Senior Life

News & information for the seniors in our community

24-hour Elder Abuse hotline
(866) 800-1409 or TTY (888) 206-1327

Representative Tim Butler hosts “Tech Talk” at Oasis

Send a link to a friend  Share

[October 19, 2015]  On Wednesday morning, October 14th, Illinois State Representative Tim Butler hosted a ‘Tech Talk” at the Oasis Senior Center in Lincoln. Seventeen Logan County seniors attended the meeting filling the conference room at the center to full capacity. Joining Butler at the Tech Talk was Chris Warwick and Scott Buffington of AT & T. Though the two do work for a specific service provider, the meeting was not a self-promotion of their company. The discussions around the room focused more on the usage of smart devices in general.

Butler opened the meeting, thanking everyone for attending and recounting his political resume briefly.

He commented briefly on the state budget crisis and said he was hopeful that the governor and speaker could settle their differences and come to a compromise that would soon put a budget in place for the state of Illinois. He said the impasse is affecting the lives of many people and it needs to end. He noted that the House and Senate will be back in session beginning October 20, and he hopes they will end this situation soon.

Moving on to the topic of the day, Butler said “way back when” he got his first cellphone it was a large folding cumbersome unit with an antenna sticking out the end. Today, phones have become small and convenient to carry, and have become more of a basic need than a luxury in our lives.

Warwick began the talk by doing a survey of the room, asking folks to say what they use their smart phone for. Many of the answers involved use of applications or “apps” on the phone. Responses included Gas Buddy, Stocks, Maps and the GPS program, and Facebook. Several in the room said they didn’t use Apps as much as they used the texting and email features.

Warwick said instead of giving a formal presentation, the day would be devoted to answering questions about smartphones in general. He then opened the floor to anyone with questions.

Questions were plentiful as many of the guests had concerns about battery usage, data usage, and information sharing.

One question was, “Can the phones be traced during 911 calls?” Warwick said in most cases yes, but it does depend on the location the person is in when they dial 911. He said that some emergency dispatch centers have the ability to track the phone and locate the caller, while others may not. He added that even when they don’t they can still find a caller’s general location by “pinging” various cell towers and “triangulating” the region where the call is coming from.

Warwick also brought up an interesting fact. Cellphones that have been deactivated for whatever reason, still have the ability to dial 911 in emergencies.

Questions about data usage included, how does data get “used up?” Most plans for smartphones come with a certain amount of ‘data’ usage allowed per month. The data is used through access to applications and other features such as videos and movies that are downloaded for viewing on the smartphone. Warwick said one way to cut back on data usage is to set the phone to search for Wi-Fi connections. When the phone is running through a Wi-Fi connection, then data pulled into the phone doesn’t count as phone usage, it counts as usage for the entity providing the Wi-Fi connection. Warwick warned that pulling Wi-Fi can be dangerous, so use caution. Using the Oasis as an example, he said that there is a Wi-Fi connection in the building, and the Oasis would be a safe provider. So using the Wi-Fi connection at the Oasis instead of the cellphone connection would save data usage.


He noted that there are other locations that also provide Wi-Fi, such as many McDonald’s restaurants now offer the service.

Questions came up regarding battery life. Some of the guests said they felt that their batteries ran down too quickly. Warwick said there were some reasons for this. He noted that recently one company had been recalling their batteries, so that could be something users should check into.

[to top of second column]

Another culprit, he said, was apps running in the background. He said some may think they have closed an app when they stop using it, when in reality it is still open and while it isn’t pulling down data, it is draining the battery. This was news to many in the room, and several folks wanted better explanations on how to be sure that an app is closed.

Warwick and Buffington spent several minutes working with individual users showing them how to check and see what apps are running in the background, and how to turn them off. The phones in the room included Androids and iPhones, each of which have a different method for turning off apps. The two men walked through the process for both types of phones.

Butler also spoke briefly about the data usage plans and suggested that everyone review what they are using each month in data, and determine if they are subscribing to more than they need. He said he had done this recently and as a result, reduced the data portion of his plan, which saved him money on his monthly bill.

Another question came up asking what is airplane mode and how should it be used? Warwick explained that when flying, cellphone usage is prohibited. Switching a phone to airplane mode will effectively block calls and data usage, but the phone is still usable for watching movies that are already downloaded, taking photos with the camera part of the phone, or any other activity that does not require a live connection.

Warwick also asked how many people in the room travel internationally. A few in the room raised their hands. He said that when traveling internationally, contact the service provider for the phone and implement an international plan. He said without it, calls to the United States from foreign countries can cost a great deal of money. He also told the group that international plans can be turned on and off, so users can implement the plan before they leave the country, then have it discontinued when they return home.
 


It is not uncommon that when the conversation turns to telephones it eventually evolves to talking about telemarketers. There was a time when cellphones were a telemarketer free zone, but that is no longer the case. Cell phone numbers are being acquired by telemarketers and calls are being made now on a regular basis. Warwick said that one deterrent was to put the cellphone number on the National Do Not Call list, but many in the room said they had already done that, and it was not effective. Warwick and Buffington then talked about establishing a blocked caller list on the cellphone. Again this is done by different methods according to the type of phone being used. The men went through the steps involved in getting to the “settings” for the phone and creating a blocked caller list.

The meeting on Wednesday was scheduled to last only one hour. Warwick wrapped things up pretty close to on time, but it was apparent that for the guests the meeting could have continued for a while longer, as questions continued to come right up to the last minute. As his last piece of advice, Warwick told the room that the staff at their service provider’s store should be equipped to help with all of their questions.

The group was also invited to take a handout from Warwick home with them. He said it would provide them with some basic information that they may find helpful.

N

< Senior Life index page

Back to top