I got a smartphone just a few months ago. The verizon store set the phone up, made sure I could answer the phone , and send texts, and look at my emails. They loaded contacts and everything from the old phone. Even went back to ask questions. Leave a lot of time when you go to pick it up so they can work thru a few basics with you.
Youtube is your friend. You can google How do I xxxxx on samsung - and there will be a dozen videos showing you how to accomplish anything you can think of.
My husband just got his first smartphone on Monday, and is going thru the learning curve.
Another tip: if possible to the Verizon store (or Apple store or whatever) avoiding peak times. Good times to go - late in the day, or right when the store opens. M-F morning as opposed to weekends. Stuff like that.
I’m trying to remember why I couldn’t get my current phone at the Verizon store.
It may be because our family plan is in my husband’s name, and he wasn’t with me. His involvement has been necessary to do some things with our Verizon account – like removing our kids from the family plan when they got their own phones and plans. They might not have let me buy a phone in the store because he wasn’t there.
Yep. We had similar problem as plan is in H’s name because we get a discount because he works for the state. You need to have him add you to the account and tell them to allow transactions by you. We have had to do that so S could order his phone without us. )
My H’s name is on our account also and his employer allows us to get a slight discount. We all just needed to know his password - then we could all make transactions in the store.
There should be a billing password on the account. If you know that, Verizon will deal with you without your husband. Your husband could call ahead and make sure you have the credentials needed to do this on your own. My kids have gone to Verizon stores in other states to get new phones and Verizon has called me for the password. I haven’t had to go with them.
An iPhone should be more intuitive and easier to use than an Android, so if you want the easier learning curve, get an iPhone. Apparently WIndows phone is easy to use as well but the main complaint is that there aren’t many apps for it, but if you don’t care that might be a good choice.
For the most part, they should be intuitive. If you get an iPhone you’ll download apps from the appstore (it should be preloaded on your phone) and not from a computer and load them onto the phone. And I’m sure for questions you have someone on here will be able to help you.
Your husband doesn’t have to go with you. As others said, if you have his password, that will do it, or there are ways he can call in to give permission for the upgrade, etc.
Google will be your best friend. “How do I turn on my (brand name/model) phone?” " How do I take a picture etc. You can also get your instruction manual on line and save it to your favorites. Step by step instructions.
You set up Mail. It will guide you through that. Just know your user name and password for your existing email account. You can then get your mail on your phone. As part of the process, you end up with an Apple ID and account. That doesn't cost anything and it lets you download apps, update the phone, and synch data with the free iCloud service. You can also get an icloud.com email address for free.
Import contacts, assuming you have contacts set up somewhere. If you don't, then make contact cards for people you want to call and text. It's easy to do. A suggestion: add nicknames. To do that, when you're making a contact (or editing one), you scroll down to "add field". Touch it and a list pops up. Select nickname. Then go to the top of your contact card and under the name will be "nickname". Fill it in with "Dad" or "Blowhard" or Elvis whatever. Then you can tell Siri to "call Elvis" and it will. It will also text: you say "text Elvis" and Siri says, "What do you want to say?" You talk and it sometimes gets it right and then you say send.
Set up your phone favorites. That's really easy. Once you have contacts in your phone, you touch the "favorites" star in the phone icon/app and hit the + sign and that opens up your contacts. Add what you want. You can change the order by touching edit on the favorites page and dragging the little gray lines at right on any contact up or down. To use the phone, note that when you're making or on a call there's a speaker button. And if a person can't hear you, you may have hit the "mute" button by accident. Note also that there's a hide button on the keyboard so you can hide it and use the other functions like speaker, etc.
The next step - to me - is to set up maps. I use both Apple Maps and Google Maps. I set up locations in both for home and a few other places. Map apps are a bit harder to use but it's worth it for directions. Really worth it: you turn on the navigation and relax (nearly all the time). You can look up how to use these apps; they're not as intuitive. Apple Maps now by default shows traffic (at least where we live). Google Maps of course shows traffic but you have to touch an option to see it.
Texting is simple. Just realize that you enter text in the little box at the bottom of the screen. The big suggestion is that many people don't realize there's a "quicktype" bar that suggests words as you're typing. To get it, you slide up the tiny handle at the top of the keyboard - it's a short white line in the gray - or, if that handle isn't showing, you touch and hold the empty space where you type your text and it will appear. To get rid of it, slide it down. BTW, if you get a photo in a text, just touch it and at bottom left is a square with an arrow pointing up. This is the symbol for "send" or "action": touch it and you can "save image" and it will save the picture. You can add stuff to these choices. I have a lot, from save to dropbox to post to facebook. Touch done at top to go back to the text.
To use Safari is simple. A big suggestion: close old pages. Improves performance. The gist is this: in the lower right is an icon of 2 stacked pages. Touch that and you can add a blank page or close existing ones by touching the x in the upper left corner of each page. The send or action symbol is also bottom middle in Safari. Touch it and you can bookmark a page, email it, post it to facebook, whatever you have enabled. The little arrows on the bottom left take you back or forward if you've opened links from page to page.
To switch between apps, you press the button at the bottom twice quickly. You then slide the open apps side to side. Swipe up and that one goes away - but it saves where it was! - and touch one without swiping up and that one moves to the front. A minute of practice and you'll get it.
Things to download. I mentioned Google Maps. It's free. You touch the App Store button - a big A of sorts - and touch the magnifying glass at bottom right and start typing google maps and it will show it to you with a "GET" button - which means it's free because there is no price! Get it. Google will want you to set up an account so they can track what you do for ads and so they can give you better results. Up to you. You can also download Gmail if you use that now. A big suggestion is to download an ad blocker. Given the sad state of the mobile ad industry, having an ad blocker makes safari much faster and reduces the data you use. I'm not against ads at all, but that industry needs to reform because they're abusing internet users in many ways. I'm currently using a free app called 1Blocker. You search for it, hit the GET button, follow instructions.
As for battery life: don't leave bluetooth on. You don't need it. Leave on wifi and cellular. I leave on Enable LTE for voice and data because it really makes calls better. I assume you have a home wifi network. Your phone will use it. Just enter the name and password: open "settings" and wifi is right near the top.
Practice swiping up from the very bottom of the screen. You'll learn to pull up some useful things: the top row of buttons is "airplane mode" - which turns off the cellular and wifi for plane flights (touch it and it turns white to show it's on), wifi and then bluetooth (a weird symbol I leave black) and then a quarter moon for "do not disturb" - meaning you can't receive but can make calls (good for when you're at the movies!) and the important "lock screen" button. Touch it to turn it white and the screen doesn't shift from portrait to landscape (or vice versa). Below that are controls for screen brightness and music and below that is the really nice "flashlight" - turns your phone into a great flashlight - plus a shortcut to the timer/alarm and shortcuts to the calculator and camera. Note about the camera: just touch the button to take a photo. If you hold the button, it will take a burst of photos. There's a way to pick only one of those 10 per second shots (or pick some or all), but it's not as intuitive. You control the flash by touching the lightning symbol at top left. You take a movie by sliding the list of names right about the big button to video, then touching the button to start and touch again to end. Touch Pano and you can take a panorama by moving the camera - it gives you a guide to follow.
Practice swiping down from the top - from the time at top - on the left at top is today and on the right is notifications. You can add a bunch of stuff to today - with widgets but those come with apps so the more apps the more potential widgets you have. The bane of nearly everyone's existence is notifications. I've turned off most. (Note you get rid of notifications you've received by touching the x at right and then clear.) Every app wants to send you notifications and these will generally include sound, a banner on the lock screen, a banner while you're in another app, and a number badge on the app's icon. To get rid of these - or at least stop the banners and stop them from waking up your phone - which costs the battery! - you need to go into Settings and you see "Notifications". Each app shows what's allowed: touch it to edit. I turn off "show on lock screen" and select "alert style when unlocked to "none". I generally allow icon badges. Notification can be great - like updates on packages - but you have to stay on top of them.
The button at the bottom always takes you to the main screen. In some cases, you may have to press it twice- like if you're in the app switcher the first press takes you back to the app you were in and the second takes you "home". And Touch ID is the best. You press on the home button and it unlocks the phone and takes you to where you were. If you're logged in, you just touch the button and it opens.
If you go to a store they will show you the basics. I’ve just gotten a new phone and am constantly being irritated how everything is different from the last one. I’ve had some version of a smart phone for years and seriously between the calendar and the GPS and for listening to music I can’t imagine living without it. It’s so nice to have one device to take care of everything. My son just set up a new app called pushbullet that links my computer and phone so that if someone texts my phone I can answer on my computer if that’s where I am. It’s great.
I have always found Apple product less intuitive than Android. The reality is probably - it’s just what you’ve gotten used to.
We got our iPhone at Verizon but DS got it from an Apple Store. If I remember it correctly, both of them helped setting it up. But I think DS did something on his old phone (backup) before hand and afterwards on his new phone also.
We have been using the smartphone a little bit over 2 years ago, but our son has been using it for over 4 years, I think.
At our home, the younger generation gets on the new gadget first, and upgrades his gadget more frequently. LOL. (We do not use much of its function anyway so really have no need to upgrade. I think my wife’s smart phone still looks like a brand new one after 2 years. She mostly uses its camera and then uploads pictures to the computer. Once in a while, she sends a text message. She does not like to use any other functions on the smartphone. She actually likes to use the plain old phone.)
If the someone else is in my contacts list, is there some way to call that person without having to write down the phone number on a piece of paper? (With my current dumb phone, which has a contact list, it took me two years to figure out that there was an alternative to checking the phone number in the contact list and writing it down so that I could type in the numbers.)
How do I turn the phone off so I can get on a plane, and how do I turn it back on when the plane lands?
You will tap your screen to answer a call - no skill required!
With 2 taps you will be at your contacts list. Tap the name you want and tap their phone number and you are calling them.
No paper needed! If their number is in your contacts list, you simply tap their number and the phone dials. Someone can teach you easily to add numbers to your contact list.
To turn your phone off you will hold down the power button for a few seconds. It will turn off by itself! When you land, hold the power button again for a few seconds, it turns on by itself!
Verizon actually offers workshops in some of its stores. Be sure you are going to a corporate store and not a “premium retailer”. If this link works it will take uou to a workshop locater. I just googled “verizon smartphone classes”. http://www.verizonwireless.com/vzw/storelocator/workshop/workshop-landing.jsp. Or just call a local store and ask them. I think different ones offer different workshops. The bigger ones will have more choices.
Tap the green phone button. You will have a choice of either picking one of your contacts, or a keypad button. Using that, you can enter the number as if you were using a desk phone. Or, if you google a site and there is a phone number on the page, tap it - a popup will appear asking you if you want to dial that number. You then either confirm or cancel. Easy!
I used my previous phone (a flip phone) for 6 years, until I dropped it in the driveway on a single digit February night and the cold killed it.
My kids have had smartphones for years, Androids, and IPhones, and the one I’ve found easiest to use is the Lumia Windows phone. It’s also very reasonably priced, $50 at Best Buy and even less online, and has been a great starter phone for me.