Mobile Phones

Craig signed up for MINT Mobile recently. But he hasn't gotten any security updates for his Samsung Galaxy Note 20. Leo says that you have to wait for the carriers to approve it. It goes Google - Samsung - the carriers. And often there is a tug of war between the manufacturer and the carrier over who pays for the bandwidth to manage the update. It's possible that MINT is blocking the update. That would be a problem. But it could also be Samsung.

Scott wants to switch from an alma mater email account to a new one without losing the data on his phone. He wants to rename it. Leo says that Google may allow you to change it on your phone. But there are limits. You can't go from one gmail account to another, for instance. Here are the details - https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/19870?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid.

Randy wants to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S21. But when he transfers the data from his other phone, he has GB of "other" data. How can he get rid of that before he transfers the data? Leo says that other data are cached, or temp files. And they shouldn't transfer when you move copy the data over. Look for Samsung's Device Care app It'll allow you to clear out a lot of that stuff.

Karen is moving away from her iPhone and wants a new Android phone that isn't 5G. Leo says that 5G isn't dangerous and the 5G signal will go through you whether you use a 5G phone or not. It's all around you. There is a phone called the Freedom Phone, but it's a cheap sub $200 phone made in China that costs $500 So Leo says it's overpriced.

Cindy is having issues with her phone. She keeps getting connections to old networks, which causes her internet access to drop out. Leo says you can forget those old network connections from time to time.  Click on the "i" button to the right of the network and select the forget option. That should remove those from your "my networks" section and prevent the phone from connecting to them. Here's an Apple tech note about it. Since Cindy is dealing with a divorce, it may be a good idea just to reset the phone completely.

Brenda has an LG mobile phone without service. She tried to get pictures off the phone, but she can't seem to get the data off it. Leo says that it's possible the photos have been backed up to Google Photos. If you can access the account, you can go into it, and they should be backed up there. You may also look to see if there's an SD card in the phone. If so, then you may have the pictures saved there. 

Jenn is looking at either the iPhone XR or the iPhone 11. Leo suggests waiting until after Tuesday when Apple announces the new iPhone. They'll likely reduce the cost of phones down the line as well. Leo says the iPhone XR will only be supported until 2023/24, a five-year window. So you're better off going with the iPhone 11. Then again, it's twice as much. The XR is almost as good, actually. But if the iPhone 11 goes down to around $400 after Tuesday, that could make the difference.  And take a look at the iPhone SE.

Harold can't get his old iPhone to work with his SIM. Leo says that Verizon used GSM back then, and the iPhone would probably not work anyway because it used G2 towers that were turned off long ago. And they're turning onf 3G as we speak, so older 3G phones are about to go offline. But you could use it as an iPod. How can I get the data off it? Leo says to get iTunes for Windows on your computer, connect that old iPhone, and then it'll copy everything off onto your hardware. Leo also recommends uploading the photos to Google Photos. That way it doesn't matter what phone you have.