I’ve
come under a lot of pressure for the fact that I’ve yet to step up to a
smartphone. Ironically, I advise people to join the “smart” crowd by upgrading from
a Blackberry to a Apple iPhone or Google Android smartphone as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “How
to transfer Phone Contacts and Data from your Blackberry to your Apple iPhone
or Google Android smartphone or Tablet”.
Back
when I was at C&W (2001 to 2004) as a Network Maintenance Technician based
on my work experience plainly laid out in my Engineering
Resume and Diploma and Degree
qualifications, I was being pressured by peers to buy a Blackberry. I
resisted and in the process, during an interview with Nurse Gunning back in the
Fourth Quarter of 2003, I gave away the idea for what later became the Apple
iPhone.
Fast
forward to 2014 and now smartphone prices are falling from the sky. Both the
JA$7999 Digicel DL700 and JA$3999 LIME’s Huawei Ascend Y330 are available as
I’d pointed out in my blog article
entitled “JA$3999
Huawei Ascend Y330 vs JA$7599 Digicel DL700 this Summer of 2014 - Waggonists
Transfer Form not Required to get new smartphone”.
Yet
I STILL have no intention of buying one of these power hungry contraptions, as
I’m not that into smartphones. Maybe I’m too old-fashioned you might opine. But
truth be told, that’s not the reason. Clearly I do manage to keep up with the
Technology as it changes.
Heck
I’ve even predicted future smartphone trends among American Teenagers (ages 13
to 17), who see toting a smartphone and dining out as the new Status symbol and
way more important than having brand name clothes as noted in my blog article entitled
“Analyst
Piper Jaffery says Teenagers more into Gadgets and Dining out than Brand-name
Clothing – Have it Your way with a Sapphire Screen Apple iPhone”.
So
why is that? Well, to all my readers who were curious, I’ll explain it in this
short article with a hint of advice at the end.
Smartphones are
overrated – Apple goes from Gold to Silver as smartphones become Bling
First,
albeit I did indeed suggest the first concepts for the Apple iPhone, I’m
unimpressed with where we’ve reached with them. Apple has, since 2012, in a
desperate bid to keep the product from faltering, begun to “bling” out the
Apple iPhone with Precious Metals and other exotic materials.
The
Apple iPhone 5S launched with an option for a Gold Colour and a polycarbonate
(read “plastic”) companion in the form of the Apple iPhone 5C as reported in my
blog article
entitled “Apple
has launched the Apple iPhone 5S and 5C on Tuesday September 10th 2013 - Apple
iPhone Strategy is to Go Global to beat Samsung”.
Apparently
the polycarbonate Apple iPhone 5C was an attempt to sell off unsold units of
the Apple iPhone 5. This began to backfire quite early though in September 2013
as noted in my blog
article entitled “Localytics
Stats suggest preference for Silver and Gold Apple iPhone 5S over polycarbonate
Apple iPhone 5C - Plastic vs Metallic battle of Telecom Customer Preferences”,
at which point it became clear to analysts and Americans that the Apple iPhone
was having problems, as their five year run from 2007 had come to an end.
 |
Now
fast-forward to the present in June 2014. The Apple iPhone 6 is now expected to
launch on Tuesday September 9th 2014, based on the fact that the
Apple iPhone 5S and Apple iPhone 5C went on sale at Wal-Mart as pointed out in my
blog article
entitled “WalMart
Sale on Apple iPhone 5S and 5C - Apple iPhone 6 expected in September 2014 and
is worth its weight in Gold and Sapphires”.
With
unbreakable Sapphire now covering the entire face of the Apple iPhone and not
just the Touch ID fingerprint sensor, many Americans are excited at the
prospect of owning a smartphone that not only unscratchable but made of a
semi-precious gemstone.
Who
knows, many ponder, maybe Samsung might respond with a Samsung Galaxy S6 made
with a Diamond Screen, seeing as the Samsung Galaxy S5 is just the S4 but with
better plastic clothing as noted in my blog article entitled
“Introducing
the Samsung Galaxy S5 – 16 Megapixel Camera with Fingerprint Scanner and
Fitness Tracker is Improved Fun Experience in a better Business Suit”.
The Elephants in the
Room - Poor Battery Life, Child Safety Issues and Loss of Location Privacy
And
yet, in this entire furore in the smartphone world that’s trying to talk up the
idea of sharper, bigger screens, no one is talking about improving the
lackluster Battery life of these smartphones.
Most
smartphones STILL can’t survive the day without a regular recharge, forcing
their owners to pony up extra money to buy a Portable Battery Recharger as
listed in my Geezam blog article entitled
“How
to extend your smartphone’s battery Life with a Portable Battery Charger”.
 |
Fortunately, I’ve pretty much fixed
that after doing a set of interviews on Nationwide News 90 FM, located at 27
Mannings Hill Road and home of Miss Kitty. During those two (2) interviews on
Friday May 2nd 2014 and Friday June 11th 2014 at 9:30am I
was interviewed on the show Technology Now program by host Vernon Derby on the
topic of securing your Tablet and smartphone from your children.
Later, I detailed the information
that I gave away in my blog article
entitled “How
to Lock down your Child’s Tablet or smartphone and Apps to Block, Protect and
Notify you of your Child’s whereabouts Online - Defense Against the Dark Arts”
specifically on how to lock down your Tablet and smartphone. So really, it comes down to the parent
getting hip with the technology and not leaving it to children, thinking that
it’s for them as you should know about it too.
But it’s the last issue that’s got
me the most worried. These smartphones come with GPS built in and many of the
latest apps use GPS Location to provide their services, even blocking you from
using it if it detects you are NOT in the US of A.
They can also track your every move…..and
that has me worried, dear reader. So NO smartphone for me, thank you!
Smartphones
and Location Privacy - How to disable Location Services on Android and iOS
Fortunately, there’s a
way you can disable the Location Services in your smartphone, at least most of
it according to the article “Don't
Let Stalkers, Abusers and Creeps Track Your Phone's Location”, published 7/30/2014
@ 2:28AM by Larry Magid, Forbes:
For Apple iOS:
1. Go
to Settings
2. Then
select Privacy
3. Then
select Location Services
4. Touch
or swipe the green location services slider to turn location services off
5. Touch
or swipe below the general location setting of location specific apps to turn
off location awareness
This procedure
also deletes the Location History for those Apps for the Apple iPhone. If it's
not available, you might want to delete that App. A similar procedure exists
for the Google Android:
1. Go
to Settings
2. Scroll
down until you see Location
3. Select
General
4. Select
Location
5. Slide
the Slider from ON to OFF
To delete the
Location History for Google Android smartphones, which is a lot like the Search
History in a Browser, the following procedure comes in handy:
1. Go
to the App Menu
2. Open
Google Settings
3. Select Touch
Location then Location History
for smartphones and Tablets running Android 4.3 or lower
4. Select Account
History then Google Location History
then Location History for
smartphones and Tablets running Android 4.4 or lower
5. Touch
Delete Location History at the
bottom of the screen.
6. Read
the dialog box that appears
7. Check
the box next to “I understand and want to delete,”
8. Touch
Delete
To delete
specific location history will require that you log into your Google Account
and go to Google’s
Location History website. Then meticulously go through and selectively
delete individual locations, locations by date, or your entire location
history.
That’s it! You need to just be aware of
what apps you download and install and don’t trust anyone with your smartphone.
They could install apps on your smartphone or change setting in your smartphone
to make you trackable.
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