I attended a demo of the well known assistive technology 'BrowseAloud' today. I have known about this service for a long time and there are several similar services available which all work in very similar ways. The idea is to offer assistive services on a website which allows the device to read text on the website out loud, translate the site into other languages (and read it out loud too), convert sections of text into an MP3 file and a few visual aids like enlarge text and colourise text for high contrast.
The model works by selling the rights for the service to a website owner which is installed via a JavaScript code snippet on all pages of the site. The cost to organisations varies but it can cost between £600 - £1000 per year. Often, this cost is seen by organisations as a 'Tick-box' exercise to ensure that accessibility is covered.
My concern is that none of this helps a person who has a disability very much. They cannot dictate which websites they browse to will have assistive tech installled and if so, which one. It is likely that most will not have BrowseAloud or a similar service so for these sites, they are going to have to cope without. For those with some assistive technology installed, the use will have to use whatever is there. This means having to switch to whichever one is on offer. Each website offers their assistive technology in different ways - some have a link at the top of every page, others at the bottom of every page. Some will offer some kind of icon and others will require you to locate the 'accessibility' link. Once loacted, some will offer a link to load up a Javascript toolbar whilst older tools have to be downloaded as software to be installed to the computer. The last option is OK if the user only ever uses a single device but for use on several devices or in a public space like a library or at work, it is likely that the download and install of software will be banned.
So to sum up, a disabled user who uses the web to browse many sites is faced with a minefield of issues, even if assistive products are offered.
This got me thinking about mobile devices and their options for voice control and text-to-speech.
Siri for OS devices and Google Now for Android devices both offer some extensive voice control. They also have some excellent tools to convert text into speech. The trouble is that there isn't any combination of the two technologies to offer a complete solution.
What is the point of using speech control to search for a web page if the page you find can't be read out loud to you? It is like asking a person a question but requiring them to write the answer down on a piece of paper for you to read rather than simply listening to the answer. Surely what is required is to transform the most commonly used applications - READ TEXTS, READ MAIL, and READ WEBPAGE. Some recent updates on both Siri and Google Now seem to have added the ability to deal with texts and email but why have they missed the other most commonly used app on any mobile device - the web browser?
What I'm suggesting is to develop a voice control which will work the web browser AND instruct that the page should be read out. This would means there is no need for assistive tools to be bolted-onto individual websites because every website would be treated the same way.
The best way to test such a service is to blindfold the user. Right from start-up, there should be a voice command which will search for content on Google AND announce the results. If the result is a web page link, there needs to be a voice control to OPEN that link which will load the page in the web browser. Once loaded, a voice command is required to READ PAGE. The reading of the page needs to include hyperlinks and allow the user to follow those links with a voice command. In this way, a user could browse multiple websites using only spoken word commands combined with text-to-speech spoken content. Headphones could be used to listen to the content. If translation tools like Google Translate were to be incorporated, the use could use voice commands to TRANSLATE PAGE and then READ PAGE in the selected language.
This isn't only going to revolutionise the way blind and partially sighted people access and navigate the web. It could easily be used by everyone. Imagine a driver who wants to listen to a Wikipedia page about the company they are visiting? Or perhaps a baker in their kitchen who has their hands covered in flour but still needs to listen to the next instruction in the recipe they are following? Or a motor mechanic who's hands are covered in grease and with their head stuck inside an engine but still needs to hear the next instruction from the webpage they found on their iPad propped out of reach on the bonnet?
Imagine any science fiction story or film you ever saw. Chances are that they all used voice control to request answers from the 'computer' who 'spoke the answers back'. This is no longer science fiction - there are both voice control and text-to-speech software which can mimic all that we've seen in the movies. I just feel that both Siri and Google Now are trying too hard to be clever when they've missed out on a golden opportunity to transform a very basic function of all computing technology - to search for web content and hear the results without typing or touching the device.
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Tip on returning goods to Amazon.co.uk
I wrote this as a review of the monitor which became faulty and which I have now returned to Amazon. I don't think they'll publish it though so I thought I'd blog it in the hope it may help someone who is finding the 'returns policy' frustrating.
Any attempt via the website to send an item back to Amazon outside 30 days of it being purchased sends you in circles which will infuriate you and is probably designed to put you off. If Amazon or any other retailer suggests that you return the item to the manufacturer for a repair or replacement, they're wrong. Under the Sale of Good Act, your contract is with the retailer that you bought the goods from. This advice is extracted from the January 2014 issue of the Which? magazine in the article "Returning faulty goods|Investigation". Amazon scores only 1/12 in the review (the worst score).
When an item develops a fault before it would reasonably be expected to do so, you have a remedy against the retailer, even beyond the warranty period. This is determined by the Sale of Good Act. You are entitled to a full refund if the fault is identified within 4 weeks of purchase. Outside 4 weeks, you are not entitled to a full refund but you are entitled to ask for a replacement or repair. This also applies to good bought in a sale - the only exception is any goods bought were fault or damage was declared at the point of sale.
So here is some advice on how to resolve the issue with Amazon:
Go straight to http://www.amazon.co.uk/contactus and select the yellow 'Contact Us' button under 'General Support'.
Skip Option 1 and select the issue and issue details. I selected 'Problem with an order or item' and 'Item does not work, is damaged or a part is missing'.
Then go to Option 3 and select 'start chatting'.
Don't be put off by the Live Chat feature. It is the best way to get the issue resolved. Before you start the chat, select the option to have the conversation sent to your email. This is really useful if you need to make a complaint later on - especially if the contact handler provides incorrect advice or information.
The opening gambit is to politely provide the order number, the make/model, when it was purchased and a clear description of the fault. After a few exchanges and a few minutes delay, the contact handler will tell you that the item is outside the 30 day return period and then copy and paste several paragraphs of text as follows:
If it doesn't go well, you can try mentioning 'Sale of Goods Act' again with the words 'I am aware of my rights' and 'My contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer'. If you still don't get any joy, try mentioning that you've read the Which? report in the January 2014 issue and noted that Amazon only scored 1/12 'very poor'. Amazon are also reported by Which as saying:
I scored you 'Very Poor' on your policy because my experience matches the 1/12 score in the Which? report in the 'Returning faulty goods | Investigation' in the January 2014 issue. However, I anticipated your approach and planned ahead. I knew that your website sends you in circles when you try to return goods after your '30 day returns window' so I went straight to the 'Contact Us' section instead and used your 'Live Chat' feature.
Once here, I scored the 'Ease of working with Amazon' as 'Average'. This is because, as expected, your contact person immediately threw in the standard paragraphs used to defer me to the manufacturer (just as the Which? report said would happen). I firmly quoted that I was aware of my rights under the Sale of Goods Act and was soon offered the chance of a refund and sent a returns label.
I scored your service rep 'Excellent' because, given his situation, he did what he was told but he was very polite and very quickly realised that the only sensible option was to offer the refund.
Can you please consider altering your returns policy and get rid of the loop a user of your site experiences after the '30 days' is up? Your quote in the Which? magazine clearly indicates that the company will give a full refund or replacement on goods returned within 12 months. Please reflect this in the website and retain the 'returns' buttons next to products for a full 12 months.
When an item develops a fault before it would reasonably be expected to do so, you have a remedy against the retailer, even beyond the warranty period. This is determined by the Sale of Good Act. You are entitled to a full refund if the fault is identified within 4 weeks of purchase. Outside 4 weeks, you are not entitled to a full refund but you are entitled to ask for a replacement or repair. This also applies to good bought in a sale - the only exception is any goods bought were fault or damage was declared at the point of sale.
So here is some advice on how to resolve the issue with Amazon:
Go straight to http://www.amazon.co.uk/contactus and select the yellow 'Contact Us' button under 'General Support'.
Skip Option 1 and select the issue and issue details. I selected 'Problem with an order or item' and 'Item does not work, is damaged or a part is missing'.
Then go to Option 3 and select 'start chatting'.
Don't be put off by the Live Chat feature. It is the best way to get the issue resolved. Before you start the chat, select the option to have the conversation sent to your email. This is really useful if you need to make a complaint later on - especially if the contact handler provides incorrect advice or information.
The opening gambit is to politely provide the order number, the make/model, when it was purchased and a clear description of the fault. After a few exchanges and a few minutes delay, the contact handler will tell you that the item is outside the 30 day return period and then copy and paste several paragraphs of text as follows:
"I've checked and found that return window has expired on [XYZ Date]. Rest assure your item is still under warranty. One option that we find often enables our customers to get to a quick resolution of their issue is by visiting the manufacturer's website or contacting them directly as they may be able to offer helpful troubleshooting and support for this issue. If you would like to do that we can send the manufacturer’s details to you. We'd suggest that you check with the manufacturer to find out whether this is a known issue. They'll have specialist knowledge of their own products and in many cases they may be able to diagnose and resolve the problem immediately. Of course, if they can't help you, please let us know and we'll be happy to help."The correct response to this is something like this:
"I know about your returns policy and that the 30 day window has expired. However, I am also aware of my rights under the Sale of Goods Act to return a product which develops a fault before it would be reasonably expected to do so directly to the retailer. Respectfully, I would prefer to send it back to you for either a replacement model of the same or higher specification, a repair or for a full refund."After this, they will still try again to suggest it is easier for you to approach the manufacturer but they should also offer to 'process a refund or replacement as per your choice'. Thank them very much and then they'll email a postage-paid returns label which you can print out and send back via collectplus.co.uk. I opted for a refund as they offered it but I'd have been very happy for a replacement.
If it doesn't go well, you can try mentioning 'Sale of Goods Act' again with the words 'I am aware of my rights' and 'My contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer'. If you still don't get any joy, try mentioning that you've read the Which? report in the January 2014 issue and noted that Amazon only scored 1/12 'very poor'. Amazon are also reported by Which as saying:
"Products that become defective within 12 months can be returned for a full refund or replacement, irrespective of any manufacturer warranty. After 12 months, we advise customers to contact the manufacturer for support and troubleshooting. Thereafter, we will take into consideration all facts and circumstances on a case-by-case basis to provide a fair solution. Amazon.co.uk will review the instances highlighted by Which? as they do not appear to be consistent with the typical Amazon.co.uk customer experience."It is clear than Amazon have a long way to go if they are to remedy the poor score in Which? but I have found that if you follow this process, you'll not go far wrong.
Here is my customer feedback:
Once here, I scored the 'Ease of working with Amazon' as 'Average'. This is because, as expected, your contact person immediately threw in the standard paragraphs used to defer me to the manufacturer (just as the Which? report said would happen). I firmly quoted that I was aware of my rights under the Sale of Goods Act and was soon offered the chance of a refund and sent a returns label.
I scored your service rep 'Excellent' because, given his situation, he did what he was told but he was very polite and very quickly realised that the only sensible option was to offer the refund.
Can you please consider altering your returns policy and get rid of the loop a user of your site experiences after the '30 days' is up? Your quote in the Which? magazine clearly indicates that the company will give a full refund or replacement on goods returned within 12 months. Please reflect this in the website and retain the 'returns' buttons next to products for a full 12 months.
Monday, 11 November 2013
Can cyclists and motorists get along together?
The answer seems clear to me - of course they can. Or at least they should be able to. In theory anyway.
The statistics say that most cyclists are drivers so therefore most drivers are also cyclists. They also say that 60% or collisions between cars and bikes are the fault of the driver which means the other 40% is the fault of the cyclist. That tells me that both sides have more-or-less equal responsibility which makes the title of the Department of Transport's THINK! campaign launched today in Essex at police HQ so appropriate.
In most cases, the average cyclist and the average driver can and do get along with each other. It is true to say that everyone can always benefit from some reminders every now and then and as a cyclist and a driver I found the tips for both side from this campaign to be highly useful reminders.
Somehow, I missed out on a cycling proficiency test when I was at school but I very pleased that all my children have benefited from the modern-day equivalent which is called 'Bikeability'. I've been riding as a commuter since I started work 28 years ago and I'd like to feel I follow the rules, always wear a helmet, light myself up and provide clear signals of my intentions well in advance. So far (touch wood) I've not had an accident on my bike and I've never had anything bad to say about a driver. The worst I've experienced on my journeys to work is the death-wish attitude of boys walking to school who seem oblivious to all road users and have an unnerving tendency to switch from the pavement to the road without looking into who's path they are stepping into.
As a driver, the most frustrating issues with cyclists I've experienced are those who will not use lights in the dark and those who don't wear a helmet. Both of these point were clearly made today at the launch of this campaign.
I've already seem some Tweets from the 'extreme cyclists' this evening. It seems they are hell-bent on defending their rights and can't bear to hear anything which suggests cyclists are anything other than 100% perfect and that everything bad that happens to them is the fault of a driver. I'm quite sure there are drivers who demonstrate the same belief that they are the kings of the road where cyclists are nothing but a nuisance.
Everyone I listened to today was talking perfect sense. Like the campaign says, there are things both cyclists and drivers can do to improve and it is an undeniable truth that the roads are there for everyone so everyone has to share.
Finally, hats off to Alex Dowsett who was the car enthusiast/world class cyclist who put his name to this campaign and encouraged both drivers and cyclists to think about their actions when out on the roads of Essex. There was no targeting and no 'sides' were taken. Alex is a first-class young man who was a pleasure to listen to and meet and I know the vast majority of people will agree with his words and those of the campaign 100%.
Unfortunately, there is a minority who want to disagree 100%. No compromise. No time to listen. I fear these are the people who need to think on this occasion. However, I don't think they ever will.
View Alex ride-out 11/11/2013 in a larger map
In most cases, the average cyclist and the average driver can and do get along with each other. It is true to say that everyone can always benefit from some reminders every now and then and as a cyclist and a driver I found the tips for both side from this campaign to be highly useful reminders.
Somehow, I missed out on a cycling proficiency test when I was at school but I very pleased that all my children have benefited from the modern-day equivalent which is called 'Bikeability'. I've been riding as a commuter since I started work 28 years ago and I'd like to feel I follow the rules, always wear a helmet, light myself up and provide clear signals of my intentions well in advance. So far (touch wood) I've not had an accident on my bike and I've never had anything bad to say about a driver. The worst I've experienced on my journeys to work is the death-wish attitude of boys walking to school who seem oblivious to all road users and have an unnerving tendency to switch from the pavement to the road without looking into who's path they are stepping into.
As a driver, the most frustrating issues with cyclists I've experienced are those who will not use lights in the dark and those who don't wear a helmet. Both of these point were clearly made today at the launch of this campaign.
"If you don't take away anything else from today, take these two things; always wear a helmet and always light up in the dark."My concern is for those drivers and cyclists who seem to hold extreme views on this subject.
I've already seem some Tweets from the 'extreme cyclists' this evening. It seems they are hell-bent on defending their rights and can't bear to hear anything which suggests cyclists are anything other than 100% perfect and that everything bad that happens to them is the fault of a driver. I'm quite sure there are drivers who demonstrate the same belief that they are the kings of the road where cyclists are nothing but a nuisance.
Everyone I listened to today was talking perfect sense. Like the campaign says, there are things both cyclists and drivers can do to improve and it is an undeniable truth that the roads are there for everyone so everyone has to share.
Unfortunately, there is a minority who want to disagree 100%. No compromise. No time to listen. I fear these are the people who need to think on this occasion. However, I don't think they ever will.
And finally - here is a screengrab of some of the footage I shot today using a GoPro camera mounted on my cycle helmet. We rode out after the press conference with three officers and Alex leading the way and me following up behind. It was raining by the time we departed from Essex Police HQ, through Springfield via Arbour Lane and Lawn Lane, out onto Essex Regiment Way, Rectory Lane (past Anglia Ruskin University) and into Victoria Road as seen in the photo. Bearing in mind I only ever cycle 15 mins at a time on my commute to work on a heavy hybrid bike with full mudguards and panniers, I was quite pleased I managed to keep up. I say I kept up but when they got to Springfield Road they shot up the hill like it wasn't there so I gave up and lost sight of them.
View Alex ride-out 11/11/2013 in a larger map
Thursday, 5 September 2013
Facebook posts - sheep mentality
I thought I'd write up some thoughts on a police Facebook page post appealing for help to locate a missing person.
The missing person post started life with a photo and an appeal to let the police know that the girl is safe and/or where she is. There are many posts like this but the thing that caught my eye was the development of a sharing trend I'd not seen before.
Comment 1 - There's a poster to share on MissingHelpFindUs
Comment 2 - Shared
Comment 3 - Shared
Comment 4 - Shared
Comment 5 - Shared
It carries on like this until the first person who commented like this:
Comment 13 - Shared Dagenham
From this point onwards, almost all the 186 comments followed this pattern. In the end I plotted this pattern on a map and it is amazing how accurately the sharing activity matches our original appeal (which didn't ask people to share the post).
It appears that once a pattern of comments emerged, people were inclined to join in. This activity has driven 134,400 people to see the post so far and the regularly added new shares seems to have kept momentum flowing. The police helped encourage this activity and acknowledge the shares by 'liking' each of them. It also seems to have focused attention on one single aspect of the post rather than the tendency to stray off topic. The first few comments could so easily have been a derogatory observations about the girl or her circumstances which could have kick-started a similar trail of comments but on a completely different theme.
Learning from this could be interesting. Starting off on the right foot is really important so could the police influence it rather than leaving it to chance?
Police missing person
Comment 1 - There's a poster to share on MissingHelpFindUs
Comment 2 - Shared
Comment 3 - Shared
Comment 4 - Shared
Comment 5 - Shared
It carries on like this until the first person who commented like this:
Comment 13 - Shared Dagenham
From this point onwards, almost all the 186 comments followed this pattern. In the end I plotted this pattern on a map and it is amazing how accurately the sharing activity matches our original appeal (which didn't ask people to share the post).
 |
| Facebook share locations on a map |
Learning from this could be interesting. Starting off on the right foot is really important so could the police influence it rather than leaving it to chance?
Tuesday, 16 July 2013
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Forthcoming TV movie tracker and reminder app
A Quick 'note to self' and appeal to anyone who may know if this already exists. If it doesn't, feel free to pinch my idea but tell me when you've built it so I can use it!
I used to belong to LoveFilm but I found that even though my subscription was cheap as chips, I wasn't using it often enough to justify the cost. I was having films delivered which I never got around to watching and just sent them back again. Many of the films were 'older ones' which Amazon sell for about £3 each. I realised I can just buy the films I want to watch cheaper than hiring them (plus I get to keep them with the option to watch again one day).
My son just asked my if we still had LoveFilm because he wanted to watch Bruce Almighty. I checked and found that you can buy that film on DVD for £3.76 and BluRay for £9.52. On DVD it is cheaper than my old LoveFilm subscription.
I was about to buy it when I had another idea. That film is often broadcast on ITV or Film4 so I suggested we may as well keep an eye out for it and when we see it in the listings, we can watch it or record it.
My wife often mentions that she'd like to watch 'Along came a spider' when it is next on TV. That is another film which always seems to be on TV but by the time I realise, it is halfway through (and more than the hour so I can't even go to the +1 version of the same channel).
Herein lies the issue which I think is in need of an app.
How about an app which firstly connects you through to IMDB, Wikipedia or some other online movie database which you can use to create a wishlist of films you want to watch at some point if they were to be broadcast but are not so urgent that you need to purchase or hire them right now. With a list created, you then find the data for the TV listings and compare that to the films wishlist. As soon as one of your film matches the listings, the app alerts you via email, text, pop-up message etc. This could be a smartphone app but could also be built-into the set-top box listing services themselves. By placing a film in a wishlist, a set-top box could automatically record it when it finds a channel which is broadcasting it. The list could be refined - 'only on non-commercial channel', or 'only in HD'. The app could also build up history statistics to give you a rough idea of how often a particular film is broadcast and therefore how long you can expect to wait until it comes around again.
OK - off you go and build it please. Let me know when it's ready :-)
I used to belong to LoveFilm but I found that even though my subscription was cheap as chips, I wasn't using it often enough to justify the cost. I was having films delivered which I never got around to watching and just sent them back again. Many of the films were 'older ones' which Amazon sell for about £3 each. I realised I can just buy the films I want to watch cheaper than hiring them (plus I get to keep them with the option to watch again one day).
My son just asked my if we still had LoveFilm because he wanted to watch Bruce Almighty. I checked and found that you can buy that film on DVD for £3.76 and BluRay for £9.52. On DVD it is cheaper than my old LoveFilm subscription.
I was about to buy it when I had another idea. That film is often broadcast on ITV or Film4 so I suggested we may as well keep an eye out for it and when we see it in the listings, we can watch it or record it.
My wife often mentions that she'd like to watch 'Along came a spider' when it is next on TV. That is another film which always seems to be on TV but by the time I realise, it is halfway through (and more than the hour so I can't even go to the +1 version of the same channel).
Herein lies the issue which I think is in need of an app.
How about an app which firstly connects you through to IMDB, Wikipedia or some other online movie database which you can use to create a wishlist of films you want to watch at some point if they were to be broadcast but are not so urgent that you need to purchase or hire them right now. With a list created, you then find the data for the TV listings and compare that to the films wishlist. As soon as one of your film matches the listings, the app alerts you via email, text, pop-up message etc. This could be a smartphone app but could also be built-into the set-top box listing services themselves. By placing a film in a wishlist, a set-top box could automatically record it when it finds a channel which is broadcasting it. The list could be refined - 'only on non-commercial channel', or 'only in HD'. The app could also build up history statistics to give you a rough idea of how often a particular film is broadcast and therefore how long you can expect to wait until it comes around again.
OK - off you go and build it please. Let me know when it's ready :-)
Monday, 8 April 2013
Essex County Council Elections May 2, 2013
April 12, 2013
Thank Crunchie - it's Friday.
Over the last few days I've exchanged more Tweets with the Chelmsford Lib Dems. I also heard from one of my many posts on the various Labour Facebook pages. I've emailed Richard for some more information.
I was prompted to update the blog following a Conservative party election broadcast on BBC1 just before the One Show. I can stand most treatments for these but this went too far. They asked members of the public if they are paying more or less for their council tax. They broadcast people saying it had stayed the same. They then 'corrected' them by saying their council tax has reduced by 10% in real terms because this Government has helped freeze council tax.
So - in my book - that is 'stayed the same'. The public got it spot on and were still told they got it wrong.
In Chelmsford (on average), it has gone up slightly from £1489.91 in 2012/13 to £1498.36 in 2013/14. Let's not split hairs. If it is costing more, it has gone up. If it is costing less, it has gone down. Trying to play the 'in real terms' card doesn't really cut it. The main increase is due to the 3.49% rise for the police by the new Police Crime Commissioner followed by Chelmsford City Council's 1.98% rise and a 1.41% average rise for the parish councils.
Here's the video - Council Tax question from 1:15:
April 10, 2013
Notification of Election Candidates - a spectacular PDF document which tells me who the election agents are in each division. This apparently is where claims,
notices, writs, summons, and other documents intended for the candidates can be sent. All very nice but absolutely nothing here which adds to my quest to find out why these candidates would like my vote.
Next document is due on April 17th - 'Notices of Polls'. Not sure if this will help but we'll wait and find out. In the meantime, I'll continue looking on the doormat and online for additional clues and I'll report back here as soon as a potential answer is uncovered!
However, a fantastic response from the Lib Dems. I tweeted a link to this blog and it got a reply from Chelmsford City Council and councillor Mark Springett.
I totally understand the stance of the City Council - they are not allowed to promote any of the candidates and it is their responsibility to do that themselves.
Hats of to Mark Springett who has provided a link to the Lib Dems' Chelmsford website which has news which is up-to-date along with loads of information about their ECC election manifesto pledges. Clear, easy to understand and all making perfect sense in plain English. All those mentioned duly followed.
Not so good from Labour - No replies to any of my posts on the various Facebook pages.
April 7, 2013
A few weeks ago, we had some Poll Cards placed through the letterbox. I've just got round to looking at them.
It is far from clear but it appears I am being asked to vote on Thursday May 2, 2013. It tells me when and where but it doesn't tell me anything else. So I went to have a look.
There is a website address: www.chelmsford.gov.uk/elections. Strange because on the Poll Card it says Essex County Council. Odd.
The web page tells me a lot about elections; registering to vote, voting by post, types of elections, how to register, voting by proxy, election results, voting in person, polling stations and even how I can stand to be elected. Everything except what I wanted to know - some things about who is standing for the elections to lead me to a decision about who to vote for.
Ah. At the very bottom of the screen a small and insignificant link - 'upcoming elections' followed by 'Essex County Council Elections'. Bingo?
No. the next page take me through more of the same plus 9 PDFs the only useful one being 'Statement of Persons nominated'. This shows me the names and addresses of the people standing for the election in my 'division' (whatever that is).
David Howell, Jeremy Jacobs, Mike Mackrory, Jean Murray and Nicholas Tidman.
The previous page informs me that further information will be published on April 10, 2013 including 'notice of poll' and 'notices of election agents'.
Well, call me impatient but I tried to find some information from these people about why they want me to vote for them. I didn't do very well:
David Howell has no Twitter, website or LinkedIn pages and I can't find his phone number or an email address. He does seem to be on Facebook via about 6 pages although none of these tell me anything useful. Not knowing which one to use, I posted a question on all of them. We'll see if I get an answer.
Jeremy Jacobs has no Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, phone number or email address I could find. The only way I'll find out anything from him is to write to him.
Mike Mackrory is listed on the Essex County Council web page. He has a website on the EssexInfo.net but it doesn't work. His phone number and email address is listed but I could find nothing on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook. I am familiar with the occasional letter he posts through my door so I'll look out for that.
Jean Murray lives just round the corner from where I work. She is a City Councillor so her phone number and email address is listed on the City Council's website. She apparently isn't using Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn either. I found the Chelmsford Conservative's website but that only shown 1 link to a page about a councillor. This turned out to be a mistyped URL which took me to a Japanese page about cemeteries. The latest news entry is September 2011 which didn't really inspire confidence.
Nicholas Tidman has no contacts details whatsoever including all of the above I 've already mentioned.
I'm presuming all these people would like me to vote for them but I fear they are not making it very easy for me. Do they think I'll vote because of their political party? Perhaps they think I'll prefer them based on the street they live in or maybe their name sounds friendly?
The only common thing is their address. This is the 21st century. the age of the social web, smartphones and free WiFi. Am I really expected to write a letter to each of them and ask them to provide me with their manifesto or other reasons they'd like me to vote for them? Sounds like something I'd be expected to do in 1913 not 2013.
I think I'll hold judgement until Wednesday when more information is being published on the City Council website.
I'll update this later in the week!
Monday, 18 February 2013
Police channel Live!
I've been meaning to write up my opinions about live video in relation to the police service.
It follows some experience of using UStream, Bambuser and Google+ Live Hangouts as well as observations of early attempts to explore the use within the police service. There is certainly a case for forces to consider all social media channels including the live video options like Bambuser and Google+ Live Hangouts.
Most forces use Twitter, Facebook pages and YouTube as a minimum SM set, and choose to use others like Pinterest, Flickr, AudioBoo and Google+ pages as well. There are hundreds of SM sites and there is no force however large which tries to use them all. With every new major SM site which comes to the attention of forces, a decision has to be made about whether to join in or leave it out of the mix.
This decision is made more difficult as budgets are cut in all areas including those departments within forces who are held responsible for developing and maintaining the social media sites. Assessing and managing risk when using social media is vitally important for forces. Twitter is perhaps easier to manage than more complex sites like Facebook which has a huge range of variables to deal with and which tends to change its features and functionality regularly. The very nature of social media requires interactivity which requires forces to be constantly alert and monitor all the time. SM sites which utilise live audio, video and text messaging raises the risks considerably.
Forces would also have to consider the applications when live video would be most effective. Perhaps to broadcast a live meeting so that people who cannot attend in person can experience and even take part interactively.
This approach has been successful with the use of CoveritLive which uses typed text to both broadcast the event and take questions interactively. It goes without saying that to add live audio and video so remote participants can see and hear the meeting live would be an improvement to the experience. In fact, a live video experience will enhance any publicly arranged event which is designed to be seen by a live audience.
How about live updates throughout a major incident? Would live video be suitable? Risk has to be a factor here. If a force is planning a press conference which is being covered by the live broadcast media, the risks for error or embarrassment are high and must be managed carefully. In this situation, every detail is highly planned and managed with hours spent briefing the presenting officers. Live police press conferences are conducted on police terms, not those of the journalists.
A recent example cited was a 43 second live video broadcast of a landlord making a statement. There was nothing in this broadcast which made it necessary to have been live. There was no live reaction from anyone else and the statement would have had equal effectiveness if it had been pre-recorded. This doesn't mean days and weeks after a particular event - pre-recorded could just mean to record the statement, check it back and then publish it seconds later.
The risk in doing this live was raised because there was no control about mistakes or a comment which may have come across in an unintended context. Because of this, it may explain why the statement was scripted and read from a a piece of paper. This video has been watched nearly 20,000 times since it was broadcast live in June last year but it only received 4 live views.
In contrast, another broadcast earlier in 2012 which featured live video of police dog puppies received 187 live views. This was a planned live event which was well publicised in advance and included a simultaneous live interview on the local radio station. Interactivity was handled live via the radio interview and throughout the broadcast via a Twitter hashtag question and answer session.
I think it is important to consider how much broadcast TV is really 'live'. There is considerable risks for broadcasters too so they carefully risk assess everything they broadcast, especially the live stuff. Consider the BBC 10 o'clock news. This is a flagship programme which is broadcast live but look at it more closely and consider how much is really live. Before the broadcast, the entire news team will rehearse and check their equipment to ensure nothing will go wrong. The title sequence is recorded which links to the present who is live. But what the presenter says isn't ad-lib; everything is scripted in advance and delivered via autocue. This prevents the risks of stumbles, blips and hesitation. In addition to the live introduction will be an overlaid caption graphic and background graphics all of which will be prepared in advance. The first live piece to camera will be followed by a pre-recorded report, several minutes in length which would have been edited. In many cases, this will be followed by a live segment where the studio presenter interviews the reporter from a remote location. This pattern continues in this fashion and usually concludes with a live weather forecast. A live telethon, live chat show and live children's show reveals a similar story and is littered with lengthy pre-recorded clips.
It is interesting to note that only 9 minutes of an hour's programming on BBCNews24 was actually live; all the rest was pre-edited segments and reports. Of that 9 minutes, 5 minutes was the newsreader and 4 minutes was the weatherman. 90% of the newsreader's contributions were visually overlaid with pre-recorded material while the presenter voiced over them. The newsreader's voiced segments were 100% scripted via auto-cue. The weatherman's 4 minute slot was 'truly live'. He didn't have a rigid script and was largely ad-libbing whilst changing his own graphics. So the question is - hats off to the weatherman for true 'seat-of-your-pants' live broadcasting. The newsreader by comparison had it easy.
The point to all this is that 'live' is not as easy as it looks; it requires planning rehearsals and is consistently interrupted by 'non-live' inserts. There will be situations which will suit live video for police services but certainly not all. In some cases the risks would outweigh the advantages and in other cases there just are no advantages regardless of the risks. The challenge isn't to take a new technology and try to find a fit for it. The challenge is to consider live video along with a range of tools and use it appropriately, either on its own or in combination with others for purposes which lend themselves to the medium.
It follows some experience of using UStream, Bambuser and Google+ Live Hangouts as well as observations of early attempts to explore the use within the police service. There is certainly a case for forces to consider all social media channels including the live video options like Bambuser and Google+ Live Hangouts.
Most forces use Twitter, Facebook pages and YouTube as a minimum SM set, and choose to use others like Pinterest, Flickr, AudioBoo and Google+ pages as well. There are hundreds of SM sites and there is no force however large which tries to use them all. With every new major SM site which comes to the attention of forces, a decision has to be made about whether to join in or leave it out of the mix.
This decision is made more difficult as budgets are cut in all areas including those departments within forces who are held responsible for developing and maintaining the social media sites. Assessing and managing risk when using social media is vitally important for forces. Twitter is perhaps easier to manage than more complex sites like Facebook which has a huge range of variables to deal with and which tends to change its features and functionality regularly. The very nature of social media requires interactivity which requires forces to be constantly alert and monitor all the time. SM sites which utilise live audio, video and text messaging raises the risks considerably.
Forces would also have to consider the applications when live video would be most effective. Perhaps to broadcast a live meeting so that people who cannot attend in person can experience and even take part interactively.
This approach has been successful with the use of CoveritLive which uses typed text to both broadcast the event and take questions interactively. It goes without saying that to add live audio and video so remote participants can see and hear the meeting live would be an improvement to the experience. In fact, a live video experience will enhance any publicly arranged event which is designed to be seen by a live audience.
How about live updates throughout a major incident? Would live video be suitable? Risk has to be a factor here. If a force is planning a press conference which is being covered by the live broadcast media, the risks for error or embarrassment are high and must be managed carefully. In this situation, every detail is highly planned and managed with hours spent briefing the presenting officers. Live police press conferences are conducted on police terms, not those of the journalists.
A recent example cited was a 43 second live video broadcast of a landlord making a statement. There was nothing in this broadcast which made it necessary to have been live. There was no live reaction from anyone else and the statement would have had equal effectiveness if it had been pre-recorded. This doesn't mean days and weeks after a particular event - pre-recorded could just mean to record the statement, check it back and then publish it seconds later.
The risk in doing this live was raised because there was no control about mistakes or a comment which may have come across in an unintended context. Because of this, it may explain why the statement was scripted and read from a a piece of paper. This video has been watched nearly 20,000 times since it was broadcast live in June last year but it only received 4 live views.
In contrast, another broadcast earlier in 2012 which featured live video of police dog puppies received 187 live views. This was a planned live event which was well publicised in advance and included a simultaneous live interview on the local radio station. Interactivity was handled live via the radio interview and throughout the broadcast via a Twitter hashtag question and answer session.
I think it is important to consider how much broadcast TV is really 'live'. There is considerable risks for broadcasters too so they carefully risk assess everything they broadcast, especially the live stuff. Consider the BBC 10 o'clock news. This is a flagship programme which is broadcast live but look at it more closely and consider how much is really live. Before the broadcast, the entire news team will rehearse and check their equipment to ensure nothing will go wrong. The title sequence is recorded which links to the present who is live. But what the presenter says isn't ad-lib; everything is scripted in advance and delivered via autocue. This prevents the risks of stumbles, blips and hesitation. In addition to the live introduction will be an overlaid caption graphic and background graphics all of which will be prepared in advance. The first live piece to camera will be followed by a pre-recorded report, several minutes in length which would have been edited. In many cases, this will be followed by a live segment where the studio presenter interviews the reporter from a remote location. This pattern continues in this fashion and usually concludes with a live weather forecast. A live telethon, live chat show and live children's show reveals a similar story and is littered with lengthy pre-recorded clips.
It is interesting to note that only 9 minutes of an hour's programming on BBCNews24 was actually live; all the rest was pre-edited segments and reports. Of that 9 minutes, 5 minutes was the newsreader and 4 minutes was the weatherman. 90% of the newsreader's contributions were visually overlaid with pre-recorded material while the presenter voiced over them. The newsreader's voiced segments were 100% scripted via auto-cue. The weatherman's 4 minute slot was 'truly live'. He didn't have a rigid script and was largely ad-libbing whilst changing his own graphics. So the question is - hats off to the weatherman for true 'seat-of-your-pants' live broadcasting. The newsreader by comparison had it easy.
The point to all this is that 'live' is not as easy as it looks; it requires planning rehearsals and is consistently interrupted by 'non-live' inserts. There will be situations which will suit live video for police services but certainly not all. In some cases the risks would outweigh the advantages and in other cases there just are no advantages regardless of the risks. The challenge isn't to take a new technology and try to find a fit for it. The challenge is to consider live video along with a range of tools and use it appropriately, either on its own or in combination with others for purposes which lend themselves to the medium.
Saturday, 26 January 2013
Saturday, 1 December 2012
Live web broadcasting - a few notes
I have just watched West Midlands Police conduct their first attempt at a live broadcast using Google Plus and YouTube. The result is embedded below:
I firstly wanted to say a big congratulations to Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman and his team at West Midlands Police for organising this event and for taking the risk of being first in what is fast becoming an environment where risk aversion would normally stop this kind of thing at the first hurdle. We have to be willing to try out these technologies to push the envelope of new media and communication technologies. It will not go right first time and there will always be room for improvement but, all things considered, this was a really good 15 minutes of material.
I haven't joined a live video broadcast online before. My first concern from about 20 minutes before the 'go live' time was "Am I in the right place?". If you go to a real event, show, meeting or concert there is a build-up to the main event. The first reassurance is that others have also arrived so you're in the right place. You then progress through a series of other activities; talking to others, buying a drink, reading the programme or the meeting agenda, taking your seat, listening to the audience announcement about switching off mobile phones, the dimming of the lights and finally - the event actually begins.
In my opinion, an online meeting would benefit from these experiences too. It would be reassuring to know you're in the right place. Google plus just didn't give that reassurance and I wasn't sure if the page I was waiting on was going to work or not. In the end, it didn't. I was waiting on the 'Events' page and when 6 o'clock arrived, nothing happened. I switched to YouTube and found the correct channel but there were links to 2 live events. I tried them both but neither of them had started and by this time it was 6:02pm. I then checked Twitter and found a link to a different looking kind of YouTube page which started playing - the event had clearly already started. If you check the start of the recording above, Kerry starts his introduction within 5 seconds of the beginning (and the pause was only to let the sirens die down in the background). Even if you were sitting on the correct page, there is no way you can check sound levels are right or adjust the page to your liking in that short time. In previous Google+ hangouts, it takes at least 4 or 5 minutes for everyone to get themselves sorted out, say hello, check their video and audio is right before things start to happen.
So here are a two suggestions:
Start broadcasting a picture and audio at least 10 minutes before the event is due to start. In this case it could have just been the traffic and sirens. This would reassure anyone that everything is working and they're in the right place. In these conditions a prompt start would be all that is required but it could be beneficial to indicate a 3-2-1 minutes to go.
Keep it all in one place. Comments were coming in on Twitter and there were further comments displayed next to the video stream and also under the Event comments. Kerry was checking Twitter for questions but there was also activity on both the other areas. If at all possible, the meeting room/webpage should contain everything needed for the session. CoverItLive tends to deal with this quite well as it brings in Twitter into the same environment as the video. All of this can be embedded into a web page which can itself provide additional material if needed.
I think Google plus has a way to go before it gets these things right. The interface is too complicated unless you've spend a long time with it. To be useful in this context, it needs to welcome people in who haven't tried G+ before and I think CoverItLive can deal with this better at the moment. The relationship between G+ and YouTube is expected but it also sets up two different locations to view from. I can't see the appeal in providing the live stream directly inside YouTube if it is also there to be used in G+. Better to just conduct the entire event in G+ to provide that 'all-in-one' location and simply archive the entire thing to YouTube when it's finished. This allows YouTube to continue to do what it does best - I really don't think YouTube works as a live video destination.
The overall takeaway for me is to replicate that reassurance you get when taking part in something that is truly live. This may have to include a pre-gathering, the event itself and an after-show party for those wishing to continue their discussions and share their opinions afterwards.
I firstly wanted to say a big congratulations to Chief Inspector Kerry Blakeman and his team at West Midlands Police for organising this event and for taking the risk of being first in what is fast becoming an environment where risk aversion would normally stop this kind of thing at the first hurdle. We have to be willing to try out these technologies to push the envelope of new media and communication technologies. It will not go right first time and there will always be room for improvement but, all things considered, this was a really good 15 minutes of material.
I haven't joined a live video broadcast online before. My first concern from about 20 minutes before the 'go live' time was "Am I in the right place?". If you go to a real event, show, meeting or concert there is a build-up to the main event. The first reassurance is that others have also arrived so you're in the right place. You then progress through a series of other activities; talking to others, buying a drink, reading the programme or the meeting agenda, taking your seat, listening to the audience announcement about switching off mobile phones, the dimming of the lights and finally - the event actually begins.
In my opinion, an online meeting would benefit from these experiences too. It would be reassuring to know you're in the right place. Google plus just didn't give that reassurance and I wasn't sure if the page I was waiting on was going to work or not. In the end, it didn't. I was waiting on the 'Events' page and when 6 o'clock arrived, nothing happened. I switched to YouTube and found the correct channel but there were links to 2 live events. I tried them both but neither of them had started and by this time it was 6:02pm. I then checked Twitter and found a link to a different looking kind of YouTube page which started playing - the event had clearly already started. If you check the start of the recording above, Kerry starts his introduction within 5 seconds of the beginning (and the pause was only to let the sirens die down in the background). Even if you were sitting on the correct page, there is no way you can check sound levels are right or adjust the page to your liking in that short time. In previous Google+ hangouts, it takes at least 4 or 5 minutes for everyone to get themselves sorted out, say hello, check their video and audio is right before things start to happen.
So here are a two suggestions:
Start broadcasting a picture and audio at least 10 minutes before the event is due to start. In this case it could have just been the traffic and sirens. This would reassure anyone that everything is working and they're in the right place. In these conditions a prompt start would be all that is required but it could be beneficial to indicate a 3-2-1 minutes to go.
Keep it all in one place. Comments were coming in on Twitter and there were further comments displayed next to the video stream and also under the Event comments. Kerry was checking Twitter for questions but there was also activity on both the other areas. If at all possible, the meeting room/webpage should contain everything needed for the session. CoverItLive tends to deal with this quite well as it brings in Twitter into the same environment as the video. All of this can be embedded into a web page which can itself provide additional material if needed.
I think Google plus has a way to go before it gets these things right. The interface is too complicated unless you've spend a long time with it. To be useful in this context, it needs to welcome people in who haven't tried G+ before and I think CoverItLive can deal with this better at the moment. The relationship between G+ and YouTube is expected but it also sets up two different locations to view from. I can't see the appeal in providing the live stream directly inside YouTube if it is also there to be used in G+. Better to just conduct the entire event in G+ to provide that 'all-in-one' location and simply archive the entire thing to YouTube when it's finished. This allows YouTube to continue to do what it does best - I really don't think YouTube works as a live video destination.
The overall takeaway for me is to replicate that reassurance you get when taking part in something that is truly live. This may have to include a pre-gathering, the event itself and an after-show party for those wishing to continue their discussions and share their opinions afterwards.
Sunday, 9 September 2012
Mi, Three are[n't so] awful [after all]
Update: November 3, 2012
Still no replacement MiFi in the post and this appears to be why - another message from Three. This time they say they don't have any 'handsets or dongles in stock but we will call you when they come in". I called the Three shop in Chelmsford and - of course - they have several in stock. This brings me back again to my original point about how Three could save themselves so much hassle by making better use of their high street network of shops. As I've said before, this could all have been resolved through the shop stocking low value spares. In this case, why don't they just instruct the shop to release one of their MiFi to me? I could have had it in time for the holiday we've just come back from. At this rate complaint number 3 isn't far away and this time, I'll not only be looking for a straight swap but also some compensation for nearly 6 months without the MiFi.
164 days since unit was sent off for repair.
53 days since first complaint
31 days since second complaint
53 days since first complaint
31 days since second complaint
Update: October 28, 2012
Another call from the lovely people at Three. This time wanting to follow up and ask if I'm happy with the replacement MiFi device the sent. Trouble is, it hasn't been delivered yet. I'm told this is due to a 'technical issue'. I'm assured that it will be here in 3-5 days - in other words, "we didn't sent it the first time".
Update: October 23, 2012
Success at last but only because of Lee the Three shop manager in Chelmsford.
Three called last night and offered an unreserved apology for all that is listed in this blog entry and a replacement MiFi unit. They had clearly read the blog in detail because they quoted a lot of detail mentioned here. I'm a bit disappointed that it was only a replacement (which was due anyway) and nothing in addition as compensation but I was happy to at last receive a communication from them and at least I'll finally have the MiFi back up and running again.
The slightly sour taste in the mouth is the fact that it only came after I contacted the Three shop manager in Chelmsford again for assistance. He was great and replied to my email immediately and promised to chase it again for me. I've emailed him to confirm but I'm 98% sure that Three only got back to me because of his intervention.
Three clearly have had some serious issues with their repair and customer services but I hope someone is listening to customer feedback and will now consider how they can make better use of their high street stores who can help to mop up minor issues before they become big issues. So often the store has said "That's something we can't help with in store - you'll have to go direct to Three for that". In fact there are many things the stores can assist with but they need to be given more trust and responsibility by Three. If that had happened in this case, it would have taken a quick 5 minute visit to the store rather than 5 months of frustration.
Update: October 16, 2012
I have had a reply to my second complaint. It comes within the 10 working day limit which is good but that's where 'good' ends. They think they understand that this must be frustrating for me and then suggest they've tried to call me (not to my knowledge they haven't). They want to 'run some checks' over the phone (charged at 5.1p/min) and then perhaps book it in for repairs! Perhaps they didn't gather that is what I have already done and after three months, I've got nowhere with that option. So it seems I'm still waiting for a reply to the original complaint which is now clocked at the 24th working day with no response after being promised one after 10 working days.Dear Mr White
I’m sorry to hear you’re having problems with your Mi-Fi device charger. I understand this must be frustrating for you. We’ve tried to call you on 07963 630044 about this but we haven’t been able to get hold of you.
The easiest way to find out exactly what’s wrong is to run some checks with you over the phone. If required we can book the charger for repairs. If the device is covered under manufactures warranty it can be repaired/replaced.
Please just give our mobile broadband team a call and they’ll be happy to help. You can reach them on 500 from your Three mobile or on 0843 373 0500 from any other phone (5.1p/min from a BT landline, other networks may vary) between 8am to 10pm.
We look forward to hearing back from you.
Best regards,Here is the email I sent in reply to this one:
Daniel RamThree Customer Services
This response is unacceptable. Please re-read my complaint which relates to your failure to properly respond to my first complaint which was about Three's failure to repair my MiFi device in the first place.
I sent off my MiFi unit to Three on May 23, 2012. It was returned unrepaired on September 6, 2012 after which I complained. It is now October 16, 2012. I still have a broken WiFi charging stand and since June, a broken WiFi as well. It is now 1 year since the MiFi unit was purchased and I have only been able to use it for 7 months of that year. It has been 24 working days without a reply to my first complaint and 146 days since I sent the device for repair.
Please locate and respond to my first complaint, taking into account the resolution you asked me to provide. Returning anything for a further repair is unacceptable following my experience to date with your repair service.
I look forward to your reply and provide a summary of the two complaints and the tracking numbers below for your reference:
David White
Complaint number 2 (Tracking reference A00006890541-00020345849)
Failure to reply to complaint number 1 within your stated 10 working days
Complaint number 1 (Tracking reference A00006890541-00020115878)
Failure to repair MiFi after keeping it for 10 weeks, cancelling the repair and then sending it back unrepaired only when chased by the Three Shop in Chelmsford.
Update: October 5, 2012
As predicted I've had another email from Three automatically generated and exactly the same content as the first one (see Update Sept. 28 below). Still no reply to the first promise to get back within 10 days - it is now 17 working days since they made that promise.
Update: October 2, 2012
Still no follow-up email from Three after 14 working days (they promised they would get back to me within 10 working days). So I've put in a second complaint - this time complaining that they haven't replied to me within the timescales they promised. I have my second complaint tracking number. We'll see what happens next. At this stage, it may be worth referring back to a weekend of bizarre calls to Three when it took several attempts to obtain a PAC code and cancel my contract with them.Update: September 28, 2012
I received an email following my complaint on September 12, 2012 as follows:
Dear Mr WhiteI am no longer on the Three network so I didn't call the number supplied. I waited patiently for the 10 working days which I believe was up on September 26, 2012. It is now September 28, 2012 and Three have still not got back to me.
Thanks for getting in touch.
We’re looking into your complaint and we’ll get back to you within 10 working days.
If you want to talk to us about it before then, please call 0800 358 4916 10am to 7:00pm Monday - Friday. The call is free from a Three mobile, network call charges may be applicable from any other phone.
Thanks
Nauzad Daroga
Three Customer Services
It has now been well over 18 weeks/4 months since the fault occurred.
Update: September 11, 2012
I have just managed to complete the Three complaints form at www.three.co.uk/complaints on advice from the guys in the Three shop, Chelmsford.It took 2 attempts to fill in the form before I noticed it reported validation errors in tiny writing at the top of the form. After that I managed to complete it but referred to this blog entry rather then write it out all over again for a third time.
I eventually obtained the mobile number by plugging the MiFi into the computer and running up the Three software. I missed it out of the form because I didn't have time to run it all up for a third time to get the number again.
Original complaint
Here's a story of a MiFi unit bought from the Three shop in Chelmsford in October 2011.
I took the advice from the shop as I trusted their judgement more. The person on the phone at Three was also quibbling about the items being covered by warranty at all. It was within the year since purchase but the warranty slip in the box clearly stated that the charger and USB leads were covered for 12 months, the battery for 6 months and the actual MiFi for 24 months. The cradle was the only item not specifically mentioned so the assumption is that it is either bundled as an accessory (12 months) or considered part of the MiFi (24 months). Either way, it is not a battery so it is definitely covered.
So I reported it to Three via the website, received the confirmation emails and a pre-paid padded postbag arrived the same week. The padded bag supplied was clearly meant for a mobile phone rather than bits of a MiFi but I can forgive them that. So far so good. I made a detailed account of exactly which bits I was sending back and why, explaining that I'd tested all the components and determined that two items out of the five were faulty. They went off via the local post office with a receipt dated May 23, 2012. I received a further email confirming that the package had been received and that I'd be kept updated on the repair via further emails.
I should point out at this point that my estimated value of the long USB lead was around 30p and the cradle was probably no more than £5. This is a desktop stand which simply supplies power to the MiFi whilst holding it in an upright position on the desktop. There are no lights or other technology inside it. Its the equivalent of the short USB lead built into a moulded plactic base with some rubber feet. The fault with the cradle appeared to be that the USB socket at the back had come loose and a connection had broken as a result. Almost a job worth investigating myself with my jewellers' screwdriver set and soldering iron but as it was under warranty, why not get Three to address the issue.
A few weeks passed with no news so I called Three to get an update. I had to wait at least 30 minutes on hold and when someone finally came back, the wireless phone I was using ran out of power so I never did find out what was going on. Weeks turned into months and it finally reached September 1 when I received an email from repairs@three.co.uk telling me that the repair job had been cancelled.
I tried replying to the email but of course, it was a 'no reply' box so it just pinged back. I tried contacting Three on the phone but I couldn't progress because it always reached a point in the call where I had to input the phone number. MiFi units do not have SIMs which have individual phone numbers so I couldn't progress further that way. Happily, Lee the Three shop manager in Chelmsford was very helpful. He looked up the job on their system and raised an internal job to investigate. He even emailed me a copy of this for my reference - Great work Lee.
On Thursday September 6, 2012 I missed a 'recorded delivery' which I picked up the following day. It contained a brand new USB lead (30p worth), the cradle plus two items I hadn't actually sent them - the shorter USB lead and a mains charger. The cradle was not new and had clearly had stickers removed plus there were some scratch marks around the USB socket at the back - in other words, it looked like they had sent back my original unit. This morning (Sunday) I tested the items which had been returned from Three. The brand-new USB lead worked fine and the MiFi happily took a charge. The cradle however did not work at all. The connection into the socket at the back was loose (just like it was when I sent it off). In other words, the item hadn't been repaired.
This is a place to document the detail of the story and make it public.
My main problem here is not with the Three shop in Chelmsford. I have had many dealings with them and they are always courteous and helpful. The problem is with the black hole that is 'Three online'. You cannot get through on the phone. When you do they don't know what they're talking about. Their warranty repair service is awful. Worst of all is that having invested in high street locations where you can find real people who are very helpful, they don't fully exploit this asset to the customer's advantage. Considering the MiFi which cost around £75 to buy, you have 6 separate component parts - The WiFi and it's battery cover, the battery itself, the desktop cradle, a long USB lead, a short USB lead and the mains charger. Breaking the costs down, I would estimate they are worth £50, £15, £5, 30p, 30p and £4 respectfully.
 |
| The Three shop is in the High Street in the very centre of Chelmsford |
I am now faced with a difficult decision. While all this has been going on, the actual MiFi unit has gone wrong. It accepts a charge and turns on and off but it will not connect to the Three network so it cannot emit WiFi. It's got to go back along with the cradle but I'm not holding out much hope that I'll see them back before they are 12 months old in October. I'll keep you posted.
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
Apple rule the world
Been thinking about the Samsung vs. Apple battles going on at the moment and the fallout. On the face of it, it seems to be bad move for progress. Technology innovation is moving on at such a pace that it is inevitable that products produced by different manufacturers will offer virtually identical features and designs. I'm no expert at patent law but how is it that this hasn't come up in the past?
Henry Ford invented a car but he didn't prevent anyone else from coming up with a similar device with an engine, four wheels, seats, doors, roof, brakes, gears and a windscreen. If he had, we'd all be driving Model T Fords. There are so many products which are virtually identical - fork, spoon, television set, record player, oven, kettle - this list is endless.
A modern smartphone has to satisfy a basic design criteria. A certain size to fit in the hand and between ear and mouth; a flat screen which is largely the same aspect ratio as a modern TV screen (16:9), a 3.5mm headphones socket, volume control and an on/off switch. This surely limits the opportunities for manufacturers to create products which are distinctly different from each other.
Although I've never owned an Apple product, I've appreciated their design and they've always managed to be distinct enough with their designs to ride above lower quality products which are similar but simply not 'Apple'. Everyone knows an Apple iPhone when they see it. It is easy to see the difference between it and a rival company's phone in the same way that you can tell an Apple laptop from all the others.
Apple is good but choice is better.
Henry Ford invented a car but he didn't prevent anyone else from coming up with a similar device with an engine, four wheels, seats, doors, roof, brakes, gears and a windscreen. If he had, we'd all be driving Model T Fords. There are so many products which are virtually identical - fork, spoon, television set, record player, oven, kettle - this list is endless.
A modern smartphone has to satisfy a basic design criteria. A certain size to fit in the hand and between ear and mouth; a flat screen which is largely the same aspect ratio as a modern TV screen (16:9), a 3.5mm headphones socket, volume control and an on/off switch. This surely limits the opportunities for manufacturers to create products which are distinctly different from each other.
Although I've never owned an Apple product, I've appreciated their design and they've always managed to be distinct enough with their designs to ride above lower quality products which are similar but simply not 'Apple'. Everyone knows an Apple iPhone when they see it. It is easy to see the difference between it and a rival company's phone in the same way that you can tell an Apple laptop from all the others.
Apple is good but choice is better.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Saturday, 26 May 2012
Tweetdeck ideas
It struck me while Ian was demonstrating Tweetdeck that it is only really effective as long as you can fit all the columns onto the same screen. There was a comment from the floor about having four computers and screens lined up next to one another so that all the required columns could be monitored in real time.
I saw that the fifth or sixth column requires a click to the side and that it can only really be monitored if the option is ticked to pop-up an alert if that column changes. This is good but I thought about an alternative solution.
Master updates column
How about the option for a new 'column type' called 'master updates'. This column would aggregate updates from 2, 3 6 or all of the other columns. Depending on the volume of columns and how busy the streams are, this may not work as the updates could flow too quickly to keep up but as Ian demonstrated, doing a column based on the search term 'London' already suffers that problem. A 'master updates' column wouldn't fix all scenarios but in certain situations I think it would work. I'm thinking of a situation where there are a lot of search term columns but ones which are not expected to turn up many results. You could end up with 30 or 40 columns (one for each term) but that would be virtually impossible to track. The po-up alerts would do the trick but they only show one-tweet-at-a-time. Putting them in a 'master updates' column means you can see at least 6 previous updates as well as the most recent one.Linking columns
This comes as a follow-on from the master updates column. It may become so useful that you may like to dedicate two columns to this task. This could be achieved if there were an option to make a column cover two or even three column widths. Tweets in column 1 would flow down the column to the end and rather than disappear, they would continue down column 2. My current tweetdeck view shows only 4 columns but linking those 4 together affords a visual display of at least 20 tweets. All the source columns can be 'off screen' but there would be little need to flick over to view these as everything would be consolidated into the main view across the visible columns. |
Lock column to the left
This is simply a way to ensure that a particular column is locked to the left regardless of how many other columns are scrolled left to right. This would be particularly useful for my proposed 'master column' but could equally be useful for any column which is especially important above the others.Archive column
This again is mainly with the 'master column' in mind but could be used universally. Simply, a column ticked as 'archive' ensures the contents of that column are archived so that the column can be saved for offline use. This would be especially useful for the use we put Tweetdeck to. Invariably, there is a need to return to the views experienced in real time at a later date. The archive could saved be direct to a local file which is viewable in an 'archive' column type.Large screen view
There are a few twitter apps I've come across which reformat tweets so they show up well on a huge screen. They generally just keep the text size large which ensures they can be seen from a fair distance if displayed on a large screen or projected. This would be idea for the 'master updates' column because it could be displayed in this 'large screen' format for the benefit of a conference room, control room or press office where everyone needs to see the latest tweets as they come in. This option would allow the total number of tweets to be displayed at once - this could be one-at-a-time (which would be huge), or as many as 6 or 7. It would also be really good if it works with displays that rotate to portrait mode. Most computers these days can handle dual displays so perhaps the main display would be the traditional tweetdeck setup and the second display could the large screen view.police hack day ideas
Just finished a G+ Hangout with a few police peeps and we strayed onto the idea of a hack day. This came from a conversation where the advantages of free and open source sites, apps and software was being compared to the commercially developed products sold into the market to do a specific job.
So we determine what we want. Then we share it with others to see which features are common to all. At this stage we should not expect 100% of what we feel we need. We should be aiming to be happy if the proposed solution does at least 70% - 80% of what we want. Once this is off the ground, the rest will follow very quickly.
Next, we bring in the techies/geeks/coders/hackers who are usually less interested in ideas and more interested in making stuff. We let them soak for a while and then the fun starts. The ideas people and the techies start working together to develop the protypes. We need people to comment on the functionality, others to keep usability in mind, others who can design lovely buttons, graphics and banners and the coders to pull it all together.
I'd say this could easily be a 2 or 3 day event. It could be a Thurs/Fri worksday followed by an optional Saturday or it could start at the weekend and continue into a Mon/Tues. If it is kept to a single day event, I'd say it would need to be preceded by a few weeks of online conversation with proposals and votes to determine up-front what people want to 'hack'. This could be done in two stages with a public policecamp/copcamp to tease out the ideas and crystalise the requirements followed by a period of online discussion and culminating in the hack day where something is actually built.
My experience
My comment on this (from experience) is that it is more dangerous for a government organisation to venture into the world of free, open source products than it is to stick to the tried and tested model of writing very complicated specification documents, three-way tender processes, months of shortlisting, more scrutinisation, fine tuning, financial checks and finally a procurement contract. My rather cynical view of this process is that we've over-engineered the process to the point where the more a project costs to deliver, the more interest it generates internally and along with that, a label of importance. A lone internal developer using open source software could easily create a killer app which would be largely ignored internally because no actual money appeared to have been spent on it. My argument is that this should be reversed; if someone creates a killer app for nothing, it is a double win and should be regarded as such.Hack Day
First comes a set of requirements for what WE want to do, not what the company is trying to sell us. My experience with Microsoft Word is that 95% of users tend to only use 5% of the product's potential (glorified typewriter). This suggests that we'd be better off in the main with a free equivalent for 95% of users and only pay the expensive software licenses for the 5% or power users who actually needs those advanced facilities.So we determine what we want. Then we share it with others to see which features are common to all. At this stage we should not expect 100% of what we feel we need. We should be aiming to be happy if the proposed solution does at least 70% - 80% of what we want. Once this is off the ground, the rest will follow very quickly.
Next, we bring in the techies/geeks/coders/hackers who are usually less interested in ideas and more interested in making stuff. We let them soak for a while and then the fun starts. The ideas people and the techies start working together to develop the protypes. We need people to comment on the functionality, others to keep usability in mind, others who can design lovely buttons, graphics and banners and the coders to pull it all together.
I'd say this could easily be a 2 or 3 day event. It could be a Thurs/Fri worksday followed by an optional Saturday or it could start at the weekend and continue into a Mon/Tues. If it is kept to a single day event, I'd say it would need to be preceded by a few weeks of online conversation with proposals and votes to determine up-front what people want to 'hack'. This could be done in two stages with a public policecamp/copcamp to tease out the ideas and crystalise the requirements followed by a period of online discussion and culminating in the hack day where something is actually built.
An idea as an example
My starter for 10 would be a very simple police application which is designed to enable multiple members of staff to contribute to a single Twitter page. The idea being to moderate posts where necessary and also to add or remove functionality like posting tweets, links or images. Another key requirement is for the system to store who tweeted what so that any post, reply, mention or direct message can be attributed to a specific member of staff if disputed at a later stage. Other ideas for Twitter-based functionality is the monitoring of search terms (like Tweetdeck), sentiment detection, pre-crime predictions and analysis tools for retweets and reach.And another one
Another approach could be solving the problem of reducing time posting updates to multiple channels. The list of potential places to post updates is growing fast - Website, email, SMS texts, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Flickr, YouTube, AudioBoo, Pinterest, Storyfy, Google+, So.cl, Bambuser, Cover it Live, Ustream . . . the list gets every longer. When you break these down, there are some areas where duplication could be streamlined - headline, short text (140 characters), long text, links, photos, caption, video, metadata, tags. If we could build an application where each of these fields can be filled in only once depending on the content available, it could save a lot of time. The same approach could be applied to the engagement messages posted back. If someone asks a question about a post via Twitter but not Facebook, we could build in the ability to re-post the Twitter question to Facebook and then use the same answer on both Twitter and Facebook.This isn't a new idea
To finish, I'll revisit my long-term aim which was to consolidate the hosting of police websites and the Content Management Systems used. I think there is little chance of achieving a single solution for anything but perhaps it would be reasonable to strive for 4 or 5 main systems shared between all 43 forces rather than 43 separate systems? For hosting we could look at one ASP solution for internal police server hosting (which one force has already offered), an open source alternative and the same for external hosting. That is four basic hosting solutions to suit most forces. The same combination of internal/external, commercial/opensource CMS would also offer flexibility but also reduce costs significantly. The final frontier is then to get force experts to share their knowledge of these systems which would save significant external support contract costs.Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Mobiles, broadband and deals
I've spent the weekend organising our home phone and broadband, my own contract phone and my daughter's SIM only contract. Here's the story.
At first, the plan was as follows:
Change from TalkTalk home broadband + phone at £27.27 per month to BT at £24.95 per month
Change from Three mobile at £17 per month to Tesco Phone Shop on O2 at £21.50 per month
Change from Virgin Mobile SIM only £10 per month to Three mobile £10 per month
At the end of this contract, I was determined not to spend too much more money per month although I did want to get a new phone. Three called me to offer an 'early upgrade' deal. This was not so much of an upgrade - more of a downgrade. The phones they offered were all inferior to the HTC Desire in all respects but they wanted between £29 and £33 per month - a huge increase of between £12 and £16 per MORE than I was currently paying. I declined this and continued to look for a better deal.
I always factor in any cashback opportunities via Quidco when calculating like-for-like deals but even with a £100+ cashback on some Three plans, the saving still came nowhere near my current deal so I ended up thinking about keeping the Desire going on a monthly SIM only contract while the deals improved. The best option here seemed to be the £10 SIM from Three - 100 mins/3000txts/1Gb.
Then I found the Tesco Phone Shop had the new HTC OneX for free on a £21.50 tariff with O2 for 100 mins/unlimited txts/500Mb. This along with a £50 cashback from Quidco equals £19 per month (£456 over 24 months). The phone is selling on Amazon for £449.99. This is almost as good as my original deal with Three so I decided this was the one for me.
I had already ordered the BT broadband online which went very well; loads of emails explaining everything plus a swift confirmation of the installation. Likewise, the phone from Tesco Phone Shop was ordered in the week and arrived safely on the Friday. It came with the wrong sized SIM card but a quick call sent me off to the O2 shop in town to collect a Micro-SIM.
On Saturday the SIM hadn't connected so I called TPS again. They had already realised their mistake and had sent out a new SIM card to arrive on Monday. I was happy with this as I'd already got the phone connected to WiFi and had plenty of things to play with.
I then called TalkTalk to cancel the broadband and phone. They said they could offer a better deal and promptly did! TalkTalk Plus with 24Mb/sec + anytime calls. £114 up-front line rental, £7.25 for first 6 months and £14.50 for the remaining 12 months which worked out at £18.41 per month - over £6 per month cheaper than BT. I had to call BT to cancel that and then called TalkTalk back later to initiate the change. One down, two to go . .
Next up was Lauren's SIM. I order the £12 deal from Three with £24 cashback via Quidco which offered 300 minutes, unlimited txts and 500Mb. Then the call to Virgin to cancel. A wonderful call handler then suggested I may like to consider a £5.32 per month SIM upgrade for 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 1Gb data which was usually £15.32 per month. I took it like a shot and cancelled the Three SIM. She even credited the account with £7.50 to contribute to the unlocking cost and also refunded the current month's payment of about £8. Spot on Virgin :-)
Finally, I needed to call Three. I needed to (1) arrange to unlock the Desire for the Virgin SIM, (2) get the PAC code ready to transfer my number to the Tesco/O2 contract and (3) cancel the contract.
For £8 per month they would give me 500 minutes/txts combo + 500Mb data and - wait for it - either a Nokia C201 or a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Europa. Both of these are rubbish and are currently worth between £30 - £50 second hand. I didn't bite so they went on with £11 for 900 minutes/txts combo and 1Gb data. I thanked them nicely and said no. The first offer (assuming I bought an HTC OneX from Amazon) worked up at £26.66 per month and the second offer worked out at £29.66 per month. Neither compared with the £19 per month deal with Tesco Phone Shop and O2.
Although they may think zillions of call minutes and texts should be very attractive, if they just looked at my call and texting history over the previous 24 months, they'd see I hardly ever call and rarely text. I need the facility but my main requirement is data.
Essential Internet is 'essentially' 250Mb of data which these days isn't much to write home about. It doesn't really compete with the other major companies who are offering 500Mb as the 'standard' data plan. Considering my £17 per month plan from over 2 years ago was 500Mb, it seems this is a backwards step for Three. It also isn't very impressive to read in the small print that only the 'One Plan' can be tethered (used as a WiFi hotspot). Surely a contract with a capped data limit should allow the user to use that allowance in any way they wish? Once it's gone, it's gone - so-to-speak.
The 'Ultimate Internet' package seems good with it's 'All-you-Can-Eat- data allowance except this also disallows tethering. This effectively means you can watch YouTube videos all day but you cannot use the advanced WiFi hotspot features of the modern phones. My feedback is to cap the offer to perhaps 2Gb per month but include tethering. I should point out that you can 'bolt-on' tethering but it costs extra and it also restricts you to 1Gb of tethering. not very useful.
The 'One Plan' is the only price plan from Three which includes true unlimited data but it costs far too much. The only way this would be cost effective is if you intended to use the phone to connect multiple people to the web virtually all the time or perhaps wanted to stream a video 24/7 in a remote location. For these applications, there are other data-only mobile broadband deals available.
Here is my tip for Three on how they could improve their data plans.
So for my HTC OneX, they can charge £20 per month. This credits my account with 2,000 pennies to spend on the data I actually use - not on an impressive volume I could use but never will. Each month the actual usage is totalled up and at the end of the contract the difference if in credit is refunded against a new contract as cashback. If the usage is higher than 2000 pennies per month, the cost increases at quarterly reviews much like the utility companies adjust the payments to cope with seasonal changes in fuel requirements or a change due to a newer, more efficient boiler or loft insulation. Although the payments are monthly, the usage is averaged over the term which gives much more flexibility to the user and ensures nothing is wasted. A heavy month using the phone at Christmas will be averaged out throughout the year or perhaps a need for lots of data one month will also average out. Tethering would be allowed but if it is used excessively, the plan would be adjusted to cost more so there would be a natural reason to monitor it carefully.
Month 1
20 texts, 120 minutes of calls, 756Mb data = 896 'pennies' - 1,004 credit carried over.
Month 2
150 texts, 400 minutes, 543Mb data = 1,004+2,000 = 3,004 'pennies' minus 1,093 = 1,011 credit carried over
Month 3
21 texts, 42 mins, 4Gb data = 1,001 +2,000 = 3,001 minus 4,063 = 1,062 debit
Month 4
199 texts, 120 mins, 343Mb data = -1,062+2,000 = 938 minus 662 = 276 credit carried over
A £25 per month charge equals 2,500 pennies per month
A £30 per month charge equals 3,000 pennies per month
For those on a budget . . .
A £15 per month charge for 1,500 pennies per month
A £10 per month charge for 1,000 pennies per month
A £5 per month charge for 500 pennies per month
The key principle is that the fixed price per month can start at any cost and can be adjusted up but never back down again. However, the reassurance that any credit left at the end of the contract will be accessible if you choose to continue into a new contract will tempt people into taking out a similar new contract.
I like the idea of starting on £5 per month and seeing how it goes. You go up if you need to but not if you don't. It's fair and it's simple to understand and it could genuinely be the 'One Plan' that Three really needs rather than the one it's got at the moment.
At first, the plan was as follows:
Change from TalkTalk home broadband + phone at £27.27 per month to BT at £24.95 per month
Change from Three mobile at £17 per month to Tesco Phone Shop on O2 at £21.50 per month
Change from Virgin Mobile SIM only £10 per month to Three mobile £10 per month
Home Phone and Broadband
This was a move from a 4Mb/sec broadband with anytime calls to a 34Mb/sec deal with anytime deals with a £2.32 per month reduction in cost. BT seemed to finally be a bit cheaper than TalkTalk so despite their very annoying habit of sending me letters about how fed up I must be with my current provider (which I wasn't) and how much cheaper it would be to come back to BT (which it isn't) I was up for it.My phone
I had an HTC Desire with Three on a 24 month deal which cost me £17 per month for 100 minutes/text combo plus 500Mb data. I also got £38 cashback via Quidco. At the time, this was a too-good-to-be-true deal because at £370 for the duration of the contract, the actual phone was selling on Amazon at well over £400.At the end of this contract, I was determined not to spend too much more money per month although I did want to get a new phone. Three called me to offer an 'early upgrade' deal. This was not so much of an upgrade - more of a downgrade. The phones they offered were all inferior to the HTC Desire in all respects but they wanted between £29 and £33 per month - a huge increase of between £12 and £16 per MORE than I was currently paying. I declined this and continued to look for a better deal.
I always factor in any cashback opportunities via Quidco when calculating like-for-like deals but even with a £100+ cashback on some Three plans, the saving still came nowhere near my current deal so I ended up thinking about keeping the Desire going on a monthly SIM only contract while the deals improved. The best option here seemed to be the £10 SIM from Three - 100 mins/3000txts/1Gb.
Then I found the Tesco Phone Shop had the new HTC OneX for free on a £21.50 tariff with O2 for 100 mins/unlimited txts/500Mb. This along with a £50 cashback from Quidco equals £19 per month (£456 over 24 months). The phone is selling on Amazon for £449.99. This is almost as good as my original deal with Three so I decided this was the one for me.
Daughter's phone
Lauren, my daughter has a rather old Nokia touch screen phone which is slowly but surely failing. I had promised her my HTC Desire if I did end up getting a new phone. So this one was easy - either stick with Virgin and make my phone SIM free to accommodate her SIM card or buy a Three SIM. I decided to go with a Three SIM rather than tackling what I thought would be tricky task to unlock the Desire.The weekend of change
Set up with a free weekend to sort this out I had my plan set.I had already ordered the BT broadband online which went very well; loads of emails explaining everything plus a swift confirmation of the installation. Likewise, the phone from Tesco Phone Shop was ordered in the week and arrived safely on the Friday. It came with the wrong sized SIM card but a quick call sent me off to the O2 shop in town to collect a Micro-SIM.
On Saturday the SIM hadn't connected so I called TPS again. They had already realised their mistake and had sent out a new SIM card to arrive on Monday. I was happy with this as I'd already got the phone connected to WiFi and had plenty of things to play with.
I then called TalkTalk to cancel the broadband and phone. They said they could offer a better deal and promptly did! TalkTalk Plus with 24Mb/sec + anytime calls. £114 up-front line rental, £7.25 for first 6 months and £14.50 for the remaining 12 months which worked out at £18.41 per month - over £6 per month cheaper than BT. I had to call BT to cancel that and then called TalkTalk back later to initiate the change. One down, two to go . .
Next up was Lauren's SIM. I order the £12 deal from Three with £24 cashback via Quidco which offered 300 minutes, unlimited txts and 500Mb. Then the call to Virgin to cancel. A wonderful call handler then suggested I may like to consider a £5.32 per month SIM upgrade for 500 minutes, unlimited texts and 1Gb data which was usually £15.32 per month. I took it like a shot and cancelled the Three SIM. She even credited the account with £7.50 to contribute to the unlocking cost and also refunded the current month's payment of about £8. Spot on Virgin :-)
Finally, I needed to call Three. I needed to (1) arrange to unlock the Desire for the Virgin SIM, (2) get the PAC code ready to transfer my number to the Tesco/O2 contract and (3) cancel the contract.
Attempt 1
The Three operator would not do anything until I called O2 to confirm their tariff of £21.50 was genuine because they insisted that third-party resellers (Tesco Phone Shop) concealed hidden cashback charges and that I should also read their T's&C's very carefully. We also had a bizarre argument. He insisted the offer from TPS/O2 was 'too-good-to-be-true' because the total cost of the contract was the same as the value of the phone. I had to point out that the contract and phone they sold me 2 years ago was even more 'too-good-to-be-true' and it wasn't any of their business to doubt other company's deals just because they couldn't match it. I was also told that the 500Mb of data being offered by TPS/O2 wouldn't be enough for the 'high powered' Android smartphone I had bought and that I would certainly go beyond my limit and incur large charges. I think they may have failed to notice that I already own a fairly powerful Android smartphone which has been perfectly OK on the 500Mb they have been offering me for the last 2 years! Not only that but ICS now offers some built-in tools to monitor data and call activity specifically to manage this kind of issue. Even without that, I've been running 3G Watchdog free which does a really good job of watching your limits throughout the month.Attempt 2
I tried Three again and this time a female operator decided to tell me that Tesco Phone Shop were under investigation by OFCOM for offering misleading deals. She said that anyone who Googled 'Tesco + OFCOM' would see what she was talking about. At this point I Googled as instructed and turned up nothing of note. I then called TPS and shared some of this with the senior manager there who was clearly shocked that Three should have said any of this and told me she would pass the information on to her Manager. From this point on I recorded the rest of my calls with Three.Attempt 3
I tried a different approach this time. I went straight for the unlocking of the Desire which I managed to get done. However, although I paid about £15 for the code they generated for me, I'm convinced that it was already unlocked as I didn't need to use it when I slotted in the Virgin SIM card.Attempt 4
I tried Three again. This time I had to insist that I didn't need to hear any more about cashback, OFCOM and that this was the fourth call this weekend. Eventually I managed to get the PAC code out of them and cancel the account.Monday
The O2 SIM arrived as promised and it was placed in the HTC OneX when I got home from work. It didn't do anything so I called Tesco Phone Shop and they sorted it out promptly and I was on the O2 network within 20 minutes. Throughout the day and evening my wife took several calls from Three trying to get in touch to offer a 'lifetime deal'.Tuesday
More calls to the home phone during the day (my old SIM is still in a box at this point so they couldn't text or phone me directly). Eventually, they got me at about 7.30pm to offer me their 'deal'.For £8 per month they would give me 500 minutes/txts combo + 500Mb data and - wait for it - either a Nokia C201 or a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Europa. Both of these are rubbish and are currently worth between £30 - £50 second hand. I didn't bite so they went on with £11 for 900 minutes/txts combo and 1Gb data. I thanked them nicely and said no. The first offer (assuming I bought an HTC OneX from Amazon) worked up at £26.66 per month and the second offer worked out at £29.66 per month. Neither compared with the £19 per month deal with Tesco Phone Shop and O2.
Although they may think zillions of call minutes and texts should be very attractive, if they just looked at my call and texting history over the previous 24 months, they'd see I hardly ever call and rarely text. I need the facility but my main requirement is data.
More on Three
I think Three have got their price plans all wrong. They come in three tiers - Essential Internet, Ultimate Internet and the One Plan. There is a theme here and it is 'Internet'. Three pride itself in offering a good data network and the names of these packages promise that but scratch under the skin and it is disappointing.Essential Internet is 'essentially' 250Mb of data which these days isn't much to write home about. It doesn't really compete with the other major companies who are offering 500Mb as the 'standard' data plan. Considering my £17 per month plan from over 2 years ago was 500Mb, it seems this is a backwards step for Three. It also isn't very impressive to read in the small print that only the 'One Plan' can be tethered (used as a WiFi hotspot). Surely a contract with a capped data limit should allow the user to use that allowance in any way they wish? Once it's gone, it's gone - so-to-speak.
The 'Ultimate Internet' package seems good with it's 'All-you-Can-Eat- data allowance except this also disallows tethering. This effectively means you can watch YouTube videos all day but you cannot use the advanced WiFi hotspot features of the modern phones. My feedback is to cap the offer to perhaps 2Gb per month but include tethering. I should point out that you can 'bolt-on' tethering but it costs extra and it also restricts you to 1Gb of tethering. not very useful.
The 'One Plan' is the only price plan from Three which includes true unlimited data but it costs far too much. The only way this would be cost effective is if you intended to use the phone to connect multiple people to the web virtually all the time or perhaps wanted to stream a video 24/7 in a remote location. For these applications, there are other data-only mobile broadband deals available.
Here is my tip for Three on how they could improve their data plans.
The penny plan
You charge a fixed rate monthly charge. This could work on an inclusive phone 12/18/24 or SIM only plan so it could be 'the only plan you need'.- 1 text costs 1p
- 1 minute of call time costs 1p
- 1Mb of data cost 1p
So for my HTC OneX, they can charge £20 per month. This credits my account with 2,000 pennies to spend on the data I actually use - not on an impressive volume I could use but never will. Each month the actual usage is totalled up and at the end of the contract the difference if in credit is refunded against a new contract as cashback. If the usage is higher than 2000 pennies per month, the cost increases at quarterly reviews much like the utility companies adjust the payments to cope with seasonal changes in fuel requirements or a change due to a newer, more efficient boiler or loft insulation. Although the payments are monthly, the usage is averaged over the term which gives much more flexibility to the user and ensures nothing is wasted. A heavy month using the phone at Christmas will be averaged out throughout the year or perhaps a need for lots of data one month will also average out. Tethering would be allowed but if it is used excessively, the plan would be adjusted to cost more so there would be a natural reason to monitor it carefully.
Month 1
20 texts, 120 minutes of calls, 756Mb data = 896 'pennies' - 1,004 credit carried over.
Month 2
150 texts, 400 minutes, 543Mb data = 1,004+2,000 = 3,004 'pennies' minus 1,093 = 1,011 credit carried over
Month 3
21 texts, 42 mins, 4Gb data = 1,001 +2,000 = 3,001 minus 4,063 = 1,062 debit
Month 4
199 texts, 120 mins, 343Mb data = -1,062+2,000 = 938 minus 662 = 276 credit carried over
A £25 per month charge equals 2,500 pennies per month
A £30 per month charge equals 3,000 pennies per month
For those on a budget . . .
A £15 per month charge for 1,500 pennies per month
A £10 per month charge for 1,000 pennies per month
A £5 per month charge for 500 pennies per month
The key principle is that the fixed price per month can start at any cost and can be adjusted up but never back down again. However, the reassurance that any credit left at the end of the contract will be accessible if you choose to continue into a new contract will tempt people into taking out a similar new contract.
I like the idea of starting on £5 per month and seeing how it goes. You go up if you need to but not if you don't. It's fair and it's simple to understand and it could genuinely be the 'One Plan' that Three really needs rather than the one it's got at the moment.
Wednesday, 9 May 2012
Friday, 27 April 2012
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