Tech Update

A couple of years ago our daughter gave me her old I Phone. Not being very tech savvy I just used it for calls and text messages.
 If I needed the internet whilst we were away I had my Hauwaui with a 3 SIM card that daughters faience set up paying as we needed it. Last weekend he suggested activating the the I phone to use as a hot spot rather than paying £35 for the wifi. He found a 3 sim for £16 a month so that’s quite a saving so he has set that up for me.
All this tech stuff has left me behind, probably my fault, but with his instruction and notes I think it will be to my advantage catching up with the rest of the tech world.

It works for me, too Dave. I use the Personal Hotspot on my iPhone (and the Android phone before it) to provide wifi to both my and OH's Pads. Just one phone contract to bother about and simple to set up.

Modern tech is wonderful but us oldies often need a guiding hand. How I wish we’d had all this when I was a teenager!

It was a long time ago when I was a teenager and my life was too chaotic to think beyond day to day. 
I was in Beamish open air museum with our son recently and he said I should be in there as an artifact. :lol4:They are building a 1950,s housing estate so he might be right. Time seems to have moved on faster than I realized. 

We didn’t even have a landline in the house when I was young. Only posh people had phones. 

Where have those years gone? 

We had a phone and I assure you were not posh. My Dad repaired and installed TV,s . Our number was three digits, 161, and the operator in the exchange lived there. 
In 68 years the world has certainly changed mostly for the better.

For those with Boxer-based vans - whose speedos are almost unreadable - an old phone works well as a speedo. No need for a SIM card: just downloaded a free speedo app when on your home wifi. My old iPhone is mounted on a stalk, and is both accurate and easily readable. No cost. And using a redundant iPhone.

Cymro

I did the same Dave, switched my old Samsung PAYG sim for a monthly Smarty contract which allows tethering for tablets and the Amazon Firestick. Still use the Mifi too, belt and braces 

I always use my phone as hotspot and tether tablet cos it's got bigger screen, otherwise I can everything I need on phone (just as I'm doing writing this post). I have an O2 SIM, £10 a month bundle which gives unlimited minutes and texts and 7gb data which rolls over which is more than enough for me as I don't stream music or videos, just internet browsing and emails.

We used both phone hotspots while touring Europe for everything including TV on an Amazon firestick without the need for a VPN,  streaming UK radio while on the move and Google maps for navigation.  Get the best deal though.  
Rich..

I am not sure what to do with the Huawei now its redundant. I didnt pay for it two years ago, bought with an Amazon voucher. I suppose it must be worth something. It always amazes me what is for sale on fllee  bay. Theres always the sales bit on the forum I suppose. 

I offered a Huawei on the forum but nobody wanted it, threw it in bin. By time you've paid eBay commission there's not much to put in your pocket.

The only thing with using the phone as a hotspot is if you decide to go for a walk about and take your phone with you there is no inter web in the van then for your partner/wife if she decides not to go.

I pay Vodafone an extra £10 a month for another sim with 150gb of data just for the vans internet system as I can be out on the bike or morning walk with my phone

What?  You mean you leave your wife to enjoy herself in the van when you're out and about, you really need to get a list of chores for her made up for just such occasions (now where did I leave my crash helmet in case my beloved reads this  )

Chris, like myself, has a wife with medical conditions that can be unpredictable and debilitating leading to times when it is necessary to do thing alone outside the van, or just sit and vegetate.

Both away and at home all household chores fall to me, I would rather it was otherwise but it is what it is. Management would love to be left a list of chores but physically isn't able

I apologise if I offended anyone - that wasn't my intention at all.  My comment was made in jest.  My wife also has some conditions (albeit they are minor ones) which stops her from doing certain things at times and I also leave her to sit and relax whilst I go off and do stuff.

I have a shelf with redundant electric things like the old Garmin, Alexa thing and now the Huawei amongst other things. One day I will have a major chuck out and then need something no doubt.

Dave Gee wrote:I apologise if I offended anyone - that wasn't my intention at all.  My comment was made in jest.  My wife also has some conditions (albeit they are minor ones) which stops her from doing certain things at times and I also leave her to sit and relax whilst I go off and do stuff.

No offence here , the Wife has MS and needs a mobility scooter to go anywhere and has to use a frame in the house , I am a full time carer so when I get the chance to get away from her I do, just getting the van ready now for a months trip and you should have seen her face when I was getting the bike ready for the trip, might have to put extra data on the sim for her , I keep my old mifi in the van with a 3 data sim that’s got 24gb preloaded just as a standby in case it’s ever needed

I discovered the shop CEX. They deal online and also have shops in many towns. They buy and sell techie gear and I recently sold several phones, pads, cameras, SD cards and ear buds to them. Some of the offered prices were laughable but others were reasonable and a total of £500 in my pocket was better than letting the gear sit in a drawer unused.

I wish I knew what this thread was about......

As normal with the forum a simple post has drifted into a full discussion about related subjects.

groundhog wrote:I wish I knew what this thread was about......

Me too!

I was only thinking yesterday about the time I was a BT apprentice on a course in Manchester.
At the time I had a new girlfriend who wanted me to phone her each evening.
I walked for miles around Chorlton-cum-Hardy each evening trying to find a phone box that was working and didn't have a queue of about 10 people waiting to use it.
When I met her at the weekend, she didn't believe I'd even tried to phone her at all.
That soon fizzled out and probably would have even if we'd had mobiles in those, happy days.

Edit: Even though I worked for BT for almost 40 years, I have absolutely no idea about this new technology.
I can just about manage my new smartphone with a £10 top up that lasts me around 6 months.  

Calling girlfriends from phone boxes might have been a challenge in the uk back then but after we were first married I went back to Germany to wait for a married quarter to be allocated. I could have booked a uk call at HQ but any one in block at the time could listen in so it wasn’t very private.
The only choice was to use a public phone near camp. It was when you could only use coins and I don’t think father in law would like me reversing charges.
The first phones we had in the vans at work were wired in. Any personal calls had to be paid for.Only the managers had proper mobile phones until a few people had their own mobile phones.

In Canada it was a blanket and a fire

groundhog wrote:In Canada it was a blanket and a fire

In Scotland it was two tins and a long piece of string 

In Cornwall we had the transatlantic cable coming ashore and the ground station for receiving satellite transmissions from Telstar. Wow, get us.