It has always baffled me why high end computers and laptops don’t come with GPS chips so that they can be tracked if they ever get lost or stolen. The cost of this technology has come down so much that the manufacturer would pay little over £1 per unit, kinda makes you think why this hasn’t become as standard as Bluetooth.
So what solutions do you have to try and recover your iMac or Macbook before some dodgy bloke tries to offload it on Gumtree? Well Hidden could be your first point of call if your computer ever goes missing.
Hidden works in the background when the Mac is switched on with no visible signs that it’s running, it then begins collecting data about the location and network environment of your computer once you log in and change its status to ‘stolen’ on the Hidden website.
In the spirit of volcanic travel disruptions I thought I would share this lovely graphic which answers the question you’ve always wanted to ask but could never be bothered.
This is pretty funny (click to enlarge), it’s amazing what we put up with as paying customers.
There I was thinking that Paypal Bump was one of the most innovative mobile payment solutions I’d seen in a while, then I find out it has been completely dwarfed by…SMS.
A company called Sicap has developed the technology which allows consumers to withdraw money out of an ATM using SMS and have the balance added to their monthly phone bill.
Whenever you need cash, you text in the amount you want and receive a one-time code that is input into the ATM. Once it’s verified you get your cash there and then. You don’t even need a bank account! The money is then billed to your statement.
Update: It just hit 470,000 and it looks like it’s been pulled by eBay. Booo.
Update: It’s made page 25 of The Metro newspaper – they didn’t get a screenshot of the description either. Boo.
Update: It’s been saved! New link to auction here.
Ooooh this is good. It’s not often you see one of these types of auctions but when they come around it’s a spectacle, this is one of the best by far and it doesn’t seem to have been picked up on any other blogs yet.
Seller beanmasteruk has reached 445,000 views of his sale of one Renault Clio Dynamique in just 5 days.
The advert is so popular because of the description, it basically lays into the stereotypical driver of a Renault Clio with ‘go faster’ stripes which is generally boy racers, drug dealers and those with girlfriends called Sharon dressed in Donnay clothing.
Here’s a snippet:
To complete the proper drug dealer look, a tasteless stripe has been fitted from the front to the rear. Finished in “Air Max” white it really doesn’t complement the car in any shape or form. Rather like you and your Brethren spitting on the floor constantly.
[New link here] Click here to head on over to the auction right now, it’s racking up hundreds of views every second. When I first saw this just 2 days ago it had 41,000 views and now it’s creeping towards half a million plus 263 questions, so many that there is no more space for the seller to reply.
Not only have eBay given this auction the seal of approval by calling the seller telling him they wouldn’t remove it, someone has even taken it upon themselves to set-up a Facebook Fan Page for it, now with over 12,000 25,000 fans!
The picture pretty much says it all.
If you’ve got a Google Android phone you’ll no doubt be familiar with the way you password lock/unlock the phone. It’s done by swiping a pattern rather than the tradional numerical pin code entry.
The article at Unpressable Buttons raises some intetresting points. As we progressively make experiences quicker and more usable are we forgetting some common sense stuff?
Just remember to wipe your phone down after eating a Big Mac.
Update: Confirmed – the new iPhone has a front facing camera!
Updated: Wrote this post last year before the iPhone 3GS launch, obviously that version didn’t have video calling or mobile tv as its core features but could that change this year? I was a thinking a bit too far ahead last year but now it seems other blogs are mentioning the same thing.
Rumours (and screenshots) are flying round featuring a front facing iPhone camera…9to5Mac has a post with all the theories. Remember the iPhone can’t save video calling on its own, operators will need to create unlimited bundles with standard tariffs otherwise it’s not going to be able to sustain the initial uplift. Maybe this is the kick start video calling needs to begin lowering prices?
Check out the new image and original post below:
The new iPhone is due to be announced soon and I have the feeling that it’s about to change the way people use (and perceive) Video Calling and mobile TV. The two services desperately need a jump start and have been poorly received by consumers for years.
As a consumer I know that Mobile TV is very appealing, I can’t tell you the amount of times I have been out and wanted to catch the football or a episode of Californication. Even at my desk, I can’t be bothered to keep turning my head to watch the plasma and would gladly have a phone in front of me with the TV on. The proposition isn’t hard for the consumer to understand, it’s TV that you love and know…on your phone. Simple.
However the price has always been far too high , I’ve found that most people don’t know that their operator offers TV and the ones that do think it’s too expensive to take up. Currently the price sits at around £3 per month on Vodafone to £8.99 per month on Orange…That’s 35% of my line rental!
Video Calling is just as expensive, on Orange it costs 50p per minute to call someone on another network. Video Calling is a service I would dip in and out of but why would I ever bother at those prices? I know many things have been listed on why video calling isn’t popular, everything from unflattering camera angles to human nature but lets face it, cost is usually king and if it was free people would use it more. Plus video calling is aching for a sprinkling of decent Apple-style user experience.
Whenever I hear the words ‘Ad-funded’, I normally associate it with non-tangible things such as digital content like Spotify or services such as Facebook. According to this article from 2007, it applies to food and drink too.
Japanese vending machine operator Apex Corp has come up with a system that will give customers the option of watching an advert instead of paying their drinks. A 30-second video commercial plays while the drink is poured into a ad covered paper cup.
The total saving is about 70 -120 Yen per cup, about 80p in the UK.
However not all drinks will be free and some ads only get you a discount off the price of the beverage, but it’s better than nothing right?
The first thing I thought of was how quickly I could take as many free drinks as possible. I would have no qualms about standing in front of the machine for 20 minutes filling up several flasks. Perhaps consumers attitudes are different in Japan. Or maybe I have a problem. Read More
It shows you how good some promotional websites are when 2 years after they’ve launched you still remember it and go back to interact.
The Orange ‘Good Things Should Never End’ website launched around November 2007. At the time I remember spending a lot longer on the site than my boss would have liked. It doesn’t have any mobile elements which you would kind of expect as it’s Orange, but that takes nothing away from it.
The site is vertical scrolling, never-ending web page packed full with little interactive elements. I was amazed at the amount of thought that had gone into each part, some even hadhidden prizes inside them. All this tied in with the TV campaign message.
- Buzz combats peer pressure
My favourite part of the site is Buzz, the talking box with arms who you can have a little chat with. Ask him any question, the responses are pretty good. Apparrently Buzz has over 22,000 possible answers. This is what bought me back to the site this week as I remembered Buzz whilst researching for another project.
It’s still live, so head on over to check it out. You can also enter your details for free SIM or wind up charger, that’s great considering the sites 2 years old. I’ve just ordered a wind-up charger so hopefully Orange are still fulfilling it.
Agency Poke were behind the site and graphics by Hairy Teeth.
As you may have noticed in the last couple of years there has been a surge of popularity in online discount vouchers in the UK. A week doesn’t go by without a voucher for Gap, GBK, Ask, Urban Outfitters or H&M landing in my inbox. All you have to do is print them out and take them in-store. Sites like Money Saving Expert are visited by millions looking for discount vouchers to download.
Voucher Background
The peak of the craze was in December 2006 when Thresher’s saw its ’40% off all wine and champagne’ voucher downloaded and printed by millions of people and was so popular that it made the news. The following year they relaunched the offer.
Since then printable vouchers have exploded and been in constant supply from top high street retailers, in fact I’m holding a 30% one for Gap right now. If you head over to the discount section on Money Saving Expert you can literally download hundreds of different printable vouchers from restaurants to shopping.
At first the vouchers were either PDF or JPEGs that just circulated around via email. Many had a space to fill in your details such as name, age but you never had to fill them out to use them (or they just weren’t enforced properly). Often you don’t even have to hand the voucher to staff, simply display it.
Now it seems these companies have realised that they could be capturing the information of thousands of consumers. This means that store and restaurant websites are requesting some information before allowing to download vouchers such as name, age and email address, some are making it compulsory to sign up to newsletters or become website members. This allows the company to keep the customer updated on new offers, products and news.
A couple of things to note about these printed vouchers is that they almost always contain no unique numbers or barcodes. After asking a few stores about the process, they simply said that staff are told the length of the offer, the button to press on the cash register to apply the discount and to put the store receipt in a separate pile to be counted later. How old school is that process! We are talking about massive chains like Gap here. This is perfect for mobile. Read More
Am I the first person to start noticing that IVR systems don’t really work that well with qwerty keyboard mobile phones?
Every single time I call my bank of mobile phone operator I get the IVR asking me to enter characters from my password. I glance at my keypad in a panic trying to work out what button equals what letter before the automated voice tells me ‘sorry I didn’t get a response’. Then after two attempts you get put in the queue for customer services. Aaaargh.
RIM (makers of Blackberry) have a global market share of 18.7%, add onto that devices from Nokia and LG that feature qwerty keyboards and you have a large, growing number of users whose experience is being affected by the type of handset they have.
Twitter is getting a huge amount of coverage at the moment, it’s been touted as the next big thing and apparently we’ll all be tweeting away in the very near future.
Hitwise reported last week that Twitter finally got more visits than Myspace for the very first time. Twitter accounted for 2.21% of websites visited in the UK in August. Facebook however received 47.50% of website visits making it the number one visited site.
The funny thing is that as Myspace is crashing out in a big way and Twitter is on the way up, I can’t help but notice the similarities between how my friends have adopted the two services.
Around 3 to 4 years ago when Myspace was hitting it’s peak in the UK I set up an account. After getting my real life friend list to about 20 it became apparent after 18 months that none of my other friends were getting involved and the ones that did initially hadn’t logged on for a long long time. Eventually I just ended up accepting random friend requests but got bored of engaging with people I didn’t know.
Then Facebook came about and within a year I had all my friends on my account and everyone was interacting on regular basis with status updates, comments, photos and wall posts.
Now fast forward to Twitter and I’m seeing the same thing happen as Myspace, friends joining up to see what the fuss is about and not really getting it, then never going back. Read More
I’ve become one of Spotify’s greatest fans. It is easily one of the best services to appear in the last 12 months and will hopefully be around much longer. I use Spotify every time I’m on my computer for longer than 5mins, it’s fuss free, instant and has allowed me to build a playlist that I’m never bores me. Unlimited free music is always going to be a winner.
However over the last couple of weeks something about Spotify has really started to bug me more and more. This has nothing to do with error messages, bugs or music availability. It’s because I now want my entire 200 song playlist on my iPod.
Of course this isn’t possible, Spotify is just a streaming service and the music companies wouldn’t be too happy allowing their tunes to be downloaded for free.
There is an option if you right-click on a track to buy it from 7Digital.com but if you have 200 tracks it’s not exactly the best experience for you or your wallet (songs are roughly between 79p and £1.19 each).
So what’s the solution? Would I pay £200+ for my playlist? No. How much would I pay for my playlist? Nada, I want it for free. Read More
Back in July I wrote about the battering Vodafone received on their Free Mobile Access to Facebook fan page by the sites users. Now it seems to be Honda’s turn.
Last week, Honda released photos of their new vehicle, the Accord Crosstour. So just like any company with an Internet connection they decided to set up a Facebook Fan Page to show all those Honda lovers whats in store.
Sadly the majority of the 6,300 fans could only manage to find new and creative ways to put down the car including “Being able to see this car with my own eyes really makes me jealous of Stevie Wonder” Ouch! Read More
Interesting viewing if you want to see what some of the technology and issues of mobile will be in the future.
I’m not sure about the prediction of mobile payments ‘becoming a mass phenomenon’ by 2015, that seems a bit soon for widespread adoption. It would mean the big players (Apple, RIM, Nokia, SE) releasing NFC phones by around 2012/2013 so the technology has time to marinate with consumers and allow all stores to set up infrastructure and POS by 2015. Just don’t see that happening.
Check out the MOCOM2020 site for more info.
