Op-Ed | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net KitGuru.net - Tech News | Hardware News | Hardware Reviews | IOS | Mobile | Gaming | Graphics Cards Tue, 03 Jan 2017 12:40:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://www.kitguru.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/cropped-KITGURU-Light-Background-SQUARE2-32x32.png Op-Ed | KitGuru https://www.kitguru.net 32 32 How do you feel about crowd funding campaigns hiring PR firms? https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/how-do-you-feel-about-crowd-funding-campaigns-hiring-pr-firms/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/how-do-you-feel-about-crowd-funding-campaigns-hiring-pr-firms/#respond Thu, 29 Dec 2016 09:04:37 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=315499 One of the biggest differences between most successful crowd funding campaigns and those that fail to reach their goals, is professionalism. It's a polish and the look and feel of a company that will deliver their product on time, and have it look and operate like they claim. Part of the reason some of those …

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One of the biggest differences between most successful crowd funding campaigns and those that fail to reach their goals, is professionalism. It's a polish and the look and feel of a company that will deliver their product on time, and have it look and operate like they claim. Part of the reason some of those companies look so good though, is because they hire a PR firm to help them.

That sort of thing rubs some people the wrong way.

Crowd funding has had a big impact on many aspects of our world. From being a common place sighting online, to helping a resurgence in board gaming, to giving those with no traditional funding options a chance to develop their dream project. Kickstarter, IndieGoGo and others have helped thousands of people realise their dreams and many more buy up products that they never knew they wanted.

But what if those people or companies already have some money and instead of investing it in their project, they hire a PR firm to help them earn more from through crowd funding?

To try and find out a little about the role of PR in crowd funding, I reached out to Dynamo PR, a company which claims to be the most successful firm of its kind, dealing with crowd funding campaigns. In-fact it recently announced that over 50 campaigns, it had helped its clients generate some $30 million (£24.3 million).

 dynamosuccess

Dynamo claims a near 80 per cent success rate on its projects.

Dynamo has clearly done a good job promoting the companies it works with, as you've no doubt heard of some of them, even if you haven't backed them yourself. Remember the 3Doodler? Or the M3D printer? What about the FOVE VR headset?

“Not every crowd funding project is for a bedroom dream,” said Dynamo's Ellen Powell-Chandler, when I asked her about my misgivings about money being spent on PR, instead of the projects a campaign is requesting money for.

“But we are very careful who we take on,” she said. “We discuss with them to make sure we know where we're at in terms of investment. Although it sounds cheesy, we want our clients to see the crowdfunding process as more of a journey.”

That journey appears to be a successful one. Compared to the relatively rare occurrences of million dollar+ campaigns, Dynamo has helped clients achieve that much more frequently. It also has a near 80 percent success rate with its clients on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

3doodlerkickstarter

Of course Dynamo does pick and choose its clients and you could argue that the fact these companies are going into the project with a little money to start with, makes them more likely to be successful.

While the idea of companies like that going through Kickstarter initially left a sour taste in my mouth, Dynamo sees things differently.

Dynamo loves the crowd funding process, even for companies which already have some financial support, because it brings them closer to their fans. “Our clients listen to their consumers,” Powell-Chandler said. “They take on board feedback for colour schemes, product features. That sort of community feedback is invaluable.”

That is of course one of the big pros of crowd funding. While we have seen many companies go overbudget, or take an inordinate amount of time to deliver to their consumers, the idea behind crowd funding is that these firms should take their cues from their fans, rather than external investors.

Crowd funding campaigns tend to be much more personal too, though hiring on a PR firm to help with a professional image is a double edged sword. On one hand it means that a company looks more professional and is therefore more likely to secure interest from wary backers, but then that may give a more professional look to a company than it has naturally, which could be seen as a little dishonest.

While Dynamo does put differing amounts of work in on a case by case basis, it does often do pre-launch work with companies, helping them build communities and a brand before the campaign starts, letting them hit the ground running when it does launch.

Regardless though, Powell-Chandler did state that Dynamo, “puts its all into campaigns. We really want our clients to be successful.” As often as possible, they meet the product makers in person and try out whatever prototype they have, to get a feel for the product.

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Another successful Dynamo campaign

It really depends on what the client needs and what they are willing to spend. Unfortunately Powell-Chandler wasn't willing to disclose any direct sums that Dynamo charges for its work, though she did say they were options for fixed payments for specific work, as well as percentages of sums raised in others.

That money can cover post-campaign work too, as well as relaunching it should the occasional project fail and Dynamo believes a new strategy could reinvigorate it, as well as ongoing management during the campaign, should the product developers need to target a new social circle or online audience. Powell-Chandler was clear though that the company would not take on anyone who it felt wasn't a good fit for crowd funding.

Dynamo also makes a point of not doing anything hands on with the campaigns. It makes sure that the people running the campaign and interacting with fans and backers are the people who run the company and the people who will be responsible for fulfilling pledges. It really drives home the personable aspect of crowd funding, which is what has drawn so many people to it over the years.

Ultimately, from what Powell-Chandler said, it feels like Dynamo is of benefit to a lot of campaigns. Perhaps it was naive to assume that most campaigns on crowd funding sites would be bedroom hackers just looking to catch a break, instead of a mix of that and companies with a brand new revenue stream to exploit.

While personally I still prefer crowd funding campaigns that help the former group get ahead, I must admit that I am always more likely to back a polished looking company and if PR firms like Dynamo can help the little guy look good enough for me to back them, maybe that's not such a bad thing.

KitGuru Says: I'm still not entirely sold on the idea, especially when it comes to companies which already have funds of their own, but even then, making them beholden to their customers is a good thing. How do you guys feel about PR firms helping out with campaigns?

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Oculus VR’s UK retail strategy is bizarre https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/oculus-vrs-uk-retail-strategy-is-bizarre/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/oculus-vrs-uk-retail-strategy-is-bizarre/#comments Wed, 28 Dec 2016 12:51:41 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=315250 Oculus Rift headsets may be one of the most popular among gamers, but you wouldn't know it by the hardware's availability. Despite still requiring quite a hefty PC to run its many games and experiences, almost no gaming outlets in the UK stock the headsets – in what seems like a bizarre retail strategy from …

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Oculus Rift headsets may be one of the most popular among gamers, but you wouldn't know it by the hardware's availability. Despite still requiring quite a hefty PC to run its many games and experiences, almost no gaming outlets in the UK stock the headsets – in what seems like a bizarre retail strategy from the company.

Oculus VR is a firm with an interesting history. Founded by a young entrepreneur who was much beloved by the community and then cast out and derided for his backtracking and funding of a pro-Trump meme firm, now Oculus is owned by Facebook and a driver of exclusive titles that nobody else wanted.

Oculus was an integral player in the birth of this latest push for virtual reality acceptance on the consumer space, but from anti-piracy efforts on its store, to its data collecting habits, some of the things it's done along the way have been very strange and in some cases rather unlikeable.

One thing it's doing now though which I can't wrap my head around, is making a real effort to limit which companies it allows to sell its hardware. If you haven't bought an Oculus Rift headset, or even if you have, you may not be aware that it's still quite hard to find them.

That's not to say that they are hard to buy. If you head to GAME's website or many of its stores, you will find plenty of Oculus Rift headsets and Touch controllers that you can buy today. The same goes for Curry's, or Oculus' own store. With stock no longer an issue as it was in the early days of the hardware, Oculus Rift headsets are easy to come by. But they aren't available everywhere.

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When the top listing on your shopping results is for a competitor's product, something is amiss

Try to buy an Oculus Rift form many of the UK's biggest hardware retailers and you will simply be told they don't have them in stock, nor do they list them for sale. Scan, Aria, Ebuyer, Overclockers UK.

None of them sell Oculus Rift headsets.

This seems rather strange, because these companies are very popular among gamers and they are not ‘anti-Virtual reality'. In fact on all of them you can find HTC Vive headsets for sale and in many cases bundles with that headset and compatible PCs. Many of these companies even sell Oculus Ready PCs, but no Oculus hardware.

We reached out to all of these companies to find out why it was that they weren't stocking any Oculus headsets, controllers or any hardware for that matter. Unfortunately most chose not to comment on the matter, though we did hear back from retail manager at OCUK, Steven Levitt.

“Oculus has been working with select retailers in Q4, and we're not one of those unfortunately,” he said.

When pressed about why that might be, Levitt said he didn't know, but wasn't exactly phased, citing that OCUK had sold “thousands of HTC Vives,” in recent months.

“We're excited about the potential for VR,” he said, and was happy to continue supporting HTC's products. OCUK would be happy to stock Oculus hardware too if the company changed its mind, he said.

It would be remiss of us to just take Mr Levitt's word for it though, so we reached out to Oculus VR itself to find out what it's playing at. Why does it seem to favour only a handful of much more mainstream retailers and ignore the more gaming-focused hardware sellers which have proved so popular with HTC Vive buyers?

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The Oculus Touch launch went well and the controllers have reviewed very positively. 

My comments were passed on to the UK PR firm Hello Unity, which offered the following official response from Oculus:

“Retail expansion is the first of many steps towards getting VR to reach as many people as possible. Which is to say that Oculus may be stocked in the stores you mention in the future, although we don't have any further information to share at the moment.”

This is not an unsurprising comment from Oculus, as I have had similarly vague responses from the firm in the past. It is however frustrating in that it tells us nothing of why it is that Oculus VR would choose to shun almost all of the top PC hardware sellers in the UK.

It leaves us to speculate, which while fun is never quite as satisfying as the truth.

Still, in the position we are in, we can look objectively at the evidence we have. The only retailers I could find that were stocking Oculus Rift headsets were Amazon, PC World, Curry's, John Lewis and GAME. The former four have little to do with gaming at all, with one not even having a strong focus on electronics. GAME does of course have a predominantly gaming audience, but it's much more console players than PC ones – even if it recently teamed up with OCUK, which makes Oculus' choices even stranger.

One theme does unite those four retailers however and that is that they are all very mainstream. I mean that in a sense that they are all household names outside of the gaming world. Perhaps that's Oculus target with its retail strategy: non-gaming, mainstream stores. It wants your nan to buy a Rift before your Minecraft playing brother.

It has seemed for a while that Oculus' big focus under Facebook hasn't been PC gaming, but shared, social experiences. That may be a good plan for the long term as of course like any industry, the real money is in the casual fans, not the hardcore ones.

Hardware like desktops and laptops are used predominantly by people for non gaming tasks, and that goes doubly so for devices like tablets and smartphones, even if games go a long way to encouraging development of newer and more powerful hardware advances.

The reason that same strategy seems so strange with the Rift though, is that you require a powerful system to run it. Targeting mainstream users with under powered systems is either going to leave them disappointed, or unable to buy because of not meeting specifications.

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Why oh why would Oculus partner with John Lewis?

Notice that on the John Lewis site there is just one review for the Oculus Rift. This is one of the world's premier VR headsets and nobody on there is interested. Compare that to the reviews on Scan's HTC Vive listing, where there are hundreds of reviews and you have to imagine Oculus is missing out on a lot of sales due to strange retail tactics.

At a guess, I would say that Oculus is looking to embed the Rift brand in to society, rather than looking to sell a lot of headsets. Of course it doesn't have to with Facebook money behind it, but when understanding VR relies so much on first hand experience, getting the hardware out there seems like a better idea than simply making sure consumers see it on store shelves.

Gamers may not be the ultimate audience for VR – when we are all VR-calling our grandparents across the world, sitting in a virtual living room together, nobody may remember that it was gamers who first strapped these bulky pieces of kit to our face to go out shooting zombies. But right now, it's the gamers who are buying these headsets.

Not making its hardware available to that audience by only working with retailers that target non-PC gamers seems like a truly bizarre move by Oculus.

KitGuru Says: Oculus Rift owners – where did you buy yours from? I know me and some friends grabbed them straight from Oculus (as preorders), but those of you who picked one up in recent months, be honest: did you buy it from John Lewis?

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Oculus Rift vs HTC Vive, which should you buy? https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-reviews/jon-martindale/oculus-rift-vs-htc-vive-which-should-you-buy/ https://www.kitguru.net/tech-news/featured-tech-reviews/jon-martindale/oculus-rift-vs-htc-vive-which-should-you-buy/#comments Tue, 21 Jun 2016 08:57:06 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=296045 When I reviewed the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets, I added a caveat to both pieces saying that I wouldn't make many direct comparisons with the other, since I wanted to review them on their own merits. As much as they are very similar, they also offer distinctly different experiences and I …

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When I reviewed the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality headsets, I added a caveat to both pieces saying that I wouldn't make many direct comparisons with the other, since I wanted to review them on their own merits. As much as they are very similar, they also offer distinctly different experiences and I felt they deserved to be judged in their own right.

Of course though as fair as that was to both headsets, they do exist in the same marketplace. Both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive offer a virtual reality experience and most people are unlikely to be able to afford one, let alone both. So the question of which to buy is an important one.

riftvive2

Now that I have both reviews published, I think it's time we looked at both headsets from the major manufacturers and weighed up their pros and cons against one another to decide which we would recommend you buy.

While it might already be obvious if you have read my previous review coverage on both headsets, there are still some direct comparisons that can be made which highlight the benefits and drawbacks of each design and which we would ultimately recommend you spend your money on.

Consider the Alternatives

Before we get to the face off between both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it is worth considering whether one of the alternatives might be more suited to your needs and wants. They're all cheaper and they all offer a decent VR experience, but are they for you?

Google Cardboard

One of the biggest problems with virtual reality hardware right now is the cost involved. The headsets are expensive and the hardware required to run them is equally so. That means that unless you travel to a location where you can demo the VR gear yourself, getting an idea of what virtual reality is like can be rather difficult.

That's where Google Cardboard is a great solution. If you already have a compatible smartphone and a few pounds handy, you can grab a Google Cardboard (or equivalent) ‘headset' and you are off and running. It lacks positional tracking and the experiences available aren't of the calibre of the real-deal VR headsets, but to give you a rough idea of what VR is like, this is the cheapest way to go about it.

OSVR

Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) hardware is made by Razer and VR display firm Sensics, and perhaps by some other manufacturers soon enough. It's looking to keep virtual reality as hardware and platform agnostic as possible and wants to make headsets that are easy to take apart, easy to upgrade and most importantly can work with just about any other hardware and software out there.

Essentially, it wants to avoid tying users down to a single platform. That's a noble goal and one we can get behind considering all the Oculus VR exclusivity problems that have been faced in recent months.

osvrhdk2

The OSVR HDK2 is no slouch

The soon to be available HDK2 isn't quite as impressive as either the Rift nor the Vive, but it does have a decent display, good lenses and a wide-angle infrared camera for positional tracking. It's not quite available yet (though the earlier v1.4 model is) but will be soon and it will be just $400 (£283) when released. That's much cheaper than the mainstream competition.

PlayStationVR

Although not coming until October this year, PSVR may offer one of the easiest entry level points for consumers wanting to scratch a VR itch – especially if they already have a PS4. At that point the $400 (£283) price tag becomes very attractive.

Consider though that the screen is only 1080P and therefore has a more pronounced screen door effect. The question also remains how effective the Eye camera tracking and Move Motion controllers will be at adding some of the more advanced VR features to the mix.

It's also not out for a few more months, so this is no good if you are looking to get into VR now, but if you have a PlayStation 4 and don't have a high-powered PC too, this could well be your best option.

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EGX 2015 fixes up previous years’ queue issues https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jon-martindale/egx-2015-fixes-up-previous-years-queue-issues/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/event/jon-martindale/egx-2015-fixes-up-previous-years-queue-issues/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2015 18:04:25 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=269379 One of the biggest issues with attending a lot of the biggest game shows in the UK and elsewhere around the world, is that they involve a lot of queuing. We saw it at this year's big Multiplay Insomnia series festival and we saw it was last year's EGX in London. Moving forward though, Insomnia …

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One of the biggest issues with attending a lot of the biggest game shows in the UK and elsewhere around the world, is that they involve a lot of queuing. We saw it at this year's big Multiplay Insomnia series festival and we saw it was last year's EGX in London. Moving forward though, Insomnia is going to be held at Birmingham NEC, much like the currently ongoing EGX 2015, which seems to have solved many of the issues it faced with its previous Earl's Court venue.

This was apparent right from the get go, because instead of forcing entrants to queue up outside to get their tickets, before heading inside, this EGX had a separate queue for ticket registration and another for those all ready to go. And they were all inside.

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We early birds gather, while the rest get in line for ticket registration

While these pictures might still show a lot of people, bare in mind that they are in the process of registering or have already registered. They have their wristbands and they're ready to enter just prior to the show starting. When 10AM finally rolled around, we all wandered in through giant wide doors without any impediment. This is how you do it.

To speed things up even more, instead of a couple of people on a couple of desks processing tickets and wrist bands, EGX had three people to a station, and at least five stations, processing tickets in around 15 seconds a piece. It's all streamlined and much improved.

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The masses prepare to bum rush the entrance – I tried to run and register for a Vive demo. I was too late. 

But things were even better when we got inside too. Although there were still hour long queues (at times) for some of the biggest games, that was as usual down to a lack of stations. Not so with boothes like Just Cause 3, which must have had closing in on 100 PCs set up to play the game.

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Due to the giant booth walls, you can't see all of the Just Cause 3 systems, but just imagine five more rows like this, double sided.

Rainbow Six Siege had a slightly longer queue for its main stage, but that was because you could play on a stage; with shoutcasters. Elsewhere there were enough systems to keep people moving along nicely. The same could be said for a lot of the booths around this year's EGX, which meant that while there was queuing to do- especially if you wanted to try the HTC Vive – it was vastly improved on last year. The faster entrants, better organised registration procedure and the massively increased number of playable systems at the booths made for a much more pleasurable EGX all round.

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One of the longest queues I stood in was for food, funnily enough

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: And a good thing too, as this year's EGX is busier than ever before, with endless Indie games in the Rezzed and Indie booths, which we'll be giving our take on in an upcoming piece. Stay tuned.

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Andrews and Arnold is one ISP that stands up for customer privacy https://www.kitguru.net/professional/networking/jon-martindale/andrews-and-arnold-is-one-isp-that-stands-up-for-customer-privacy/ https://www.kitguru.net/professional/networking/jon-martindale/andrews-and-arnold-is-one-isp-that-stands-up-for-customer-privacy/#comments Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:55:55 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=264971 AAISP – the unfiltered network Most internet service providers are quite typical. They offer phone and broadband products and have lacklustre callcentre support systems that are so ubiquitous, they've been the punchline of every comedian's closing bit for a decade; but that's not the case with every ISP. Recently we sat down with Andrews & Arnold …

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AAISP – the unfiltered network

Most internet service providers are quite typical. They offer phone and broadband products and have lacklustre callcentre support systems that are so ubiquitous, they've been the punchline of every comedian's closing bit for a decade; but that's not the case with every ISP. Recently we sat down with Andrews & Arnold or AAISP, which offers not only various broadband packages and technically knowledgeable support staff, but photography, engraving and 3D printing services.

This is not your average service provider.

A technical service

Initially researched as part of an ISP stand off piece we were working on, AAISP came to our attention for being the most highly rated service provider on ISPReview. That may surprise you, considering so many of the big-name ISPs we're all signed to love to tout their ‘award winning' customer support, or industry standard broadband packages, but none of the UK's most popular providers even feature in the top 10.

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Andrews and Arnold easily dominates most competitors – Source: ISP Review

AAISP however stands apart from even the smaller, well respected ISPs, with a near perfect rating and almost unanimous reviews. So why is it that AAISP is so well loved by its customers?

“Because our staff really understand the product they're selling,” said AAISP's business manager, Alex Bloor. “No scripts. We also utilise IRC to allow customers to get in touch with us and other customers. When someone is asking for support with something, they want to know that they have a smart solution and ours is. Our team is very good; much better than other ISPs.”

This could easily sound like grandstanding. A PR man happy to whip up some hype about his company of the month, but Bloor and his fellow executives are not just front sellers. They often get their hands dirty in the support lines too, with even CEO Adrian Kennard often found manning the same lines his equally qualified employees do.

That's because AAISP is focused on the product, which Bloor says is something other companies have forgotten:

“Most of them, even the ones that started as being technically based, have homogenised and become marketing lead,” he said, somewhat sadly.

“We haven't.”

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AAISP's owner confirmed a few years ago that the support team is entirely XKCD/806 compliant. 

The technical know how is apparent in our conversation. Rarely do ISP support line operators sound like they know what they're doing, but throughout our call Bloor expounded impressive knowledge of networking and internet connectivity. If this is how knowledgeable the Business Manager is, we have to imagine that the in-line support staff are even more so.

Beyond telephone and online support, the company does a lot to your line that other companies don't as well.

“When you join Andrew and Arnold, every customer line has an LCP echo and we measure the response time. Every customer has that every second, so we have accurate data on their connection latency,” Bloor continued. “That data is held indefinitely and makes it easier to fix problems. Even weird ones.”

“Did you know turning on cheap Christmas lights can cause issues with a connection? We found that out thanks to our regular line checks showing problems at certain times around Christmas. Sodium streetlights can cause problems too, so we cross reference line quality with the level of light at our customer's houses and places of work to make sure that isn't an issue.”

As detailed and beyond the usual call of duty that that is though, it's not just technical know-how that has made AAISP so beloved.

The “No bulls*** policy

“It's our no-bulls*** policy,” said Bloor, with a grin you could hear through the phone. “We don't pass the buck and we don't bulls*** our customers.”

That said, as with many other ISPs, AAISP does have to deal with BT and TalkTalk and their failings, which is another area fans have praised this company. It is dogged in its pursuit of downed lines and engineering issues, consistently badgering Openreach staff with knowledgeable questions and access to the very people who should be fixing the flaw.

“Mostly it's because our guys know what they're talking about, which means they know the right questions to ask,” said Bloor. “Our staff will dogear them too and shout if necessary.”

In many cases I'm told, AAISP has been able to get fix times down from two weeks to just a matter of days.

aaispHQ
Does this look like a place that would bulls*** anyone?

This doesn't mean that AAISP is free from criticism itself though and it's happy to own up to its shortcomings. Surprisingly though, they're often deliberate. One area its fans say it falls down is in download limits, which max out at 300GB for its standard packages, which are also more expensive than your average ISP.

“When we launched our home user package, we launched it with 50GB inclusive for £25 a month. Most home one users we have do buy at the base 100GB level. For most, 100GB is enough,” said Bloor.

He went on to explain that AAISP doesn't offer unlimited packages, because nobody really does. All the big ISPs have smallprint that throttles a user after a certain point.So while on the surface AAISP's packages might seem more limited, the idea is to make them more honest and obvious.

However if the ones available aren't to your liking, Andrews and Arnold is more than happy to alter them for different customers. There can automatically renew for extended download limits, or be customised to prioritise latency over bandwidth, in some instances cutting a user's ping in half. They can also be tweaked to allocate a small portion of a customer's connection for VOIP only, meaning it will always be crystal clear regardless of what else is happening on the line.

Beyond download limits and pricing through, AAISP's website also takes some criticism for looking old and text heavy. But again, that's by choice.

“Since our customers are often technically minded themselves, they appreciate having all of the information available to them,” Bloor said.

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You wouldn't be wrong in suggesting that the site looks outdated though

As a company that isn't there just to get lots of customers in the front door, it would rather people understood what was being sold from the get go and didn't get any wrong ideas. It goes so far in that respect, that due to certain policies, there are some customers it actively discourages.

Like those who are pro-censorship.

Protecting privacy, preventing filtering

As much as the above aspects of AAISP's business practices are refreshing, there's a more pressing concern that it's been tackling in its own unique, no BS way: privacy and censorship. Over the past decade, personal privacy and available content have been attacked by various legislative and intelligence community resources, and the landscape today is one fraught with difficulties.

Perhaps your ISP filters content, making it impossible for you to visit certain websites. Perhaps you're worried about the Snooper's charter forcing ISPs to track what you look at online. None of this is supported by AAISP and even on its retro website, it hosts a banner that reads “say no to the Snooper's Charter.”

“We don't even have an infrastructure that supports filtering,” Bloor said. “If customers want to use our service, but want us to filter content, we will politely refuse their custom.”

When I asked what would happen if AAISP was given a court order or a government mandate to have some form of filtering in place, Bloor said that it isn't something it could implement over night: “and who would pay for it?”

“We would of course operate within the law,” he said, but nobody has asked yet. While AAISP obviously hopes that remains the case, it also seemed like the only ISP that may actually contest any orders it was given, through civil disobedience or potentially outright legal action.

[yframe url='http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwcBaRj02qI']

“Blocking is tackling the problem in the wrong place anyway,” Bloor said. “If you find out toxic waste is being dumped in a river, you don't offer filters to people so they can continue to drink there, you move the toxic waste.”

It's also about giving some credit to people to police themselves and their families' viewing habits. No household without children should be subjected to filtering designed to protect children.

“As an adult, I don't think another adult should have the right to tell me what to look at,” Bloor said.

He gets it. When I asked if that was the way the rest of the firm felt he laughed and said the CEO would be listening back to this call, so he hoped so.

It's not alone, but it is unique

Although AAISP stands atop a pile of other ISPs, big and small as perhaps the most well loved service provider in the UK at the moment, it's not the only ISP that feels this way about censorship. While we were unable to elicit quite such a lengthy response from other companies, Bloor told us that his firm was not the only one that believed in the right to privacy and freedom of information.

“The big guys just did it to fall in line. There are other players out there that don't offer filtering either. In-fact the majority of smaller, business focused ISPs don't.”

“But they aren't as outspoken as us,” he said.

As much as some companies may have similar, if quieter stances on privacy and government snooping, AAISP does offer services that no one else does. Like engraving, photography and 3D printing. I asked Bloor about these, wondering why it would advertise them right alongside it's main business.

“They probably do make us look smaller than we are,” he said, understanding the tone of the question. “But we like to buy toys and it's difficult to justify buying a big engraving machine or 3D printer just to play with, so we offer them as a service to others.”

aacombo aacombo2
Not your typical office furniture

He went on to explain that there are regular customers for some of them now, and in the past with side ventures, AAISP has spun off whole other businesses that operate as part of the collective, but independently enough to be their own entities. Like Firebrick, AAISP's router and networking hardware business. It builds secure and bespoke hardware solutions for companies and utilises them in its own networks, so it puts its money where it's mouth is.

The fact that Andrews and Arnold knows enough about networking to build its own networking hardware is yet more evidence that its technical acumen is a notch above that of your average ISP and leaps and bounds beyond the average ISP's usual support team.

Final Thoughts

Finding an ISP that gives you a satisfactory service is a rare thing. We've learned from our countless discussions with readers that although a few have stunning connections of unparalleled speed and reliability, too many of us have lines that drop occasionally for no reason and support teams that seem at best uncaring and at worst incompetent. While we can't vouch for the validity of any of AAISPs claims, it talks the talk and the reviewers on ISPReview believe it can back it up with action too.

It's also refreshing to speak to an ISP that sounds like a human being, who isn't afraid to not take its business too seriously, too corporate-ly. Yes it's bizarre that you can get some promo shots done at the same company that handles your internet connection, but that's much more endearing than a firm that is happy to block content just because it was told too by a lobby group.

Of course AAISP is under the radar now and it's difficult to write pieces like this knowing that in some way it will contribute to the day when, if it continues to grow, Andrews and Arnold won't be able to benefit from its political anonymity. But our discussion at least gave me confidence that if the time comes when AAISP is told to censor what it shows it's customers, it would stand up against it. That's what some European ISPs have done and they've won too.

I would hope though that AAISP isn't the only one that would. If there are any other ISPs that are similarly steadfast in the face of privacy invasions and freedom constrictions, please let us know, we'd love to profile them too.

KitGuru Says: After all this talk, I'm intrigued to see how AAISP's service stands up in the real world. In the near future I'll switch from my current ISP (Plusnet) to Andrews and Arnold and I'll let you know if it's as good as Mr Bloor made it sound. 

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First they came for the cheaters. Why Ashley Madison hack is bad news https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-they-came-for-the-cheaters-why-ashley-madison-hack-is-bad-news/ https://www.kitguru.net/channel/jon-martindale/first-they-came-for-the-cheaters-why-ashley-madison-hack-is-bad-news/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2015 14:57:05 +0000 http://www.kitguru.net/?p=264307 “First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist,” begins the poetic version of Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous statement about the cowardice of German intellectuals during the rise of the Nazi party. It's a speech that has many applications when the topic of free speech arises and funnily enough, …

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“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a socialist,” begins the poetic version of Pastor Martin Niemöller's famous statement about the cowardice of German intellectuals during the rise of the Nazi party. It's a speech that has many applications when the topic of free speech arises and funnily enough, works very well when juxtaposed with the recent Ashley Madison hacking.

In the aftermath of a hacking group gaining access to the servers of Ashley Madison's parent company, Avid Life Media, the details of some 37 million account holders have been revealed. That includes names, email addresses, phone numbers, physical characteristics and sexual preferences. Despite the reveal of this deeply personal information, many people have seem happy at the news, or at least willing to suggest that those members of the site deserved having their information made public.

Their reasoning? That the people who signed up for the site were (probably) looking to cheat on their spouse.

hacking
There was a reason so many people marched to protect privacy on the internet. 

Not only is this a huge generalisation that removes any context of their sign up, but it suggests that the privacy of these people is any different from our own. None of us would like our personal details aired for all to see. I'm a happily married man, but there's some kinks in my life I'd rather keep to myself. Very few people can't say the same.

Last year it was the celebrity nude pictures. Now it's the personal account details of millions of people that were partaking in the services of a legal business. If we start supporting the moral granstanding hackers of the world, then we open the door to worse invasions. What about when it's your Gmail account that they're exposing because you flirted with a colleague? Or your financial details, because you happen to have a great accountant that can save you from paying high taxes?

You don't need to cry for the cheaters, but don't revel in their misery either.

Over the past few years, we've seen the internet attacked by governments, corporations and intelligence agencies, all wishing to make internet privacy a thing of the past. We stood up against it and pushed back the tide in a monumental global effort that saw people really fight for freedoms of expression, speech and privacy online. Let's not look to give that up just because we disagree with how some people make use of it.

KitGuru Says: Doxxing is not an ok practice, whether that information comes from Ashley Madison, Government records or a Netflix account. Let's not start pretending it is. 

Image source: Wikimedia

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