The phone kept ringing. Officially Linus Duncan, once the most powerful man in the state, was retired. In reality, he still served the state of Texas in a new, more frightening capacity, and I was his deputy. He always answered my calls.
Beep. Another.
Linus’ voice came on the line. “Yes?”
…spoilers….
Leon ran up and halted next to me.
“Do you require assistance?” Linus asked.
“Not anymore.”
“Show me.”
I activated facetime, flipped the phone
Me: Do you have to flip the phone or can she just tap the back camera?
Gordon, staring at what we just typed: I don’t know. I’ve never had to do it before.
Me: Kid 1! Kid 1!
Sick Kid 1, stomping out on the upstairs catwalk: What?
Me: If I am on facetime and I want to show the other person what I see, can I switch to the back camera?
Kid 1, raising the phone and demonstrating: Yes. Here is me Facetiming. I tap this icon in the corner.
Me: Thank you.
Me, going back to the office.
I activated facetime, switched the camera, and panned the phone, capturing the device and the corpses. On the screen, Linus…
Gordon: Can she still see him if she activated the back camera?
Me: Oy.
A little later
Kid 2, walking into the office: What are you two doing?
Me: We are Facetiming.
Kid 2: You are sitting a foot away from each other.
Gordon: Research.
Just a thought:
In a world where people are genetically altered to use magic, why does using FaceTime correctly on a cell phone even matter? Couldn’t they have a different set of apps for their portable phones that would work however they wanted it to work? I mean, they crushed the entire center of the city of Houston to stop a fire, they have HUGE compounds for their private homes that don’t exist anywhere but in the books, they have laws that allow them to fight private wars between houses, and you actually worried about how real phone apps work in their world?
On the other hand, maybe you can now use an app to talk to all the people who don’t live near you, see their faces, hear their voices, and they can save airfare when they need to see you.
I do love the mental image of two people sitting in the same room practicing using phone apps, though, especially with the child walking in and asking why! Priceless!
Same child probably on occasion sat at a table with her friends and texted to one of them. If only to be ironic.
Our kids provide hours of entertainment. Mostly unintentionally.
I had to laugh as I read the comments. My biggest giggle from this post (aside from yay – more Linus) was the riff on Dr. Suess. Which makes me laugh because I am protesting tech this week and wishing for the good old days before smart-phones.
I burst out laughing at this post. I just finished Diamond Fire – onto the next book now ????
This is so cute. I Knew I wasn’t the only person on the planet who had these types of conversations. My mantra is “If I Knew it I wouldn’t be asking” and the ever popular “Thank you, Very Much!!!” So to you lovely people, thanks for sharing this great tidbit.
I wish phones came with instruction books because I can’t remember what I did from one screen to another. “Just play with it.” says my son. I can now read books on my most recent hand me down phone, I love that but it really heats up and the battery drains as fast as the sink. Some day I’ll have to actually pay for a phone and start the whole miserable process from scratch. I can truthfully say I do love having the camera handy though and I might actually try Face Time if I had it, I miss seeing my grandkids.
I can’t tell you how many times my kids have said “just play with it” when asked a phone question by me!
Mine says have you googled it??? If I say no she will no longer answer questions. To be fair she really helps if the answer is yes!
When I served as first level tech support many years ago, it was because I was the only person in the office who understood Windows in any way, not because it was actually my job. I finally hung a sign on my desk that said “if you have not tried rebooting your computer, don’t ask me to fix it.”
lol, with the mainframe the our snark was – “Do a stand-alone dump and re-IPL.”
Outside our system programmers area the sign said “Before you ask RTFM” (Read The F***ing Manual).
The more we progress the more some things stay the same.
If you mostly like to read on it, you might try a Kindle. I like the Paperwhite, but they have other options too (Fire is in color, but it can be harder on the eyes because it’s a shiny screen). I got my grandma a Kindle a few years ago (she was 85ish at the time and HATES technology) and she loves it. I got her the ad-free kids version.
The battery life is really good on them. The Paperwhite reads like a book, but you can increase the text size to whatever you want (that’s why she likes it, it was getting harder for her to read even large print books). To be fair, I put all the books on for her, but it isn’t hard.
If it makes you feel better, my phone gets hot and dies quickly too. I need to replace it, but… ugh. ????
Just replaced my phone today, partly because of the battery, partly because my service provider is phasing out service to the older phones this/next year. Mine(and Nephew’s) was a Samsung 5. Now it is a Samsung A50. Got to keep the old number though.
I second this. The reason I have a PaperWhite is because it’s as close to a real book as I could get without shipping 400+ books from the US to Europe.
Turn off wifi and bluetooth when you don’t need it. And check for apps that are still on and working in the background. I have a terrible battery and I turn off everything I don’t need and it still runs down quickly – but a little less quickly anyway. Just don’t forget to turn them back on when you want to use them LOL.
Catlover, somewhere in your Settings file there should be an item called something like Battery, which when tapped will give you an option something like Low Power Mode. This will temporarily turn off everything not absolutely necessary until you either go back and turn it off or you recharge the thing and the battery is refilled to something like 85%.
But in the meantime almost everything that was running in the background will shut down, reducing the drain on your battery and the resulting heating up. I do this whenever I leave the house — my phone and I are much happier as a result. 😉
But this is normal. I know because my Charley and I have done this. We bought new phones and sat down to learn their features — including Face timing each other while sitting side-by-side on the couch.
Yesterday I spent hopeless time trying to network 4 devices on two operating systems. No bueno, so today I get to DO RESEARCH take freaking notes and go again. Ps my hubs is TECH master of the universe and woukdnt take apple if you gave it to him. The old steve w. SKILLS vs steve j. SALESMAN controversy. Yawn. So we have android. Which is entirely DIY becuz no…one….else……has it. Sigh.
+1, There with you…????
I seriously prefer my old android phone and will go back to one if and when the stupid iphone dies. Keep hoping it will. Android phones are generally easier to figure out what apps are using up your battery. I might miss imessage, but probably not for long.
Have it. Not being on the same wave as so many of my friends is a pain but I just pat myself on the back and feel superior for not buying into the apple hype. ????
That being said, I dont have facetime but I do have WhatsApp which works just fine and with the chromecast thingie my phone screen can appear on the TV. It’s great for long distance phone calls.
Awesome! Yes, that’s how I do it with my daughter, too. ???? Fortunately, she knows better than to mock my ineptitude (where I can hear it, anyway).
When I call my youngest daughter with a tech problem I can hear the eyeroll (it makes a noise).
On Skype (for Android) you can both see yourself and the other person, both split screen or as a mini window.
Is that something special?
Sooo, Catalina uses Apple, huh?
I hope Bug at least uses Linux and somebody else uses Android. Sorry, not an Apple fan here.
I now see Bern contributing to Android community builds… (With the high interoperability between Mac and Linux, this isn’t unreasonable? That’s the compromise we have in my old lab.)
I feel like this is the author equivalent of someone trying to draw hands and contorting their own around to use as reference… Or trying to draw a particular expression and making that expression, even if there’s no mirror around for them to see it in.
Oldie but goody
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAG39jKi0lI
Thanks for sharing, haven’t seen that in a long time
Am I detecting another Heart fan?
Heading out this morning …
I love you two.
This entire process just makes me happy and ready for the next book! Love the interaction. 🙂 🙂
I have 4 year old twins who are capable of tech support for your iPhone. Not that I’m speaking from a place of experience…
This is the reason I keep my twins (also 4) away from technology. It’s hard enough to keep up, the last thing I need is for them to figure out technology.
Fly on the wall…
That’s all I am saying! ????????????
Oy. Technology. Hate feeling so idiotic….
This is why your books are so look good l Research. Got to love it.
Thanks for the chuckle.
I do video conferences at least a couple of times a week professionally, and I’m trying to get more in the habit of connecting with with some of my favorite but not current collaborators at least every semester or so. I probably use four different applications on a regular basis?
Which I state because I’d never touched FaceTime until I was interviewing landlords prior to moving to the Chapel Hill area. I don’t have a Mac, but a bunch of people in the lab have them, as did the zendo friend who was staying with me, so I hit them all up for directions. No one had used FaceTime. There were a number of “What’s FaceTime?” (Seriously? y’all are Mac and iThing people. *I* know what FaceTime is…) My current landlady really wanted to install Skype, but she couldn’t get through it on her own. Anyhow, zendo friend / thentime housemate leant me her MacBook, and I figured it out, but for a community were video chat is totally common?
Just wait until more people share location with you on “Find My Friends”. NoThankYou.
“Find my friends” would make Baylor agency detective work easier, for sure.
Thank you Ilona Andrews for the chuckle. I am presently using Mothers smart phone as she could never hear it ring. She does not hear her large keys phone only either. So we took for hearing test and audiologist said normal. Grin.
Then Titan fanged phone but I am waiting til he hits chronological maturity wbich is age 2 as he is a large breed puppy to replace fanged phone. I figure this model will be no longer made by then. Sigh. Sigh.
Thanks for chuckle.
Lol that’s awesome.
I read your blog not for story tidbits, though I like those to but because your descriptions of everyday life just makes me smile or laugh. So thank you
If it were Guy and I in your shoes, we’d have to do the same things you are… =) While we both have iPads (our phones are Samsung), Facetime and the cameras are not high on our skills list… =)
We have iPads for tablets rather than Samsung mostly because we can track our own Kid (just one) with Find My iPhone when we need to. That makes it worth it. =)
Haha! I’m impressed that sick kid 1 came out of the sick room and actually answered. I quite frequently hear….”google it, Mom!” Hope she’s feeling better soon!
I appreciate that you needed to practice with using FaceTime for research purposes – and that you actually did it rather than just continuing on with writing as it was originally. It is not a feature I have made much use of on my iPhones or iPads except for a rare video call at the holidays instead of the usual text or phone call.
I completely understand the research. I wish I had that excuse Haha
Priceless! I don’t have an iPhone, so I can’t Facetime at all! ????
Love your post 😀
I’m a gamer and my parent’s have recently gotten into playing a game called overcooked because it lets them play with my siblings and i even when we are living separately, so it’s been fun trying to teach them how to play video games and use programs like discord to talk to each other.
i love stories of younger generations teaching their elders crazy new technologies.