Disqus - Latest Comments for kinchyuk

Re: Who else got that “please remember iPhone” email from Apple?

Alex Kinch — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 06:34:13 -0000

I got that email too - bit surprised as an existing owner of an iPhone 5 direct from Apple.

That aside, I think this is the beginning of the slow demise of the dominance of the iPhone unless Apple pull a rabbit out the hat with iOS 7 / the next iPhone. Take a look at the amount of self-confessed iPhone 'fanbois' that are moving to Android due to (amongst other things) a lack of innovation and evolution in the OS and mediocre iterations in hardware design.

What about the rest of us? I'm fed up with the increasingly terrible battery life, lacklustre performance of the radio chipset, and the increasing number of bugs that each iOS revision seems to bring. I've paid an awful lot of money over the years for something that I'm increasingly relying on for the majority of my day to day communication.

So, what happens when we raise these issues with Apple, either as consumers or industry types? We're met with a wall of silence - or, on occasions, our comments get deleted from Apple's discussion boards. That arrogance is all very well and good when you're the only player in the market, or are miles ahead of your competitors, but Apple are no longer either.

I appreciate that fashion is a fickle thing - but when your biggest fans start jumping ship it's only a matter of time before the trickle becomes a flood.

Re: Help: Worldwide SMS Campaign agency/aggregator required

Alex Kinch — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:55:26 -0000

Ewan - just a thought. Rather than the world and his wife jump in, perhaps it's worth getting a little more clarity from the reader on what exactly they require. They mentioned 2ergo lacked the global reach - would this be down to lack of shortcode coverage, or perhaps bulk SMS reach?

Whilst every man and his dog seems to have an outbound SMS solution to reach umpteen million countries, it's a completely different matter when you want things like long numbers, shortcodes, and (quite importantly) something that's going to tick the boxes when it comes to reliability, throughput and reach.

Re: T-Mobile and Orange merger: It’s official

Alex Kinch — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:07:47 -0000

Or as folk from Yorkshire may say, t'Orange..

Re: [Insert another 'SpinVox bashing' post here]

Alex Kinch — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:51:24 -0000

Now then. Bearing in mind that, apart from us mobile illuminati, SpinVox don't exactly have a huge UK customer base as they don't have (afaik) an operator deal in this part of the world, the interesting feedback will be from customers of SpinVox/operator co-branded solutions around the world. Think Vodafone Spain, Telstra in Australia, etc.

Oh, and then there's the operators themselves. I've spoken to two very senior people in two operators since this broke, and the same answer came back. "We were thinking about using SpinVox, but after this story broke there's no chance we want our brand - which we've spent millions developing and protecting - to be associated with a company/story like this".

Shame really. I used to be a fan, but I feel like I've been lead up the garden path with precisely how good the technology was.

On a related note, here's an interesting stat. Whilst I've moved away from SpinVox and am currently trying out Vox Sciences, since the SpinVox story broke the amount of people leaving me voicemails of any sort has dropped by over 50%. I just get lots of missed calls now. Now either it's Vox Sciences being crap, or people are warey of leaving their personal details with what they (probably incorrectly) think is a sweat shop.

I think it's the latter.

Re: O2: Fail, fail and fail again

Alex Kinch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:18:56 -0000

Just posted another update from O2..

Re: O2: Fail, fail and fail again

Alex Kinch — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 13:15:28 -0000

I think its a bigger problem than just roaming. I've just done a quick search through Twitter, seems quite a few people in the UK are having issues with voice and SMS. Have updated the article with some links. Have you had any problems with voice calls, SMS or non-MMS data today?

Re: Can SpinVox spin their way out of this?

Alex Kinch — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:57:52 -0000

I know I haven't got all the facts in front of me, and I haven't gone through the archives to see what James wrote. However..

I'd imagine James did know exactly how it worked. But why would he let the cat out the bag? In his role for SpinVox he'd be not only under NDA, but I'd imagine have his balls chopped off if he was found to be writing negative things about his (ex-) employer.

As for duping the MIR audience, there's a simple choice: Either clearly write a disclaimer stating your relationship with the company, or don't write the article at all. There's been a few times over the past month or so when someone has asked me if I could write about them for MIR, and I've had to pass it over to Ewan as I feel there's a conflict of interest due to actual or potential commercial relationships I have in place elsewhere.

Re: Can SpinVox spin their way out of this?

Alex Kinch — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:50:12 -0000

Thanks njar, nice to be back. Know exactly what you mean about the cinema IVR.

I guess we all had a hunch about SpinVox and the human element about their transcriptions - but probably gave them the benefit of the doubt and thought it was some sort of magic QA/learning thing. You know, like machine recognised version goes to operator along with original audio, operator listens and corrects words/fills in the blanks.

Dig a bit deeper and there appears to be a third world labour/human rights story brewing here. Mike Butcher at TechCrunch has already uncovered the tip of the iceberg with the discovery of the Facebook groups. Run some of those through Google translate and it's not a pretty picture.

As for competition, I'm giving Vox Sciences a whirl. OK so I've only had a couple of voicemails since this morning when I set it up, but so far it seems to work.

Re: Are mobile calls as secure as you think?

Alex Kinch — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 11:39:10 -0000

Hello Steve, Alex here. I'm sure Ewan will add his feedback, but as I wrote the article I figured I should reply :)

As I said in the article there appears to be a lot of sensationalism in the press. Whilst it is theoretically possible to 'eavesdrop' on the radio leg of a mobile call, it's not the easiest thing in the world. As you say it's much easier to get into voicemail boxes of people who have been stupid enough not to set a PIN - which seems to be more likely the case in the NoTW saga.

I don't think much more has been released over the exact nature of the 'taps' - and we might never know the whole truth. If - and this is a big if (and of course theoretical in nature) there was involvement of employees on the mobile operator side of things, or it was a real world example of GSM encryption being broken, I'm sure the operators and the GSM Association would, quite understandably, be busy with lawyers and PR people trying to stop such information getting into the public domain.

Re: The T-Mobile takeover rumour mill continues

Alex Kinch — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:08:47 -0000

Oh good grief, my bad. I meant 'billion' not 'million'! That'll teach me for writing articles so early in the morning!

Re: T-Mobile UK abolishes premium divert charges and helps HulloMail

Alex Kinch — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:19:48 -0000

Tell me about it.. it's those 0844 conference call services that kill it for me! And don't even get me started on when you phone an 0870 etc and get put on hold for ages :)

Re: New Nokia N97 firmware lands tomorrow

Alex Kinch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:51:25 -0000

Thanks Ric, have updated the article with your link.

Re: T-Mobile UK abolishes premium divert charges and helps HulloMail

Alex Kinch — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:04:20 -0000

Now all we need to do is persuade them to stop taking other mobile operators out of bundle (why when I call someone with a Jersey, Guernsey or Manx number is it so special?), put 0870, 0845 and 0844 in bundle, and it'll be the beginnings of a sensible pricing structure - IMHO of course.

Re: Volunteers wanted, must be willing to lock up their old mobile

Alex Kinch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:04:40 -0000

oh no not blocked, just locked. The keys come with the padlock for the cage. It's nothing serious, no one is gonna take your phone away for a fortnight - they'd just like you to 'lock up' your old one and try a new one instead.

Re: Volunteers wanted, must be willing to lock up their old mobile

Alex Kinch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:41:50 -0000

Helllo Lloyd,

Good to talk to you just now on the phone. Apologies again, I've put an update on the article here and at Mobile Industry Review.

See you tomorrow.
Alex

Re: Volunteers wanted, must be willing to lock up their old mobile

Alex Kinch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:40:55 -0000

Just updated this article - please see the update at the bottom.

Re: Volunteers wanted, must be willing to lock up their old mobile

Alex Kinch — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:31:09 -0000

Hi Sam,

The INQ1 is indeed a lovely little handset. Are you based in or around
London, and can you make it into town on Friday morning? I'll buy the
croissants and coffee..

Alex

Re: Volunteers wanted, must be willing to lock up their old mobile

Alex Kinch — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 12:48:14 -0000

Will somebody please think of the carbon! :) 3,372 lbs apparently - and that's just airport to airport (I didn't factor in the Heathrow Express and tube malarky)

Re: The Ericsson free laptop spam scam chain thingy

Alex Kinch — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 14:06:34 -0000

Could well be.. just to prove it's stilll not run out of steam I got another version of it today, along with a trail of a few hundred poor gullable people. When will people ever learn?

Re: Mobile Industry Review 3.0 is here

Alex Kinch — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 18:39:56 -0000

Love it that I'm described as a 'household name' in the mobile industry. As I've aged a few years since last appearing on the site perhaps I'd be more like 'housewives choice' when I start contributing to MIR 3.0 :)

Re: 3 to launch ‘£0 per month’ SIM-only contract

Alex Kinch — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:28:38 -0000

Press release appeared on 3's Media Centre website just before midday today (Sunday).

Re: 3 kill off ‘3 Like Home’ cheap roaming

Alex Kinch — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:07:21 -0000

Found guilty of what? I understand if you'd signed up for a contract, cancelled within a week and kept the handset they'd be a little annoyed - but if there is such a large change in the original contract you originally signed up for and both parties mutually agreed to cancel it (which seems the case) I can't see what they're complaining about.

Did you note the details of these companies that called you? Might be worth having a little chat with Trading Standards if they become a problem.

Re: United Mobile - is the end nigh for travel SIMs?

Alex Kinch — Sat, 30 May 2009 22:14:42 -0000

If you wanted a free plug, you could had the courtesy to drop me an email and ask :o)

Re: 3 kill off ‘3 Like Home’ cheap roaming

Alex Kinch — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:10:16 -0000

I think to be honest just a phone call will do in the first instance - quite sure they're not unfamiliar with people phoning to leave their contracts early after this recent announcement!

Re: Where is Payforit today? Guillaume Peersman, UK MD, Dialogue

Alex Kinch — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:23:07 -0000

Thanks for the feedback Mark, have updated the article to clarify that.