When is a feature not a feature?

Gosh, has it really been 3 weeks? I apologise. But the post after today's may explain why.

With so much competition in technology these days, and such similar specifications, everything is trying to add value to differentiate themselves.

Take smart mobile phones. The hardware is not terribly dissimilar. Almost all phones have a front facing 3MP camera, and a back-mounted 8-10MP camera. The processors they use are pretty much the same; most have 16GB of internal storage; they mostly use the same operating system. The differences are mostly as to whether you want to go Apple or Android, and if the latter: a 4” screen, a 5” screen or a 6” screen.

So they try to differentiate by ‘adding value’. Samsung phones come with a particular suite of apps which is what they say makes the phone a Samsung, and therefore they say a better buy (though ultimately frustrating). From their perspective, once the app has been created, it costs them noting more to put on 1 phone or 10 million. And as anyone who has used iTunes will be aware – once they become reliant on your (proprietary) app, they’re stuck with you. They can’t go elsewhere without losing their music / contacts / life. It’s sticky added value. In a kinda nasty-sticky way.

But how useful are they? Or, more particularly, not the app but the features?

My reason for pondering is that I regularly get prompted by Dropbox to set up auto-synching for my photos; so that when I take a photo with my mobile it automatically uploads it to my Dropbox account. The Samsung app has a similar function, but to upload it to my Samsung backup account. Facebook has a similar function too.

But the problem with the Dropbox, is that the function is very limited in scope. Why?

Storage

Well, primarily because of the limits of the Dropbox account. I’ve ‘maxed’ my free account. You initially get given 2GB of space, but can get up to 18 GB of space to share. Cool. Except that my photo collection on my computer amounts to almost 100GB. This means that I don’t share all of my photo collection, just a selection. As such I don’t want every photo that I take storing on there. With Facebook your space is unlimited; but then the photos are compressed, so it doesn’t function well as a backup (we’ll ignore the privacyissues!) I have no idea about the Samsung account. But if it wants to act as a true backup, it has to store the original uncompressed file; automatically and provide sufficient space to be a full backup. Otherwise I have to undertake active space management. Which brings me on to…

Access 

If they are going to limit my space, it has to feel natural and intuitive for me to want to access the account on a regular basis. For example, when I was a Facebook user I would be landing on the Facebook page on a daily basis, so whilst it may have been slightly out of the way to access a possible ‘uploaded but not shared photos’ page, it wasn’t as though I was having to go out of my way to open an app, wait for it to load and then perform the maintenance of deleting useless files. Or worse – having to select each file individually that I want to upload, instead of tickbox selections, or select all. Which brings me nicely onto…

Functionality

That the actual functionality of the app doesn’t reflect the use. What do I mean? Well, it’s all very well uploading every single photo that I take; but that doesn’t reflect how people use the camera these days. With massive gigabites of storage, people take 3, 4, a dozen photos of the same thing at the same time and then select the best photo to use. Particularly considering the storage restrictions on Dropbox, I don’t want it filled with scores of photos of the same four scenes, just filtered, framed or focused differently by me. Indeed, the ‘added value’ that a lot of manufacturers are adding to their apps is the ability to take bursts of photos; dozens at once and combining them, adjusting the effects or offering them up for selection. So other apps clearly know how we use the camera. Perhaps Dropbox could add further function to their app which – on shut-down of the camera app – gives you a choice of which photos you want to upload to Dropbox.

Connectivity

 

And finally, certainly in this country, mobile data is a problem. Whilst we eagerly (?) await the roll-out of 4G networks, you will still be hard-pressed to find many places with a wide ranging and stable 3G connection. Travelling is a massive problem in this regard. Whilst the mobile network providers concentrate their signal on built-up areas, this often leaves large areas of intercity transport infrastructure uncovered. Even if not, there can often be a problem whereby the upload or download request fails as you switch from one cell to another. Whether this is a problem with the mobile registering the connect/disconnect, or the app for not retrying on a drop of a piece of data, I don’t know.

Even if you do find a stable connection, the network operators often still have very restrictive data allowances which means that you don’t want to be uploading 3 or 4 MB pictures without reviewing each of them. Currently I get 500MB of data per month on my plan with O2… and I use it all. Usually by around the 20^th day of the month. I then have to buy extra allowance. Indeed, Ofcom suggests that the average monthly data usage is 424MB meaning that the 500MB is exceeded by almost half of users. Hardly ‘fair usage’. But this is – very slowly – changing as newer providers like Giff Gaff start offering unlimited data (Three, after some criticism of its marketing, offered genuine ‘all youcan eat’ data, but again has since railed back on that so that - for new customers - it is only available on their more pricey plans.). But apps are already eating up data usage without telling you. My Twitter downloads tweets hourly with no input from me. Thank goodness I don’t use Facebook any more! But at least those downloads are insignificant compared to a photo transfer. 

In what must be the craziest move of all, my mobile operator - O2 - has, for new customers, DRASTICALLY slashed not price - like you might expect under competition - but data capacity. Instead of 500MB per month they offer you 100MB. Progress?

Capacity

 

And finally, is the upload/download speed. With an 8-10MP camera as standard on smartphones; and masses of internal and expandable capacity, everyone is creating 3-4MB pictures. The best HSDPA+ signals around have a maximum transfer rate of around 370Mbit/s with an actual transfer of around 300Mbit/s. It does frustrate me how we measure the size of a file in megabytes, but the transfer rate in megabits, but essentially you are getting around 35 megabytes per second; so transfer rate on the very best, stable 3G signal should be less than a second – but that is not many of the connections around at all. Only the very very best. If you are using EDGE (best of 60kbit/s) then your 4MB picture will take around 8 minutes to upload if uncompressed. Now, most mobile signals are somewhere in between, and most pieces of software use some sort of compression; but still – if you’re trying to upload an album, that’s a lot of heel kicking.

So I’ve had to turn off a feature that - potentially - could well have been a very useful feature and instead wait till I get home, go through the album and perform a tidy up: upload those that I want to Flickr, and transfer all of the rest to my storage. A few simple changes would make the app ideal – upload over wi-fi; pending upload (so that you can select all photos and it will hold them to upload once a stable wi-fi connection is established); the easiest multiple upload selection tools; unlimited storage; the moon on a stick. This should be where a little ‘real world’ alpha and beta testing allows effective feedback and development.

Face-Off

So, I left you on tenterhooks, didn’t I? What did I do about my Facebook dilemma?

I left.

Well, I deactivated my account. It’s a further withdrawal to a place where I am much happier… but I think I may go further.

How so?

Well,deactivation is not deletion. Deactivating my account removes it from the searches and viewing: if you were to search for me, whereas once I would have appeared, now I do not. From your perspective I do not exist.

But from my perspective, the account is there, just dormant. I can resuscitate it back to the state it was when I last left it. I do not need to reload my photos, my full status history is still there, I don’t need to reconnect with friends.

And I suspect that I don’t count as one of those 2m UK users who ‘left’ Facebook in the last six months. I suspect they treat me as having fallen asleep rather than turn my back.

But it is part of the gradual withdrawal meaning I haven’t burned my bridges if I find my life impossible to lead without it.

So, how has it been?

Well, I had one month where I didn’t post, I merely viewed the stuff on my Newsfeed - which proved rather why I didn’t need it - and I’ve now had one month without it entirely. Am I getting withdrawal symptoms?

No.

I have more time to do all the other stuff. Like this, other general internettery and gardening and stuff.

Do I not have any concerns?

Yes. I worry that I’m not getting invited to things. I’m not fussed about seeing the photos of other people’s food or babies, but I am worried that certain events are being organised without me knowing.

Now, this wouldn’t be a massive concern assuming that I never find out about the event – if I don’t know about it, I can’t miss it. But there are those that I do find out about. For example, next weekend the football club has organised a camping trip. I haven’t found out about this. Now, there is an organisation fault on the club here: official club events should not be organised through Facebook, it should be done through the official club email list. But in a lazy way the social secretary has created a Facebook event which I would not have known about had there not been a discussion about it in the pub last week.

So that’s one concern.

My other concern is that people might forget about me. Not in a big way, but I have a few of my friends who live overseas who I don’t see frequently. Facebook was a useful way to stay in contact. Some of those are on Twitter, but many are not. If nothing else, Facebook gave me a prompt once a year to wish them a happy birthday. How many I actually chose to wish it is another matter; but on other occasions I could join in the conversation should I need.

I do miss out on some other stuff though. This weekend I went down to London and as well as my regular friends I bumped into some others. Some were slightly offended that I might have deleted them. Admittedly I could have handled the withdrawal better by letting people know well in advance that I was deactivating my account, but once I explained that it was me and not them, they were ok with it. And there was conversation to be had – a lot of “well, you won’t know because you’ve not been on Facebook, but …” – things such as photos of a new car and a baby. So whilst Facebook cultivates its own conversation, it doesn’t kill it otherwise, it still occurs, just originates in a different fashion.

And the pictures. We went out on Saturday night and all took photos. I uploaded mine onto my Flickr account but that meant people having to go out of their way to view the photos, and meant that I don’t get to see the ones other people took unless they want to email them to me.

And then there are the more distant friends. I saw a few of them on Saturday – people who I see once a year or less, and otherwise would keep up with on Facebook. We did the ‘update’ chat; but again, rather than it starting out with “Oh, and I saw on Facebook that you ran a marathon – how was that?” there was less prompting and the conversation slightly more stunted.

And finally, the at-a-loose-end fall-back. I was abandoned for a while on Saturday and Sunday – my friend needing a little rest. Previously I could have searched on Facebook and seen what people were up to, where they were and met them; or alternatively put out a general “on my own in Soho if anyone is available for a drink”. Instead I had to rely on texting a few people to see where they were.

But then the risks outweighed the positives and I think I’m happier with a deactivated account, even if it means I miss out on a few events. I have enough people text or email me various event invites that the effect will probably be minimal. I’m still undecided; and it may be that I do rejoin, but change my relationship – interact in a much more limited fashion after a full scrub of the information on my account. I’m not sure. It’s a lot of effort to go through. I’ll sit on a deactivated account for a little while longer and see if I miss out on much more.

One noticeable effect has been the discussion that it has sparked. People have asked me why I left, and when I respond about my privacy and security concerns, a lot of people echo it. Many have said that they have reduced the amount they interact with Facebook – indeed, my anecdotal evidence before I left was that they people whose statuses I actually cared about were posting considerably less. Some have said they are debating coming off.

Perhaps the shark really has been jumped.