The Timid

Soul’s Guide to
Android
Smartphones

By Anne Wignall

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Concerning Social Media
I don’t Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) or Pinterest.
Thus, this book does not contain any information about
these social media platforms.

The skills you will gain from using this book should help
you to access media accounts with a little guidance from a
friend or family member.

© Anne Wignall 2024

anne.wignall@gmail.com

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Preface
I get it. Android smartphones have been in common use in
New Zealand for almost 15 years. If you are only just
starting your smartphone journey, you've lived quite
happily for many decades without one, and you’d probably
prefer to keep it that way!

Unfortunately, New Zealand society has changed,

especially since Covid. Just as there has long been an
assumption that everyone has a bank account and a phone
number, so it is now assumed that everyone has an email
address, pays their bills online, uses the internet to find
information, and will receive text messages sent to their
mobile phone. You can no longer function as an
independent adult in New Zealand society today unless
you can do these things for yourself. If you're just starting
your smartphone journey now, it's probably because
you've been pushed into it, not because you want to learn.

The good news is that your smartphone – even if it is an

old one donated by a family member who has upgraded –
will do everything you need. It will make and receive
phone calls and text messages, send and receive emails,
access the internet, do online banking and internet
shopping, and even fill in, sign and send documents. You
don't need to learn to use a computer as well.

In writing this book, I’ve tried to assume you don’t know

anything about smartphones, computers or the internet. If
I seem to be telling you the obvious, please don’t feel
insulted. Everything I've put in this book has been
triggered by someone who did not know it. Just skim over
the information you don’t need.

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While all Android smartphones use the same design, each
manufacturer (Samsung, Huawei, Oppo etc) puts in their
own tweaks – and even Android itself changes as new
upgrades come along. I’ve tried to write this book for all
Android users, but you will find that some of what is in
here does not work quite the way I describe on your
phone. They’re probably little things you can ignore.

Most smartphones do have a manual. They used to put one

in the box the phone came in, but not now. Yours might be
buried inside the phone itself (look in Settings and scroll
down to the bottom). If not, it will be on the internet. Just
Search for the brand and model number of the phone and
add the word Manual. (Settings shows that information in
the About Phone section at the very bottom.) If my
instructions don't work, and you can't figure out what your
phone does yourself, then look in your phone's manual for
model-specific instructions.

I hope this book will help you to use your smartphone both
to do the things society demands and to make your life
better.

Anne
February 2024

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Contents
1 I can’t even turn it on! 1

2 Understanding the keyboard 4

3 Creating your Google account 7

4 How to use a touch screen 9

5 Making and receiving phone calls 15

6 Sending and reading text messages 20

7 Min? Txt? Data? What’s what? 24

8 Installing apps from the Google Play Store 27

9 Using WhatsApp to communicate 30

10 Google Voice input 33

11 Using the Gmail app 35

12 Electronically completing and signing a pdf 50

13 Taking photographs and screenshots 54

14 Backing up photos with Google Photos 58

15 Internet Banking 60

16 Browsing the internet 67

17 Searching the internet by asking the right

questions 72

18 Internet shopping 76

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19 Transferring files between your Android phone or
tablet and a PC 82

20 Exploring Files 85

21 Using Google Calendar 91

22 Finding your way with Google Maps 97

23 Introduction to Smart TVs 103

24 Extra stuff you could buy 112

25 Citizenship technology skills 115

26 Symbols you will meet 119

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1 I can’t even turn it on!

Not just on and off

Android phones usually have a Power switch on the side of
the phone. It is used to turn the phone on and off, but it is
also used to put the phone into standby (sleep) mode and
to ‘wake’ the phone up again. In other words, that one
switch has four jobs to do – not two.

If the phone is fully shut down, it won’t ring if someone

calls, or alert if an alarm time is reached or an
appointment is due. To turn on a shut-down phone, press
and hold the power switch for about 3 seconds – the phone
will vibrate or make a small sound when it recognises the
command to turn on. You can let go at that point and will
need to wait about a minute for the phone to complete its
turning on ritual. Press and hold is also used to turn the
phone completely off. Most phones will ask you to confirm
that you want the phone turned off.

A phone that doesn’t ring when called, and misses alarms

and appointments isn’t much use, so we don’t often
completely turn them off. But if the screen is glowing all
the time, the battery will go flat pretty quickly, so when
phones are ‘resting’ between active use, they go on
standby. The screen is black, but the phone is alert and
ready for action. To ‘wake up’ the screen, briefly press and
release the power switch. That same press and release
action is used to switch the screen off and put the phone
on standby.

Your phone puts itself on standby whenever it gets bored –

whenever it reaches the pre-set period of inactivity. That
period is probably set to 15 s, which saves the battery
having to keep the screen bright. If you find the turn-off

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period too short, go into Settings ( ), find Display and
scroll down to Screen Timeout. A timeout of 2 minutes or
5 minutes will be less frustrating.

Unlocking
A smartphone can contain a great deal of personal
information – from names and addresses, the messages
you send or receive, photographs, and even documents or
bank transactions. The manufacturers have put in security
features to make it difficult for strangers to pick up your
phone and access all that data. Unfortunately, that means
you’ll have to set up and use some unlock method before
you can to use the phone. Those methods are to use a PIN,
a pattern, facial recognition, a fingerprint, or a password.

Unlock methods
A PIN (Personal Identification Number) is a 4—6 digit
number you key in. (The old Android phones only accepted
4 digits, but in 2019 Android 10 supported PINs up to 6
digits.) Be smart about your PIN: don’t choose something
easy for someone to guess (123456 for example, or 7777,
your birthday or current phone number). Pick something
you know well – you’re likely to be typing it in a lot.

Modern Android phones offer you a pattern

lock. You’ll be presented with 9 dots in a
grid, and you need to connect at least 4 dots
without lifting your finger. Try numbering
the dots and then remembering the number.
Your pattern needs to be something you can
remember and repeat often, but at the same
time, it needs to be complex enough that
someone glancing at you can’t easily copy it.

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Most phones will also offer face recognition and/or
fingerprint ID. On older phones these biometric systems
were not very reliable, but on newer phones they are
pretty good. If you choose a biometric method to unlock
your phone, you’ll always have the opportunity to use a
different method if necessary. Face recognition works best
if you don’t change your appearance by varying your
hairstyle, wearing different glasses or changing your
makeup too much. If you use fingerprint ID, scan finger
and thumb from both hands because it isn’t always
convenient to use only one finger.

When it works, face ID takes only a second to unlock your

phone. Fingerprint scanning takes maybe two seconds.
Drawing a pattern is slightly slower, but still faster than
keying in 4-6 numbers or the 8-12 characters of a secure
password.

Smart lock
Smart lock is for people who get frustrated having to
unlock their phone every single time it wakes up. Go into
Settings, Lock Screen and touch Smart Lock. It gives you
the option to keep the phone unlocked when you are in a
trusted location (such as at home). The phone will stay
unlocked for a period of 4 hours without your needing to
unlock again – unless you do something that requires
greater security. However, using smart lock means anyone
inside your home (visitor or thief) could get into your
phone, provided they stayed in your house to do it.

It’s better to use smart lock than to remove all the security
on your phone, so that you have maximum security when
you are away from home. But your security will be higher
if you don’t use smart lock at all. I use smart lock on my
phone.

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2 Understanding the keyboard

A touch-screen phone uses a virtual keyboard that appears

at the bottom of your screen when you touch somewhere
where text input is required. Because it is software-
generated, the appearance of the keyboard can change as
required. In the screenshot above there are four rows of
characters, but if your screen is small the number row
may be missing on the first layer of keys. When you need
to type a number, or a symbol, touch the key on the left
hand side and another set of keys will appear. Sometimes
there can be three layers.

Delete, space and new line

If you make a mistake, delete the character by touching
the right-hand delete key. This key removes the character
to the left of the cursor (the vertical flashing line).

To put a space between words, touch the wide space bar

underneath the letter keys. (The words ‘English (UK)’
refer to the language selected – you can ignore them.) To
start a new paragraph, press the curved arrow on the
right. It represents a ‘carriage return’ on a typewriter
where the typist would push the paper back to the left-
hand side and advance the roller one line.

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Capitals
On a mechanical typewriter the type bar contained both
lower and upper case versions of the letter. To type a
capital letter you held down the shift key, which raised the
carriage so that the upper case letter hit the ribbon.
That’s why the symbol on the shift key is an up arrow.

Your virtual keyboard will always show you whether the

characters will appear in upper or lower case, because the
appearance of the letters on the keyboard will change:

.
Shift key on: upper case Shift key off: lower case

Your phone knows that normal sentences begin with a

capital letter, so it helpfully changes to capitals after a full
stop. Once you type that first letter, it will automatically
flip to lowercase letters. Only if you want to capitalise a
letter in the middle of a sentence (such as a name) will you
need to touch the shift key.

If you want to type a whole word in CAPITALS, touch and

hold the shift key (alternately, touch shift twice). The key
will change to indicate that the Caps Lock function has
been triggered. On some phones the shift arrow will be
filled in, on others the arrow will be underlined. Have a
play to find out what your phone does. To switch off Caps
Lock, just touch the shift key again.

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Extra characters

The !#1 key (which may be labelled differently on your

keyboard) will reveal symbols and numbers. Move
between the layers with the 1/2 (1 of 2) and 2/2 (2 of 2)
keys, or touch the ABC key to get back to letters.

Accent characters
If you want to type ngā mihi,
Düsseldorf or café correctly,
you’ll find accented
characters and fractions by
touching and holding the
letters on the keyboard.
Touch the letter, wait for the
pop-up choices to appear,
then drag to select the one
you want. Once it is selected,
let go and it will appear in
your text.

Have a play with both numbers and letters to see what

characters lie hidden behind your keyboard.

Note: many people don’t know how to type with accented

characters. If you don’t want to bother using them, that’s
quite OK.

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3 Creating your Google account
Android phones are much cheaper than iPhones because
Google gives manufacturers (Samsung, Huawei, Oppo etc)
the Android operating system at no cost. This means that
to use an Android phone you have to sign up for a Google
account. In other words, you have to have a Gmail address
to use an Android phone. If you already have an email
address with xtra, or Hotmail or Yahoo, you can still send
and receive emails from that address using your new
phone, but you’ll need to create and remember a Gmail
address and know its password for the times when Google
asks for it.

If you don’t have a Gmail address, Google will ask you

your name, and then suggest some email addresses for
you. Often it will use your name and offer some numbers
after it (john.smith9472@gmail.com). You do not have to
accept the offer! Try other numbers after your name in
case they are available, or pop in your middle initials. Your
Gmail address will be yours for a long time – it’s worth
spending a few minutes fiddling with options until you
come up with something convenient.

Once you have found an unused gmail address that suits

you, you’ll need to grab it and lock it in with your own
password. Google will insist that you make the password
difficult to crack by using a combination of UPPER and
lower case letters, numbers, and at least one symbol or
punctuation mark.

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Password paranoia
If you had a safe containing
all your money and
valuables, you wouldn’t
keep its combination on a
post-it note stuck onto the
safe door. Yet many people
write their passwords in a
notebook kept beside their
computer, or within reach
of their cell phone. A thief breaking into their house who
took the computer and cell phone could very easily find
the notebook and then access all the files on the
computer, read all the emails, and help themselves to the
bank accounts!

While you shouldn’t write down your password, if you

choose a password with meaning to you, you can write
down a clue to remind yourself what that password is. Old
addresses can be useful passwords since they can contain
numbers, letters and symbols. Choose an address from
your past that only you will remember, then write down a
clue for that address (eg 'a house on a hill’). Or the
number plate of your first car and its make (Austin-
BK2042). Your clue could be ‘the freedom machine’ or ‘the
green chariot’. Don’t include birthdays, names of close
relatives or pets in your passwords. They’re too easy for a
canny thief to find out with a few minute’s looking around
your house.

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4 How to use a touch screen
A touch screen relies on the slight electrical conductivity
of your skin. Touch the screen with the fleshy part of your
finger, not your fingernail. If you have very dry skin your
touch may not register. Sometimes moisturising hand
cream helps, but if not, you may need to use a stylus
instead. The electrically sensitive part of the screen is its
surface, so there is no need to press down on the screen.
The briefest contact is all that is necessary for a touch.

Touch screen actions

Light touch Light touch Swipe. Lightly Drag ‘n’ drop.

or tap (less and hold (1 slide your Touch and hold,
than ½ sec) – sec) – think finger over the then drag to a
think ‘dot’ or ‘dash’ or screen up, new position
‘bip’. ‘beep’. down, left or and let go.
right.

Zoom in by lightly Zoom out by lightly Double-tap.

touching two fingers touching two fingers Lightly touch
then slide the fingers then slide the fingers twice.
apart to make an together to make an
image larger. image smaller so you
can see more of it.

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The bottom buttons
All Android phones and
tablets have three icons at Samsung
the bottom of the screen. ||| ▢ <
The centre icon (sometimes Open apps Home Back
it is a physical button, not
Oppo
just an icon) is always the
Home button. No matter ≡ ▢ ◁
Open apps Home Back
what app you are using, this
button will always return you Huawei
to the Home or starting ◁ ○ ▢
screen on your device. One Back Home Open apps
of the other buttons is the
‘back’ button – it will reverse Alcatel
your last action. The other < ▢ ≡
button displays all the Back Home Open apps
currently-open apps as either a pile or row of miniature
windows. Manufacturers vary whether ‘back’ is on the left
or the right, and what symbols they use. The table shows
some of the possibilities.

Draw the symbols at the bottom of your phone and label

each one.

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The activities below will help your fingers learn how to
perform these actions. Note: Android phones vary: your
phone may not behave exactly as I describe below. You
may need to experiment a little to work out what the rules
are for your phone.

Practice ‘touch’
The little pictures on your ‘home’ screen are called icons.
When you touch an icon, you open (start) an app. ‘App’
stands for an ‘Application’, which is a program that runs
on your phone or tablet. Lightly and quickly Touch any
icon, and after it opens, touch the ‘back’ key at the bottom
of your screen to get back to the Home screen. Then touch
another icon. Keep going until you have opened at least 6
apps. If you leave your finger on the icon too long, a pop-
up window will appear. If that happens, simply touch part
of the screen where there are no icons, and the window
will disappear.

Practice ‘swipe’
With the apps from above still open, touch your Open apps
key at the bottom of your screen. You’ll see miniatures of
all the apps you opened. Touch one and immediately slide
or glide your finger left or right. Practice swiping left and
right to look at all the apps you opened. Now try swiping
down from the centre of the screen to the bottom on one
of the miniature apps: the app will open. Touch Open apps
to bring back the miniatures. Have a go at swiping up on
one of the miniatures. That will close the app and remove
it from the collection. Go through all the apps and swipe
up each one to close it.

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Home is more than one page
Look near the bottom of your Home screen. You’ll see a
row of open dots, with one dot filled in. Each dot
represents a page of your Home screen. Touching
between icons, swipe left or right to look at each page of
Home, and notice how the filled-in dot keeps track of
where you are.

Your Apps library

On any page of Home, touch somewhere between the
icons on the lower part of the screen and swipe up. That
will open your Apps library to show you all the apps
currently installed on your phone in alphabetical order.
(Note: some manufacturers don’t use a separate apps
library but simply put all apps on the Home pages.)

The Notification panel

On any screen or app, swipe down from the very top of the
screen, and you’ll open the Notifications panel. Try it.
You’ll see a white box with a row of new icons and some
messages. Touch the row of icons and swipe down a
second time and that single row will become several rows
of icons, some blue and some grey. Blue ones represent
options you have turned on, while grey ones are off.
Touching each icon will tell you more about that option.

Finding settings
Settings is an app on your
phone you can access from
your apps library or Home
screen. But the fastest way
to find Settings is to open
your Notification panel and
touch the tiny cog icon to
the right of the date.

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Practice touch and hold
Setting up Home
From your Home screen, swipe up to open the Apps
Library. Choose an app you haven’t seen on your Home
screen already and lightly touch and hold it, leaving your
finger on the screen for a second or so. A pop-up window
will appear. When it does, you can remove your finger.
The window gives you the choices of Select, Add to Home,
Uninstall, and an i for Information. Touch the option ‘Add
to Home’. An icon for that app will be added to the Home
screen and you’ll be taken Home to see it.

The Home screen is for the apps you’ll use most often.
You’ll want the apps for Phone, Messages, Email and
Chrome (for web browsing), and probably Maps, Calendar,
Camera, Gallery (to see your photos) and Contacts, plus
whatever suits you. Touch and hold, then Add to Home at
least 6 new apps.

Practice drag and drop

The bottom row of any page of the Home screen is the
Favourites tray – the same single row of icons that
appears on every page of the Home screen. We’re going to
put the most useful apps there. Touch and hold an icon on
the Home screen and while still touching, drag the icon to
move it on the screen then let it go (drop). You can drag
‘n’ drop the icons in the Favourites tray onto the upper
part of the screen, then put your own favourites there
instead. Try rearranging the Favourites the way you like.
(Don’t know what you like yet? No problem – you’ll be able
to rearrange things at any time.) Arrange the icons on
your Home screen the way you like too. You can drag an

13
icon from one page of the Home screen to another by
dragging it to the edge of the screen.

Folders
If you drop one app on top of another, they will be
combined in a Folder. Once you create a folder you’ll be
invited to give it a name. Just touch the word ‘folder’ and a
keyboard will appear for you to type a meaningful name
(touch ‘done’ or ✓when you’ve finished typing). Add extra
apps to the folder by dragging and dropping them onto the
folder. Remove them by dragging the icon out of the open
folder and dropping them back onto the home screen.

You can create folders in the Apps library as well.

Practice Zooming in or out

The Zoom feature is used when looking at images. We can
zoom in on photographs in Gallery, or on a section of a
Map, or on text in a pdf file. Find Maps in the Apps
Library (the apps there will be in alphabetical order), and
open it (by touching the icon). Put two fingers (or finger
and thumb) on the screen and slide them apart a little.
You should see the map enlarge, so you can see fewer
streets but in greater detail. Then try touching with two
fingers and bringing them together to zoom out in to
make the streets smaller. If you slowly swipe across the
map with one finger you’ll move your view over the city.

If you have given Google access to Location data, Maps

will show you where you are with a blue dot on the map. If
not, you can tell it what part of the world you want to view
by typing the name of the city and country in the ‘Search
here’ space at the top of the screen.

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5 Making and receiving phone calls
The Phone app on your phone will have an icon
with an old-fashioned phone symbol on it. The
green one is from my Samsung app. Google’s
Phone app uses a blue phone with a white
background.

Your phone app has three main screens:

Keypad, shows the set of numbers for you to key

in a number or press a key during a call.
Recent (also called ‘Log’ or ‘History’) shows the
calls made and received by your phone. It's an
easy way to call someone you talked to recently.

Contacts brings up your full Contacts list (your

phone's address book). Once you're in Contacts,
just start typing the name of the person you want
to find. Your phone will start displaying the
names of every person in your list with those
letters in their name. When you see the name you
want, just touch it to select them.
Sometimes a fourth option, Favourites is
available. These are people from your Contacts
list you have put in a special group for frequent
contacts.

To make a call
Some phone apps always open in Keyboard. If you want to
see the Recent calls or your full Contacts list, you'll need
to touch the relevant name or icon at the top or bottom of
the screen. Other phone apps open in whichever screen
you last used.

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To make a call, either key in the number using the
Keypad, or touch the name or number from your Recent
calls list, or find the name in your Contacts list and touch
it. Usually you will need to touch the call (phone) icon
after selecting the person or keying in their number.
Touch the call icon to
make the call.

Android will also offer you the option to send that person a
text message (speech bubble icon), or place a video call
(camera icon) instead of phoning them (phone icon).

While the phone is making the call

you'll see a new screen with the name
or number you are calling and the
words 'dialling'. If the screen hasn't
changed, you have not placed the call
and will need to touch the call icon
again. If you get the dialling message
and you didn't intend to make the call,
simply hang up before it finishes
dialling and no one will know.

Once on the call, you can touch the

Speaker icon for 'hands free' talking
— which makes the sound louder —
useful if you have trouble hearing the
caller. You can also adjust the volume
with your volume up and down button
on the side of your phone. The 'mute'
icon will shut off your microphone, if you need to sneeze
— or if you want to talk to someone with you and don't
want the caller to hear. And the Keypad icon will display

16
the numbers pad for when you need to press a number
during the call.

To hang up, touch the Red icon showing a phone

face down.

Receiving a call
When someone calls you, your
phone will display their name
from your Contacts list, if they
are in your list. Otherwise, it will
display the number and city or
country that they are calling
from. Android lets you answer
the call, or decline the call and
send the caller straight to voice-
mail. (Or you can simply ignore
the phone until it goes to
voicemail automatically.)

All Android phones require you

to swipe something to answer
the call. Remember: a swipe is a
light touch and slide. Don't press
the icon – your phone will
interpret a press as a 'long touch', and since it has no
instruction for 'long touch', it won't do anything.

Alcatel phones present you with three icons: red and

green ‘decline’ and ‘accept’ icons, with a large grey phone
icon between them. You need to swipe the grey icon
towards the option you want – swipe right, towards green
to accept the call, swipe left, towards red to decline it.

17
Samsung and Huawei phones
display a green answer call icon and
a red 'decline' icon. To answer,
swipe the green icon right towards the centre of the
phone. To decline the call, swipe the red icon left.

Some Oppo, Nokia and Google Pixel phones

offer you a single icon which you swipe up to
answer and swipe down to decline. When you
swipe up the icon will turn green, and when
you swipe down the icon will turn red.

Once you have answered the call, you have the same in-
call options as you have when talking to someone on a call
you placed yourself.

If you are using your phone when the call comes, a

discrete window will pop up to tell you that there is an
incoming call, and offering you the options of accepting or
declining it.

I can’t hear it ring!

If you’re not hearing the phone ring, open Settings ( )
and find the Sound options. Check that you are not in
Silent mode – and turn it off if you are. Then slide the Ring
Volume all the way over to the right. It can be helpful to
also turn on the ‘Also vibrate for calls’ option.

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Further down the Sound screen you’ll find Phone ringtone.
Touch that and you’ll be able to try out and choose which
ringtone you want to hear when your phone is ringing.
When you find one you like, press OK.

Voicemail
Voicemail is the answerphone for your mobile phone,
provided by your mobile company. On most phones, a long
touch on the 1 button on the keyboard will connect you to
your voicemail, or you can access it by touching the ⋮ icon
and selecting Voicemail, or dial the number given by your
company. Once connected, you’ll be told how many
messages are waiting for you. On my phone they will then
play one after the other. After the message has been
played, you can press a number to hear the message
again, to call the person who phoned you, or to delete the
message. If you don’t delete old messages, you’ll keep on
hearing them each time you check your voicemail until
your mailbox fill up and there is no more room for new
messages. Fortunately, you can delete a call by pressing
the delete number as soon as the message starts playing –
you don’t have all the way to the end.

Your cell phone company will send you a text message

each time someone leaves you a voice message. Your
phone will also alert you that you missed a phone call.

Setting up your voicemail is done through your mobile

phone provider. The exact process will be different for
each mobile company. If you don’t set up personal
greetings, callers will hear an automatic recording telling
them that the person at your phone number can’t take the
call and inviting them to leave a message. Lots of people
don’t bother changing that automatic recording, so if you
record a greeting, you won’t stand out.

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6 Sending and reading text messages
Important: Text messages can only be sent to cell
phones, not landlines. If you are trying to send a text
message and it won’t send, look to see if you are trying to
send it to a landline number.

These instructions are for the Google text

Message app, with the double blue speech
bubble icon. Your phone might come with a
different Messages app. They’re all very
similar, so most of these instructions will
apply. Or, you can download Google’s version
from the Play store.

Don’t confuse Messages with Messenger.

Messenger is a Facebook app that sends short
messages or photos between family and
friends via WiFi. Text messages from your
doctor telling you of a change in your
appointment time will come to you in a Messages app, not
through Messenger.

Touch the Messages icon on your Home screen.

Messages displays your messages in ‘Conversations’.

Every number or person you have had contact with will be
listed, with the last message to or from that person
displayed. The most recent conversation will be the first
displayed.

To read a message
If someone has just sent you a message, it will appear at
the top of your list. If you haven’t read it yet, the message

20
will be bold and the first words of the message will be
displayed.

To read the full message, touch it. The message will open,
and you can scroll up to see old messages from, or to, that
person.

To answer their message, simply touch the box at the

bottom of the screen where it says ‘Text message’ and
start typing (or speaking, if you touch the microphone)
your reply.

To write a message
To write a new message, either touch the ‘Start chat’
button at the bottom right of the Conversations screen, or
find the person you want to contact on the list of
conversations.

Start chat will bring up a New Conversation screen and

put the cursor where you can type the cell phone number
of the person you wish to contact, or type their name (if
they are in your Contacts list). Your phone will try to
guess the person you want by offering you names
containing the letter combinations you type. You can keep
on typing, or touch the correct person once they appear
on the list. As soon as you have told the phone who to send
the message to, the cursor will move to the Text message
box and you can start typing or dictating the message.
Once you have written your message, touch the send icon
( – think of it as a paper dart you are flying across a
room). If you’ve done it right, your message will appear in
a blue box on the right side of the screen, and a new ‘Text
message’ box will appear.

21
To delete unwanted messages
Don’t be in a hurry to delete every message as soon as you
have read it. That message from the plumber telling you
when he will arrive could be very helpful in a year’s time
when another pipe bursts. However, many messages are
not worth keeping. To delete them, long-press on the
message to Select it. You’ll see a tick appear in the
coloured circle beside the message. Once you have one
tick, you can Select other unwanted messages just by
touching their coloured circles. Then you’ll see a delete
rubbish bin icon at the top of the screen. Touch that, and
it will ask if you are sure you want to delete the messages
you have selected. Touch Delete if you are sure.

Other options
Once you’ve Selected a message, you have other choices,
available from the ⋮ button at the top, right of the screen.
Mark as unread will turn the message bold to nag you to
look at it again, Add contact, will create a new contact for
you with the cell phone number included. Once you have
added in their name, all the messages from that person
will be identified with that name. I label useful contacts as
‘James the plumber’. Block number will prevent further
text messages from that number from reaching you. This
is helpful for avoiding messages from an ex, but seldom
works with junk messages since they just send out the
next message from a different number.

Attaching photos to text messages

You can attach photos to text messages. If you do, the
photo will appear inside the message – very convenient for
contacting a partner at the supermarket and asking them
to buy a can of this soup, with photograph. However, each
photo will cost you an extra 50 c to send, on top of

22
your text message allocation. To do so, simply touch the
icon to the left of the Text message field. Google Messages
combines the camera and images in one icon, whereas my
Samsung messages app provides two separate icons. You
can attach an image – photo or screenshot already on your
phone, or touch the camera for a new shot which will
instantly be attached to the message.

If you want to send text messages with attached photos

without paying extra, use WhatsApp or Facebook
Messenger. Or send them an email with an attached
photo.

23
7 Min? Txt? Data? What's what?
If you have a cell phone number,
then you have a cell phone
provider who charges you for
minutes of phone calls, text
messages, and mobile data.
However, your phone probably
also receives data via a WiFi
network at home and possibly
other WiFi networks (such as at
work, at the library or the mall)
WiFi data is much cheaper than
mobile data, so your phone flicks
to WiFi whenever it knows the
password and you have
permitted it to use WiFi.

Minutes
The only app on your phone that uses mobile Minutes is
your Phone app. Calls made using What'sApp or Facebook
Messenger use Data, not Minutes. If you make a call (to
another cell phone or to a landline), the minutes come off
your phone. If you answer a call from someone else, they
pay for it using their minutes. (So if you are low on
minutes, you could send a text message to your friend
asking them to call you.) Some cell phone providers do not
charge you for cell phone calls made to other cell phones
on the same network. Check with your phone company
before making international calls. Some NZ phone
companies treat calls to Australia as local calls.

24
Txt
Your Messages app sends Text messages using your Txt
allocation. Text messages are very cheap to send – most
people have an allocation of many more messages than
they send each month. Be careful though – if you add a
photograph to your text message, you'll be charged extra
for the photo. Again, if you send text messages through
What'sApp or Messenger, they use Data, not your txt
allocation. A photo attached to a What’sApp message just
uses a little bit of extra data.

Data
Every other app on your phone is either self-contained
(such as the Calculator or Clock app, that need no
additional information to do their thing), or fetches Data
from the internet, via WiFi or via Mobile data.

Why do I need to know as long as it works?

By knowing which apps use which service, you can save
money. At home, or whenever you have WiFi access, calls
made using WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger will be
cheaper than those made using your Phone app. Don't use
those apps for more than brief calls while you are out and
about though, because then they'll use Mobile data, which
is much more costly. With WhatsApp and Messenger, both
parties to the call pay for data, not just the person who
placed the call.

Watching movies or YouTube, listening to music or

internet radio, or playing graphic-intensive games on your
phone will use WiFi at home, but significant chunks of
Mobile Data out and about. So it is not a good idea to
while away a bus journey by listening to internet radio or
watching Coro, unless your bus offers free WiFi. (Most

25
Android phones are capable of picking up FM radio if you
use earplugs – that doesn't use data.) Text-based activities
such as reading e-books, email or news sites do not use
much data.

What is WiFi?
Most internet data is sent
around the world, and around
New Zealand, through cables.
They used to be copper cables,
but now they're mainly fibre-
optic cables sending pulses of
light. Data probably reaches your house via cables just as
telephone calls do. There will be wires within the walls of
your house that connect to those street cables. Your
modem is connected to one of those wires. The modem
then broadcasts a short-range radio signal which is the
WiFi. You connect (tune in) to that signal with your phone,
laptop or other devices, and thus connect your devices to
the world. If you have a Wireless modem, it has a cell
phone SIM card which receives data from the nearest cell
phone tower – and the modem converts it to WiFi for your
devices.

How much data will I need?

If you do data-heavy activities like music, games or
movies, you’ll need at least 80 GB a month, and probably
you’ll have an Unlimited data plan. If you are quite happy
with broadcast TV or Sky, and use an actual radio for your
music, a 40 GB WiFi plan will be plenty. You’ll still be able
to watch some YouTube and some TVNZ+–just not 4 hours
a day everyday. If you don’t have WiFi at all, you’ll
probably need at least 2 GB per month on Mobile Data.

26
8 Installing apps from the Google Play
Store

The programs that run on your smartphone are called

'apps' (which is short for 'applications'). People all over
the world write programs for Android phones because
Google encourages them to do so. A large number of these
programs are free. Sometimes the writers make money
from advertising that appears while you are using the app.
Often the writers will offer an ad-free version of their app
which you can buy for a few dollars. Other times, there
are no ads; the writers don't make money at all, they just
enjoy writing something that people like.

All the apps written for Android devices are available from
the Google Play Store. You can open the Play Store app
that came with your phone.

Google will ask you to type in your credit card details, so

that you can pay for apps from the Play Store. Just touch
'Skip'. If, at some time in the future, you want an app you
have to pay for, you can set up payment at that time. In
the meantime, not having a way to pay for apps will
ensure you cannot buy things you did not intend to buy. In
10 years of owning smartphones and tablets I have never
needed to pay for anything from the Play Store.

One app I recommend you have is Adobe Acrobat, which

allows you to open and read pdf files – a very common
type of file you may receive in an email or meet on the

27
internet. There are many pdf viewing apps, but I
recommend Acrobat because it lets you sign documents
using your phone (see chapter 12) and is ad free.

When you open the Play Store app, you'll see a Search
bar. Type in the name of the app you want, or a
description (eg the name 'Adobe Acrobat', or 'PDF
reader'). Then scroll down to find Adobe Acrobat (it should
be at the top). Touch the app to learn more about it.

You’ll see a series of screenshots showing different

aspects of the app. You’ll also read a detailed description
of the app in the About this app section. Below that is
some legal stuff, followed by ratings and reviews by other
customers. Use the screenshots, the description of the
app, and the reviews to help you decide whether you want
to try it out. If you do, scroll up to the top and touch
Install. The app will download and install on your phone.
Then you can try it out.

If you don’t like the app, simply uninstall it. On my phone I

simply long touch on the app icon in my apps library. The
pop-up window offers Select, Add to Home and Uninstall.
Touch uninstall and it will disappear.

Your phone will have come with a basic set of apps. These
vary according to the manufacture and the model. You
should burrow through every folder on your phone and
open every app to find out what it is. Then you can decide
what other apps you might like. I recommend a pdf reader
like Adobe Acrobat, and a simple notepad so you can jot
down information if you need to. Beyond that – it’s up to
you.

28
Don’t pester me
Many apps want to send you Notifications to encourage
you to use it and thus see more advertisements. I always
turn off the permission to send notifications if I spot it.
Sometimes phone Updates seem to turn on this permission
again. If you receive a notification you don’t want: go to
Settings > Notifications. You’ll see a list of apps under
Recently sent, each with a toggle switch beside it. Just
toggle off the app that sent you the unwanted notification.
I have many apps on my phone, but very few of them have
permission to send me notifications.

Pop-up ads
Virtually everything we
do with our smartphones
is paid for by advertising.
You’ll often find an ad
will pop up when you’re
doing something, or
before you can watch
something. Each one will
have a ‘close’ button. You
just have to find it. The
left-hand ad here has a
Close X near the top
right-hand corner. The right-hand ad has a Close button at
the bottom of the screen. Ignore the highlighted Shop now
option unless you actually want what they are selling.
Sometimes you have to sit through a 5, 10 or possibly 15 s
advertisement before something will happen. Usually you
can touch a Skip button at the bottom right of the screen
after 5 s.

29
9 Using WhatsApp to communicate
WhatsApp is a communication app that allows you
to send messages or make calls using data rather
than your Text allowance or phone Minutes. If you
use WhatsApp at home, the data comes from WiFi. You
can call anyone in the world using WhatsApp.

Both the caller and the receiver must have WhatsApp

installed on their cell phones. WhatsApp does not work
with landline phones. And you must have each other in
your respective phone Contacts list.

You will probably need to download WhatsApp from the

Play Store. It’s free. It’s called WhatsApp Messenger. Look
for the green icon with a phone inside a speech bubble.

To send a message using WhatsApp

Open the WhatsApp app and touch the green
button on the bottom right to get started.

It will bring up a list of all your contacts. First it will list

all those who are already listed with WhatsApp, and then
it will list those who are not with WhatsApp. If your friend
is on the second list you will not be able use WhatsApp to
call them unless they join too.

Touch the name you want from the first list. To send them
a message, touch the word Message at the bottom of the
screen. You can either type your message or dictate it
using the Voice input microphone.

Or, you can simply record your message by touching the

green circle with the microphone in it.

30
Once you have finished composing your message, touch
the paper dart symbol beside your message to Send it.

You can attach documents or photographs to your

WhatsApp message. Simply touch the paper clip to upload
an existing file, or touch the camera icon to take a photo
and then attach it. It is cheaper to send photos via
WhatsApp than to attach them to a regular text message.

To make a voice call

If the call is to someone you haven’t spoken to already
using WhatsApp, touch the green button on the bottom
right to get started. Choose the name from that top list of
names you can call. Or, if you’ve already contacted them
in WhatsApp, simply find them in your Chats or Calls and
touch their name.

Look at the top of the screen where their name is

displayed. Touch the phone icon to make a phone call.
Calling by WhatsApp works the same way as calling by the
normal cell phone app – it just doesn’t cost as much.
However, you might notice a fraction of a second’s delay
between each interchange. While tiny, this can feel a little
disconcerting. But that’s a small price to pay for free calls.

To make a video call

WhatsApp lets you make video calls as easily as Voice
calls. Just touch the icon of the movie camera instead of
the phone. You’ll see a large video of your friend, and a
small picture on the bottom right with the video off your
camera. Tilt and move your phone to adjust the view your
friend will see of your face. For best results, you want
light on your face. Sit so that there is a light source in
front of you – during daytime, face the window. Touch that

31
little video of yourself and the two images will swap over –
yours large, his small. To hang up the call, tap the large
picture and the buttons will appear. Touch the Red button
to hang up.

Note: it is generally a good idea to make a voice call first

so that your friend can make himself presentable before
facing the camera. Either set it up in advance (I’ll call at 8
pm), or make the voice call and then switch to camera.

To flick between voice and video: touch the camera icon

while on the voice call. You’ll see a message asking if you
want to switch to video. Accept. Your friend will then see
your face and a message on his phone suggesting he swipe
up for video. To shut down your camera, tap the large
video to bring up the buttons, then touch the camera icon
which will now have a line through it. It will either shut off
immediately and return you to voice calling, or it will ask
first.

Video calls use more data than voice calls. This will only
matter to you if you are watching lots of TV or videos over
the internet and are nearing your data cap. However, if
you, or your friend, does not have a good internet
connection you may find the video call stutters. In that
case, go back to a voice call.

Receiving calls and messages

You receive your WhatsApp calls the same way as you
receive regular phone calls – accepting, declining or
ignoring them. You receive messages by opening the
WhatsApp app and touching the message to read it.

32
10 Google Voice input
If you hate typing on a tiny cell phone
keyboard, there is another method to enter text.

• Open any app where you need to type sentences (eg

Gmail, Messages or a Notepad app).
• Touch the text input area to bring up the on-screen
keyboard.
• Now look for the microphone icon. It might be on the
row of icons above the keys of the keyboard, or it
might be on one of the buttons to the left or right of
the space bar. Touch the microphone icon when you
find it.
It takes a few seconds for the dictation software to get
ready. You might see a message ‘initialising’, or you might
see a blank box before a ‘tap to speak’ message. Some
versions of the Voice Input software display a large
microphone icon in a blue circle when the microphone is
on, and white with a blue outline when the microphone is
on standby. You need to tap the outline version before the
microphone will record your speech and turn it into
typing. In another version of the software, touching the
microphone icon will produce a line of text – first
‘initialising’ and then ‘Speak now..... Listening’. In both
versions, the microphone will listen for about 10 s before
it gets bored and goes back into standby.
To get the best results, think about what you want to say
before you start. The software works best with natural
speech. Try to speak a little more slowly than you might
normally do, but in complete phrases or short sentences.
“I’m running late and should be with you in about 30
minutes.” You are dictating your message, not just

33
chatting with Google. Also, for best results, don’t try to
use voice input in a noisy environment like a café or
shopping mall.
You can voice input more than just words though – it
understands simple punctuation.

, . ? !
comma full stop question mark exclamation mark
- : ;
hyphen colon semi-colon

So if the message you want to input is

Please buy a bunch of bananas, a few apples, and

some cheese if it is on special.

You would say:

Please buy a bunch of bananas comma a few apples comma and

some cheese if is on special full stop

To start a new paragraph you say ‘new paragraph’.

Nothing will happen until you speak the first word of that
new paragraph, which you’ll see appear on a new line with
a small gap before it. Or, you can simply say ‘new line’ and
the next words will appear at the start of the next line but
with no space above them.

Voice input will never be perfect. After you have dictated

your message you should read it, and if necessary, use the
keyboard to make corrections. Like everything else, you
will become more competent with voice input as you use
it.

34
11 Using the Gmail app
Your phone will come with the Gmail app
installed. If you can’t see the coloured M, look
for it in the Google folder. Your phone
manufacturer may have included a different email app as
well, but I encourage you to work with the Gmail app first.

But I want to keep using my current email

address
That’s OK. You can use the Gmail app with all your email
accounts. You just need to know your email address and
its password.

Open the Gmail app by touching the M icon, then touch

the ≡ icon at the top left of the screen. Scroll down to the
bottom and touch Settings, then Add account and
follow the instructions. If you get stuck, phone your
Internet Service Provider and get them to talk you
through the setup process. They can also help you if you
don’t know your email password.

35
Opening a message
1. Open the Gmail app by
touching the M icon.
2. Gmail opens in a screen like
this one. There are four
messages visible. The most
recent message is at the top,
and the label is in bold
because it is unread.

At the bottom of the screen

you can see a black envelope
icon with a red 1 on it. That
1 also indicates that there is
one unread message.
3. To Open the message, touch
the black text.
Don’t touch the circle with
the photograph or letter in it
– that selects the message
rather than opening it.

Here is the message. We’ve

got lots of icons to distract
us, but for now, let’s just
read the message and reply
to it.

You can see the Title of the

message (Welcome to email),
who sent it (Anne Wignall),
and the text of the message.

36
Replying to the message
1. Next to the sender’s name is a ↩ arrow. You’ll see
that same arrow near the bottom, in the circle
marked ‘Reply’. Both of these arrows will let you
answer (reply) to the message. One is at the start of
the message and the other at the end. If it was a long
message you’d only see one of them at a time.

The three comments in blue above those bottom

arrows are Google’s suggestions for a simple reply, to
save you the trouble of thinking up your own. But
we’ll do the work ourselves.

Touch either one of the Reply arrows.

2. Gmail knows who you are, so
it automatically fills in the
From field with your own
email address.

Because you are Replying to a

sent message, it also knows
the email address of the
person you are writing To,
and fills that in for you.

In the world of emails,

messages have titles which
are put in the Subject field.
The original message had a
title ‘Welcome to email’, so in
the reply the subject field
reads ‘Re: Welcome to email’.

37
 The curser (the vertical line
which flashes on a screen) is
helpfully placed in the right
place for you to start typing
your message.
3. Once you’ve typed your
message, you need to Send
it.

Look at the top line. Second

from the right is a blue
triangle. It looks like a paper
dart. Touch the paper dart
to Send your message.
You’ll see a message pop up
saying Sending...

and then another message saying Sent.

38
 Gmail gives you a few seconds to hit Cancel or Undo,
in case you didn’t intend to push Send – or you
realise you should have added something.
4. Touch the back arrow at the
top left of the screen.

That top message (Welcome

to email) now shows in
Conversation form, with both
the original message and the
reply. The senders are
showing as Anne and ‘me’,
and the number 2 shows the
number of back and forth
messages within this
conversation.

Other reply options

Sometimes you’ll receive a message that has been sent to
a group of people (such as all the people in a bowling
team). You have the choice of simply sending your Reply
to the one person who sent you the message, or sending it
to everyone by touching the Reply All button. Or, you can
Forward the message to someone else (see below).

39
Opening an attachment
1. Look closely at the four
messages on our message
list. The second and third
messages both have little
paper clips showing next
to their Sender names.
Those paper clips
represent files that have
been pinned or attached
to the message. All sorts
of files can be attached,
but the most common ones
are either photographs or
documents.

2. We touch the message

from Deborah –
remembering to touch the
writing, not the green
circle.

40
3. Deborah has attached a photograph. We can see a
preview of it in the message, but we’d like to look at
the whole thing.

If you want to save the photo

to your phone you will need
to Download it (the down
arrow second from the
right). To open the
photograph so you can see it
all, touch the middle of the
picture.

When you’ve finished

admiring the photograph,
touch the back arrow (top
left) to return to the
message.

41
Forwarding a message (with
an attachment)
1. Imagine you want to send that
message from Deborah, with
its photograph of the kitten,
to someone else.

Touch Forward near the

bottom of the screen. OR find
another Forward button by
touching the ⋮ button beside
the top Reply arrow.

Gmail has filled in the From

field for you, and the Subject
line which now reads ‘Fwd:
Henry cat pose’, but it doesn’t
know who you want to send
the message to.

Touch in the To field and start

typing the email address.

42
2. As soon as you start typing,
Gmail starts guessing who
you might want to write to
by looking up the addresses
you’ve already used. If it
offers you the correct one,
you can touch it instead of
finishing typing the whole
address yourself.

3. Most of the time when you

forward an email to
someone else, you’ll want to
add some sort of comment
or explanation of your own
before sending it.

43
4. Then press Send (blue dart
at the top).

5. Now our email list shows

two messages in the
conversation about Henry
cat pose started by Deborah.

44
Composing a new email
1. If you want to start a new
conversation, rather than
replying to or forwarding
someone else’s email, then
you need to touch the
Compose button which is
shown at the bottom of your
message list,

Once you touch Compose, you

need to type in the email
address of the person you
want to contact, give the
email a subject, and then type
the email itself.

On a physical keyboard you

can move from field to field
(the To field, the Subject field,
and the Message field) by
pressing the TAB key on the
left hand side of the keyboard.
On this electronic keyboard
Gmail has added in a blue
TAB key to do the same job.

2. After you have filled in all the

fields and signed your
message, touch the blue dart
at the top of the message to

45
 Send it.

Make sure you see the Sent

message after touching the
Send icon

3. On the right-hand side of the

To field is a downward
arrow. Touch that and you’ll
see two more options, Cc
and Bcc. Cc stands for
Carbon copy, and Bcc means
Blind carbon copy. Email
addresses put in the Cc field
appear on the message
everyone receives, while
those on Bcc are hidden. It’s
a good idea to Bcc messages
when those receiving them
don’t know each other well.

Attaching your own file

Attaching a file of your own to an email is simple.

1. First start the email.

2. Then touch the paper clip icon
to the left of the ‘send’ triangle.

46
3. Gmail will display this rather
scary list of places to look
and files to find.

At the top, you can look at

all the Images on your
phone, or all the Audio files,
or all the Videos, or all the
Documents.

Next you have the option to

look in your recently-used
apps, in case the file you
want is more easily found
that way.

But since most people will

want to attach a file they’ve
used recently, Gmail also
displays all the files you’ve
opened most recently. Since
the one we wanted has just
been looked at, it is the top of
the ‘recent files’ list. Touch it
to Select (tick) the file, then
also touch Select at the top of
the screen.

If you’re successful, you’ll see

a blue box with the name of
your file at the bottom of your
message.

47
4. Finish your message and
touch the Send triangle to
send it.
You can attach multiple files at
once, simply by ticking several
files before touching the word
Select at the top of the screen.
You can also repeat the
process by touching the paper
clip a second time – or touch
the X on the attached file to
remove it.
What you cannot attach in an
email is a folder containing
several (or several dozen) files.
Folders have to be compressed
(made into Zip files) before
they can be emailed. This is
relatively easy to do on a PC,
but difficult on an Android phone and beyond the scope of
this book.
People often write an email, intending to attach a file, but
then send it without attaching anything. Gmail scans the
text of your message looking for the word ‘attach’ or
‘attached’. If it sees it and you have touched ‘send’
without attaching anything, it will pop up an alert asking if
you intended to attach something.

Unwanted emails
You can set your Gmail app to sort your messages into the
categories Primary, Promotions, Social and Forums. That
way virtually all the advertising messages will end up in
Promotions or Social where you can ignore or read them

48
at your leisure. You can also set
Gmail to only alert you when you
receive Primary messages. To do
so, go into the Gmail Settings (at
the very bottom of the menu),
touch your gmail address, set the
Inbox to Default inbox, and then
set the Inbox categories. If you
don’t tick any of the boxes, all
your messages will appear in in
Primary, but if you tick the other
boxes (I don’t tick Updates, but
you can if you want to), then all
messages in those categories will
be filtered out until you choose to
see them. Then look down to
Notifications and select High
priority only. If you have Gmail
on your computer as well as on
your phone, you’ll need to set up
the categories on your computer first, in order to get them
offered for your cell phone.

Now your Gmail menu offers each category separately:

Primary, Promotions, Social and Forums. I usually leave it
on Primary, but when I feel like looking at junk mail, I
open up Promotions and look at a few of those messages.

I always refuse offers to be sent promotional material by

app writers, shops, and other places I deal with online.
That minimizes the amount of junk mail I get sent. For the
ones that slip through, you should have the opportunity to
Unsubscribe, usually at the very end of the message.
Touching the Unsubscribe button should immediately
remove your email address from their mailing list.

49
12 Electronically completing and signing
a pdf document
My accountant is about to prepare my tax forms, but
insists I sign a new Letter of Engagement before work will
begin. He has emailed me the documents.

Last year I would have printed out the contract, signed it,
scanned the signed version and emailed that back to the
office. Not too difficult if you have a printer and scanner
ready to go. But what do you do if you don't have a printer
or scanner?

Simple. Go to the Play Store and download

Adobe Acrobat – it's free. There are lots of other
apps that allow you to read PDF files, but with
Adobe you'll be able to fill in and sign the pdf
right there on your smart phone without printing it first.

Open the email, scroll down

to the bottom of the
message where the attached
file is shown, and touch the
Download arrow on the
bottom right-hand corner.
The file will be saved in the
Downloads folder on your cell phone or computer. (It is
possible to work with the pdf file in the cloud, but it
becomes more complicated, and anyway, it’s a good idea
to keep a copy of your signed document in case there are
problems later.)

Now open Acrobat and use it to locate the document On

this device in your Downloads folder.

50
When you open the pdf file
you’ll see a bunch of tools at
the bottom of the screen.
The one you want is Fill &
Sign. The toolbar will stay at
the bottom of the screen as
you scroll through the
document to find the places
that need to be filled in or
signed.

If you don’t see that toolbar,

you haven’t opened the pdf
file in Acrobat, but in one of
the other apps on your
phone that can open pdf
files. Go back and open
Acrobat first, then find the
file and open it.

Find the place in the

document where you need
to fill in your name and
sign. Then touch the Fill &
Sign tool. Once you touch
the Fill & Sign tool you’ll
get a new set of tools. The
first, (A in a box) allows you
to type text into the spaces
(form fields) in the
document. The next are
useful if you need to tick,
cross or choose options with
a dot. The pen on the end is
the one that allows you to create and use a signature.

51
Touch the A and type your text into the relevant fields on
the document. Notice that you can change the colour of
the typing, and make the font larger or smaller. Or, you
can change your mind about typing and touch the pen icon
to insert a signature.

Once you touch the

pen, you’ll see any
signature that has
been created. Touch
the – button to remove
the saved version and
recreate it. Touch in
the empty box to
bring up the signing
box.

Use your finger on

the touchscreen to
sign your name. If
you don’t like how it
looks, just touch
Clear and try again. When you are happy with the result,
touch Done.

Now touch the

signature in its
box, and then
touch the place on
the document
where you want to
put that signature.

52
It will appear on the page. You can drag it around or make
it larger or smaller with the blue arrows.

When you have filled in

everything necessary on the
pdf document, touch the
blue tick at the top left of
the document to Save your
changes.

Finally, open your email app

again and Reply to message,
Attaching the completed pdf (which will still be in your
Downloads folder but will also show up as a Recent
document). Job done.

You will come across pdf documents in many business

settings – when making a claim with an insurance
company perhaps, or setting up a Direct Debit. Most
commonly the website will have a pdf version of the form
to download, complete and return to the company, or they
will email you the file. By completing the form on-screen,
and signing it on-screen, you can have it back to them in
minutes.

53
13 Taking photographs and screenshots
All smartphones and tablets have built-in cameras, but the
quality of those cameras varies greatly between models
and manufacturers. A cheap phone will have a basic
camera with few options, while the most expensive phones
have 3 or more lenses, the ability to take photos in very
low light, lots of zoom capability and other choices like
macro photography or panoramic shots. All of them will let
you take videos instead of still photographs, and virtually
all of them will have both a ‘front’ or ‘selfie’ camera as
well as a rear camera. The front camera lets you look at
the screen and photograph yourself, while the rear camera
lets you hold the device up and use the screen as a
viewfinder. The rear camera is always of much better
quality than the front one.

I can’t really give you specific instructions for using your

camera, because they vary so much. But I can give you
some guidelines.

Changing from main to selfie camera

When you open your Camera app, you’ll notice that the
screen shows whatever is behind (or in front of) the
phone. If it is black, your lens is blocked – possibly by your
cell phone case. Some cases are designed so that the
phone must be pushed up when you take a photo. Or, if
the case isn’t specifically designed for your phone, you
may need to pop the phone out of the case to take a photo.

Look for a symbol on the screen with two curly arrows and
touch it. That will be the switch that changes from the
back camera to the front one. You should see your face on
screen. Touch it again to revert to the back camera.

54
Photo or video mode
Somewhere you’ll see the buttons to choose between
taking photographs and taking a video. You might have
other options as well such as taking a portrait or taking a
panoramic picture (which joins several photos together).
On some cameras these options are displayed as images
rather than in English words. Set the camera to Photo
mode.

Taking a shot
Hold the phone up so the main (back) camera can see
some things that are close to you, and some that are
further away. Touch the white circle at the bottom of the
screen to take a photo. Try not to move the camera as you
take the shot. You’ll hear a shutter click sound, and see a
miniature image of your photo displayed at the bottom of
your screen. Touch that image to see your photo in full
screen. Then use the back arrow to return to the camera.

Focus and zoom

Now touch something on the screen that is far away.
Unless your camera is very basic, it will focus on that far
away object, blurring the near objects a little. Touch again
at something close and see that come into focus while the
far away object blurs. Now touch the screen with two
fingers and slide them apart to zoom in on that far off
object. Then touch the subject of your composition to
bring it into focus and take the photo. Finally, find that
nearby object, zoom in on it and bring it into focus before
taking the shot.

Flash
You’ll probably have the option of a flash. The symbol is
usually a zigzag lightning bolt. Options are auto – the
camera decides whether a flash is needed or not; always

55
on (usually indicated by a filled-in or coloured icon) and
never on (usually indicated by a diagonal line or outlined
icon). While auto is the safest option, if you are
photographing subjects who have a bright light behind
them – such as people with their backs to a window – you
need to turn on the flash to light their faces.

Taking videos
If you want to record video, switch the mode to video and
touch the Record button once to start recording. A timer
will pop up telling you how long you have been recording,
and a Stop button (or pause and stop buttons) will appear.
It will keep recording until you press stop.

Tip: don’t move the camera too quickly while recording.

You can zoom in and focus while recording. Slow
movement to follow a subject is fine. Recorded video takes
up a lot of storage, and also uses up your battery quickly.
If you discover you enjoy making videos, you’ll probably
want to buy a good cell phone with extra memory.

But I don’t need a camera

In the days of film cameras, you might have used a whole
24-shot roll of film on a 2-week holiday – and then not
taken another picture for 6 months, because photographs
were expensive. Digital photography is very different
because any photograph stored on your phone is free. You
can use your camera like a notebook. Want another jar of
that nice relish you found? Take a photo of the jar so you
can check what it looks like and which brand it was when
next at the supermarket. Want to connect a new device to
your home WiFi? Take a photo of the modem with its
sticker showing the password. Then you can read the
password more easily and not while groping around on the
floor. Want to ask at the garden centre for something to

56
cure your sick apple tree? Photograph the tree with its
splotchy leaves first. Want the recipe for your friend’s
chocolate cake? Don’t copy it down longhand – just
photograph it straight from her recipe book.

Remember, too, that you can delete photographs. All those

practice shots you took can be deleted right now. If I take
photos of friends and family, I immediately delete those
shots that are blurred or which show someone in a less-
than-flattering view. Not only does this give me more
space for good photographs, but it makes me look like a
better photographer than I really am.

Screenshots
Your phone also has the ability to ‘photograph’ whatever
is displayed on the screen at that time. You’ve seen lots of
screenshots from my phone in this book. Most Android
phones will take a screenshot if you quickly press the
power button and the volume down button at the same
time. If you’re successful, you’ll see the phone screen
react, and you may hear the shutter sound. Some phones
will also take a screenshot if you use two fingers to ‘pull
down’ from the top of the screen. If neither of those
methods works, you’ll need to do an internet search to
find out how your phone brand and model does
screenshots (eg ‘how do I do a screenshot with a Samsung
Galaxy A10’).

When would I want a screenshot?

If I want to buy something – say, a new stepladder – I like
to look online to study my options, then narrow down my
choice. I take a screenshot of the item(s), then go to the
store and show it to a shop assistant who locates it. Then I
decide whether or not I want to buy it.

57
14 Backing up photos with Google
Photos
Money can replace virtually everything we
own, but not our photographs. You’ll never
know whether a silly snap taken at a café will
one day become a precious and irreplaceable
memory. So take care of your photos and
make sure there are copies of those images somewhere
away from your phone.

Your phone probably comes with an app called Gallery

which allows you to look at images on your phone. Every
photo you take will appear in Gallery. But Android phones
also come with Google Photos (unless it is a budget phone
running a cut-down version of Android, in which case you
can download Photos from the Play Store at no cost).
Google photos will store all your image files 'in the cloud' –
in other words, on a computer or computers far, far away.
As an Android owner you are given 15 GB of free storage
per Google account, which is enough for years of
photographs. Photos is normally set up to automatically
upload every photo you take to the cloud. That means if
you drop your phone in the river your precious photos
won't be destroyed when the phone dies. Let's check.

Locate your Gallery app and have a quick look at some

recent photos. Now locate the Photos app. If you can't see
it in your main Apps folder, look inside a Google folder. If
it's not there, try a Search for Photos. If it really isn't
there, then download it from the Play Store.

Once you've found or downloaded Photos, open it. Does it

have the recent photos you saw in your Gallery? Great. To
further confirm that photos are being uploaded, take a

58
photo with the cell phone camera and immediately open
Photos. You should see your Google identity icon (a circle
on the top right of the window showing either your photo
or your initial). If the photo is being uploaded you'll see a
little + on the edge of the circle, and you'll also see a
green uploading line wrapping around your icon. And, of
course, the photo you've just taken in the Photos folder.

So what do you do if that new photo does not appear?

1. Touch your Google identity icon.

2. Look for Backup, which should be immediately
underneath the heading Google Account. There should
be a cloud icon beside the word Backup. Touch there.
3. This time, you'll see that same message, but there will
be the three dots icon to indicate a hidden menu on the
top right. Touch the three dots.
4. Touch Backup Settings.
5. Toggle the switch for 'Back-up photos and videos from
this device to your Google account' to On (blue).

That's it. Done.

Now check, by taking another photo. (Don't worry, you

can delete them again if you want to.)

Storing a copy of your photos in the cloud is not just

protection in case your cell phone dies or is stolen. It
makes it easy to access your photos from your PC or
tablet, or at a friend's house. And it makes it easy to make
specific photos available to family or friends. They can
view them online or download the ones they like onto their
computers without your having to email each one
separately.

59
15 Internet banking

Getting set up
With cheques no longer an option, it is very difficult to pay
bills and function in today’s society without getting to
grips with internet banking. Each bank has their own
system of banking through their website, and most of
them also have a proprietary cell phone app for banking.
They all look slightly different, but they all have the same
elements in them – just like different makes and models of
cars all have switches for lights, fans and wipers, but may
put them in different places.

You will need to set up Internet Banking with your bank

before you start. They will give you an access number or
username, and you will choose a password. It’s OK to
write down your access number, but be very careful with
that password!

If you access the bank through their website, you’ll need

to log in with your access number and password every
time. (If your browser offers to remember them for you,
refuse! If you say ‘yes’, then anyone else sitting at your
computer will also be able to easily transfer money out of
your accounts.) Most cell phone banking apps only need
your access number and password to set them up. After
that, they use the security already on your phone – such as
a PIN, Pattern, fingerprint or face ID. If you don’t use
good security on your phone, don’t install a cell phone
banking app. It’s too easy to leave your phone at a café or
shop where someone might have seen you use it.

60
The language of banks
Transfer means move your money from one of your
accounts to another – such as from your everyday account
to your savings account.

Pay means send your money out of your account into

someone else’s account. Some banks distinguish between
paying ‘someone’, and paying a bill. If the company you
owe has registered their account details with the bank
you’ll automatically be taken to the Bill section. There
might even be a separate link for paying tax to the IRD.

Money comes out of your account, so you are the payer.

The recipient of your money is the payee. (A payer gives
money to a payee and an employer gives a job to an
employee.) Some banks require you to enter in the payee
details (bank account number and name) before setting up
a payment, while others allow you to start making the
payment and then enter the payee details.

Transactions are all the deposits and withdrawals made

on that account.

An automatic payment is a regular payment you set up –

such as a monthly donation to your church or a weekly
payment to a landlord. You can make changes to the
amount and frequency of payment whenever you like.

A direct debit happens if you give a company permission

to withdraw money from your account to pay the bill you
owe them. They control the amount and payment date.
Direct debits are often used to pay regular bills like power
or phone. You still receive an account, a couple of weeks
before the payment is due, allowing you time to query the
amount before the money is transferred.

61
Details
When you pay a bill, you’ll be depositing money into the
company’s account. But the company won’t know where
that money has come from unless you tell them by giving
them details. All banks offer a details grid with three
columns labelled Particulars, Code and Reference in
two rows – one for your records, and one for the payee.
You can put anything into your row, but the company will
usually tell you what information they need for their
statement and which column it should go in.

Working with your accounts

If you have more than one account with your bank, you
can transfer money from one account to another.

1 Find the Transfer money button. It might be a separate

button, or it might be accessed via a ‘Pay and Transfer’
button. Look at the top of the screen, on the side, or at
the bottom. Touch it.
2 Now you need to select the From account and the To
account.
3 Enter the sum you wish to transfer. Don’t type the $
sign, just the digits and the decimal point. Don’t put in
spaces or commas to indicate thousands either. If you
leave out the decimal point it will assume you mean
dollars.
4 You’ll have the option of making a single transfer, or of
making this a regular transfer (this much each week,
month etc).
5 You may choose to fill in the Details fields to remind
yourself what the money was transferred for. Whatever
you put will appear on your bank statement. I seldom
bother to annotate my transfers.
6 Finally, touch OK or Make Transfer.

62
The language of bills
While each company is different, most bills have certain
elements in common. They’ll provide the company name
and GST number, an invoice number and date of issue,
the date due, and your customer number or code.
Sometimes they give you a customer name or ID. It’ll be
an abbreviated form of your name to act as a unique
identifier for you in their system. They’ll also supply their
bank account number and usually their account name.

You need to learn to recognise NZ bank account numbers.

They are always in this form:
0 3 1 2 3 4 0 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1
Bank Branch Account number Suffix

They are usually written with spaces or dashes between

each group of numbers: 03 1234 0567891 01
or 03-1234-0567891-01. When you type them, only type
the numbers, not spaces or dashes.

Practice reading a bill (Answers on page 66)

On the ACME bill for Mr Wylie Coyote opposite:

How much is owing? ________ When is it due? ____________

What is the payee’s Account name? _______________________

What is the payee’s bank account number?

What should be filled in for the payee’s details?

Particulars Code Reference

63
64
Paying the bill
Now that you can strip the key information from a bill, you
can set up the payment.

1 Start by either by logging on through your bank’s

website using your Customer number and password, or
by opening your bank’s phone app.
2 Check your account balance to make sure you can
afford to pay the bill – or transfer money between your
accounts so that there are sufficient funds in the right
account.
3 Check that the billing company is listed in your Payee’s
list, or set them up as a new Payee by entering their
account name, their bank account, and a ‘nickname’ –
meaningful to you – such as ‘gas supplier’ for Acme
Corporation.
4 Check the Details the payee requires on your payment
and fill in the correct fields of their Details panel as
indicated. Put something meaningful in your section to
help you to identify the payment later.
5 Now set up the Payment. Choose which of your bank
accounts the money is to be paid from, and select the
Payee it is to go to. Enter the sum to be transferred,
double checking that you have the correct figure from
the bill. Check that the Details are correct and select
the date on which the payment should be made.
Normally it would be ‘today’, but if you want to delay
payment until the bill’s due date, you have that option.
6 When everything has been checked, touch Make
Payment.
7 Often your bank will want to do a 2-step verification by
sending you a text message with a code to enter.

65
 Follow the instructions and enter the code. Then the
transfer will go ahead. These days the payee will get
the money within an hour or so.

Automatic payments
Pay Someone can be used to make repeat payments just as
you can make a regular transfer from one bank account to
another. You can set up weekly, fortnightly or monthly
payments, and have them continue until a specific date, or
until a specific number of payments have been made, or to
continue until you stop them.

Finding your automatic payments differs according to your

bank. Some banks provide a separate button to access
them. Others display them under a Future Transaction
heading associated with each bank account. Or you might
find them under a More or … menu. Once you find one,
touch it, or select it and look for an Edit icon (a pencil).
Automatic payments are always able to be changed.

Other options
Banks differ as to what else you can do over the internet.
You’ll probably be able to edit your personal preferences
to decide between emailed and paper statements. You may
be able to order new cards or open new accounts, or even
set up Term Deposits. They always have a telephone help
desk with actual humans who will talk you through the on-
screen process if you get stuck.

Answers to questions on p 63
Amount owing = $100, due on 20th August 2023
Payee Account name = Acme Corporation
Account number = 45 7021 0831382 00
Put 5037 in the Reference field. You could put W Coyote in
the Particulars field if you want to, but it is not required.

66
16 Browsing the Internet
‘The Internet’ is just a lot of computers from all over the
world, linked together in a network. People also talk about
the World Wide Web (or simply ‘the web’) because those
millions of computer connections are a bit like a spider’s
web. The cables in your street and under the Pacific
Ocean that carry phone signals also carry computer data,
linking your phone or computer to every other connected
device in the world.

Radio stations broadcast radio waves throughout New

Zealand, but we need a physical radio to capture that
signal and turn it into sound we can hear. Similarly,
computers around the world called servers hold
information, but your phone or computer needs a program
called a browser to convert the computer code into text,
images and sound that you can understand. The most
popular browsers are Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome,
Firefox and Safari (for Macs). Samsung phones come
with Samsung’s own browser which is called Internet.

Microsoft Google Mozilla Samsung

Edge Chrome Firefox Internet

You might find Google Chrome in the Google folder on

your phone. Phones always come with at least one
browser installed. You can download others from the Play
store (see Chapter 8).

67
The website address (URL)
To find something on the Web, you either need to know its
website address, or you need to Search for it. The address
is sometimes called its URL. Here are some web
addresses:

https://seniornet.nz/ https://canterbury.ac.nz/
https://www.oxfam.org.nz/ https://www.whitehouse.gov
https://www.trademe.co.nz https://www.amazon.com

Notice that they all start with https://

Today’s web browsers are clever enough to know that web
addresses always start that way, so if it’s missing they’ll
add it in automatically.

You also see that many of them have www. before the
interesting bit. Most people with web addresses have set
them up so that people who don’t bother typing www. get
to the same place as those who do type the three ws.

The rest of the web address does matter though. Typing

oxfam.org will take you to the Oxfam international site,
not the New Zealand Oxfam site. Typing canterbury.ac
without its final .nz won’t take you anywhere. Website
addresses are not case sensitive. That means you can type
Seniornet.nz or SeniorNet.NZ, seniornet.nz or
SENIORNET.NZ and get exactly the same results.

Where do you put the address?

Every web browser has an address bar. On a computer
screen it is always at the top of the screen, but some
Android browsers put the address bar at the bottom of the
screen. It will say ‘Search or type a URL’ or ‘Search or
enter address’. If you know the address of the site you

68
want, just type it in (farmers.co.nz), or ask the question
you want answered (when is Easter this year?).

The left-hand two screens above are from the Chrome

browser, while the right-hand pair are with Firefox.
If you have typed in a web address, you’ll be taken
straight to that page. If you put in a question or search
term, you’ll be offered a list of sites relating to that query.
(More about Searching in the next chapter.)

Hyperlinks
The magic of the internet is that once you start on a page
of a website, you can move from that page to another page
via hyperlinks. These are often (but not always) blue text.
When you touch it you’ll be taken to another page. So in
an article about an Irish author, you’ll find that he was
born in Dublin and touching that link will take you to an
article about Dublin. Or, you’ll find out that one of his
novels was made into a movie, and you’ll be offered a link
all about that movie. Just touch the blue writing and you’ll
be taken to the new page. Sometimes you’ll find pictures
have been made into links. Perhaps that author’s site has
pictures of all his books, and each picture has been made
into a link to a page all about that book. And many icons

69
shown on a web page are links that go somewhere when
touched.

To help you keep track of where you’ve been on a website,

it is common for the blue writing that alerts you to a link
to change to another colour (often pink) for links you have
touched. They are called visited links – but they’ll still
work if you want to revisit them.

Making sense of a web page

A simple web page might consist of a Heading and some
body text, just as you might have written an essay about
My Holiday. No one creates just one web page though.
That essay page would be part of a web site – perhaps
containing essays from lots of classes on lots of topics.
Each essay page would then contain some links taking the
reader on to the next essay, or back to the previous one,
or back to a list of classes with their essay topics, or all
the way back to the school’s Home page. While it is
possible to jump directly to that particular essay (perhaps
its address has been shared by a proud parent), it is more
common for people to get their through the Home page,
moving through the links for Essays, Class 4B, to the
specific essay they want.

A business like Farmers will have a Home page whose

URL is Farmers.co.nz. Most people visiting that page will
be customers wanting to buy something, so the store will
display a Search box prominently, so people can quickly
locate the product they want. In case the customer is
looking more generally, they’ll also offer a way to browse
products. Most shopping sites offer a Menu tab (≡) with
something like ‘browse departments’ or ‘our products’ or
‘shopping’ as an option. You’ll be able to narrow down the
choices (Clothing…. Women’s clothing…. Tops). That’ll

70
bring up maybe 60 different shirts and blouses. Then you
can narrow the options further using the Filter button to
choose your size, or a particular fabric, or colour, or
length of sleeve. The filter choices differ according to the
store and the type of product you’re interested in. You can
also Sort the options in different ways, including by price –
either lowest to highest, often indicated $....$$$, or
highest to lowest ($$$....$). If you know you want a quality
blouse for a wedding, starting from the most expensive
will save you scrolling through dozens of cheap tee-shirts.

Some people visiting the Farmers website want to pay an

account, or apply for a job, or make a complaint. The
Farmers site has an icon of a person at the top of its Home
page. Touching that icon will take you to a log-in page for
Your Account where all the information they have on you
will be available. For other inquiries, you’ll need to scroll
to the very bottom of the Home page where there are links
for common queries, plus the all-important Contact Us link
showing their email and phone details.

Explore your world

Start paying attention to the web addresses you see
around you – on the backs of buses, in advertising, on
envelopes and bills, pamphlets and cereal boxes. Now you
know that you can type those web addresses into the
address bar of your web browser and find out more.

71
17 Searching the internet by asking the
right questions

How do I search?
The internet contains a bewildering wealth of data – like a
huge library with hundreds of floors, each packed with
millions of books, magazines, DVDs, paintings and so on.
What you want to know is probably hiding there
somewhere. The trick is to find it!

When you type a question into the Search bar of a web

browser, or speak your question to Google Assistant, Alexa
or some other smart speaker, what you are actually doing
is using a search engine like Google or Bing. Search
engines are computer programs that hunt through all the
stuff online and remember what’s there. They look at all
the words on the page, and the hidden words (tags) that
the page author has added to tell search engines what the
page is about. For example, someone might have a page
about ‘USB sticks’, but they’ll have tagged that page with
‘thumb drive’ and ‘flash drive’ and ‘usb drive’ because
those are also common names for what the page’s author
is calling a ‘stick’. The tags make it easier to find
information when you aren’t using the exact words the
author used, but it also means that sometimes the search
engine will offer answers that are not exactly what you are
looking for.

Let’s imagine we want to learn how to get Google Photos

to delete a person from a photograph. The first question I
ask is: ‘how can I get rid of my ex in Photos?’

72
The answers that come up relate to Photoshop (a photo
editing program that runs on Windows and Mac
computers), or ways to stop his photo appearing in
collections of your photographs. Not what we want.

OK: ‘How do I get rid of my ex

from a photograph?’
The answers are still about
Photoshop, however those
answers use the word
‘remove’. Let’s use that and
be specific about Google
Photos.

‘How do I remove someone from

a photograph using Google
Photos?’
And now we have what we
wanted: several sites with
step by step instructions, plus
a YouTube clip demonstrating
exactly how it is done.

Read more than one site

This leads me to the second
principle of finding stuff out online. Except for the
simplest of questions, you should always read more than
one site. Why? Firstly, because not everything you find
online is reliable. People make mistakes, and some people
upload material that is not very well researched or just
plain wrong. You might be reading some kid’s homework!
By checking several sites for the same information you can
be more confident in your conclusions. Also, by reading
material from several sites, you’ll learn more as each site
puts the information in slightly different ways.

73
Pay attention to the web addresses of the sites Google
offers. ‘Official’ looking sites such as wikipedia or
secondworldwar.co.uk are more likely to be trustworthy
than someone’s private blog
(orangeraisin.wordpress.com). In general, the sites Google
presents on the first search results page are likely to be
trustworthy because they are the ones other people have
rated as useful.

Wiki what?
An encyclopaedia was a large collection of short articles
about everything under the sun – and the first place to go
to if you wanted to know something in the pre-internet
days. Wikipedia is the modern equivalent. The difference
is, encyclopaedias were published by specific companies
who employed hundreds of clever people to write the
articles and other people to edit them and make the
diagrams. Wikipedia authors are clever people, but they're
not paid, and there are tens of thousands of them all over
the world. By the rules of Wikipedia, all of the information
in the articles must have been published elsewhere on the
internet, and the author must state the websites they
referred to. Anyone who thinks there is a mistake or finds
something new to add can submit an alteration. These
rules tend to make articles in Wikipedia trustworthy.
Wikipedia currently contains almost 7 million articles in
English. By comparison, the 32 volume 1988 edition of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica contained about 100 000
articles.

Google tends to offer the answer from Wikipedia first, if

Wikipedia covers your question. But it will always give you
other websites too.

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When to go straight to YouTube
If you want to know how to do something (use a program,
make Baked Alaska, change a tyre, pill your cat…) it is
often easier to go straight to YouTube and Search there.
(Either use your web browser to go to youtube.com, or
open the YouTube app, which you will find already
installed on your phone in the Google folder.) Ask your
question in the Search box, and remember to be specific
about things like the name of the program or the make
and model of the thing you want help with. And again, if
there are three videos on the same topic, watch them all.

Image searches
Sometimes it’s hard to search
for something because you
don’t know what it is called.
Like those boxes you plug into
the wall to turn one power point
into four. How can you search
for something you can’t name?

Just pop your vague description

into the Search box:
‘box with power points’
and Search, but when the
results come up, touch the
Images option. You’ll see a
whole lot of pictures that
Google thinks are relevant to
your search term. The first
picture shown is the thing I had in mind, and below the
image is the right word for it: a Powerboard., x

75
18 Internet shopping
While internet banking is unavoidable these days, internet
shopping is still optional. Being able to buy things online
does give you a wider choice though, because it lets you
buy products not stocked locally. And, as we learnt during
Covid, buying things online means you can shop for
necessities and have them delivered without leaving your
house. Or, you can 'click and collect', by choosing and
buying the groceries from your home, but asking a friend
to collect them for you rather than paying the delivery fee.

First find your card

To shop online, you need either a credit card or a debit

card. It will display either the Visa or Mastercard logo on
the card. On the front of the card there will be the 16-digit
card number, written as 4 groups of 4 numbers. There will
also be your name, and the card expiry date, written as
month and year (eg 02/24). On the back of the card is a
place for your signature, and beside that a secret 3-digit
code number called the CSC (Card Security Code). If
you've found your EFTPOS card instead, it won't have the
Visa or Mastercard logo, and it won't have the 3-digit CSC
code next to your signature.

76
Using the card
To buy things online, or to use your card to pay for things
via a paper transaction, you need to fill in the card
number (type only numbers, no spaces or dashes), your
name as shown on the card, the expiry date numbers
(they'll add in the /), and the CSC number. They'll ask you
for the postal address your bank uses for your account,
and then the address you want the goods sent to.

Most online transactions also ask you to supply an email

address so you can be sent a record of the transaction,
and a cell phone number. The delivery company will send
you messages telling you where your package is and when
to expect delivery.

Shopping
Let's pretend we want a new kettle. I go to the KMart
website (kmart.co.nz) and type 'kettle' into the Search
field at the top of the screen. Today they show 15 electric
kettles ranging in price from $11 to $72. Ah, but the $11
one is shown as out of stock at Sylvia Park (Auckland).
We'd better tell it where we are. On typing in my
postcode, I find that they have no $11 kettles in my city.
The next-cheapest is $23. It has 4-star reviews, and is
available in my city. Now let's see if Warehouse is better.
Go to thewarehouse.co.nz. They have a $13 kettle that is
$11 if you are a Market Club member (which I am). And
when I touch the availability, it is available in my city.
There's a Mitre 10 quite close to me, and they sell kettles.
I'll look at their site just in case... mitre10.co.nz. Hmm,
lots of entries under the search term kettle. Mostly
barbeque type things. I sort the listings using 'price low to
high'. The first actual kettle is $25 and it's an on-the-stove
whistling kettle, not what I'm looking for. Give up. We
could keep looking at Briscoes and Farmers, but I think I'll

77
just get that cheap kettle from Warehouse. Go back to the
listing. Touch the image of the kettle and read its details.
1.7 kW, cordless, bunch of reviews that are generally
positive... and I know I can return it if it doesn't work. It’ll
do.

Buying
To buy the item, touch Add To Cart. Then look at the top
of the screen, on the right. You'll see an icon of a shopping
trolley and it should have a number 1 in it, indicating that
there is now one item in your shopping trolley. If you
intended to buy more items, you'd touch Continue
Shopping, but since we only need a new kettle, we'll stop
now. Touch Go To Cart. You'll see that there is that one
item in your cart. If you had accidentally ordered two
kettles by mistake, you'd see that there, and could reduce
the number to one kettle – or cancel your order
completely. I’m happy with the cart contents, so I touch
Go To Checkout.

I am asked to log in or sign in as a Guest shopper. Since I

have created an account in the past, the system has
retained my details which saves me having to enter them
each time. The Guest option doesn’t save anything – which
I may choose for shops I doubt I’ll shop at very often.

If you decide to create an account you'll be asked for your

email address and a password of your choosing. This
password doesn't need to be super-secure or unique. (It's
OK to use your pet's name or an important birthday.)

After I log in I find that the price of that kettle has

dropped to the $11 Market Club price since their system
recognises my email address and password.

78
Warehouse wants to make sure they give thand Collect
goods to the right person. They’ll send a text message to
that person when the items are ready for collection. The
collector goes to the counter and shows the text message
(which has a package ID number), then the assistant
fetches that package and hands it over. Not all stores ask
you to name the collector, but they usually send a text
message to prove you are the right person to collect the
item.

I select the store I want to collect my kettle from –

Papanui.

If you don’t fill in all the correct boxes, nothing will

happen when you try to advance to the next page when
touching “Pick up from this store”. You’ll notice that the
un-filled in boxes are highlighted in red to tell you that
they are the bits requiring your attention.

Once everything is filled in to the computer’s satisfaction,

touching “Pick up from this store” takes you to the
Payment page.

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Payment
With on-line shopping you always pay for the goods at the
time of ordering. The sum shows up on your bank account
as ‘pending’ until the store actually supplies the goods and
sends it to the courier. If they cannot supply something,
you won’t be charged for it. But they won’t even start
looking in their warehouse until you pay.

I’ve never seen an online retailer that won’t accept a

credit or debit card. If you intend to pay by card, select
that option and fill in your details:

If you decide to Save this card, the number, name and

expiry date will be saved, but you’ll still have to type in
your CVC each time. If you don’t think 3 digits are enough
protection, don’t tick that box.

Some (including Warehouse) offer other payment options

as well. POLi and Account2Account are both methods of
paying the retailer directly from your bank account. Not
all NZ banks are signed up though. You can’t use them
unless you already have internet banking set up, but

80
they’re easier to use than internet banking because the
software puts in all the details for you. Both systems make
use of your own bank’s security systems, including any
two-step authorisation system you have set up (eg a
confirmation code sent by text message). Simply select the
payment option you want and follow the instructions.

Collect
As soon as you have Confirmed your order, the retailer
will send you an email telling you that it has been
received. You’ll get several more messages telling you that
they’re looking for your item, and that they have found it
and put it on a shelf for you to collect. Then they’ll send a
text message telling you it is ready. At your convenience,
sometime in the next few days, you go on down to the
Click and Collect counter of the store and present the
assistant with your text message (or email) showing the
code number of the package. In theory, you could be
asked to show ID, but I don’t think I’ve ever needed it.

What about delivery?

Having your goods delivered usually costs extra, but it is
necessary when the item is not available locally. Just fill in
your street address and pay the courier fee. And wait. A
surprising number of items we think come from elsewhere
in New Zealand actually come from Australia, so it may be
10 days between order and delivery. But you get messages
every few days telling you exactly where your item is and
when they expect to get to your house.

Of course, things can go wrong. All online retailers have

some mechanism for returning goods that are not suitable.
You usually have to pay the return courier fee. I’ve done
that, but only once, and I’ve probably ordered over 100
items over the last 5 years. Every item arrived safely.

81
19 Transferring files between your
Android phone or tablet and your PC
If you have a computer (laptop or desktop) as well as a cell
phone, there will come a time when you want to copy a file
from one place to the other. If it is small, the easiest
method is just to email it to yourself and then download
the attachment on the destination device. But if you have
many files to copy (such as the hundred photos you took
while on holiday), the fastest method of file transfer is by a
cable.

1 Connect Android and PC

To transfer files first
connect your Android
device to your PC using
the USB cable you
normally charge the
device with.

You should hear a ding

from the Android device,
and another ding from the
PC.

If the PC does not ding, it is probably because the cable

you are using is a charge-only cable, rather than a charge
plus data cable. Try a different cable. The cable that came
with your phone will work, as will any cable that you buy
separately. But if you have items in your home that charge
by usb (Bluetooth headphones, power banks, fans, lights,
speakers…) those devices often come with charge-only
cables because they’re cheaper.

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Also check that you are connected directly to the PC and
not using a usb hub or usb extension cable.

Once the Android device and PC are connected, the

Android device will show up on This PC as another drive.
You won’t be able to open the drive to explore its contents
until you have enabled data transfer on your Android.

2 Enable file transfer on the Android device

Your device might display the middle image above as soon

as it detects the connection. If not, bring up the
Notifications panel (usually by sliding down quickly from
the top of the screen) to bring up the left-hand image,
then touch the white box. Then touch the white button to
select Transfer files.

3 Use the Android drive as if it were a USB drive

Once file transfer is
enabled, you will be
able to explore the
Android storage as if it
were another drive on

83
the PC. Double touch the drive to see how much storage
there is. (If you have a microSD card inside the Android, it
will show up at this point as a separate drive beside the
Internal storage.)

Double click again on the Internal storage to see the

folders. The photographs taken on your phone will be
found in the DCIM (Digital Camera IMages). The other
folder names are self-explanatory. Do not rename or
delete these Android-generated folders, but you can create
other folders if you want to. To transfer files, either drag
‘n’ drop them, or copy and paste, just as you would with a
USB drive.

84
20 Exploring files
What is a file explorer and why do I care?

A file explorer lets you see all the files on your phone and
where they are stored. This is useful whenever you want
to go back to a file (photograph, document, piece of music,
video...) that you saved days – or minutes – ago. Perhaps
you want to email it to someone, or copy it to your laptop.
Or perhaps your phone is telling you that you're almost
out of storage and need to move or delete stuff if you want
to add new files.

The file explorer on a PC

85
Android file explorers
Like the file explorer on your PC,
the Android file explorers all
show you your Recent files, offers
you collections of all your files by
file type (images, audio files,
videos and documents), and lets
you see all the files on your
phone’s internal memory and SD
card (if you have one).

Recent files
Often the file you want is the one
you've just been working on, so
all file explorers offer you a list of
Recent files, with the last-opened
file at the start. If you've just
downloaded a document, or just
taken the photo, it'll be easiest to
find in Recent files.

Categories
Just as the Windows File Explorer
offers folders for Documents,
Downloads, Music, Pictures, and
An Android file explorer
Videos, so Android file explorers
group files into categories. All your audio files appear in
the Music section; all the image files in the Pictures
section; and every downloaded file appears in the
Downloads section. That means a downloaded picture can
be found in both the Downloads section and the Pictures
section. That's because these Categories are not places on
your phone, they are simply convenient lists of similar
files.

86
Storage Devices
Just like the Windows File Explorer, your Android explorer
shows you a list of places where files are stored. You'll
have Internal storage – the equivalent of the C drive on
your PC. If you have an SD card installed, that'll be listed
separately. If you connect your phone to a USB drive, it
will appear there, along with cloud-based storage options
like Google Drive or OneDrive.

Storage folders
Open the Internal storage.
You'll find all the photos you
took in the DCIM folder – that
stands for Digital Camera
IMages. When the first digital
cameras were made 25 years
ago the software was
programmed to store each
image in the DCIM folder on
the camera's memory card,
and cell phone cameras just
followed the same rule. (So if you still have a digital
camera you know where to look for the photos on its
memory card.) The Downloads folder will contain all the
files you downloaded, including many files from the web
you've probably finished with. I'll show you how to move
the files you want to keep, and how to delete the others, in
a few minutes.

Uploading files
Maybe you want to put your favourite dog photo onto a
coffee mug using an online service, or maybe you need to
upload a photo of your wrecked car to the insurance

87
company. Uploading files – usually photographs, but
sometimes documents – is a relatively common task.

The website you’re on will offer you an Upload files button

to touch. Then you’ll be asked to locate the file you want
on your device. You’ll either be presented with your Files
app already opened, or you’ll be asked if you want to use
the Files app and you’ll say yes. Then you use the file
explorer to locate the file, either by looking at the Recent
files, or by looking in Images. Find the file you want, then
touch OK or Upload. If the file is uploading you’ll get a
message telling you that the upload is in progress, and
then you’ll see your file on the site.

The Files by Google app

While they all do the same job, in my opinion
Files by Google – which is free and easily
downloaded from the Play store – is superior Files
to the others. I invite you to try it. If you don’t
like it you can uninstall it without having made any
changes to your system.

When you first open Files

you’ll see three options at the
bottom of the screen. Choose
Browse.

When you use the Categories option to look at your

images or music, most file explorers simply display every
relevant file – alphabetically, by date or by size, according
to your preferences. That's fine if you've got 20 images,
but less helpful if you've got 500. Files by Google gives
you the added choice of looking at the files in their
separate folders. That's very useful if you have lots of files.

88
Files also provides the option for you to create a 'Safe
Folder', which is protected by a PIN or pattern. You can
only place loose files in this folder, not a folder containing
a set of files, but anything in that folder cannot be opened
or seen without the correct PIN/pattern. Provided you use
a unique code (not the one you use for you phone or
bank!), this could be a place to keep photographs of your
credit card, your Drivers' Licence, your passport,
valuables and other key documents like insurance policies.

Files also gives you the option of Nearby Share. If you

and your friend both have Files by Google installed, and
are in the same room, you can swap files using Bluetooth.
You can also put Nearby Share on your laptop to
wirelessly transfer files to and from your computer, but I
had trouble making that work.

All file explorers offer options to help you make more

space on your phone by suggesting files to delete. Before
you use the Clean option, Files lets you mark important
files with the Favourites tag, to make sure you don’t
delete them. Then you can use Clean to locate and clear
out groups of files that you mightn’t need.

Working with folders

Once you’ve started exploring the internal or SD storage

on your phone, creating a new folder is easy – just touch
the + button and give the folder a name. Moving stuff into
that folder is a little trickier.

1. Locate the file(s) or folders you want to move and long

press to select them. A tick will appear.
2. With the tick still showing, touch the ⋮ at the top right-
hand corner and select Move to (or Copy to). A

89
 message will appear at the bottom of the screen saying
Move to: Internal storage (and any other locations if
they are connected to your phone).
3. Touch the relevant storage place and browse through
to find the folder you want.
4. Then touch the Move here button.
I suggest you practice on your Downloads folder, finding
files in there that you want to keep, and moving them into
DCIM, Pictures or Documents as appropriate. Then you
can Select All the other files, do a quick scroll to make
sure you’ve not missed something important (untick any
you spot), and Delete the rest.

90
21 Using Google Calendar

The Google Calendar app The Samsung version

has a 31 surrounded by a shows today’s date
square frame in the four number on a white box in
Google colours. a teal frame.

These notes are for the Google Calendar app. If you have a
Samsung phone it will have come with the Samsung
version of the Calendar app, which has a different menu
structure. Event creation is the same process in both apps
and they both synch with the Google Calendar app on your
computer. I don’t know whether other brands of cell
phones have their versions of Calendar. If the alternative
versions are working for you, there is no need to change.
However, if you don’t have the Google version on your
phone and you want it, just download it from the Google
Play store.

91
When you first turn on Calendar, it opens in Schedule
mode. After that it will open in whichever view you last
used.

At the top left of the

screen in all modes
you will see the menu
icon (three horizontal
bars). Touch this to
change views and
select the most
common options. At
the bottom right is
the + icon which is
used to create new
entries in Calendar.

Google asked what

country you are in
when the phone is
initially set up, so
when you first open
Calendar it will display the public holidays for New
Zealand, including all the regional anniversary days.

92
Bringing up the Menu panel
by touching the menu icon
lets us select which view we
want (Schedule, Day, 3 days,
Week or Month).

On this screenshot Schedule

is highlighted because we are
still in Schedule mode.
Simply touch the other view
options to select them.

Near the bottom of this menu

are the boxes to select
Birthdays and Holidays. Just
touch in the box to tick or
untick each option.

In the Settings menu you

have the further option of
including religious holy days
for a range of faiths – useful
if you want to know when Lent, Ramadan, Yom Kippur or
Diwali start.

If you have selected Birthdays, Google will use your

Contacts information to alert you of birthdays you have
recorded there. Handy for someone with lots of
grandchildren.

93
By default, Calendar
starts the week on a
Monday, but in Settings
you can choose to start
the week on a Monday,
Sunday or even
Saturday. Just touch
Start of the week to
bring up the options.

Calendar will display the

week number for you
unless you toggle it off.
Week numbers can be
helpful if you want to
work out the date of an
eye appointment that
will occur 8 weeks from
now. Toggle week
numbers on or off in the
Settings menu.

94
Event creation
To create a new event:

• Touch the + icon

• Choose Event
• The Title of your event is
whatever you want
displayed on your
calendar. I often put key
information in the title,
such as ‘Eye
appointment, 1.20 pm
Level 4’
• Set the time of the event
or touch the All-day
button. For that eye
appointment I might set
the start time at 12.50
since that is the time I
would need to leave the
house to get to the
appointment. Entering
the finish time is useful if
you want to be careful not to try to schedule another
appointment while that one is likely to still be
happening – or if you have made your Calendar
visible to others who may want to schedule meetings.
Otherwise, just let Google assume you’ll be busy for
an hour.
• Look down to the Notification area (indicated by the
bell icon) to choose what time you want to hear an
alert – or hit the X if you don’t want an audible alert.
You can set multiple alerts if you need to.

95
Repeating events
To make a weekly event, touch the words ‘Does not
repeat’ and choose ‘Every week’.

To set up reminders for fortnightly wheelie bins, create

the first entry, and create a Custom repeat to repeat every
2 weeks. I also scrolled further down to set the Colour –
Red for the rubbish day, and Yellow for the recycling day.
Then I repeated this the following week for the other bin,
so that I had alternating red and yellow bins. The default
is the repeat forever, but you can set an entry to repeat 10
times, or until a specific date. Once the entries are in your
calendar, you can edit specific events. I moved my wheelie
bin alert for the week after Christmas since my bins will
be collected on the Saturday that week. The wheelie bin
entries could be set as Reminders, rather than Events, but
Calendar doesn’t offer different colours in Reminders, and
I find it convenient to be able to see the colour in the
calendar.

You might have a weekly class that runs till the end of the
year, but which takes breaks during the school holidays.
Set it up to run until December 16, but then delete those
entries that occur in the holidays. Each time you edit or
delete it will ask you whether you want to change or
delete all the entries, all the following entries, or just this
once. (The other way is to start each term fresh with 10
repeat lessons.)

You can also create a Custom repeat for the first

Wednesday of the month, or just about any other regular
repetition you can think of. (For something that occurs on
the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month, make one
entry for the second Tuesday, then copy it and change to
the fourth Tuesday.)

96
22 Find your way with Google Maps
Google Maps should be installed on your Android
phone. Look in your Google folder, or Search in
your Apps library for Maps.

Maps is helpful for looking up addresses and

figuring out how to get from A to B, but it is of
the greatest value when you are not at home.
Thus, you’ll need to turn on your Mobile Data,
and the Location option. Both are setting
accessed from the notification panel – touch the
top of the screen and slide downwards, then
slide down again to reveal all the options.

Where am I?
When you first turn on Maps, it will
show a street map. If Location is
turned on, a blue dot in the centre
of the screen will show where you
are right now. (Red arrow on
image.) If you move around on the
map so that you can’t see that blue
dot any more, touch the white
circle (orange arrow) to re-centre
the map on the blue dot.

If you zoom in on this map, (touch

the screen with two fingers and
spread them apart), more streets
will become named so that you can
see precisely where you are – very
useful when you’ve taken a wrong
turning!

97
Going somewhere?
To find an address, type it into
the Search field. You can also
type in a place such as the
Botanic Gardens, or The Elms
Hotel, or look for Hardware
stores. Maps will put a red flag
on the location you asked for –
or lots of flags, if you have done
a more general search.

If you want to know the best

route to get there, touch the
Directions button at the bottom
of the screen.

Directions will show alternative

routes from your current
location to the place flagged.
One route will be shown in
bright blue – the route Google
thinks is the optimum route.
Alternatives are shown as faded
out routes, but if you touch them
they’ll come up bright blue
instead. The orange patches
indicate places where traffic is
slow. A red patch is where traffic
is hardly moving at all.

Just above the map you’ll see

icons for car, bus, walking or
cycling, and the time required
for each option.

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If you touch Steps, it will bring
up the exact route being
suggested, and even provide
photographs of the intersections
to help you recognise the key
places.

And if you touch Start, (either

from the Steps view, or from the
map), Maps will speak the
directions to you as you travel.

Make sure you have the speaker

turned on.

Maps will give you warning of

what is to come. For example: “in
400 m, turn right into Garreg Rd”
and then as you approach the
turn it will say “turn right into
Garreg Rd”.

If you miss a turning, turn the

wrong way, or simply decide to go
a different route, Maps will
recalculate the route and give you
new directions from where you
are now, to where you wanted to
go.

Nothing is perfect. Sometimes

Maps thinks a road goes through

99
when, in fact, there is no road. Sometimes a route is one-
way, or there are unexpected road works. So you have to
use your eyes and your brain while driving and not just do
what the voice says. However, I use Google Maps for
navigation a lot, and I am seldom have problems.
Generally you just keep on going and the voice gives new
instructions that work.

Going by bus
Maps is very
useful for anyone
using public
transport.

First, touch the

layers button
(shown by the red
arrow).

We need to make sure

the Public transit layer
is selected (which it is
here). It can also be
helpful to select
Bicycling, as this will
reveal cycle and
walking tracks that may
speed your walk to or
from a bus stop.

100
With Public Transit on, the
default map will display all the
bus stops – though you may need
to zoom in a little before they
appear on the map.

If you touch one of the bus stops,

you’ll see a list of all the busses
that stop at that stop in the near
future. (Be careful to touch the
stop on the correct side of the
road.)

The estimated time to the next

bus will be shown, which is very
useful if your bus seldom arrives
to the scheduled timetable.
Likewise, if your bus has been
cancelled due to a driver shortage
or illness, you’ll be spared a long
and frustrating wait.

You’ll also see a coloured line

that shows the whole bus route
that stops there, so you can see
where it goes.

101
Touch a particular bus time
and you’ll see the whole route
for that bus running on the
left-hand side, now listing all
the stops that bus makes,
before, and after the stop you
are at. Scroll up on the
‘before’ side, and you’ll be
able to see exactly where your
bus is.

On the bus
It’s always tricky the first time
you catch a bus to a new place.
How will I know when to ring
the bell to get off at the correct
stop? What will I do if I miss the
stop and end up completely lost?

With Maps on your phone, those

worries are over. You can watch
the bus crawl its way along its
route as you ride it, and you can see exactly where the bus
stops are, and when to ring the bell.

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23 Introduction to Smart TVs

Is my TV smart?
A basic TV gets its
signals from an aerial on
the roof. A Smart TV
may be connected to an
aerial, but it be
‘smart’ unless it is also
connected to the If your TV has a strip of apps on its home
internet – usually by screen, as shown above, then it is capable
WiFi. of being Smart.

Most Smart TVs announce their skill when the TV first

starts up. Sometimes they do so by displaying the Android
robot and Google icon.

If your TV is not smart, you can make it so by connecting

one of several devices that plug into the TV through an
hdmi port.

Why would I want a smart TV?

Your tax dollars help pay for the TV programmes we see in
New Zealand. Many of those programmes – especially the
drama and quite a lot of the sport – are no longer
broadcast on TV, but are available online through TVNZ+
or ThreeNow. You can watch these shows on your cell
phone or tablet, but if you have a large-screen TV it is nice
to watch them in comfort. Other companies offer mixtures
of movies and TV series you can access with a monthly
subscription, and you can also borrow movies and
documentaries online using your library subscription.

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Am I already set up?
If you think your TV is already smart and connected to
WiFi, press your Home button and look for a list of menu
options on the screen. Use your remote arrow keys to find
the YouTube tile, then press the centre button to select it.
If YouTube opens with shows to watch, and if you can
select and watch any of them, then you’re connected.

Another way to test the connection is turn the TV on, then

open YouTube on your cell phone, choose a video to
watch, then touch the ‘cast’ icon at the top of the screen.
If ‘chromecast inside’ is working, you’ll get a message on
your cell phone asking if you want to cast to ‘livingroom
TV’ or whatever your television has been named. If no
message pops up, your TV isn’t connected to the same
network as your cell phone.

So what do I do when the TV isn’t set up?

If your TV should be smart but isn’t, check its internet
connection. Look through the menus for Settings or
Connectivity and check that you have the WiFi name and
matching password. (Look on the bottom of your modem if
you don’t know these.)

Make any TV Smart

If your TV wasn’t built smart, you can
make it so with Chromecast or
SmartVU. Both are small gizmos you
plug into an hdmi port of your TV.
Power comes via a USB charger or the
USB port of the TV. The old versions of
Chromecast simply cast content from
your cell phone or tablet onto the TV, Chromecast
which meant you have to use your

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phone to watch TV. But the latest
versions have Google TV inside
the Chromecast so that you can
access all the streaming sites
you’re signed up for without your
cell phone. SmartVu is very
similar. They cost between $70
and $130. SmartVu

Should I choose HD or 4K?

Both Chromecast and SmartVu are available in the lower
resolution ‘HD’ format and the higher resolution ‘4K’
format. If you have a large (50-inch or bigger) TV the
image will look grainy or fuzzy with less than 4K. With a
smaller screen (42-inch or smaller) the HD devices will be
fine. Between those screen sizes, it depends on your
budget. Every time you stream video, whether from
YouTube, TVNZ+ (both free to watch), or Netflix (which
demands a monthly subscription), you use up Data from
your monthly WiFi allowance. The lowest resolution
YouTube clips use about 500 MB an hour, while an hour of
SD viewing uses about 1 GB an hour, full HD uses about 3
GB, and the best 4K viewing can use 9 GB of data an hour!
If your WiFi plan is only 40 GB a month I do not
recommend you choose the 4K option. Most people with
Netflix (or similar) subscriptions have unlimited data
connections – which cost around $100 a month.

Another factor to consider is the speed of your internet

connection. If you have an ASDL broadband connection, or
a wireless modem with a SIM card, your data download
speed will not be fast enough for 4K, and you may find the
picture stutters with HD. You’ll need to choose SD when
given a choice. You need a fibre connection for streaming
in 4K – preferably the best on offer.

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What can I watch?
YouTube
YouTube, owned by Google, is a space on the web where
anyone can upload videos of pretty-much anything, at no
cost. Google covers its cost by selling advertising which it
displays before the videos, or within them if the videos are
long. It's like broadcast TV in that respect, except the ad
breaks are shorter and you can often skip the ad after 5 s
if you touch. Google offers you the chance to watch
YouTube without ads if you pay a subscription

Start watching YouTube by entering something in the

Search box. What? Anything you're interested in. 'Kittens
in boxes'; 'Frank Sinatra albums;, 'fixing a stuck shower
door'; 'Gingerbread recipe'; ‘ movies from the 50s', 'how to
play the flugelhorn'. YouTube will offer you videos it
thinks are relevant to the search term you entered.
'Kittens in boxes' brings up a few videos about litter box
training your kitten, some from a rescue group showing
kittens dumped in a box, some about a suitable box for
kittens to be born in, and some cute videos of kittens
jumping in and out of boxes. If you touch the litter box
video, it will play that video and offer more videos about
litter box training, while if you pick the cute jumping video
you'll get offered other cute kittens at play.

People have uploaded many old movies and TV shows to

YouTube, though only a tiny fraction of all the content
made in the last hundred years. Sometimes you'll find the
full movie or episode, and sometimes just a single scene –
such as ‘you can’t handle the truth’ from A few good men.

Manufacturers upload videos demonstrating how to use

their product. Hardware stores upload DIY videos. There
are commercial music videos you'd see on MTV and

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personal videos from amateur musicians singing their
favourite songs. Political broadcasts, church services,
school productions... good advice and bad, it's all on
YouTube.

Platform Content Cost per

month
YouTube Everything under the sun Free
TV series old and current,
TVNZ+ Free
some movies and sport
TV series from Three, HGTV,
ThreeNow Free
Eden and some movies,
Whakaata
Content from Maori TV Free
Maori
NZ Onscreen Old NZ TV and films Free
Filmzie, Film Festival-type films from
Free
Europe
Broadcast TV without an
Freeview Free
aerial

Tubi Movies Free

Environmental
Waterbear Free
documentaries
15 min presentations by
TED Free
people on all sorts of topics

Kanopy Movies Free with

library
Movies and documentaries card
Beamafilm

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 Movies, TV series, some
Netflix From 12.99
in-house productions
Neon Movies, TV series From 12.99
Movies, TV series, some
Amazon Prime $8
in-house productions
Disney Plus Movies 14.99
TV series inc in-house
Apple TV productions and From 12.99
documentaries
$9.99
Subscription
AMC+ US TV series includes Acorn
TV and
Shudder
UK TV series old and $7.99 or free
Acorn TV
new with AMC+
$7.99 or free
Shudder Horror
with AMC+
DocPlay Documentaries $7.99
Documentaries and
iWonder $6.99
current affairs
Curiosity
Documentaries $3.50
Stream
Crunchyroll Anime $7.99
HiDive Anime $7.07
$12.99 with no
Mubi Arthouse films
ads

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TVNZ+, ThreeNow, Whakaata Maori, NZ Onscreen,
Filmzie, Tubi. Freeview
All these streaming platforms are free to access (though
don't forget you'll still have to pay for the data you
download). TVNZ+ has shows, movies and sport from the
TVNZ channels as well as other material that hasn’t been
broadcast, while ThreeNow includes shows from Eden
and HGTV as well as channel Three. Whakaata Maori
provides shows from Maori TV, NZ Onscreen displays a
large number of historic movies and TV material made in
New Zealand. Filmzie has movies from Europe, mostly
lesser-known gems. Tubi’s films are more commercial and
Tubi does not require you to log in. Freeview lets you
watch broadcast TV through your WiFi instead of through
an aerial. Good if reception is poor at your place, or if your
TV isn’t near the aerial socket.

To access each platform you normally need to type in your

name and email address and provide a password. They use
those to create a unique identify for you. Once you're
registered, you only need to log in once on each device
you use. The platform remembers what you've watched –
that you're halfway through Episode 9 for example – and
offers to Continue from where you left off. It may also
suggest other movies or programmes like the ones you
have watched in the past. When you register, you may be
given the opportunity to accept Notifications or Special
Offers. I always untick such options.

Kanopy and Beamafilm

These two platforms offer films you can borrow at no cost
your public library card. You will need to set up a PIN for
the card, which you can do at the library, or over the
phone. After that, simply download the appropriate app
from the app store, select your library, key in your card

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number and PIN and you're in. While you're at it,
download the Libby app on your cell phone or tablet, and
use that card number and PIN to borrow electronic
magazines, e-books and/or audiobooks.

Paid subscription platforms

The main paid subscription streaming options are Netflix
and Neon, Prime, Disney Plus and Apple TV+. If you
decide to pay for entertainment, you'll want to look up
each platform's website and browse through their
catalogues to see which one (or two) best suits your taste.

But wait, there's more...

Do you like UKTV on Sky? Then you'll love Acorn TV.
They have a large collection of British drama series
including most of your old Sunday evening favourites. The
subscription is $7.99 per month, but don't pay it because
for $9.99 you can get AMC+, providing a range of quality
US drama bundled with Acorn TV for the British drama
and Shudder which offers horror.

Read about yet more options at

https://www.flicks.co.nz/features/the-ultimate-guide-to-
every-streaming-platform-in-new-zealand/

Is it better to use a Smart TV or a dongle?

The majority of televisions on sale today are already smart
– in fact, you have to hunt to find ones that are not. But
the popularity of smart TVs mean that there are many
relatively large-screen TVs available second hand for small
prices. I would say that a Smart TV with Google TV built in
would be better than using a ‘dumb’ TV with a SmartVu or
Chromecast plugged in, if only because you’d be able to
do everything with a single remote control. But if your
‘dumb’ TV has a good picture, the plug in options will

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provide you with all the streaming options you could wish
for at a much lower price than buying a new Smart TV.

Try before you buy!

All the streaming TV apps can be viewed on your cell
phone, tablet or computer. Before you dive in and pay
hundreds, or even thousands of dollars on a Smart TV, be
sure you’d actually enjoy watching the TV shows, movies
or documentaries on offer by browsing through the
content of the subscription apps without signing up. Many
of them allow you to try them for a week or two before
payment starts. You should know which apps are
important to you before you shop for the Smart TV
because some brands of TV do not offer all the popular
apps.

What about music?

While there’s music on YouTube, the main music app is
Spotify. Spotify Free is free to use – the cost is
advertising. Spotify Premium costs $16.99. Spotify lets
you listen to individual songs, or albums, and will suggest
similar titles to ones you have listened to. It also offers
Podcasts (audio programmes made by all sorts of people).
Once you start using Spotify you can create your own lists
of favourite music and share those lists with others. But
remember – the app may be free, but you still have to pay
for data.

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24 Extra stuff you could buy

Chargers
You'll need to charge your phone. You should already have
a charger that plugs into the wall, and a cable to connect
your phone to the charger. If you find yourself using your
phone a lot, it might be convenient to have a second
charger – one in the living room next to your favourite
chair, and one beside your bed. A second cable is also
useful. You can easily buy a second charger, but you can
probably get one from a younger friend or relative with a
spare. However, it is now possible to buy combinations of
power plugs and usb plugs in the one device, so you could
have a 2, 4 or 6-plug power board together with 1, 2 or 4
usb ports. A combination of power board and charger
might be useful when space is tight.

Cables
USB cables come in different lengths. If the one you have
is too short for convenience, you can buy a 2 m cable from
Warehouse, KMart or any tech store. Or, you can buy an
extension cord for your cable. Don't get a longer cable
than you need though, because some of the power gets
lost in the cable, so a longer cable means slower charging.

Phone protection
Most people put their cell phones in some sort of case or
wallet. (A 'case' is a shell that wraps around the sides and
back of the phone, leaving the screen open for you to use
it. A 'wallet' opens like a book with the phone on the
inside.) Both make it easier to hold the phone without it
slipping out of your fingers, and provide some protection
for the phone if it does fall. They also use screen

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protectors (clear films that stick on the screen) to help
prevent scratches on the glass of the screen. Often
case/wallet and screen protector are sold together. Some
phones come with extra-toughened glass or a built-in
screen protector. You can buy cases, wallets and screen
protectors at specialist mobile phone shops, or go online
and Search for a case or wallet for your make and model
of phone. I usually order my wallets online because the
kind I want is not available locally.

USB
You can connect your phone to a USB flash drive (also
called a thumb drive or USB stick) to store data or carry
files from one place to another. You'll need an adapter–
either micro-USB to USB A, or USB C to USB A,
depending on which slot you have on your phone. (If your
slot is 'D' shaped, so that it only plugs in one way up, then
you have a micro-USB slot. If it is rectangular, allowing
the cable to plug in either way up, you have a USB C slot.)
You can buy adapters from specialist tech stores like Noel
Leeming, PBTech and Harvey Norman. Some are just tiny
adapters, and others have a short cable between each end.

A real keyboard and mouse

With an adapter, you can connect a real keyboard to your
phone. I have a wireless keyboard with built-in trackpad
(like a mouse). I connect the wireless transmitter to the
adapter on my phone, then I can type my emails or notes
with 10 fingers, rather than using one finger on the virtual
keyboard. If you want to write long emails or compose
other documents, a physical keyboard might be useful.
And if you connect your adapter to a USB hub you can
connect a real keyboard, a real mouse and a USB stick to
your phone all at the same time.

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Printing
You probably don't need a printer, unless you are keen on
printing out lots of photographs yourself. But it is possible
to print directly from your Android phone to a WiFi
printer–your own, or a family member's printer. Just
connect the phone to the same WiFi network as the
printer and install the app for the printer on your cell
phone. Other ways to print stuff are to take your phone or
USB stick to a shop that does printing for you, or
(particularly for photographs) use the online services. You
can upload the photos you want printed, pay by
credit/debit card, then either have the photos delivered to
you by courier (for an added fee), or collect them from the
store of your choice.

Do I need a laptop?
Modern smartphones – even those selling for under $100 –
are computers more powerful than the $2000 desktop
computers sold 20 years ago. However, the Android and
Windows operating systems (brain structure) are not the
same: you cannot run a Windows program on an Android
phone. There are some companies who have produced
Android versions of Windows software. Usually the
Windows version does more than the Android one.

I’m guessing you are not interested in technology and will

only use your smartphone when you have to. You probably
won’t want to do things like editing movies, creating club
newsletters, making multimedia presentations for a
meeting, building your own website or composing an
opera! You don’t need to buy a laptop unless the activity
you wish to do requires software that won’t run on an
Android phone.

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25 Citizenship technology skills
Computers and smartphones can do many things, but
these are the basic skills I think you need to be able to
function independently in New Zealand society today.

Cell phone basics

• Be able to touch, swipe, drag 'n' drop, long touch and
zoom in or zoom out as needed to use your smartphone
• Identify the app on your phone that uses minutes from
your cell phone provider and the app that uses your txt
allocation.
• Appreciate which activities on a cell phone or
computer will use large amounts of data.

Internet banking
• Log in to your internet banking site or app.
• Check on your account balances and recent
transactions
• Understand how to transfer money between two
accounts if relevant
• Identify the bank account number, account name, sum
to pay, invoice number, and customer number or code
in a bill to be paid.
• Set up a new payee and save their details
• Make a payment, including filling in the details fields
with relevant information.
• Understand how to create a regular automatic
payment if required (without necessarily doing so)
• Successfully use a two-step authentication process if
required.

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Phone
• Correctly identify the app which makes voice calls
using your Minutes allocation.
• Make a call on the phone app by keying in numbers,
selecting someone from your Contacts list, or selecting
someone from your Recent calls log.
• Answer a call on your cell phone
• Bring up the keypad while on a call
• Turn on or off the speaker (hands free) option
• Retrieve voice messages and delete them when
required.

Messages
• Correctly identify the app which sends text messages
using your TXT allocation.
• Recognise that text messages can only be sent to
mobile phones, not land-line numbers.
• Open and read a text message
• Reply to a text message
• Compose a new text message.
• Delete unwanted text messages

Email
• Open and read an email.
• Reply to an email
• Open an attached file.
• Download an attached file and find it on your device
• a new email and attach a file to it.
• Explain the meanings of Reply all, forward, CC and
BCC.

116
Completing Pdf documents
• Complete an electronic document by filling in the
forms using Adobe Reader.
• Sign an electronic document using Adobe Reader
• Save the completed and signed document.
• Email a saved document by finding it on your device.

Internet
• Recognise an Internet Web address in promotional
material and visit that site using a Web browser.
• Recognise hot- (hyper-) links on a website and use
them to move from page to page on the internet
• Recognise a Search field on a website and use it to find
information.
• Recognise a menu icon and use it to find relevant
pages on a site.
• Identify and use radio buttons and tick boxes on a
website.

Accounts
• Be able to access My Account information for the
companies you have accounts with – such as your
power company and your phone company (whether by
special cell phone app or via a browser.

Access entertainment your taxes/rates pay for

• Be aware that you can access digital resources
(ebooks, magazines and audiobooks) from your local
library over the internet for computer or cell phone (or
ereader)
• Set up the Libby library app for borrowing electronic
resources if desired.

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• Be aware that many publically-funded television
programmes are available to watch through the on-
demand apps at no cost (other than the data cost).
• Download and set up TVNZ+ or other streaming TV
app if desired.

Other useful skills

• Watch a YouTube video embedded on a page.
• Use YouTube to see demonstrations of useful phone
or computer skills - or anything.
• Take photos (and videos) using your cell phone
camera
• Use Google Maps to get directions (or check bus
schedules if relevant).
• Perform Internet searches
• Buy things using on-line shopping
• Use the Calendar app to keep track of appointments

Afterword
There’s so much more you can do with your smartphone
than what is covered here, but if I told you everything this
book would be three times the length and you’d struggle
to find the information you need.

I hope I have taught you enough about the way a

smartphone works so that when your friends and family
try to show you their favourite app, you’ll be able to
understand what they’re talking about. If you want to
know more, just Search with your browser or YouTube.

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26 Symbols you will meet
This is the Power icon. You’ll see it on
physical buttons on a TV or DVD remote
control, or on the device itself. You’ll see it
on the on/off switch of your laptop or PC.
And you’ll also see it on the computer
screen when you go to switch off the
computer. You’ll also see it on your cell
phone when you shut it down, and on your
washing machine.

The greatest button invented! This is the

Undo button. It reverses whatever your last
action was. Un-delete, un-type, un-paste…
I use it so much I usually use Ctrl Z instead
of hunting for the button.

This is the Home icon. You’ll see it on

websites with several different pages on
them. The Home page is the ‘title’ or
opening screen of the website. On your cell
phone your Home screen is the one you see
when you first switch on the phone.
touching the Home icon will take you back
to those opening screens.

This icon represents a person – you.

Touching it will take you to your personal
account details as recorded by whatever
site you are visiting.

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The magnifying glass is the universal
symbol for a Search field. It is always
beside/inside a box you can type into. On
the library website, you can Search the
catalogue for things to borrow. On the
Warehouse website you can Search for
things to buy. On the internet you can
Search for everything.

This rubbish bin symbolises Delete or

Discard the file, email or document you
have opened or selected.

This is the Menu icon, (although some

people call it the hamburger icon). It often
appears at the top left, or top right of a web
page. Touching it will show you how the
website is organised so you can jump to the
part you want.

This icon represents a printer. It is used

when you want to Print something. Touch
the printer icon and it will bring up a
window with questions about what printer
you want to use, how many copies and so
on.

This icon represents a cog or gear. It is

used to go into an app’s Settings – the
machinery of the program. Settings is
where you choose options such as whether
you want to be asked to confirm before
deleting a message.

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Both these icons mean Download. If you
receive an email with an attached file you
need to Download that attachment if you
want to keep a copy of it on your computer
or do something with it. Or, if you find stuff
on the web that you want, you need to
download it.

This paper clip is used in email programs to

Attach a file to the email – just as you
would use a paper clip to hold a form to its
covering letter. If you receive an email with
an attachment the message show a small
paper clip so you know it contains an
attachment.

You’ll find an X at the corner (usually the

top right) of every window. Many pop-up
ads and other messages also have close Xs.
Just touch the X and it will go away.

This icon is used to make a small view of a

photo or movie into a full screen view. To
return to the small view either push ESC on
a computer keyboard, or hit the back arrow
on your cell phone.

This icon means Share. It is used a lot with

photographs or documents that you might
want to email or text to someone. Select
the item, touch Share and then pick
whether to email or text. You’ll get offered
a list of your most common contacts.

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 These variations on a pencil are used to
mean Edit or type changes. Sometimes it’s
a document or photo that you can open to
look at, but if you touch the pencil you’ll be
able to make changes to it. Add text to a
written document, fiddle with the light
balance, crop or add text to a photograph,
or even fill in a form. Other times the Edit
pencil is used to compose a new document
or a new email.

These symbols are down arrows used to

indicate a hidden drop-down menu. When
you touch the arrow the menu will appear
over the top of the text of the page. Choose
one of the options and the menu will
disappear again.

You often see an eye icon on the right-hand

side of a password field. Normally when
you type a password all you see as you type
are a line of dots or stars – so that someone
looking over your shoulder can’t steal your
password. However, if you want to see
what you are typing, you can open the eye –
or conceal it again with a second touch.

+
A plus symbol usually means a new entry –
a new person to add to your Contacts list or
a new email account. If you are shopping, a
plus symbol invites you to add this item to
your basket of goods.

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When you shop in a supermarket you take
items off the shelf and pop them into your
cart or basket. When you’re done, you take
the cart/basket to the checkout and arrange
payment. These icons represent those
physical objects. When you shop online
you’ll browse for items, touch Buy Now to
pop them in your shopping cart/basket.
Each time you do a number will appear in
the icon which will be at the top of the web
page, telling you how many items are in
your cart. Just like in a real shop, when you
get to the checkout you can decide not to
buy some of the things in your cart if your
eyes are bigger than your purse.

If there is a magnifying glass with a + or –

in it, touch it to make the page bigger or
smaller. That’s called Zoom. Sometimes you
just touch to step up to greater or lesser
zooms, and sometimes you can type a %
zoom. 30% will be tiny, while 600% is huge.

Three vertical dots, usually at the top of a

window, represent a hidden menu with
more options. If you can’t see what you’re
looking for openly on the page, try touching
the three dots.

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Some or all of these icons can be found on your DVD remote
for playing/stopping etc recorded DVDs. They are also on CD
players. On the internet they are used wherever movies or
music is played. You’ll see a large, red ‘play’ triangle on top
of every YouTube movie. Touch the triangle to make the
movie play.

Go to Go to
Fast Record (if
the Pause Play Stop the Rewind
forward relevant)
end start

These icons control the speakers and microphones.

Programs that make sound, or record sound – including
audio or video calling software – will have such icons
displayed so you can turn on or off the speakers, increase or
decrease the volume, and turn on or off the microphone. If
you are wondering why you can’t hear a video, look to see
whether your speaker has been muted.

You’ll also see the microphone icon pop up to invite you to

speak to the keyboard instead of typing in your text.

Speaker Volume Volume up Speaker Microphone Microphone Microphone

on down muted on on off (muted)

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