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I wasn’t going mad yesterday. My OneAndOne (1&1) hosted domains really did disappear from the web.
Seems they had some sort of DNS ‘overload’ problem – response to my support call yesterday:
“Thank you for contacting us.
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this had caused you. DNS propagation for domains has been interrupted due to overload on the system which resulted to an intermittent on the connection for the Website and emails of the domains. Our system specialists have resolved the concern and have monitored this case to avoid future downtime of service. Thank you so much for your patience while we have worked on the resolution.
If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact us.”
I’ll add to this lot as and when I get useful tips – feel free to chip in.
1. Google Maps version 5 is a background battery killer – when you don’t need it, make sure you kill off all the background map processes. There’s a lot of discussion around which aspect of maps seems to be causing issues – latitude, background caching of map data etc…..
2. Voice recognition using the UK English setting is terrible – switch to US English – you’ll thank me.
Anyone in the UK who has seen this video and sworn at their phone while trying to copy the voice commands will understand:
3. To save a bit more battery I found that switching off automatic brightness and setting to minimum is just fine for most indoor uses. You can always use the quick select widget to boost the brightness when you go outside.
4. Save a bit more battery – switch NFC (Near Field Communications) off in settings. As far as I know, only Pret a Manger in the UK uses this as a payment mechanism so unless you want to buy a sandwich with your phone you don’t need it – yet.
5. Use a task manager such as ‘tasker’ about$ 3.99 in the Android market – helps automate the switching on and off of services based on a bunch of settings you provide about time, location etc. I also found a (currently) free application called ‘Sweet Dreams’ – a simpleer version that switches off non-essential services at night. Useful if you forget to put the device on charge and need the juice in the morning.
6. Some have reported that switching on USB debugging in settings/Applications/Development helps reduce battery life. Apparently limiting battery use by preventing the /init process running wild – allegedly a known bug.
Perhaps I should have titled the article ‘top power saving tips’ – I’m guessing a lot of new users will be focused on power until the maps issue is resolved.
Wanted to close my PayPal account, tried to do it online but discovered I had $0.01 remaining from a gift voucher present from my former FT.com colleagues four years ago.
Got an email from them this evening:
Dear Ian Parr,
Thank you for contacting PayPal regarding the problems you are
experiencing closing your account.
Firstly, Mr. Parr allow me to apologise for any inconvenience this
situation has caused you. I can see that my colleague had disabled the
voucher however it is still not allowing you or me to manually close the
account until this redemption code ************** for $0.01 has been
used.
In this case I can advise that you send a payment of $0.02 to a friend
or family member using this code in order for the voucher to be disabled
from the account. Only when it is used will you be able to close the
account.
Please let us know if you require any further assistance.
Yours sincerely,
Siobhan
UK Top Customer Department
PayPal
Copyright © 1999-2010 PayPal. All rights reserved.
PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A.
Société en Commandite par Actions
Registered Office: 22-24 Boulevard Royal L-2449, Luxembourg
RCS Luxembourg B 118 349
Heck of a bang on the French doors the other day.
Went to see what the noise was and saw this imprint of a wood pigeon on the window.
Not the first time so I’m going to set a webcam up so I can capture future action.
Pigeon survived this time.