Phone App dependency
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November 4, 2023 8:04 AM PDT
In this age of using the phone for everything there are some major pitfalls.
Around a year back I purchased a Ring doorbell, had to send it back as app not available for my older phone and I was certainly not prepared to purchase a new phone as well as the Ring doorbell.
I now find out today my alexa app no longer works on my phone, Amazon feel I need to buy a new phone.
There used to be a web page to access the alexa devices but even that has gone.
Pondering now what to do, I have four speakers and a screen with no future proof way of managing them.
Geffers
November 4, 2023 3:27 PM PDTGeffers G said: In this age of using the phone for everything there are some major pitfalls. Around a year back I purchased a Ring doorbell, had to send it back as app not available for my older phone and I was certainly not prepared to purchase a new phone as well as the Ring doorbell. I now find out today my alexa app no longer works on my phone, Amazon feel I need to buy a new phone. There used to be a web page to access the alexa devices but even that has gone. Pondering now what to do, I have four speakers and a screen with no future proof way of managing them. Geffers
That is a very frustrating predicament to be in, Geffers
and unfair that Alexa and Ring doorbell are limiting usage because of the age of your phone. I've been there though, actually going through it now with my iPad and my older Mac Notebook and not really sure if I want to replace them? I use an android phone, not an iPhone like the majority of users. I can see your challenge with Alexa too as you have to have Alexa-only devices, right?
We wanted to get a ring doorbell, but because of where our doorbell hardware is, we couldn't get it set up right. I just have a wildlife camera set up right now, not exactly facing outward on my sidewalk but at an angle to catch the wildlife activity we have. The camera seems to be picking up activity pretty well. November 4, 2023 5:32 PM PDTVideo technology nowadays is amazing, a friend has a camera in a birdbox and earlier in the year we actually saw live 6 blue **** hatch, grow and eventually leave the nest. Parents busy feeding them too.
Geffers
November 5, 2023 7:47 AM PSTVideo tech is amazing. Clever of your friend concealing a camera in a birdbox and recording the beginning of life of those birds and witnessing their whole journey. Life viewed in it's simplicity through a video, yet in reality viewing an animal's complete complex innate instinct built in their DNA to care for the young.
I can't believe how clear my wildlife camera is and how much activity it records. My camera clicks a photo when it tracks movement and then records it. We had to put the camera out because our neighborhood was getting trampled and damaged by a large sounder of wild pigs last fall. We thought they wouldn't find there way back, but they did. Massive drought from this summer creates the necessity for these pigs that normally live around a lake near us, to track along the creek that brings them to our neighborhood. Our property was severally damaged last year, another long story in of itself. About six weeks ago, the pigs found their way back to our front property and did some damage, but nothing like last year. So far, I have a resident coyote that tracks past my house about the same time every morning about 2am, and have recorded skunks, cats and opossums. I'm hoping to catch some pigs making trouble and I'd really like to see a bobcat come through too.
November 5, 2023 8:56 AM PSTYour wildlife cameras sound fascinating, my friend's birdbox was bought with camera so all designed to fit.
One great example of technology was about 3 years back I was driving back from having visited a relative in UK, I was speaking to my US friend via whatsapp and she was following my journey on a live map. I came across a road closure and diversion. Now she actually was able to view the map and directed me past the diversion and back to my route. How amazing was that, she in CA directing me in UK past a diversion.
The wonders of technology.
Was your property damage due to the pigs?
I've seen a Wily E coyote and a roadrunner in CA
Geffers
Geffers
This post was edited by Geffers G at November 5, 2023 8:57 AM PSTNovember 5, 2023 8:38 PM PSTThat's a pretty cool birdbox that your friend has. Love that it was designed and set up for watching birds in there natural habitats.
Great story how your friend in the US was able to get you out of a tight spot in the UK through whatsapp. Amazing tech and so grateful that live traffic apps and mapping apps work for those times where you need to divert away from traffic, road closures, traffic accidents or you're just plain lost. Our family uses Life360. We added that several years ago and have been very grateful at times when we needed to help each other out mostly, due to traffic or if we noticed our daughter was on the highway and was no longer moving, we could text her and make sure she's okay. One hundred percent of the time, it was traffic at a full stop.
Yes, our property was severely damaged out front and in the far back that's outside of our fence near the creek side. Our lawn was the worst of all of the homes in our neighborhood. Neighbors would drive by slowly and some would ask me about it if I was outside. I truly felt like our neighbors poured out their compassion for our damage. Part of the reason our front lawn was severe is because there was criminal mischief. Someone threw out corn across our lawn. Long story short, had made a number of reports to our sheriff as it was an unexpected find and we were puzzled why someone would do that? Aside from that, Texas Wildlife of our county was also involved with these pigs as it was a complex issue for a lot of us. These pigs were over 400 pounds.
When I have a little more time in the middle of the week, I'll post some pictures from my wildlife camera in a new thread and some of the pig damage from last year and a several weeks ago.
Wily E. Coyote and the roadrunner in CA...lol..
...yeah we have roadrunners here too. There are really little birds and run so fast. I've yet to capture one in a picture.
November 6, 2023 10:05 AM PSTCan you stream video from your wildlife cameras for live viewing? Most enable that nowadays then able to share live on Youtube or other similar platforms. Mind you, if yours are doubling up as security cameras maybe not suitable for live viewing.
You mentioned about the setup issue for a Ring doorbell, was at a wifi signal problem? There are ways round that with wifi extenders, trouble is, video depends on a decent signal and extenders can extend signal but weaken the bandwidth available. Can't beat a wired connection but, impractical in most cases.
Geffers
November 6, 2023 8:16 PM PSTYes, I can do live viewing but I'd have to take a look and see if I can live stream. That would be really fun to do that. I'll take a look at the directions and see, good idea.
Every morning when I get up, I actually connect through the wifi and can view live current activity and the activity from the night before, both photo's and video.
I think our issue with the doorbell was actually how the doorbell was positioned in the stone next to the door? I'll have to take a look tomorrow and maybe even take a picture, but it seems like that was an issue when we considered the ring doorbell? Could have been a signal problem too, it's been a few years since we were trying to set it up. Maybe time to revisit the ring doorbell, thanks for sharing your tech thoughts.
December 1, 2023 1:16 PM PSTGeffers G said: In this age of using the phone for everything there are some major pitfalls. Around a year back I purchased a Ring doorbell, had to send it back as app not available for my older phone and I was certainly not prepared to purchase a new phone as well as the Ring doorbell. I now find out today my alexa app no longer works on my phone, Amazon feel I need to buy a new phone. There used to be a web page to access the alexa devices but even that has gone. Pondering now what to do, I have four speakers and a screen with no future proof way of managing them. Geffers
It definitely seems difficult nowadays to keep one phone for an extended amount of time, without inevitably not being able to engage in certain apps, services, and games, due to the devices age. For example, even with my phone being about 2-3 years old, it takes three times the time it does my fiancé's phone (the same model as mine but 3 years newer), to load the same phone game. So it's only a matter of years before my phone, as good as it is, to not meet the minimum requirements for this or that in the future.
This post was edited by Lady X at December 1, 2023 1:16 PM PSTDecember 2, 2023 1:17 AM PSTLadyX said: It definitely seems difficult nowadays to keep one phone for an extended amount of time,
Probably newer model may have more RAM memory or maybe the older model has more apps installed. It is amazing how much memory everyday apps take up.
Sometimes a factory reset resolves a lot of issues, if some form of backup (admit mine is with Google) is saved most will automatically be there when backup installs, if not take a note of favourite apps and re install.
Oddly, my netpad is running same android image as my phone but the Amazon app works fine on that, might be due to fact phone is a pure android system whereas netpad android via Samsung operating system.
Geffers
This post was edited by Geffers G at December 2, 2023 1:20 AM PSTDecember 2, 2023 6:17 AM PSTBeing in the development field, I can comment on that end. It's difficult as development goes to keep producing software for older devices as newer tech has so many improvements - from security to privacy, to even use of ram more efficiently. So, from that end, it's hard to have different teams working on new and other teams keeping the old still working. Too expensive in the industry. It's also hard to find devs that want to work on old software vs newer tech stacks.
I feel your pain though. My iPhone 11 pro max has to be charged every day (software updates keep using more power), and apps tend to be slower as you all mentioned. On my iPad, I cannot play cookie run kingdom as it keeps crashing - and it is a fun little game that gives me a break from the reality of life.
December 2, 2023 7:44 AM PSTPengieTech said:
Being in the development field, I can comment on that end. It's difficult as development goes to keep producing software for older devices as newer tech has so many improvements - from security to privacy, to even use of ram more efficiently. So, from that end, it's hard to have different teams working on new and other teams keeping the old still working. Too expensive in the industry. It's also hard to find devs that want to work on old software vs newer tech stacks.
I feel your pain though. My iPhone 11 pro max has to be charged every day (software updates keep using more power), and apps tend to be slower as you all mentioned. On my iPad, I cannot play cookie run kingdom as it keeps crashing - and it is a fun little game that gives me a break from the reality of life.
Guess the reality is the money, more of it in new development.
That is one of the reasons I like Linux, some distros still support 32 bit. Some specifically aimed at older machines, but of course Linux is driven by unpaid volunteers.
I'm currently looking at a replacement for my 5/6 year old Moto G5 - oddly Motorola available, great specs and cheap but screen res is HD whereas my old one is FHD. Just wondering if my old eyes will notice much difference. My current phone still OK but a recent visit to US my 4G had erratic connections whereas same phone, same location, back in 2019 connection was excellent. I think in last few years much of US upgraded to 5G sso wondering if that was why my connections poor, current phone only 3G/4G
Geffers
This post was edited by Geffers G at December 2, 2023 7:45 AM PST