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Would Samsung get rid of the A series in the future and no longer have a budget or mid-range lineup?

Their A series is just a lag time for feature creep (or in this case, removal). For example, we got headphone jacks and expandable storage in A-series for now, but give it a few years they'll be where the S22+ are today. It just takes longer. Plus they're still too darned big. I don't want as 6.5" screen that barely fits my hands (or gesture controls that are horrid for those who've had early onset arthritis since their 20's like me...for the love of deer, please stop getting rid of buttons)

Believe me, if something worth upgrading to existed I'd be all for it. I'm not that closed minded. I just ain't seeing any real upgrades. As I said, in 2010 we had more companies, more mobile OSs and more people catered to. Today they seem to be chasing an even more narrow margin of users that they see as the 'future' and we older folks just accept it or stop using it. Just get the rapid progress and features back. We've been stuck in this stagnant rut since 2015 for crying out loud.

As for why Apple ditched PowerPC, there are plenty of theories/assumptions but none confirmed. Only Steve Jobs knew the answer and it died with him. If I had to guess, it was the last bit of the Sculley era and Steve wanted to get rid of everything he had a hand in (he took things really personal like)

Disappearing Contacts

If you don't actually want to sync your contacts online on your Tab S7, just go into it's Setting menu and disable syncing for Contacts.
At that point it will be your responsibility to keep the Contacts app on your Tab S7 and your online Microsoft 365 account data in sync with each other -- each time you add new or edit existing contact entries in your Contacts app you need to use the Export feature and then import that file into your Microsoft 365 account, and do the same vice-versa.

Logitech Keyboard

My phone doesn't recognise the dongle when I insert it. Apparently, I should download and install software but I cannot find the relevant software.
Unless Logitech provides an app to enable your Android phone to interact with this keyboard, it's not going to happen. You're possibly equating Android with Windows -- with Android you won't be able to just manually install the necessary external device driver(s), that's done by a manufacturer-supplied app. With this particular keyboard, when you plug that USB dongle into a USB port on a PC, the Windows OS will be using the stock USB drivers to detect and interact with the keyboard. That dongle is the wireless interface between the two. With Android that requires an app and in this instance there isn't one.
Quit trying to force it do something it's not designed to do and just buy a Bluetooth keyboard that will just work as is.

Remote Control from PC

I don't know about a mouse (I hate those things), but you can use a wireless keyboard (~$20 USD) via bluetooth with tablets and phones.

I use one for my phones, but also do not think that a virtual keyboard has to be a pain.

There are many keyboard apps that can give options that make using them very easy.
In fact, as I am typing this, I am using the virtual keyboard on my screen- using only the index fingers on both hands.
I actually can make reasonable time doing this after just a little bit of practice, and finding the keyboard that cooperates the best for that situation.

Also, the keyboards that I use are small and secure.
The small size allows for me to have multiple options available on a single device.
Things like GBoard and others are not so small, keep growing, and are not secure at all- and generally are not very user friendly.

Here are links to the ones that I have on my devices.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.vlath.keyboard/
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/dev.patrickgold.florisboard/
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.pocketworkstation.pckeyboard/
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/rkr.simplekeyboard.inputmethod/
https://apt.izzysoft.de/fdroid/index/apk/rkr.tinykeyboard.inputmethod
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.keyboard/

Personally, I find that Florisboard is the best overall, although for some things I still prefer Simple Keyboard.
Florisboard offers the most options, even allowing custom spacing between keys (which also controls the size of the keys), and there are more features in the works from the developer.
Awesome man ! thanks for sharing. Florisboard worked like a charm.

Still confused about Permissions

If you've never opened it it can't do anything: an app needs to be opened at least once after installation before it can run.

Once you've granted the permission the app can use it whenever it runs, except in some cases where you have the option to grant the permission "this time only".

Some apps can run in the background (some have to do so to do their job). Others only run when you run them. Some permissions also have the option to only be available when the app is run, which I understand to be "when you are running it in the foreground".

Apps like browsers should not be doing anything in the background, and in general the sort of thing you describe should not be happening when you aren't using the app. But yes, in principle if an app is malicious and you grant it access to some data it could abuse that in the background. Of course if the app is malicious it could also abuse the permission when you are running it, e.g. if you download a flashlight app that wants access to your contacts it doesn't make a huge difference whether it uploads them somewhere else when you are sleeping or does it when you turn the flashlight on. And if you think "surely nobody would grant a flashlight access to their contacts!" that's actually why the system asks you to grant the permission: in the old days an app got all permissions it requested automatically, and many people were too uninformed, lazy or dumb to check what permissions it wanted before installing or running it (and yes, you really did get flashlight apps that wanted access to all of your sensitive data...).

By the way, the browser asks for those permissions because there are some websites for which they are needed (I never grant any of those actually: I don't want shortcuts to websites on my homescreen and have no interest in letting a website access my camera or mic). I take the attitude of "do I need this particular app to have access to these particular things?", and if the answer is "no" then I don't grant them (e.g. some people might want a weather app to show the weather in their current location, but if I don't care about that then I don't give it that access). However it's sometimes not immediately obvious why a permission is necessary, e.g. to go back to my example of the flashlight app, that probably will ask for camera access not to snoop on you but because it needs it to control the flash.

Current versions of Android now remove permissions from apps you don't use for a couple of months (so if you run them again they'll ask you to grant them again).

Apps Worker thread will update an EditText in the UI thread

When I get stuck in this stuff is I like to spend some time writing a question, like above, and I leave it until the next day before posting. Last night I was tired and just hit the post button. And as usual, trying unsuccessfully to get to sleep, it occurred to me what was the problem/solution.
"this cannot be done" is correct in this circumstance...
I am running 3 loops. 2 of which access the internet and require a background thread which returns a result. The solution, at least in this case, is to take out the loops, put a couple of buttons on the UI, and let the user activate the process directly. The result can then be simply deposited into a TextBox or a global variable using runOnUiThread. I know this works because it did in the test case, simple subset program of my larger App code.
Happily, life goes on :)

Life's difficult questions

What is the price of marrying someone when, my mother said about losing my Father's pension, as well as insurance? Even though I have invested in bounds and stocks, with enough of the "imagination" money that is untouchable, as well as even the "Certificate of deposts" too, I know it is around Marvel comic movie underneath my feet, as well as my comic book collection, and having still writing out so many books, adding in that money, as well as my SSID? Seriously, she is not even seeing that money, that is worth to fight for..

Call Of Duty MW free until 10/29... but

When I look at the instructions it says press F to fire and shows a bunch of other controls via keyboard. What was the mane and size of the file you downloaded? I got a file called callofdutymodernwarfareforcerecon_de_en_es_fr_it_pt_Samsung_GT-I9000GalaxyS.APK size 2,375 KB.

Maybe I just need instructions on how to use it. I downloaded it to my PC using the link provided below the option to sent a text msg with a link to the phone and then sideloded it to my Captivate. I also tried downloading it using the Phone via the mms message, but I got a error telling me that my service provider does not allow downloads from Getjar.... this happened even as I tried to download it using WiFi. The Getjar site must be identifying the phone model and not the service provider when it issues that error message. Is there a way of bypassing this error msg from Getbar and download the file directly to the phone? My phone is rooted, sideload enabled and I also changed it to emulate T-mobile using the Market Access app. also check out this Not Responding - Tech Guides From Experts
if I buy cod mw II on xbox, log in to my activision account, will I also be able to access the campaign and multiplayer on my PC on steam if I log in to the same Activision account?

Random, unstoppable beeping

Problem solved, and boy am I ever embarrassed! <insert BIG embarrassed emoji>
It turns out this wasn't my phone at all. The offending device was an electronic weather station that sits on my night table near where I charge my phone. The beep didn't, naturally, cause a vibration in my phone but that just added to the mystery. In my defense, I am hard of hearing and wear hearing aids, which were out for the night. One ear is very bad, so I find echolocation of sounds difficult. The alarm button on the weather device is right next to the brightness control and apparently I'd inadvertently hit that at some point and activated an alarm for 12AM. When the alarm went off again last night, my wife immediately figured out where the sound was coming from. She hit the ALARM button which stopped the sound, and as a precaution unplugged the unit. Well, that only put it into snooze mode and the alarm went off again in 8 minutes, apparently on battery backup. This time, I got up and fiddled around with the unit until I figured out how to turn the alarm off.
Anyway, thanks for your excellent suggestions. I'm only giving this long explanation because, hey, if you can't laugh at yourself, that's not a good thing!

Help Date/time keeps changing

The date/time in any device is not a 'file' that you can edit, it's continuously changing variable that gets actively updated by a device's base firmware.
There's a clock chip on the logic board, or just as likely just an added feature in a primary SoC (System on a Chip) processor, that retains the date/time for the device, and as long as the device itself has an online connection the date/time will be constantly updated.

On a tablet that's running 4.2.2 (jelly Bean), that goes back almost a decade ago. Odds are the battery in it is failing so the current date/time can't be retained. Either replace the battery if possible (most tablets it's not), or leave it always plugged into its charger. But that is a very dated tablet. it's past due to upgrade to a new or newer one. JP5 devices are intended to be used only within very, very controlled, monitored settings anyway (...that's part of the installed firmware, not matter if rooted or not), Get one that's from a typical, consumer retailer. It will be much more usable without the need to 'hack' it basic functionality.

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