What's made you grumpy today?

[SB1500]

I've never had a touch screen device, My laptop is a mouse driven and click windows 10 type, so I've a lot to learn when I get the phone, not least of which being that the touch keyboard looks so small I do wonder how I'm going to get on with it and my big clumsy "sausage" fingers.

There should be plenty of features even on Android for you if you'd find they make the experience easier. Magnification, making the text size bigger everywhere, high contrast modes to tune out all the visual effects and crap that you might find annoying, there used to be a 'Simple Mode' on Samsung phones a few years back. It tunes out a lot of the distractions and simplifies the menus as well.

Best advise for the keyboard is just go boldly towards tapping on the letter you need and don't worry too much about the precision of your finger in the box on screen around the letter. Despite how it looks (tiny and like you'd need precision) the actual touch input area around the key is often larger / skewed as the phone - depending on which letter you tap - anticipates which keys you're likely to tap next. You don't need to think about it, it's a bit like driving - you look where you want to be, but the second you start worrying what's in front of the car you go all wonky across the road. And if you're like me, half of what you type is incorrect anyway and the spell check is able to figure out and continuously replace the mess with the right word 9/10 times!

 

[StevenRB45]

We were at my oldest boy's yesterday afternoon and evening for our dinner - very nice, chicken and smoky paprika chorizo casserole with patatas bravas finishing off with a delicious cheese cake - My boy does the cooking and is very good at it! Anyway, I mentioned that I'm almost certainly going to buy a Google Pixel 8 and was met with a "barrage" of "That's what we've got!" Turns out my boy has a very old one, maybe a 6 or 7? Grandson has a pixel8 and his wife has a pixel9. All said how well they get on with them. This is very good news for me as they'll be able to help me get mine going if I have any problems with mine. Very busy just now with other boy's family helping prepare for their village Gala Day on Saturday - Grand daughter is a "cushion bearer" whatever that is? Because she's part of the "entourage" their house and front garden have to be decorated and other preparations made. There's a big parade through the town and then in the park. After the ceremonials there's a traveling fair already set up so it'll be "lets all bash grandad on the dodgems but I'll get them back on the rifle range - I gained my marksman badge in the ACF! Weather not looking too good for Saturday though so fingers crossed

Due to all this I think it'll be Monday or Tuesday before I get round to ordering the phone. It'll be going in a protective folding case so I suppose case colour won't matter? I'll let you all know when I've got it and I'm sure you'll all be relieved that at last I've actually done it!

Personally I hate folding cases (think about where it folds to when you're taking a photo)...also 6 very old...bless my poor phone.

I have a Spigen rugged case on mine it has been dropped many times in the last 3 years and never shattered (they are glass).

Handily they are also properly waterproof given I accidentally walked into a pool with it in my pocket at one point.

Screen wise I just used to have a protector on it but it got damaged I'm going to say 18 months ago and they are discontinued so I have nothing on it because it was all paid up and I was like "if it breaks I can get a 9" but they have gorilla glass and the rugged cases have a lip round the edge so even dropping it face down doesn't lead to the screen hitting the ground (unless there's a high point). As a result the screen is unmarked. As long as it doesn't go in the same pocket as your keys it's unlikely to suffer at all.

 

[porta]

I used to get the armoured cases, JCB and then gorilla, the gorilla one was better but managed to break screens with both…just like the easy way to break glass, go for a corner, if you drop them they will inevitably land butter side…the gorilla glass remained intact though…so now have a full case and gorilla screen protector and never broken a screen

 

[StevenRB45]

The Spigen tough armour ones have padded bumpers on the corners.

To be fair due to the camera bar on the pixel the do have a lot of padding in them as the case makes the back of phone flush with the bar and that bar is about 50% of the width of phone this leaves a lot of air space in the case except at the camera bar which they fill with foam.

If this is giving the idea of it's going to be an absolute chunk you'd be accurate but it's survived me and my son for years.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Personally I hate folding cases (think about where it folds to when you're taking a photo)...also 6 very old...bless my poor phone.

I have a Spigen rugged case on mine it has been dropped many times in the last 3 years and never shattered (they are glass).

Handily they are also properly waterproof given I accidentally walked into a pool with it in my pocket at one point.

Screen wise I just used to have a protector on it but it got damaged I'm going to say 18 months ago and they are discontinued so I have nothing on it because it was all paid up and I was like "if it breaks I can get a 9" but they have gorilla glass and the rugged cases have a lip round the edge so even dropping it face down doesn't lead to the screen hitting the ground (unless there's a high point). As a result the screen is unmarked. As long as it doesn't go in the same pocket as your keys it's unlikely to suffer at all.

I used to get the armoured cases, JCB and then gorilla, the gorilla one was better but managed to break screens with both…just like the easy way to break glass, go for a corner, if you drop them they will inevitably land butter side…the gorilla glass remained intact though…so now have a full case and gorilla screen protector and never broken a screen

Hmm, I'd thought of a folding case because of the screen protection. My existing wee "dumb" phone is a Samsung folding phone and the screen is still perfect after umpty tumpty years of use - hinge not so much though. Mrs J opted for a folding case for her iphone and it's pretty neat but does increase the bulk. However she keeps it in her voluminous handbag not in a pocket. Maybe I should think on this a little more.

 

[The Panda Nut]

In fairness, my nephew - could just be a 'him' thing, but he lacks most of the tech literacy I had by his age (and most people in my class at the time, even those who weren't really into technology but still used it for Facebook and MSN etc). For example... when he has issues with his Playstation account the entire idea of resetting the password.. checking for the email... or if he gets some new game, the idea of finding that website and 'signing up' via the standard form (username, email, password) and the verification email - none of that is second nature to him.

We all grew up with Windows computers in the corner of the classroom / in school - Microsoft Word and the likes. The new generation now, most of them grew up in some primary schools where they were all given iPads or Chromebooks with next to no UI or conventional mouse and click layouts. 'So easy a baby could use it', the iPad was/is, but it's left an entire generation lacking what in the 80s / 90s were new computer skills, in the 90s/2000s my generation knew them inside out, but the 2010s generation and beyond, they don't understand anything outside of their 'apps'. Sort of going backwards I reckon.

I LIKE YOUR NEPHEW. Hes one of us!

 

[There all puntos]

In fairness, my nephew - could just be a 'him' thing, but he lacks most of the tech literacy I had by his age (and most people in my class at the time, even those who weren't really into technology but still used it for Facebook and MSN etc). For example... when he has issues with his Playstation account the entire idea of resetting the password.. checking for the email... or if he gets some new game, the idea of finding that website and 'signing up' via the standard form (username, email, password) and the verification email - none of that is second nature to him.

We all grew up with Windows computers in the corner of the classroom / in school - Microsoft Word and the likes. The new generation now, most of them grew up in some primary schools where they were all given iPads or Chromebooks with next to no UI or conventional mouse and click layouts. 'So easy a baby could use it', the iPad was/is, but it's left an entire generation lacking what in the 80s / 90s were new computer skills, in the 90s/2000s my generation knew them inside out, but the 2010s generation and beyond, they don't understand anything outside of their 'apps'. Sort of going backwards I reckon.

So much for the ' Coding is the only thing that should separate everyone'. Quite simple in form (even better when you can decipher a hard drive, by code) Android has took all the fun out of the old Magnetic stylus driven gramophone hard drives. When one of them is ruined, I used the discs as mirrors and the magnets for hanging metal (and metal alloyed) tools up in my garage.

And even a small magnet from a useless Hard drive, can make any metal tray magnetic, good for seeing how much metal your engine tears off its surfaces via the filtered oil

I call it my 'oil a sketch'.