Today I learned

The Sandbox General
463

Over the next few days, I am going to learn just how many things I use my smartphone for.

I’m currently sitting in an airport gate area (using my computer), waiting to board a flight to Toronto.

Just before I left the car to head into the terminal, I noticed that my phone’s case wasn’t sitting quite right…because the phone was starting to swell.

Since that’s a sign that the battery has turned into a spicy pillow, I powered the phone completely down, and left it in the car.

I’ve had the “spicy pillow” problem before, and it’s usually something that can be resolved pretty quickly by going out and buying a new phone. Unfortunately, since I’m headed to Canada, but live in the US…

I had planned to Uber from my destination airport to the hotel, but that’s probably not going to happen. I think the people sitting near me in the gate area think I’m nuts, since I’ve been repeating the address of the hotel, to memorize it.

Getting connected when I get into the office after arrival will be…interesting, since we use an RSA token app as part of connecting to the corporate network.

And FWIW, the selection of dead tree books at the stores in Boston Terminal E sucks. It’s been many years since I bought one. (Actually, it was a similar situation, except that I was on the way home when my phone became unsafe to use.)

All of my trips-by-air since the pandemic have been cursed in one way or another, it seems. I wonder if the fates are trying to tell me something.

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464

I think? I’ve done uber via laptop from an airport before.

465

I have heard of this problem, but never experienced it myself or seen someone else have it. My phone batteries generally just slowly lose efficacy.

466

I’m flying into Billy Bishop in Toronto, and my hotel is close to a subway stop.

I’ll either use a traditional cab, or take the airline’s shuttle to Union Station and take the subway from there. Simpler than going through the rigmarole of attempting to Uber from a laptop, given the complications if they attempt to 2-factor authenticate me.

467

Ugh. I’ll have a two-hour nighttime drive home when I come back from my trip. I usually listen to music or audiobooks streamed through my phone when driving. I control the house alarm system from my phone…

Fun, fun, fun.

468

I suggest calling your provider to get a replacement phone sent overnight to your hotel. Might take some time to persuade them to do it. You might be home by the time it arrives.

I had an old iPod do that after leaving it in the car on a hot day.

469

Travelling is for something something??? :wink:

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470

My phone provider wouldn’t do this when I was living abroad. They needed me to send a certified copy of my birth certificate to them to prove I was who I said I was before they would mail me a phone to a non-US address. A photocopy of my passport wouldn’t cut it.

I didn’t have my birth certificate with me and it wasn’t worth the hassle to have someone go dig it up for me back home when I was coming back to the states in another few weeks at that point. This was ten years ago, though.

471

If being out of the US is the only problem, have them overnight it to your home address (or that of a friend) and have them overnight it to you in Canada.

472

This is just a quick trip. I’ll be home late Friday night. Even if I were able to find someone willing to rush ship a phone up here, it won’t get here before I check out of the hotel, and if shipped to the office up here, there’s a nontrivial chance it wouldn’t find me before I head to the airport for my flight home.

If I were really desperate (or if this were a longer trip), I’d buy a phone up here, get a cheap SIM (if such exists; I know cell service is more expensive/restrictive in Canada than in the US), and go by an AT&T store Saturday, when I’m back home.

But I’m not actually desperate. This is very inconvenient, but not the end of the world.

I just ordered another unlocked Pixel from Google. I had been thinking about changing to a non-Pixel phone in the spring, but under the circumstances I didn’t want to torture myself by researching the alternatives right now. New phone should get to my home Monday or Tuesday.

473

Trivia: The TTC does not make it easy for folks unfamiliar with the place to find the subway station.

It was…interesting exploring the tunnels under the station.

Glad I studied Google maps a bit last weekend. Didn’t get too lost once back above ground finding the hotel.

474

I’d still like to see the list of all the necessities that your phone provides.

For a friend, of course.

475

I was already maintaining a list, out of personal curiosity.

So far:

  • Telephone / text message device (I call my wife every night when on the road)
  • Access to email
  • Web browser
  • Access to my corporate network (I have an RSA token app on my phone, required to log in)
  • Phone book
  • Camera
  • Note-taking device (e.g. I would have made a few notes about where I left my car at the airport, since I didn’t fly out of my usual airport)
  • Travel organizer (I would normally have relied on my phone to remember travel details, like which hotel was reserved for me by corporate travel)
  • Boarding pass
  • Book/library
  • Customs/Immigration declaration (I would have done the formalities with an app, rather than fighting with a kiosk at the airport)
  • Access to Uber (very few cabs when I got out of the destination airport)
  • Car Insurance documentation (renting a car was out, since I don’t keep an insurance card in my wallet anymore, not that I’d want to deal with a car in Toronto)
  • Navigation device (navigating local public transport, and finding the hotel in this unfamiliar-to-me place was…interesting)
  • Wi-Fi hotspot (I dislike having to use public Wi-Fi; at least I have a VPN on my personal laptop)
  • Web browser
  • Shopping tool
  • Password manager
  • Banking
  • 2-factor authentication (buying a subway ticket in Canada, and then a phone in the US sets off a fraud alert)
  • Watch
  • Alarm clock
  • White noise generator
  • Music / audiobook player.
  • Home automation control (my phone controls lights on/off at home, mimicing my living patterns, when away)
  • Home alarm control

Some of these things are being replaced by virtue of my having brought a personal laptop with me. I’m REALLY glad I did. My work laptop is locked such that it will only connect to the corporate VPN, which I can’t do without my RSA app. I had thought about not traveling with my personal PC, since the trip is short and my phone would have been adequate for most of what I’d use my computer for during that time.

Of course, I’m now sitting here with a toast message on my screen, telling me that I’m about to get an OS update on my laptop…

And now it’s time to pack up and head to the office. I’ve never been there before; I think I know how to get there…

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476

Crap. The QR code I used to prepay my parking (at a discount) at Logan is on my phone. Getting my car out of hock will be interesting.

477

do you have your departing Boarding Pass? They should charge you based on that

People lose tickets all the time

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478

Yep. It’s serving as the bookmark in the first dead-tree book I’ve bought in years.

It’s just not something I’d want to deal with very late at night, with a two-hour drive home ahead of me.

It’s still not a disaster. Just really, really inconvenient.

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479

Interesting list. My wife pushed me into the Apple ecosystem a few years ago when getting a new phone and I recently decided to get an iPad instead of a small laptop for when I am not in my office (travel and various in-person meetings).

Your predicament just made me realize one additional benefit of this change. I can do virtually everything on my iPad that I do on my phone. I can’t make standard phone calls but I can use any number of services like Zoom or FaceTime in a pinch.

480

My phone is used for:

Phone calls
Sending occasional text message
Free mobile games
Notes for reminders from time to time
Light web browsing
Evernote, primarily for recipes; I can look up ingredient list at store
Light e-mail
Fandango app (that gets used like once per calendar quarter, mostly for my son)
Facebook at times
Pandora
various shopping apps; usually just used to see if they have something in stock and/or what aisle its in.
local parking app
ESPN to quickly check scores
Son’s football team app

So, nothing really game-changing. Contacts are backed up to cloud.

My main use for my phone these days, really is as my work phone. The headset they gave me is really crappy, so I do most everything via my cell phone.

481

I know, I know!

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482

I believe might have 7 airports within 2 hours of me. I need to count