DigitalOutbox Episode 126
DigitalOutbox Episode 126 – O2 Outage, Samsung, KickStarter and Yodel
Playback
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Shownotes
1:54 – O2 Outage
– Started on Wednesday 11th
– Affected up to ⅓ of customers – around 7 million in total (they have 23 million customers)
– O2 customers found they were unable to make calls or send and receive text messages from about mid-afternoon on Wednesday. The disruption continued throughout the night and into Thursday morning.
– Some O2 customers who were not affected yesterday also claimed to have been disrupted on Thursday, in a sign that the network outage spread further overnight.
– O2 is the UK’s second-biggest mobile network and provides services to customers of Tesco Mobile and giffgaff, who were also affected by the prolonged disruption.
– Lasted around 24 hours
– Switching off 3g this morning resolved the issue for many
– Fully restored late this afternoon
– The UK’s second largest mobile network is now facing an investigation by telecoms regulator Ofcom into what caused the downtime and is likely to have to pay compensation to customers affected by the blackout.
– Pity the social media team dealing with complaints on twitter
6:21 – Samsung wins latest patent dispute
– Samsung won a victory over Apple in the UK high court as part of its world-spanning battle over intellectual property and design after a judge ruled the design of its Galaxy Tab isn’t cool enough to be confused with an iPad.
– The ruling, by Judge Colin Birss, means that Apple cannot stop the import or sale of the Galaxy Tab 10 under claims it has made that the designs are too close to those of the iPad.
– Instead, Judge Birss ruled that Samsung’s designs did not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design: “They are not as cool.”
– He noted distinctions such as the thickness and details on the backs of the devices in his ruling. “The informed user’s overall impression of each of the Samsung Galaxy Tablets is the following,” he said in his ruling. “From the front they belong to the family which includes the Apple design; but the Samsung products are very thin, almost insubstantial members of that family with unusual details on the back. They do not have the same understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design. They are not as cool. The overall impression produced is different.”
– Apple has been given 21 days to appeal against the decision.
– In a statement, Samsung said the judgement confirmed its assertion that it did not infringe Apple’s design rights.
– “Samsung welcomes today’s judgment, which affirms our position that our Galaxy Tab products do not infringe Apple’s registered design right,” it said. “As the ruling proves, the origins of Apple’s registered design features can be found in numerous examples of prior art.
– “Should Apple continue to make excessive legal claims in other countries based on such generic designs, innovation in the industry could be harmed and consumer choice unduly limited.”
9:08 – Windows 8 Launch Date
– RTM in August, general release in October
– Slate from Intel – Jan 2013
9:44 – Dropbox doubling pro accounts
– Good news for Dropbox Pro users: Starting today, you’ll have twice the amount of storage space, for the same cost. Instead of 50GB, you’ll have 100GB to play with; instead of 100GB, it’ll be 200GB of space. You also can send others a 100GB 3-month trial for the online sharing and syncing service.
– So 100GB for $100 a year, 200GB for $200
– A new 500GB plan will also be offered for those who really need a lot of online storage space.
12:02 – Kickstarter coming to the UK
– It is the US-based crowdfunding website behind dozens of eclectic projects, including a $1m-backed fantasy webcomic and an unlikely brand of “rugged yet refined” men’s underwear.
– Now the site, Kickstarter, is to open in the UK, allowing British startups to solicit donations from the potential buyers among the public that could help get their projects off the ground.
– Kickstarter has already proved a remarkable success in the US. Since 2009, its users have helped fund more than 60,000 projects with nearly $280m, ranging from digital innovations to campaigns involving movies and photography. The site makes its money by levying a 5% fee on any projects that reach or exceed their funding target.
– So far seven projects – such as a visual-music project and a collection of “e-paper” watches called Pebble – have managed to raise more than $1m.
– Kickstarter confirmed in a tweet on Tuesday that it will be open to UK-based projects this autumn. “People in the UK will be able to launch projects on Kickstarter starting this autumn! More info soon! <3 <3 <3," the site said.
15:39 – Ouya – the android gaming console
– OUYA is a new game console for the TV, powered by Android and costing $99.
– We’ve packed this little box full of power. Developers will have access to OUYA’s open design so they can produce their games for the living room, taking advantage of everything the TV has to offer.
– Best of all, OUYA’s world-class controller, console, and interface come in one beautiful, inexpensive package. All the games on it will be free, at least to try.
– Specifications:
Tegra3 quad-core processor
1GB RAM
8GB of internal flash storage
HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth LE 4.0
USB 2.0 (one)
Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
Android 4.0
– Another kickstarter hit – over $3 million with over 20 days to go
19:49 – Amazon launches GameCircle
– Amazon has just announced a bit of good news for avid Kindle Fire gamers and developers — the company has been working to revamp the gaming experience on their wallet-conscious tablet and have decided to share the fruits of their labor.
– Starting today, developers can use Amazon’s GameCircle APIs to implement a host of new features in their Kindle Fire games. Considering how many other console and mobile gaming platforms already support them, it should come as no surprise that support for achievements is on that list of features. Also on deck is leaderboard functionality, which allows users to see how they stack up to their rivals without having to pop out of the game in question.
– So far, it all sounds very Game Center-y (though Amazon could do worse than to take cues from Apple), but GameCircle has one last trick up its sleeve. Perhaps the most immediately impressive feature is GameCircle’s sync functionality, which automatically saves a player’s progress to the cloud. As such, players are able to pick up where they left off even if they’ve had to re-install the game in question or switch devices.
22:38 – Yodel threatened to sue Twitter
– Home delivery firm Yodel, which handles packages for Amazon, Currys, Boots and O2 among others, has asked Twitter to delete dozens of critical tweets and accounts that it claims are defamatory and “constitute a serious libel”.
– Yodel’s lawyers, Weil, Gotshal & Manges, wrote to Twitter on May 9 threatening legal action if the tweets were not removed. It claims the statements in the tweets are “entirely false” and it includes a list of tweets that it wants removed.
– Yodel, formerly known as the Home Delivery Network, has been repeatedly criticised by customers awaiting packages and its reputation has taken a battering online and on TV after it was the subject of a BBC Watchdog programme
– The list of tweets that Yodel provided to Twitter typically include those hitting out its failure to deliver on time, lost parcels and advice to others not to use the deliver service. Many are disparaging while others are humorous but don’t strike me as particular libellous.
– Yodel appears to be using heavy handed legal tactics in an attempt to silence dozens of online critics – hardly a step that is likely to endear it to customers or a step in the right direction when it comes to customers service.
– Some of the tweets Yodel wanted deleted simply call on Yodel to fix its customers service. Others tell of horror stories similar to the one suffered by Claire Jolly.
– Many of the tweets still seem to be online while others appear to have disappeared. Yodel in its letter also asked that a parody account, @NotYodel, and another Twitter account @HDNL (the name by which Yodel previously went by before rebranding) be removed. Both accounts are no longer active and appear to have been taken down by Twitter.
– Weil, Gotshal & Manges claimed that it has been proven that the existence of these Twitter accounts “”over a substantial period of time, that the existence of these pages serves as a platform for such defamatory statements to be made against our client”.
– In a statement Twitter says it doesn’t “comment on actions taken around specific accounts or Tweets” and offered no comment on the Yodel letter.
Picks
Ian
Google+ for the iPad
– Fantastic update to the app to support iPad
– photo’s and video’s look amazing
Tweetbot for Mac
– Alpha release
– Free but will be a paid app upon release to the App store
– Despite missing features it’s my default client on the Mac