Messages

1

Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Additional Sky email accounts

« on: Today at 11:30:43 AM »

I'm not sure if I understand the problem really, but just setup outlook to get the email from gmail then?

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Additional Sky email accounts

« on: 22 January 2021, 06:28:42 PM »

Do you not have a Google account and use Gmail? If you're getting an Android phone you'll pretty much need one anyway!

I wouldn't ever use provider based email either, too much trouble to migrate everything if you ever wanted to move on.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 16 January 2021, 10:33:52 AM »

Invest more in security. iPhones are recommended. They have the best security software in a phone. Operating software is always updating which shows how they care for their consumers.
which

That's not strictly true any more, over the past couple of years Android has come on a lot in terms of security (the Google and Samsung security teams are very good) and the operating system is now probably more secure than IOS due to the work those teams have put in. The issue comes in more around the companies who integrate Android into their phones as many of them do not bother releasing any of the monthly security updates for their device or stop doing them far too soon (I'm pointing my finger at Sony and Chinese handset manufacturers here). However Apple are very good with support and security updates as they offer around 5 to 6 years of software support for every new device.

This is why I would suggest if you go Android you get either a pixel phone, an Android one phone or go for Samsung, although you have to be careful with Samsung as some phones do not get regular updates but they do updates for far longer overall compared to Google.

The support status of each Samsung phone can be found here: https://security.samsungmobile.com/workScope.smsb and for pixel phones can be found here: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4457705?hl=en-GB#zippy=%2Cpixel-phones for Android one phones it's supposed to be OS updates  and security updates monthly for 2 years after the device is released, then monthly security updates for another year.

I would suggest that when your phone (Android or Apple) no longer gets security updates that you replace it with something that does, factory reset it and sell it or recycle it. The number of devices out there that have been compromised but the users do not know is crazy.

I'm currently on an Pixel 3 and it's going EOS in October this year. When I start looking in September I will be very seriously looking at going to Apple this time though simply due to how long their devices are supported for.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 08 January 2021, 06:20:06 PM »

There are those that extol the virtues of their iPhones and those that do the same about Android - Marmite springs to mind.

There's one further point I would make on that, the Samsung customisation of Android can be quite Marmite (though not to the same degree between Android and iphone), given that Steve has a Samsung and gets on with it, I would certainly suggest getting another Samsung!

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 08 January 2021, 06:13:31 PM »

We managed to get away for 10 day in late Sept touring North West up to Achiltibuie and then across to Dornoch - I had 4G coverage everywhere with no issues.

When we roamed up in Scotland in 2018 from Fort William to Wick over the 3 different networks we pretty much always had fast 4G coverage, much better than Cambridgeshire or anywhere we've been in England.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 07 January 2021, 06:26:19 PM »

As I don't want an iPhone as I already detest the one I use for work, it sounds like another 4G Samsung might be the way forward. There are several different Samsung models, and I have no idea which one might be the best for reliability and longevity.

Z series is the really expensive phones, like £1000-£3000, you don't want one of them, S series is the premium phones which get updates for a long time after, moderately expensive but you could always look for a certified refurb of the previous series. The A series is the budget range, much easier on the wallet but not as great features or updates but would probably do you fine. The M series I think are lower end phones with larger screens, don't really know much about them!

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 06 January 2021, 08:57:52 AM »

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletins/competition-bulletins/all-closed-cases/cw_01218

That's got nothing to do with MVNO operators and their network speeds or the providers they use. All that document is saying that Three removed restrictions for their customers (ID mobile customers are not Three customers) based on speeds being throttled when their customers were using VPN's or roaming.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 05 January 2021, 01:07:12 PM »

Two points on this.
First, Android One is designed for lower specification phones and while there are some that can be called "mid-range" most are certainly not and hence will, by and large, perform worse than phones further up the specification range.
Second, Android One only allows installation of certain versions of apps from the Google Playstore and these apps have reduced functionality.
 

"ID customers get a lower priority than Three users" 
 Not since the Ofcom Inquiry of August 2018.

Your statement about Android One phones is still inaccurate, you can get a Nokia 8.3 running Android One on a Snapdragon 765G processor which is the same CPU that you get in the Pixel 5 which is the current Google premium phone. How many Android One phones do you actually have experience of? I've used several including Xiaomi mi a1, Xiaomi A2 Lite, Nokia 5.3 and the Motorola One. Yes, none of them were as fast as the current feature phones at the time but none of them were slow or painful to use, and all of them cost under £150.

Your second comment is also not correct, Android One has the same access to the play store as all other Android phones, some apps are locked for particular hardware and phone models but that is the case for all of Android, nothing is specifically locked because of Android One and in many cases as Android One has access to newer software and updates it has a higher api version than many recent feature phones so will run newer apps.

I'd like to see a reference to what this ofcom enquiry said as I can't find anything relevant on their site for that date, my experience is based on having contract phones with Three running along side phones using ID, there was a clear difference in performance in particular areas and many others have stated this (it's also common with some of the other MVNO operators) it might be that the operators can't throttle at the network edge but if they use different infrastructure in their core networks then it can be a different story elsewhere.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 05 January 2021, 06:46:41 AM »

I'd avoid any phone running Android One. You'd find it slower than your old Samsung. I speak from bitter experience.

That is not accurate, I've had several Android one phones as spares/second phones and the kids had them for a while and were using them to play Pokemon go and other games on them and they've all been fine although none of them are feature phones. There are a lot of phones out there with Android One it's just a version of Android which is assured updates for 3 years and doesn't have the carrier bloat, obviously there are some far cheaper handsets which have Android one which will not give a great experience but to blame the software for substandard hardware is wrong.

That's a phrase equivalent of saying "I'd avoid any Saab, you'll find it slower than your old Vauxhall, I speak from bitter experience" - because you had a VXR and drove a Saab 9-5 2.2 diesel.

Also, ID can be very slow in areas where there are a lot of Three subscribers, ID customers get a lower priority than Three users. I've had it on spare phones and use it for the kids because it's cheap but a few times it's been slow when compared to using Three directly.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 04 January 2021, 04:21:07 PM »

However there is still quite a lot of work to be done on developing the infrastructure, a lot of which is physical (things like many current towers not being suitable) and I suspect there may also be changes in the RF parameters that can't be supported by phone software upgrades so I personally would wait about another 2 years before investing in a 5G handset.

The back haul connectivity at most sites seems to be mostly using the same connections as it used for 4G anyway, we keep finding people contacting us at work who are desperate to find use cases for 5G as people have invested on the basis of the technology and much of the points that sold investors aren't materialising in the real world.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 04 January 2021, 08:13:57 AM »

We use to be with Vodafone.  Their service was OK, but not the cheapest, but when we had a problem, the customer service was awful.

We've used all the networks and providers over time, the service is always OK until you need customer service at which point it's always awful!

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 04 January 2021, 08:12:59 AM »

Personally I'd be looking at something with long security support, iPhone SE 2020 would be a top pick right now if you want a phone with decent features. Can be purchased outright for £400 brand new and will get updates all the way until around 2025. Also have a look at Android one phones if you're not that bothered about what your phone can do, they get feature updates for 2 years and security updates for 3 years and can be had for £100-£150 brand new. https://www.android.com/intl/en_uk/one/

I got the kids a pixel 3A factory refurb (essentially brand new but in a plain white box) at the end of last year for £200 each, but they will only get guaranteed security updates until May 2022 at which point they'll get ditched  soon after. Samsung also have long security support for some of their Android phones but you have to be careful as some models do not get good support, the flagships are the ones to look at, we have a Galaxy S7 which we purchased new in October 2016 which had it's very last security update in September 2020.

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Off-topic chat, Help, Advice, General motoring issues / Re: Mobile phone upgrade - 5G or not 5G!!

« on: 03 January 2021, 12:15:53 PM »

If you were happy with a 5 year old phone then you'll be happy with one that is 5 years newer even though it doesn't have 5G. Save your money.

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Saab 9-3 Sport Saloon / Convertible / Combi (Wagon/Estate) / Turbo X / AWD (2003 on) / Re: Pricing

« on: 26 December 2020, 07:43:42 PM »

I was horrified to see people on the Saab 9-3 Facebook groups stripping perfectly good 9-3s for spares, rather than selling them on to someone who would get them running again. Some of the excuses for stripping them were very poor, but it means there should be plenty of spares around, and of course as they shrink the 9-3 population, those left should start to appreciate in value......

The truth is very often that nobody would get them running again, and if they are being parted out and the parts are being sold then they are keeping other ones running.

I'm wondering how much longer I will be keeping mine, just paid another years tax at £565, mot is due a month today along with the service! When I purchased in 2016 I intended to have it for 5 years before upgrading, but it's unlikely I will be commuting again anywhere soon or travelling very much so I will be keeping it at least another year, I should probably start saving pennies for when the time does come to replace though. I had kind of fancied some kind of Subaru when the time comes but all the more modern ones are very tame when compared to those of a similar year to the 9-3.

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Saab 9-3 Sport Saloon / Convertible / Combi (Wagon/Estate) / Turbo X / AWD (2003 on) / Re: Pricing

« on: 25 December 2020, 10:30:39 AM »

This was the case with the 9000 in the late 00's when the youngest ones were around 10 years old, a lot of the gnarly ones had been very cheap and many were just scrapped as you could get a 9-5 for not a lot of money so a lot of people upgraded. However there was a lot of people who still really wanted a 9000 and when they went to buy one they couldn't find any so they were prepared to pay over the odds, especially for a good one. I think I paid around £700 for my 9000 Anniversary in 2007 and then when I sold it in 2009 I got around £1400 for it from ebay, I actually replaced it with a 1999 9-5 which cost me £750 (which was then an insurance write off less than a year later and I got about a £2000 payout!).

As there will now be a shortage of good Saabs and some people who will really really want one then the prices will rise a bit, I had a similar thing selling my dads Austin Maestro on ebay too, he had paid about £300 for it and we sold it for about £1200! Just don't expect them to go crazy expensive.