Adventures in Smartphoning

[tvordlj]

I took the plunge.

A few weeks ago i jumped into the Smartphone-iverse and bought a Nexus 4, the new phone that Google is sponsoring though it's made by LG. I'd kind of been looking at the Samsung, though not the newest one out and the guy in the Telus store showed me his Nexus. It's all integrated with google of course, which can be convenient. All your phone stuff gets backed up to the google-universe.

The main selling point of it though, was that they're sold unlocked. That means I can get a local SIM card in the UK and use it there. I don't have to use it for data there, just on wifi if there's a hotspot and Graham has wifi at home as well. I always have a phone for when i'm there for texts and calls but my phone is getting old and the battery is going. I don't know whether i can keep the same number but it doesn't really matter. It doesn't even really matter if i just throwaway the number each time though i may still keep it topped up. TMobile won't let me register my credit card online though as it's not a UK card so I may flip to a different company. Doesn't really matter. What matters is i can use it there or anywhere else i happen to be with a local micro sim. I can't use the same Sim that's in my current UK phone because this phone uses a micro SIM not a normal sized one.

I had the phone for about a week. Figured out a lot of things like how to load up "apps", how to use some of them, found some settings to re-set, made a call, used wifi, even sent a text. Then it rang. And i couldn't figure out how to answer it! hahahahaha!!!! Yeah. Read the effing manual. Got it. So little by little i'm figuring out things i can do with it.

Today i was reading a magazine and noticed those black square barcode style things you can scan with your phone and get information or go to a website. Ohhhh.... Hmm... taking a picture of it didn't work or do anything. Go to Google. Ah....you need an app for it. Right. Downloaded two of them! One does pretty much just scanning but the other, Google Goggle, will let you take a photo of something and it will search Google for you. It doesn't work with everything but will work with things like well known paintings or for something like a photo of the Eiffel Tower or other famous sight. It's not sophisticated enough to search to identify a plant or bird yet. I wonder if it would work if i took a photo of a celeb LOL! It will scan a business card or address and let you phone the number or add it to your contacts. You can also scan something in a foreign language, like menu information for instance, and Google translate it. That might be useful. It also does bar codes.

I learned how to do a screen shot of what's on the camera and it saves it as a photo. I learned how to use the panorama feature on the camera which i wish i'd known about in New York on the cruise we took. The camera is pretty good but not great for zooming as it's just a digital zoom but for straight pics it's not bad at all.

And i can make and answer calls!

Comments

[john beresford (from livejournal.com)]

Excellent. I have the Nexus 7 tablet now (as you know) which I'm very pleased with, although it's not a phone. If I had to choose a smartphone now it would either be a Nexus 4 or a Galaxy, so I'm bound to say "good choice" :o) I've heard the "4" can have build/manufacturing issues, (they're assembled by a different company to the 7, which is done by Asus) but I'm guessing if you've got a "good" one you'll be OK.

And you shouldn't have any trouble porting your UK number to another provider. They do thousands every day, in any direction.

[tvor.livejournal.com]

So far so good with the phone. I like it pretty much, the texting app is nice, the camera is good, it's a bigger screen than the iPod so it's better for reading. I have the ereader but at times when it's battery is low, i'll read on the phone. I guess what i'll do is find a proper phone store to get the micro sim and get them to port the number over to the new card. I don't know if i'll be changing providers though i may only because i can't top up online with TMobile because it won't let me register a non-UK credit card. I wonder if their parent company EE will. I won't go back to Virgin because the coverage wasn't that great. Any other suggestions? Orange? O2?

[john beresford (from livejournal.com)]

A couple of years ago the pecking order of mobile providers in the UK was pretty clear, but since then Orange have struck a network sharing deal with Vodafone giving them equally good coverage and a network that regularly gets plaudits for its 3G connection speeds, so I'd say there's only a hair's breadth between the top providers Vodafone, O2 and Orange. I'd agree that you should avoid Virgin (and also Tesco Mobile) but if you stick to one of the big names you won't go far wrong.

[tvor.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info! i have been happy with TMobile aside from the credit card thing which is inconvenient though G. can top up for me from his bank acct. It's only sot hat i don't lose my number if i'm away for more than the allotted time. I never think to power up the phone from here and send a text to keep it active lol