Smart Phone experiences

I have had some interesting & funny experiences with my brand new android smart phone......thought others might have some interesting/funny/ experiences along with wondering because sometimes these smart phone are just too smart.

I just purchased my smart phone Android a few months ago....going from a dumb phone that had internet capability, but it was a flip phone &I refused to pay for it so I had it blocked.

It's taking me forever to get my address, names & phone numbers transferred over besides I got a new phone number because it was about time....having a Calif phone number in KY for 6 years was long enough & my stbxh was the final straw after he gave out my phone number to a credit company then defaulted on the loan & would never answer his phone......so I got the calls.

Anyway, I am so enjoying this new phone & all the stuff you can do with it.....technical person that I sort of am had to figure out how everything worked & how to make it work....especially the dictation & the wake up call "Hi Galaxy" to get it to do anything I want....(It would have been cuter to have it called "Andy" rather than Galaxy.....but it is what it is.....he is my personal answerer to everything....even better than my desktop computer because I can take him with me where ever I go.....& I don't get wrong answers like my stbxh would always give me.

Wondering one thing.....notice that others use the tapatalk & I saw that in the apps store......but when I came here to check out posting & accessing....I didn't need any apps & just started typing......so what's up with that....it is that androids don't need the tapatalk....is that something for iphones? (if anyone knows....).

Interesting one day about 4 weeks after getting it....I was really getting used to dictating everything rather than typing it all out....but all of a sudden, it started not recognizing my voice....shut the phone off, recycled everything...nothing helped....It wouldn't dictate from the keypad microphone but it would from the google. I spent the whole day trying to figure out what the problem was.....then all of a sudden in the evening it started working again. I was sitting right on top of my wifi so it wasn't a weak signal problem......some really strange glitches can come up.

I enjoy by blue tooth in my truck....I got the Roadster2 & it plays pandora over my truck stereo. I set it up to take all the calls....it took me a little to get used to just saying answer when a call comes in & to just talk without having to touch anything....really awesome....but had to laugh when I was first trying to figure out how to make it work & get the correct radio station....I was driving down the road....late as usual & passed a sheriff car on a side street who when looking in my rear view mirror actually pulled out & went the other way on the road I was driving on......but all of a sudden, there were lights in my rear view mirror ......I'm thinking I wasn't speeding, & I wasn't texting.....I was fiddling around with the blue tooth trying to hit the right button & get the radio set....& I sort of weaved in my lane......anyway, he walked up to my truck & my 2 white eskies (Leo & Tawny) were pushing across me & barking out my open window at him.....It was cute....he said...Oh, I've seen you & your dogs around.....how are you doing?.....Found out he was just worried because I guess I had gone over the center line when I was messing around with the blue tooth.....but he said he just wanted to make sure I was safe & ok.....& he didn't even say anything about my break light being out......got me back on the road safe.....as I headed down the road. I have now figured out how to work it so I don't end up doing all that messing around & any set up I try to get done before I leave....& it's really a very simple blue tooth but powerful...just set my phone to driving mode & connect & just say "answer" when it says who's calling. I really enjoy the amazing technology abilities that have come so far is such a short time.

Trying to figure out how to get the pandora to play Halloween music through my truck stereo for out trunk of treat we are doing at church Thursday evening.....love getting creative.

Had a oops the other evening....I was brushing my dogs & had my phone on my lap.....it slid off my lap & right into their bowl of water.....splat!!!!!!....it went 100% under the water....instant panic thought the phone would completely stop working or that & something had to absolutely short out like the microphone, the camera, the speaker......I just knew there had to be a problem.....my poor little phone.....I knew i had broken it.

Dried it off, took the protective cover off & dried everything....I was right, the speaker didn't recognize my voice...I was really mad at myself then....but I started checking out the access to the external SD card...no problem....called my voice mail & no problem....finally I tried the dictation again & NO PROBLEM!!!!.....WOW was I relieved.....I only got the Samsung Galaxy Exhilerate.....no where close to a $600 phone....but even what I paid was a lot for me.....so I was really sweating it. I was actually amazed that I could get an android phone with all that power for the price I paid.

Took me awhile to figure out how to transfer photos & things to the HUGE SD card I bought...but thought it was worth it because I was always running out of memory with the apps downloads even though I'm doing NO GAMES....there are so many other good apps that help function in daily life.....I have definitely become more organized having a calendar with me all the time & a place to take notes of things I don't want to forget.

I had been watching all my friends with their smart phones & able to do the internet & the photos are great....now I don't have to go out & buy a really good camera....I had one of the original digital cameras which I ended up having to replace my really expensive SLR with telephoto lens that used REAL FILM...when it was no longer possible to use....& that old camera gave up functioning unless it was plugged in & charging & even then the switch wasn't working well & had to fiddle with it just to get it to take a picture......

Interesting thing is that NOW I'm teaching my friends all about the capabilities of their phones & all they can do with it.

Had to laugh at one of my friends.....she opened up her Bible app in church to go along with the scripture reading by the pastor....somehow she got the speaker Bible going & her phone started reading the verses right out loud in church....the pastor looked around & laughingly said....ah, God's reading our scripture today.

I found some awesome classical ringtones that I have downloaded....I really like them because they work well & don't sound quite so interrupting if I forget to turn off my phone in places where I don't want to get calls. Had to laugh at one of our older ladies in church....she has her cell phone for emergencies.....& her kids set up the ringtone to be a rooster.....needless to say....Yep, it went off right in the middle of the sermon was Sunday.....chuckled under my breath....yep, we needed to be woken up (the sermon wasn't that boring.....just sort of).

I have been looking at the upgrade to anrdoid 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.....don't really know if it's that much better of it I will mess up everything trying to upgrade it.....I am just getting things the way I know how they work....& to mess that up & start all over again...not sure it's worth it....but maybe....now before I'm too settled in the ways of my phone.....Definitely a handy tool to have around...& really miss it when I forget & leave it home charging.....even though I do have the car charger...sometimes I forget it's NOT in my purse when I'm charging it.

Glad to hear the transition has gone so well, mishaps and all, especially with the water; that would have panicked me too.Yikes! I still have my flip, it is a classic original being the first to get internet and texting; I am hesitate to change as it works fine and I am not so sure I am ready for a larger bill with the cost of the larger data plans. I am impressed though with all that they can do and am considering the change. Thanks for sharing; gives me more food for thought and nice to read the experiences with it. Best wishes and hope you continue to enjoy the new phone.

I'm not a fan of Tapatalk. Bleh. I use Dolphin as my browser so websites work like they do on my computer. No need for Tapatalk.

Best thing I could have ever done for my Android phone was once it was off warranty was that I rooted it. That way I could delete all the T-Mobile bloatware they installed on it. Now I have all kinds of memory space. I can also run a defragmenter and a few other things I couldn't use before.

By the way, most Android apps have memory leaks so they'll start chewing up RAM on you for no reason. Restarting your phone occasionally, deleting old text messages and maybe getting something like Memory Booster Lite will help its performance.

I ended up buying my phone off Amazon & went with the no contract AT&T....only because I tried T-mobile last year when I thought I found a good cheap plan for $49/month...only thing it used only T-mobile & T-mobile doesn't serve my rural KY area.....have had AT&T so ended up sticking with that...but went with their go-plan....am now paying $10 less per month to have my smart phone than I was paying (even without a contract) for my dumb phone through AT&T. Love monthly plans because the only tax paid is the sales tax...not all the school taxes & other misc charges that were stuck on the previous plan......I can handle a savings of $10/month.......I don't do much so I really get to save it & put it toward things I really need.

I always attach to wifi whereever I go so I don't chew up much data time at all (& I don't do games).....but I'm on the internet a lot.....I have also found that every time I leave the phone I make sure that all the apps are closed & then with task manager, I clean the ram which shuts down between 19-20 apps so they are the behind the seen apps that are running the programs.

This phone was sort of initially set up as an AT&T phone so all I had to do was go to the AT&T store & get the sim card.....lol....they thought they were setting up my phone to access the web.....however it was only set up to access the web through the AT&T wifi.....they didn't realize it couldn't access the web otherwise.....I ended up taking it back in because I couldn't figure out how to make it work on the web when I left their AT&T store & before I got my own wifi set up.

Many places that have guest wifi to connect to have very weak signals for it so sometimes I just go with the 4G which probably isn't 4G in reality.

Yep....my old flip phone was one of the first 3G that could access the web....got it back in 2008 just before the ice storm when I was without electricity for over a week & hadn't purchased my car charger yet....lol. Ended up going to the local police station that first night to charge up my phone which was almost dead anyway when the electric went out. That phone went through a lot in those years.....I left in on the bumper of my truck after changing the tire & it fell off the truck away down the road.....I went back to search for it.....couldn't believe I actually found it a bit scraped up but working. It got to the point it wouldn't stay charged & I couldn't justify putting $ into a new battery rather than putting it into a new phone.

I didn't need the top of the line phones they give with the 2 year contract.....but this samsung phone does everything that all those fancy $600 phones do.....& more than enough for my needs.......so I'm really enjoying it. I do use it so much that I end up charging it several times a day......& with the 32gb micro SD card....don't think I will have to worry about memory forever.....but realized that mostly only photos go onto the SD card.....only some apps function off the SD card so it's not like all can be downloaded there....something it seems like needs to be checked on when selecting apps.

HMMMMMM I don't know what browser came with this phone because I haven't down loaded any special browser....whatever came with the phone is functioning well....I might be surprised what wonderful browser I might find out there.....but what ever came with this phone....it's not necessary to use tapatalk or any other app to interface & post onto PC of any other site I have encountered.....glad....when I first looked tapatalk cost....now it's free.

Oh that's another irritation....some free apps are so loaded with ad's you can't even use them....but most of the free just have non-annoying adds just down at the bottom/top of the app & doesn't interfear with the functioning.....so I go with the free rather than the costing apps until I decide I want something that isn't offered except in the one that costs.....between a few non-annoying adds vs cost......not a problem......have had some of the free that aren't really valuable end up having so many adds I couldn't even function in the app.....uninstalled it & dumped it quickly.

It's fun learning how to access & interface with the apps....there are some really good ones that really make life easy....it's my note pad, my financial accountant, my phone & my social interface & my grocery list.....all in one place.....I am finding that it's nice that it's more than JUST A PHONE because even though I did without those other things they really do make life easier & more organized (something I desperately NEED)