Mobile Phones

[Big Kev]

Apart from the hands free connection for calls in the car I've not had the need for Bluetooth, I use a couple of Sonos speakers and a Sonos Connect to stream music around the house. It all connects to the wifi.

[PanBiker]

Indeed Kev, my daughter has a similar setup. No WiFi when we are camping though. It does handsfree on the paired mobile as well as it has a built in microphone, tried it from the land line yesterday, works very well, feedback echoes accepted for proximity of the test.

[Stanley]

I've had no problems hearing since I went on to the computer for R4 and got the sound bar for the TV. That's the extent of my concessions to deterioration!

[PanBiker]

Looks like the Lithium Ion (Lion) battery in my phone is on its way out. Noticed last week that it was only charging to 72% even on an overnight charge. It's down to 48% now so time for a replacement. It's not a drop in replacement and there is a note under the back cover that there are no user replaceable parts inside including the battery. I can get a genuine replacement for around £15.00 and replacing it involves removing about a dozen tiny torx screws, I'm fairly sure I can manage that, I even have the right miniature torx screwdriver for the job. Not ready to dump the phone yet which would be the norm for a lot of folk its only about six years old and still does everything I need. It has a slightly dodgy mini USB connector for I/O and charging so I might look to replacing that at the same time.

Just looked back in the thread and my phone is just about 4 years old, got it in Nov 2014 so definitely not drawer fodder yet.

[Tizer]

Perhaps this is what you should have Panbiker: Fairphone

[PanBiker]

For that price I can have three of mine and I can fix it anyway. I don't think a £15 battery in four years is bad.

[Stanley]

That post interests me. I have a question Ian. Is it possible that a phone can report 100% charged but still have a battery that doesn't last as well as a good one?

[PanBiker]

That used to be the case with previous types of battery chemistry Stanley. Nickel Cadmium (NiCads) and Nickel Metal Hydride types could both develop memory patterns through incorrect or irregular charging regimes, the former more than the latter. Lithium Iron batteries don't exhibit the same pitfalls in the main and are ideal for random charge cycles typical of their use in mobiles and other portable devices. With all types of battery chemistry the efficiency will deteriorate over time, so an older battery may well still charge to 100% but the charge may not last as long as when the battery was new.

I discovered something last night about my phone. I used a different lead to charge it to the one I normally use and it charged to 100%. A bit more testing to be done yet. Just powered it up and It's currently reporting 17 hours of charge. When the phone was new a 100% charge would give quite a bit more usage than that.

[Tizer]

Mrs Tiz had a strange mobile phone experience yesterday. We were out at the shops when her phone rang which is itself is unusual because we don't use the mobile phone much. She swiped the phone to take the call but did it the wrong way and it terminated. When she looked it showed a London number that we didn't recognise. The phone immediately rang again but it was then showing the call was from Manitoba, Canada. We don't know anyone there so she didn't take the call. Very odd!

[chinatyke]

Mrs Tiz had a strange mobile phone experience yesterday. We were out at the shops when her phone rang which is itself is unusual because we don't use the mobile phone much. She swiped the phone to take the call but did it the wrong way and it terminated. When she looked it showed a London number that we didn't recognise. The phone immediately rang again but it was then showing the call was from Manitoba, Canada. We don't know anyone there so she didn't take the call. Very odd!

That sounds like someone is using a VPN. My friend in The Philippines rings me and often it shows his call is originating from a different country. I've had UK, France, Australia, Taiwan and Korea recently. He usually asks me where he is today. I could use one here in China to get around the Great Firewall of China and gain access to sites like BBC, Facebook, Google etc but I choose to obey the law.

[Stanley]

My god, the little buggers are complicated! Beyond my pay grade. My defence is always ignore mobile phone calls, If it's someone genuine they will find me.....

[plaques]

Latest TalkTalk conflict. Our landline has gone down big style although the internet is still working.Tried the chat lines and went round in the normal automated circles. Finally we were advised to ring on the mobile to their service number which would be quicker. I had already seen this offer on their website. REf:
Alternatively, call us on 0345 172 0088.

Calls to this number are free from a TalkTalk landline or mobile. If you call from a non-TalkTalk line, you may be charged at the national rate.

Foolishly. I took them at their word. BUT 'TalkTalk landline or mobile' only means a TalkTalk mobile package not one from any other company.

How many people have fallen for this con? By the way, each time we called the number it switched off after about 2 seconds so that you automatically called again and again. Money down the drain. The suggestion was I should read the Community Chat which may explain this. What a load of Cr-p, Shall never recommend TalkTalk again.

[PanBiker]

When I rang them the other week, I contacted them first on the landline and because it was intermittent and subject to noise, they rang me back on my mobile (non Talk Talk) for the duration of the line test and the remainder of the tech support call and escalation to Open Reach for the fix.

[Big Kev]

When I rang them the other week, I contacted them first on the landline and because it was intermittent and subject to noise, they rang me back on my mobile (non Talk Talk) for the duration of the line test and the remainder of the tech support call and escalation to Open Reach for the fix.

I've had similar with Sky Broadband and phone in the past. I used the 'chat' facility and they called me back on my mobile (non Sky).

[plaques]

The call back from TalkTalk to your mobile is always free. They had offered to make a callback this evening ie: nearly 8 hours later which was not acceptable. The point that I was making was since it was their suggestion for me to call them to speed it up that this call to them should also be free.

[Stanley]

Sounds reasonable P. The bottom line is that in any case connected with service matters which are the direct responsibility of the responder all such calls should be free no matter how they are made. It is this penny pinching attitude towards possible revenue from complainants that causes the ill-feeling. I remember when the government whistleblower line for dobbing in non road tax cars was a premium cost line!

[Tizer]

The banks and retailers were supposed to be using 2nd Level Verification to protect us from scams but they largely abandoned it because it made the buying process slightly longer and they said customers were `put off' by the extra process. So why should this be any more acceptable? It'll take up more time than the 2nd Level Verification.
`Want to shop online? Best have a mobile signal' LINK

[Stanley]

"Further exemptions are also possible - if a retailer decides that your purchase is low risk, for example. In addition, if your bank can prove to the regulator that it has a good record on fraud, it can allow exemptions on payments worth up to about £450 (€500)."
I read the link and saw this which looks like a pretty enormous loophole.

[Big Kev]

Problems with O2 data services this morning BBC

[Stanley]

Amazing how great the repercussions are of the O2 outage. Some businesses have had to do a complete shut down. It brings home how ubiquitous mobile phones are as a business tool.
They said last night that services would be healed up by this morning. See this LINK, the BBC has reported it's up and running again.

[Big Kev]

I read somewhere that it was an expired security certificate. I feel for the IT team if it was...

[Sue]

I am no longer with O2. I do however use facebook and very often messenger, plus the scrabble game run by facebook.

There had been a global issue since Tuesday, with thousands of us logged out by facebook and unable to log back in. This is apparently affecting some peoples businesses. There has been no mention on the news or internet thus we have no idea what is happening. The rumour is it is a technical problem but many are worried that it has been hacked. Not everyone is affected, the rest of my families accounts all seem to work. The map on the downage website shows the issue is very widespread across the world with everyone having the same problem. Has anyone else got a problem

[Wendyf]

I can see your Facebook page as usual Sue. Nothing terrible happening there!

[Sue]

I can see your Facebook page as usual Sue. Nothing terrible happening there!

I wish I could! I am not allowed to log in, or change my password, there are all sorts of weird error messages and when I am sent a log in code it is the same one every time and has been for days and it does not work. Same story as everyone else who is affected

[Tizer]

It was to do with software provided by Ericsson...
`Earlier, Ericsson president Börje Ekholm gave more detail about the cause of the disruption. He said "an initial root cause analysis" had indicated that the "main issue was an expired certificate in the software versions installed with these customers". The company was carrying out "a complete and comprehensive root cause analysis", he added. LINK