I have rejoined the 21st century

[selenay]

I have been holding out against getting a smartphone for so long. Years. Probably more years than are sensible. Mostly due to Canada's riduclously expensive plans, but it also became a matter of stubbornness, too. Everyone told me to get one, so I refused.

But I've done it. I have an iPhone (SE, 64GB) and a data plan and now I'm capable of this modern communication lark. No more being out of communication every time I'm away from a wifi hotspot. No more plans that can't change because I was out of the house and nobody could contact me.

No more being unable to find people when I get to a thing because it takes me longer to make my very old stupid phone send a text than it does to search the entire place top to bottom.

I actually have more data than I planned, because they had a deal on that doubled the data I was getting. So I have 2GB instead of 1GB. That's pretty cool, right? And my iPhone is incredibly fast compared to my three year-old iPod Touch. With a fancier camera. It's all very exciting.

I've even set up Whatsapp, so I'm down with this modern communication thingymajigy.

If anyone wants my number for Whatsapping purposes, PM me and I'll send it over.

Look at me, being all modern. It's almost like I'm a techy person!

(I feel like I'm the last IT professional in the world to reach this place. Please tell me I'm not?)

Comments

[paranoidangel]

No more plans that can't change because I was out of the house and nobody could contact me.

Is no one you know capable of using a phone as a phone? They do know that smartphones are capable of making phone calls?

(I feel like I'm the last IT professional in the world to reach this place. Please tell me I'm not?)

Nope. I am not even the only person I know who doesn't have a smartphone.

[selenay]

Is no one you know capable of using a phone as a phone? They do know that smartphones are capable of making phone calls?

That would assume my old pay as you go phone was a) actually turned on and/or b) capable of recording voice mails. I didn't have voice mail, so if anyone called it and I didn't answer (due to it being off, me not hearing it, or me being unable to answer it due to driving), they couldn't leave any form of message. And it didn't exactly perform well on the texting front, either. Half the time, texts would get to me hours after they were sent, which isn't helpful! I needed had to upgrade to something fancier with a proper phone plan to have something capable of doing the phone/text/voice mail thing properly, so I figured I might as well go smartphone finally.

My old phone was something I got eight years ago as an emergency-call-police-or-tow-truck only thing, which is why it was pretty much useless for everything else. Even my UK phone is more useable than my PAYG phone here was :-(

[paranoidangel]

I had no idea that was all so terrible in Canada. It's really iffy to penalise people on pay as you go by being crap like that. What if there are people who can't afford to pay £x a month or want to give their child a phone, but be sure of exactly how much they're spending in advance?

[selenay]

Canada has some of the highest mobile phone costs in the world. Even PAYG isn't really pay as you go - you have to top up a minimum of $10 every month or the credit goes away and the phone is deregistered, and that doesn't provide much of any service. It's only really good for being able to make an emergency call every now and again. You get charged for incoming calls and texts as well as outgoing, so your money burns up fast even if you never deliberately call anyone!

Mobile phone stuff in Canada is pretty crap and horrendously expensive. It's why I've been resisting it for so long. At least the plan I have has a ton of free minutes and unlimited free texting, so I should only be paying the monthly plan cost and nothing else. Most plans start at $50 a month, so you're pretty much screwed if you can't afford that.

[paranoidangel]

That is madness. If I lived in Canada I think I'd have got a smartphone instead of an iPod two years ago.

[selenay]

It's completely mad. Getting an iPhone instead of an iPod is probably something I should have done a long time ago. It's certainly the reason smartphone uptake here is so high *sigh*

[netgirl_y2k]

Hurrah!

Admittedly, it's probably more acceptable to be a philistine when you work with the elderly than it is if you're in IT, but I swear there are Ninety year old Glasgow grannies who I work with who are more technologically switched on than me.

My cheap-ass smartphone has been left in flight mode ever since its GPS stubbornly insisted that the Brandenburg Gate was in Glasgow - it's useless. But I'm sure you'll have better luck with a proper iPhone.

[selenay]

Possibly more acceptable, although I've seen a lot of high tech old grannies here! It's not just the Glasgow grannies who are technologically switched on :-) I'm certainly the last IT person in my department to go smartphone and everyone reacts in shocked horror when you're a programmer who hasn't got a "real" phone :-D

I reckon an proper iPhone will probably stay functional for a lot longer than something super cheap. It's partially why I went for it. That and I'm already in the Apple system, so was painless to set up.

Brandenburg Gate in Glasgow...yeah, your cheapass smartphone is clearly broke in some way :-(

[netgirl_y2k]

As much as the Bloody Tories are trying to cutback my job into that of the bring-out-your-dead guy from Monty Python there are occasionally delightful moments - like going in to a housebound eighty-four year old to find her skyping like a pro and wanting me to wave hello to her grandchildren in South Africa.

The worst part about the GPS on the cheap-ass smartphone is that I'd got it specifically because I was going to be tooling around Germany on my own for a few weeks and didn't want to get too lost. Really, I should have shelled out for something a bit swisher, but I was trying to save money for beer and currywurst.

[selenay]

Aw, I love that mental image. I helped my seventy-four year old neighbour install Skype on her iPad this summer and she's been happily talking to her kids in Vancouver ever since :-D

Bloody Tories. ARGH.

Did you get the beer and currywurst despite the crap GPS, or did your cheapass smartphone leave you so lost the trip turned into a nightmare? Because I probably would have made the same choice as you, faced with those options!

[netgirl_y2k]

The best thing about the Germany trip was, not only are beer and wurst based snacks ubiquitous, but the public transport system is so extensive and well-run that it's hard to get lost even if you really try. And I say this as a woman who spent the better part of a day trying to navigate Hamburg using a map of Prague :)

[selenay]

the public transport system is so extensive and well-run that it's hard to get lost even if you really try

That's the kind of public transport I appreciate!

And I say this as a woman who spent the better part of a day trying to navigate Hamburg using a map of Prague :)

...I bow you your superior skills at being lost. It makes my little "huh, I wonder if that was my highway exit, maybe I'll just drive on and see what happens" incident on Saturday look trivial.