Uuuurrrrgh. Summer cold, make me feel craaaap.

[bunn]

The sun is out, the weather is beautiful, and I spent last night alternately shivering cold under a huge heap of blankets, then throwing all the blankets off. And aching.  And sneezing.  Should be working but brain refuses to engage first gear and keeps going back to sleep.  (It just took me 5 attempts to spell 'first'.)

I keep meaning to post about this smartphone.I finally caved to marketing and general ambient pressure and bought a Nexus 4.   A couple of months on, I'm not entirely sure it was a good idea.    It's a nice enough little computer.  A bit confusing getting to the basic phone features, but I'm getting used to those and it is quite handy to have an Android device right there for website testing purposes rather than relying on emulators & borrowings.    It also has a quite reasonable built-in camera, although of course it's not much good in low light and has limited functionality compared with my proper camera.

BUT- the technology of mobile internet is still at odds with my location.  There is pretty much nowhere that I go regularly that actually has a connection (to be honest, phone call signal is pretty dodgy, so I suppose I should have expected this).   I have managed to use my phone in a meeting to check website traffic stats, but even that was not straightforward (I had to find the person in the building who had the One True Password for the wifi - passing many people who disclaimed all knowledge, and bustling people who said 'yes I have the wifi password' and bustled on without pausing to reveal what it was -  and have it handed to me on a yellow sticky).

And OK, the thing is neat enough, but typing on it is so much slower than on a proper keyboard, and you can only get so much text onto a little screen.  Given that it only seems to get an internet connection in places where I could get one on my laptop anyway, I now wonder why I didn't just take my laptop to those places.   This is not a complaint I see from other people, so maybe it's just me living in the back of beyond.  Although I did try to get a signal in Launceston the other day, which is an actual town, and no joy. Maybe internet doesn't travel through granite very well.

Comments

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

It's not just you; and connections are patchier than one might expect. One can be in a small town centre i the Cotswolds packed with high-profile residents and still not receive any data signal...

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I did check the coverage map, but it seems to be on the optimistic side.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

My parents (and, when they were with us, my grandparents) have no mobile signal, and never have had one. (They also have poor radio and TV reception, and cr*p broadband). They were greatly amused when, on a holiday on a remote Greek island, my father received a call almost as soon as they arrived.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

We live just far enough up the valley side to have connectivity. People Down There live without any of that stuff. ;-D

[huinare.livejournal.com]

Ugh, summer colds, no fun. Feel better soon!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Oh, and please get well soon!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I gave up today and went to bed, meaning that I just about had energy for a short walk and a picnic by the river. :-)

[chainmailmaiden]

Sorry to hear you're feeling crap. I had a summer cold which laid me low all weekend, Linds disapproved as I kept sneezing her off my lap :-( Shame for me too as she made a nice fuzzy hotwater bottle :-)

I prefer typing on a keyboard rather than a touch screen too. It's far easier & quicker using keys I find. That's why I'm still a big fan of the very unfashionable Blackberry. Sod fashions, it actually allows me to do what I want to do which is email & text.

Hope you feel better soon.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I could live with not having a keyboard if there was connectivity... but connectivity seems to be in very short supply around here!

[sally_maria]

I think that getting decent data signal makes a big difference when you're using a smart phone - I agree about the keyboard for typing anything much longer than a tweet or FB status, but being able to check email, upload pictures I take straight from the phone and look up things like train times when I'm on the move have been very useful.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Those were the kinds of things I had in mind to do - but so far, I have not been anywhere where it has been possible. I thought I might check Google Maps while I was in Launceston the other day, but no.

I have a Vodafone sim and their coverage map is... optimistic at best!

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

Hope you feel better soon. Summer colds always seem so terribly unfair!