At least, don’t try to call my mobile over the next couple of days. Yesterday the touch screen died on my HTC Wildfire S and wasn’t fixed even with a battery-out shutdown and restart. Thinking about it, the ringer had been sounding odd for a few days and it is over five years old (see the “welcome” post from 2011). I don’t think it is worth trying to get it fixed but a working mobile feels quite essential nowadays. For example, I’ve got a gig down in Reading tomorrow night and, if I break down, it could be a long walk to find a phone box!

Last night I looked over some possible alternatives. Apart from calls and texts, there are relatively few things I did with the Wildfire but a few more than are possible with a ‘feature phone’. I consider a camera, flashlight, multifunction clock and guitar tuner to be the key essential additions. To some extent, this small repertoire is led by the measly amount of storage on the old device but I’ve normally got other devices around when I want to perform other tasks. I discovered that Argos carry a smart phone for my current provider for about £25 (the branch of the provider I visited in town didn’t have anything available in pay as you go!) so, even if it only lasts a year, it won’t be too bad. It is an IMO Q – early days but it seems surprisingly decent so far.

Unfortunately, it turns out to need a smaller size SIM card than my old phone so I’ve had to arrange for a replacement to be sent so that I can keep the same number. That means I do have a phone this weekend but hardly anyone has the number. Ah well! The other complication was that, in trying to get my Google account set up on the phone, I realised that I couldn’t receive the text message that was required for the two factor authentication. Eventually I was able to use my old SIM in Jane’s phone to get the code to login to Google to get the sheet of pre-generated codes I couldn’t find to get the account set up on the new device. Phew!

Normal service should be resumed sometime next week.