Steve Litchfield

Just in case this helps anyone else, I had a nightmare today with my Bluetooth keyboard and my Android phone - but I used some common sense and found a geeky solution. In my case it was a ZTE Axon 7 running Lineage OS and a Microsoft Universal Folding Keyboard (UFK), but I suspect this cure will work for more general issues. The symptom was that when I tried to connect a previously paired keyboard I first of all got just the raw Bluetooth address shown and not the keyboard name. And then, when I tried connecting, I got an "incorrect PIN or password" error message. No chance to reenter a PIN and no amount of restarting keyboard or phone would fix it. The cure seemed to be to reset something in the phone's Bluetooth system, but what? The keyboard wasn't showing up as paired, so I couldn't 'forget' it. I tracked it down in the end. Settings, Apps, then 'Show system' on the '...' menu. Find and tap on 'Bluetooth extensions'....

In for review for The Phones Show, I couldn't resist reviewing the various case options for the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, a cutting edge 2018 smartphone that's picking up plaudits across the board. The cases were supplied by Mobile Fun, see here for their full Mate 10 Pro case line-up . I should also note that the Mate 10 Pro comes with a simple clear TPU case in the box, so the after-market solutions here are trying to 'best' this free case. In no particular order: Huawei Smart View Flip Case, £25 The most expensive option here, this is also the most premium in terms of using the Mate 10 Pro around the office. Adding only a couple of mm to the thickness, this uses 'synthetic leather' and plastic to excellent effect, foregoing the usual flip case 'card slots' in favour of keeping the affair super-slim. In addition, the back shell portion is thin enough not to impede fingerprint sensor access (a problem below for another case). Really a terrific...

This happens about once a quarter, with Virgin Media, my fibre-based ISP. I'll put the conversation down as it normally happens, for entertainment purposes, if nothing else(!): "Hello, my broadband is down!" "Sorry about that sir, but we've no reports of issues in your area." "I appreciate that, but it's only just gone down, I strongly suspect that I'm the first." "No sir, my system is showing no issues." "I'm phoning you to REPORT an issue!" "No problem, sir, I can book you a technician to come out and fix your equipment.... next week." "But my equipment is fine, this looks like an issue on your network in the surrounding streets. Maybe someone has the cabinet open at the moment?" "No, sir, there are no faults in your area. I've booked you a technician." "But you're about to get deluged by all the other people in the area with reports of problems....