Right after I told you it wasn’t worth switching my cell phone carrier, I switched. I knew that Consumer Cellular is touted for its budget-friendly plans and reliance on the robust AT&T network, but it took a reader to suggest it.

“Consumer Cellular has been great!” she wrote. “Cut my bill for two iPhones. I now get unlimited text and calls and a good amount of data for $57 per month. Several family members have also switched. Their call centers are all US-based.”

With the switch, I’m saving $15 a month, which isn’t huge. But the quality difference between Xfinity and Consumer Cellular is immense. With Xfinity, I was getting at least one dropped call a day. What’s more, the calls often cut in and out, sometimes with a twangy sound. I thought it might be my headset, but it turned out to be Xfinity’s fault. I’ve had no problems since switching, and friends say they can hear me better. Although I changed my plan from unlimited data to 35 gigabytes a month, it’s still more than I need.   

Customer support is great. Though the agent forgot that I wanted to keep my phone number, he was so folksy that I didn’t mind waiting while the problem was fixed. I doubt I’ll ever switch again.

Finding Your Phone

How do you find your misplaced iPhone if it’s off and you can’t call it?

The Find My app will only show you the phone’s location on a map. That’s not much help if it’s hiding under a sofa cushion. Your phone won’t ring if it’s not on.

From now on, I’m going to leave mine on all the time. Even if it runs out of battery, an iPhone usually has enough residual juice to ring after you tap the “Find My” app. The Android equivalent is called “Find Hub.”

But before an iPhone is lost, you must enable the Find My app. Then, if you turn on “Lost Mode,” it will send a message to the person who found it. It  will also lock your Apple account, suspend your payment cards and send you a notification when the phone is found. 

To use Google’s Find Hub, open the app on another device or go to google.com/android/find. From there you can secure it with a PIN or erase its data. But first be sure that “Find Hub” is enabled in your phone’s Google settings. 

Gluten Free

A young woman I know has a bad case of Celiac disease. She had to change colleges because her dorm food was always cross-contaminated. Students used the same spoon to dish out a wheat entree and a gluten-free food.  

Enter the new $220 Nima Gluten Sensor. It can spot even tiny quantities of gluten. To use it, just place a food sample into a capsule and insert it into the sensor. Two or three minutes later, a camera will read the results, displaying a smiley face if there’s no gluten and a wheat symbol if there is. It can detect gluten down to ten parts per million, half the 20-ppm standard required by the Food and Drug Administration for gluten-free products.

Fall Detection

My friend was surprised when his Samsung smartwatch registered a fall. He hadn’t even tripped. Lots of smart watches these days have fall detection, including Garmin, Samsung, Fitbit and Apple Watch, but some are better than others. 

Recently, Unaliwear, the maker of the $299 Kanega watch, sued, claiming patent infringement on its fall detection. The Kanega watch is similar to the medical alert buttons worn around the neck. But because it’s as discreet as a regular watch, 90 percent of users continue to wear it, according to the company, while 60 percent of those wearing a button give it up. Perhaps price is the real issue, I figured. But at $780 a year, the Kanega emergency service costs more than most medical alert systems.

Long-Lasting Phone

The Realme P4 Power 5G is the world’s thinnest and lightest 10,001 milliamp phone. With normal use, it should last three days on a single charge. If the battery starts draining more quickly than normal during the first four years, the company will send you a new battery for free. Despite its 10,001 milliamps, the Realme weighs just 7.7 ounces. It’s a little lighter than the 7.99 ounce iPhone Pro Max.

New Word Game

With “Hang Five,” from PlayHangfive.com, you get five tries to figure out five related words. But you lose a try if you guess a vowel too early. You have to guess all the consonants first. When I first tried it, the theme was “raised platforms.” The words were rostrum, soapbox, pulpit, podium and stage.

Amazon Rewards

The Amazon Prime Visa card, for Amazon Prime members, gives you between $80 and $150 in Amazon credit when you sign up, and five percent “cash” back at Amazon, Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh stores forever after, in the form of an Amazon credit. You also get five percent back on Chase travel purchases and two percent back on restaurants, gas stations, Uber, Lyft and public transit.

Internut

Search on the phrase “Video shows detachable crawling robot hand that’s giving Addams Family meets Terminator vibes,” to see a robotic hand detach itself from its arm and hold multiple objects between its six fingers, which can even bend backwards. 

 

 

   

Filed under: Amazon, games, health, Internuts, iPhone, phones