We all now rely too much on tech. It all goes wrong in the end. Or doesn’t work at all until you have discovered the simple trick to making it work.
Sometimes it comes flat-packed ‘for your convenience’, with cryptic assembly instructions, which – to cut through language barriers – is all pictures and no words. It’s only easy to erect when you have already done several of the same.
Most tech now is only easy to use when you already know how to use it.
And buying what’s right is only obvious after you’ve already bought what’s wrong.
Here are some easy-when-you-know-how tips and tricks, from articles (mostly) written for Sussex-based publisher Villages in Focus.
How to get text messages out of a phone
What broadband speed to you really need?
Smart and not-so-smart TVs
TVs used to be ‘dumb’ They connected to an aerial and pulled in TV signals. They also connected to a Set-Top Box, like a recorder or satellite receiver. Connection was originally by unreliable Scart leads and now by much better HDMI cables.
Modern STBs also offer computer/phone style software Apps to hook into online streaming services, like Netflix, Prime, Disney or iPlayer.
Meanwhile TVs have got Smart. They now often have their own computer/phone style software Apps built into the set’s electronics. The Apps get Netflix or iPlayer etc. when the TV is connected to the Internet.
All modern consumer electronics equipment is really just a computer, dressed up to look like a gadget. That’s why many faults on home electronics can be cured just be unplugging from the wall mains, waiting 10 seconds and plugging back in.
Like all computers, home electronic gadgets including Smart TVs need occasional ‘updating’ as the makers find and fix ‘bugs’ or beef up security, to stop data theft or prevent pirates copying Pay per View programmes.
Usually this happens automatically, either over the air or over an Internet broadband connection, often with an on-screen request for the owner to OK updating.
Not all Smart TVs get all online services. New services keep being launched and some Smart TV’s can’t be updated to get the latest. Some old services can’t be updated either. The service just stops working.
What then to do?
Check to see whether your STB recorder or satellite receiver can get the online service that your TV can’t. If not, your cheapest option will be to buy a ‘dongle’.
Dongles are little electronic sticks, usually costing under £50, that plug into the HDMI socket of a dumb or no-longer-very-smart TV. They are powered by a standard cellphone charger (usually with micro-USB plug) and they connect to the Internet by home Wi-Fi.
Not all dongles get all streaming services, so check what services you want and what services a dongle can deliver, before buying. Any halfway-to-competent sales person should know, or be able to find out. The Amazon Fire stick is often the best buy. Get the cheapest model unless you are interested in super-quality 4k pictures.
But note that a dongle can only be used with a TV set that has an HDMI socket. So, when buying a new TV always get one with as many HDMI sockets as possible; at least two and ideally three, one for a satellite receiver and/or recorder, one for a dongle and one for whatever else you one day find you need.
Pretty much all but the cheapest new TVs are now Smart. You can safely buy a Smart TV but not connect to the Internet, and use it just as a dumb TV.
But be prepared for all Smart TVs to eventually get dumber and need a dongle. It’s the way of the brave new electronics world.
How to get text messages out of a phone
Health services, GP surgeries, clinics and hospitals, are increasingly using cellphone SMS text messaging to communicate. This can be a pain in the neck.
Often the messages are from a ‘NoReply’ address so you can’t query or respond. If you try phoning the sender, you will very likely be sucked into an automated “Press 1 for confusion” switchboard, with horrid music on hold broken by announcements that you are “Number 42 in the queue” and parroted apologies which pretend there is a long wait only because you have selfishly phoned at a bad time.
The text message will usually contain a link to a web site which you then have to access with the phone’s tiddly keyboard and small screen that is all-too easily washed out by sunlight. Keying in passwords and answers to questions is tricky for anyone with stubby fingers. At the end of the obstacle course there is no easy way to save or print confirmations direct from the phone. You can’t refer back to the original message if the phone battery is flat. Or the phone is lost or stolen.
Add to that the fact that scammers are now routinely mass-sending fake texts with web site links that try to trick us into revealing personal data.
It would all be so much easier if the medical messages came by letter post or email for reading on a home computer. But snailmail is slow and increasingly unreliable. IT experts say (unconvincingly) that email is less secure that SMS text. So we are stuck with phone text.
What’s needed is a simple way to get text messages out of a fiddly phone and into a computer with solid keyboard, big screen, removable storage sticks and connection to a printer.
IT experts will rattle off clever ways of connecting a phone to a computer by USB lead or wireless network, after installing and learning to use extra software (e.g. KDE or Joplin).
Fortunately, there is a much simpler way.
Read the text message on your phone, as usual. Then long-press on the message to bring up a menu which offers the option to “Share” the message. Tap on Share and choose the Email option, or a messaging system such as WhatsApp or Telegram if you use them. This will then give you the opportunity to email (or message) the text to yourself. From then on, you will be able to read, print, save, copy or edit the text message on a computer.
This trick works with modern Android smartphones. I can personally vouch for this because I have done it myself.
A similar procedure allegedly works with iPhones. I say ‘allegedly’ because although I use an iPad and Mac laptop, and I know how owners love their iPhones, I happen to think that iPhonery is over-priced and cursed by too-rapid obsolescence. So I have never bought into the iPhone world. When I tried recently with two friends’ iPhones, the share-to-email trick stubbornly refused to work. Then a few days later a forwarded text mysteriously arrived by email. Go figure.
What broadband speed to you really need?
Some of us remember the bad old early days of email and the Internet, with ‘dial-up’ connection by ordinary phone line and burbling modem. Everything crawled, especially when web sites were cluttered with fancy pictures that took an age to load.
All that changed with DSL (Digital Subscriber Line), a fiendishly clever system of electronically packaging fast computer data so it can travel a mile or so from the local telephone exchange via the copper phone wires originally intended simply to carry low-fi speech.
DSL is the cheapest way to get broadband, with speeds starting at around 10 Mbps (Mega/Million bits per second) which is perfectly adequate for email, Googling and one person playing games or watching basic Netflix or Prime.
For faster speeds and bigger households, we need to pay more for a hybrid system. The signal travels very fast as light pulses down optical fibres to cabinets on street corners. Equipment inside the cabinet converts the light into electric signals that travel on as DSL, by copper phone lines. You get around 40 or 50 Mbps in the home
There are variations in speed depending on distance from the exchange and the price you pay.
The highest speeds are delivered – at higher prices – by Full Fire (Fibre to the Home or Fibre To The Premises). A fibre cable runs right into your house where a small box converts light pulses into electric signals.
Speeds are up to 1 Gigabit, a thousand Megabits per second. As one company proudly says, this lets you run a hundred devices, like Netflix boxes, at the same time. Great for big families in huge houses.
What’s not advertised is that if you send the signal round your home by Wi-FI (which most of us do) the speed is likely to drastically reduced. You are then paying extra for nothing extra.
One advantage of Full Fibre is also not much advertised – it lets you send information out of your home as fast as you can receive it. Great for people who work at home on graphics art, movies or music.
If you live in an area covered by Virgin, the basic service gives higher speeds than DSL or hybrid, because Virgin uses coaxial cable (like aerial cable) instead of phone wires.
What to do if you think you need more speed?
Google ‘speed test” and follow the simple instructions to check the actual speed you are getting from your existing supplier. Compare this with the speed promised, and complain if they don’t roughly match.
If you then think you really need more speed, shop around for a better deal when your current contract is up. Very likely, rather than lose a customer, your current provider will do you a good deal.
Speed of Help when things go wrong also matters. Some services have a bad reputation. So, ask neighbours and Google for user comments before committing.