Once an iPhone user, always an iPhone user?
I happened to come across an interesting graph while looking at the stats which photo-sharing site Flickr collect from the EXIF data that sometimes arrives with the uploaded images.
One of the things contained in the EXIF data is what sort of device produced the image, who made it, what model, etc. Flickr analyses this in the “Camera Finder“.
Here’s the graph of the most popular cameraphones used on images posted to Flickr over the past 12 months.
One thing this seems to confirm is that iPhone users seem to be a faithful bunch.
The other thing it confirms is the theory that many iPhone users don’t upgrade their handset with every generation, but are likely to “skip” a generation – borne out by the step decline in iPhone 3G images matched by a step growth in images posted from the 4S, while the iPhone 4 only sees a small dip coinciding with the release of the 4S.
The 3GS has a steadily dwindling userbase, and it will be interesting to see if and how these jump ship. I still have a 3GS. In the main I’m happy with it and what it does, and there’s nothing which tells me I need to upgrade to a 4S. I guess that places me into the “long tail” of 3GS users.
It’s also interesting to note the Apple domination of the top 5. I wonder if that graph will look the same by this time next year?
Want to book a train ticket? Then we need to know how many children you have…
…at least if you’re UK train operator East Coast.
I thought nothing of booking some train tickets online. I even got a decent deal. I doubt I could have done the journey cheaper in the car. They wanted me to register with the site, but then, most train companies do. They gave you an option to opt-out of email, which I took.
So, you can imagine my surprise when the next day, I got an email from East Coast, which started with “Now that you’re registered with us, we’ll be able to send you exclusive offers by email…“
Erm. No, you shouldn’t be…
So, I thought I’d log into the East Coast website and check my communication preferences.
Not only did it show me as being opted in, but in order to untick the box and opt out, you have to complete some mandatory information in the “My account” page, before it will save the preferences and unsubscrive you from their mailshots.
What sort of information is it asking for?
- My nearest rail station
- My year of birth
- How many children I have and how old they are
- What the purpose of my journeys usually is
- Who else I buy train tickets from
Now, having to fill this irrelevant information in just to change your preferences and unsubscribe from a mailing list, seems a bit excessive, don’t you think?
Note that you don’t have to give any of this information when ordering the train ticket itself (otherwise I’d have gone to an alternate online ticket seller, if I’d have known), just if you need to change anything in your account.
Yes, it’s very obvious that they are harvesting this information to build market intelligence, but this should not be collected on a mandatory basis.
I also tried the “Unsubscribe” link in the marketing email they sent, however that seems to have no effect on the preferences shown in the account on their website, which still show me as opted in.
Such an attitude to collection and retention of personal data seems a bit cavalier, doesn’t it?
I very sensibly used a + sign and token in the email address I used when signing up with East Coast, which makes the email address they use to reach me unique to them. So if they are seriously cavalier (i.e. stupid enough to sell it on to a third party) then I know whodunnit.
(Another irony is that the input sanity checking in their email contact form won’t accept a + sign token, of course, while their website will as part of a username.)
It seems East Coast may find themselves foul of the Email Marketing Regulations and the Data Protection Act:
- Sending marketing email which has not been asked for.
- An unsubscribe mechanism which appears to be ineffective.
- Mandatory collection and retention of irrelevant and excessive data.
I had a quick chat with a very helpful person from the ICO helpline yesterday, about how to approach the complaint, they agreed that it didn’t seem right that one had to provide such personal data in order to change one’s email marketing preferences, and told me to conduct all communication with East Coast in writing and keep copies of everything.
I’ve written (yes, snail mail!) directly to a suitably senior bod at East Coast explaining my concerns, and I’ll let you know what I hear.
DR still in the doldrums – An Open Letter to Digital Region
A few months ago, I wrote about what I percieved to be going wrong with Digital Region, the local-authority backed superfast broadband wholesale network in South Yorkshire.
It seems that matters have not improved since then: a Sheffield-based hosting company, KDA, has written an Open Letter to Digital Region, which pretty much confirms that everything which was true several months ago is still true today, and goes on to suggest that there’s enough experience and skill in the tech community in South Yorkshire to turn this around, if only those in charge were willing (able?) to change tack and allow the community to steer the organisation.
It’s also alluded that a cut-price disposal of the network assets, which should rightly be the South Yorkshire taxpayer’s, for a cut-price may already be in hand, and that a failure of DR will be associated generally with the South Yorkshire tech industry, tarring it’s (generally good) reputation.
DR shouldn’t be the way it is – DR should be more agile than the large telcos, and find it easier to be more focused on the needs of the local userbase, but it isn’t. It seems to be strangled by inflexibility and bureaucratic behaviour, which needs to change if it’s to survive, and deliver the promise that the local authorities set out to achieve. But, at the moment, I’m doubtful that this will happen. The peppercorn sell-off probably feels like an easy way out, however much it’s short-changing South Yorks residents and business in the process.
You can read the full text of the Open Letter here.
What Obvious Pseudonym can do for your Flickr stats…
Earlier this week I went and photographed the first London gig of a friend’s band – Obvious Pseudonym (no covers, self-penned, funky disco, try it sometime…) – and took lots of photos.
I dutifully uploaded them to Flickr. Boom. Was a busy 24 hours. 
A table for 25? Not currying any favour with me…
Many of you will know that I’m involved in organising the UKNOF meetings.
Some of you will know that I don’t understand this obsession that many UKNOF attendees have with going en-masse for a curry (usually with someone’s employer picking up the tab) the evening beforehand.
What is the attraction, apart from maybe not having to pay for it yourself, of sitting at a big long table, when all it achieves is you having to yell at the person next to you in order to have a conversation while receiving iffy service of usually disappointing (sometimes downright poor) food?
It’s no good for mixing and networking, one of the attractions of going for dinner with industry colleagues, as you can only bellow your conversation at your immediate neighbours, either because everyone else is pissed and shouting, or just to make yourself heard over the loud sitar music.
Sitting in tables of 6-8 would help a lot with conversation, and probably improve service as well!
It’s also not a good dining experience. The most recent curry being a particular lowlight, when a) I hardly ate any of what I ordered because it was so unpleasant (and it wasn’t as though I’d ordered a phall!), and b) I was later unwell in the middle of the night. I should have seen the warning signs when they handed us each a sticky, laminated menu card, I guess.
While I don’t think of myself as entirely Grumpy Old Man as yet, I still don’t really see the attraction…
Diageo in the (Brew)Dog House…
Anyone who pays more than a passing interest in the world of craft brewing will know that Scottish craft brewer BrewDog narrowly missed out on winning an industry award earlier this week, due to the interference of a representative the event’s sponsors, drinks behemoth Diageo.
As wounded as they may be by what’s happened, BrewDog’s glass is half-full, not half-empty.
Had BrewDog won the award, as originally intended by the judging panel, then it would have most likely made just the industry and local press. However, this story has now made mainstream news (such as the Daily Telegraph article, The Times, the Sun, and morning freebie Metro, as well as on BBC Scotland), because no journalist can resist covering a David vs. Goliath struggle such as this.
Tactics such as those alledged to have been used by Diageo have backfired spectacularly. Not only have they revealed that they do consider BrewDog as a serious threat to their beer portfolio, but it’s got BrewDog the sort of mainstream publicity that money can’t buy.
I’ll raise a (half-full) glass to that… Mine’s a 5AM Saint.
