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From: Ken Blake <Ken@invalid.news.com>
Newsgroups: comp.mobile.android
Subject: Re: Two Questions
Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2024 08:36:39 -0700
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On Mon, 02 Dec 2024 22:57:11 -0500, micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com>
wrote:

>In comp.mobile.android, on Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:24:33 -0700, Ken Blake
><Ken@invalid.news.com> wrote:
>
>>I'll be in Europe (Spain, France, Italy) this coming March and April.
>
>Lucky you.  Now I want to go somewhere.  (We'll see if the doctor can
>lessen my back pain, so I can walk again. (At least I can still drive.))


I also have back pain. My hope is that I can manage with it.


>>I have a Google Pixel 4a. What can I do to enable my phone to make and
>>receive calls while I'm away?
>
>For a trip that long, I doubt any plan by your US cellular provider will
>be anywhere near as cheap as what I do, rent a sim in the country I'm
>going to.   One or 2 years I had it mailed to me in Baltimore (they had
>an agent in the US who did that.) Other times, I got the SIM at or near
>the airport, when I landed. I got good advice from Trip Advisor on which
>sim guy was good. (there were really only two selling to the US and they
>were both good.)   The first year I used Skype to call home and even
>bought a Skype phone number, then Whatsapp, but as time went on, the
>SIMs I got there included a USA phone number, so it was really easy for
>people to reach me.  I don't know how common this is in the 3 countries
>yuu're going to. =20
>>
>>What can I do to get walking maps of the cities I'll be in into Waze
>>or Google maps.
>
>I know someone who helped develop Waze, so I have great affection for
>it, but Waza in my opinion is mostly for directions, but google maps is
>mostly for knowing where you are and what is nearby.  I don't need
>directions that much, I know how to read a map, and Google maps has
>directions when I need them, so I use it.   I brought a laptop and when
>directions mattered, I would plan my travels the night before, and send
>or email or both the directions to the phone.=20
>
>Are you renting a car? =20

No. I'll be on a tour. What I basically want to know is how to get
back to the hotel, if I can't walk anymore

>Lots of suggestions if you are. What's the best
>clip to attach the phone to the dashboard, etc.=20
>
>Do you speak the languages of any or all 3 countries?=20


A little of each. I'm fluent in none of them, but I'm best in Italian,


>  Because I still
>don't, and I wanted news or talk radio, not just music, I wanted some
>non-local station.  YOu don't have to decide this until you need to, but
>the way to get stations out of the geographical zone is with a VPN.  I
>tried Firefox VPN and I couldnt' get it to work, then Nord VPN and I
>coudln't get it to work, and I wondered if I was as smart as my mother
>told me I was.  But Express VPN installed very easily, and for the same
>price, it goes into Windows and on your Android phone. Worked really
>well, including for videos from the US. (Had to turn if off a few times
>to listen to a local station)  Pay by the month and when you get home
>you can cancel it. =20
>
>I used Tunein to listen to American news etc. (I was careful not to but
>I accidentally said I wanted the paid version and let the free month go
>by using it and had to pay for the next momnth.)=20
>
>The new/used  laptop I bought tonight has a place for a SIM, but I used
>and will likely still use, my phone as a hotspot to feed internet to the
>laptop.  All phones can be hotspots now, right?  Or at laest yours can?=20
>
>At least 2 or 3 years, my car had a video screen and worked with that
>app which casts Android to the car radio. I forget the name. So I could
>get google maps on the car screen, but it's not the whole system. The
>map is there, and maybe, I forget, restaurants, hotels, tourist things,
>at least a few, but  you can't tap on them and learn anything about
>them.  For that you need the phone, and at least in 2021, you could not
>have anything on the phone and the car screen at the same time, iiuc. So
>I ended up putting OSMand on the car screen, and it turns out it's
>easier and safer to read when driving than google maps is. I kept google
>on the phone and referred to it and all its details when I needed it.=20
>
>(Sometimes I ran the laptop off the cigarette lighter, and one day I was
>really into it and wanted to put GPS into the laptop, and they have
>that, but it didn't sound like it worked that well. I've given up that
>plan to have GPS.  But I still use the laptop in the car a lot.
>Sometimes I sleep in the car, use it before I sleep and then check my
>email in the morning.  I roll up my clothes so the laptop can sit level
>on the passenger seat.   The new laptop is only 4 pounds, instead of 6.
>I guess that is good, even though all the accessories weigh another 4
>pounds.)=20
>
>There was also a local app with walkng tours of a quite a few places
>around the country. I only found one interesting but it was really good,
>historical. Your countries probably have that.  I think I heard about
>mine on TripAdvisor.com.=20