The last proper Bank Holiday is over and the Summer holidays have come to a dismal, damp end.
I, like so many others are back to work (or school) this week which means a fairly depressing atmosphere has descended on the UK.
Luckily, I only have to work four days this week, but as this is primarily a mobile industry blog - I have a reason to be "excited":
Giffgaff are rolling out 4G as standard across their new PAYG bundle ("Goodybag") range on the 2nd of September. The basic PAYG tariff will also have 4G rolled out from this date, and this should be completed by early October.
Why am I excited? My village is served by 4G Vodafone and O2 coverage.
O2 (giffgaff's parent network) runs on O2), but O2 have failed to meet customer expectations and have only provided 2G and 4G, so unless you're willing to pay a premium for 4G (and receive a smaller data allowance), you can't get data for miles around here.
Now that giffgaff are providing a "free" 4G service, I'm happy. I have my first (bargain) 4G phone (a Nokia Lumia 635), so I'm good to go!
Since most networks don't make such a big announcement when they roll out 4G services, it is probably worth checking your area via the relevant networks' coverage maps - you might be in a 4G area without realising it.
Would you like a free giffgaff SIM with five pounds of free credit upon activation? Click my affiliate link here: https://www.giffgaff.com/orders/affiliate/terran_federation
Monday, 31 August 2015
Sunday, 30 August 2015
Amazon Fire Phone Continues to Burn
Google wants to know everything about everyone in the world. Amazon wants to sell stuff to every one of those people.
When Amazon stormed the market with their Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, many were highly impressed that the tablets were so good for the price. Of course, these tablets are very good value with very good quality screens, but they serve a dual purpose: To provide a retail outlet for Amazon's ever growing range of digital products.
Buy an Amazon Fire tablet, and you discover that you haven't bought an Android tablet at all; you've bought a portal into Amazon's catalogue of music, books and films.
Not that there's anything wrong with this.
If you don't mind stumping up £79 a year for a range of Amazon's services and products, then owning a Fire tablet used to be one of the few ways in which you could watch their TV programmes and films.
Thankfully Amazon have added a few more "perks" to their Amazon Prime £79/year services such as Prime Music and Prime Instant Video, which you can now watch on any Android tablet.
So Amazon created a range of great Fire tablets to market their products. These tablets have been available at reasonable prices, and their frequent special offers have helped to drive sales.
So, who would have thought that Amazon's Fire Phone would have been such a massive disaster?
By all means, please read Techradar's less than positive review at the link above, but in a nutshell the Amazon Fire Phone failed due to it's massive price on release, and it was only available on the O2 network at first - What was Amazon thinking? It's not the iPhone!
The reviews were all unfavourable, too, with the unintuitive interface and fancy face tracking cameras leading to all sorts of problems for users. Add to that the specifications, which were days away from being outdated by the next big smartphone release. On top of all of these problems, it wasn't even an Android phone, and it was even more of a Amazon salesman than the Fire tablets.
The price quickly fell, but this still couldn't attract customers.
Within the last month, I've seen the (unlocked) Amazon Fire Phone on sale through Amazon for £99, and I still wouldn't buy it at that price. For what it actually does, I'd still not be tempted if it was £50.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a piece about Amazon laying off dozens of employees from their research and development "Lab126".
There are reportedly other products still in development, though these could also be shelved as the company looks to concentrate on their existing best sellers such as the Kindle Fire tablet range.
According to ARS Technica, Amazon are still sitting on a big pile (a £54M pile!) of unsold Fire Phones - They will take some shifting.
The thing is, did anyone want an Amazon Fire Phone anyway? The tablets sold well because of the price, quality and the fact that they were bought as media viewers.
The tablet market is vastly different to the smartphone market, even though in theory they perform very similar functions - A family will buy one or more tablets for viewing media on, but smartphones tend to be something that customers want (or are forced) to continually upgrade.
Tablets on the other hand last for years, or until they get sat on - or your toddler spills the drink from their Tommee Tippee cup all over it.
Less than five years ago, consumers still wanted a "Facebook Phone", and former hotshot Android phone manufacturing luvvie HTC obliged by releasing the HTC First, aka the Facebook Phone in 2013.
This smartphone was an absolute disaster, even though HTC had already tried to market two "Facebook Phones" two years earlier in 2011; the HTC ChaCha (nicknamed the HTC "ChavChav") with a physical keyboard, and the HTC Salsa.
Back in 2011, both of these smartphones were pretty good and HTC was still a well respected brand, but even though people actually wanted a Facebook Phone, it appeared that HTC had chosen to try to sell something that it thought that people would snap up - Much like Amazon thinking that a Fire Phone would sell as well as their tablets.
Amazon, if only your Fire Phone had originally retailed at the current £99 that it is now, you would have had something that people would have bought and maybe progressed on to buying a bigger phone in the future - much like your Kindle Fire tablets.
Amazon missed a big trick right at the start with their over-pricing: The tech media had speculated for months that the Amazon Fire Phone might even be free, due to the tie-ins to the Amazon ecosystem. When it arrived with its original £399 price tag for the entry level 32GB model, its nauseating face tracking software and its blatant, built-in Amazon tie-ins, it's no wonder why this smartphone crashed and burned, and still burns to this day.
When Amazon stormed the market with their Amazon Kindle Fire tablets, many were highly impressed that the tablets were so good for the price. Of course, these tablets are very good value with very good quality screens, but they serve a dual purpose: To provide a retail outlet for Amazon's ever growing range of digital products.
Buy an Amazon Fire tablet, and you discover that you haven't bought an Android tablet at all; you've bought a portal into Amazon's catalogue of music, books and films.
Not that there's anything wrong with this.
If you don't mind stumping up £79 a year for a range of Amazon's services and products, then owning a Fire tablet used to be one of the few ways in which you could watch their TV programmes and films.
Thankfully Amazon have added a few more "perks" to their Amazon Prime £79/year services such as Prime Music and Prime Instant Video, which you can now watch on any Android tablet.
So Amazon created a range of great Fire tablets to market their products. These tablets have been available at reasonable prices, and their frequent special offers have helped to drive sales.
So, who would have thought that Amazon's Fire Phone would have been such a massive disaster?
By all means, please read Techradar's less than positive review at the link above, but in a nutshell the Amazon Fire Phone failed due to it's massive price on release, and it was only available on the O2 network at first - What was Amazon thinking? It's not the iPhone!
The reviews were all unfavourable, too, with the unintuitive interface and fancy face tracking cameras leading to all sorts of problems for users. Add to that the specifications, which were days away from being outdated by the next big smartphone release. On top of all of these problems, it wasn't even an Android phone, and it was even more of a Amazon salesman than the Fire tablets.
The price quickly fell, but this still couldn't attract customers.
Within the last month, I've seen the (unlocked) Amazon Fire Phone on sale through Amazon for £99, and I still wouldn't buy it at that price. For what it actually does, I'd still not be tempted if it was £50.
The Wall Street Journal recently published a piece about Amazon laying off dozens of employees from their research and development "Lab126".
There are reportedly other products still in development, though these could also be shelved as the company looks to concentrate on their existing best sellers such as the Kindle Fire tablet range.
According to ARS Technica, Amazon are still sitting on a big pile (a £54M pile!) of unsold Fire Phones - They will take some shifting.
The thing is, did anyone want an Amazon Fire Phone anyway? The tablets sold well because of the price, quality and the fact that they were bought as media viewers.
The tablet market is vastly different to the smartphone market, even though in theory they perform very similar functions - A family will buy one or more tablets for viewing media on, but smartphones tend to be something that customers want (or are forced) to continually upgrade.
Tablets on the other hand last for years, or until they get sat on - or your toddler spills the drink from their Tommee Tippee cup all over it.
Less than five years ago, consumers still wanted a "Facebook Phone", and former hotshot Android phone manufacturing luvvie HTC obliged by releasing the HTC First, aka the Facebook Phone in 2013.
This smartphone was an absolute disaster, even though HTC had already tried to market two "Facebook Phones" two years earlier in 2011; the HTC ChaCha (nicknamed the HTC "ChavChav") with a physical keyboard, and the HTC Salsa.
Back in 2011, both of these smartphones were pretty good and HTC was still a well respected brand, but even though people actually wanted a Facebook Phone, it appeared that HTC had chosen to try to sell something that it thought that people would snap up - Much like Amazon thinking that a Fire Phone would sell as well as their tablets.
Amazon, if only your Fire Phone had originally retailed at the current £99 that it is now, you would have had something that people would have bought and maybe progressed on to buying a bigger phone in the future - much like your Kindle Fire tablets.
Amazon missed a big trick right at the start with their over-pricing: The tech media had speculated for months that the Amazon Fire Phone might even be free, due to the tie-ins to the Amazon ecosystem. When it arrived with its original £399 price tag for the entry level 32GB model, its nauseating face tracking software and its blatant, built-in Amazon tie-ins, it's no wonder why this smartphone crashed and burned, and still burns to this day.
Carfest South Draws to a Close
Today is the final day of Carfest South 2015, and in many ways I wish that I'd been there. (There are some brilliant bands and singers performing tonight, including Take That, Level 42, The Shires and Midge Ure, amongst others.)
Despite being a local, I thought that I'd actually see more cars around the village than I have done, and I was absolutely gutted this morning when I heard from @CarfestEvent's rather inactive Twitter account that the parade of cars (including ~50 Ferraris) had been cancelled due to muddy conditions getting off the site. (Not sure how things will end later today then - especially since the Army helped to lay two miles of temporary roads on the site over seven days ago.)
I wish that this bad news had been better publicised, as there were people in the village turning up to watch this, much as they did they other day to watch Chris Evan's "Dirty Dozen" drive through the village on the B3400.
Maybe next year...
Despite being a local, I thought that I'd actually see more cars around the village than I have done, and I was absolutely gutted this morning when I heard from @CarfestEvent's rather inactive Twitter account that the parade of cars (including ~50 Ferraris) had been cancelled due to muddy conditions getting off the site. (Not sure how things will end later today then - especially since the Army helped to lay two miles of temporary roads on the site over seven days ago.)
I wish that this bad news had been better publicised, as there were people in the village turning up to watch this, much as they did they other day to watch Chris Evan's "Dirty Dozen" drive through the village on the B3400.
Maybe next year...
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Carfest South / Celebrity Chefs
I'm enjoying seeing the occasional car pass our home in Overton from Carfest, but I wish that there were a few more!
I'm keeping an eye on my friend's Facebook page as well; she's loving Carfest and has had her photograph taken with James Martin, Tom Kerridge and Paul Hollywood - not a bad haul of chef selfies!
Apart from this, Overton is quiet this weekend - as are the mobile and tech websites.
I do have a small article planned but I'm saving this for tomorrow as news items are so few and far between.
- Unlike the tech websites, I'm not recycling my articles throughout the week!
I'm keeping an eye on my friend's Facebook page as well; she's loving Carfest and has had her photograph taken with James Martin, Tom Kerridge and Paul Hollywood - not a bad haul of chef selfies!
Apart from this, Overton is quiet this weekend - as are the mobile and tech websites.
I do have a small article planned but I'm saving this for tomorrow as news items are so few and far between.
- Unlike the tech websites, I'm not recycling my articles throughout the week!
Friday, 28 August 2015
Carfest and Overton
Today has been day one of Carfest South.
I've been disappointed to see so few decent looking cars pass through the village of Overton.
Chris Evans you need to encourage more of a parade through the village!
Sunday will be good though: 50 Ferraris paying through the village should be a great sight!
Overton is a nice little place, but half of its population are incredibly stuck up and detest everything, yet are willing to do nothing about local causes unless they can be seen to be doing something "trendy".
There have already been complaints about the cars revving engines whilst giving rides through the village - I have yet to see ANY evidence of this.
Seriously, some residents here should move back to whichever pious place kicked them out in the first place.
I'll put some mobile news up in this blog over the weekend, but today I've concentrated on my Twitter account (search for @aiikon1).
If you're at Carfest, don't forget to keep an eye on my Twitter account for up to date announcements from Overton.
I've been disappointed to see so few decent looking cars pass through the village of Overton.
Chris Evans you need to encourage more of a parade through the village!
Sunday will be good though: 50 Ferraris paying through the village should be a great sight!
Overton is a nice little place, but half of its population are incredibly stuck up and detest everything, yet are willing to do nothing about local causes unless they can be seen to be doing something "trendy".
There have already been complaints about the cars revving engines whilst giving rides through the village - I have yet to see ANY evidence of this.
Seriously, some residents here should move back to whichever pious place kicked them out in the first place.
I'll put some mobile news up in this blog over the weekend, but today I've concentrated on my Twitter account (search for @aiikon1).
If you're at Carfest, don't forget to keep an eye on my Twitter account for up to date announcements from Overton.
Thursday, 27 August 2015
CARFEST SOUTH 2015: Mobile Networks Around Overton that Work
Carfest South 2015
This is a massive influx of vehicles and people to a small rural area in North Hampshire over the course of this August Bank Holiday weekend. Carfest (www.carfest.org) is part of BBC Children in Need and is hosted at our local farmer producer, ex racing driver Jody Scheckter's Laverstoke Park Farm in Overton.
Before you ask, it has rained a lot here in Overton this week. There has been some flooding on the roads and the state of the fields is not just wet: It's sodden.
Chris Evans' Breakfast Show on BBC Radio 2 this morning stated that the organisers have laid two miles of temporary road on the site and that the ground is well and truly churned up into thick mud - and this was just to set up the event!
Exhibitors will be arriving from tomorrow (Friday) morning, so by the time it opens to ticket holders the site is likely to be a bit of a mess, even though the weather forecast for this weekend isn't too bad.
Onto my main reason for this post:
Overton is a small rural village, and Laverstoke Park Farm is a little distance from Overton (about one country mile). The mobile networks around here are all patchy, but the situation gets worse the further away you are from the towns and villages.
With tens of thousands of people attending Carfest at any one time, there will be a lot of photography, sharing and social media updates, not to mention the usual smartphone tasks such as email, mapping, etc. So which network will work best?
If you have a spare phone and SIM card, will you be better off bringing that?
Overton has a decent, reliable 4G service on Vodafone, which stretches quite far into the surrounding countryside to the South (where Laverstoke Park Farm is located). Data speeds on HSDPA are around 1-5mbps when downloading and 1-2mbps when uploading.
O2 has 4G coverage in Overton, but this vanishes as soon as you escape the village. O2's 2G is much more patchy than Vodafone's 2G once you are out into the Hampshire countryside. Data speeds are ok, but O2 is prone to "stacking" calls, texts and throttling data if its masts get overloaded - which is a definite possibility this weekend.
Three is acceptable. Data speeds are ok, but often much slower than you would expect in large towns and cities. Calls drop often and texts are frequently delayed. Three is poor around here as it tends to give you a data connection but you later discover that people have been unable to call you for hours.
EE is utterly useless. You might just get a useable 2G signal in Overton, but finding a data connection is hard to come by and usually times out before anything can be done.
Also remember that there are very few masts around here, so congestion (especially on O2 as I have already mentioned) is highly likely.
There is a possibility that Vodafone will roll out one of their mobile network masts to such a large event, and I would hope that Vodafone do in fact do this as they are a local company (based up the road in Newbury).
Watch out for the mobile radar traps which will be positioned in and around the village - They've been making me nervous each time I pass them on my way to work.
Enjoy Carfest and all of the attractions it has to offer.
If you can use your mobile, don't forget to follow my blog here for important updates, and I will be Tweeting directly from my Twitter account here: twitter.com/aiikon1
Should you be looking for the best Pay As You Go bundle deals, then my website is here: mobile-networks-uk.weebly.com
Windows Phone 10: You Might NOT Get It
Do you have a Windows Phone running WP8.1?
If you do you are probably expecting a free upgrade to Windows (Phone) 10.
As you are already aware, this has been delayed for several months.
Early this year, Microsoft told customers that not all Windows 8.1 phones would be upgraded: Phones with less than 1GB of RAM might not run Windows 10 properly, and there has been talk of a few different versions of Windows 10 making it onto people's mobiles.
It has just been announced that there are some Windows Phones which simply won't make the upgrade to Windows 10 - namely those with less than 8GB of memory.
Fortunately, there aren't that many models around with less than 8GB, though the year-old Nokia Lumia 530 falls into this category.
I feel sorry for this little phone. It had to carry the torch for the excellent, budget, Nokia Lumia 520, but failed to live up to it's predecessor in so many ways.
The Nokia Lumia 530 is still being sold at quite a price (£50-60 in many cases!) and it really doesn't meet this price tag, so anyone thinking of buying one should really think again - especially since the cheaper, superior, Microsoft Lumia 435 can be had for £40 or less.
It looks like the road to Windows 10 is still a bumpy one for some Lumia phones, though most are likely to be absolutely fine.
If you do you are probably expecting a free upgrade to Windows (Phone) 10.
As you are already aware, this has been delayed for several months.
Early this year, Microsoft told customers that not all Windows 8.1 phones would be upgraded: Phones with less than 1GB of RAM might not run Windows 10 properly, and there has been talk of a few different versions of Windows 10 making it onto people's mobiles.
It has just been announced that there are some Windows Phones which simply won't make the upgrade to Windows 10 - namely those with less than 8GB of memory.
Fortunately, there aren't that many models around with less than 8GB, though the year-old Nokia Lumia 530 falls into this category.
The Nokia Lumia 530 is a relatively new phone, yet the 4GB of memory it comes with has denied it any chance of a Windows 10 upgrade.
I feel sorry for this little phone. It had to carry the torch for the excellent, budget, Nokia Lumia 520, but failed to live up to it's predecessor in so many ways.
The Nokia Lumia 530 is still being sold at quite a price (£50-60 in many cases!) and it really doesn't meet this price tag, so anyone thinking of buying one should really think again - especially since the cheaper, superior, Microsoft Lumia 435 can be had for £40 or less.
It looks like the road to Windows 10 is still a bumpy one for some Lumia phones, though most are likely to be absolutely fine.
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