Philip Geraghty

Looks like its the month for losing old friends. Ive had my Egg Credit Card for year, trusty friend has worked for me all over the world. Great online interface, I’ve never actually had to phone them, so I have no idea how the customer service is.

But it now appears they have sold me to Barclaycard, I have been sent a new card and told in 2 weeks my egg card won’t work and that this is my future. Thing is, I already have a barclaycard, and I don’t use it, as I hate them and I hate dealing with a call centre which is clearly in India.

So I phone barclaycard to tell them I now have two cards. Only to be told by my friend in the Bangalore call centre, that he can’t speak to me for two weeks about the barlaycard credit card that they have sent me, and the fact I have two now is not a problem. I could not be bothered to argue, and I won’t be phoning back in two weeks.

Signed up for a virgin money credit card online, was approved straight away with a limit three times my old egg card.

Another great example on how to lose a loyal customer.

Very rarely to you find a new brand and concept that you love as much as I did with streetcar, I was a total evangelist, you could not shut me up. I was cheaper than owning a car, not as convenient, but with none of the hassle. Most of all, it was fun.

The website was slick, but I don’t remember it well, as every booking for the last 2 years was through their iPhone App, probably one of the best iPhone apps I have ever used, and the first iPhone app the I have lost. I’ve lost it due to the fact that Zipcar has taken over streetcar and is rebranding the whole thing.

Its times like this that you realise a brand is much more than the logo and the colours, it is an whole identity, and if streetcar is my friend, then Zip car is probably best described as an annoying american. It said ‘howdy’ to me when I logged in, it would probably say ‘yahar..’ if I ever figured out how to book a car through their system…… actually I would probably say yeahar if I ever booked a car!

The app is really poor in comparison, it must be affecting sales, certainly my spend has gone from £100+ a month to nothing, and will stay there. The endless 1 star reviews on the app store is almost laughable, and I would laugh, if it did not feel like I was dancing on the grave of streetcar.

So by buying streetcar, they buy a customer list, a fleet of cars, and a team of people. What they have failed to recognise is that the success and loyalty that the streetcar team have built with their customers is not something to throw away,the slickness of the iPhone app and website were really something to be proud of. No consigned to the bin.

I tried again tonight to book a car, I gave up. Maybe I will head to the car dealer tomorrow, for my streetcar is dead.

Its not an Iphone App but a web site, but it awesome.

TV on your iphone, works over wifi and over a good 3g connection.

iphone.tvcatchup.com

view it on your iphone browser, quick registration and then you can watch all the main freeview channels from your iphone. I use it a lot for watching tv upstairs in the house, and of course in the bathroom.

Amazing streaming quality on these, great service and well worth having on your iphone bookmarks.

My Iphone has behaved perfectly since day one, the restrictions around what Apple let you do with this badboy are tight and for our own safety, but after seeing a few jailbroken phone, I really wanted some of the action.
Tried RedSnow, and had a lot of problems, the phone went into recovery mode, would not come back, and macbook decided not to recognise it.
Spent two hours reading every online blog about, how to get your phone out of recovery, when I came accross one post that said just install blackrain and it will get you out of recovery mode and jailbrake your phone.
After 3 hours of immitating David hasslehoff in Baywatch trying to bring an unlucky swimmer back to life, I was willing to try anything. 2000 volts, stand clear.
So I downloaded blackra1n, clicked the button, and the phone came back to life, first with the blackra1n logo, then my normal screen, everything there and fine, and JailBroken. How Awesome.

this has to be my most used App, total intel on the status of the tube and route planning. Best feature has to be the live departure boards, great for seeing exactly when the next train will arrive, and its always spot on!
Bit slow to update sometime, loads up with yesterdays tube status until it refreshes which can be a bit of a pain, especially if you, like me, are mostly using this app whilst walking up and down stairs, and glancing at the app. Would be nicer if it did not display anything if its out of date.
The locate function looks awesome, have not had a real world reason to use this yet, but it will tell you the closest tube stations and the next trains. It also has a link to google maps for this feature, so you can guide your there.
Best extension to this app for me would be the inclusion of rail info also, living in sw19, the train is often as fast as the tube for getting around, but for that we have to switch to the £4.99 national rail app.

The cost and hassle of car ownership is a thing of the past with streetcar, through the streetcar website I’ve been able to book out a number of streetcar trips over the last few years.
So with the arrival of the streetcar iphone app, I expected nothing less than an awesome app that matched every other part of my streetcar experience. So rarely do companies get it so right, and the streetcar iphone app actually exceeded my high expectations.
It would have been easy to build an app that did one or two simple functions, but they went for the lot. Finding a car on the map is much better than a website, booking is better. I can actually open and close the car from my phone, wanted to try this last night, but was not feeling brave enough. You can view all your bookings and your payments.
Like all new apps it does need a couple of tweaks, The open and close car has a few UI issues, and the new BMW cars are missing from the search function, but I will forgive them this.

I actually found out things from the app that I never new, there are two automatic cars near me and a people carrier. This is a great example of how a good app can add so much to a business.

I love the simplicity of the website, but the iphone app is actually a better experience. Great work guys.

http://www.streetcar.co.uk/iphone/v2.aspx

Its been a year now, since I said goodbye to FB, gone are the tagged photos and the incessant need for me to check everyones mundane posts. Focusing on my Real life has been treating me well, and i dont think ive missed a single thing of use.
The apparent need for constant connection of todays society appears to be taking many more forms than a year ago, with people like myself choosing to opt in and opt out, of the forms that suit them.
My friends still email me, occasionally phone and we meet up. When we do meet up there is much more to talk about, because i have not seen their last 50 status updates, altogether it makes for a much more nourishing life.
I have lost contact with some people, but this feels natural, rather than an ongoing challenge. The divide between work and life is again restored.
My most lasting observation of my 12 months away from facebook, has been the reduction of my social contacts, but the enrichment of my life. I would advise it to all.

Toilet Text

Technology is infiltrating our lives in many ways, some good, some bad. Occasionally I see something that is awesome. Westminster council have a launched a system called SAT LAV with the marketing campaign ‘caught short in Westminster’ where you can text them to find out where your nearest toilet is, you simply text ‘toilet’ to 80097. And it works!

It only works in westminster, but it would be great to roll this out uk wide, it could save your life! I of course completely forgot about this service and ended up urinating in an alley way last night, maybe next time i’ll remember.