Old man, new phone

[toprob]

Since New Year I've just been letting my beard grow, so now I have a big white bushy thing, which makes me look like the old man that I am becoming. The reaction I get is priceless, and shop staff really try and take care of me, so there's that. I expect someone soon to offer me a chair in a shop..
Anyway, today I finally got around to replacing my Windows phone -- which stops receiving support this year --- with an Android thing. This is my first experience ever with Android, and after setting it up I feel that I've sold my soul to Google.
So far, so good, but I already really miss my old one, I find myself reaching for it to time my lunch in the oven, but my easy-reach apps are just not there.... it'll take me a while to get it sorted, I guess.
One thing I love, and one of the reasons to upgrade -- Chromecast support. Now I can sit in front of my big screen, beer in one hand and Netflix in the other. Aah, what more could I want?
Apparently it has a FM radio -- I remember the days when phones had FM radios, those were the good old days. When I spent 3 months in hospital 10 years ago the only entertainment I had was FM radio. Now, of course, I only ever use Spotify, so that was the first app I installed today. I just need to set up my ringtone, I've had the same one for 15 years, Annie Crummer singing 'State of Grace', which starts with 'Kiaora!' If I don't put that on this one, I won't know it's my phone.

[NZ255]

I gave up my windows phone Lumia 920 and replaced it with an iPhone 6 in Dec 2014.
Still going great after a $50 battery replacement.
Next phone might be an Android something but I’ll see how long this lasts.

[chopper_nut]

I got so fed up with Apple and got a Galaxy Note 8 when I was in the US a few months back. Great phone, never going back to Apple.

[toprob]

I've never had a flash phone, and I never will. I had a budget of $350 this time around, and ended up spending $250. All it needs to do is let my kids ring me, listen to music, cast stuff to the TV, and let me look after customers when I'm on the road. (I'm heading the Christchurch later in the week, and my old phone has started to struggle while travelling.)
So my only requirements this time around was more than 2GB RAM, I went for 3. I know all the good phones have 8+...
Still, it is a lot zippier than the old Microsoft phone, I'm pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get it set up, I've helped elderly relatives with Android phones before, and they always seems awkward to use, but when you set it up yourself from scratch it begins to make sense. Most of the ones I've seen seem laden with rubbish.
I'll see how good a job it does waking me up tomorrow morning:)

[toprob]

After a week, my phone is still on probation. So is the beard.
I joked that sooner or later someone in a shop would offer me a chair, and that was definitely sooner. It was all amusing, until it wasn't. I was gonna rush home from Christchurch and shave it off, but I'm not 100% decided. Maybe I AM as old as people see me.
The phone has been both good and bad, it did 'forget' my email account when I was away, and nothing I could do would bring it back. I had to come home early just to make sure support issues were dealt with. Even now that I'm home, I can't get the phone to connect to my mail server, whichever app I use. I can access it in a browser on my phone, but that's not the same as a gentle buzz when an email comes through.... It is probably something I'm doing wrong, but the first time around I set it up in 2 different apps without any issues. Maybe the modern world has finally left me behind.

[NZ255]

What mail service? Or is it hosted by your isp/hosting company

[toprob]

Yeah, for the Windowlight domain I use shared hosting. I'm still able to access my email on every other device -- my old phone, my PC, my tablet -- but the new phone just don't connect. It did last week, it doesn't now. Using Outlook for Android, last week I just gave it my login, password and server name, and it found it automatically. The android app needs ports etc, but those have never been a problem, I know all those.
At the moment I'm just forgetting it, and hoping it will sort itself out when I next go away:) Or I'll have to remember to take the tablet. (Not that tablet, the Windows tablet.)

[toprob]

Ok, email problems solved... I tried another windowlight email account, and that worked, so by a process of elimination, it had to be my password. This I was copy/pasting from my password manager's secure notes, but somehow it had ended up with extra spaces. Remove them, all's well. So technology is back in my good books.