New Technology - Part 1

As part of our ongoing preparations for our camping expeditions this year, my kind husband suggested that, in order to keep up with emails and Facebook when we go away; that I purchase a smartphone – as long as it did not end up costing us megabucks. If only he had realised that in doing this, we were entering into a world of pain, verging into insanity.

It has been some time since we gave any consideration on getting a new phone. Our last mobile was bought over twelve years ago and has always been for emergencies only. It's never been any problem and it chugs away wherever we need it. I don't even know the number, it's so rare we use it. But I know that technology has moved on. Even when I purchased with my latest computer, which is two years old now, I noticed that  there have been massive changes since the last time I bought one, seven or eight years before.

And two years later, technology has moved again, with there being a significant drop in sale of your traditional computer with a tower hard drive, and more sales of laptops and tablets.

My New Smartphone

It had been the plan initially to obtain a tablet of some sort and I very quickly became very bogged down with what was around and what it was required to do. In the end, reality set in. I realised that the size and weight of the item would need to be considered, if it was to be of major use when we go camping, so a tablet would really not be light enough and space will be limited. I also knew that if it was a phone as well, it would be a good way of killing two birds with one stone. The Motorola Moto G smartphone very quickly established itself as being the best value for money, so I took the plunge and purchased it.

It arrived very quickly. Opening the packaging, I soon realised that the instructions were quite sparse. The first job was to insert the sim card. This was a nightmare as you have to prise open the back in a certain way. It says something (to me anyway) when you have to look at someone doing the same action on Youtube, to ensure you're not getting it wrong and ripping the phone to pieces.

Once you have done this, for someone who hasn't done this before, you are left hovering on an air of indecision. Who do you register with? How do you get the emails to the phone? We started out with an Orange pay as You Go Top up, when was used up very quickly in the setting up of the phone, so more money was needed. And how do you do that?

For those of you rolling around in hysterical laughter that someone of the mature age that I am does not know these things, please consider, I had not been in a position health-wise to even consider going through this process, quite apart from the money issue.

In the end, through trial and error (because I was initially given wrong information), I managed to set up a plan with Orange and I managed to link in my emails so I could access them on the smartphone. It did make me pause for thought, that when confronted with something new, anything that you do with it can seem frightening; or if that word sounds too strong, try edgy instead.

Now, a couple of weeks on, I love my phone and what I can do with it, even going to a pub which a Wi-Fi hotspot and using it there. I am very pleased with this accomplishment. Maybe it was just as well that we started small and learnt from that, because bigger things were on the horizon.