December 2023

iPhone XR losing battery effectiveness.

Elected to keep Google Fi and get a 14 from Apple. $729

Shame on Apple: $30 for an unlocked phone. "Connectivity Discount" or whatever else you call it, it sucks. 

Discounts:

$75 back for a future purchase: Gift card from Apple , black friday

3x $15 back from target for $100 apple gift cards. Only one card from online. The second kept saying Pending, until I cancelled it. Two more from the store. 

Estimated $140 back for iPhone XR

--------

Picked up a iphone se 2022 , June 2022. $429. no trade ins.

Family got the hand me downs. 

Google Fi unlimited seems ok for now (2, 3, 4 lines are now $80 +, currently called "Simply Unlimited"). We switch back to flexible for international trips. Switch is possible only in monthly increments, at the end of the billing cycle.

Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop Keyboard stuck

 Did your wireless keyboard stop working all of a sudden ?

Check if it is in number pad only mode - see the circled key in the picture. This preference persisted through an overnight battery removal. Another clue was that the letter keys worked after removing and replacing battery, for a few minutes. 

October 2021

Unexpected change from Verizon to Google Fi. 

Mainly because of puppy chewing phone. S9+ had no chance. Display is dead, Phone is alive. 

Repair estimate locally is ~ 260. 

New Samsung A32 5G from Google Fi was 200 - 100 bill credits = 100. 

Initially sent in S9+ for a broken screen trade in with Samsung for a S10e for later, but that trade in did not work either. So, returned S10e.

Iphone 13 was available through Verizon with broken screen trade in, but ..... only for some unlimited plans. Bill credits were 30 months. 

In the end, Google Fi may not be the right answer for H who seems to use lots of data. More than earlier. Maybe this is pandemic related , work ? 

Update of winter 2018-2019

Iphone XR / 128 G
Apple giveback: 6s+ = 250 - Didn't work
$50 back - barclays card

Samsung S9 Plus in costco, Thanks to A. 

Maybe 150 for Iphone 5

Reasoning: Switch to Sprint $0 plan for a year. That worked. 

Phone needed to support both GSM and CDMA

Initially TMobile

Exporting contacts from HTC One M7 when gmail wont sync

From people, export to phone storage

makes a .vcf file

GPS Android 5.0.2

If your phone no longer GPSes with your tracker, try toggling location services after the tracker has started. This works for me. Trouble started with Android 5.0.2.

Exactly same hardware and geographic location worked well earlier. 

HTC One M7, Originally T-mobile, stock ROMs
Strava, Runkeeper

I also dislike that this version always defaults to high accuracy. Many of the places I ride have no service. I can't imagine this is more power efficient than device only.

HTC sync manager or lack thereof

If  HTC sync manager does not work on Windows 8 or probably other operating systems, check to see if this setting is enabled on your phone.

Android 4.3, HTC One M7

Settings
More
Mobile Network Sharing
HTC Sync Manager

Update 2016/01/02

HTC Sync Manager on Computer 3.1.64.0
Android 5.0.2

Problem:
Phone connects the first time ever connecting to a computer. Times out with an error message a few minutes in.
Never connects after that.

Current solution:
Enable USB debugging on Phone (Settings - Developer Options ON - USB Debugging ON)
Enable HTC Sync Manager on Phone (Settings - Apps - search for sync - HTC Sync Manager - Enable, this was disabled)