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In the Spotlight: Fellwalker

Anonymous
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Hi guys!

 

One more week we want to put on the Spotlight a great member of our community. This time we are putting on the Spotlight Fellwalker who is an amazing contributor for his great knowledge of technology and passion. 

You can read some of his great contributions on the Microsoft Band One & MS Health Review and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 review

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-11 at 09.30.06.png

 

Here's the short interview we did to Fellwalker. Let's start with the questions, shall we?

 

Hi ,Fellwalker, tell us a bit about you. What is your name and where are you from?

Jim, currently living in the North East of England, in Durham. Despite my long time here, I still think of myself as a Yorkshireman.

 

What brought you to the O2 forum on the first place?

Seeking help, though I cannot remember what is was for that long ago.

 

What do you enjoy the most about the forum?

The variety of contributors.  And the amazing tenacity of some long time members who give up a lot of time to try and help poor souls lost in the intricacies of technology.

I do get saddened by the rants of some, and how they let small issues escalate to such an extent.  I'm also amazed that some have the energy to register, ask for help, are offered help but then never appear again.

 

What hobbies do you have?

My user name suggests my interest in rambling over the hills and dales.  That has been subverted in recent years to golf, which is in itself a 5 mile walk.  No, not spoiled!  I read a lot of technological magazines and love how computers can help us.  It means I support half a dozen friends locally.  I also read a lot of Science Fiction - not fantasy, not zombies or horror which are being lumped in with it nowadays.

 

Favourite OS?

Good question. The one that is working best at the time! Probably Windows 7 on the desktop as it worked well for so long, though XP is a close second. Not Windows 10 at present, as it is giving me a lot of grief, though it has a LOT of promise. You've inspired me to write a longer article later.

On phones, I'd go for Android 4.4.4 as I don't like the pretty pretty that Lollipop and Marshmallow have brought.  However, I really liked Windows Mobile 6.5 and wish that had been developed.

 

First mobile phone

Motorola RAZR v3im.  Brilliant little flip phone, solid and dependable but it looked good, particularly in the deep red.

 

Worst mobile phone

Motorola E1000 - promised so much, delivered so little.

 

Name your must-have phone

It doesn't exist!  It would be the best bits of several.  Today's so-called flagships are too thin, with too small memory and battery life. Then they need a case to protect them. The closest has been a Samsung Note 4, with the very usable S-Pen, and which still had the swappable battery and SD Card slot, but that TouchWiz overlay did my head in.  Thanks go to Toby and the O2 TryTheTech scheme which allowed me to trial one for 2 weeks and prove to myself that it was just too annoying.

 

Ideal specs would include ? Tenacious signal acquisition and retention!  5.5 inch AMOLED FHD screen, S-Pen or Surface Pen type stylus, 4GB RAM, 64GB Storage, SD Card slot featuring adoptable storage, 2 day proper usage -probably 4000mAh battery (removable even if only when it stops holding a charge in a year's time); Latest versions of 4G, Wifi, GPS, Bluetooth LE, etc.  Quick Charging both Standard and Wireless , USB C type USB 3.0 socket. Front facing speakers. Sturdy plastic shell (metal bends and glass breaks, as I have proven over the years).  Having said that, I'd like a secondary e-ink rear or main transflective screen to show time, weather notifications, as a full size display to act as an e-reader for books, emails, RSS feeds and so on, with negligible battery drain.  Thinking back to my HP iPAQ hx4700, its main screen was "transflective" so in bright sunlight, the reflective coating behind the display meant I could read the screen perfectly well without a backlight.

 

Oh, and my phone would NOT have a selfy camera, but it would have an optical zoom front camera at least as good as that on the Sony Z5 Premium (see @viridis review). The camera would NOT stick out the front in a horrible lump! I thought the Nokia 40MPixel oversampling was an excellent idea that fizzled out. Surely it is not beyond the wit of phone makers to install the sensor and lens sideways but have a mirror to look out forwards?

 

In terms of sensor technology, I do like the idea of Windows recognising your glance and unlocking the phone. My experience of fingerprint sensors has been that they were more trouble than they were worth, but hopefully that has been improved.  I like environmental sensors, so probably Accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, gesture, glance.

 

I was happy with the 9mm of my Nexus 4, which is probably good because the above isn't going to fit in one of these stupidly thin things on offer at present.

 

Have you ever had a dream come true? If yes, which one?

I can't say I have ever been a dreamer.  In a morning, I never remember having dreamt.

 

Any anecdote you'd like to share with us?

Be amazed at the power you carry in your pocket. Mobile phones are so ubiquitous that we forget what a recent invention they are.  I had been working for 20 years before I got  a mobile.  My job involved visiting customers, and I remember having to find a payphone to let my wife know that I was not stuck in a snowdrift on the way home from a customer in the wilds of the Durham Dales.  A couple of years after that, three of us at work got a phone that we could SHARE, and the one who was going furthest or wildest got it for that day.  Coverage was far from guaranteed. That is as recent as 1998, less than 20 years ago.  Some 12 years ago, we got laptops - huge heavy things with poor battery life and dedicated printers, initially in a custom built briefcase that needed weight lifting training to carry.  Later we had a laptop with a dongle for data - but this was before 3G so try to imagine how slow anything was.  The pace of change is still accelerating.

 

favourite birthday card saying…

Real men don't need instruction books; they are after all only the opinion of the manufacturer.

 

  

Now that you know @Fellwalker a bit better feel free to ask him questions!

 

Below are some of our previous members in the Spotlight . You could be next by getting involved in the community! 

 

 If you would like to suggest someone for the Spotlight feel free to drop @ @Tobyor me  (@Meri) a  PM.

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gmarkj
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I remember the laptop in a brief case - didn't have one personally, but one of my lecturers at uni did and it was a beast. Larger than an equivalent desktop, excluding the printer part!

 

Nice to hear some more about you, and agree that WP6.5 had a lot of promise (had a Samsung Omnia that ran it - great phone until the battery died). 

Please note, this is not customer services and we cannot access your account. Do not publish personal details (email, phone number, bank account).


Link to our guide on how to contact them can be found here

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Anonymous
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Cheers nice Spotlight!

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Cleoriff
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Hi @Fellwalker

Great spotlight. Nice to 'get to know' you a bit more......though I think we could all guess one of your hobbies from your user name. wink

Veritas Numquam Perit

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MI5
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Wave

Good spotlight slight_smile

I have no affiliation whatsoever with O2 or any subsidiary companies. Comments posted are entirely of my own opinion. This is not Customer Service so we are unable to help with account specific issues.

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jonsie
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Anonymous
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thank you for your Spotlight ... ... ... informative & entertaining ... ... ... Is there snow on them there fells atm ? ... ... ... good to know you still consider yourself a Yorkshireman wink even after your years in Durham, which is a beautiful, historic city innit ? ... ... ...  I remember going around the cathedral on a school trip, when I'd be 12 years old, & being told the history of the door-knocker on the cathedral door, amongst other things slight_smile

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