Midweek Q&A

My goodness, hasn't the week flown by! I am working on a number of articles in the background but they're not quite ready so I'm glad there is an opportunity to share some techie goodness in this column.

This week I caution that the Curl Secret is designed for medium to long hair, talk about the mechanics of iPhone call recording and why that's not as easy as it sounds, pin down the right running app for a specific distance, and talk about work-related stuff.

Caitlin: Riddle me this Gadget Girl... I need an app which can track my 2.4km runs. Nike+ can only do 2.5km. 

Gadget Girl: Are you meaning one where you can set a specific target distance?
Caitlin: Yes please

Damn about Nike's Running app (also available on Android) being restricted to distance runs at half kilometre intervals. Up to now it's been my favourite run tracker app, giving comprehensive statistics, allowing me track what surface I ran on, where I ran, speed variations, shoes, etc... It even has preset training plans for 5km, half and full marathons. And yes it can allow for free, time and distance runs.

Unfortunately, Cait's needs are quite specific down to the 100m.

I duly checked out my other running apps: miCoach, SportsTracker... Moved on to the App Store for the official C25K app, RunKeeper, MapMyRun. Unfortunately, whilst some have distance runs, they had a similar level of granularity as the Nike option. Others you could set 2.4 kilometres but only if you loaded a route set at that distance.

After a fifteen minute trawl and download frenzy, I finally found Run Tracker Pro by Bluefin Software, who make a number of exercise-related applications. This baby has many similar features to the Nike app. It also has interval training functions and lets you set a distance run down to 100m granularity. Unlike many of the other options, it isn't free and at $3.79 NZD it's in the middling zone of pricing but it does meet the requirements and having bought it to take a gander, I like it's user interface and will give it a try myself.

Becca: have you ever tried the Curl Secret?

Actually I own and have tried Vidal Sassoon's Curl Secret. It's a nifty wee device where you take locks of your hair, insert it into a groove in the barrel of the device and it winds your hair in after you squeeze the handle shut. I've only had it a few weeks but I liked it from the first go. It has a couple of heat settings and you can select 8 or 12 seconds depending what level of curl definition you want.

The device is definitely one where practice is required and until I've had a few more goes, I won't be attending any events with the results of my self-styled hair. That being said, the resulting curls are different from what I can achieve with my straightener, traditional curler or InStyler. Given the size of the barrel, however it's definitely better on medium to long hair otherwise there's not much for it to wind. They recommend a minimum of 15cm length.

I've loaned the device out for someone to try otherwise I'd make a video where I'm not looking so embarrassingly bloated and tired however, my vanity aside, this 24 second snippet I recorded for my friends, taken the day I bought the device, shows how easy it is even for a novice to pick up. Otherwise see the official how-to video on YouTube for the pretty model, made up and skilled enough to make it look damned easy!

Tash: Hey Gadget Girl, will AudioNote work if I'm actually on a phone call with someone?

Gadget Girl: Hmmm... Will you be on a speakerphone or are you intending to record the phone call whilst you're on the actual phone?
Tash: I'm planning on recording the conversation while on the call.

Unfortunately the iPhone will only allow one app to take control of the audio devices at a time - i.e. only one app can use the microphone, only one can use the speakers so technically AudioNote can use the mic whilst Music Player is using the speakers but a phone call requires both the mic and the speaker. This method won't work if you're using the same device to record and call and I did run this whole thing through some testing.

I've never looked at call recording options until now, but there are some options on the App Store such as TapeACall. These use the 3-way calling merge function that comes native to the phone. I have previously enabled multiparty calls on my Vodafone number and tested it so it's certainly possible to achieve this in New Zealand, so long as you're comfortable with someone else being in on your call and storing your recordings for you. Other options, such as Call Recorder - IntCall, channel your call through a VoIP service so you're not actually using your native functionality per se.

As I understand it, we have no laws prohibiting or controlling the behaviours related to recording phone conversations in New Zealand so long as you are a party to the call (otherwise it's illegal). This is not the case everywhere. If you're looking for a call recording solution, you may want to consider one which has the interval beep function as an option in case you interview someone overseas from a country where they are more comfortable with and expect the beep reminder.

Rebecca: what do I need to consider now that we're sourcing and providing data between various parties for my project at work?

This was a work-related question, but one I thought I'd share more widely. When you're dealing with information, be it data or documents, capturing the metadata (information about that data) is important. This is everything from where it comes from, what it's license status is, where it's stored to the format it is in. You don't want to get a few weeks or months into your project and have to wade through your emails to find this information out; nor to be scratching your head as to what you've already got. Keep it in a single register or catalogue, fit for the amount of information you have to track: a spreadsheet or Access — *groans because she can't believe she wrote that* — database at its most basic, some inventory app, large-scale database or specialist software at its more mature.

The thing to remember is not to make this up from scratch. No matter what you intend to store your catalogue in or what you call the fields, there is prior work you should reference. And that prior work is Dublin Core - the international standard for metadata. If you work in Australia, also refer to the extensions to Dublin Core found in the Australian Government Locator Service (AGLS) and in New Zealand, the NZ Government Locator Service (NZGLS). By using existing standards, multiple parties in differing contexts will at least be speaking the same language.

Midweek Q&A

I get asked a number of tech and gadget-related questions quite frequently. Instead of waiting to write up a full article to share the answers with the rest of you, I thought I'd share at least the highlights in a regular mid-week column.

This week we step beyond dictaphones, and take a look at fitness trackers, expense claims, and wireless multimedia.

Tash: has anyone used a voice recording app to record interviews on their iPhone? 

For an interview I would use Audionote. Very much worth the money for this paid app. You can write notes at markers in the synced audio which makes tracking through a long interview or meeting much easier and more efficient. A few of my colleagues won't take meeting minutes any other way.

Given I'm into using technology to be more efficient and effective, I'd recommend upgrading our smart devices to be better than old tech. This method of tagging whilst recording is a step beyond using your device as an expensive dictaphone. This is pretty nifty for students recording lectures too.

The iOS version pictured allows not only text but also sketches, highlighting and photographs. Handy if you want to snap a pic of something being talked about and have it associate with that particular segment of the recording.

Audionote is also available on Android.

Rebecca: have you ever used a fitness tracker and which ones are good?

Yes, I've tried using the Fitbit Zip and even managed to write up a little about it. Even if you're considering a more fully-featured device, it's worth seeing if you are the kind of person who would remember and be disciplined or motivated enough to actually use one of these. You can do this with a monitor-less app approach: the Fitbit app and MyFitnessPal are both available free and can be used without a tracker. If and when you get a tracker they integrate nicely.

I'd recommend trying something small like the Zip before investing a lot more money on functions which may be beyond your real requirements. Even better if you have a friend who's finished using theirs and doesn't mind loaning it for a trial.

Feeling zippy | Gadget Girl Files

Julian: do you have an app you use for receipts/expense claims?

Since my consultancy migrated to Xero, we've been using the expense claim function on the smartphone app. It's simple, allows immediate coding of expenses and it's an easy snap and attach for photos of the receipts. Of course it requires having a Xero account for every person who will be claiming expenses in this fashion.

If you don't use Xero or someone's only occasionally going to be claiming expenses, then take a gander at iExpensesClaim by Nicholas Thenoz for iOS. For $1.29NZD you get an app that allows you to snap and classify expenses than export to Excel and/or PDF for submitting. We used this app before we migrated to SaaS for our accounting software.

Dan: had any experience with HDMI/wifi dongles? I haven't used one myself but I have heard good things.

I've trialed AirPlay, Miracast, Android Mini PC and a wifi video receiver all for various purposes from streaming multimedia to full-on device mirroring. They all have their pros and cons but definitely nothing yet has shouted "I'm really, truly great for wireless hi-def audiovisual".

Have yet to try anything which has an HDMI transmitter off an HDMI output sending to a paired HDMI receiver on an HDMI input. But would love to.

Stepping back in time

I've been writing an article for one of my other blogs and I needed to check the original price for a dress. Unfortunately, it was from the previous season and was no longer featured on the manufacturer's website. Not a problem! I duly opened a tab in my browser and looked up the Wayback Machine.

"The what now?" you ask. The Wayback Machine, available through http://archive.org, is a digital archive of the World Wide Web established by the Internet Archive way back (intentional) in 1996. Essentially, the service crawls websites and saves snapshots at various times. Entering a website address into the Wayback Machine returns a calendar of snapshots and you can then select which version of the website you want to look through. In my case, August 2013 was the right month.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

It can be fun to look at the changing face of a company's online brand or even reminisce at the giants that were and have faded into interweb legend: just take at gander at my favourite search engine of the late nineties and early noughties, the ever polite and helpful Ask Jeeves.

Not all sites are available on the Wayback Machine: sometimes site owners prohibit crawling their sites or content is locked in password protected areas. The Wayback Machine is best at crawling static content. Don't expect miracles of interactivity; and certainly don't expect websites to be fully functional, but as a research and reference tool, even for something as simple as looking up the price you paid for a product, it is an excellent resource.

Even the big guys get it wrong

I was concerned this morning to find a txt from Vodafone to say that my prepay credit was down to $0 and I would need to top up. Given my 29B plan had only been established four days ago, I didn't envisage that I had used all of either my unlimited txts, 200 minutes or 1GB of data, nor had I according to the smartphone app.

Looking at my detailed usage however, apparently I had spent $198.14 on data since my last top up on 21 April, $64.16 of which was whilst I had been sleeping last night. This is of course a bit strange given I haven't had $200 on my account during the last month and my balance yesterday was less than $10 and my phone was on wifi overnight.

I duly called Vodafone and spent 22 minutes on hold and a total of 33 minutes on the call. When asked "how are you today" my response was the obvious "well, actually I'm a bit annoyed".The very nice lady on the phone told me she knew why and it turns out "we had a technical glitch last night" and that she could see that my credit had been deducted $8.02. I pointed out the discrepancy that the app told me the charge was for $64.16. "As I said we had a technical glitch and I assure you only $8.02 has been deducted from your account," she replied.

Onto the next matter then - why between the 21st and 27th of April was my account showing further charges amounting to $133.98. And yes, according to their records I had been being charged 33c per MB for that period but my balance had not been reducing. This was apparently new and confusing and she had to consult her manager. The result as at the end of my call was that the problem was being forwarded to billing and they would keep me apprised but I could rest easy that no actual money had been taken from me.

I consider I'm a fairly reasonable person and I certainly wasn't rude or nasty to the poor call centre staffer who'd obviously had a morning (or given her accent possibly a night) of calls from concerned customers but if a company tells me they erroneously charged me just shy of $200, the burden of proof that they haven't is over to them. I didn't press the point with the staffer, after all I know my payments over the last month haven't been that high, but if I chose to be litigious I think I'd have at least a 50/50 chance.

The thing is, I've built self-service systems that have exposed complex accounting processes and strange system workarounds where internal processes create transactions which have zero effect on the customer's finances. In those cases, certain transaction codes are hidden from the customer's view. So I'm familiar with odd behaviour of back-end systems and I'm fairly comfortable that what I was being told on the phone is more or less correct. What I'm more concerned with is the ensuing lack of trust I now have in my cell provider at a systemic level.

• What kind of poor change management processes must they have when rogue code makes it into production and starts to deduct actual money from people's accounts - $8.02 may be small but how am I to know that if I had had $100 credit that it wouldn't have all disappeared?
• When you find an error that affects a subset or all or your customers why would you not manage that 'event' more proactively with a mass txt and a pre-recorded message offering to call you back. As it was I waited 22 minutes to be told "yes, I know why you're annoyed".
• What deficient requirements, testing and assurance practices do they have when transactions which shouldn't be exposed to customers are?

Given the amount of time I spent on the phone to log my issue, I really should be presenting them with a bill for $112.50 — afterall they should have paid someone at least that to do some proper functional analysis or data analysis or integration testing or release management earlier in the process, wouldn't you say? I'm hardly inclined to pay for the privilege of being their guinea pig. User acceptance test (UAT) report - FAIL.