My phone hates London!

[retro]

I went to London the other day, and had some most bizarre issues with my Samsung Galaxy S II.

I took my charger with me, and kept it plugged in on the train (which has sockets). I used the web all the way up - it was on H+ with full signal bars.

When I got to London, it started playing up. I'll bullet point the faults.

- It started "beep boop"ing continually, as if it were being plugged into USB (it said this on the screen, too).

- When I shut it down to rectify this error, it rebooted. Every time.

- I removed the battery. Remember, this was at 100%.

I went to an auction. Hours later, I put the battery back in the phone. The battery had sat on its own on top of my bag, and was cool to touch.

- The phone refused to boot, showing a picture of a battery with a thermometer!

Replacing the battery again fixed this error. However....

- The phone warned me it was going into power saving mode, as the previously fully charged battery that had remained out of the phone was below 50%!

- I then discovered that the Internet wasn't working for apps. It seemed fine for Web pages. I could access Twitter's web page, but not the app.

I thought that it might be a glitch, so disabled data.

- The H+ symbol remained at the top of the screen, even 5 minutes later.

Rebooting fixed this - it then enabled and disabled.

I went to Starbucks to see whether connecting to their wireless would rectify the problem.

- It didn't.

I thought that perhaps it was a network error. I've had issues in London previously. And then....

- It stopped working on apps or web pages, via wireless, too!

I decided to text my friend. Being an Android phone, it texts much like the iPhone - with speech bubbles.

- I sent the text off. It did the animation, but the speech bubble with what I said DIDN'T APPEAR!

I then received a reply from my friend. I saw the notification at the top of the screen, where I could read it. My envelope icon had 1 over it.

- I clicked the envelope. My friend wasn't at the top of the list, as he should have been when I receive a text from him. He was at the bottom.

- I checked his messages - the one he sent wasn't there!!

We texted each other several times. Still, this behaviour persisted.

Then, most strangely, I got to the first station that is (well) out of London. The last station before home. The second we left this station, Facebook gave me a new notification. I checked - it worked! So I texted my friend to let him know. MY SPEECH BUBBLE APPEARED! He replied - his bubble appeared, too!

Conclusion - it couldn't have been a network fault, as this surely wouldn't stop texts that I composed going to my sent list. My phone MUST just hate London!!

(That, or they're doing some weird tests in London - perhaps preparing for disaster at The Olympics?! Or maybe Katy Perry, who was in Leicester Square, carries a jammer?)

Strange.....

[Yakumo]

It's not only your phone that hates London mate, so do I. Been there about 8 to 10 times and never liked it.

[retro]

Lol ;) I have a love/hate relationship with London - it varies! :P

[Hedgeyourbets]

Might I ask which train company you used?
It wasn't a southern train was it? Those power outlets are non-standard and not meant for public use.
Oddly, my phone is quite the opposite it loves london, everything works nicely and the battery runs for ages.
When I'm at home down south, my text messages never get delivered and my battery barely lasts for the day despite my signal being great.

On the other hand I detest london it's so filthy and so crowded ugh
Probably not the best attitude to havew considering I still have to live there for another year *grumble* stupid crap uni *grumble*

[Jamtex]

if you used a phone that made phone calls, sent text messages, played snake and had a monochrome screen then you would not have had any problems what so ever. :p

[retro]

Might I ask which train company you used?
It wasn't a southern train was it? Those power outlets are non-standard and not meant for public use.

Southeastern. The train was HS1. And there are signs all over it saying "Power socket under seat 240V". This kind person has taken photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seadipp...n/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/seadipper/5805013384/

I use them all the time with no problem.

Incidentally, the phone did it again yesterday, in Ashford (which was the station where it started working). Starting to think it's having a nervous breakdown!

Jamtex - I never have, and never will, have a Nokia phone. Can't stand them. Always have been useless piles of crap!

[Jamtex]

You say that but one of us has a phone that works in a number of different countries from the UK to Australia, Greece to Portugal, Brazil to Norway, with a number of different sim cards, has worked well for the last 6 years without incident and still has a battery that lasts 3 or 4 days and one has a phone that seems to have a hissy fit outside of its comfort zone. :p

[7Force]

You say that but one of us has a phone that works in a number of different countries from the UK to Australia, Greece to Portugal, Brazil to Norway, with a number of different sim cards, has worked well for the last 6 years without incident and still has a battery that lasts 3 or 4 days and one has a phone that seems to have a hissy fit outside of its comfort zone. :p

If your green screen Nokia's battery only lasts 3 or 4 days, sounds like you're the one with the problem.

[Jamtex]

The battery is 6 years old and I am doing roughly an hour of talk in those days. I think a charge every 80 hours is pretty good... oh and its black on white :p

[pool7]

Indeed, as an old Nokia user, I can say their phones (up to the E72, chronologically speaking) were excellent in every sense (whether you liked their OS or not).
Not sure about new models though; haven't tried any. I moved to Android and I'm happy with it so far :)

[Bad_Ad84]

Nokias were great phones back in the day. To say they weren't is just madness (or you were too young? - but I had the impression you were old enough).

[Hedgeyourbets]

My first phone was an old-ish nokia it was great aside from the weird buttons (it was that one where you could make your own covers and put them in the case, 3200 if I remember correctly)

But yes i know those trains, you're lucky, as far as i know none of the southern rail fleet have sockets, except for maybe the gatwick express
Odd though maybe your phone is just dying then, perhaps a bad solder joint somewhere and the travel gives it enough of a jolt to upset it? never liked samsungs personally, upgraded to one after 3 years with a motorola v500(one of my favourite phones ever) it was a horrible mistake, the battery was much better but aside from that I hated it, terrible piece of crap

[7Force]

Indeed, as an old Nokia user, I can say their phones (up to the E72, chronologically speaking) were excellent in every sense (whether you liked their OS or not).
Not sure about new models though; haven't tried any. I moved to Android and I'm happy with it so far :)

Yeah, they were really well built, the last Nokia I had was an E71. Symbian was always complete crap though, and their insistence on using that crappy OS well into the late 2000s is what's practically killed them off. I remember one Nokia exec saying in an interview a few years ago that Android wasn't an option, they must keep using Symbian

[Bad_Ad84]

Indeed, Nokia thought they could just ride their success forever.

They didnt get into the "apps" thing. They used to change the version of Symbian in a new handset, so no apps worked from previous versions, thinking people would continue to buy one of the 2348734 new models they launched every week.

[pool7]

That probably happened with Symbian 6, 7 and 8; however for Symbian 9 (and its "minor" upgrades: 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3) all apps worked without change (unless the phone was not powerful enough). And that's a lot of phones (including "best sellers" like Nokia N73, N82, N95, E63, E71, E72, E90, etc). These were the best Symbian OS versions (from my experience) and I had no trouble with these whatsoever (be it with games, apps, or anything else).
They did f*ck up with the newer versions (touchscreen) as well as everything that came out later.

So, in my experience, Nokia was great until they released their Symbian Touchscreen... but then again, that's my opinion.
And yes, I also had non-smartphone Nokia phones, like Nokia 5120, 5160, 3320 and 3360 (those with the green/black screen), and those were solid in every aspect as well. Of course smartphones were not as solid, but still great (again, until they started with touchscreen).

[7Force]

The phrase "the best Symbian OS versions" is a lot like the phrase "the best-tasting vomit".

[pool7]

Well, again, that's my experience/opinion. I know lots of people who hates Symbian, as well as lots of people who hate iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, Windows Phone, etc...
And lots of people who love each of these platforms as well.

[Bad_Ad84]

By the time those "best sellers" with the apparently improved symbian - most people (including myself, who had plenty of nokias) had already gone to newer phones. This is what I mean by Nokia being late to catch on, too little too late :(

[7Force]

I tried the N8, which was supposed to be Nokia's big thing at the time, and found the "updated" Symbian to be just as badly designed as all the earlier ones. Seriously, to enter a website address, you had to first go to a menu to enter the address, then go to a menu and select "Go". Who thought that was good UI design? That phone also had the added bonus of having to turn it on its side to use the QWERTY keypad.