Computer Shopper - UK (2021-01)

KAY’SCORNER

ISSUE 395|COMPUTER SHOPPER|JANUARY2021 13

Running upthat hill

T’SBEENONEofthoseweeks

whhen I’vehadtocheck the date

isnn’tthefirstofAprilwhile

chheckingthetechnews,

esspeciallywhenreportsarrived

offanappfortighteningor

looseningthelacesontrainers

–aandchangingthecolourof

thhelightson thetrainers,too.

Seriously?Iknowthe

quuestion‘isthereanappfor

thhat?’ is aconstantamong

hhoneusers,butanappto

chhangehowtightyourlaces

are when youcan’t be that far

from your feet strikes me as

an app toofar.

LACEVENTURA

Iwas even moreconvincedthis

was app overkillwhen people

began reportingtheyneeded to

do ahardreset of theirtrainers

following software updates to

theirphone. Lookingintothis a

bit moreclosely,itseems that

it’s intended forbasketball

players whoneed different

tightnessoflaces at different

points in the game,but does

that meantheystopinmid-ball

bounce andget their phone out?

Or does someone elsetap their

app forthem?Eitherway,it

sounds abit weird.

Thefeeling that the world’s

gone overboardinapp madness

was strengthened when afriend

working at abiotech company

doing clever stuff with algae

told me of ameeting with

potential investors where the

researchersdescribed howthey

use the algaetocreate natural

flavourings, onlyfor themoney

men to ask: “So, can youcontrol

the algae with an app?”

It’s not just investment

bankerswho think theworld

revolvesaround apps.

Organisations such as banks

and online governmentservices

all workonthe assumption that

everyone has asmartphone that

has aconstant signal.

GFORCE

Now,Ihappentoliveinamobile

phone blackspot. The hypeat

the moment maywell be

around 5G, andthere’s even a

conference planned for6G, but

quite alot of theUKisstill

waiting hopefully for3G. Forme,

getting any signal on my phone

means Ihavetorun up thehill

and wave my arm in the air

holdingmyhandset, like areject

from arock concert.

This is bad enough when it’s

simply thatsomeone has ignored

my pleatouse the landline

number and has either sent me a

text or leftaphonemessage.

Increasingly,however,services

such as banks or theVAT man

insist on sendingatext code to

your mobile phone to prove you

are whoyou sayyou arewhen

you loginvia aweb browser. The

snag is that these codes only last

30 seconds or aminute, so by

the time I’ve legged it up the hill,

gotasignal,received the text and

run back down the hill, the code

has expired (and so have I, more

or less). This meansIneed an

assistant whowillrun up thehill,

getthe code,phone me on the

landline, relaythe code and let

me typeitin. High tech it isn’t.

Fortunately,there is a

solution if,like me,you live

somewhere with aless than

perfectmobilesignal,solongas

youhaveWi-Fiandtheright

mobile phone contract. It’s called

Wi-Ficalling, andthe wayit

works is thatyou canmake

andreceive calls (and text

messages) usingaWi-Fi

networkrather than having

to do yourown personal

equivalentofrunning up the hill.

This is different to voice-over IP

(VoIP) systems such as Skype

that need aseparatenumber.

Instead, in Wi-Ficalling youuse

your smartphone as normal,

butthe calls are transmitted

usingyour Wi-Fi.

YOUR CALL

An increasingnumber of mobile

phone networks offer this

service,asdosome of the

so-calledMobile Virtual

Network Operators that use

othermobilenetworks.

According to my research, BT,

EE, Freedom Pop, iD Mobile,O2,

Sky, Three and Vodafoneall

currently have some wayto

provide Wi-Fi calling. The snag is

that there arehoops to jump

through –most of the network

providers only offer theservice

forspecific phones that were

bought from them, andonly on

theirmonthly contracts rather

than on pay-as-you-go.

However,it’sworth

checking if you use one of

these companies as your

provider,and if you’re thinking

aboutchanging your phone

or provider,keeptheir Wi-Fi-

callingoptions in mind as one

of the differentiators.

Personally,asIdon’t want

to buy anew phone or sign up

to amoreexpensive contract,

I’ll still be using thetried and

tested technique of running up

the hill to getasignal. What’s

more,I’llhavetied my shoelaces

the old-fashionedway.There

maybeanapp forit, butmy

waykeeps me fit.

This article was originally

published in Shopper 376

KAYEWBANK

SoftwareguruandShopperlegend

Forme, getting anysignal on my phone means Ihavetorun up

the hill and wave my arm in the air holding my handset, likea

rejectfromarock concert

Poor mobile phonereception?There’s anappfor that.ButKayEwbankpreferstokeep

fit byclimbing thenearest hillandwavingher phoneinthe airtogetadecentsignal