Monday, May 15, 2017

galaxy s8 plus to the rescue


I have named it Phoenix.

Due to three untimely tumbles, the screen on my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge took on the look of a map of the Mississippi delta. When my friend Anne delivered it to me, she insisted that I buy a case for the telephone. I didn't. The lines were too edgy to hide in a plastic case.

I paid the price for my folly. Cracked touch screens soon stop operating. It was just a matter of time.

But time was on my side. I had already planned to head north when Samsung announced the release of the international version of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. After reading the specifications, I ordered one from Amazon -- to be delivered at my brother's house on the Friday before I arrived.

I showed up, but the telephone was not there; Amazon's tracking system said it would arrive on Monday. It didn't. It didn't arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The sub-contractor filling the order is in Seattle. I tried calling. No answer. Then I got worried.

Amazon includes a rating system for its suppliers while the product is in transit. The 5-star ratings were reassuring -- until the current week. Then, all the ratings turned into 1-stars with complaints of payments made and no telephones delivered.

Rather than re-live the week of emails filled with retailer shoddy excuses and unfulfilled promises, I will cut to the chase. My telephone finally arrived on Saturday.

It was worth the wait -- if not the aggravation. Some of you have probably read the rave reviews of this deightful piece of engineering. A greatly-increased screen size without making the overall unit appreciably larger. The speediest processor on the market. Beautifully crafted. A camera with great resolution. And, best of all, an increased battery life.

As with all new devices, I have to sign in anew on each application. There is always a tope in the road. I keep a list of passwords, but somehow the passwords for several applications never made it to the archives. But the complication gave me the opportunity to update my list with new codes.

The price was a bit more than what I would have liked, but these smartphones long ago stopped being just a telephone. They are essentially computers in your front pocket. Bar bets no longer need an independent referee when Google is around. I don't even worry about remembering that "Doc" is the seventh dwarf we always forget.

And, yes, I did buy a case. It showed up on the day the telephone was supposed to arrive. Maybe I can keep this new screen from being modified by Mexican tile.


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