Re: is my phone ON or is it OFF?

On 4/28/2024 7:48 AM, bad sector wrote:

 You may not understand it but the fact remains that there *is* a lot of confusion and my take on it is that the reason for the confusion is shitty design. There have been and continue occurring thousands of live mic or phone incidents EVEN with well designed idiot-proof LOW-TECH devices. Digital crap should have either a hard on/off switch that does nothing else AND an easily removable battery. My flexphone has half a dozen ways to be turned off and even when I will know them all by heart they WILL NOT suffice. Having to trust that the OS has turned the mic or itself off is not the answer

    I can understand the frustration. One reason that I don't normally
use a cellphone is because they're natural spyware devices. A second
reason is the complexity and lockdown. Both Google and Apple are
controlling their phones in ways that should be illegal. It's like buying
a toaster that only toasts Wonder Bread and calls home to report your
toasting operation... and that can't be disabled. Every time I turn my
cellphone on now I get a regular flurry of warnings that I should
enable Google something or other. That started when I accidentally
allowed it to update. It's a madhouse of commercial sleaze.
   Another issue relating to your trouble is simply that no one really
wants to turn their cellphone off. So it's designed to require some effort.
Turned off, you can't get calls. I only turn mine on when I want to
make a call, and the battery charge lasts for months. But I don't know
anyone else who does that. Everyone I know leaves it on constantly,
  letting it "sleep" when it's left idle. But cellphones don't actually sleep.
Getting a call requires constant pings of nearby towers. So the cellphone
is always on. It's just the screen lights that go out.
   Given that scenario, having the mic turned on, or other such
intrusions, are a security issue, not an on/off issue, under typical
usage conditions.
   The ZFlip lists several methods to turn it off. But the first and
primary one is what people have been saying: "The easiest way
to turn off the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 is to press and hold the
side and volume down buttons for about 3-5 seconds. When the
power settings show up, select Power off."
https://www.androidauthority.com/how-to-turn-off-samsung-galaxy-z-flip-5-3350350/
  That's exactly how my TCL works. Though I only need to hold
the lower right button, whatever that's called. There's no ambiguity.
So the question is, do you REALLY want to turn it off? If so then you
can do that and not worry about the mic, but you won't receive
calls.