Vodafone has been declared the worst mobile operator for customer satisfaction for the seventh year in a row.

The network achieved a satisfaction rate of just 49 per cent, with 16 per cent saying they wouldn’t recommend Vodafone to friend or family member. The biggest grievances were incorrect billing and poor customer service.

Vodafone has said improving customer service is a top priority and that it was working hard to deliver results.

Satisfied

“These findings published by Which? really don’t match up with what our customers are telling us, with our own, independently verified customer satisfaction scores jumping 13 points from last year to their best ever level,” a spokesperson told TechRadar Pro.

EE finished second bottom – an improvement given it finished joint-last with Vodafone last year – with a satisfaction rating of 56 percent. The biggest issue here appears to be cost as 17 percent said they find EE too expensive with one in seven paying £50 or more a month.

O2 fared a little better on 61 per cent, while Three was the best of the big operators with 64 per cent. Three’s biggest issue is network coverage, with 30 per cent complaining of poor signal and one third of all customers who defected to another operating citing this as a factor. However 71 per cent believe Three is good value for money and 86 per cent would recommend it to friends and family.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO) tended to outperform their bigger rivals with Utility Warehouse achieving a rating of 84 per cent, beating Giffgaff’s 81 per cent score. Sky achieved 79 per cent, Asda Mobile 77 per cent and Tesco Mobile, the UK’s biggest MVNO, scoring 75 per cent.

“The biggest providers are lagging behind smaller rivals who are doing a better job of giving customers what they want in terms of service and value for money,” said Alex Neill, Which? Managing Director of Home Products and Services. “Customers who are fed up should look to switch provider as soon as they can.

“New reforms will soon mean that mobile customers will be able to switch provider by text message, which we hope will make it quicker and easier for customers to seek a better deal.”

http://www.techradar.com/news/vodafone-finishes-bottom-of-customer-satisfaction-rankings-again

Samsung has announced six new TV series that it’s introducing to its VR Video service for its Gear VR, with a pilot episode from each made available today.

The shows are the result of a select few indie filmmakers who received a grant from Samsung in order to produce original VR content. They were given access to Samsung’s 360 Round camera as well, although only one series (&Design) chose to utilize it.

You can check out the brief trailer of the initiative (dubbed Pilot Season) below, which gives you a glimpse into the vastly different genres and themes that each of the six new series explores. 

You can check out the full description on each show from Samsung’s own page, but here’s a condensed run-down: 

“&Design” (Sibling Rivalry and Curious Octopus)

An original episodic series about design that will change the way we look at the world. The series presents design in its intersection with science, technology and anthropology, weaving an array of items that link each episode by a universally humanistic theme.

“Bro Bots” (Breaking Fourth)

A scripted sci-fi comedy series in VR, set in a New York City of the future. Two British robots – Otis and Roberto – arrive in New York and join the NYPD. Otis acts like a Downton Abbey butler. Roberto is rough and tough, from the other side of the tracks. They are best friends. 

“The Interpretation of Dreams” (Graham Sack & Sensorium)

In 1899, Sigmund Freud published his magnum opus, The Interpretation of Dreams, which shocked the world and forever changed our understanding of dreams and the unconscious mind. This episodic narrative fiction series reimagines each of Freud’s original case studies as visually luxurious, psychologically complex, and emotionally haunting immersive VR dreamscapes. 

“Lightcatcher” (Occupied VR, RSA VR)

The Earth is evolving and digesting our human footprint. Now humanity has a choice – stay or leave. Lightcatcher is an odyssey that revolves around earth and its people in the year 2150. Get lost with five adventurers as they travel through unique environments – enduring hardships and triumphs in the new world.

“Sam’s Surreal Gems” (RSA VR, Hey Wonderful)

Set in a collection of real world locations, this fresh, funny and irreverent VR series challenges its viewers to spot eight surreal and unexpected Easter eggs hidden within each episode. Sam’s Surreal Gems is the antithesis of overly familiar futuristic and fantastical VR, rather, this series will celebrate the truly entertaining and wonderfully funny possibilities within the real world already around us.

“Voyages – Pilot” (Kaleidoscope)

A virtual reality animation that takes you on an epic journey from birth to death. Comprised of six distinct movements, “Voyages – Pilot” guides you through the emotional arc of an entire life. Experience what it feels like to be born, to grow up, to grow old, and to eventually die. 

If you’ve got a Samsung Gear VR, you can head to the Oculus Store and find the free Samsung VR video service to download. Once downloaded, check out Pilot Season under the service’s Featured section. 

http://www.techradar.com/news/samsung-is-developing-multiple-vr-only-tv-series

If you thought using Facebook was free, think again.

The age-old adage of “there’s no such thing as a free lunch” holds true for Facebook’s business model, which many pundits have argued it build on trading users’ personal data as currency. And what the social media platform does – or allows others to do – with that data has recently copped a lot of criticism in the wake of the ongoing Cambridge Analytica Scandal.

Facebook has a tough fight ahead of it as it tries to restore its name and win back public trust, and the latest shot in that war is an official blog post titled “Hard Questions” , which seeks to reassure Facebook users that they “are not the product”.

Just semantics?

In the post, Facebook’s vice president of advertising, Rob Goldman, addresses the question, “If I’m not paying for Facebook, am I the product?”

“No,” is Goldman’s answer. “Our product is social media – the ability to connect with the people that matter to you, wherever they are in the world. It’s the same with a free search engine, website or newspaper. The core product is reading the news or finding information – and the ads exist to fund that experience.”

While Goldman is quick to compare Facebook to a “website or newspaper”, the social media platform has historically fought against any suggestion that it’s a media company.

In fact, when questioned by the US Senate as to which companies are Facebook’s direct competitors, CEO Mark Zuckerberg struggled to come up with an answer.

No such thing as a free lunch

It’s hard to define what service Facebook truly offers, even for its CEO. It not only owns the world’s largest social media network, but sells advertising space and, now, hardware such as the Oculus Rift VR headset and it’s seemingly delayed smart speakers.

While the company may claim its main product is the social media site itself, it’s not hard to understand why Goldman’s statement rings hollow.

Strictly following the flow of money, Facebook’s free social networking site is largely able to make a profit through the collation and collection of user data, which is then supplied (usually indirectly) to advertisers in order to target ads. 

Most would argue that this structure makes the advertisers the clients – no matter how Facebook wants to spin it – and this blog post likely won’t do much to change that perception.

http://www.techradar.com/news/facebook-insists-users-are-not-the-product-in-controversial-new-statement