have is on my desktop computer even our new Skoda Yeti doesn't have a disc player; I've transferred most of our discs onto memory stick so we no longer have a problem; the Android plays YouTube for us; we seldom bother with modern TV which we regard as an insult to our intelligence; as I type Bron is watching a B&W movie on TV via YouTube.

Your home looks more like mission control and an understanding wife is a huge asset; Bron encourages me in my hobbies as I do her so like you Sean I too have an understanding wife; Bron is used to seeing scrap machines arrive on the back of a wagon knowing given a bit of time these machines will look like new once again and be in full working order.

I can't play any musical instrument but as a child my late grandfather used to play the trombone in our local Combs Pit Colliery Band and the band used to practice in one of my parents big properties; I was born in Combs House owned by my late parents and in the front room was a big organ that my grandfather played every sunday morning.

I'm not into the idea that I need every modern electronic gadget that comes out and I've no intention of queuing for miles to get my hands on the latest must have mobile phone needing a mortgage to buy and run it.

I couldn't agree with you more Sean regarding the amount of time wasted on a mobile phone after all I don't waste time that's why I'm here at the keyboard. I joined Facebook a while ago so that I could post a recommendation regarding the new gas fire we had installed and was unable to do this on the installers website; I'm no longer a Facebook member having never liked the site or the rubbish on it; Twitter is alien to me too.

We've quite a bit in common Sean.

I've just joined the DIY furum sister to this forum so I think I'll head over and do a bit of rambling after all I must have thousands of images of my projects completed over the years.

Nice to hear from you Sean; thanks for taking the time and trouble to reply.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[marlingardener]

Sean, I'm stunned! You actually know how to use all that equipment? Amazing, simply amazing.
Colin, I recently found out how to read voice mail on my flip phone. I wrote down the directions so if I ever get another message, I can read it. I admit I loathe my mobile phone, but I didn't like the land-line phone either. Because you want to talk, doesn't mean I want to talk!
One of the mobile phone stories I like most is about a couple on their first date. He seats her courteously at the restaurant, sits down, and opens his phone. He proceeds to text, talk, and receive messages, ignoring his date. She gets up, picks up her purse, and leaves the restaurant. I do hope he enjoyed cuddling his phone later than evening . . . .

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Well said marlingardener and bang on; I agree with you. I don't just dislike phones of any kind I hate the things; five phones on my three desks at work and a pager has been enough to put me off phones for life; our landline is seldom used. I find telephones to be highly intrusive just as you describe; a telephone demands answering just in case it's an emergency whereas email is much more friendly and much preferred by me.

Bron expressed a wish to own a mobile phone so I'm more than happy to buy her one; I know Bron won't take to it once it arrives but as she says she'll feel happier owning a mobile phone should an emergency occur. I wonder if I'll wear my own mobile phone out after all I'm on the first £10 top up in over five years; I think there's still £7 credit on it.

My mobile phone is so basic I think it's only one step above steam power.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

My favourite mobile phone story is when we went into the phone shop to buy my wife a basic pay as you go phon, nearly ten years ago.
The salesman explained all the features, then asked..

"Have you any questions?"

"Yes, how do you turn it off?"

"Off?"

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Nice one Sean.

Reminds me of years ago having just taken delivery of our new car; I couldn't turn the radio off; has it become too hard these days to add a simple On/Off?

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Bron's new mobile phone arrived today and now with £20 credit on its working; I'm certainly no fan of mobile phones in fact I'm a dinosaur in this respect but setting this phone up was easy enough.

The instructions are clear; installing the sims card and battery were easy and although 3 hours charging was stated it only took a good hour to charge the battery from my desktop tower; the phone bleeped to let me know the battery was fully charged.

Simple stuff to all of you used to using a mobile phone but there still are a number of us dinosaurs still in existence.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[Sean Regan]

For those who might be interested, here's a video of one of my, "300lb ipods."
This will play either side of 80 records.
To think it's been made redundant as far as most young people are concerned by an i-pod the size of a box of matches and some earphones.