The convenience of the smartphone features I mentioned is for when you're NOT home. Not for when you're home. If you don't have a smartphone then you're not "under-using your technology features", the topic of this thread

If you do have a smartphone, you can insure an excellent connection at home by turning on its Wifi feature. In addition to that giving you a sure data connection, many/most smartphones, other than those from the low cost virtual carriers, will route telephone calls over Wifi if the cell signal is dodgy. You have to turn on that feature for it to work but it's available on both iPhones and on Android phones.

Even if you don't have such a phone, most of the major carriers will provide a "network extender" for home use - it's a device that functions like your own personal cell tower (though they're just the size of a router), the device broadcasts a cell signal for your use, the phone call gets routed over your internet connection. If you have a Sat internet connection, it won't work.

(How did the discussion of such a simple suggestion/observation get so convoluted?)

Was that a rhetorical question? it's hard to tell sometimes. But does it matter <-- that IS a rhetorical question, meaning I don't expect an answer.

It's very helpful to mention the WiFi calling feature available on a
smartphone. Some folks our age purchase a new phone and forget to activate the
feature, or don't realize it is a feature.

In areas with poor
cellular service, a phone hunting for a signal will drain a battery.
When that phone is WiFi enabled it won't be hunting for a signal. When
driving long distances, turn off WiFi so the phone isn't searching for a
connection.

There are over 250 million global hotspots. So it's easy to stay connected.

Sometimes we need incentive to use a technology. My brother lives in Asia and a one-minute phone call costs over $2. I have only ever called him once, and that was when he was HERE but hadn’t gotten a local sim card yet, so it’s not worth getting a “free unlimited calls” like we did to my DMIL’s country. But, I know there’ll be a time soon when we will need to make some longer calls to him, so we were just talking today about figuring out how to call over WiFi and use some of the tools we have on our devices.

WhatsApp can be used for international calling over WiFi connection. Check with your service provider to be sure.

Alexa can also be used to make international calls over an internet connection.

Michael's comments are spot on. What's App calls are excellent in quality and also free, we use this many times a week. Skype to Skype calls are also excellent and free and Skype can be used between PCs and tablets of any kind, mix and match for the connection, no smartphone needed but that's an option too.

One person we WhatsApp call with will do so while driving using Bluetooth in their car. No less sound quality than a phone call, maybe better.

Edit to add:

When travelling abroad, telephony over Wifi is VERY useful and something we always take advantage of. When in a hotel or elsewhere where Wifi is reasonable, connect your phone to Wifi (with the cell broadcast connection turned off) and Voila, you have a US phone ready to make or receive unlimited US phone calls. Call your mother and talk for an hour, it's free.

I also liked using DOS, and in the early 90s I taught myself to do database (dBase3+ and Fox) programming so that I can make the computer do what I wanted it to do - not what Apple thought it should do. When the company upgraded to Windows, I could no longer program the computer the way I used to, and it was less useful for me. I've never liked Apple because it thought it knew more about what I wanted than I did, and I resented that it was so inflexible, compared to DOS.

I bought a new HP laptop last week, and it has both a disc drive and a memory card slot. My only complaint is that the USB ports are too close together, and with a few exceptions (of tiny thumb drives), I cannot plug in two thumb drives at the same time. I plan to buy a hub to alleviate this problem. I also bought a wireless mouse to go with it because I hate the little pad that is supposed to take the place of a mouse. I want a mouse extra side buttons and a scroll wheel - something sadly missing in Apple products.

I don't use all the features that my computer has - just the ones that I find useful, but I used to create features on DOS.

I still hand write my grocery lists, and I used to write them in Russian and leave them lying around to irritate my roommate, who was unable to read them and was overly nosy. In my 3-D design class, the professor told us we had to keep a diary every day for a certain period of time, and I wrote that in German, which I transliterated into the Cyrillic alphabet so that few people would be able to read it, but I could. The professor didn't care what we wrote as long as we wrote something. I was already in the habit of keeping a diary anyway. I do not like using a keyboard to write my diary - I find that the process of putting pen to paper activates a different part of my brain, and it is easier to record my thoughts when writing them down with a fountain pen on paper. As Marshall McLuhan said, "The Medium is the Message," and this is particularly true with art. Using pen, paint brush, pencil, charcoal, etc results in much different art than what I can create using a mouse or a computer tablet, although I'm pretty good with the tablet.

I do not like using a keyboard to write my diary - I find that the process of putting pen to paper activates a different part of my brain, and it is easier to record my thoughts when writing them down with a fountain pen on paper. As Marshall McLuhan said, "The Medium is the Message," and this is particularly true with art. Using pen, paint brush, pencil, charcoal, etc results in much different art than what I can create using a mouse or a computer tablet, although I'm pretty good with the tablet.

Good points, Lars. I feel the same way about handwriting a diary or journal that’s used to record not just events or appointments but emotions, although I tend to use a ballpoint pen or a pencil. (If I used a fountain pen I’d probably break the nib during particularly impassioned writing sessions!) For me, it’s a very therapeutic exercise. If/when I look back at what I’ve written—sometimes years later—I’m able to glean more about what I was feeling at the time based on my penmanship. If I can feel my handwriting on the backside of the paper I know I was very worked up at the time. If I scratched out words or thoughts versus erasing them versus correcting them verbally that tells me a lot, too. I’m not surprised that certain people just don’t “get it.”

When I still went to the grocery store instead of ordering online, I preferred a paper list. I don't keep my phone on me when in my house - I still have a landline - so a list was easier. Now, I order groceries online so no list at all.

I would not be without my phone calendar! When I'm at the doctor's office or the hairdresser, I can quickly see if the app't offered is a good time for me, and quickly enter the app't - no more piles of little cards in the bottom of my handbag. And I can see my calendar anywhere in the world.

Probably my favorite bit of technology right now, is my my Hydrawise in-ground watering app. I have a Hunter controller which is wifi. It's very hot here right now, and while I've been browsing GW, I've also given my garden a 2nd watering today. Just clicked on each zone on the computer app, and hit "start"! When I was on the Vineyard last summer, we had a hot, very dry spell at home in KY. It was easy to just change the time of the watering for each zone and to water on more days. How cool is that!!! No hoping the boy I used to hire to water actually followed my instructions or would actually answer my email asking him to water more often!!! It's absolutely the BEST!!! No more standing in the garage with a flashlight and my glasses and my big fingers trying to change watering times for each zone. I HIGHLY recommend this! It's not expensive and if you already have a Hunter it can easily be replaced.

The only piece of tech I have not gotten around to setting up is the one for my portable oxygen concentrator. It would allow me to use my SmartPhone to see how much time is left on my battery without opening up the flap on the cover. Since my battery life is about 4 hours and I am almost never gone that long, I have not bothered. I will eventually!

I have ten pills a day of six kinds that I need to take. I'd developed a plan, with a paper-based list based on 24 hours of the day to plan each day, with a column for each day as I took them, and a space beside it to plan, erasing the plan list at the end of the day when I ruled a new column to record tomorrow's action.

I had another listing, based on the various medications with the day of the month on the left and columns for each pill of each kind, e.g. three columns under "Glucosamine sulphate", as I was to take three of them daily.

Unfortunately, I'd become involved with various things and got behind with the schedule, sometimes a couple of/few days but it was over a week behind with the 3-per-day one!

A while after I got my mobile phone, I did the daily planning on it and its warnings soon had me caught up with most pills, and recently with the 3-per-day ones.

It has helped me keep up to date with my medications, but there are quite a number of other capabilities that I'll appreciate as I learn how to use them.

The monthly fee is the same, whether I make the most efficient use of its capabilities - or don't!

ole joyfuelled ... also "fuelled" by pills

I have a smart phone and I know about using WIFI but while I have unlimited Data with my cell phone service I cant get that with our satellite internet. If you can use your internet for everything like people in town can do because you have unlimited data, well lucky you. I am not some sort of Luddite here. It is what I can get and how much it will cost. Trust me, we have checked out the permutations. Because I am seldom not home the possibilities are limited. DH uses his phone for most things that I use a computer for but it is slow especially when 4g is slow. We have a booster but even that doesn't always work. It is what it is when you live in the mountains. I have a great view.

I have a smartphone but I do prefer my grocery list on paper. it's annoying to go back in the phone 15 times to review your list....

I have noticed that while traveling to Palm Springs, GPS signal is frequently lost, and it gets lost a lot in Coachella Valley, possibly because of the high mountains surrounding the valley. We were behind some 20-something women in Cardenas Market in Cathedral City (I love this market), and one of them was complaining about losing her GPS signal and becoming completely lost. She was on the verge of having a panic attack and had to stop and ask someone for directions because she had no idea where she was. I like using paper maps, but sometimes I forget to bring them with me, but when Kevin and I travel together, I navigate using both my phone and paper maps.

There are lots of areas in California where GPS on smartphones is unavailable, especially in national parks - even Joshua Tree. Fortunately Kevin has a satellite GPS installed in his truck, and that functions even when cell phones do not. Most of Death Valley National Park does not have cell phone service, and it is easy (and potentially dangerous) to get lost there. We've gotten lost there several times, and it was a bit harrowing, but now I have a detailed topographical map of the park, and with Kevin's satellite GPS in his truck, we should be okay the next time we go there. We have videos of our trips there that scared our mother, but she had to realize that obviously we made it out alive. Don't expect street signs in remote areas of Death Valley, or even Joshua Tree. And if you do get lost, you will not have cell phone access. Best to have very good paper maps, and I have up-to-date topographical atlases of Southern California, just in case.

I keep a paper calendar in my bag; the physical act of writing it down helps me remember it better. Plus I find the way the phone calendars are organized doesn’t work for me. Plus plus I treat myself to a beautiful date book every year from my favorite artist, so it makes me happy every time I pick it up, I’m supporting a small artisan, which is important to me, and I have all sorts of little notes and flowers my kids pick for me in parking lots and their drawings all through it. I keep them with my journals. I treasure the recipe cards, journals, and letters written in my grandparents handwriting.

I use both, redundancy/ease of use...

Find My Car app.When we go to the theater downtown we like to park outside the arena area and take the shuttle bus to venue. Pick up and drop off are at opposite ends of lot so it's nice to look at the phone and walk directly to your car....especially if it's raining like last night and there's 4,000 cars parked there.

Lars, I have a suggestion/solution for you. GPS signals are worldwide and can be received everywhere, unless you're in a cave, a very narrow canyon, or a thick forest. What's not everywhere is a cell signal needed to obtain map data to display where the GPS calc says you are and want to go to. That's why a built in vehicle GPS or a standalone device work everywhere, they already has the map data in system memory.

Here's what to do for when you're going out into the boondocks away from cell coverage, for an Android phone. Open Google maps, go to settings, turn on "Wifi Only", then it asks you to choose what area or areas you want to download a "local map" for. Map size is limited, but it's big enough to be all of the Bay Area and more, or most of coastal SoCal, or certainly all of Eastern California and desert areas, as examples. You choose it and it downloads in a few minutes, depending on the speed of your internet connection.

When you're using Wifi Only, you get no traffic signal, but otherwise your phone GPS will function normally. I've used mine all over Death Valley and elsewhere and it'll work anywhere in the boondocks where there's no cell signal, within the boundaries (that you choose) of downloaded local maps. This technique is also good if you have limited data usage and don't need traffic information for a particular trip, because it uses no mobile plan data.

I don't know if an iPhone would have the same capability as Android, you can try it and see if applicable. Remember to turn off "Wifi Only" when back to civilization.

I like FInd My Car too, and I use it for more than cars. I've used it many times when visiting large cities when I go out wandering and then want to find my way back to my hotel. Or my way back to the subway station to continue my trip or to return where I started.

PS - Local maps with Wifi Only work great when in foreign cities when you may have no or limited data use. Download a local map for where you are via Wifi and then navigate through the city with your phone GPS with the cell signal turned off.

I like Citymapper when walking cities or looking for subway, streetcars, diners, etc.

Take a look.

For Find My Car, I’d have to “overuse” some tech: my car isn’t “connected”.

I looked at the website, not online. It does look interesting but it offers a small number of cities.

bpath, your car isn't involved with Find My Car. How the app works is when you're at a point you wish to return to - a parking spot, a building, a subway or bus stop, you tell the app "Here" and it saves the GPS location. When your wandering or your business (or the stadium event) is done and you're ready to return to "Here", you start the app, tell it you want to go back to the point saved, and it shows you which way to go.

Some cars do have advanced features but that doesn't involve the Find My Car app, it's other apps. I have an app for one of my cars and the app will direct me to where the car is. I can honk the horn and flash the lights to help too. I think Teslas (and perhaps others and newer models) have even more advanced capabilities.

But no need, Find My Car will even work with a bicycle locked to a tree in a park.

I have not known my internet password for over a year. My notebook has the correct password but I don't remember what it is. My printer is not working and my Nook isn't either. I just bought a Kindle and of course until I spend hours on the phone with Verizon I can't use it. I dread calling them. Half the time I can't understand them and my hearing isn't the best so I know it will be hours of frustration. So if any of my friends here feel guilty about not making full use of technology Im here to make you feel better.

satine, unless I'm misunderstanding the issue, you should be able to reset your Verizon password online. Just go to verizon.com, click Sign In/ Register at the upper right, and then click "Forgot your Info?"

Online chat can also help you - no need for a telephone call.

I'm not sure what you mean when you say internet password? What are you trying to do when this password is required?

At some point about a year or so ago I had to change my password for my wifi and have forgotten what the new one is. I need the password to download books to my Nook and can't connect my printer without the password. Bookwoman thank you for the info. Im heading out but will try to change it on line tomorrow. Wish me luck.

satine and others you may find that you have to do the reset in two steps. I had forgotten and could not find both my login name and the password. I was allowed to use the "forgot" sign in but when I tried to use forgot password I had to wait for 24 hours. If I was in a hurry I could have perhaps cleared my browser.

Iowa is a great state to get lost in when your GPS blanks out. One of these days it will happen to the naysayer.

Some residential routers have a pin hole where you can stick a straightened paper clip or a "reset" button and that will reset the router to the factory settings. Typically it will have the username = Admin and password = Admin.

Okay, that's the wifi password on the router. You need to access the router to change or see that, usually a different password. If you call tech support (without using a phone that uses the internet), they'll probably talk you through doing a factory reset of the router. That usually turns the username and password into "admin" and then "password" to access the router. Once, in, you'll be able to see or change the Wii password. They're two different things.

Whether that way or another way, add these data bits to your list of passwords, however you store those, so that you can refer to it when needed.

Ditto to raye, I started and then went away for something. See, we can find things to agree about!

Smart phones are not satan. You control how they work for you. If you don’t want to answer calls when you are shopping, you can set your phone to silent.

if you want an easy way to keep track of appointments, shopping lists, boarding passes, etc. a smart phone can’t be beat. (Adding to a shopping list by voice, is much easier then finding a pencil and writing something down).

And using one to communicate by texting is priceless. Especially if you want to control when and how you communicate with people.

Technology is only going to get smarter, learn what you can and appreciate the value.

Many routers have the password printed on the bottom label. But since you've changed it, you'll need a reset.

I have the Orbi router and the Orbi phone app. WiFi settings will show your current password.

Satine, when you say notebook, what exactly is your notebook? There may be a way to share the wifi password with another device in close proximity.

desertsteph, I'm not sure if you're sure what the story is but you've contradicted yourself on a few comments

in your world that is probably true.

You know I just want to tell you all that I learn so much when I read things like this. I don’t have a cell phone and I don’t know how to do many things on my cpu or iPad. I have at times ( because of posts like this one) been able to give someone an idea to look up and fix their problem tho.

You are certainly welcome to hang out with us.

Because of this thread, I have downloaded three apps that are new to me and believe I will find very beneficial. Thanks to all of you.

Do any of you have an app to recommend for stopping/blocking robo calls. I have recently started getting so many of these calls. I was expecting a call from our local recently, and when I saw our area code, I answered thinking it was the call I was expecting. However, it was not; it was a caller talking about my bad credit and doing a consolidation loan; I thanked him for the call and told him I was not interested and hung up. I have an excellent credit rating, pay off all bills every month, and had nothing to consolidate. Now, I just don't answer the call if I don't recognize the number. However, I still have to take time to go in and delete the calls. I decided last night maybe there is an app that can stop/block these kind of calls. Please advise.

I use Truecaller basic (the free version). It works well and and I like it. The Premium service does more and is only $2 per month.

If you have an iPhone you don’t need another app to block calls.

Go to your recent calls, tap the i that is in the circle, scroll down to “block this number”.

Another Apple Kool-Aid victim?

Android phones have the same capability. A number block is engaged about the same way as described in the preceding post.

Google Play shows that there have been more than 11 million downloads of Truecaller so if the market share proportion is comparable, there are a million or more iphone users using this app.

Then why install a separate app to block calls?

yes, I do like my Apple products!

The features of Apple products are not as unique as the company's hype would lead anyone to believe. It's been true all along and it's especially true now.

Millions of people find Truecaller useful. If you think you don't need it, then don't use it. It's an app that has received favorable reviews from experts and has a very sophisticated and knowledgeable Silicon Valley VC investor on board.

It's reduced my unwanted calls, I ask nothing more of it.

I’m just asking why install an app when you already have the technology on your phone to easily block a number?

Downloaded Truecaller and haven't had a call since then. Yeaahhh! Thanks you, Elmer. Maddie, I am hoping with this app to let the app block the calls, then I don't have to waste my time doing so. And, the same caller can use many different numbers to call from. I know this because the few that have left voice mails from different numbers, have the very same voice and use the very same name. Who knows how many numbers one individual can call from. I believe I am going to be very happy with TrueCaller. Again, thank you so very much, Elmer.

So it does more then just block the numbers that you choose to block? It knows to block every call from the same computer generated call center, I guess?

maddie, the Truecaller website doesn't spell out how it works. As a guess, maybe there's a database of numbers of user reported calls that get flagged? Or it could be something else?

It hasn't eliminated all unwanted calls but the volume is way down since I installed it a month or so ago. In the reviews on Google Play (the Android version of the App store), some people are complimentary, some are disappointed. Where the truth lies is hard to say. But for me, not much thought is needed for apps that are free or only a few bucks. I download them, try them, nuke 'em if I don't find them useful and keep them if I do. It's not much of a commitment. This one in the Basic version is free.

maddie, on the iphone you are only blocking individual spam callers, one by one. When you install Truecaller, and enable it on your iOS phone (app leads you to each setting) you have instant access to over 250 million numbers in the database that are known spammers. If you've been receiving a lot of unwanted calls, your phone will become noticeably quiet. If a number gets through, report it to Truecaller and they will add it to the database. It will even identify spammers in your recent call list and block them automatically.

The more users, the more successful that app becomes.

Wanted to you all know that I am very, very happy with TrueCaller. I have not had one call from robocallers or spammers since it was installed and activated. That is one powerful app, and I am so glad to have it.

But, how will you know they are suspending your social security number? lol. Just kidding. Both DH and I got that call last week. We don't get many scam calls; if we did, I'd certainly look into TrueCaller.

What I want to know why am getting a mesage to allow gboard to record messages when I try to use voice to text. I never had this message before. Did I do something to get it. I use voice to text tons but hate saying yes in case