Amazon exiles discussion

Just seen a trailer for a TV series saying you can watch it now on your phone, tablet, or your TV (afterthought, if you really must) . I really don’t understand.

My iAd keoard is diving me mad. It keeps rinting thewrong lette or omitting othes. I do’t ype quickly. I’ve tried usig a stylus butv it’s justv as bad.
I’ve cleane the screen. Anyother ideas? It’s taing me ageshavng to correct everything!

Lez wrote: "My iAd keoard is diving me mad. It keeps rinting thewrong lette or omitting othes. I do’t ype quickly. I’ve tried usig a stylus butv it’s justv as bad.
I’ve cleane the screen. Anyother ideas? It’s..."

That's just like what I've been marking for the past month ….except neater.

I’m sure I need professional help for this but Tim might have an idea.
A few months ago I could no longer access Safari on my MacBook Air. The apps - Spotify, iTunes etc were ok but I couldn’t use the internet. I went back to my old MacBook which has a couple of problems too, and I now mostly use my iPad.
Tried the Air again recently and at first could sign on but then the screen went blank. Now I can’t sign on and the screen shows lots of flashing stripes - black & white with some bits of colours.
I’ve put a pic of this on my profile.

Lez wrote: "I’m sure I need professional help for this but Tim might have an idea.
A few months ago I could no longer access Safari on my MacBook Air. The apps - Spotify, iTunes etc were ok but I couldn’t use ..."

Morning Lez. Dr Tim's diagnosis is, yes, it needs a pro exam. Doesn't look good to me, although, thankfully, I've not yet experienced anything like that. The loss of Safari beforehand is very odd I must say; as you could still access online services with Spotify etc, it sounds like the Safari code got corrupted.

I'm not familiar enough with the Air models to know whether they have a disc drive? Or even if the OS software comes on a disc with it. If so, and you have the ability, you could try booting up from the disc rather than the hard drive (Control + C). Insert disc. Turn the Air off, then on again. Once you hear the chime, press and hold those two keys down until the Apple logo appears.

Hi Tim. Sorry not to get back sooner, there’ve been some new exciting developments. First of all, no there isn’t a disc drive.
I didn’t switch off at all and when I got back to it yesterday, without me touching it, the lines had vanished and the screen showed the panel asking what language I wanted!
Next came the Apple logo and asking for Apple i/d and password. I tried every password I’ve ever used but none worked. The password hint means absolutely nothing to me, I know the hint I did use, but that didn’t work.
I just can’t reset my password, I’ve had 3 messages:

There’s a problem communicating with iCloud
Unable to connect to iCloud
Please verify internet connection.

ICloud is a complete mystery to me and I’ve never had anything to do with it.
I don’t know how to verify my internet connection. There aren’t any other instructions, no arrows or anything. I seem to have reached the end of the line and will need to phone someone. I’m also having probs with my ancient MacBook but I’m pretty sure it’s because I can no longer update anything.

I’m also having probs with my ancient MacBook but I’m pretty sure it’s because I can no longer update anything

You and me both on that score. 😜 Sometimes on my ancient iPhone I get messages telling me I've not backed up to iCloud, but meh! who cares.

Re: your Air, if you can find a decent tech (is there an Apple Store or retailer within reach?) they might be able to find a way past your password problem. Worth a try at least.

Yes, there's a local bloke who does home visits so I'll give him a go. See if I can hire him for a day to give me a tutorial!

There's something I want to know about my phone, too. Not a fault, and not important, just something I can't find. It's a Samsung so there should be some sort of online help.

Lez wrote: "Yes, there's a local bloke who does home visits so I'll give him a go. See if I can hire him for a day to give me a tutorial!

There's something I want to know about my phone, too. Not a fault, and..."

Cool 😎

iPad playing up again - some of the earlier problem, missing letters etc. Also, when I’m scrolling down this Amazon Exiles page for instance and I click on a thread, the page carries on scrolling making me click the wrong thread. Aaarrggghh!
Forgot- also when trying to search Wiki for instance, the keyboard doesn’t appear and I just get Paste/info!

I've no experience of iPads but I found this online for iPhone issues and it looks to be easy enough to understand and follow? I don't know whether it'll work though but it might just be worth a try? ;o> ...

https://www.payetteforward.com/iphone...

Thanks suzy. The first thing I did was clean the screen but no luck. The iPhone info is all about apps and doesn’t apply to the iPad. Thanks anyway.

Ahhh, shame. I was hoping that some of the Keyboard and Software Fixes might turn out to be similar across both kinds of Devices ;o<

You need someone like Tim then ... it's a shame that some of these Threads don't also come with Emergency Call Buttons, isn't it? - LOL!!! ;o>

Hi Lez. Sorry to hear you have more grief. I tried a quick search, which turned up this - http://www.ipadforums.net/threads/key...

The suggested solution, of resetting the iPad should be your first port of call. As the guy says, hold down the on/off button at the top and the home button until the device turns off. Then restart as normal and keep fingers crossed. Good luck.

Hi Lez, I recently read something about Apple offering free fixes but turned out it was for the MacBook Pro rather than the Air. Apparently there was an issue with the 13" MacBook Pro which, in some cases, resulted in loss of data and failure of the storage drive. These were machines sold between June 2017 and June 2018.

This follows on from the June 2018 "repair program for MacBook and MacBook Pro models equipped with butterfly keys to address complaints over letters or characters that repeat unexpectedly, letters or characters that do not appear, and keys that feel "sticky" or do not respond in a consistent manner. "

https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/...

You can file this under useless information.

Answer to query by the Duke on a different thread about the usefulness of an Amazon Echo.

____________
I have one in the living room and one in the bedroom. The living room one has a screen that shows the time, keeps my shopping list, reminds me of appointments, reminds me to take my pills, etc. etc. I can also ask it Googly things like what's the population of X, what's the time in Perth, Australia, Who wrote War and Peace etc. Everything is done by speaking so no typing needed.

The bedroom one plays my latest Audible book from where I left off while I'm getting off to sleep. I say "Alexa, stop!" when I'm finally dozing off. I can switch my lights on and off from in bed by voice at a required level of brightness, e.g. if I need to get up in the middle of the night. I can also ask "Alexa, what time is it?" without opening my eyes and in the dark - I get a spoken answer*. It wakes me up every morning to a selection of music of my choice, e.g. "Alexa, wake me up every morning at 8:00 to Beethoven (or whatever)." On arriving home in the evening with shopping I can shout "Alexa, All lights on" and the house lights up.

Those are the things I can think of, off the top of my head and I use them all regularly every single day. (Oh, just remembered, it keeps my To-Do list)

*Everything (request and reply) is done by voice so no screen is needed unless you really want one. I rarely need the screen - it's useful for lists, e.g. shopping and to-do. You can also get it to list the videos from your Prime collection and it lets you choose and watch one by speaking, e.g. "Play Breaking Bad". It will continue from where you left off.

If I did a lot of cooking, I'd have one in the kitchen. It can suggest recipes and act as a timer and all that sort of stuff. I don't really cook so a kitchen one wouldn't help me much.

P.S. Things like the Shopping List is automatically available on your smart-phone if you have one so, provided you have a signal, you can consult your list whilst in the store. I can only get a signal in one part of Morrison's so I have to stand near the back to consult my shopping-list but it still saves carrying bits of paper.

Addressing most of those points as to why I don’t need one:

I have at least one clock in every room. I no longer physically go shopping but write my shopping list on a ‘blackboard’ in the kitchen.
Appointments are on my calendar and my iPad calendar memo.
I have a 7-day pill-box compartmented into days and times of day.
I hope the day never comes when I would need help to look things up! Where’s the pleasure and sense of achievement in that?
I don’t read books online or in bed, I do crosswords or other puzzles. I have a dimmable bedside lamp and there’s sufficient natural light from the landing window to get me to the lav. If I wake up and it’s still dark I don’t need to know the time. My radio alarm is programmable.
I have 2 kitchen timers and enough recipes to feed the neighbourhood several times over.
Why do you need all the house lights on when you arrive home?
I have a light by the front door, my keyring has a light on it and the hall light-switch is right by the door.
So far as I know, Alexa can’t do useful physical things like switching the telly on (unless you leave it on standby, wasting energy), switching the gasfire on, fetching a CD from the shelf, drawing the curtains, etc.?

i'd sooner trust a hand grenade with a rusty pin to sit on my mantlepiece!

The only voice-activated thing I have is Siri, and it doesn't understand me, so I don't bother with it.

Lez - I wasn't trying to sell it! I was simply replying to someone who wanted to know. You are at perfect liberty to live the way you want to.

Looking at your list which is perfectly valid, I can't help remembering all the bits and pieces I used to rely on that are now concentrated into one little box.

To expand on just one little point: I used to have a programmable radio/alarm. It required a lot of faffing (i.e. button-pressing) if I needed to reset it. That also required my glasses. I had only a choice of one or two stations I could wake up to.
With my Echo, I literally say, "Alexa, wake me up at 8 in the morning to 60s music". I can do that in the dark and lying down. I immediately get a verbal reply, "Alarm set for 8 am tomorrow to All60s on Amazon music."

CDs just don't apply any more. I simply say "Alexa, play FBI by the Shadows" or whatever and bingo, it starts playing.

A totally blind person could use it. A paralysed person could use it. I am neither of those but it's so easy that it has become natural just to ask for what you want.

Incidentally I can tell it to switch my computer on without it being on standby. Haven't tried with the telly but I presume it wouldn't be any harder. I thought about opening the curtains but it would have cost me a couple of hundred quid for the mechanism so I didn't bother.

I need blackout curtains to sleep through the night. If I wake up I can't see any clocks and wouldn't want one that has a light showing all the time. If I want to go to the loo then I just say, "Alexa Bedroom 5". That's the lowest setting so it doesn't hurt my eyes. 100 is the max suitable for reading.

If I can't sleep, I can say, "Play white noise", or "Play waterfall sounds" or "Play instrumental music" or whatever.

The whole point of it for me is

(a) everything is centred on one piece of equipment that does more than all my separate gadgets put together.

(b) Everything is spoken. No switching on the computer or tapping keys or needing specs to read.

I could go into more detail but, like I said, I'm not trying to sell this to anyone. I just happen to find it invaluable to me.

Tech wrote: "i'd sooner trust a hand grenade with a rusty pin to sit on my mantlepiece!"

Talking about mantelpieces, when I was a kid we had what I think was a WWI shell on our mantelpiece. We used to call it 'the bullet'. It looked something like this:



It was said to be a dud and you could see marks where it had been hit several times unsuccessfully by the firing pin.

Lucky it was a dud really as I spent many an hour hitting it with a hammer or throwing it against the ground to try and make it go off. I was about 7 or 8 at the time.

nocheese wrote: "The only voice-activated thing I have is Siri, and it doesn't understand me, so I don't bother with it."

Luckily I've never had that problem with the Echo. The only mildly annoying thing is that occasionaly an advert comes on for them and if the actor says, "Alexa when is my next appointment?" my one tries to answer!
Actually I think that's been sorted out now because I've noticed in the latest ads it's not happening any more.

Sorry TB, I sounded a bit confrontational! I was justifying to myself why I hate the idea of such devices. Many older people are physically infirm but perfectly alert mentally and able to organise their lives. They (we?!) should be encouraged to do so for as long as possible rather than sit in a chair talking to a machine.
I think there’s a danger of well-meaning relatives giving them as presents.

Lez wrote: "Sorry TB, I sounded a bit confrontational! I was justifying to myself why I hate the idea of such devices. Many older people are physically infirm but perfectly alert mentally and able to organise ..."
No offence taken and no offence meant! :-)

Anyway - I'll leave all you Luddites to set the mouse trap and light a candle whilst I head off for a cup of cocoa and bed with my latest audio book. ;-)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h...

Racist soap dispenser! :-)

This is actually real - not a skit! Luckily it is taken lightheartedly.
https://youtu.be/8PlUf30rvyA

nocheese wrote: "https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h..."

I've watched that clip several times, but not this time. Oh no, the woke BBC wants to ensure that I'm over 18 (does your telly do that when you turn it on?) and that I'm not gonna dissolve like that poor koala in the other clip because of some swearing. And after all that, it decided my iPad was too old and it wasn't going to show the clip anyways. Jeez!

TwoddleBungler wrote: "Racist soap dispenser! :-)

This is actually real - not a skit! Luckily it is taken lightheartedly.
https://youtu.be/8PlUf30rvyA"

Very funny. The joy of tech!

TwoddleBungler wrote: "Racist soap dispenser! :-)

This is actually real - not a skit! Luckily it is taken lightheartedly.
https://youtu.be/8PlUf30rvyA"

Ohhh? - I just wanted to pick that poor Koala up and cuddle it!!! ;oO

nocheese wrote: "https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h..."

On my iPad I got : “Not currently available on this device. Try again later.”
I do remember seeing it though. Brilliant!

Edit: it’s on YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sAz_Uvn...

suzysunshine7 wrote: "TwoddleBungler wrote: "Racist soap dispenser! :-)

This is actually real - not a skit! Luckily it is taken lightheartedly.
https://youtu.be/8PlUf30rvyA"

Ohhh? - I just wanted to pick that poor Koa..."

It'd probably bite your face off if you tried, suzy! 🙀

Yeah, I know - LOL!!! ;o>

I just can't bear to see any bullying - or anyone/anything crying like that.

;o> ...

A mischievous parrot was caught ordering strawberries, watermelons and ice-cream after ‘falling in love’ with Amazon’s voice-activated device Alexa.

Rocco, a homeless African grey, keeps using the personal assistant to order his favourite treats, as well kites and light bulbs, and likes to set the mood by playing romantic music.

The clever bird was taken in by the National Animal Welfare Trust’s Berkshire centre earlier this year after he was found as a stray. But staff member Marion Wischnewski agreed to become his foster parent after he caused a few issues in the Great Shefford office by swearing and throwing his water bowl around.

Ms Wischnewski said fun-loving Rocco enjoys dancing and putting on his favourite tunes. But thanks to a parental lock on her Amazon account, the attempted purchases have not gone through, The Times reported.

“I’ve come home before and he has romantic music playing,” she said, “He loves to dance and has the sweetest personality”

African grey parrots are one of the most intelligent bird species.

They are capable of building vocabularies of up to 1,000 words or more.

One of the most famous African greys was Alex, who was the subject of a 30-year experiment by animal psychologist Dr Irene Pepperberg in America. By the time Alex died at the age of 31 in 2007, he could count, identify objects, shapes, colours, and materials, and understood the concepts of bigger, smaller, same and different.

Dr Pepperberg said the parrot had the intelligence level of a five-year-old human and the emotional level of a two-year-old by the time he died, and that he hadn’t reached his full potential.

http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat...

From time to time my iPad Mini goes to split screen without me doing anything that I'm aware of. Online suggestions are all about swiping the screen in various directions but they don't work, nor does switching it off and on again. I've tried Settings but there doesn't seem to be anything applicable. Eventually it corrects itself without my knowingly doing anything. Any ideas?

Will this work, Lez Lee? ...

http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/04/disabl...

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Will this work, Lez Lee? ...

http://osxdaily.com/2018/09/04/disabl..."

Thanks Suzy, you've solved it by default in a way! Initially it's about split screen Apps which wasn't my problem but a further link to split screen on Safari (browser) has the full explanation. It's apparently not a permanent fix but as long as I can always get out of it, that's fine. Enormous thanks!

Ohhh fantastic! - I'm glad it helps somewhat until you can find a more permanent fix ;o>

Kirsty Allsop can permanently fix iPads - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainm...

Kirstie Allsopp has revealed she smashed her children's iPads over their f*****g naughty heads!

Support for Windows 7 is ending
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windo...

Anyone needing to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 can can do it for free using the Windows 10 upgrade assistant.It takes forever to download but it does work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5CI6...

I've been trying SO desperately hard to hold onto my beloved Windows 7 until the heartbreakingly sad and incredibly bitter end ... BUT! ... recently several Websites have refused to function properly for me and Microsoft cruelly keeps on with punishing me for all my love and loyalty by sending me weekly Updates that keep picking fights with all my other Software and repeatedly shutting my precious Laptop down on me! ... ARRRGGGHHH!!! ... ENOUGH!!! ;oO

I Update ... and then I spend hours having to try to uninstall all of the dodgy ones such as 'Silverlight' as it makes my Cursor take on a Mind all of it's own and will let me go anywhere I like ... so long as it's always resolutely to the upper right edge of my Screen! ... GRRR!!!

I've found somewhere trustworthy and reliable offering up their own customised version of Windows 10 - a decrappified job that seems to be just the thing for me to graciously admit defeat with and upgrade to.

I'm going to try to continue to battle it out with the nasty sabotage-by-stealth Software Updates for a little longer but I've got my Escape Plans all worked out and ready and waiting now ... and the countdown has begun ;o>

I'm going to keep on with Windows 7. It does everything I want and with add-ons such as a firewall, Malwarebytes, etc, I'll just trust to luck that I'm safe. This older computer I'm on at the moment is operating fine on XP. In fact, my tame computer technician (an IBM-trained professional) has recently reverted to XP from Windows 10 so I feel vindicated.

I SO want to trust in keeping on using Windows 7 - but I also use Microsoft Security Essentials with it and I understand that it will be discontinued on Windows 7 should I decide to stick with it.

I can't take the risk of Banking online, etc, without Security and Protection in place and so I'm going to go with the customised version of Windows 10 I've found out about with whatever Security that they recommend to go with it - as it will make for a more complete and a much cheaper all-in-one package deal overall.

I'm not happy about it though! ... not happy at all! ... ;o<

suzysunshine7 wrote: ""

Lol. Cassettes are quite fashionable these days. 😱

Really?! ... I finally said a rather sentimental Goodbye to the very last of all my 80's Cassettes a few weeks ago and M&D had to take them into several Charity Shops before they found one that would take them.

The others missed out on a veritable goldmine of retro then? ;o>

suzysunshine7 wrote: "Really?! ......"

Yep, what Tim said......lots of bands are now releasing limited edition cassettes. Plenty of them on Bandcamp.

I still have some old ones, and a double cassette deck, but haven't been tempted to buy any of these new ones!

I'm just waiting for the return of the mini-disc.

Betamax ;o>