TV Guide app data usage very high

Recently I had a look at my mobile data usage on my Nexus 4 phone and was surprised to see in the last month the TV Guide app had used 100MB, this was surprising as I hardly use this app, the app size is only 2.2 MB so what else was using the data, I thought this was very strange and quickly removed the app from my phone. Think it would be nice for companies like this to tell users what they are doing that means high data usage when you are not actually using the app.

New iPlayer volume control on Samsung TV

Updated BBC iPlayer on our Samsung TV this week and although overall it looks like an improvement they have removed the volume control. The previous volume control was not very good, but removing it means you need to exit iPlayer to adjust the control then go back in. It also means you cannot mute the volume. Think they need to fix this major bug.

Updating iMac to Mavericks and Parallels Desktop 8

Last week I decided to make the jump and update my iMac to Mavericks. After using Microsoft Windows for years, I was a little nervous about such a major update. The download was about 5GB, which took about 40 minutes to download, then it needed to install. My main concern about the update was that I use Parallels Desktop 8 to run a Windows XP VM machine and that after the update there might be some issues with this. After the update I was surprised how little had changed and that everything just worked fine, including Parallels Desktop. Just wanted to write a quick blog entry to say that I had no issues with this update.

How Virgin Media could save customers money instead of increasing prices

Virgin media have just announced a price increase from February of 7%, this is way above the 2.2% inflation rate in the UK. I am not a Virgin Media customer and have no intention of becoming one, mainly because they are expensive and the people I know who use them do not recommend them.

They could however save a ton of money by not sending out massive promotional packs in A4 size envelopes packed with information that goes straight in the bin. I would have thought a company like Virgin would have been more innovative with how it does its marketing rather than sending huge amounts of junk mail. Come on Virgin and do something new to attract customers.

How is Twitter going to make money to justify its high share price

Twitter went public the other day with is price gaining just over 72% on the first day, the second it dropped about 7%, but is still 50 times the value of its sales. That means that Twitter has to have huge growth and increase in sales to justify this current share price, or what will most likely happen in the sorter term is the share price will fall, leaving some investors out of pocket.

Twitter should look at how it can increase turnover and usage, to justify the share value. A lot of people I know have tried twitter and have not got on with it and don't understand it, I can see there point of view and I only use twitter to tweet articles that I like. Maybe they need to promote twitter and make people realise it is not just for following people you know and minor celebs, but could be for following music bands or companies that give useful information. On that point I do find the problem with twitter is the amount of rubbish tweets that appear, maybe there should be a way to filter out tweets and only receive tweets other users have found useful by a rating method.

It will be interesting to see what happens over the next few years with how twitter changes to make money and whether people will keep using it.

Why is Google Nexus 5 an LG phone?

The new Google Nexus 5 is due to be released soon, but why is LG making the phone when Google own Motorola. It sounds like Motorola are planning to also release a new phone, that will allow users to customise the phone by adding different components like cameras and keyboards. This sounds like an exciting development and look forward to see how this Lego smart phone will work. But it does seem a bit strange that Google is using LG to make their new phone, it could relate to resources and that Motorola currently cannot produce a phone to the quantities that Google would like, or maybe Google has a contract with LG for making the new Nexus 5.

Has the cloud really caught on

I have just been thinking about new technologies and what a few years ago was going to be the next big thing, the cloud. It seems that everyone has heard of it and most individuals and businesses have looked at what it offers, but few people have really embraced it.

From an individuals perspective I use dropbox and google for some online storage, but I have not moved all my data to the cloud and don't feel the need to. Part of me likes the idea that I own my data and have it close to me, and that if I lose the connection to the net I still can use programs and have all my photos and videos. Another problem with the cloud is not the cheap option, it can cost over £5 a month to store a reasonable amount of data, compared to an external 1TB hard drive that I can buy for less than £60.

From a business perspective it is also too expensive at the moment and you certainly need to have confidence in the hosting company. I do however think more and more companies will move to hosted services and that the price will start to come down.

In conclusion I don't think cloud storage has caught on the way people first thought, however over time with the amount you can store going up and the price coming down, more people and businesses will move in the online storage direction.

Owning a Nexus 4 after 6 months

I have now had my Nexus 4 for over 6 months, when I first received it I was impressed with what you got for the money. But here are some points about it after owning one:

1. It sometimes switches itself off when there is loads of power and to switch it back on you need to connect it to a charger.
2. Battery life has improved over time, this might relate to switching NFC off and the latest update of Android.
3. Updating Apps sometimes removes them from the main screen and you have to add them back, this might be an Android problem.
4. After updating some apps the icon gets removed and you have to remove the app from the front screen and add it back in. Possibly another Android problem.
5. Android is not as nice to use a iOS.