How many phones is too many? UPDATED

Do you love cell phones? Do you have more than 2 of them? For “backups”… sound familiar? Don’t worry you’re in safe company. I have said the same thing. I am currently up to 4 cell phones unless you count the dead flip phone that I have no charger for…? Ok 5… The flip phone is an LG Dare? I forget the name of that one. I also have an LG G7 ThinQ from 2 years ago. It is still a great phone and is being updated to Android 10 OS very soon according to the Android news feeds. It’s the lightest of the 3 phones and has the best night vision for taking night shots. They always come out so bright on this phone and the other phones have trouble with night shots.
My daily driver of a phone is the Samsung Note 10 Plus. It has become one of the best phones I ever used. The size is perfect in my hand and not hard for 1 or 2 handed uses. The battery life gets me through a day and a half even if I am using the phone heavily. The camera takes amazing photos and I have not even really used the video feature yet. OH and the screen looks amazing. I currently still have the original screen protector from Samsung on the phone. But soon I will be putting on a Zagg screen protector. Just as soon as I watch the video more to make sure I can install it right.
UPDATE: Took off the stock screen protector and installed 2 from a company that does glass protectors applied with UV glue. I do not recommend these types. If the phone gets cold at all from air conditioning the glue will give and you will be prone to potential damage. I also have the HTC U11 phone. This older droid was just updated to Android 9 which was shocking as most of HTC phone staff moved to Google. This phone is STILL getting updates. I turned it on to check on the battery for this article and there is a software update pushing through. This phone is the shortest of all the phones but also the fattest. It is slightly uncomfortable to use single handed. This was before they went “bezel free” so there is 2 bezels at the top and bottom of the phone. But this phone sounds amazing for music. It was enhanced for audio both from the speakers and for when you plug a set of headphones in.
The last phone I have is a Motorola G Power. I just purchased this phone for 250 bucks. It’s unlocked for any carrier and it has a huge battery in it. I used it for one day just trying to sign into everything and get setup and I was about 6 hours of screen time in. The battery still lasted for another day after that! The phone does not have NFC built in and it does not do Wireless charging. But the phone is a great cheap phone to get and store in a drawer in case someone needs a phone in a hurry. Moto has some great actions they setup to make the phone easier to use. Make a chopping motion with your wrist and the flashlight comes on. Twist your wrist and the camera comes on. The phone is ringing on the table and you’re in a meeting, flip it over screen down, the phone shuts up till you pick it back up.
I am working to set these phones up so I can switch back and forth at a moment’s notice. If the Samsung suddenly develops a hardware issue and has to be sent in to replace, I want to be able to take the sim out pop it into either the Moto or the LG and continue working. Most of my stuff is setup in the cloud for backup and syncing. The last thing I did not have in a cloud backup was my text messages and I thought it wasn’t a big deal but more and more text messages are being used in business and starting to become items of record. So I stopped using the default Text program on the phones and moved to Google’s messaging program. This way all my stuff is backed up to Google’s cloud and when I sign into a different phone it can sync all the messages up and I won’t miss anything. I was getting close to the limit of Google’s free 15GB of storage. So I opted to pay for the 100Gb of space on Google’s Cloud. This way the phones can be backed up to the cloud as well and its one less thing I need to worry about. This is a whole other topic but I also have a Microsoft One Drive cloud with over 100 GB of space on it that I don’t pay for. I am not for one or the other, I use whatever works best for my needs. So that’s all my phones. What do you have in your collection? Leave me a comment and let me know. Apple products welcome too… there is no better one here, its whatever works for best you. Which should be the goal of all technology.

The Motorola Z2 Play. A premium device with an affordable price.

A few weeks ago I got the desire to try a different device. Not because of any issue or anything like that, I just decided I want to have a different phone. For some reason the thought of jumping between devices to try a few out is appealing to me. And now with the cloud holding most all of the data I use on the phone switching back and forth is easier than ever. I currently have an HTC U11 phone that has been a blast to use every day for the past 6 months. I never had an issue with it, everything runs smoothly and the battery life is great. I get a day to a day and a half if I’m conservative with my streaming. The phone looks awesome it’s a bright red metallic color that everyone notices. I have it enclosed in a clear case and put a shatter proof screen on it. I had a spur of the moment inkling to check out the Motorola phones again after they sent me an email with a large sale on some of their newer flagship devices.

I checked them out and decided on the Z2 play from Motorola. This is a nice thin lightweight phone with a 5.5 inch LCD which is bigger than the screen on the HTC. The phone is so light and easy to hold too. I forgot how much weight the HTC had to it till I picked it up to do this review. Its not a bad thing either its just different.

The Moto has a nice bright screen that is easy to see and everything looks vivid and sharp. The camera is a 12 MP shooter in the back with a 5MP in the front for great self portraits. Pictures look great on it and seem to capture a lot of detail. The phone is quick and responsive and everything is easy to find when looking for your favorite apps. This is an unlocked device that is carrier neutral so there is no bloat ware on it. I love this feature as the HTC was the same way and it is great not to be force fed apps that I cannot uninstall and will never use.

The phone being a bigger size is still easy to use one handed thanks to the thin sized footprint. It has a head phone jack which I like and it also has a usb C connector for the charger. I tried USB C headphones but they did not recognize on the phone so they cant be used unless you have the head phone jack adapter. The battery life has been outstanding I can push this and get a full day and a half out before I need to charge it again. There is also a Moto Mod add on that is an extended battery should you need more juice. I stream quite a bit and run different music apps like sound cloud and the Sirius XM app for on demand shows. I have more than 40 percent battery life left at night before I put the phone down to sleep. The included turbo charge will give it a 50 percent boost in 15 minutes so to get you through a long day should you need it. The phone has one downside when coming off the HTC, it is running Nougat of Android 7.1 and the 8.0 Oreo update is still pending. Moto seems to have an issue getting updates out quickly. This has not been an issue to me except I miss the nice emoji icons when doing text messages. I have not seen any major issues with the phone and it has been a joy to use. I have only seen one small issue and I am still testing to see if it happens on all audio apps or just one. What happens is after some time the volume just decreases half way. The volume is set all the way up on the phone and on the app but it just is a lowered volume. This happens on the
Sirus app and closing the app and restarting it takes away the issue. I have yet to test this on other apps and I am not sure if it’s a power saving feature or some bug. Either way I will keep testing and report back. This is a really great phone and for a less expensive price point it can be an affordable device for someone who just needs a phone and doesn’t need the latest and greatest. I will probably use this for a few weeks then I may switch back to my HTC device. Either way I have two great devices that can get me through a whole day without fail and they are both reliable and dependable. That’s all I want at the end of the day.

Samsung smart switch makes moving to a new Samsung very easy

So I have had the pink line for about a few months now and it is getting worse on my s7edge. It has started causing the top right corner of the screen to not respond to touch . So i decided to get an s7 to use so Samsung can fix the pink line if possible. I have not heard back from Samsung yet about fixing the pink line but that is a story for another day. I dread having to switch phones as the process has not been as easy as Apple makes it. Their iCloud works well and makes moving to a different device very easy. Well Samsung has a program that is very similar called the smart switch. It works with any device and will make switching very easy to get to a new Samsung device.

The transfer can happen 3 ways, via Wireless from one device to the other, with a usb transfer cable, or connecting the devices to a pc or mac.

The Smart switch will let you choose your items you want to sync like your contacts, photos, and text messages. It even keeps most of your settings the same. I cannot speak if that works across platforms but switching from one Samsung to the other kept all the settings. I had my icons right where I liked them and all the apps opened and worked with no issues. You do need to sign back into each app and reauthorize if you have a 2 factor authentication setup. But all your data comes right over and its very easy to get back up and running in no time with very little hassle. I did have to readjust my sound settings so I figured it was time to pick some different ring tones for messages and alerts and calls. The program works well it is very easy to download and install and very easy to follow the steps. It was pretty fast too as it flew over the wifi and I have a good amount of photos on the device's storage. It took less than an hour to get everything moved over. It may have even been about 30 minutes.
It is a great app to use and if your going to move to a Samsung I highly recommend getting this app. I will probably have to use it one more time once I get my s7edge fixed. I will update about that later on once I find out what the status of getting it fixed is. I hope to just be able to get it swapped out but I am not looking forward to getting a refurb if that is what they offer me. I know I will not pay for the repair as it is not caused by use its a defect in the phone. I really hope Samsung does a better job with their s8 line than the issues that plagued the s7 line as well as the Note 7 debacle. If you are getting a new Samsung just make sure to use the Smart Switch app to move to the new device seamlessly.

This age of instant response can make for missing a moment alone.

Your getting out of bed trying to remember what important things you have to do today and you get "Bling" "Blong" Your cell phone chirps that someone has sent you a text. You respond then start to think again, I need to make sure I go to... "Bling Blong" Again the response comes in what feels like milliseconds and you couldn't even finish your small thought about going to the market! Later in the day you have been dealing with 5 emergencies from every department and then you found out you need to leave early to go to your house on your lunch break to deal with something and you just want to close your eyes and gather your thoughts for a second...Ahh..."Bling Blong" . It never ends. This instant response with technology has made us lose some of our razor sharp focus we once had. They say multitasking is bad and does not work. Well it used to before you had this instant response device working. You could start a project and finish it without an instant interruption that started and had five responses or further questions before you even got to pick up the phone to look at it! It has caused people to have less patience as well when it comes to waiting for answers. Everyone thinks you should be able to text the response back no matter where you are or what you are doing. This is not the case and you may need to let people know in advance. You have to block off time where you may even turn your phone to airplane mode or off to not hear those messages. Tell all you important friends and family you are doing this to focus on something important. Even if its for a work out and meditation. Does not matter. That is your time to get things done that need to be done. Those texts will have to wait. And for business, set the same ground rules. Let your co workers know, If you have something quick fire off a text but if it requires more than 3 responses, send an email or call about it so the message is clear. Let your clients and customers know, I do not do business by text message. You can give me a text to ask if Im in the office or can I call you? But anything else must be in written or verbal form via an email or phone call. Set the precedence right from the beginning and you can gently remind them if they forget later and do it. And if you get coupons or offers via text message think about them do you really need them? If you do, you just have to hope they are not at 2 in the morning!
It really is hard to try to focus for a long time when you keep getting some kind of alert from an electronic device. Even as I write this now, I had 5 text messages come through and my tablet had 3 alerts from apps come through. So my train of thought stopped a few times and I had to try to pick up where I left off. So if you have tablets you may have to put them in airport mode or at least disable all alerts that are not needed or are duplicated by your cell phone. Try to start small, start with 20 minutes maybe in the early morning. Put your devices to airplane then just close your eyes breath deep and think about something that relaxes you. Don't think about work or anything else you have to do, just think of something relaxing like an image of the sunrise at your favorite beach, or the feel of the breeze as you sit in your screened porch. Just make sure to take some time to your self for your thoughts. The more you do this the more you will be able to focus better and you will feel sharper and sometimes feel less overwhelmed at larger projects. Put on some of your favorite music and just listen to it for some time to your self. If your phone goes off while your in the middle of juggling three tasks at work that are small, don't answer or look at it until you get at least 2 of them done. Then take a quick moment to look at the text. Or if you feel better not worrying about it then don't look at it until you got all three tasks done.
They say we reached the age of instant communication. Well I would like to go back 3 steps where I don't have to respond in an instant and I can get things done without hearing sounds in my head, "BLING BLONG" .

Cell phones being released as fast as bowling balls!

Samsung is trying to launch a lot of new cell phones at a clip of one per week!

This is like when bowling balls Manufactures do the same thing. They will release a new bowling ball in a span of a week or two. It gets a little difficult to try to keep up with that much change!