My Dumb-to-Smart Phone Transition
Contents
1. needed to stop the process associated with Nokia Suite using Windows Task Manager this process would continue to run even after closing Nokia Suite used Nokia Suite also for downloading installing apps e g Swype Microsoft Office Mobile Opera Mobile Skype Screen Saver Battery Monitor PocketLock Timer for meditation etc Later downloaded installed some apps through Nokia Store on the phone Despite the small screen size the process was painless Although like the phone in general there are some issues First the touch or software response seems to be a little slow erratic was uncertain if this is the expected behavior of this model or if there is something wrong with my unit probably the former as read similar comments on line However am becoming more and more comfortable with living with imperfection inconvenience and uncertainty of all sorts including my aging body So thought would accept it After all can still use all the functions of the phone Here are some other issues don t think these are specific to my unit The phone hung several times during the first one month period guess it happened when used the phone heavily with a lot of applications and or dealing with large files Also one night the phone restarted by itself this may be related to receiving dozens of email messages attached with large image and video files But as get used to the phone the frequency of hang decreased Nowa2. a trip employ another strategy Before synchronize the files move the contents of the sync folder on the PC This way all the changes made in the phone will be copied back to the PC So can deal with the situation In addition PDF viewing is fairly good esp in the landscape mode can read a variety of PDF documents on the phone As for Japanese language support which I need only occasionally is better on my new phone than on iPaq On iPaq was able to read Japanese on web browsers with additional fonts installed but not in the mail client On my new phone after upgrading the OS to Nokia Symbian Belle reading Japanese seems to be seamlessly integrated But there is no Japanese input capability This is not essential but it would be nice if can send email in Japanese There is an app J for S60 which may work on my phone However it is rather expensive around 50 There also is a free app called M FEP60 But one of the users commented that the program screwed up certain things on C6 01 and cannot be reverted without factory default reset So am hesitant My tentative albeit awkward solution is as follows keep a file containing hiragana katakana and some frequently used phrases can copy and paste some of these characters and phrases as compose a message Furthermore recently noticed that there is a web site that support Japanese character conversion without the input function http sumibi org So if nece
3. compared to AT amp T s Often she cannot use the phone there Because of this she went back to AT amp T But this time 35 month prepaid plan Testing New Phones About a month after we got our new phones there was an occasion to field test them My wife needed to visit Japan for one week She carried her new phone BLU Elite 3 8 D430b and iPad As mentioned earlier it is now illegal to rent a SIM card for her phone and thus she rented a local phone as well we didn t try Skype number then She noticed that even with her AT amp T SIM card then postpaid 450 her phone was receiving calls and text messages in Japan So actually called her cell phone the U S number from the U S just as if she were here We talked only for one minute because was not sure what kind of charges are added to her bill It turned out that the air time was 2 5 minute So assume that she could have called U S Numbers just as if she were here In addition guess she could have called Japanese numbers and received from Japanese callers there as well if the Japanese numbers are dialed with the country code 81 and her numbers are dialed with appropriate access code in Japan e g 0063 wanted her to try these as well as Skype calls and some other things but didn t ask because she was so busy during the one week trip Anyway it was good to know that her phone is usable in Japan as is Although it is too expensive to actually use the phone this way
4. gadgets more often than do and so she usually has more opportunities to try out new things Now finally it is my turn to try a smart phone of some sort Transition to a Smart Phone Carrier Plan and Handset Choice If we commit two years to a major wireless carrier s monthly plan we could get a smart phone fairly inexpensively However the purchase of a smart phone from them requires us to subscribe to a data plan which is expensive and overkill for me Alternatively we could subscribe to a prepaid monthly plan Many resalers e g Straight Talk TracFone Simple Mobile Boost Mobile offer such plans as well usually at a much better rate Still am not inclined to commit even that kind of monthly recurring charge just don t use phone as much and data is not essential although it would be nice to have the capability occasionally So decided to stay with my current T Mobile s Pay As You Go plan Since am going to use my existing T Mobile SIM card need an unlocked GSM phone After buying an unlocked HTC for my wife became quite comfortable with unlocked phones At first considered Windows 7 phones such as Samsung Focus 1917 Flash and Nokia Lumia 710 However after reading reviews realized that Windows 7 phones no longer support direct USB connection between the phone and Outlook There seems to be no file synchronization mechanism either It is a big change from Windows 6 5 e g my wife s HTC Imagio with which US
5. to use on line maps such as Yahoo map During the trip the phone crashed a few times esp when was using maps in Opera Mobile web browser At one point during the trip the phone dropped from a shelf about four feet high on to the hard floor Due to the good construction the phone survived even without a scratch The test is now complete Since like the phone and wanted to use it more recently replaced the 8GB micro SD to a 32GB one copied all the files and swapped the cards Initially the phone behaved funny sluggish hangs But after restarting the phone a few times it seemed to be working normally It is great to have a large capacity Conclusion During the past few years our mobile phone and associated office environment changed significantly think it was a good move Both my wife and myself are happy about the transition so far Addenda August 3 2014 e As mentioned above my Nokia C6 01 does not have a native method or free apps to compose texts in Japanese One way to overcome this shortcoming is to use a web site Sumibi org We can enter roma ji alphabetic form followed by a space and the site will show lists of possible Kanji conversions Note that the roma ji inputs need to begin with a lowercase letter for proper conversion e recently acquired a small jeweler s loupe http www ukge com Product aspx ProductID 291 amp L 1 amp site en us This works great to take macro photos with my Nokia A
6. we could still use it for emergency purposes On the way home from Japan my wife s flight from Detroit to Newark was delayed multiple times due to the weather condition mechanical problems and crew replacement After five hours of delay it was eventually canceled At this point she was diverted to another plane to LaGuardia Since was waiting for her at the Newark Airport we needed to communicate using our new phones The phones worked well and served our purposes perfectly Since figured that the situation would involve many and long phone conversations swapped the SIM to Pay By The Day 2 for unlimited talk text 2G web did need to power off the phone because the SIM card slot is beneath the battery But the process was fairly straightforward and painless This way was also able to check the airline s web site for flight status wherever we go noticed though that the on line status was in flight even when my wife needed to get off the plane The battery status of our phones were all right but both of us charged the phones at mid point used Opera Mobile web browser as full browser mode and Nokia s native browser for mobile view On Opera wanted to see the flight status with the map showing the plane s current location The map didn t show up maybe because my data is only 2G was unable to do a few things e g setting new one time notification to the number associated with my Pay By The Day SIM card still don t kno
7. B synchronization was straightforward So Windows phones are out Instead chose unlocked Nokia C6 01 It is a small phone but like it that way even a large phone is too small for document viewing any way Even though it runs Symbian it seems to have the most functional and straightforward synchronization capability between the phone and Outlook as well as files over USB among the current options am aware that Symbian is no longer maintained although C6 01 can be updated to Nokia Symbian Belle But this phone will be a temporary solution any way In a few years the cell phone market could be radically different Nokia C6 01 was attractive also because of its reasonably good camera according to the reviews and offline GPS i e use without data subscription Just before Thanksgiving bought a used returned unit sold as Amazon Warehousedeals at 116 It came with a 30 day return policy the same as for a new unit Although would not like the experience of returning purchased items this guarantee was a peace of mind Earlier this year purchased a refurbished Windows 7 desktop PC through Dell Outlet It was a good deal and a good experience So for those who are not concerned about minor scratches or not being packaged in the original box and are confident about dealing with other potential issues this can be a good deal New units were being sold at 159 at that time The unit received was in a small shipping box wrapped
8. Copyright 2012 2015 by Nobo Komagata http nobo komagata net pub Komagata12 CellPhone html http nobo komagata net pub Komagata12 CellPhone pdf My Dumb to Smart Phone Transition Nobo Komagata insi2 org August 14 2015 First written December 8 2012 Last Update on August 14 2015 It has been a few years since this essay was first written As with other modern technology the content is already dated and may be retired soon Recently purchased Karma Go WiFi hotspot without credit expiration It is working well and serves most of my remote WiFi connection needs for all of our portable WiFi dependent devices So there is no more need for phone company s data services even for an emergency still use my Nokia C6 01 Not being an Android or iPhone it is limited in terms of the availability of apps This is certainly a big issue but have adjusted to live with it am still attracted by its easy USB connectivity to synchronize various files with my PC My wife uses her Samsung now on AT amp T s prepaid 30 month plan unlimited talk text except for the summer months when she switches to the 10c min plan Oritinal Essay Introduction finally replaced my old fashioned dumb phone with a so called smart phone However my situation does not warrant an expensive monthly plan with data normally required for the purchase of a smart phone at major wireless outlets So here is what did Background The Du
9. acts from the PC using MyPhoneExplorer Actually it took hours until was finally able to do this tried two or three other apps without success prior to this one After getting used to my Nokia C6 01 too felt that the display and keyboard are larger and a lot easier to use However do not particularly like Android s user interface Somehow it reminds me of the Microsoft style feel that Nokia Symbian is more user friendly The number of pre installed ring tones on BLU was much smaller than on my Nokia The user s manual was a joke and there was no on line manual my wife wouldn t read the manual though My Nokia has a decent on line user s manual and support discussion forums Unlike Nokia we cannot use GPS offline on Android but ViewRanger would do if she really needs it There are a few extra features that may be useful in the future When my wife is on the road she can use her BLU as a WiFi hotspot using my T Mobile Pay By The Day SIM card for her WiFi only iPad This can be done easily with this phone s dual SIM slots there is no need to remove her AT amp T SIM card This turns out to work quite well In addition when we go to Japan initially thought that we could use both of our phones with the 2100MHz coverage there with a rental SIM Unfortunately we couldn t do this surprisingly it is illegal to do this in Japan According the Japanese Radio Law the device that uses a SIM card must be registered with the Jap
10. anese government i e the giteki mark is required Only the non Japanese device currently registered are latest iPhones This kind of restriction is very annoying for people who only visit Japan An alternative is to use a Skype number S18 for 3 months which would be cheaper than renting a phone even for a week actually got a Japanese number 050 XXXX YYYY for my Skype account and tested It was not perfect but it worked was able to receive some calls on that number Since never really thought that AT amp T 450 is a perfect plan for my wife have been searching for a better plan for her looked into prepaid monthly plans e g Straight Talk 45 month As long as she can keep her current number and does not need to think about refill etc she wouldn t mind which carrier reseller she is using This Straight Talk plan includes unlimited data at about the same cost as her current plan initially thought that this might even let her me access WiFi through her phone as a WiFi hotspot However Straight Talk does not allow the use of a phone as a modem Then since my wife doesn t need data on the phone unlimited data is not that attractive She doesn t text much either Her voice usage is well within the 450 minutes limit Then recently we finally moved her number to T Mobile s Monthly4G 1500 Talk amp Text with 30MB of Data The main drawback with this move was that T Mobile s signal is considerably weaker in her office
11. days rarely need to restart or remove the battery for forced restart have a feeling that can live with occasional hangs though One other condition experienced was that the calendar and some other functionality hung for a while and then resumed working There is one outstanding issue with WiFi which started to notice recently but not initially At a few public WiFi locations a local library and a car dealer to be specific was occasionally unable to use WiFi When it doesn t work the WiFi does connect but the browser and the mail client cannot access the Internet This is rather annoying tried various things but so far don t have a complete fix for this problem There also is an annoying issue with contact synchronization When edit contact entries on the PC the ring tone assigned to the affected entries are reset to the default Normally want to do most of editing on the PC and want to keep specific ring tones for specific contact groups According to on line discussions iPhones seem to have a similar problem One other issue is about audio book transfer With iPaq was able to transfer both mp3 and wma audio books from ListenNJ a free service through local libraries With my new Nokia can only transfer mp3 audio books even though C6 01 is supposed to be able to play wma files This most likely be due to the service s security issue think could play unprotected wma files There were some other iss
12. ernet availability on my phone and a larger display and full size keyboard of the notebook There also is a free app called Joiku Light which is supposed to be able make C6 01 as a WiFi hotspot But for both of these am still unable to use my notebook Windows 7 to access the data on the phone there is one thing want to check i e setting up a wireless ad hoc connection on the notebook On the other hand can access the same data from my wife s iPad My Wife s New Phone My wife and technology often go against each other She has been complaining about her HTC phone She says that the phone often every morning doesn t work especially when she arrives at work after about one hour of driving Strangely whenever check her phone it works all right So although it has been only one and half years since she got the phone we decided to replace hers too Also recently she was given an iPad WiFi only no 3G at her work So she decided to carry the iPad almost all the time and use it for her scheduling contacts notes etc Since iPad s screen is large enough she will use just that for scheduling Then she will no longer need to keep her schedule on the PC or the phone This eliminates the need of synchronizing her phone or iPad with the PC In addition without the need of the scheduler function in her phone even a flip phone would work for her Still she considers using a flip phone is backward So we decided to find another smar
13. in paper i e not in the original box tried to identify any scratches or damages found none However noticed that the micro SD card was missing The package was supposed to contain 2GB micro SD according to some reviewers they actually received 4GB notified this issue to Amazon and received a 20 refund Later on purchased a 8GB micro SD card at Staples for 5 99 their sale item then So the cost of the phone with a micro SD turned out to be below 100 But would eventually get a 32GB micro SD card Even during the first few weeks started to like it So didn t need to return it It is small enough to carry in a pant pocket Even if sit don t need to worry about bending breaking the phone It feels almost like a pocket rock Still it is amazingly functional as phone scheduler camera GPS music video player etc The USB synchronization between the phone and Outlook file is very good There are two options to do this using the older Nokia PC Suite and using the newer Nokia Suite both for Windows note the similar confusing program names normally use PC Suite because only this has file synchronization However when upgraded the phone OS from Symbian 3 to Nokia Symbian Belle used Nokia Suite think that Nokia PC Suite can update only up to Symbian Anna older than Belle Also note that Nokia Suite somehow disrupts the existing Windows Mobile USB connection in my case the connection to iPaq To avoid this
14. kype credit was able to call Japanese phone numbers as well as US numbers from my notebook and phone fairly inexpensively Since my phone has basically the same frequency coverage as my wife s BLU it picked up SoftBank s network upon arrival in Japan initially thought that my prepaid plans would not let me roam internationally However when tested with my Pay As You Go plan by calling my U S cell phone number from my Skype account on my notebook my phone rang As far as can tell from T Mobile s web site the international roaming charge is 2 69 minute It is too costly wouldn t use it However realized that can still use this capability as a pager That is if for example my wife wants to contact me she can call my cell phone number from either the U S or Japan and hang up Then should be able to return the call from my Skype account If the caller leaves a message would use my web interface to check it with no cost So only with a WiFi hotspot was able to deal with most of the cases Overall my phone worked well used Mobile Word for viewing editing document files and Mobile Excel for keeping the expense record used camera and video for capturing various images The Carson lens worked well for macro shoots e g copying medication labels One limitation already mentioned earlier is the lack of Nokia map for Japan Since didn t know of ViewRanger at that point with the WiFi connection was able
15. l messages to some extent set up e mail forwarding selectively as SMS text messages through my e mail account using a sieve filter This arrangement is extremely useful for receiving emergency information for example from the school district and to know when someone on our white list leaves a message on our home phone By the way our home phone is a Magic Jack and voice messages come as e mail Relatively recently also learned that there is a free SMS to Email gateway World Text com http www world text com services emailgw smstoemail php As a result was also able to send e mail through my old phone albeit in a very limited way In addition to my cell phone was usually carrying a Windows Mobile 6 pocket computer HP iPaq 111 as a scheduler and also to view edit certain documents mainly rtf and xls files The content files are synchronized with Outlook 2002 and files on my home computer Windows 7 Occasionally when available used iPaq s WiFi to check e mail and web browsing on the road Also occasionally used my iPaq for reading e Books and listening to audio books For my life style this dumb phone iPaq combination had been acceptable However the quality of my phone battery was deteriorating and started to think about consolidating the two Of course this is what many people have already been doing In 2011 bought my wife a Windows 6 5 smart phone HTC Imagio exactly for that reason Well she breaks
16. lthough this particular item is not easily available in the U S there are similar products that would work just fine e My wife started to complain more and more about the unreliability of her BLU Recently she replaced it with Samsung Galaxy Ace 2 i8160 White Factory Unlocked She seems to like Samsung much better than BLU 10
17. mb Phone Era don t use my cell phone so much However do need it for occasional conversation with my family friends and for also emergency So in 2006 after years of subscribing a monthly plan switched to T Mobile s Pay As You Go plan with a very basic Nokia 6010 for about 50 then At that point invested 100 to get Gold Rewards status This refill would last for one year which is pretty good In addition thanks to the Gold Rewards status if refill at least 10 just before it expires the expiration for the entire amount including the previous refills will extend for another year Note that this may need to be through my on line account management area not through a refill card etc For the past six years normally added just 10 a year except for one time when added 50 Adding smaller amounts is not cost effective in terms of the cost minute ratio However when there are a plenty of minutes left there is no point of spending more than necessary So the total cost of using my old fashioned cell phone for occasional calls for six years was about 250 in total or a little more than 40 year or about 3 5 month In comparison my wife was spending about 47 a month AT amp T 450 or over 3 300 for the same six year period But she uses the phone for work and would not be comfortable dealing with the complications associated with the Pay As You Go plan Even with this old phone was able to handle SMS text and even e mai
18. or now noticed that on T Mobile and other discussion boards people talk about T Mobile s web day pass which seemed nice but since discontinued So after considering certain alternatives came to the following conclusion In addition to my Pay As You Go plan started to use T Mobile s Pay By The Day plan with unlimited voice text and 2G data for 2 day That is now have two SIM cards The new SIM card itself was 0 99 later found that it was also sold for free on another page at T Mobile then it has increased to 10 Normally still use the Pay As You Go plan SIM card When I want to use data and or need to talk for a long duration swap the SIM cards to the Pay By The Day one This would also be helpful for certain cases involving long voice call e g calling the power company when the power goes down wouldn t do this with the Pay As You Go plan as we can t tell how long we will be on hold Some time ago locked in my car key at a section of a large county park had to stay on the phone for some time to make an arrangement and guide the service to reach us because there was no street address to describe the location easily would have benefited from the Pay By The Day plan In the future when anticipate to talk for more than 20 minutes will use the Pay By The Day SIM card The main reason chose T Mobile s Pay By The Day plan for slow data is that even 10 refill comes with 90 day expiration not 30 days like
19. other carriers unfortunately the expiration date is not shown when log on to my T Mobile account so need to pay close attention to it This is very important for me because don t expect to use data so often Another reason is that it is unlimited for the day till midnight even though it is slow 2G just don t want a usage based plan So expect to spend about additional 40 a year for occasional data and long voice calls Compared to my expense until recently this is luxury but feel it is still a reasonable extension One surprising discovery is that if switch between the two plans of Pay By The Day i e 2 day and 3 day 3G plan the expiration date seems to extend by 90 days from the day of switch For some people swapping SIM cards may not be an option too wish my phone had dual SIM slots However by removing the Pay By The Day card can make sure that the phone won t access data accidentally and get charged for the entire day without my intention In addition for many people 2G may be unacceptably slow However would mainly use email and basic web browsing i e no game music video etc So the speed is not a big issue When a faster connection is needed can switch to 3 day and switch back to 2 day One possible use of the Pay By The Day plan is as follows When connected to a notebook PC via a USB cable Nokia C6 01 can be used as a modem With this combination could benefit from the inexpensive Int
20. s slower when the next position is far from the last known position and without data assist though The only problem is that there is no Nokia map for Japan However found ViewRanger free app can be used for this purpose It can even be used with off line maps So this is no longer an issue also like the phone s user interface in general Probably some people would think that Symbian is too limited However think it is pretty good overall with a reasonable room for customization The number and quality of available apps is OK for me only use free apps and some of the ones downloaded installed are really helpful For example like PocketLock very much it locks unlocks the screen when the phone is inside out of a pocket Battery life is OK With my normal use just need to charge the phone at night If shut off WiFi and use it only for stand by the battery seems to last about a few days So would say that I m quite happy with the purchase Finally was monitoring the price of several phones and some other things before and after the Thanksgiving break What noticed was that the price was often lowest before not after Thanksgiving In certain cases availability became low empty right around Thanksgiving Using Data Using Two SIM Cards Since got my new phone felt that it would be nice if can use some data when really need it Again this is not essential and wouldn t subscribe to any monthly data plan f
21. ssary and with sufficient time can send a message in Japanese Here are some other comments about the phone The camera is fairly good But still like my Canon PowerShot A1100IS much better my Canon serves practically 100 of my basic camera and video needs My main issue with C6 01 s camera is the lack of macro mode There are times when would like to use the camera more as a scanner My temporary fix is to use an additional lens The Photojojo store has a nice variety of lenses for iPhone supposedly good for other phones but a single macro lens costs 20 So am trying two less expensive generic lenses 1 Carson MagniFlip 3x Flip Open Pocket Magnifier with Built In Case GN 33 about 3 5 and 2 ITOYA PocketLens Small PL A about 4 5 Even if don t use these lenses for the intended purpose could use them as emergency reading glass and my daughter could use them for fun as well After comparing these lenses my conclusion is that Carson is a better option for macro shooting To use it can just hold the lens half open and shoot clear images at about 4 inches from the subject also realized that with the highest resolution 8MP can get a reasonable image of a letter size document if shot from a little further than needed Another discovery is that Scam free app can be used to shoot a continuous and motion detected series of images The GPS usable off line is really good even comparable to our Garmin Nuvi 40LM it i
22. t phone Since she has difficulty seeing small letters she wants as large screen as possible For example my Nokia C6 01 is too small for her At the same time there is a space limitation due to the size of her pocket book So we tried to find one approximately the same size as her old HTC Although she is qualified to purchase a reduced price phone from AT amp T again it would be actually costlier to subscribe the required data plan which she doesn t need So considered unlocked Nokia phones first my wife likes Nokia However larger unlocked Nokia phones were either Windows or too expensive for us In a sense Nokia Windows phones are no longer real Nokia Then noticed unlocked BLU Vivo 4 3 which had fairly good reviews However thought it would be a little too tight in her pocket book and cost still a little more than was expecting BLU Dash 3 5 was at a good price but the screen seems too small So my final suggestion was an unlocked BLU Elite 3 8 D430b an Android 2 3 phone with a 3 8 inch screen This was sold at 144 as a new item It is almost exactly the same size as and slightly thinner and lighter than HTC Imagio She likes the size of the display and virtual keyboard The basic phone function seems all right so far Although this phone comes with an old version of Android it does not matter She will mainly use it just as a phone Although she will no longer need to synchronize the phone with Outlook transferred cont
23. ues initially But most of them have been resolved to my satisfaction One is editing office files On my iPaq have been mainly using rtf files for synchronization this way was able to open files quickly with WordPad not with MS Word on the PC Now the version of Quick Office which comes with the phone is read only the full version with the editing capability is available for about 6 though So downloaded and installed new Microsoft Mobile Office for Symbian was unable to edit rtf files or doc files However realized that it can edit docx files So changed the format of my synchronized files to docx On the PC can still edit them with WordPad which starts quicker than Office One minor glitch is that when edit these documents on the phone the edited section appears with black background and with underline need to change these attribute manually Furthermore for some reason don t understand the file synchronization stopped working as expected When synchronize files it always copies files in the direction set in the conflict resolution It was not like this for the first three to four months To deal with this issue when edit a file on the phone change the file name e g from X docx to X2 docx Then both files will stay on both the phone and the PC will then need to delete unnecessary files and change the file name This is tedious but editing on the phone is only occasional events Or if go on
24. w why Other than these web access was really helpful was able to check my main email box for flight status notifications checked the flight status esp for the flight to LaGuardia many times on their web site and also checked LaGuardia Airport terminal parking map which was not familiar with When picked up my wife it was just before midnight quickly swapped the SIM cards so that won t be charged another 2 for the new day was able to do this while standing think the both phones passed the test at that point But the test had the second phase Due to another family emergency only two days after my wife returned from Japan it was my turn to visit Japan again for just one week It was the end of the year one of the busiest time for overseas travel into and out of Japan Due to the high demand initially had difficulty renting a mobile WiFi hotspot called several rental shops and none of them had a stock Finally after some adjustments one store was able to arrange a unit for me As mentioned earlier cannot rent a SIM for my non Japanese phone But neither rented a phone nor got a Skype number for this trip because those who need to contact me can do so by email or Skype used mainly my notebook PC occasionally my Nokia C6 01 for email and web browsing As for Skype used the notebook for video voice calls and the phone only for voice calls because the Skype app for Symbian does not support video Also with S
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