Ramped up Roaming, Google inaccuracies and famine at Facebook...
Number One on the agenda ladies
and gentlemen is roaming charges – Grrrrr. So this was the week that 02
announced it would ramp up international calling (and ergo data) charges
outside of Europe. Seethe; as if we weren’t charged enough!!
During the summer the European Commission stepped in to protect
consumers by capping roaming charges within the EU – in effect slashing charges
levied by phone companies by up to 75 percent. But as the announcement by O2
highlights, there are no controls on roaming charges levied outside of Europe!
O2 will more than double the amount its customers will be have
to pay to send and receive calls and text messages from countries such in North
America, Asia and Africa.
The following is a statement from Tomas Mendoza, Managing
Director of Tep Wireless.
“O2 is doing this simply because it can. The roaming market is
now regulated within European mobile operators – but there is no
cross-continental regulation or body with jurisdiction. It’s the ‘wild west’
where phone operators can charge what they want.”
Another example of Dollar Voting ladies and gentlemen – just walk
away or find yourself the weakest link in the scourge of the 2400% profit margin.
Now that can’t be good for web lovers worldwide. Shame on you O2.
HALLOWEEN!
Last night was the night that
Cyber girl decided to go to the cinema ladies and gentlemen. Yes with Halloween
on the agenda, it was time for a short sharp, shocking burst of Paranormal Activity
Four! Off we went (the date and I), confident in the fact that the film (at
Fulham Broadway in case you were wondering) was at 9pm. Luckily no diet coke or
extortionately expensive popcorn had been bought, because SHOCK HORROR (and
extended drumroll) – Google was wrong! Yes the world’s greatest search engine
had made a mistake! Now this may have been a freak accident, but it did rather
dampen my spirits – not to mention ‘the date’ – why? The next showing wasn’t
till 11pm! In the words of Dave, our trusty popcorn technician ‘Nahhh, don’t
look at Google – only site that’s accurate is Odeon’s Own’ – there it is, we
couldn’t have put it better ourselves.
Now for note two – Cybergirl has
noticed a trend of late in the domain of the face and the book. Yes people may
not be logging off in their droves (the accounts are still well and truly
active) – but there’s a serious drought sweeping its way across that dry blue
landscape. No one’s updating – and if they are it’s few and far between. Is it
age? Is it boredom? (Cybergirl has hit her thirties now – double shock
horror...) and the photos? Where have they all gone!? The last time Cybergirl
updated a photo it was well over seven months ago? Why – Privacy. Yes I know
there are filters – I know I can loop in just ‘close friends’ but who has the
time to upload a photo anyway? Two minutes and thirteen seconds to upload five
photos, then there’s the tagging, the labeling and the posting. All of a sudden
it just all seems too much hassle. Still incredibly useful for, hmmm finding
flatmates, posting a question, and errr keeping track of your address book, but
seriously is FB going the way of (drumroll) A Small World? Enough said.
Number Three! Sparrow. Now for
those of you using this mail app – it needs no explanation, for those of you in
the dark, well it was a wondrous improvement on the decaying workhorse that
is/was Apple Mail. It was all glittery, all shiny, simplicity itself... But
then it went and got bought by Google (eat the competition perchance?) and resigned
itself to the fact that there will quite liably be no more updates. But then
again Cybergirl had fallen out of love with Sparrow since it went and started
saving Cybergirl’s emails and NOT SENDING THEM. Only for them to pop out three
days later causing untold havoc and confused rumblings from a number of work
colleagues and aquaintances. ‘But I thought you said....’ ‘Sorry you want this
now?’ – you get the picture. Alternatives to Sparrow include: Postbox (Windows
and OSX – great value), Mailplane (ooh quite good actually), Emailganizer
(design isn’t brilliant, but there are tons of brilliant features), Mailmate (free
trial – natch) and Mailpilot (reimagine email)... Choose your poison and check
your prices – not all replacement apps are free. But ahh what a relief there’s
an alternative to Mail.
October 2012.
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