My Thoughts On Uber
There has been a lot of opposition to the taxi-app called Uber around the world, with London taxi-drivers being particularly vocal.
It probably won’t affect me in London, as I’m not a very heavy user of taxis. Usually, I only use them, when late in the evening, I want to get home from a station and I’m tired.
I wouldn’t use Uber though, as I don’t do apps on my mobile phone. So my only worry is that Uber is so successful, black cabs become a rarity and I can’t find one when I need one.
We should also remember that a lot of people are like me and need to sit down to do anything complicated on a smartphone. Which probably means I’ll avoid apps like the plague.
I also avoid signing up to many companies, as they just fill my inbox with spam. I suspect that if I downloaded an app for a bookmaker, I’d constantly be pestered to have a eit. I’m in control, not the company and anybody who thinks otherwise doesn’t get my custom or business. As an example, if there is an alternative to Virgin Trains, I use it if it’s cheaper or more convenient, as Virgin keep sending me junk mail through my letterbox.
I also think that black cabs should trade on their strengths, like their knowledge, their ranks and their general friendliness and jokes.
They also should make it, that all black cabs take bank and credit cards. Last Saturday, I could have had an embarrassing moment, when I took a taxi back from Waterloo. I thought I didn’t have enough cash and the driver didn’t take cards. But luckily, I had another note tucked away in my wallet.
Who Wants A $20 Smartphone?
I found an article entitled Why ARM Believes We’ll See a $20 Smartphone
This is the first paragraph.
ARM Holdings (ARMH) believes the company’s future will be brighter because it’s embracing both ends of the computing business – high-end devices such as smartphones and tablets with quad-core, 64-bit processors, as well as increasingly inexpensive mobile devices running on new single-core chips.
The future seems to be ARM
Payments To Mobile Phone
They have just fully announced, that you’ll soon be able to send payments to a mobile phone number. The system is called Paym.
My bank, Nationwide, won’t be bringing it in until next year, but I’m not sure about if I would use the system.
For instance, will these points be covered.
1. At times, I use a simple mobile phone, like one of my Nokia 6310i.
Can you just send money using a simple text?
If you can it would enable those who don’t want a smart phone to use the system.
It would also mean that a stolen phone might lead secrets to fraudsters.
2. Can you send payments from an on-line account to a mobile number enabled account?
3. Could I send money to a charity and get Gift Aid added?
Knowing the two words banks and innovation rartely appear in the same senytence, I suspect the system will be designed like a colander.
The Mobile Device Charger Scandal
I generally come back to my home base several times a day and usually I put my Samsung phone on its charger, to make sure it doesn’t drop me in it, when perhaps I need it urgently.
Not that I depend on my phone for anything important. Away from base, I use it to make phone calls, send and receive text messages and occasionally I’ll log in to the Internet using wi-fi on a train or in a cafe.
I never use it as a navigation device, except in an emergency and I don’t run any apps. I haven’t even used it as a calculator.
The BBC has an article about the lack of battery life in mobile devices today. The first paragraph is the only positive thing that it says.
The European Parliament is voting on whether to have a single charger for all phones. With shorter battery lives many are a prisoner to their chargers, notes Harry Low.
The rest of the article is mainly about everybody’s paranoia about not running out of power.
The industry wouldn’t like it, but in my view it would be a good idea. Especially, if as would probably happen, the United States would have a different standard charger than the European Union.
The real solutions are either technological or psychological.
My Nokia 6310i used to last a whole week on one charge and this should be the standard. It will be attained in the future by better battery technology and lower power chips. But then people will just do more on their devices.
The psychological route will be increasingly important. People will have to develop strategies that fit their device usage to their work and leisure lifestyle.
But simple changes will happen to the mobile device environment.
Having just lost my mobile phone at Gatwick to great inconvenience, I feel the networks could do better.
We change our clothes to the circumstances, so why don’t we change our phones? Sometimes, I go back to my Nokia 6310i, if all I’m going to do is make and receive calls and send and receive texts. But then I have the problem of swapping the sim card between the phones.
Why can’t I have two phones with the same number on the same account?
Obviously, there needs to be some on-phone technology to tell the network, which phone you are using. But a lot of my problems in Marrakesh, would have been solved if I’d had a second phone in my bag.
It seems silly, that we travel with something that is so important to our lives and no backup. You might travel with only one pair of shoes, but if they failed you, in most places you’d be able to get something to put on your feet.
I’ve Lost My Mobile Phone
Somewhere on the Road to Morocco my mobile phone has gone missing.
If anybody, who reads this can they please inform O2, as I have no means of contacting them.
A Development We Don’t Need
The BBC has just shown non-working images of a stun-gun amart phone case. There’s more here. This is the first bit.
Add-ons that turn smartphones into Star Trek-like tricorder medical diagnostic kits, Predator-style thermal vision cameras and even electric “stun guns” are being promoted at the Consumer Electronics Show.
They did say that these stun-gun smart phone cases would be illegal in the UK! But tell that to the gangs! It’ll become a must have accessory!
This development of the humble phone, is one of the sickest and pointless things, I’ve seen in some time. But of course, it appears to be legal in the United States.
I have found the company on the Internet. How long before you can buy a smart-phone case like this from their web site and have it shipped across the Atlantic?
The Daily Mail has te full story and gives a lot more detail than I would, in this report.
Is Banning Hands-Free Mobile Phones In Vehicles A Good Idea?
The BBC is reporting that there has been a call to ban hands-free mobile phones in vehicles. they also had a lively phone-in about the subject, with high emotions on both sides of the argument.
As a non-driver, I’m not that bothered, except that I’d like to see the current law enforced, as I constantly see bad or selfish driving, where the driver has his phone clamped to his ear. A couple of times, I’ve been waiting at a zebra crossing and instead of stopping as the Highway Code says, they’ve sped across in front of me, hoping that I can’t see their phone on the opposite side of the car.
But this is a problem that will sort itself out, one way or another.
In the next few years, one country, state or city, will ban the use of hands-free mobile phones whilst driving and we will have some reliable data to enable us to make a sensible decision.
One of the biggest objectors today, are probably professional drivers, who drive hire cars, taxis, trucks and vans.
A few months there was a documentary on the BBC about London’s buses. The instructions for the driver are relayed by computer, so that if the driver is to change route, it’s all there in front of them on a screen. These sort of systems are obviously designed not to distract the driver and will come increasingly common, reducing the need for the use of mobile phones in vehicles.
It should probably be the law, that all taxis, hire-cars and delivery vehicles should be controlled by such an approved system.
The Scandal Of 084x And 087x Numbers
The BBC is reporting today about expensive calls to financial companies and other institutions like the Inland Revenue and the NHS. It’s here on their web site.
For the first time, since I moved to BT in 2010, to save myself some money compared to Virgin, I decided to check my bills.
I have a tariff that allows me to call any landline at any time, for a flat fee of seven pounds a month. As I have some long landline calls, I suspect, I’m quids in on this.
But what surprised me was a fairly long call to the Netherlands cost me just twenty-eight pence. Most of the call charges were calls to mobile numbers.
As to my bank, Nationwide and my two credit/charge cards, all are on 0845 numbers, which under my calling plan are free. Not that I ever call them, as most seem to respond well to queries sent on-line.
In fact the only higher rate number I have rung in the last few months was a short call to my doctor, to book an appointment, as it’s an 0844 number. But whether, I’m charged for it, I don’t know. You shouldn’t be charged for calls to your doctor. Booking an appointment, is something, that should be done on-line.
There is an interesting point here. How many of us have calling plans, on which some or all of our landline calls free. So as we realise what we get, if companies published their actual numbers, they might get a few less customers, angry at hanging on at high cost. After all, if you do call direct, you probably get in the same queue. So you will probably wait as long, but at no expense.
The real problem is calling these numbers on a mobile phone, as I’ve found several instances of people like benefit claimants being fleeced.
I’ve Given In
I said in this post, that a Sky Satellite dish is so yesterday.
However, as I have received a letter from BT on the subject of broadband, I decided that the best solution would be to get a dish to get reasonable sports on my television.
The letter from BT is a classic, and it is only thanks to my MP that I got a reply.
Here’s one section.
I’ve been in touch with our supplier, Openreach to ask about Mr. Miller’s situation. Unfortunately, he’s currently unable to get fibre broadband as his phone line is routed directly from the exchange to his premises.
Openreach have confirmed that the Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) technology which they have deployed needs a fibre-enabled street cabinet to supply the service. But because Mr. Miller is located very close to the exchange and is fed directly from it, i.e. not via a street cabinet, this unfortunately means that he can’t have the fibre product at present.
So the solution to my fibre broadband problem, is to move further from the telephone exchange.
I am a qualified electrical engineer and do understand the technology, the problem and the solutions. So I can’t help but find their statement mildly amusing.
But I suppose to actually be honest about the problem, as BT has been in the end, after a kicking from my MP, would only chase customers away to other broadband suppliers, who of course because of my local loop problem, can’t actually deliver the product that everybody wants.
In my view, there should be an on-line database that everyone can access, that shows the phone and broadband standard and quality, that is available at every house or business premises in the country. After all, you might find the ideal building for your new offices and it would be prudent to confirm the status of the phones and broadband before you made an offer.
But why stop at phones and broadband, as it would be much better if all the other services were listed as well.
Why Does The MOD Call Directory Enquiries?
This report in the Independent is beyond belief.
I think that I last used any 118 number at least five years ago. And that was probably on a mobile, when I had no Internet access.
I suspect that the number of calls can’t get down to zero, as there are always difficult circumstances, when say service personnel get injured or sadly killed.
The Anonymous Widower 