Mobile Phones

Patty is having issues with coverage in her area, and it's all of a sudden. Leo says that your carrier may have turned off a tower to do maintenance. But it may also be that Patty needs to go in to the store and get an updated SIM card, since they recently merged with Sprint and turned off that tower. So you need a new TMobile Sim. Patty should also consider changing carriers. Word is, that Verizon is better in her area. But it's also the most expensive. 

Mark has a Google Pixel XL where there are no more updates, and the battery is dying. Is the Pixel 4a a good economical alternative? What about a larger screen? Leo says the Motorola Moto G9 offers a pure Android experience at an affordable Mid-Range price. It also has a great battery. But it's taller than it is wide. There's also a new Moto G Power that has a 6 1/2 inch screen.  And the Motorola One.

Afy's Samsung Galaxy S7 phone won't turn on or charge up anymore. It's five years old. Leo says that the battery has finally died. Phone batteries can only take a charge for about 500 cycles. After that, it's dead. That means it's either time to have the battery replaced (which you can for around $100) or just upgrade to a new phone. 

Jamie has an issue that it takes forever to download an image that someone sends to her via text. Like days. Leo says that points to a problem with her cellphone carrier. The gateway between multiple carriers may be down or in need of repair. For Jamie's Samsung, it's Samsung messages. Try using Google Messages and see if it gets better.  You can change it in your message settings. Since her carrier is Sprint, it could also be that there's an issue since TMobile recently purchased them. So there's a lot of factors that you have to check on.

Ron recently picked up a Samsung S8 mobile phone, but his new Outlook contacts don't come up on his phone. Just his old contacts. It's synced with Outlook at work. Leo says that to make sure everything is all synced up. You may be synced to Samsung contacts, and you need to be sure that it's synced up with Outlook. There is also a setting in Outlook to use autofill with contacts.

Diane recently discovered that someone used her credit card to buy an iPhone 12, and it was shipped to her, not the person who made the fraudulent charge. She has disputed the charge, but Apple doesn't seem to want the phone back. Being that she's not an Apple person, what does she do with it? Leo says you can use it, but there may be someone in the family if you don't want it. Leo guesses that she can always sell it on eBay. Apple doesn't tie it to you until it's activated. You could try activating it first.

Ed wants to know if he can use a YubiKey authenticator with his iPhone. Leo says it works great with the iPhone. It's what he uses every day, and he thinks that a hardware key is the best two-factor option. How does it work? Leo says you can get one with a Lightning connector or use the NFC mode and tap it on the phone.

Will it work for Linux? Leo says most flavors of Linux, yes. But there are a few that don't support it, but you can add some code to it to make it work. Here's how.

Duane has a 2010 Android phone and wants to know how to download information to a PC. Leo says you can connect it to your PC, and it could show up as a hard drive. If not, look for a program called Android File Transfer. It's free. The phone will pop up, and you can copy anything off it. If you can't do that, you can probably sync to Google Drive online and get the data there. Samsung also has a program called KIES that will do it for Samsung phones.

Angela has a Mac running Big Sur and an iPhone. She used to be able to get Ring Tones using an app called Ring Toner. But it doesn't work anymore with Big Sur. Leo says you can make your own ring tones with Garage Band. There's no need to use a third-party app to do it.  Garage Band is also available for the iPhone so that you can do it directly from your phone.