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Tech News and Commentary
Dave and the team discuss Samsung’s $356B investment, Uber’s upcoming vehicle choices, AI and job interviews, preferred phone sizes, driverless vehicles in several cities, Washington D.C. Attorney General vs Mark Zuckerberg, robot companions for older adults, the toll of cybercrimes worldwide, and more.
Carl in Anchorage, Alaska listens on KBYR and asked: “I want to know the best phone for someone that does not know anything but how to answer a phone. I need a phone that I can have certain apps or whatever on it, and have like a 1-2-3 setup. Doesn’t have to be too inexpensive.”
Carl, it depends on what apps you want on the phone.
If you didnt want any apps at all wed just suggest going with something like a feature phone and skipping the smartphone route altogether.
Feature phones are not only closer to a just pick up the phone kind of device, but they also tend to come with very cheap monthly plans.
If you go to the smartphone route, if possible avoid the really cheap devices. Theyre more likely to frustrate a person that doesnt know anything but how to answer a phone. Theyll come with annoying bloatware, some apps may not run on them, and they will come with worse hardware that will be more likely to lead to freezes and crashes.
Any iPhone should be fine, Apple doesnt make cheap models, they just make less expensive models. If you go the Android route, if you can buy a relatively stock Android phone like a Pixel 5 or 6, things will be less frustrating.
Both iOS and Android are intuitive operating systems, so this will be nothing like learning how to operate a computer. Both very young children and very old adults acclimate to smartphones very quickly, since for the most part if you want the camera you touch the thing that looks like a camera lens and if you want the phone you touch the thing that looks like a phone.
Getting acquainted with the voice assistant may be reassuring. If you know how to trigger the assistant, then even if you cant find the phone youll always be able to ask the phone to make a phone call via the voice assistant anyway.
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