ScuzzBlog: Diaries January 2026
Entry 7th January 2026: Post 1: Samsung Galaxy A17 4G - Black in the box.
Samsung Galaxy A17 4G - Black in the box.
Those that read the blog regularly will appreciate my dislike for
mobile smart phones. Unfortunately matters are such that you are
often forced to embrace that which you dislike in order to cope
with events beyond your control. A few years back the good people
at BT decided to pull the plug on the landline. I was still able
to use my conventional phone, but only if plugged into the hub.
Sadly what that meant is that the phone would not work in the
event of a power failure. I live in the forest and power failure
is a real possible event. I need to know in such circumstances if
there is a network failure or localised house failure. And so I
was forced to buy a Nokia mobile phone with big buttons.
Fast forward to this year and Tesco wrote to me Christmas to say
they were not only cutting the 2G and 3G service but also my phone
which they provided is not able to use the 4G service. Bottom line
I needed a new phone.
Enter EE and 4G. The Tesco service is very hit and miss. Useless
for phonecalls but pretty good at receiving text alerts. I gave
the matter a lot of thought and decided to buy a cheap phone from
EE and use their services as coverage for 4G was much better. The
cost was a little higher than Tesco and I had to buy the phone.
So I was presented with the Samsung Galaxy A17 4G , my first real
smart phone. Thankfully having only ever made two phone calls on
the Nokia I was pretty sure I wouldn't have to endure this thing.
And man am I grateful of that. The monolithic black slab is a
product sponsored by Google, I am guessing. Even though I was very
specific in not accepting or signing into Google, the phone would
not stop alerting me to sign in to Google. **ck that !! Sorry.
Anyhoo I managed to learn how to make a telephone call, green
button. And receive a call by swiping the green button off the
screen, bonkers. And most importantly switching the thing off by
swiping from top right corner and then power button. That was
enough for me.
And so having successfully set the phone up without signing into
Google and switching off all the various applications I was able
to terminate its power and place it back into its box. It now
sits on a shelf in the grey plastic bag it came in. Never to be
used other than for charging up. Good thing I got the new HP Win11
machine with the suitable USB connectors for recharging.
I know folk like these things, but for me I prefer my computer as
I am always always at home and never really talk to anyone. I do
make the odd call, but for this use my Synergy hand held phone
which has a transmitter to another handset by my bed. Suits me.
I had actually been dreading the end of the year , what with all
these new gadgets invading my world. I do love technology and the
computers, but I hate the intrusive nature of smart phones and
the later Windows OS. I have yet to use the Win11 machine properly.
Every time I switch it on I get bombarded with requests from HP,
Microsoft and the dreaded Google. I just cancel the requests. In
truth I have no desire to transfer data to a cloud. I was able to
rid the machine of the installed virus checker and replace with
Norton 360. At least I have one friend on that computer. Otherwise
it excels at being annoying. Not quite as bad as the smart phone
but close. You shouldn't have to live in fear of this crap. I
just finish up screaming at the things to leave me alone. I have
no idea how others cope.
That was that for the start of the year. I have the new kit locked
away and treated myself to a few retro goodies which I will chat
about over the coming days. I do have one more phone to discuss
tomorrow. Sorry for that.
I am kicking my heels a bit as Tensor Art have gone on a mad quest
to force feed their paid services to everyone. They have made the
free service unbearable as they have locked in all kinds of check
processes that slow the thing down to a standstill. I gave up and
now am looking for a fresh art AI provider. Happens.
Thankfully the weather is very cold .. long may it last.
Time for a bit of AC/DC me thinks. See if you can guess which song.
Samsung Galaxy A17 4G - Black in the box.
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