Return the mini and get an Android?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

I live in 816 area code and I am downtown Kansas City, Missouri.A good hours Drive from St Jo So I do not see how it can also be 816

St Jo Missouri is 816 also

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

I live in 816 area code and I am downtown Kansas City, Missouri.A good hours Drive from St Jo So I do not see how it can also be 816

In my case, I think the area code (816) was just as "spoofed" (fake) as the rest of the number. I think they chose 816 because it was close to 817 – a trick to get us to pick up our phones, thinking we were dialing out or something.

My wife's number (not real) 817-111-2222. The number calling her, 816-111-2222. My number 817-222-1111. The number calling me, 816-222-1111. Completely fake numbers, from the area code on down.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

St Joseph is in Missouri not in KS LOL


816 is the Kansas City Missouri Area not used in KS. 913 is Kansas City Kansas and surrounding areas. I live on the Kansas and Missouri Border and lived in both area codes

Blame Google or Wikipedia. I just did a quick search.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by rcentros

Meant to add, I'm not talking about 800 (toll free numbers) but "private," "unknown" and "spoof" numbers (numbers that can't be real phone numbers). I think blocking any real number (like all 800, 888, etc., is not a problem).

As another option some providers offer to let you block some/all of these calls at the provider level, might be worth checking into.

Don't know who your provider is, but if it's AT&T this app might be of use too...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-t...181632589?mt=8

[Maslerh]

Nice , how /What can i say ?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

As another option some providers offer to let you block some/all of these calls at the provider level, might be worth checking into.

Don't know who your provider is, but if it's AT&T this app might be of use too...
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/at-t...181632589?mt=8

Unfortunately Sprint won't block these calls. And looking at the details of the app above, apparently neither does AT&T ... in their description of this app, "Does not permit blocking of unknown numbers."

My wife has had this phone for about six or seven months, I believe. I think in another year (18 months total) she can lease a different phone. That will probably be when she will go back to a Samsung Note, or something like it. She likes the big screens. I was hoping that Apple would address this issue with their latest software release, but no such luck.

[Deskisamess]

Most people wouldn't want to use a broad approach when blocking calls. With the ability of the scammers to use actual phone numbers, you'd end up blocking people who really needed to call you.

Our pharmacy makes auto-calls when maintenance prescriptions are ready, or "real" calls if there is an issue with a prescription. Those calls come many different numbers. The last few times we had a delivery or service call for something, the person who called to say they were on their way used their own personal cell phone.

The same goes for the doctor's office that has multiple outgoing lines.

It's one thing to want to block numbers that can't actually be a real number. But the scammers don't do that nearly as much anymore. I'd love to stop the spam calls, but not at the risk of blocking legit calls.

I've seen folks say that if a number isn't in their contact list, they don't need to speak to them, but that's not a good or efficient way to operate. No one can have 100% of the people they may need to speak to already in their phone. It's just not feasible.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

I've seen folks say that if a number isn't in their contact list, they don't need to speak to them, but that's not a good or efficient way to operate. No one can have 100% of the people they may need to speak to already in their phone. It's just not feasible.

No, but if someone's not in my contact list, I don't need to (and won't) answer the phone. If it's legit, they'll leave a message and we can take it from there.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I am 432 and I get a ton of spoofs from 816. Most are we are the Texas police collecting money for injured officers.
I don't know about you but I don't think there are Texas police.

I went to a computer school in about 1965 and one of their benefits was that they had a list of part time jobs available for students. Mine was phone soliciting for donations for families of fallen officers in the sheriff's department. I was suspicious and at the end of my first shift I called the sheriff's office to be sure they were legitimate. They raided the place that afternoon and arrested a bunch of people.

I was told at the time by the deputy I talked with that this was a long time favorite scam. I'd never heard of it before. There was just something about the way I was told to avoid certain questions and hang up under certain conditions that made me suspicious.

Unfortunately, the result was that the school would no longer send me to part time jobs.

Barry

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by barryem

I went to a computer school in about 1965 and one of their benefits was that they had a list of part time jobs available for students. Mine was phone soliciting for donations for families of fallen officers in the sheriff's department. I was suspicious and at the end of my first shift I called the sheriff's office to be sure they were legitimate. They raided the place that afternoon and arrested a bunch of people.

I was told at the time by the deputy I talked with that this was a long time favorite scam. I'd never heard of it before. There was just something about the way I was told to avoid certain questions and hang up under certain conditions that made me suspicious.

Unfortunately, the result was that the school would no longer send me to part time jobs.

Barry

I have sold coupon books and twice did the "send underprivileged children to the movies" fund raiser. Note: the first one wasn't too bad. The Underprivileged children was hard. I got fired the second time I did that one because I wouldn't argue with the callers. That one was sponsored by a local club/bar. If someone said they wouldn't donate due to the alcohol factor, I would just say thank you for your time and hang up. My boss said I was supposed to tell them none of it went to the club and yada yada yada.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

But then your cheapo Fire tablet is essentially an Android tablet. Just with a less nice app store (IMHO).

I have a very nice Android tablet and I also have a 7" Fire tablet. There is a huge difference in them and it has nothing to do with app stores. I have Google Play installed on the Fire tablet (that's very easy to do) so I can and do install Google's apps on my Fire tablet. None have failed to run so far.

The difference is twofold. Ads! I paid the price to have ads removed from my Fire tablet and that removed the ad that pops up when I turn it on or wake it up. It doesn't prevent it from occasionally popping up an ad before I can load an app, any app, even paid ad free apps from Google. It just seems to be built into the OS. I've complained to Amazon. They suggested resetting it, which I did, but nothing changed.

The other difference is the incredibly clumsy interface of the Fire tablet. Yes it's manageable and easy to get used to but it's so much nicer not to have to; to be able to just do what I want without having to figure out how to find it in the highly pre-organized interface of the Fire. Android has the advantage of customizability and Fire takes most of that away.

I got mine when it was on sale for $30 and I'm glad I did. I had last year's model as well. When I got this one I gave away my last one. This is slightly improved: it's slightly less terrible.

I use it as a throwaway. I have a card in it with a lot of very old TV shows from the 1950's and 1960's, which I enjoy. I keep it turned on all the time. It gets rebooted every few days but never turned off. I don't care what that does to the battery. It should last till next Christmas when I'm sure I can get another one for $30. It's worth every penny. Thank god I didn't pay $50.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I have sold coupon books and twice did the "send underprivileged children to the movies" fund raiser. Note: the first one wasn't too bad. The Underprivileged children was hard. I got fired the second time I did that one because I wouldn't argue with the callers. That one was sponsored by a local club/bar. If someone said they wouldn't donate due to the alcohol factor, I would just say thank you for your time and hang up. My boss said I was supposed to tell them none of it went to the club and yada yada yada.

I also got fired from a job once for something like that. When I was in college I worked as the night call at a bloodbank, being called in overnight to do deliveries to hospitals for emergencies. It was an ideal job for a college student. Part of my job was to find the needed blood if we didn't have it in stock. This usually meant getting it sent in from another city if there was time, or calling up donors if there wasn't time.

One night I got a call about a 10 year old girl with leukemia who needed a rare type fast and we didn't have enough. It was about 1:00 AM Monday morning and I called in the staff and started calling up donors to come in and they kept saying no. It was a bad time. They had to go to work in the morning, etc. All sorts of reasons.

When the hospital called that the girl had died I got mad and started calling the donors back and explaining that their refusal had killed her. I guess one of them called in on me because within an hour my boss was there to fire me. Fortunately I did have time to call a lot of them back before they got rid of me.

They were right to fire me. I was angry and acting foolishly and probably making it harder to get donors in the future. But somehow I've never felt bad about what I did. I begged and pleaded with those people to come in and help that girl. I'd called in a lot of donors in the months that I worked there and I was often told no but the other times there were always enough people who would come in that it was never really a problem. This time I didn't get a single donor.

Barry

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have a very nice Android tablet and I also have a 7" Fire tablet. There is a huge difference in them and it has nothing to do with app stores. I have Google Play installed on the Fire tablet (that's very easy to do) so I can and do install Google's apps on my Fire tablet. None have failed to run so far.

The difference is twofold. Ads! I paid the price to have ads removed from my Fire tablet and that removed the ad that pops up when I turn it on or wake it up. It doesn't prevent it from occasionally popping up an ad before I can load an app, any app, even paid ad free apps from Google. It just seems to be built into the OS. I've complained to Amazon. They suggested resetting it, which I did, but nothing changed.

The other difference is the incredibly clumsy interface of the Fire tablet. Yes it's manageable and easy to get used to but it's so much nicer not to have to; to be able to just do what I want without having to figure out how to find it in the highly pre-organized interface of the Fire. Android has the advantage of customizability and Fire takes most of that away.

I got mine when it was on sale for $30 and I'm glad I did. I had last year's model as well. When I got this one I gave away my last one. This is slightly improved: it's slightly less terrible.

I use it as a throwaway. I have a card in it with a lot of very old TV shows from the 1950's and 1960's, which I enjoy. I keep it turned on all the time. It gets rebooted every few days but never turned off. I don't care what that does to the battery. It should last till next Christmas when I'm sure I can get another one for $30. It's worth every penny. Thank god I didn't pay $50.

Barry

I agree with all you say. I wouldn't buy another Fire tablet. I just figured if I said that earlier, they would say 'oh, everyone knows he's biased against Fire tablets.'

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Most people wouldn't want to use a broad approach when blocking calls. With the ability of the scammers to use actual phone numbers, you'd end up blocking people who really needed to call you.

I'm not talking about calls that have *real* numbers. I'm talking about unknown, private, or spoofed numbers (fakes like 00000000). As far as I know you're never going to block a legitimate call in these situations. But, if you're afraid you would, you can always send these fake calls to voice mail without ringing to your phone. Or at least you could if you weren't using an iPhone.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by barryem

I got mine when it was on sale for $30 and I'm glad I did. I had last year's model as well. When I got this one I gave away my last one. This is slightly improved: it's slightly less terrible.

That's what I did. I hardly ever use it. Right now I've got the Riven game loaded on it, but that required basically deleting almost everything else – and it's still "clunky." And I still can't get any further into the "stupid" game than I did years ago on the computer. My wife and like Myst, we played it years ago on the Sega Saturn my kids had – but the second one (Riven) just doesn't seem to be the same, or I've just become super stupid over the years.

I did find that installing Chrome on the Fire made it a bit more usable than using ... whatever name the browser is on the Fire. I've also got the Nook app and SimpleNote on it. What bugs me is that I can't get rid of all the crap I'll never use, like GoodReads, Audible, Alexa, Newsstand, the browser, etc.).