Smartphone Upgrade

Some background.
I got a Samsung Galaxy Y-Pro Duos in Sept 2012.
In May 2013, I won a new phone by cracking a cipher.
—–
After several delays (the friend who was giving away the phone lives outside Kenya) I finally collected the new phone from our mutual friend George (of Half-Marathon fame). It was a Samsung Galaxy SIII.

After getting home and taking a few pictures, I opened the box, looked at the quick start guide and opened the phone to put in my SIM Card.

Alas! My SIM card did not fit. The quick start guide had said that the phone takes a microSIM card only. What to do, what to do? I Googled and found that you can cut the SIM card yourself. Or buy a SIM cutter on EBay. I called my wife to ask her to pass by a phone shop and ask them if they cut SIM cards to microSIMs. She said she would call a friend who also has/had an SIII and find out what she had sone about SIM cards. She said the friend got hers cut at a Safaricom shop. Another friend also said they got their SIM card cut for them for 100/-.

After watching a video and reading a few articles that gave the dimensions of a microSIM, I went ahead and cut the SIM card myself. After a few attempts and further trimming, I successfully slid (shoved?) it into the new phone. Yay!
I switched on the phone and ‘No SIM card,’ it said.
Tried again. No SIM card. Pushed it further in.
No SIM Card…
Sigh!
Looks like I will have to wait for tomorrow after all.

I put the SIM card back in the Y Pro and got varying results as I moved it from one SIM card slot to the other – sometimes the phone would ‘see’ it, sometimes it would not.

Transfer of contacts.
I finally got the YPro to see the SIM card. I copied all the contacts that were on the SIM card to the phone.
I Googled again and found that there were software applications that allow you to easily transfer stuff from one phone to another. Having once downloaded Samsung’s own Kies software, I tried installing it on my computer to transfer via my phone. The installation could not continue because the computer did not have an Internet connection. Bah.

Then I remembered seeing ‘Send Namecard via’ on the Y Pro.
I went to it and saw that one of the options was via Bluetooth. What’s more, there was an option for Select All! I did not need to send the contacts one by one.

I connected the two phones via Bluetooth, shared the contacts and voila! All the contacts were transferred! I had feared that it would take a while since I was transferring many contacts (over 400, I think), but it took only a few seconds.

I got a microSIM and an adapter from Safaricom for KShs 100/-, I think. The adapter is to be used if I want to use the microSIM with a phone that takes the larger, regular-sized SIM cards.

160MB to 16GB
The SIII has 16GB memory, while the YPro has 160MB (excluding the memory card that some apps do not use). That is 100 times as much space! No more warnings that I am running out of space. No more having to choose which apps to delete to install a new one. Now more having to uninstall and reinstall apps just to get an updated version (Updates used to fail because of insufficient space). Naturally, I was elated!

Some things I was now able to enjoy:
I installed Handcent SMS

• allows you to attach a contact as plain text not business card
• has the option to delay sending a message lest you spot an error or decide you are being rude and want to rephrase

Calendar

• I liked that you could set a repeating event to something like ‘Every third Sunday’ instead of the calendar picking the same date every month
• It also offers customised reminder time, instead of forcing you to select from predetermined options

Tells % of battery charge remaining
The Y Pro Duos would only tell you the percentage when charging.

Cover
Now, I wanted a cover for the new phone.

Phone shop at Karen
Flip cover – KShs 2,500/=
Base cover – 1,000/= (the kind that covers only the back and sides of the phone)

Phone shop inside Nakumatt Karen
Flip – 2,500/=
Base – out of stock

Bright Technologies, Kimathi Avenue
Flip – 2,500/=

Moi Avenue near the Nation Couriers office
Flip – 1,500/=
Base – 700/=

Discount? 1,200/=
Of course I took the cover.

How much to put protective film on the face of the phone?
200/-
There was another client present who was lamenting about bubbles on the film that had been put for him. It was being redone for him. I asked if I would get a well-done job.
The shop guy offered to put the film put for free!
So I got a flip cover and film for 1,200/- only!

Read Full Post »

Crack The Code

On his birthday last year (2013), a friend of mine posted a cipher in a group to which I belong. He said whoever cracks it would get a prize worth a bundle.

The cipher was:

Ism mgyc ksg g Gcwmo 4 Ougcaemsgc! Cugyi ———@augyi.esu osc ismc eccocga

(I have replaced his email address (which was known to me) with ‘———‘)

He said: The only clue is this: the letters used on fast-forward buttons on old tape recorders.
1. How old am I?
2. Museveni, a third.

Then he said we would need a tool to crack the cipher.

I Googled cipher tools and eventually landed on:

http://www.simonsingh.net/The_Black_Chamber/substitutioncrackingtool.html

This changed the code to:

Ism zglc kst g Tcjmo 4 Ougpnrzstc! Cugyv ———@augyv.esu bsp ismp rpcoctn

LOm mAIE kOA A AEwmo 4 OMAEGCmOAE! EMAIL ———@GMAIL.COM oOE LOmE CEEoEAG

LO* *AIE *OA A AE*** 4 *MAEGC*OAE EMAIL ———@GMAIL.COM *OE LO*E CEE*EAG

LO* *A*E *O* A *E***  *MA****O*E EMAI* ———GMAI*COM *O* LO** **E*E**

YOU HAVE WON A NEXUS 4 SMArtPHONE EMAIL ———@GMAILCOM fOr YOUr PrESENt

Photo http://www.phonearena.com

Yup! I won a Nexus 4 smartphone! Beating out a number of other competitors who were trying to crack the code. (One friend cracked it in seconds and was barred from participating).

Read Full Post »

067 – Hustle

Someone on Facebook said something similar to the story narrated below happened to him.
—————
Ken joined the queue for the bus at Ambassadeur bus stop. Nowadays, there were few incidents of grab-and-run phone theft, so he pulled his smartphone out of his pocket and went to Facebook.
Ken was being entertained by the various posts and comments by his friends when an old lady approached him and said “Excuse me. Sorry to disturb you, but I have just arrived from Nakuru and I cannot see my son who was to pick me. I do not have a phone. Can we use yours to call him?”
“Sure. You have his number?”
“Yes.” She handed him a piece of paper and Ken called the number that was written on it.
No answer.
“Let me try again” he said.
Still no answer.
Ken waited a few minutes and tried yet again, with the same result. By this time, the bus had come and Ken got in.

Image via CrunchBase

Being careful to ensure that his phone could not be snatched from the bus window, Ken went on Facebooking. He hoped that the old lady’s son would show up and pick her.
Some men talking loudly a few rows ahead of him caught his attention.
“Someone has picked my phone from my pocket!” said one of them.
“You had it when you go in?” asked his partner.
“Yes.”
“Then maybe it’s still in the bus. Let’s call it.”
The guy took his own phone and dialled a number.
Ken’s phone rang. He did not immediately grasp the significance of the phone ringing, but as the eyes of the passengers turned on him, he realised that he was now accused.
“This is my phone!” he said, panic setting in.
“Thief!” said the man who had said that his phone had been stolen. “You are not even smart enough to switch off the stolen phone!” He charged towards Ken.
A slap across his face made Ken painfully realise that he was in real danger.
“This is my phone” he repeated as other passengers got up and started closing in to get a piece of the action as well.
This is how people die, Ken thought. He recalled seeing pictures of lynch-mob victims.
The man who had slapped him grabbed Ken’s phone.
“Get that thief out of my vehicle” said the bus conductor. “I don’t want blood in here”
Ken wanted to pee. He wanted to do Number Two as well. He could easily get killed out there.

morguefile.com

“Wait!” said an authoritative voice.  The man who had spoken took Ken’s phone from Ken’s accuser.
“If this is your phone,” he said to the accuser, “let us switch it off and you switch it on and put in the PIN.”
Ken felt hope rising, as his accuser and his partner both began to shuffle backwards towards the bus door, uncertainty on their faces.
“Yes! Put the PIN we see!” echoed someone from somewhere in the bus.
The accuser’s partner reached the door and got out hastily. His friend followed closely, but someone landed a kick on his back that sent him face-first to the
pavement outside the bus.

“Those are scam artists,” said Ken’s rescuer. “They ask you to call someone for them, and they get your number that way. Then they follow you and claim their phone has been stolen. They say they want to call the stolen phone and then call your number and take your phone, with others actually helping them!”
“Yes” said Ken. “An old lady asked me to call her son for her just before I got onto this bus.”

Related articles

• Thief exposes identity after stealing woman’s iPhone (pix11.com)

Read Full Post »