mobile phone – Donich Website

Goodbye my love, Goodbye….

donich_admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 16:43:53 +0000

About five years ago I left corporate life behind, and with it my two mobile devices (one iPhone 4, one Blackberry Bold). After a very brief and very unsuccessful attempt with an early Android phone, I acquired my first Windows Phone (a Lumia 800 on WP7), and I have been on the platform ever since. In fact I have loved it almost every step of the way, and been one of its biggest evangelists.
Which is an introduction to saying that I just kissed the platform goodbye and gave my beloved Lumia 1020 (“Griff the Griffon” for reasons too long and complex to explain) to my Mum. The reason is quite simply that living where I do and having the outdoors lifestyle that I do, there is zero point in having the best mobile phone in the world (and that was what I thought the Lumia 1020 was) without it being waterproof. I was waiting for Microsoft’s big announcement last week to see if maybe one of the new phones (950 or 950XL)would have this feature, but they don’t, and unfortunately the only phones that do are Android. For a long time I have objected to Google as a company as I do not like or approve of an Internet driven by advertisements, and whilst I am prepared to give my info to Microsoft on the grounds that I know what I am buying from them, I am not prepared to become the product in an advertising deal.
So I am trialling the Moto G3 with Cyanogen Mod and none of the Google features installed. Instead of using the Google Play Store I am working with a combination of Amazon, F-Droid (open source app store), and very cautiously downloading APK files (the Android equivalent of .exe files) from sites which may or may not be entirely safe. The penalty I will have to pay for having a waterproof phone without Google tracking me about is constant vigilance against malware – and this is one area where I would recommend that people do not try this at home. So far it is going OK and I am even quite liking some of the phone’s features, but I know from past experience (I lasted three days with Linux as an OS after the original Snowdon revelations) how easy it would be for me to lapse and end up buying one of the new WPs.

So please, Microsoft or someone – bring out a waterproof Windows Phone and save me from Android. Until then, I will post my progress with the new platform.

Is there anything geekier than this?

donich_admin — Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:13:07 +0000

For reasons buried in the depths of the past, all my mobile phones have traditionally had a variation of “Griffon” as their name.

I currently have two phones, a Lumia 1020 which is my production phone and camera – aka as “Griff” and a Lumia 520 which I use for testing apps. R pointed out to me the other day that I was missing a trick to have a Game of Thrones reference and call the 520 “Young Griff”.

So the picture is of both of them, and may be a bit of a spoiler to anyone who has seen the TV series and not read the books.

There are so many levels upon which this is quite sad – but the photo shows the two Windows Phones in question, displaying their house crests (Griff on the left and his ‘son’ Young Griff on the right).

This photo was taken with R’s new iPad and certainly shows that it has a much better camera than its predecessors.

When good Tech goes bad

donich_admin — Fri, 02 May 2014 21:27:14 +0000

Coming right off the wildlife and nature themes I have been on for a while – I think I may have mentioned in the past being a bit of a Windows Fangirl…. In particular I love my Surface Pro 2 and my Lumia 1020 phone (all the photos for this site have been taken with it).

I also have to make a confession that I have a bit of an addiction problem with new versions of software – I’m just a sucker for a Beta version of everything. So a few weeks ago the beta developers’ version of Windows Phone 8.1 came out – and I just couldn’t resist it. I ignored all R’s suggestions that I should wait for the production version, I ignored all Microsoft’s warnings about ‘once you install this you can’t go back’. I installed it. It looks lovely. It has great features. It keeps crashing.

R also has his problems. His Android Sony Xperia has suddenly decided to stop charging properly. Intermittently (and often) he is having to rebuild it because that is the only way to get it charging again.

So neither of the very expensive phones we have are working properly at the moment. This explains how we nearly came to blows last night over a somewhat elderly iPhone 4S which I have been using outdoors as a music player because it has a ruggedized waterproof case. We both suddenly got the idea that we could ‘just use the iPhone for the time being’.

Actually iPhones have a lot going for them – I’ve never been a huge Apple fan (there is something about the sort of people who use Macs that make me think of Miss Piggy – “Pretentious? Moi?”) but they are beautiful, largely secure, and have every app and accessory in the world built for them. Still Windows Phones are better for me because I have two Surfaces and a deep investment in the MS ecosystem – but if it all goes the way of the Zune I could use an iPhone without too many qualms. I also have to say that if the iWatch comes out this year and there is no sign of a corresponding MWatch – I am going to be seriously tempted.