![Britain\](http://www.computershopper.co.uk/images/computer_shopper_logo.gif "Britain\"){kind=logo}
It's a well-known fact in the Shopper office that I vehemently dislike Apple's tactics when it comes to squeezing their customers for more money. Charging iPod Touch owners for firmware upgrades, for example, is a despicable practice when iPhone users get them free.
Now, eBay is at it again. I was clearing out a cupboard over the weekend and decided to sell a few things rather than throw them away. One item was an old foldable keyboard for a PDA, which I thought could fetch enough to be worth the hassle of listing. I set what I considered to be a fair price for postage and packing, only to see an error message telling me 'P&P cost for this category cannot be more than £0.00'.
I'd seen no warnings or messages to inform me that certain categories would be switched to free P&P, so it was a nasty surprise. Searching Google revealed hundreds of angry forum posts on the subject, plus eBay's official page detailing the change.
No fewer than 39 categories now have forced free P&P including clothes, shoes and accessories, video games, mobile and home phones, consumer electronics, computing and photography.
According to eBay, the change has been introduced since people now expect free P&P when shopping online in these categories, and it will benefit sellers because shopper's are more likely to buy your items than if you charged for postage.
This is surely a thinly veiled excuse for eBay wanting a bigger cut of the sale, since most sellers will have to find a way to increase the final sale price of their items in order to offset the loss of P&P. As one forum poster correctly observed "there's no such thing as free P&P – if you don't believe me, go ask the Post Office".
While frustrating for me, the switch is much more serious for businesses selling brand new items, especially heavy ones that cost a lot of money to post. Ebay already takes a big cut of the sale by charging a listing fee and a final value fee, which can combine to be more than 10 per cent. Any business that uses PayPal (a subsidiary of eBay) to receive payments gets a further chunk removed from the total, and I won't be surprised if many sellers decide this is the final straw and find somewhere else to sell products.
The biggest insult, though, is the way eBay tries to sweet talk sellers into continuing to sell in these categories. As well as final value fee "promotions from time to time" – whatever that means – "sellers should also bear in mind that the requirement to offer free postage & packaging applies only to the first domestic P&P option. Further chargeable shipping services can be offered in addition." I somehow doubt any buyer will opt to pay for delivery when they can get an item delivered for free. Plus, the onus is on sellers to ensure goods arrive safely with buyers, not the other way around, so there's no incentive for a buyer to pay extra for insurance when they can request a refund if the item doesn't arrive via an uninsured delivery method.
Friday, 10 July 2009
Thursday, 9 July 2009
An upgrade too far?
If you look at a lot of the announcements that companies are making at the moment, it's about how they're doing a great job reducing the amount of waste they produce. Clever new manufacturing techniques, alternative materials and new initiatives, such as the universal mobile phone charger, are all marketed as environmentally-friendly and a way to reduce waste.
You can't help but agree that this is true – to a certain point. A large volume of electronic waste is simply caused by the fact that we throw away kit too quickly.
Go back twenty years or so and it used to be that when something broke, you'd call a repair man round to fix the fault. Now, the cost of new equipment means that it's often cheaper and easier to replace a broken appliance that to pay to have it repaired.
This, you could argue, is progress. But, what about being forced into upgrading? In order for companies to make as much money as they can, it's in their interest to make you want their latest kit. Apple's one of the worst for this. Take the original iPhone, which had no built-in 3G, despite the necessary chips being cheap and readily available.
Call me cynical, but it seemed like a carefully orchestrated plan, so that people would want to upgrade when the 3G version of the phone was released almost a year later.
It's not just phones. Televisions basically didn't change that much since their launch until recently. Now with LCD, we've gone through a progression of different standards (720p, 1080i, full HD, 100Hz, 200Hz and so on), each with the express intention of making us have to upgrade.
Progress needs continue and improving technology is something that we all want, but if companies really want to bang on about their green credentials, they should make products that will last, can be repaired cheaply and aren't designed to force us into unnecessary upgrades.
You can't help but agree that this is true – to a certain point. A large volume of electronic waste is simply caused by the fact that we throw away kit too quickly.
Go back twenty years or so and it used to be that when something broke, you'd call a repair man round to fix the fault. Now, the cost of new equipment means that it's often cheaper and easier to replace a broken appliance that to pay to have it repaired.
This, you could argue, is progress. But, what about being forced into upgrading? In order for companies to make as much money as they can, it's in their interest to make you want their latest kit. Apple's one of the worst for this. Take the original iPhone, which had no built-in 3G, despite the necessary chips being cheap and readily available.
Call me cynical, but it seemed like a carefully orchestrated plan, so that people would want to upgrade when the 3G version of the phone was released almost a year later.
It's not just phones. Televisions basically didn't change that much since their launch until recently. Now with LCD, we've gone through a progression of different standards (720p, 1080i, full HD, 100Hz, 200Hz and so on), each with the express intention of making us have to upgrade.
Progress needs continue and improving technology is something that we all want, but if companies really want to bang on about their green credentials, they should make products that will last, can be repaired cheaply and aren't designed to force us into unnecessary upgrades.
Friday, 5 June 2009
Please use Royal Mail
Sod's law and poor observational comedians say that the second you step out of your house a parcel will be delivered. Nine times out of 10 this seems to be the case. The problem is getting worse as the number of packages we have delivered from online shopping increases.
The biggest problem is that online stores typically look for the cheapest delivery option and often end up using a courier company. Now, it may seem that anyone can stick a parcel in the back of a van and drive it to its destination, but it's what happens when you're out that counts.
Your typical courier company will tend to do one of three things. First, it might leave your parcel, which could contain expensive things, out in the open for anyone to steal. Secondly, it could leave it with a random neighbour that you've spoken to and then forget to tell you this has happened. Thirdly, and most commonly, it'll take your parcel away to a depot and ask you to phone to rearrange delivery.
This would be fine, but the courier company won't deliver on a Saturday and if it's during the week it could be any time on the day of delivery. More usually, it'll be anytime on the day after you've arranged delivery, so that you have to go through the whole process again.
You can ask it to redeliver somewhere else, but that's beyond the scope of its thinking and it will just return the parcel to the sender. Sometimes the courier company will let you come and pick the parcel up, provided you don't mind driving miles and miles to the middle of an industrial estate.
All-in-all, it's a pretty poor experience. So, why don't more online stores use Royal Mail? Say what you like about the Post Office, if you miss a delivery you can pick the parcel up in person from a nearby sorting office, pay 50p to have the parcel delivered to your nearest post office or have it redelivered on a day that suits you. Either way you look at it, it's a more flexible and less-annoying way to get stuff that you've bought delivered.
The biggest problem is that online stores typically look for the cheapest delivery option and often end up using a courier company. Now, it may seem that anyone can stick a parcel in the back of a van and drive it to its destination, but it's what happens when you're out that counts.
Your typical courier company will tend to do one of three things. First, it might leave your parcel, which could contain expensive things, out in the open for anyone to steal. Secondly, it could leave it with a random neighbour that you've spoken to and then forget to tell you this has happened. Thirdly, and most commonly, it'll take your parcel away to a depot and ask you to phone to rearrange delivery.
This would be fine, but the courier company won't deliver on a Saturday and if it's during the week it could be any time on the day of delivery. More usually, it'll be anytime on the day after you've arranged delivery, so that you have to go through the whole process again.
You can ask it to redeliver somewhere else, but that's beyond the scope of its thinking and it will just return the parcel to the sender. Sometimes the courier company will let you come and pick the parcel up, provided you don't mind driving miles and miles to the middle of an industrial estate.
All-in-all, it's a pretty poor experience. So, why don't more online stores use Royal Mail? Say what you like about the Post Office, if you miss a delivery you can pick the parcel up in person from a nearby sorting office, pay 50p to have the parcel delivered to your nearest post office or have it redelivered on a day that suits you. Either way you look at it, it's a more flexible and less-annoying way to get stuff that you've bought delivered.
Maintaining a healthy text life
Last night I discovered that none of the text messages I'd sent in the last week had actually reached their destination. I'll spare you the details of how I found out but let's just say that I was in the doghouse for a while there.
It turns out that my Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) settings had been wiped. It also turns out that my Amoi Skypephone S2 (aka the Amoi 8512) tends to randomly delete things if I put it in my pocket without locking it. Including really important settings.
If you lose your settings and, like me, don't want to chance a factory reset, here's a list of the SMSC settings for all the UK mobile phone providers. Please note that I found these here and can only vouch for the 3 mobile number.
Depending on your phone, you'll find your SMSC settings either in your main phone configuration screens or, more likely, in your text message settings. Incidentally, if your phone's default SMSC number starts with 0 rather than with +44, changing it to the latter prefix is important if you want to send texts while outside the UK.
It turns out that my Short Message Service Centre (SMSC) settings had been wiped. It also turns out that my Amoi Skypephone S2 (aka the Amoi 8512) tends to randomly delete things if I put it in my pocket without locking it. Including really important settings.
If you lose your settings and, like me, don't want to chance a factory reset, here's a list of the SMSC settings for all the UK mobile phone providers. Please note that I found these here and can only vouch for the 3 mobile number.
| 3 Mobile | +447782000800 |
| O2 contract | +447802000332 |
| O2 PAYG | +447802092035 |
| O2 PAYG | +447802000334 |
| Orange | +447973100973 |
| Orange | +447973100974 |
| Tesco Mobile | +447802092035 |
| T-Mobile | +447958879879 |
| Virgin Mobile | +447958879890 |
| Vodafone | +447785016005 |
Depending on your phone, you'll find your SMSC settings either in your main phone configuration screens or, more likely, in your text message settings. Incidentally, if your phone's default SMSC number starts with 0 rather than with +44, changing it to the latter prefix is important if you want to send texts while outside the UK.
Tuesday, 2 June 2009
T-Mobile Broadband on Ubuntu 9.04
I've been running Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) as my main operating system for a few weeks now. Linux distributions are often criticised for their lack of compatibility with common hardware devices, so I'll be trying out various bits of kit that come across my desk to test Ubuntu's support for them.
First in line is a T-Mobile mobile broadband dongle - a Huawei E170 to be precise. I've previously blogged about mobile broadband under Linux, using a Huawei E160 provided by Virgin Mobile with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). This time, getting online was even easier.
As soon as we plugged in our dongle, a wizard popped up to guide us through the setup process. We clicked Forward to continue. As illustrated in the screenshot below, we were presented with what appears to be a complete list of UK mobile broadband providers and services. All we had to do was select ours, T-Mobile, and confirm our selection on the next screen.
A notification briefly popped up to tell us that our new network configuration had been successful. If your mobile broadband connection isn't enabled by default, just click on the networking icon on the taskbar at the upper right of the desktop - it looks like two black screens, one in front of the other. (No, we're not sure what that's supposed to illustrate either.) Select the radio button marked T-Mobile (see below for screenshot). You should now be online.
Incidentally, if you have another net connection (such as a wired Ethernet link) set as your default, your system will still favour that one unless it's disconnected, even if you've enabled your mobile broadband connection.
We didn't need to manually enter any information about our provider, but for anyone setting up their connection by hand, here's the relevant information for T-Mobile broadband in the UK.
Number: *99#
Username: User
Password: mms
APN: general.t-mobile.uk
As you might have gathered, we're very fond of the Gnome NetworkManager that comes ready installed on Jaunty. You should be able to install it on most Linux distributions without too much hassle. Source code is available at its project site here and it's available as a package for many distros. KDE users should also check out the KNetworkManager front end.
First in line is a T-Mobile mobile broadband dongle - a Huawei E170 to be precise. I've previously blogged about mobile broadband under Linux, using a Huawei E160 provided by Virgin Mobile with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). This time, getting online was even easier.
As soon as we plugged in our dongle, a wizard popped up to guide us through the setup process. We clicked Forward to continue. As illustrated in the screenshot below, we were presented with what appears to be a complete list of UK mobile broadband providers and services. All we had to do was select ours, T-Mobile, and confirm our selection on the next screen.
A notification briefly popped up to tell us that our new network configuration had been successful. If your mobile broadband connection isn't enabled by default, just click on the networking icon on the taskbar at the upper right of the desktop - it looks like two black screens, one in front of the other. (No, we're not sure what that's supposed to illustrate either.) Select the radio button marked T-Mobile (see below for screenshot). You should now be online.
Incidentally, if you have another net connection (such as a wired Ethernet link) set as your default, your system will still favour that one unless it's disconnected, even if you've enabled your mobile broadband connection.
We didn't need to manually enter any information about our provider, but for anyone setting up their connection by hand, here's the relevant information for T-Mobile broadband in the UK.
Number: *99#
Username: User
Password: mms
APN: general.t-mobile.uk
As you might have gathered, we're very fond of the Gnome NetworkManager that comes ready installed on Jaunty. You should be able to install it on most Linux distributions without too much hassle. Source code is available at its project site here and it's available as a package for many distros. KDE users should also check out the KNetworkManager front end.
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Innovation just goes round and round
It's strange, when you think about it, how innovations usually aren't really that innovative. Take, for example, the recent spate of green torches that use a handle-powered dynamo to charge a capacitor that's then used to light up LEDs. These torches are brilliant and we use them in Shopper's labs all of the time when we're working inside computers. They seemed like an incredible bit of innovation.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I was clearing out my late Grandfather's possessions and found an earlier example of a dynamo-powered torch. I'm not talking about the hand-powered models that were briefly popular in the early 80s, but something much older.
It turns out that the dynamo-powered torch I found was in fact invented by Philips (the consumer electronics company) in 1943 during World War 2. The reason it was invented is that the use of energy was severely restricted, so there was a need for self-powered electrical lights, such as this torch.
As you can see from the pictures, the design isn't so different from modern dynamo-powered torches. Instead of a handle to turn, though, there's a lever you push with your thumb to generate the electricity to light the bulb. There's no capacitor inside, either, so you need to keep pumping away to generate light. In the Netherlands the torch was apparently given the nickname knijpkat (squeezed cat), after the whirring noise it made when in use.
Incredibly, the torch I found still works, despite spending the best part of 60 years in a box; how many of this year's 'innovations' will do the same in 60 years' time?
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Books For The Stupid
Are you stupid or something? Can't you even use a computer? Durr! That's what I used to see when looking at the covers of the first 'For Dummies' books when they were first published. They are so ubiquitous now, covering such a wide range of subjects, that the For Dummies titles have become less insulting and are almost reassuring. Or maybe we've just become used to being called idiots.
Wiley, the publisher, has recently raised its game. Some new Dummies books have arrived in the office that take the word 'patronising' to a new level. Just last week I received a copy of Macs For Seniors For Dummies. To me the title is basically saying that old people are super-thick. A regular For Dummies book isn't going to cut it. Oh no - we need to have a special, extra-simplified version for that sub-species known as the over-50s.
Not only that, but it's a book about using a Mac computer. This book is aimed at stupid, old people who can't even use a Mac, essentially. I'm not sure that these people exist and, if they do, I wonder how many will enjoy making the trip up to the payment counter with this book in hand.
Technical books, even those apparently aimed at the sub-normal, are always going to challenge the reader to a certain degree. Imagine what it would be like, when you get stuck on something, to remember that not only is the book designed for the daft but it's been written for the decrepit. I can't believe your self-esteem is going anywhere but down.
The question is, are we happy to buy books that call us dull? The success of the Dummies books shows that we are. So I'm wrong about the whole thing. Next stop: Amazon and Anger Management for Dummies.
Wiley, the publisher, has recently raised its game. Some new Dummies books have arrived in the office that take the word 'patronising' to a new level. Just last week I received a copy of Macs For Seniors For Dummies. To me the title is basically saying that old people are super-thick. A regular For Dummies book isn't going to cut it. Oh no - we need to have a special, extra-simplified version for that sub-species known as the over-50s.
Not only that, but it's a book about using a Mac computer. This book is aimed at stupid, old people who can't even use a Mac, essentially. I'm not sure that these people exist and, if they do, I wonder how many will enjoy making the trip up to the payment counter with this book in hand.
Technical books, even those apparently aimed at the sub-normal, are always going to challenge the reader to a certain degree. Imagine what it would be like, when you get stuck on something, to remember that not only is the book designed for the daft but it's been written for the decrepit. I can't believe your self-esteem is going anywhere but down.
The question is, are we happy to buy books that call us dull? The success of the Dummies books shows that we are. So I'm wrong about the whole thing. Next stop: Amazon and Anger Management for Dummies.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
