and a great interview with Rico Zombie

2011 is The Cat Empire's 10th year anniversary. They rocked.

Mobile Version courtesy of Flickr

 

The next steps for Siri section is extremely interesting especially when used with "group reminders" if they were to ever appear.

http://shawnblanc.net/2011/10/iphone-4s-review/

Also he mentions iMessages are linked to your Apple ID. Does that mean the end of sharing your Apple ID with your missus? If that's the case, that's actually quite annoying. I know you can have separate iCloud accounts, but use the same Apple ID...

Hmmm..

Saw this intriguing post while in the air. An interesting take on how the large purveyors of identity are looking at the problem far too simply.

4chan's Chris Poole: Facebook & Google Are Doing It Wrong

just a small snippet here..

Identity Is Prismatic

"The portrait of identity online is often painted in black and white," Poole said. "Who you are online is who you are offline." That rosy view of identity is complemented with a similarly oversimplified view of anonymity. People think of anonymity as dark and chaotic, Poole said.

But human identity doesn't work like that online or offline. We present ourselves differently in different contexts, and that's key to our creativity and self-expression. "It's not 'who you share with,' it's 'who you share as,'" Poole told us. "Identity is prismatic."

Why can't I have a tariff that ensures I am on the cheapest data bundle?

Instead of penalizing me for not knowing how much data I am going to use use every month, just make it simple for me to "upgrade" to the next bundle price if I go over what I thought I would use.

TMobile for example, charge as follows:
( I am not picking in TMob, I am sure the rest of the carriers do the same sort of thing, I just happen to have their tariffs here on my mobile screen, oh and by the way, it is a desktop site, not a mobile one. Hence there is a lot of pinching and zooming to try to find out the prices, let alone pay for them)

If you are out of bundle you are charged £1 per Mb. bundles are £1 per day, £4 per week or £15 per month. I won't consider the fair use policy here, that is for another post!

How about, if on the 5th day of use in a week, I were automatically upgraded to the weekly bundle, and the rest of the week is free! Then, after the 15th day of use in a calendar month I get the rest of the month for free, actually it is more like after 3 weeks and 3 days use...

Also, don't make me go to a mobile site and pre-choose how much data I think i am going to use. Just do it for me. Send me a text message that says, "we have noticed you have been using data a lot, here you go, have the cheaper option"

You might need to set this up once, when the sim is new, but they make you jump through hoops anyway, one more hoop won't be a killer hoop.

Why are business built on models engineered to piss-off users?  Why am I being penalized for using a service more than I thought I would? Surely I should be encouraged to use a service more than I thought I would as the more I use it, the more I will be accustomed to using it, and the more I will use it and so on...

See how it works...

But instead... I am being reminded at every step of the way way that i am paying for the service, that it is expensive, that I really should have paid more upfront on the chance that I might want to use it more, later. It is like buying insurance, no one likes buying insurance.

Even giffgaff, who have released very reasonable data bundles at £5 per 500mb don't allow you to buy another bundle until the month's end. You are charged at a much higher rate for the rest of the month. I am pissed off just reading that they do that. It makes me think they are just being greedy, or the carrier they are buying their data from is being greedy and they are simply passing that greed onto their customers.

Is it too much to ask that my carrier work with me to help me get the best out of their service? Every time I get a week or poor signal, the data throughput is appalling or a call gets dropped, I would like to think "at least they are trying,"  not, "they are trying to rip me off"

Well, to be honest, they are not trying, they are succeeding.

I wanted to feedback to Tower Hamlets (TH) about their website. (I cant find information regarding whether I can park a motorbike in a residents permit bay if I dont live there)...

So after filling in a form , which simply asks for my feedback, name, address and email, I am then asked to indicate my cultural or ethnic origin to "help us [Tower Hamlets] improve our service"

This information will help us to ensure that our services are accessible to all our customers and do not discriminate against anyone.