Abby Stokes
Page 35
“I now play chess with opponents all over the world. Online chess has changed my life.”
—Vittoria
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CHAPTER 24
Extra! Extra! Read All About It!
The scoop on smartphones, BlackBerrys, iPods, e-readers, and the iPad
Now that you’ve braved the depths of computer technology, let’s venture into the somewhat murky waters of other modern technological innovations and devices. You may never choose to use a cell phone, an iPad, or a Kindle, but you should at least understand what they are and how they may or may not enhance your life. For those of you who do decide to forge ahead, before we discuss each device, let me give you some general advice. Relax, take a deep breath. If you’re nervous about something terrible happening to the device, you’ll never allow your intuition to assist you with using the thing. Much of conquering these little beasts comes down to relaxing and using your instincts rather than trying to memorize each step necessary to accomplish the task at hand.
Cell Phones
The first time I have a new cell phone in my hand, I press all of its various buttons. Is there a button that has the symbol of an envelope on it? That’s probably what you press to hear voice mails. Maybe there’s a button that says Send or Talk (or that’s green, for Go). Logic says you’ll use that button to begin a call and then the End (or red for Stop) button for hanging up when the call is over. I know it sounds elementary, but when you’re intimidated, the obvious no longer seems obvious. So relax… don’t think so much. Be like a kid and just play with the thing for a while. No harm, no foul.
•Some buttons on a cell phone are marked clearly with their function.
Buying Strategies
Buying a cell phone can be almost as intimidating as buying a computer, but as with the computer, it is a mission that can be accomplished with great success when armed with a bit of research and help from knowledgeable friends and family. Before you decide which company you want to provide your phone service, ask friends and family members to bring their cell phones to your home and see what kind of reception they get. Not all cell phone companies get good signal in all locations. They should, but they don’t. Be sure before you buy that you get a strong signal so you can make and receive calls in the places where it is most important to you.
•Cell phones come in a variety of styles: flip (left), candy bar (center, left), slider phone with number keyboard (center, right), and slider with full keyboard (right).
Cell phones come in a variety of styles and sizes. Again, test the different models used by your friends and family before you decide which is best for you. Use the keypad and feel how the keys work with your fingers. Try to decide if you’ll want a full keypad for texting (see page 382) or if just the numbers are enough for you. Look at the display screen and be sure you can read it clearly. Make a call and see how well you can hear. Because your own ear may block the small speaker on a cell phone, move the phone around your ear and see which position gives you maximum sound.
At What Cost?
Ask at the time of purchase what your monthly “nut” will be for calling, texting, and connecting to the Internet (or whichever services you choose). If you change your mind and want to break your contract, you’ll likely have to pay a penalty. Do not sign anything until you know what it will cost you.
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“I admire all that my niece can do with her cell phone, but I just want a simple phone I can use to make and receive calls. I can’t see the screen well enough to read text messages anyway.”
—Emily
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BUYER BEWARE
Just because the sign outside the store is a familiar cell phone carrier or manufacturer doesn’t mean they are an authorized dealer. Visit the website of the manufacturer or service carrier and seek out an authorized store.
Ask your salesperson about the battery life of the phone. At the very least, your phone should have enough steam for three hours of talk time and nearly a week of standby time. Google the brands of phone you’re considering, and read the online reviews to get an objective take on the battery life. It’s a good idea to buy a spare battery, a battery booster, or a solar battery as backup when you purchase your phone. I was able to use my cell phone throughout the blackout of 2007, because I had a solar battery keeping it charged. My solar battery saved me again this summer when I lost power for four days from a tropical storm. As with a laptop, you should let your phone’s battery fully run out before charging it when you first get it, and frequently thereafter, to help your battery last longer.
Are You a Feature Creature?
Some people want every bell and whistle available on a phone. Others just want to make a call. In either case, people don’t want to pay for what they don’t need or won’t use, so consider the features available on a cell phone before you decide which phone is best for you. Even the most basic phone will probably have a calendar, an alarm clock, a contacts list where you store your numbers on the phone, and perhaps even voice dialing so you can speak a name into the phone rather than using the keypad. Other features you may want to consider are speakerphone capability, text messaging, and a camera. It doesn’t end there: You can now listen to music, surf the web, get your e-mail, and even watch movies on some phones, known as smartphones. More on these in a minute.
CELL PHONE JITTERS
If all you want is a simple cell phone that’s easy to use and has a large keypad, I suggest the Jitterbug cell phone. Visit greatcall.com to see for yourself.
See if you can check out the features of the phone you’re considering on its manufacturer’s website. You may find an online tour there that showcases all of the phone’s goodies and how to operate them. Also, ask for a demonstration at the phone store before you make your purchase.
1-2-3 Go!
The first step, and often the hardest, is to find the Power button on your phone. (On my phone it is a button marked End. Who is the genius that decided that?) Before you leave the store, have the sales person show you the on/off button, and turn the phone on and off yourself at least once. Be patient if it takes a few seconds for the phone to turn on and a few more seconds for it to turn off. The phone may chime or make some other noise to indicate that it is on, but the best way to know is to look at the screen. Eventually, the display will come to rest with an image on the screen, some text, or a bit of both.
At this stage, dial a number (your home phone number is a good one to start with) and hit Talk or Send. (Again, no two models are alike, so consult the instructions that came with your phone to find the Talk button.) It depends on where you’re calling “from” and “to” as to whether you may need to dial a 1 and the area code first. Once someone in your home or your answering machine picks up, say “hi,” and after you’ve chatted for a minute or left yourself a funny message, hang up. There is a button on the phone that will probably say End or be red in color, or if you have a flip phone, closing it will hang it up automatically. Practice this so you know when a call has truly ended.
Now call someone you know, give that person your cell phone number, and ask him or her to call you back. (Please write down your cell number and keep it somewhere convenient. It took me months to remember mine, so I was always referring to the piece of paper in my wallet when asked. A friend taped hers to the back of her phone.) Some phone models will connect you to the caller when you open the phone cover; others require that you hit the Send or Talk button. Usually this is a feature you can customize to your liking. Again, your instructions will tell you about your specific phone.
• Some phones allow you to see multiple time zones, the weather, etc.
Push My Buttons
You may notice that when you look at the screen of your phone, there are words at the bottom left and right of the screen. If so, below each word on the screen, there should be a button on the keypad. If you press and release this button, the phone takes the action suggested by the word. For example, say Menu appears on the bottom right of the scr
een. When you press the button below the word, a menu will open. On other phones, you’ll select the feature you want on a touch screen.
Your Little Black Book
Before cell phones were around, I memorized most of my friends’ phone numbers. Now, I don’t even try to remember them, because they’re all stored in my cell phone. All cell phones have the ability to save your frequently called telephone numbers in their memories. Enter your important numbers in your phone once, and voilà, you’ve freed some storage space in your own memory.
Usually the easiest way to store a number is to dial it, but instead of hitting Send or Talk, look at the screen. Is there the word Menu or Store? If there is, press the button below the word. Read what is offered, and press and release the key on your phone that allows you to save the number. This process may take a few steps because you’ll be given the chance to type in the person’s name. (Of course, or how else would you identify them in your address/phone book?)
AUTOTEXT OUGHT TO HELP
Some phones automatically start to suggest or guess the word you’re trying to write using the keypad of the phone. This feature is called AutoTexting and can save time and keystrokes.
If your phone doesn’t have a full keyboard, you’ll have to type the name using the keypad. You may have to hit a key multiple times to get to a given letter. To type the first letter on a button, you hit it once; to type the second, hit it twice; for the third—you guessed it, hit it three times. If you make a mistake, there’s a key on your phone that allows you to backspace. It’s often marked as Back, or it may have an arrow pointing to the left. Again, experiment. No harm done. Refer to your instruction manual. Whenever you’re learning an element of the phone, repeat the steps at least three times to help cement them in your memory. It’s also a good idea to take notes, so you can refer to them later. Create your own cheat sheet until the actions become second nature.
• On phones without keyboards, to type the letter F, you must press and release the 3 key three times… once for D, twice for E, and thrice for F.
KEEP YOUR NUMBERS
Many phones have a SIM (subscriber identity/information module) card that will store phone numbers. When you buy a new phone, those stored numbers can be moved from the old phone to the new one with the SIM card.
Leave Your Message After the Tone
Your cell phone will definitely allow you to set up a voice-mail system so you can get messages from callers when you’re unable to (or choose not to) answer the phone. The instruction manual will show you how to access those messages, but you can probably figure it out yourself if you fool around with the phone a bit. I cannot emphasize enough that playing with your phone makes it yours. This is the getting acquainted stage that comes in the beginning of any relationship. It is unnerving and exciting, and you may learn more about the phone in the first few days of introduction than in the years you spend together, so take advantage of this time of exploration and adventure!
My hunch is that there is an envelope on one of the keys of your phone. Am I right? (All phones are not created equal, so there may not be an envelope.) If you hold down the envelope button, the phone will dial the number necessary to access your voice mail. Be sure to listen to all of the instructions to hear what options you have when connected to your voicemail. You may be asked to choose a password. This is where you also record your outgoing message. When deciding what to say in your outgoing message, I believe honesty is the best policy. If you know that you’re not likely to answer your cell phone or listen to your messages often, say so.
My mother has a cell phone she keeps in her car’s glove compartment only for emergencies, and I rarely answer my cell phone, unless I’m expecting a call. But many people use their cell phones all the time; some use them for all their calls and don’t even have a home phone. To each his own.
YOUR PHONE, YOUR CHOICE
You have no obligation to use your cell phone for more than emergency calls or as a device to make calls and not receive them, but you should let your friends and relatives know, so they don’t expect you to pick up.
Control Issues
Somewhere on your phone, you have access to a Menu. You may need to use the up or down features on your phone to view all the items listed in the menu. In the menu, there is probably the option called Settings, Tools, Customize, Options, or Preferences. (Whenever I see any of those words, I get curious about all that the device has to offer. And without curiosity, you’ll never really take control of these gadgets, because you won’t uncover the full extent of their capabilities.) This is where you get to set preferences for things like your phone’s volume and ring type, whether it vibrates instead of rings when a call comes in, the number of rings before voice mail picks up, and what appears on the screen. Somewhere in the menu is probably a place where you can set an alarm clock, see other time zone times, use a calculator, and possibly even type short notes to yourself.
Remember, we are just playing—nothing bad will happen if you change one of these settings. As a precaution, write down the default settings, so you won’t forget what they were. Then, if you change something and don’t like it, you can change it back. This is a good rule of thumb when learning any technology. Always take notes along the way to help you remember what you did so you can either repeat it or correct it.
Text Messaging
Most cell phones also allow you to send and receive text messages. Text messaging is similar to instant messaging (see Chapter 19). “Texting” allows you to contact someone almost instantaneously without actually speaking. Instead, you type a brief message on your cell phone and hit Send (or Talk). Your phone communicates with theirs, and they see your text message on their screen. Because text messaging takes place on the tiny screen of a phone, people tend to abbreviate things as they do when IMing. Use the reference guide on page 267 for shortcuts.
If your phone doesn’t have a full keyboard, look at the keypad and see if you can figure out what key to hit to get a space between words. It may say Space, or it may have this symbol.
To delete text, use the same key you used to correct errors when inputting phone numbers into your contact list (probably Back or an arrow pointing left).
• A text message about to be sent.
You may discover that you don’t like texting because of the tiny keys or the clumsy way you may have to hit a key multiple times to get to the desired letter. Alternatively, you may fall in love with it when you see how instantaneous, convenient, and fun it is. Whatever you decide is fine, if it’s right for you.
TEXTIQUETTE
Please do not think that text messaging is less intrusive in the theater or movies than speaking on the phone. It is a still a rude distraction for those around you.
Phone Photography
Most cell phones come with a built-in camera. (Some phones also have the capability of taking short video clips.) They vary in quality but are easy to use and to carry with you. Still, it’s all well and good to be able to whip out your phone and snap a photograph with it, but how the heck do you get the pictures from the phone to a computer or printer? There are a couple of options. You may be able to e-mail them. (Be sure to find out if there are additional fees if you use the e-mail feature on your cell phone to transmit photographs to a computer. With enough add-on fees, suddenly an inexpensive phone plan isn’t so inexpensive.) Some cell phones come with a USB cable that allows you to download (or move) photos from the phone to a computer without use of the Internet. Ask about this feature at the time of purchase.
A Cell Phone vs. Smartphone
A few years ago, there was a big difference between a smartphone and a cell phone. Smartphones are swanky cell phones that function not only as telephones, but also as a connection to the Internet for web surfing and e-mail, along with photo, music, and GPS features. BlackBerrys, iPhones, and Androids (also known as Droids) are a few common ones. While smartphones offer many great services, almost every cell phone has at least some of the features o
f a smartphone. For example, the Motorola Razr is a cell phone, but it also has the capability of taking photographs, sending photos to e-mail addresses, and exchanging information with a computer. Wouldn’t you call that pretty smart?
The real difference now between some “smart” cell phones and some smartphones is size—generally, a cell phone is smaller than a smartphone. Because of the size limitation, a cell phone (whether very smart or sort of smart) may offer only a phone keypad to type your messages, notes, etc., as opposed to a smartphone, which has a full keyboard (albeit a small one). The screen to view your e-mail and web pages is also larger on most smartphones, so your viewing experience may be more pleasant. If you’re considering a smartphone, play with one in the store or ask a friend to take you for a test drive. Be sure to check if you can really read what appears on the screen.
BUYING ADVICE
Most of what you take into consideration when you buy a smartphone is the same as what you’d consider when buying a regular cell phone. Reread the cell phone section at the start of this chapter and apply those buying suggestions to whatever you decide to add to your shopping list.
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“I could never really see the screen on my cell phone very well, but my BlackBerry is a huge improvement. I even text-message now.”
—Irena
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The Lowdown on Smartphones and Apps
A smartphone allows you to send and receive e-mail and text messages. Most smartphones allow you to take photos, listen to music, watch movies, and read books. Your photos can be stored on the phone and shared via e-mail. A smartphone has a calendar and an address book, along with access to the Internet. Access to the Internet means that you can visit almost any website that you can on a computer. Some websites don’t read as well on a phone, but most perform pretty well in the smaller format. Be sure to ask if you’ll be charged extra to have access to e-mail and the Internet. I think you’ll find it worth the cost, but confirm how much it will be, so there are no unpleasant surprises when the bill arrives.