Thursday 7 July 2016

Apple iPhone Last Number Redial

Last Number Redial on your iPhone

Where's the LNR button on my iPhone? There isn't one because you don't need one, you just press the green call button on the keypad screen to make your last dialled number appear.

Press the green button for LNR
As usual, this makes me feel like a complete numpty, all this time I've been going back to Recents or Favourites to redial numbers. Or, in a triumph of gross stupidity where I've phoned a number on a website and then then closed the page, I have even been known to examine the browser history (because I know how to do that!) find the page and then type the number in again. Ever done that?

Seriously, is it just me? Are some things so obvious that they're not obvious or do we just get used to things being one way and then, when they change, we are confounded. For example, for years my home phone had an LNR button down the bottom of the keypad. I don't know how to redial on the latest one because I hardly ever use it.

I just looked, it's got a dedicated Redial button at the top of the keypad. But on my iPhone I just press the green call button. Yeah, right. This leads me onto what is my favourite telephone numpty story and, for once, I'm not the numpty.

Dialling a Number

Rotary dial phone
Did I say dialling? Back in the dark ages telephones had rotary dials and you stuck your finger in one of the numbered holes, dragged the dial over to the finger-stop on the right and then let go to "dial" a number. You then repeated the process for the next number. It was a bit slow and telephones haven't had dials since the 1980's, yet we continue to "dial".

A friend of mine bought a retro phone with a rotary dial which has been re-wired for the modern age and left it out in the front room until he could complete his retro installation by acquiring a vintage telephone table and leaving it out in the hall. 

He arrived home from work the next day to have his 6-year old son berate him, "Dad, this phone's useless. The buttons don't work!" The poor young chap had been stabbing his fingers into the holes and not realising that he had to turn the dial to get the number. I like this story because it makes me feel far less inadequate than I usually do.

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