As I get older, I begin to lose neuroplaciticy. I get angry and confused when I don't understand things. I get frustrated when I have to change my behaviour. It happens to all of us, to some extent, and it's one of the major reasons you should design your apps in a clear and consistent manner. I've been using Android - Google's mobile OS - it since before it was launched. I now love and loath it in equal measure. Consider the simple act of sharing a piece of content. A fairly common…
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Virgin Media, the UK's semi-national cable broadband provider, is rolling out a WiFi sharing service - although it's not quite as altruistic as it may seem. Here's the email being sent to subscribers - followed by some commentary on what this means and whether it's a good idea for you to opt-out. Let's ignore them mispelling my name - and concentrate on the technical details. From September, you'll be able to connect to any domestic Virgin Media SuperHub in the country. You'll be able to…
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Google have just announced their brand new WiFi router - OnHub. It promises to make WiFi connectivity a breeze, increase speeds, reduce buffering, and clean your carpets. Nestled at the bottom of the annoucement is this curious specification. That seems... low. Doesn't it? I did a quick tally of all the devices my wife and I have which use WiFi. My phone Wife's phone My ebook Wife's ebook My laptop Wife's laptop My work laptop PS4 Xbox 360 Wii U …
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Earlier this year I was moaning about my Nexus 6. Motorola's crappy battery technology is well documented, my phone was running so hot that the glue holding the device together became unstuck! Eventually, the battery failed. It would report being fully charged, but only run for a few minutes before switching off. Recalibrating and resetting the battery statistics failed to improve the situation. So, time to buy a replacement Nexus 6 battery. Cost under £15 and delivered on the slow boat …
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Earlier this year, I received SMS Spam from Paddy Power. I went into full-on Taken mode! I have a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for spammers like them ☺ It culminated with barrage of complaints and an interview on BBC Radio 4. A few months on, it's time to see what my complaining has achieved. First up, a pretty good response from the Direct Marketing Commission. May I thank you for raising your concerns a…
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I'm currently test-driving a BMW's all-electric i3 REX. One of the options the demonstrator model has is a web browser! Yes, for just £95 per year, you can get a slow and painful browsing experience IN YOUR CAR! (Only to be used when fully stopped - or in autonomous drive mode.) Here's a quick run-down of its features. HTML5 A fairly miserable score of 268 out of 555 points on http://html5test.com/ The screen is 1280*480 with good visibility. It's slow to scroll and, even with the …
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I actively resent having a Google+ account. It's a bloated desert of half-finished ideas. Even the Google employees I know seem to have stopped using it. It's a necessary evil when dealing with Google products, sadly. I haven't used it in months and my profile tells people not to contact me there. That doesn't stop all manner of spammers from adding me to their "circles" - which, in turn, causes an obnoxious little notification bubble. Ok, so if you have to have a G+ account (for…
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As I scuttled through Piccadilly Tube Station last week, I noticed a relic of the past. Where once a dozen-or-so booths greedily gobbled up the loose change of passers-by - there now is a scar. What's the next thing which will be torn out of the landscape? Petrol stations are likely to remain - even if just as places to rapidly charge electric vehicles. Perhaps bus stops vanish as we use crowd-sharing mass-transit efficiently moves us around? Litter-hunting robots which crawl the streets …
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Earlier this week I appeared on BBC Radio 4's "You And Yours" to talk about the scourge of SMS Spam. You can listen to it on their website - or, if it has expired, I've grabbed an audio clip for your listening pleasure. 🔊 💾 Download this audio file. I've asked the Direct Marketing Associate to create a "Do Not Text" list - so that people can opt-out of spam SMS. They already operate the Mail Preference Service and the Telephone Preference Service for opting out of junk mail and ca…
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Last year, during Britain's windy season, my car was struck by a tree. I say struck. I saw it teeter and made the wise decision to accelerate through it as it fell on top of me! Terence Eden is on Mastodon@edentSlightly more detail of the tree what fell on me. pic.x.com/5fgi1zhyln❤️ 0💬 1🔁 009:55 - Tue 21 October 2014 It wasn't quite as dramatic as some of the footage you see from Russian drivers - whose dashboard cameras picked up a meteor streaking through the sky - but I thought it was the …
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The Motorola built Nexus 6 is just about the worst Android handset I've owned. The USB port is upside down, the screen is smeary at low light, the back is so slippery it spins wildly on any flat surface, the battery is average at best, and the curve of the back makes impossible to type on without gripping firmly. All acceptable annoyances in a cheap handset, but for a "premium price" device, it's just not good enough. To add insult to injury, many many many people have discovered that the…
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BlackBerry have drawn scorn from the technology world with their calls for Network Neutrality to apply to app developers. The CEO thinks that NetFlix - and others - should be forced to provide apps for BlackBerry's minority platform. Is he serious? It sounds like an insane and bureaucratic solution to BlackBerry's woes - but I'm not so sure that it's necessarily a bad idea. Yesterday, I was quoted in The Guardian saying: But web developer Terence Eden argues that Chen is “right, but for t…
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