It’s been a couple of weeks since we posted the last blog about usage and in particular what’s becoming the “iPlayer effect” so figured an update was probably due now that we have February’s usage data processed.
We’ll stick with a similar format and start with a few headlines. I don’t think this post really needs to be as long as the previous ones, more trying to keep the data up to date and looking the trends.
As usual, I completely forgot about the clocks going forward yesterday but since all my clocks (i.e. phone, iPod, PC & TV) update to British Summer Time automatically it didn’t matter and I didn’t miss the start of the pub quiz! I wonder how long it will be until phones can update your timezone when you step off the airplane. More…
It’s a widely held belief that if you buy something online, it’s going to be cheaper.
This tends to hold true for a wide variety of items. Your CDs and books are cheaper from Amazon than from high street HMV and Waterstones stores, buying train tickets from the National Express are 10% cheaper than from your local train station, buying musical equipment from somewhere like Dolphin Music is always cheaper than going into your local music store and through the use of tools like Froogle Google products you can undercut the high street cost of most household electricals.
However, beware of ordering Pizza online! The other night in a dramatically lazy moment, I ordered pizza online from Domino’s Pizza. 2 small pizzas, one being their rather interesting sounding “half and half”, cost me nearly £25 quid. I raised my eyebrows at the cost, but being as a) They’d totally sold me on the concept of a half Pepperoni Passion and half chorizo, olives and green peppers pizza and b) We really like the pot of sauce you get for dipping your crusts in I went for it.
The next day, when talking about my remarkable half and half discovery, I learned a shocking truth. Not only was my pizza more expensive online than by ordering over the phone or in person, I’d been fleeced by missing a 3 small pizzas for £15 offer! That certainly left a bad taste in the mouth, as well as a few extra centimetres around the waist!
I can’t help but wonder at the strategy behind this? The Domino’s Pizza online experience is very good and deals quite well with a couple of tricky ordering concepts and so obviously has had a lot of time and effort put into it. They are offering good ideas to make the whole food acquisition process easier, allowing you to pre-order meals, set up favourite meals and even order by text so what is the rational behind charging more for its services online?
I’m never going to order online from them again now; why would you if the experience leaves you feeling duped? Perhaps Domino’s need to have a read of the Company-Customer Pact and remember to respect their customers in future.
(Original Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/giovannijl-s_photohut/459381964/)
As a number of our customers may well remember, last year we opened the doors of PlusNet Towers to about 25 of our customers. As the event was regarded as great success, we’re going to do exactly the same thing!
On April 25th, 2008, we’ll be holding a number of presentations and group discussions which are open for our customers to come and join in!
For anyone that is interested in joining us, then there is a simple application questionnaire to fill in which can be found here. As there’s only a limited amount of space available, we’ll have to limit the numbers to 30, so please act quickly to avoid disappointment!
Peter Nixey’s fantastic write-up of his experience launching Clickpass at SxSW reads like an edge-of-your-seat, action-thriller-adventure!
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11:25am: As I shut my Mac and go to do the screencast I happen to glance at TechCrunch. We’re on. Top story. It’s an incredible review — everything we could have hoped for. Fantastic, except that we didn’t expect this for another two hours and the site’s still behind a password!
11:25am 10s: I call San Francisco: “Immad, we’re live, TechCrunch just published the story — let’s push!”
11:25am and 30s: <ping> Aral Balkan twitters that he can’t see the site — how do people find these things out so quickly?!
11:26am: Immad, as fast as ever, IM’s to say that everything’s live. Clickpass is go.
11:37am: An email arrives kindly offering to sell me Clickpass.cn. Un. Believable. I start buying other countries.
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Mega-busy today I think from all areas of the business. I think we can safely say this, since I’ve had to charge around reminding everyone that they needed to do an end of day for us. More…
Microsoft is now offering free support for installation issues with Vista Service Pack 1. The software giant insists that this is not in reaction to a heap of problems reported by many after trying to install the update patch. Several users have experienced difficulties with Vista SP1, including having their PCs refuse to reboot, installation trouble and ongoing driver support issues. More…
I read Dion Almaer’s post about moving the responsibility for authentication from the website into the web browser itself with great interest. More…
Dan here,
Wow, what a day! Is it just me or do these bank holiday weeks always seem tougher than 5-day working weeks? I’ve been pulled from pillar to post on Brightview integration work, got beaten at pool by Baz (made worse by the fact that he’s not very good!), and am also working on a business case for additional team members for our Architecture (or Archy as I call them) Team. But I know you, you’re more interested in what the other departments have been up to so, without further ado, here’s Arek’s earache: More…
I just read this article over on Techcrunch and I’m surprised.
The research showed that nearly 70 percent of online British adults who watch television go online while doing so, with 21 percent of 16-24 year olds always using the Internet while watching TV. And more adults who surf the web for content related to what they’re watching on TV are at the same time searching for products which appeared in the show (30 percent) than for the products which were advertised between the shows (27 percent).
Brits go online while watching TV. Duh. (Techcrunch)
However, I probably really shouldn’t be so surprised. I sit there with my laptop while the TV is on in the background. It’s 95% of the time music channels, but the few times a movie is watched, I have to admit to looking at imdb.com and wikipedia articles about the film! I’ve noticed that most of my friends do the same as well.
What about you lot out there? Do you surf in time with the TV? Or do you like your early evening entertainment free from distraction?
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