Mobile Phones

[Tripps]

Definitely sure there is no charge unless you make a call. Nothing for the Bluetooth connection.
I managed to get mine going - by the usual method of playing about with it till it worked. All quite intuitive. Good luck. . .

[Big Kev]

You're right, you will only be charged for any calls you make. The bluetooth is just a wireless connection between the phone and the car, not too different to having headphones and a microphone plugged into it.

Obviously there is a bit more involved, voice activated dialling etc but we won't go there yet

[Pluggy]

The bluetooth connection iis free, its nothing to do with the phones mobile connection. if you make a call its just the 1p a minute. irrespective of whether tho use it on the phone directly or via bluetooth.

[plaques]

Thanks Pluggy. I know Bluetooth is just a short range wireless connection from phone to something else, in this case the car. therefore no charge involving 1p. But in my fuddled thinking I had it in mind that the phone would have to search out a new connection as the car moved and somehow this searching became part of the bill. I quite understand that if the phone was streaming a film etc while on the move this would have to be paid for at the going rate. Some day I may understand it better but everything is a bit vague at the moment.

[Whyperion]

Anyone else got an email from BT (assuming you have a BT Landline). We are retiring your calling plan, from Sept you have a new one, it costs £4.50 a month more, but you get inclusive calls to mobiles in the UK at no timed charge. If you dont need this you can stay on your unlimited plan price, but it is now 700 ,mins per month, to landlines and mobiles.

I dont know if that is good or bad mum had a £5 mobile with nigh unlimited mobile to mobile calls if she needed to call me.

[PanBiker]

Bluetooth as already has been said is purely the connection between the phone and your in car entertainment system. It will use the output to amplify the signal etc. Simply a matter of enabling Bluetooth on the phone which is quite easy from the top pull down menu and pairing it with the car system. It should remember the settings once successfully paired.

As Kev says, we'll not go into the VOX settings yet but that will allow hands free operation of the mobile. Get it paired to the car audio first.

Bluetooth itself is a rather dirty short range RF transmission mode which uses a range of frequencies simultaneously to make the connection. It works well though hence it's universal acceptance for short range connections.

[Tripps]

I've not had a lot of success with it. Some devices work whilst others don't. Checked it out on wiki - I smiled when I saw this bit. When the wider woke world gets to hear about it then surely it will have to be banned - or thrown in the River Severn?

"The master chooses which slave device to address; typically, it switches rapidly from one device to another in a round-robin fashion. Since it is the master that chooses which slave to address, whereas a slave is (in theory) supposed to listen in each receive slot, being a master is a lighter burden than being a slave. Being a master of seven slaves is possible; being a slave of more than one master is possible."

It's late. . .

[Stanley]

The master and slave cylinders on hydraulic systems will need some attention as well.

[plaques]

"The master chooses which slave device to address; typically, it switches rapidly from one device to another in a round-robin fashion. Since it is the master that chooses which slave to address, whereas a slave is (in theory) supposed to listen in each receive slot, being a master is a lighter burden than being a slave. Being a master of seven slaves is possible; being a slave of more than one master is possible."

Well if Peter sat next to Jack with the blue coat who was opposite Fred who was sitting next to Jane ..... The answer is 42 or in my case 'a Lemon'.

[PanBiker]

, Meethinks some are going off on a tangent here and over complicating matters. Actually Bluetooth has no Master and Slave relationship, only getting together in "pairing mode" a bit more akin to a friendly cuddle. You tend to remember your friends who give good cuddles as well.

Easy, peasy, get in car, turn radio/stereo on. find the Bluetooth settings and put in in paring mode. Turn on Bluetooth on the phone then go to it's settings and you should see the car audio system in the list, choose it and that's it, sorted. The phone should remember the device so you should just be able to enable the Bluetooth service on on the phone when you want to use it in the car.

Depending on how smart the Bluetooth integration is on your car radio and how old the car is. It may well have a microphone already installed in the infrastructure of the car. if so it will use this as opposed to the mic on the phone.

[Tizer]

I smiled when I saw this bit. When the wider woke world gets to hear about it then surely it will have to be banned - or thrown in the River Severn?

Your `thrown in the River Severn' had me puzzled for a few moments, then it clicked. They'd have had to throw Colston a long way to put him in the Severn. It was easier to just dump him in the dock, which is on the Avon!

[Tripps]

`thrown in the River Severn' had me puzzled for a few moments

I said it was late.

[Stanley]

David, I never do anything when it's late so my excuse is always 'senior moment'. That seems to mollify most people.

[Pluggy]

A tad off topic but it is Mobile phone related. I got a Ring Video doorbell https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/smart-tec ... 6-pdt.html given. Pretty swish still as new in its box with all the bumf. As with all such tat, you need to install yet another app on your phone so it can spy and sent your details to god knows where. It took a long time and then started playing a video loop of an obviously American road full screen inviting you to create an account or log in. At that point I thought "its a f***ing doorbell do I need this crap ?" But I persevered. Asked which country I was in (after giving it your email address and sending you the inevitable link to continue.) it asked for my address which it duly found from the postcode. and then it comes up with "enter an address in the United states" and wouldn't go on. I back spaced and faffed about and eventually go past that and got to the setup. It enables the phones camera so you can point it at the barcode thingy stuck on the back of the ddorbell. It then announced it was akready registered and suggested contacting the owner so I could share it. I gave up and uninstalled the app and put the tat back in its box. Ok if I'd paid for it and it was unopened I probably wouldn't have this garbage, but I got to thinking why I;d been given this expensive gadget. It is obviously powered by an internal Lithium Ion battery and has a micro USB on the back to charge it. By all accounts it needs charging weekly or so. Now if you had an old AC powered doorbell that fed a low AC voltage running to the old push button on the door, it would charge itself from that. But I don't and I suspect the person who gave it to me didn't and they came to the same conclusion as I did - do I need this rod for my own back ? Removing the 2 security screws to take the device off the outside to plug it in inside for a few hours and then put it back ?

Having worked in the IT industry for the wrong side of 35 years I don't like way its all going. In the old days, you bought something and you owned it. Now you buy something , it owns you and spies on you for your trouble. Am I a Luddite ? Have I lived too long ? (at 62). Both ?.

I've got too much time on my hands...........

[Tripps]

I have a fairly similar digital dilemma. I was persuaded by my nearest and dearest to install Whatsapp on my phone. "You can see all the family photos then, and we won't have to send them to you seperately " was the pitch.

I installed it and signed up. Nothing seemed to happen. Then today whilst having a play / learning how to use the phone, I came across many messages of good will and about twenty photos ready to view. Some of the ladies on there seemed a bit 'forward' I'd say - lots of red hearts and good wishes - and I don't even know who they are, but I think I have their phone numbers.

I tried to look at the photos, but they were fuzzy, and 'it' said I could only download them if I granted them full access to all my pictures and files already on the machine. Not a chance. . .

So in fighting off 'big data - ill probably annoy half my family who will have their (mistaken) impression that I'm a Luddite reinforced. What's a chap to do?

[Big Kev]

It is obviously powered by an internal Lithium Ion battery and has a micro USB on the back to charge it. By all accounts it needs charging weekly or so. Now if you had an old AC powered doorbell that fed a low AC voltage running to the old push button on the door, it would charge itself from that. But I don't and I suspect the person who gave it to me didn't and they came to the same conclusion as I did - do I need this rod for my own back ? Removing the 2 security screws to take the device off the outside to plug it in inside for a few hours and then put it back ?

I've got too much time on my hands...........

I have a Friedland 1amp transformer you can have if you want to play with it. It has 3 voltage outputs, 3, 5 and 8.

20200701_132750.jpg

[Stanley]

David, I have never had a message from anyone other than the numbers I have chosen on Whatsapp. There must be a way of achieving that.
Pluggy, obvious why the bell was given to you. Bin it, it offends one of your favourite principles: KISS.

[PanBiker]

I installed it and signed up. Nothing seemed to happen. Then today whilst having a play / learning how to use the phone, I came across many messages of good will and about twenty photos ready to view. Some of the ladies on there seemed a bit 'forward' I'd say - lots of red hearts and good wishes - and I don't even know who they are, but I think I have their phone numbers.

David, I have never had a message from anyone other than the numbers I have chosen on Whatsapp. There must be a way of achieving that.

Same here, WhatsApp installs "empty" so to speak until you link it with your chosen contacts.

You could be describing Instagram rather than WhatsApp. That particular platform does make suggestions of who you may want to be "friends" with.

[Tizer]

And Mrs Tiz has been free from unwanted Whatsapp messages...but I think when we installed it we had to carefully avoid clicking the attempts to get us to link it to her phone book. A bit like trying to avoid Amazon Prime.

[Pluggy]

I have a Friedland 1amp transformer you can have if you want to play with it. It has 3 voltage outputs, 3, 5 and 8.

20200701_132750.jpg

I did get it going after contacting its owner and she deregistered it. I'm trialling using its internal batteries and without committing my self to screwing it down. I have a suitable 12v AC power supply I found in the "stash" if it impresses me enough to warrant wiring it.

Yep, it transgresses KISS, but the encroaching disability says I can;t be too picky with principals.

[Big Kev]

I have a Friedland 1amp transformer you can have if you want to play with it. It has 3 voltage outputs, 3, 5 and 8.

20200701_132750.jpg

I did get it going after contacting its owner and she deregistered it. I'm trialling using its internal batteries and without committing my self to screwing it down. I have a suitable 12v AC power supply I found in the "stash" if it impresses me enough to warrant wiring it.

Yep, it transgresses KISS, but the encroaching disability says I can;t be too picky with principals.

[Tripps]

You could be describing Instagram rather than WhatsApp.

I began to wonder -but Whatsapp it is.

Anyway after speaking to my young lad he convinced me to be more trusting and grant them the permissions the asked for. Says loads of people do so without problems. So I did, and we did a test call which went well. It emerged that almost everyone on my contacts list was ahead of me, and already on the program. I then had the idea of putting it on my tablet to get a bigger picture. I did so, and all went well again. Two grand daughters playing the piano - lovely.

I later got to thinking (always dangerous) that if it connects by phone numbers - How does it find my tablet? I googled and seemed to be agreed that you can't do what I had just done.

Tested again this time with the phone totally switched off. It still worked!. Went back to the phone and couldn't get in - since it said I'd signed in on another device, and asked me to start again. I think I'll give up like a gentleman.

[PanBiker]

If you have the computer version of WhatsApp you need the phone on for it to work. It gives you that message each time you fire it up on the computer. It has to sync through your phone and WiFi.

You can also block contacts in the App it's in the settings on the computer and you can do the same on the phone from the selections after choosing the contact.

[Tripps]

If you have the computer version of WhatsApp you need the phone on for it to work

I have it on a tablet, and it worked fine without the phone being switched on. Just tried it again. However it disables the program on the phone after using the tablet. I need to register again if I want to use it on the phone again.

So - I wondered if it would use the 4g connection on the phone for data, if the wifi was switched off- as happens when I need to download email for example, when I'm out of range of my wifi. It doesn't - so just wifi is needed for a connection. I think perhaps the phone number is just to identify the account? The Sim card certainly does not seem to be part of the functionality of a call.

My lad tells me there is a new version called Whattsapp web or similar, which allows synchronisation between a tablet and a phone. I'll go and have a look at that.
He's pleased to find he can use his tablet - as the picture is bigger and better. :smile

[PanBiker]

I use standard WhatsApp on my Laptop which does require the phone to be on. WhatsApp Web is a version which runs in a browser window.