Sense 4.1 Update... HTC One X as it should be!

OK... so just a quick update on my previous post...

Like many frustrated HTC One X customers, I couldn't be bothered waiting for them to push the release out OTA, so downloaded the official RUU from XDA and can happily say that both the performance and the battery life have been improved considerably.

Although I was never unhappy with my HOX, I did used to wonder how I was supposed to manage more than one day without having to charge the battery, and I did come across a few minor niggles with the operation of certain aspects of it, mostly coming from Sense itself. Navigating menu's and the home screen could have been so much smoother.

All this has now been rectified though and I can happily confirm that this latest update from HTC has cured the issues. I'm now getting more than a days usage from my phone and navigating around the UI is a delight.

One of the other fixes, which is equally satisfying, is the removal of the '3 dots' in non-ICS apps. This wasn't something I had noticed previously until it was actually pointed out to me on XDA. But all apps that haven't been developed for ICS (including the likes of Facebook, and many games) featured a solid black bar along the bottom of the screen with 3 dots in them. This was used to get to the menu of whatever app you were in.

As I said previous, I never really noticed it. However, now that it's no longer there, and I have manually mapped the 'recent apps' button to be the menu, the difference is amazing. Such a small change can have mass impact on the user experience and makes the HOX a much nicer phone to use as you can now fully appreciate the screen's size and resolution.

I can happily say, that once again, I am thoroughly satisfied with my HTC One X, but the fact of the ridiculous wait for this, to the point where I have had to manually download and update this myself, coupled with the fact that HTC clearly rushed the HOX out the door without sorting this issue prior to launch makes me wonder what HTC were thinking. It's an arms race in the smart phone industry right now, and more imperative than ever to get things right first time.

Either way... I'm happy with the result and am only left with one question... How long do we have to wait for Jelly Bean ???

HTC Making A Little More Sense (4.1)

Latest rumour coming from the HTC camp is that there is finally a worthy update coming for the Sense UI.

Sense 4.1 is set to improve battery levels (from 3 hours screen time to 5), fix some minor glitches with the Wi-Fi connectivity and all-in-all make it a smoother experience.

There is also rumours that users are going to be able to remap the dedicated buttons along the bottom edge of the screen, allowing us to use the (not so) multi-tasking button as a menu button, much like most AOKP roms, thus disposing of the horrible black menu bar that appears in the majority of apps and games. In addition to numerous other dedicated buttons for both the browser and camera.

I will be eagerly awaiting this update over the coming weeks... Shame it's not Jelly Bean, but I guess that's not far off either :) 

My First Taste Of Jelly Bean

So I did it, I took the leap and rooted my HTC One X.
I'm sick of reading blogs about Jelly Bean coming soon, and how well it's performing on the Galaxy Nexus, I decided I had to try it for myself.

OK, so it's not the most stable, and there are still a couple of little faults here and there, but nothing I can't live with. 


Plus, I know once HTC pull their finger out and finally release Jelly Bean with Sense, I can soon enough flash my HOX back to stock and get the update OTA.

Initial thoughts... Superb. Galaxy S3, eat your heart out! 

The new Google Project Butter really make the quad core Tegra 3 chip work, but wow! It works well. Screen transitions are amazing, instant and as the name suggests. Buttery smooth.

The other feature I've been eagerly awaiting to get my hands on it Google Now. I still haven't managed to get my teeth into it just yet, all I have done is open the app, but as soon as I did, I was amazingly impressed that it displayed local delays across trains, and roads in my local area and asking if I wanted suggestions to alternatives. That's Impressive.

That's about it for now... Just wanted to share my initial experience with Jelly Bean. I'll create a full write-up on it over the coming days once I've managed to get my teeth in to it completely.



Massive thanks to TripNDroid for this update, head over to XDA if you want to try it for yourself.

The Power Of Social Media

It's 2012, and we are well in to what we call 'The Digital Age'. Gone are the days of using maps, typewriters, stopping and asking for directions and having photo's developed at the local Boots. Every thing we do can be done at home, (or out on the move) at the flick of a button, or in most cases, the touch of a screen.

Mobile phones are more like pocket size devices which have many features, one of which happens to make calls, camera's, GPS navigation, email and of course, Social Media. 

Why Social Media? What is it that has us addicted to (over) sharing where we are, what we are doing, what we are thinking and in some cases what we are eating? Because if you turn back the clocks some 10 years, to a time when social media didn't exist, I don't ever remember receiving phone calls from friends telling me 'I'm at the cinema about to watch Jurassic Park', or "I'm just in the back garden, chilling in the sun with a glass of beer". This was information we just didn't really share. So, back to the question, 'Why?' Well that's simple - because we can.

But social media isn't just about sharing photo's, information and whereabouts with your friends... oh no! Brands are using it too. Big brands use the power of social media to gauge online interaction with their brand, to see what people are saying, see what people want and in some cases, even to monitor complaints. Which is what this post is focused on.

In the last couple of month, I have used Social Media, particularly Twitter, a couple of times to rant about my dissatisfaction at service levels from a couple of brands, but I did it in such a way that I knew the brand would see it in the hope they would take action, resulting in me receiving almost £150's worth of compensation from the 2. After all, no brand wants bad press. The brand's in question were First Great Western Trains (@FGW), for their poor train service this month, resulting in me missing connections and being late to work 7 times in one month and SCS Sofa's (@SCSSofas) for not delivering our new sofa when stated. Both of these brands picked up on my complaint and handled it very efficiently and left me extremely satisfied with the result. #WellDone ;)

So here's my 'Quick & Simple Guide To Complaining Via Social Media'

Step 1. Google 'Brand name twitter account'.

Chances are, if said brand have an account, Google will know it, and display it... For those of you not familiar with Twitter ID's, they all start with an '@' symbol. For example, mine is @Lynden2883

Step 2. Tweet Your Disgust.

Create a Tweet, this doesn't have to be Shakespeare's greatest work, and remember you only have 140 characters (including spaces), and you HAVE to get the Twitter ID in there too (maybe even a hash-tag). Make it simple, and make it instant. It's no good waiting until you have calmed down, it has to be there and then.

e.g. Really p*ssed off with @BrandName today, completely #RuinedMyDay, #Thanks

Step 3. Wait For A Reply.

If said brand have a Social Media team worth their salt, they should get back to you, and usually within a couple of hours. In both my cases, it has been within minutes. After all, that's what they are paid to do.

Step 4. Be Brazen.

My Mum always told me, "If you don't ask, you don't get"... so be brazen. Once they've replied, tell them what would make it better, what would be ample compensation for your miss-fortune / inconvenience. Don't ask for something that's clearly not going to happen, like the winning lottery ticket, or £500. But something realistic that you know should be well within their power.

Step 5. Show Gratitude... 

This is something I think people often forget. We are all too quick to complain when things go wrong, but not so quick to give praise when something is handled right. OK, so they messed your order up, or ruined your day, but this wasn't the fault of the customer care / social media team who handled your enquiry, so show a little gratitude in the way they handled it. Sometimes a simple 'Received #GreatCustomerService from @BrandName today, #Thanks :)' goes a long way, and will ensure that team, keeps working the way they did. :)

1 important thing to remember... 'The World Is Watching'. Whether someone follows you or not, there is a high chance that other people will see your tweets, especially if you are using hash tags in there too, and the brands know this also. So they want to be fast, they want to handle your problem, and most importantly, they want to be seen doing so. So use this to your ADVANTAGE!!! 

Go on. Embrace the Power Of Social Media!

A Day of Fun, Laughter and.... Screams!?

Right, off the bat, I have to say that up until Saturday, I'd never been to a theme park, and mostly for the reason that the appeal has never really been there to do so. I've never really seen the enjoyment out of standing in queues for hours on end waiting to go on a ride which lasts (in some cases) seconds...
However, my girlfriend and her family are on the other hand, the complete opposite. Regular visits to Alton Towers each year, holiday's to Disney World in Florida, Portaventura... basically, anywhere there are rollorcoasters... they are there. In short, they are theme park mad.

So when the suggestion of going to Thorpe Park came up, I wasn't particularly excited about it, but figured we were going as a group, so whatever happened, it would be a good day. After all, it was more for Sal's Birthday, as the family couldn't make it the weekend of her birthday, so we decided to do something the weekend before.

As the weeks went by and the weekend got closer, I began to look up the rides, and expected to start to feel some kind of nerves building up, but they didn't. Even when doing my research on the rides I was to expect, I didn't get that sense of 'Oh my god!'... I did however, really start to look forward to the weekend. More so because Sal was getting excited and it was a weekend with her family, which is when I know she is at her happiest.

We were up early doors on Saturday to ensure we got the Thorpe Park first thing and didn't have to queue for the tickets too much. As we got closer, I could see the rides sticking out above the horizon... OMG! These were big... You could see Stealth for miles... and they only got bigger the closer you get.

Once we were parked, got the tickets and were actually in the park, it's then you start to see how big these rides actually are. They tower above everything. Just watching them put a huge smile on my face and gave me a sense of excitement. The sense of excitement I had been looking for over the last couple of weeks.

The crew arrived and we were soon heading off around the park looking for the first ride to go on... As I'd never been before and had no idea about rollor coasters, I was happy to follow everyone's lead and go on whatever they wanted to throw at me first. But still, I had no sense of nerves... nothing was telling me 'this isn't such a good idea'... The first ride we headed for was Nemesis, and as we joined the queue the voice over the speaker said the estimated queuing time was 60 minutes... "60 minutes?... That's a lifetime"... But it wasn't... you stand there (luckily in the sun) chatting away, wandering through the landscaped queuing areas, ducking un-necessarily as the rollor coasters fly by, and actually find that time flies by almost as quick as the people on the ride only a mere couple of feet above your head.

It was only when we got to the very end of the queue, and I was strapped in, that the feeling of fear hit me... and boy did it hit me! Ha! I wasn't panicking, and wanting to get off, but that sense of butterflies that I'd been expecting (and forgotten about) suddenly hit me. By this time tho, it was far to late... We were off... 

The floor below me disappeared, and the coaster was off, ducking and diving through the trees even before we reached the climb to the first and major drop, almost preparing you for what was to come. my legs suspended below me, I decided the best thing was to just relax, and go with it, and boy... was it fun. OK... so it only lasted a minute, tops.. but wow.. the feeling was amazing.

This was the point where I realised why people happily queue for hours to go on a ride that lasts seconds... It was amazing.

Following Nemesis, we headed for Stealth... 0 - 80 in 2 seconds, then up to a height with a view which can only be described as 'breath taking', and then diving back down to the ground again and back into the finish. Must have been all of 10 seconds, but had to be the best rush I've ever experienced in my life. It all happened that fast that I can't exactly remember what was going through my head as we launched, but whatever it was, I must have screamed it, because when I got off, my throat was sore... That deep down sore you get following a night of partying, shouting and screaming. I loved it so much, I was ready to get to the back of the 1hr queue and go back on it again... But the day was drawing fast, and there were more rides to hit.

Next was Saw. We queued for 2 hours in the baking sun chatting away and having a laugh. Over this time, the ride broke down twice, and we contemplated walking away, but the ride was back up and running within 10 minutes max, and we were relieved we didn't walk off. After all, by this point, we'd been queuing for well over an hour. Saw was a different experience all together. I guess they had tried to encompass that feeling of fear, taken from the Saw movies. It was a very good ride, and had plenty of drops, twists and turns. But I spent more time trying to figure out where I was and what was happening to me, than actually enjoying it. So, I guess, it wasn't my favourite.

I think the only disappointment of the day was that Swarm broke down toward the end of the day, and we never got to go on it... But I'll be back, and that'll be the first coaster I make a B-line for :) 

Needless to say, I now have the bug and will be investing in some Merlin passes over the next couple of month's. With Thorpe Park only a 20 minute drive away from where I live, I'd be mad not to. But I'm also keen to now visit Alton Towers... I hear they have even more, bigger and better rides which I just have to experience.

     

Top Tips To Good Open Rates...

Well, it's been a while since I wrote a post for which I have no excuse for other than having somewhat of a hectic lifestyle at the moment. What with work, the gym 3 times a week and cycling whenever I can. Not to mention standing outside women's changing rooms while the missus tries on copious amounts of clothing only to buy 1 item... all this amounts to not leaving me much time to myself :) 

However, I have finally got 5 mins to write my latest post about Email Subject lines... OK, so I'm sure this has been written many times before, but you can never stress the importance of a good subject line. After all, it is the first thing the recipient sees before opening an email. I suppose they actually see who the email from, but the subject line says what it's about... It's in this split second, in which the 50 character (max) sentence is read that, the user decides whether or not to open or delete. So you have to make it count. 

So here are my top 8 tips to creating the right subject line to deliver success...

1. Test, test and test – Look at email campaigns you’ve sent in the past. What worked? What didn't? What got the highest open? what saw the best return?... These are key learning's to help you decide on your next subject line. You might find that for a particular topic there’s a general trend or subject style that resulted in higher open rates. You may even have a particular email in your inbox that caught your eye and made you open the email.

2. Identify the importance – Try and put as much important and relevant information in to your subject lines as possible. For example, if you’re sending out an email about a special offer make sure the product name and details on the offer appear in the subject line in a clear and concise format such as “25% off ACME Product – Today Only”.

3. Personalise the subject line – Placing personal details such as a name in the subject line makes people feel you care, makes them more loyal to the brand and most importantly, ALWAYS produces more opens that one without. A previous test I carried out for a large mobile network showed open rates of 26% for personalised subject line against 17% for those without the personalisation.

4. Avoid spam keywords – Most email servers automatically filter out any emails that contain spam keywords in their subject line – Words such as free, save, sale, etc all trigger spam detection software so keep them out of your subject lines wherever possible, because its no good having a compelling subject line, if its not even making it to the inbox.

5. Trigger curiosity – One of the best ways to improve open rates is to play to peoples curiosity... People like to be enticed, and they like suspense... So exploit this in your subject line... make them 'want' to open the email. eg. {firstname}, Guess what?

6. Make the offer clear – If you’re making a special offer to your subscriber then be upfront and include it as part of your subject line. People love bargains and special offers so let them know about it before anything else. However, you have to try and do this without using too much spam (tip #4).

7. Easy identification – Make sure your subscribers know the email is coming from you. Deceptive subject lines can confuse people so always try and including your company name in the subject line. Also, make sure you set the “From” attribute of your email to include your name and your companies name, such as “From: John Smith <john@acme.com>”.

8. Exclaim nothing – Avoid using excessive punctuation at the end of your subject lines. Google bans punctuation from AdWords ad’s for a reason – too much hype can annoy and confuse people.

Well there you have it – 8 tips for better subject lines in your next email marketing campaign. If you have any tips you’d like to share feel free to post a comment below.

Politics & Taxes

OK, so normally, I'm not much of a ranter... but when something bugs me, I just have to let it out. I don't know if its my Yorkshire genes that made me this way, or the way that my parents raised me, but I don't see the point in keeping things in. After all, how do you expect something to change if you don't let those responsible, know you have an issue with something.

Politics & Taxes... OMG... (that's Oh My God for those that don't use text speak)... They infuriate me... (Politics and Taxes; not people that don't use text speak). I mean, OK... So I didn't vote and I usually when the news comes to this subject, it's usually a sign for me to shut my brain down or switch over, but enough is enough.

The government whinge, moan and whine over the economy, and how we are in a dire recession (not sure there is a 'good' recession), but yet they continually raise taxes and fuel prices... and what's there excuse for doing such??? To boost the economy and raise more money.

"ARE YOU COMPLETELY STUPID?"

I didn't go to Oxford and I didn't go to collage... Damn... I don't even have any GCSE's... But, what I do know, is that in layman's terms, a recession is a general slowdown in economic activity such as employment and household spending. And why aren't households spending??? Because everything is so expensive... People can't afford to spend money.


Here's just one example...


The average fuel tank costs around £70 - £100 to fill... apart from that being ridiculous (not to mention greedy), families can't afford to pay out £100 in fuel alone to go away at the weekend, and then when they do go away, its costing them even more in food, accommodation and activities because the companies that provide these services have also boosted their prices to enable them to pay for their amenities (which have also gone up in costs)... This results in Mr & Mrs Bloggs, spending the weekend sitting in front of the telly doing nothing and saving what little, hard earned cash they have... 


So I put to you Mr Cameron... Does it not make sense, (as apposed to spending BILLIONS of the countries hard earned cash on Nuclear submarines that won't be read until 2025 and that we clearly don't need) that if you were to lower taxes and the cost of fuel, that people would then be able (and more happy) to spend more money, to go on that weekend away, etc... thus (slowly) bringing the country out of recession ???


Please like and share this post... It's not often that I actually ask people to share my work... But I really think this matters, to all of us. Because clearly, our PM is more concerned with making money for the government to spend on things we just don't need to be spending it on (such as said Subs, which are clearly a statement more than anything else and if come 2025, when they are ready, we are still in an age that requires such 'peace keeping' forces then I would imagine it will be 'us' that is at the disadvantage).


Rant Over! :)