I helped her (in a small way) by creating a blog to record her experiences and notify others of the problems with complaining about Axa Health.

The latest I hear is that Axa are now delaying the ombudsman process so let’s hope that the blog can remind the company of its duties to protect its reputation better than it cared for this customer.

No related posts.

1. Terrible for classical music
Ok, so this isn’t exclusively the fault of the iPhone but Apples in general. iTunes is terrible for navigating through classical music. You’d normally search by composer but two pieces by Beethoven might be filed differently (under Ludwig or Beethoven). It doesn’t handle movements properly and gives unintuitive prominence to conductors and orchestras. And of course having classical pieces renders the shuffle function useless.

2. Reception
I’ve gotten used to having no reception at home – it’s always been a problem for o2 in Hackney. But what’s really frustrating is the wait to use the phone after coming out of an area of no reception. I had a 6 minute wait after exiting Liverpool Street last night before I could tell the nanny that I’d be late. And then it’s slow telling you there’s no reception. You can be on the tube and the display says you can make a call.

And it’d be easier to live with if the phone worked through wifi. Being able to browse but not call is bizarre for a phone.

3. No draft text messages / outbox
Because of the reception problems it’s all the more important that when you have none you can write an SMS, press send and know that when you have coverage it will go – like phones do. iPhones don’t. And as nice as the forward feature is, nothing beats a serviceable queue.

4. Auto capitalisation
After three months I still haven’t got used to the auto capitalisation feature. When you write something, delete and the press space, caps lock turns on. I can’t imagine ever finding that more useful than not. And don’t get me started on the auto contraction of its to it’s.

5. One sync lead
You get a plug and a lead when you get the iPhone. The plug will charge it with the lead and you can also use the lead to sync with you computer or play the phone through the stereo. Which means when you really need to charge the under- performing battery, you’ve never got the bits you need. Just one more sync lead would do it – or using a USB at both ends of the device. Come on Apple, don’t be cheap: I’ve bought a premium device.

6. Auto rotating
The auto rotating feature just doesn’t work properly – never has. It’s meant to rotate the display when you hold it horizontally. It does, but infrequently. And of course if you are using your phone whilst on the move, it does when you don’t want it.

7. Cut and paste
I’m really pleased that my iPhone has cut and paste functionality. And I can swallow not being able to use two applications simultaneously. But what’s really frustrating is not being able to cut and paste comprehensively. For example, if I want to put in my contacts the number of someone who’s just called me, I shouldn’t have to find a pen. And if I copy a phone number from webmail it would be nice to be able to paste it into an SMS.

8. The keyboard
I’ve got pretty useful fingers thanks to 25 years of playing the Cello. But even that isn’t sufficient for more than 60% accuracy on the phone. And the constant revert to querty is annoying if you are entering a number with spaces. That doesn’t fill me with excitement for the ipad (which the iPhone auto corrects as upas – go figure).

9. Done, Go, Login
When entering a password on a website you sometimes have as many as three options: done (top right in blue) go (on the keyboard) and login (on the browser). Only one of them has the desired affect whilst two others mean you have to re-enter your password, frustrating when it’s 11 digits.

10. No flash
Ok, so maybe developers shouldn’t use flash. But I miss out on vital news like Rafa’s teamsheet the minute it’s printed, simply because the lead story is published in flash.

This dull moan isn’t meant to be a damning indictment of Apple. But I’ve bought a premium product which needs work. And it’s only been revised once in 3 years (the 3gs).

The launch of the ipad is a useful reminder that Apple is great for first movers but once the company moves onto The Next Big Thing consumers of older products get left behind. If it was made by Nokia we’d be on version 7140 already.

No related posts.

1. No more generic digest
Instead of a daily email digest, you can see all of the submissions here: http://delicious.com/bloggerscircle
These will be tagged with keywords so that you can filter the submissions according to what is most relevant for your blog. I hope this can help grow the circle whilst keeping it relevant to your interests.

2. A discussion group
We’ve created a discussion group to debate ideas and posts and so you can collaborate with other bloggers more easily. It’s all available here: http://groups.google.com/group/bloggerscircle where you can submit your posts to the monthly digest, discuss themes / ideas for new blogposts and share ideas on how to improve your blog. I hope this will lead to a better sense of community rather than shouting into an email blackhole.

3. Blog of the week
We’d like to try a ‘blog of the week’ competition. To vote, just email your favourite post, putting the web address in the subject of your email, and email it to debate@bloggerscircle.net. The blog of the week will receive a small prize and be circulated to all the members. I hope this will encourage people to continue to take part.

So, what do you need to do?
1. If you want to submit your post, you can email me as before or post it in the forum: http://groups.google.com/group/bloggerscircle

2. Please vote for your favourite post of the week

3. Add http://delicious.com/bloggerscircle to your favourites so you can keep abreast of the debate

. . . . And if this doesn’t work for you, let me know.

Related posts:

1. Bloggers Circle 2 months on
2. Bloggers Circle: week one assessment
3. bloggers circle: month 1 assessment

Confessions of an Ojibwe
A member of Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba, Canada, Made a pledge of the Ogichidaa to help Indians in a manner that I can, I am currently trying to climb out of the black hole of depression, for now I pretend to be happy, funny, I am happy to be a Dad a Granpa, a Husband, a Son, a Relative, a friend and not least an Indian.

The DYDA DISPATCHES
Lots of graphics and video. Simon Dyda: A member of Plaid Cymru and EFA, I make superficial and sarcastic remarks about Welsh and EU politics. Superficial sarcasm is the new Zen.

Jennie Rigg
My motor is stalled, but my wheels are still spinning. You’ll notice that there isn’t much biographical detail in my profile. That’s because I’m firmly of the opinion that I am too fantastic and amazing to get to know in a few little soundbites. I’m thirty-one years old, mother to amazing_holly ? and engaged to be married to matgb ?, Press and Communications officer for my local Lib Dems, an inveterate blogger, and I have LOTS of things that I like to geek about.

Duncan Stott
Intermittent headblurts, mainly about liberalism and democracy. I get particularly wound up about immigration, drugs, and unfair elections.

Eric Joyce
I am an MP and I like to share my ideas: I blog about stuff in the House of Commons

Chun Han Wong
An attempt at satirical commentary on current affairs and the media.

Nick Barlow
I write about whatever happens to catch my magpie-like attention, be it politics, books, TV, or anything else going on that’s interesting. I’m a Liberal Democrat councillor for Castle Ward in Colchester, so I throw the occasional bit of local politics into the mix too.

Jeremy Swain
I’m the Chief Executive of a major homelessness charity and my blog is intended to show the human side of being a CEO as I try and wrestle with leading an organisation with a turnover of £20 million in a business-like way and stay true to the 5,000 homeless people we support. Humiliation and mistakes as well as more general musings are part of this blog which is now syndicated to Charity Finance magazine.

Catherine Shovlin
The Thinking Tank is a thinktank turned on its head. Drawing on wisdom of the crowds theory to give volume to the voice of the people

Luciana Berger
My blog is about all things political, Labour, co-operative, St Pancras and Somers Town, film and other musings.

Related posts:

1. New members join the Bloggers Circle
2. Bloggers Circle 2 months on
3. New joiners to the Bloggers Circle

An analysis of his blog during September, revealed the following issues and phrases most likely to emerge in his writing – a healthy mix of the things that really matter to the people of Bickerstaffe ward and the wider issues of interest to other bloggers in the circle.

And to quote Paul out of context, I found a number of delicious quotes on his blog, including:

• “It’s important, I contend, to set out the emerging debate within an appropriate epistemological framework, and to take a considered view on the extent to which the debate is ontologically ’real’, and to set this against the claim that it is a ’social reality’ effectively manufactured by the hegemonic forces of capitalism eager to ‘alienate’ the working classes from an appreciation of their true objective interests.”
• Just how stupid are rightwing bloggers?
• I just thought I’d stick up the content of this letter to Dickets Lane/Wigan Road residents as it’s not got indivudual information in, and is a bit too long to regurgitate in a leaflet, so i’ll just link to it with the clever tinyURL thigummy

Paul was also kind enough to answer some questions I asked, in order to get a better idea of how he does it.

1. Tell us about your blog in a soundbite
A blog about local politics in West Lancashire which keeps getting distracted by other matters

2. How long have you been blogging?
I had a false start sometime 2007, but finally got regular about it by about July 2008, and haven’t looked back since. Or is that looked up since?

3. What do you think is your best ever post and why?
Tricky one.

I think I’ll have to go for my long post about now my local Conservative council develops an image of itself at odds with reality, and how an imposition of its own version of reality must be challenged, but must first be recognised for what it is.  I only started reading proper, serious books about 6 or 7 years ago, and it was the first time I really felt I had been able to bring my newly acquired theoretical perspectives around ‘critical realism’ to bear on a practical issue in such a way that I was more confident about what day-to-day political approach I need to take as a Labour councillor in a Conservative controlled area.  I was dead chuffed.  I’m doing a post at the moment on ‘The epistemology of decent journalism’ which calls on much of the same ideas, but develops them further, so what goes around comes around.

See Awards ceremonies, management beliefs, power relations, and the critically realist path of the righteous left

4. How often do you blog?
Pretty well every night, when everyone in the house has gone to bed.

5. Tell us how you find the time
Less sleep. I usually blog in the hours after midnight.  I used to read novels then.  I’ve stopped.

6. What keeps you going?
I find writing stuff down in a blog helps me clarify my own thinking about stuff, as well as – from a practical point of view – getting stuff down which is often cut and paste into newsletters and other local correspondence.

I also like to comment on other people’s blogs quite a lot, because I think it’s important that blogs engage rather than simply become rants from a small dark room.  I think there’s a lot of hope for the blogosphere generally as an alternative to the control exerted by the mainstream media giants, and I’m keen to support that in my own little way.

7. What’s a good day, in terms of traffic to your blog?
I’m afraid I have no idea.  I don’t bother with what I’ve seen referred to as ’statporn’.  My mate Steve, who understands these things, did set up google analytics for me but I’ve lost it.

8. What would you like to achieve with your blog?
The success of the blog itself is unimportant, and in fact I’ve started to move a lot of my ‘wider’ writing to Though Cowards Flinch’ in order to ‘get back local’ with the Bickerstaffe Record.  Through my blogosphere engagement, though, I have come to realise (and have been told by friendly others) that I do know a thing or two about things, and can write reasonably well, and I can now see doors opening to making a bit of a living (though only a bit) in some kind of ‘engaged journalism’/'radical publishing’.  I’m quite old, and it’s a bit late for a career change, but engagement with people in the blogopshere (and especially engagement with young people who take my on my own terms rather than see me as a dull middle-aged fart) is potentially opening up some really interesting doors for me in my increasingly radical dotage.

9. What’s the best piece of advice you can give?
Always try to respond to commenters, who like to see comments back.  They didn’t just comment into the ether. They commented in order to engage and they deserve the courtesy of a response.  It also means they’ll visit the site again.

Never abuse people personally, and try to be as respectful to people as you would be if you met them in real life, however much you disagree with them. This applies to everyone except Tom Harris MP, who should be abused as much as possible for his writings, views, personality, and personal hygiene.

Am I allowed two? I am quite old and prone to handing out advice whether people want it or not.

10. Tell us how a blogpost gets your attention?
If it’s clear from the start that the post is either going to offer a point of view on something i’ve not seen before, or is going to give me new, originally sourced information.  Conversely, I’m put off by articles that simply link to other pieces of commentary and regurgitate/synthesize what’s been said there.  That’s with the exception of Vino S, who simply gives a two or three line abstract and invites the reader to look at the original, and doesn’t try to make his post a commentary about commentary.

Related posts:

1. Meet the blogger: Joe Nutt
2. New members join the Bloggers Circle
3. 3 changes to the Bloggers Circle