Using modern phone

Each new telephone, more convolution, each call a new problem. When I was a kid when it rang the only mistake you could make was to not lift the"receiver" to your head, but now there are probably dozens if not hundreds of ways you can do it wrong

Apparently as a result of my fist unsuccessful attempt at contact, hoping to hear from No. 2 Son our living-room phone was apparently disabled with the message "Register wait," but after about 10 minutes of waiting, it changed to "Can not register;" while I've no idea what it means to register

With our last model, I could answer an incoming call by simply pushing the speaker button. Today though, picking up the next ring resulted only in some sort of faint garbling. Whereupon my Better Half, who I'm sure you'll agree is much smarter than I, advised that it's necessary first to push the green "Phone" button before enabling the speaker

So on the next ring I did just that, but this time getting only a dial tone. No, advised BH, I had done it wrong: After pushing "Phone" I must wait 'til I hear a voice assuring me that I'm connected, before activating the speaker

So far it's been an hour and a half, and if my No. 2 Son finally gave up on me, I maintain the fault lies in the software industry, continually making everything more and more complicated, apparently in an effort to provide more services, only making its use more nearly impossible

Am I alone in this labyrinth