Launch or Perish in Flight

 

Launch or Perish in Flight

A lot of guys in my age do not know how to use a new cellphone, especially if that is given by a kid who had bought a new one and dished out the old one to daddy or mummy.

To teach them the difference between a launcher and a browser is not possible.

They expect by the touch of a button, that they can accomplish anything (with a touch-sensitive phone).

A cellphone is a cute gadget with powerful and fanciful actions.

It is a mini-computer much powerful than the computer on board the Apollo 1.

I have just written a powerful and resentful piece about the Firefox browser and the Microsoft launcher.

They are both bulky and unmanageable in a cellphone and slow to respond unlike a computer with 8 GB-RAM.

I used to suggest that Amazon with its Kindle should have a silky and lightweight browser. I ultimately bought a Lenovo (Android 8) instead of the Kindle in Singapore.

Let me dish out the browser which is a heavy utility to access the Internet with many file formats including png and video files. A lot of add-ons are necessary as with improvement in hardware capabilities.

Whereas the cellphone launcher is not a browser (it might it do in the future with ultra smart phones) but an access point to many and basic applications in a phone which may vary from model to model but broadly do the same functions.

Of course, SIM also has a greater share responsibility of transferring digital information which also varies depending on their infrastructure.

I want the launcher to be light but if possible able to detect vulnerabilities of viral attacks.

A browser may be a vehicle for transmitting attacks due to its bulky add ons.

I have tested a few and come to realise that the phone’s dedicated launcher is the best which knows the product’s hardware capability better and integrate better.

In fact, I got into a muddle with a third party launcher and could not launch all nearly 200 applications that I have installed.

I use only 5 applications, regularly apart from my 6 emails.

The rest are my tech craze including learning French.

So the bottom line is, do not have more applications than necessary in your phone.

Check the utilities before buying and get the salesman to install any additional stuff before buying.

Of course, I got a better part of three launchers integrated in less than 24 hours.

Let me give my rating

1. Number one is the phone’s dedicated launcher.
2. The second is the smart browser
3. The third is the XO launcher
4. The fourth is the simple application launcher
5. The fifth is the Microsoft launcher which is bulky and pretty bad.
6. Sixth is the Ragdu.

Why Old People run away from the Internet?

There are many reasons.

I will list only what I have gone through.

The list can go up to 30 but I will restrict it to 20.

 

I am a tech geek for the past 20 years and not a amateur guy fiddling with a cellphone or a tablets and can identify a technical problem within 24 hours. 

My Internet schedule was 24/7 until recently and due to Coronavirus epidemic, I went into a laid back attitude. Our Internet was down for a month and I did not even bother to give a call to Mobitel which is painfully slow to react to customer needs.

I have fully switched to Dialog which is doing a credible support job and is even cheaper to my pocket and use Dialog TV but switched it off during the election campaign. 

So fiddling with my assortment of cheap cellphones and tablets which run on Kitkat, Android 6, 8 and 10.

Now bouquets  to Android developers for having an array of typefaces for my one finger typing skills. 

Thanks to SPIKE, SPARK, various little notes in various colours, black and white, for note keeping and the light weight Facebook Messenger utility.

I am gradually switching off from the computers (dismantled three for good) to cellphones to save energy.

The preamble above is to show that I am not a grumbling old guy with handicaps. 

I am showings signs of old age but my attitude to life is simple and friendly.

 

All these are constructive remarks for struggling tech companies to keep their head above water and survive the economic downturn.

1. None of the applications is user friendly.

 

2. None of the applications is user friendly for people with visual handicap.

 

3. The sign in procedures with emails are very painful due to email password being very difficult to handle and remember even for a teenager.

 

4.The two stage authentication is very painful procedure. if the battery of your cellphone is dead and you do not have a spare telephone with a different carrier SIM.

 

5. All tech companies are paranoid.They are more worried about subscrition drive and not quality in service.

 

6. I use a Linux Box and its version is Deabian 9 and has and an old Firefox version without updates for a very long time but running smoothly. It is OK for my work but some video utilities cannot run on it.

 

7. I cannot use the cellphone to run bulky videos, I get from my old friends especially one with Microsoft exe files.

8. i have enormous number of films downloaded and accidentally erased them in a mater of minutes (all my external Hard Drives and Flash Drives are belly full).

I have one free SD card and one 4 GB spare flash drive. I do not want to buy new spare parts.

 

9. Cloud should save my data and signing them to Google Drive is painful with a new cellphone.

 

10. I used Microsoft's One Drive and stopped it in a month due to its snooping on my accounts.

 

11. I erased its launcher and its utilities except for few wallpapers.

 

12. So Firefox is a pain. Chrome is a pain and even Brave browser is a pain.

 

13. Microsoft's launcher is a pain.

 

14. All email providers are pain except one.

 

15. i have activated two of my old emails coming from America to take the pain out of my mind, in spite of integrating them with SPIKE and SPARK.

 

16. I am going to transfer myself to one email out of six.

 

17. I am warning my friends by December they will not be able to forward emails to me by gut reaction. They have to use my dedicated email.

 

18. Then I am going to restrict my email contacts to 20 and that's it.

 

19. I will use only Duckduckgo, a Linux utility. 

Mind you Moxilla of Firefox was a Linux utility.

 

20. These tech companies who have made money from Linux utilities are trying to make money during  an economic crisis asking for subscription for cheap products for upgrades.

That is not good and the young tech guys also want to make a flashy and clumsy products.

In business sustainability is the name of the game and making a fast buck is going to kill them in the long run, especially if they are based on top of a free subscription product.

I am long gone by then, when they the next stock market crash occurs.

 

It is round the corner I believe.

 

We all people have done our part in our time and you are not going to here any more critical and time based analysis from me.

 

I  will enjoy my retirement and no interest  in  politics like the old guys in our parliament.

 

I am going to buy a new cellphone as a spare in case I drop the present one and break it, and no more laptops but a good tablet is out of my purse.