Re: Two Questions

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. 

>
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.
>
Are you renting a car? 

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.
>
Do you speak the languages of any or all 3 countries?

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. 
>
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.)
>
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?
>
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.
>
(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.)
>
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.