Pluggers by Rick McKee for December 17, 2023

Em me is zoom in on phone to reads Go Comics.

I subscribed to GoComics and a couple other comic sites precisely so I wouldn’t need to magnify my comics, also to read that are not available in my local papers.

That’s an interesting meeting of new technology to old-age decrepitude. My grandmother in her era of Pluggerdom used an old-fashioned “analog” round magnifying glass.

Second time this week that a phone is used to magnify something …

Especially The Lockhorns on Arcamax

I will use the magnifying app on the phone to read the minuscule print on a food stuffs label and hope it the print and the background aren’t nearly the same color.

I rather like seeing the ones like this that I can say, “nope, not there yet.” May God be merciful and preserve my eyesight so it’s no worse than it already is.

There’s a magnifying glass app for the cell phone? If needed, I would just use the zoom feature on the camera.

My magnifying app has the funniest name: camera.

There are more than a few strips on GoComics that need magnification.

Yet not smart enough to read the comics online…

I do this often on bottles at the drug store.

Reading glasses have been around a long time.

If you read them on your phone, not so much.

I don’t have to use it for comics, but instructions on EVERYTHING have gotten absolutely minute

I just went for my annual eye exam, `bout 11 months late, to upgrade my trifocals … I’ve yet to own a “smartphone” since I’ve been able to get by on a 4g Flip since 3g faded into memory.

I guess I’m a super plugger because I didn’t know I had that app until now. I’ve always used the camera zoom. Never though a comic strip would make my life easier.

Those “finger spreading” zoom features can be difficult if are losing fine motor skills. :(

A real plugger uses a real magnifying glass. Our phones don’t have apps.

flashlight… in a fancy, dark restaurant. Act like you don’t know me.

I had no idea that my #11??!!!! phone could do that. I hate my phone.

I had a 4G phone I liked and could get along with. Somehow when 3G was dropped my 4G phone was included in same – so I had to get a new phone. Husband, knowing I hate change – has known me for 52 years now – went looking for a phone to have the easiest switchover for me (that we could afford).

The darn thing is so large that if I don’t grip it in the right place it falls off the back of my hand. He kept reassuring me that everything would be the same and look the same as on my old one. Well, apparently my old one from a different major cell phone maker puts its own software on the phone and this new one from a different major cell phone maker does not and is “pure android”. So everything I liked about my old phone’s software is gone. It took him 3 days to find a calendar app that did not make me sick – I don’t like it, but it was not making me nauseous to look at, but it likes to add annoying pictures to the listings – I had to change my daily reminder to go to cook to dinner from “dinner” to “supper” to get rid of the pictures. I have word every listing carefully to avoid the annoying pictures. My old phone those calendar listings were white background with black writing – new one – again the least annoying he found for me – has the writing in color “bubbles”.

And this is just the calendar app. The timer is currently running to remind me to switch laundry loads (what else would one be doing at 1:30 am) instead of just entering how long it should run or the time it should ring – I have to select from (again) bubbles for how long I need the timer to run.

My favorite smart phone was my Palm Centro. It was great and I still use it as a PDA around the house. I sync with Lotus Organizer which is running in the Windows XP virtual machine on my desktop and laptop computer. (I love Lotus Organizer even more than the Centro.)