The Patio

[nasa1974]

The wife and I have had our 6S plus iPhones for almost 3 years and they are great. The biggest thing about the smart phones is that you need a really good data plan. These smartphones eat up a ton of data. I have always had some kind of insurance on our smart phones every since our iPhone 4 and have only used it once, but it was worth it. The funny thing about the smart phone is that my 4 year old grandkids can use it almost better than me. :blink:

 

[TSP-roulette]

The funny thing about the smart phone is that my 4 year old grandkids can use it almost better than me. :blink:

Lucky you nasa1974, the little tykes in my family love iphones, ipads etc, we have to secure our smart phones, else they tend to..........oh never mind!!!!!!

 

[Scout333]

Well gee golly wiz. SO just laid on me she needs to upgrade to a smart phone. Not just any smart phone, Apple iPhone 8 plus. $800. I better try to work some OT this year. Glad she didn’t wait until I am retired.
It will be about $1000 since she will want insurance since she will immediately drop it and run over it with her walker. I bet it will also include a call a day because she can’t figure out how to make calls, answer calls, get voice mail or view texts. It will take her to the internet and offer a new service for $29.99 per month. She will buy it but not tell me who the provider is when it doesn’t work.
This is going to be so much fun. She can’t even figure out how to answer calls on her current phone.
Anyone got one of these overpriced things and want to tell me why it was worth $1k?

PO

Suggest looking for a deal and buying two. One for each of you same model cause you will be fixing all her problems with updates, etc. Lots of buy one get one free, etc. deals out there especially as it gets close to new model releases, etc. Most providers have installment purchase with no additional cost so you don't have to have a contract for a certain time period. You just pay monthly with your data plan. Really nice for traveling. Good luck!

 

[PessOptimist]

Thanks for the replies. Now that I am over the sticker shock It's time to get it done so I stop getting reminders every day or more.

Suggest looking for a deal and buying two. One for each of you same model cause you will be fixing all her problems with updates, etc. Lots of buy one get one free, etc. deals out there especially as it gets close to new model releases, etc. Most providers have installment purchase with no additional cost so you don't have to have a contract for a certain time period. You just pay monthly with your data plan. Really nice for traveling. Good luck!

I just upgraded to a LG K20V which is what started this whole thing. So one will do. Her cousin has an Iphone 8 so I just elected her tech support. About that K20V-the first time it rang I could not figure out how to answer it. It took a while to tell it what voicemail service to use and since the last update my email quit working. Haven't got around to fixing that yet. Every time it upgrades the fingerprint unlock stops working so I learned to remember the pin.

The wife and I have had our 6S plus iPhones for almost 3 years and they are great. The biggest thing about the smart phones is that you need a really good data plan. These smartphones eat up a ton of data. I have always had some kind of insurance on our smart phones every since our iPhone 4 and have only used it once, but it was worth it. The funny thing about the smart phone is that my 4 year old grandkids can use it almost better than me.

We have 6GB/mo for the Kindle so we'll see how that goes. The Kindle hasn't seen the light of day for many months. Insurance is a must because She will surely drop it or drown it or something. Or I will. I have broken two laptop screens, drowned one due to drip line malfunction and broken my ipad screen in the last couple years.

My wife has the 8+ and loves it. Siri makes some things much easier, some not so much. But, overall, Siri is worth setting up, and learning to use. Especially for a new user. I’m still using a 6S, but will upgrade to the X or X+ by year’s end. Buy her a LifeProof Fre case to protect the phone. At the very least have her get a good designer case (lady bling) and install a protective cover over the glass. Amazon has a ton of them at reasonable prices. My wife prefers that setup to a LifeProof case. Yeah, they’re high, but we keep our phones for 3-4 years, and eliminated our land line long ago. Worth every dime IMHO.

Siri!? I can see it now. "Siri get apple tech support." Siri: "how many shares of apple stock would you like?" "no, tech support." Siri: "OK ten thousand shares. I will charge it to the credit card on file. Congratulations." Or maybe (wife to me) "get me a glass of wine please." Siri: "ordering one glass of wine. It should be there in 30 minutes. Enjoy."


To get Sirious about this, what is it your wife didn't like about the LifeProofFRĒ? Some reviews I read say it is too bulky and makes it hard to work volume controls. It looks like it comes in two pieces, front and back?
What case did she end up with and is it working out OK? The protective cover is a must I agree. Maybe I can get it on with no bubbles? Maybe just buy it from the store and have them install it?


I realiize I am asking you to do my market research but I find actual user experience is better than on line reviews. Thanks in advance Razor and all.


PO

 

[konakathy]

You can only spare one kidney. Make sure the SO has insurance on the phone....and you. :nuts:

 

[PessOptimist]

You can only spare one kidney. Make sure the SO has insurance on the phone....and you.

View attachment 43434

She sleeps very soundly these days and the procedure on line doesn’t look that difficult…
Too messy. Just kidding. JUST KIDDING!
She has the money in her savings account but these things have a way of coming out of the take home pay which I suppose is at least ½ hers. No worries just resistance to the idea of paying more for a cell phone than many of my cars over the years.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

The sacred iPhone 8+ arrived today. Trying to activate it. It needs an apple account. I tell SO to create one. It tells her the address is in use. She swears she never had one. I go to apple and unlock her account and create a new password. Phone lets her continue. She can make calls, receive calls. receive texts but nowhere is there any button to reply to texts after typing reply. Going to bed now as 0430 is near. Any thoughts from you apple lovers? Secret icon or password to reply to texts? Costs $99.99 per month?

PO

 

[James48843]

When you get a text, you just start typing the reply. It addresses automatically.


Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

 

[James48843]

Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

 

[PessOptimist]

Thanks James, little arrow is too little and it doesn't seem to reply to sender all the time. Heaven help me, the pin she entered as an alternate to her fingerprint is about 22 characters long. Makes it hard to troubleshoot and timeout on screens seems to be about 10 seconds. I got to figure out how to change that but apple speaks a different language. Or seems to to this old fart.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

As promised elsewhere:

War story
Two Air Force teams, working on the same project need to go to NRT (Narita airport near Tokyo) and deploy to <unspecified locations>. Flight arrangements made separately. Both teams leave CONUS from Los Angeles. The other team is routed through HNL (guess where) and we are routed through ANC (Anchorage AK). They will clear customs at HNL. We clear customs in Los Angeles. Typhoon pops up (Judy?) and all flights to NRT are cancelled. The other team gets to hang around Honolulu on phone standby, we get to spend two days in ANC customs quarantine area. My sister was stationed at Ft Richardson at the time but when she came to visit customs and immigration would not relax rules and we yelled at each other through the glass. (yeah I know it is JBE-R now but it wasn’t then) So I missed my best chance to see at least Oahu. And hug my little sister.

PO

 

[PessOptimist]

This could go in &amp;lt;a href="https://www.tsptalk.com/mb/the-day-job/" target="_blank"&amp;gt;https://www.tsptalk.com/mb/the-day-job/&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;. Nah, &amp;lt;a href="https://www.tsptalk.com/mb/the-lounge/the" target="_blank"&amp;gt;https://www.tsptalk.com/mb/the-lounge/the&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; patio is good enough.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Today at work was just another wonderful Monday. A flood of emails panicking about things all ready done or being done and a lot of phone calls about stuff with the same status. One email in particular from Friday was particularly typical. A new GS-14 at HQ is looking to get to the "root cause" of something a local GS-12 in a new position feels needs investigating. The policy in question BTW was in place at least as far back as June 1997 and has been changed and all past potential problems of said policy mitigated as stated in numerous presentations with proper evidence.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
So, when this new meeting came up on Friday as a mandatory appointment webex for tomorrow, I replied stating the policy was in place in June 1997 and to get to the root cause they would have to recall managers from that time.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
The reply from the HQ GS-14 was "who is your supervisor?".&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Should I feel threatened? I am a blue collar craftsperson who works AWS 4/10 Mon-Thu. Most of the addressees in the email were craft. Is this GS-14 flexing his new power? Should I send him org charts so he can understand his chain of command? Should I file a "hostile work environment" complaint based on my perception of the threat involved in asking who my supervisor is?&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
I am told by my bosses that I will log in to the webex tomorrow but all other craft involved will not. Should be interesting.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Do they teach you this at GS-99 prep school? Intimidate everyone, bypass the chain of command and ignore the facts?&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Other than that it was a rather productive day since all the bosses are out on travel doing boss stuff, or sick leave doing whatever.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
After this productive day, as usual, there was a UP train switching across the street my agency lives on. As usual, there was no room to get out of the driveway and go the other way. What is it people don't understand about this sign?It may not be enforceable as it is a white regulatory sign and treated by both drivers and LE as way below this:which is only a suggestion apparently.<br>
A couple truck drivers finally let me out. Traffic is all backed up on the route I take to avoid the train. When I finally get near the first intersection I see a cop car, smashed vehicles and humans lying in the street. Cop had put down blankets by this time and I watched as EMS finally got to the scene after being blocked by traffic that just kept on going. Ignoring the cop who was trying to direct traffic and tend to the victims. God, I love living here. I was about ¼ mile back and by the time I got to the scene EMS was there. Then construction at the next intersection. Left lane closed. Most people behave and let others merge. Not this tow truck and Dodge Ram pickup with twin diesel stacks and a trailer. They both forge ahead running over cones and just moving right. Both ran the red light at the intersection. It was OK, cops were busy with the accident. Just truck on if you have a truck.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Did I mention I love my job and commute? About 57 work days and 105 calendar days.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
Hope you are having a great week so far.&amp;lt;br&amp;gt;&lt;br&gt;<br><br>
PO

 

[Scout333]

"Did I mention I love my job and commute? About 57 work days and 105 calendar days
"
PO, Just keep saying I am a short-timer! Repeat as often as necessary!! Ha!

 

[PessOptimist]

"Did I mention I love my job and commute? About 57 work days and 105 calendar days
"
PO, Just keep saying I am a short-timer! Repeat as often as necessary!! Ha!

I do often. I have also made a promise to myself I will NOT become ROAD and will keep on working on the things on my list and try to pass info to team members about them getting the list and info when I leave.

Not making a lot of sense, just trying not to ignore stuff I should be working on.

I have no idea why all the HTML codes showed up in the last post. Will see what happens when I attempt to post this.

Just venting about the traffic stuff. Life in the big city.
PO

 

[James48843]

Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

 

[PessOptimist]

Sitting on the patio doing nothing. It’s a great hobby. Lot’s of stuff to do but soon will have lots of time to do stuff.

Getting a little chilly out here, 70s. Better than early this morning when it was below 40. Was great earlier, in the 80s.

Home repair stuff-SO wants touch up paint in family room. Years old paint viability doubtful. Gonna be messy checking it out. Do it later.

Desktop PC stopped working. Totally dead. Maybe the power supply. Started to check it out but uncomfortable on the floor. Can’t take it to the work bench since it is full of stuff that needs to go somewhere. Can’t take it to alternate work bench (aka kitchen table) as it has been recently waxed and is Christmas present staging. I need to take stuff to stuff place (aka Goodwill) to see if they will take it. They are very picky lately.

Stuff includes 30 year old microwave oven (works great), 20 year old toaster oven (works great), 15 year old surround sound system (worked when I removed it from bed room) that I am still waiting for SO to say reinstall it or not after remodeling 3 years ago, winter clothing for some bin if I can remember where it is and other stuff that likely should go in the recycle bin.

People ask me what I am going to do after I retire.

PO

 

[nnuut]

The answer to that question is "ANYTHING I WANT TO DO".

 

[James48843]

Cooked a turkey yesterday.

It was rehearsal day.

Gotta make sure I remember how to do that. At .37 cents a pound on sale, I can’t NOT do a turkey.




Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

 

[bmneveu]

Cooked a turkey yesterday.

It was rehearsal day.

How did rehearsal taste?

 

[James48843]

How did rehearsal taste?

Mmmmmmm... good!