An Update on my Phone

I have good news, everyone!

MY PHONE IS WORKING AGAIN!!!!

IT'S ALIIIIIVE!! (sorry for the blurry pic. For some reason, whenever the flash is off on my camera, the resulting pix are blurry as hell, even when I'm holding the camera still)

As you may recall, the charging port in my Samsung Galaxy SIII phone is broken. I can plug in the micro USB cable, but the phone does not charge (the contacts in the port are either worn out or just plain broken). Unfortunately, I have not been able to procure a new phone with at least 8MP camera (which I need for the purpose of taking pix for blogging and personal use). While I have found cheap phones, their cameras are atrocious or they're severely underpowered (as has been the case with some Chinese phones I looked at online. They have 8 core CPUs, but only 0.5-1GB of RAM to power them. You need at least 2 GB of RAM to power a processor with that many cores). So, as is often the case with life in poverty: when you can't afford something, you go without it.

Since buying a new phone has been out of the question for some time, I consulted the oracle known as Google to see what would be involved in fixing the broken port. I found one video of a repair technician unsoldering the old port and then resoldering a new one in place, but my husband wasn't looking forward to the prospect of unsoldering my old port because he doesn't have the right tools for the job. And then, I came across a video of a guy who also had an SIII with a broken charging port, and he basically rigged an extra USB cord to act as a jumper cable to the wireless charging posts next to the phone's battery. It charged the phone by bypassing the charging port altogether. It was so simple, it blew my mind! Why hadn't I thought of this before? Then again, I hadn't realized my phone was capable of wireless charging in the first place...

The rig job. This video is responsible for resurrecting my phone

This morning, after waking up, my husband dutifully rigged up my USB jumper cable and upon securing it with some solder, he replaced the back of the phone most of the way and taped the excess length around the back. Yes, my phone looks cheap and strange with a wire tail hanging off the side and tape on the back, BUT IT WORKS!! Poverty has made me stop giving a flying fuck about the way something looks so long as it's functional, however crude it might be.

After going though and clearing out months of updates and alerts from Facebook, Instagram, etc, I've finally gotten my phone back to where it should be. No more going though clunky third-party platforms to use Instagram (though Instagram is stupid for making their service app-exclusive precisely BECAUSE there are some cases where people who don't have mobile phones but would like to use the platform and can't because some Silicon Valley asshole doesn't want to put forth the time and effort to make a desktop-friendly version of Instagram that's as good as the app!).

Everything is up to date now

It's good to have a working cellphone again.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

I Need a New Phone

Good evening, dear readers.

Whoever coined the phrase "when it rains, it pours wasn't totally lying. It seems like everything is breaking at once and eating up whatever money we have tried to save!

Case in point-my cellphone. My handy Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone which I've owned for a little over 2 years, has reached the end of its useful life. The apps and major features still work, but the charging port is broken. It sucks that it had to end this way, especially since the first smartphone I ever owned died a death by broken charging port too, but two years of heavy use takes a toll on any device. In the last few weeks, I noticed that the battery was draining faster and charging itself was becoming a pain in the ass because even though I would plug the cable into the phone, the phone wasn't picking up the connection. I had to wobble the charger a bit before the connection was made, if it stayed at all. At first I thought it was just a shitty cable, but when the same problem started happening with a brand new cable, I knew something was up. My hubby then borrowed my phone for a call since I have unlimited minutes, and it wasn't registering the cable connection either when he plugged in the phone! It was now certain that my phone is living on short time.

Selfie while doing my hair. This is the end of my SIII

So now, I must look for a new phone. I checked to see how much the deductible for my phone insurance was, and it was $100. That's more than this SIII is worth! At that point, I knew it was time to explore my options.

I have just a few basic requirements when looking for a phone: a good camera (at least 8MP), support for an SD card, and a removable battery. Some nice features, though not mandatory, are a quad core processor and at least 1.5GB RAM. I really want to get the Samsung Galaxy S5 but since I refuse to pay the $400 Virgin Mobile is offering the phone for, I'm considering getting the HTC Desire 626s. My first smartphone was an HTC (it was a Thunderbolt) and it served me well despite being a colossal battery hog. I'm willing to give them a second go since HTC has had time to get their stuff together and improve their battery performance.

Next time we go to El Super to buy vegetables, I think I'll pop into the MetroPCS/Virgin Mobile store that's right next door and see what kind of deals they have on phones. I hope there are at least some working models so that I can check out the cameras and user interface. I'll even consider the iPhones, though I have objections to Apple for its proprietary software and high price. However, I do appreciate their big FU to the FBI when the agency tried to get them to put a backdoor into the San Bernadino shooter's phone because I do value my privacy.

Piss on Apple, free software forever! Pic found here

We'll see what comes of this. I don't mind going off my smartphone for a bit. I've done it once, and I can do it again

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!

The Defining Characteristics of A Good Prepaid Cell Phone Carrier

Greetings, dear readers!

My computer is almost back to normal! My hard drive was not on the fritz after all and it is now safely back in my computer again. Unfortunately, it's not all fixed because now my UEFI boot loader won't work without a stick (in non-Linux speak, this is the startup program that engages the operating system when I turn on the computer). If it's not one thing that's fucked up, it's something else. Is this the price I pay for leaving Windows and opting for a version of Linux where I control every damn aspect of the software? Maybe. But, like ads on websites, it's just another cost of doing business. Maybe I should have made my husband give me a more user friendly distro of Linux that's a bit more automated... But on the other hand, my function keys and number pad on the keyboard all work! It's been over a year since they could because an update severely screwed up some configurations in my keyboard.

Soon, this bullshit will be done with and I can resume blogging regularly again!

Anyway, on to Day 16 of the 21 day blog challenge. This prompt called for a description of some good product or service that could be of use to you. In light of my technological woes of late, I figured this would be a good time to discuss a service that has been of use to me as a low income individual: prepaid cellphone service.

Having worked in a call center that handled customer service for Verizon Wireless, I learned a few things about what makes a cell phone service good as opposed to expensive. I will share what I learned below. I hated working in the call center, but it wasn't a total waste of time.

The big thing for me was a carrier which offered a phone with good camera resolution (at least 8MP) so that I could take pictures, especially of my cat, Pest, in his bathtub domain...

• No long term commitments!
• When I was looking to get a smartphone, I knew right off I was not going to go with a company that made me sign a contract to get a phone. Being a low income individual, my financial situation can change on a dime and suddenly that monthly cell phone bill can become overwhelming. Termination fees are quite hefty, but so are device payment agreements and just about every major carrier has fees that it uses to gouge customers for making changes on their accounts. Basically, I was looking for a service where I could get a decent phone for a decent price, but if I couldn't afford my bill for a month or so, I could finish out the billing cycle and the charges wouldn't roll over into the next month. I didn't mind going out of service for a while, I just didn't want to owe a cell phone company alot of money. A good phone service will let you go offline if your situation requires, and come back on again when needed without fees or penalties.
• Decent variety of phones with desirable features
• The big hangup that alot of people, myself included, have with prepaid phone service is that while the phones don't cost much, they lack many desirable features like high-pixel cameras or durability and are hard to shop for accessories. In my case, I wanted a phone with a good camera as I take lots of pictures, and a well known model so that accessories like cases and screen protectors wouldn't be hard to find (I wound up settling on a Samsung Galaxy SIII). A good phone service will have phones with models you recognize and with features you want.
• Flexible plans and features
• Since I rarely talk on the phone, but text and surf the net alot, I was looking for plans where I didn't have many minutes, but had unlimited messaging and data. This actually proved to be the most challenging part of my search for a decent prepaid phone service because just about all the carriers I looked at included unlimited minutes, which in turn, jacked the price of the plan up! I eventually found one that gave me a set amount of minutes each month with unlimited texting and data, just like I asked. There were other plans which included unlimited minutes, but also some which restricted data usage to just WiFi. My carrier also listed some extra features, like device insurance or hotspot, which carried monthly charges, but there were plenty of free features too, like caller ID, unlimited streaming music and international messaging. A good prepaid cellphone service gives you plenty of useful free features, and for features you must pay for, the monthly charge isn't outrageous.
• Coverage where you need it
• This goes without saying, but a good prepaid cellphone carrier has service coverage in your area.
• Unlimited data is included
• It may seem like a rather frivolous characteristic, but since most of our daily activities are moving online and given the proliferation of apps for just about everything under the sun, cellular data is becoming a more crucial aspect of our phone's functionality. Many carriers offer a set amount of data, and then charge overages when the user uses more than their allotted amount. Others do away with limits, but throttle the cellular speed after a certain amount of data is used. Do examine your usage habits, as well as the availability of WiFi spots you can connect to, to determine how much data you will use. Generally speaking, a good prepaid carrier has unlimited data, but throttles the speed after a high level of use. It's better to be slow after 4GB than to be hit with monster overage charges.
• Offer good customer perks
• See if the carrier offers perks to customers, like special plans or discounts off of devices. My carrier upgraded me to unlimited minutes for the same price as my old set minute plan, but kept my data level and messaging the same. They did that as a courtesy because I've been a customer for so long. It was notable because of the plans they had available, my data level was not offered anymore. I occasionally get a free month of service from time to time too. A good prepaid cellphone company will have plenty of perks to reward customers who've been with them for a while.

Can you think of anything else I should add to this list? Write them in the comments below.

Thank you for reading this post and please don't forget to share, comment, and subscribe!