Fifth Avenue Forum

Sorry if this is the wrong thread to post this. I need help connecting my laptop to my mobile hotspot. Laptop says its connected but every webpage I try to go on says I'm not connected to the internet. Any help is appreciated.

My carrier (Verizon) requires a hotspot add-on subscription, which isn’t immediately obvious when connecting the laptop to the phone. Everything will connect, but then you don’t have internet on the laptop.

My carrier (Verizon) requires a hotspot add-on subscription, which isn’t immediately obvious when connecting the laptop to the phone. Everything will connect, but then you don’t have internet on the laptop.

I have Verizon too. That's exactly what the problem was. Thank you for the help!

My wife has a burr under her saddle about changing from Verizon to AT&T. This stems from poor coverage on the backroads outside of where we live, but also a condescending encounter with a store employee who seemed befuddled as to why we would want him to switch sim cards around (my kids get handmedown iPhones, so two sim cards need to be swapped). Yes, I can do it, but we have an appointment to buy a new phone...you probably have the expertise to knock it out a lot quicker than we could at home. It's a minor issue, but we're finally free of phone payments and want to jump ship...

Has anyone done this? Taken four phones and ported four numbers to a new carrier? Any tips if you have?

Have you looked at Google Fi? The porting was easy and we did everything at home. Good coverage, too.
https://fi.google.com/about/coverage/

My wife has a burr under her saddle about changing from Verizon to AT&T. This stems from poor coverage on the backroads outside of where we live, but also a condescending encounter with a store employee who seemed befuddled as to why we would want him to switch sim cards around (my kids get handmedown iPhones, so two sim cards need to be swapped). Yes, I can do it, but we have an appointment to buy a new phone...you probably have the expertise to knock it out a lot quicker than we could at home. It's a minor issue, but we're finally free of phone payments and want to jump ship...

Has anyone done this? Taken four phones and ported four numbers to a new carrier? Any tips if you have?

You might not be able to port the physical device from Verizon to AT&T since Verizon uses CDMA and AT&T uses GSM.

Forgot about Google Fi. I'll look into that.

LBL: good point about CDMA vs. GSM. That might be a problem.

AT&T cut off my ASUS android phone from their network (it's 4G but is missing something or another) so I switched over to Xfinity. I signed a 2 year contract and got the new iPhone SE for $100 ($300 off) and the unlimited call and texting with 1GB of data for $15/month. I was paying $60/month for the same from AT&T.

Pixel 6 and 6 Pro were announced today. 90-120 mHz refresh rate and 4K video capabilities, plus non-ridiculous prices for flagship phones: $600 and $900 for lower storage models.

What's interesting from Verizon is they are offering payment plans for 30 months instead of the standard 24 months. 0% apr, so I'm not sure what the deal is there, and these phones are cheaper than Apple phones of the same age.

I'd love to get one, but am pretty happy with my pixel 4a 5g. It will be interesting to see what they do with the camera on these

I just got a Pixel 5a about a week ago. Really hate the gesture scheme, but I assume all new Pixels are like that. My kingdom for a dedicated back button. Not having one really throws every other gesture out of whack.

I wasn't interested in waiting for the 6. I seem to be on an odd-only upgrade schedule, having gone from the 3 to the 5 which I will likely have until the 7.

I'll be moving from the 3 to the 6, at some point.

As for the back button, I dug around in a menu and re-enabled it for my 3: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9079644?hl=en

I'm due for a new phone. I have an OG Pixel 3.. and I have like 300$ in device credits saved up... so lets go.

I'll be moving from the 3 to the 6, at some point.

As for the back button, I dug around in a menu and re-enabled it for my 3: https://support.google.com/android/answer/9079644?hl=en

Holy ****. You have no idea how annoyed I've been the last two weeks. Thank you so much!

I searched for a solution to this before and the only thing I found was a tutorial for how to make the gesture for going back, which never works. When I golf I use two different apps while on course and I've been having to completely exit and enter each of them every time instead of just switching back and forth, it's been maddening.

Thanks again.

I like the new gesture feature, takes a while to get used to it. Wife hates picking up my phone now because she can't operate it. Android 12 is out for pixel phones today. So far so good

I have a tablet that I bought in 2016 that I really like. A Samsung Tab S2. Originally came with Android 5 but was updated to 7 before end of life. Apps I use are starting to not be backwards compatible to it. I like it so much I think I recommended it to mikey and he bought one.

Was poking around tonight and I see that there is a Lineage OS 17 custom ROM for it. Which is an open source deployment Android 10. This was a high end tablet and has a processor strong enough to run it well, particularly with all of the carrier and Samsung bloatware omitted.

I am going to give it a go. Pretty excited about it as I haven't wanted to shop for a new tablet and this might wring out two more years with this piece of hardware. If I get mobile data back (Sprint unlocked it, then pushed an update that relocked it and now I only have WiFi) it would basically be like new again.

Hope I don't brick it.

This is a pretty cool video walk thru of the process if anyone is curious:

My now 4 year old Pixel 3 isn't holding a charge well any longer, hovering at 40% with limited use during the work day. Found out that Google stopped providing security updates in October for it.

Looking at the Pixel 6 and Verizon's version is $100 more than the Google version. Same financing is available, trade in, even Google has a warranty program. The difference? Verizon's Pixel 6 has a different 5G antenna - for the true high speed 5G service that isn't even available near us right now. So I'll probably go with the unlocked Google Store version.

I'm assuming I'll still pay the $35 phone activation fee for Verizon, right? Or can I get away with plopping the Pixel 3's sim card and Verizon won't know the difference? Yeah right.

I have a Pixel 6 pro from verizon. I also went from the Pixel 3. It's a pretty big upgrade and a huge phone compared to the Pixel 3. I paid next to nothing after all the "device" dollars I had saved up, plus trade in deals they had going. You are going to pay the 35$ fee unless you can sweet talk a rep.

does anyone use pure talkUSA?

Finally upgraded my S9 today after it died and the power button broke. I've had decent luck with ATT asking for a 2 year contract price on a phone and reupping my contract term and it worked again today. Got an S20 FE for 99 cents. I was going to go with the S21 for $249 but they were on a 2 week ship delay and well I'm kind of in a hurry. It'll be a nice upgrade I'm sure from my 3 year old S9. The rep I had was wonderful and noted since I've been with ATT since 2005 he was going to waive my activation fee without me even asking (which believe me I was going to ask). I really have zero complaints with ATT.

i miss the days when you could get a deal on a new cell phone

does anyone use pure talkUSA?

https://www.redpocket.com/

So I upgraded to a Pixel 6 yesterday. It's nice, battery life is good compared to my 3+ year old Pixel 3.

The Pixel 3 came with a power block, cable, and wired headphones. As is the new trend, the 6 came with just a cable and a USB-C to USB A adapter. Sad.

Approaching year 5 with my Pixel 2. I went to it from an LG V10, and I was like "Time to downsize!", but now after so long with a normal sized phone I want to go back to a larger form. Had a charging issue with my first 2 a few months ago, and Verizon swapped it out for a brand 'new' 2, so it's sorta hard to justify right now, especially on the cusp of the P7 coming out. When I do upgrade I'll relegate the 2 to utility duty (running kitchen apps, music streaming, etc). Probably end up waiting until Mrs Tif upgrades her iPhone (I don't even know what model it is).

After our last weekend away I realized I should probably upgrade my powerbank; it's the last microUSB mobile device in the house, and I don't like having to account for it separately with its own cord or adapter and such. I'm an Anker guy, generally, but I'm willing to open the discussion on alternatives.

I'd stick with Anker.