For anyone considering TalkTalk as a phone/internet service provider - think twice. You may end up sending letters like these. What is really galling is I've been through this with them before. Unfortunately I then signed up with Tiscali who subsequently got taken over by Talk Talk...

Talk Talk, POBox 14505, Birmingham B46 1BF

REF: Final Demand

Dear Sir/Madam

Will you kindly stop harassing me with letters flaunting your incompetence. After receiving your letter on 22^nd July I spoke to someone called Shane at your offices who confirmed I had informed you on 27^th April that I would be leaving my former abode on May 9^th and needed the phone disconnecting. I cannot be held responsible either for your inability to disconnect that line, or for someone else using it. I am certainly not responsible for payment of any bills to you, so your plethora of letters, final demands and request for immediate payment from debt collection agencies has naturally gone largely unheeded, with the exception of one phone call I made where I was hung up on by a rude member of your staff.

I would like to point out that I see no reason to waste MY time and money on calling 0845 numbers to be held in a queue to correct YOUR mistakes, then being hung upon. I have been unable to access the ‘My Account’ area online – possibly because you have actually disconnected me there? I am only writing this because I don't want to waste any more of my valuable time on dealing with it. I will not be instigating any further communication with you unless it is in court where I will expect punitive damages for having to put up with this crap.

Yours sincerely

iPhone Panoramics

A quick look at two apps for making panoramic photos with an iPhone

The Pano app

Sunset on Hove seafront 1 [top photo is a crop of the lower image]

This evening I popped out to the beach to try out the 360 iPhone app. I used an iPhone 3gs, which doesn't handle the low light levels quite as well as the iPhone 4, but it was what was to hand. The sky was amazing and I ended up reverting to Pano to take advantage of it. This produced a better image overall, although if you are doing a complete 360 degree image it takes quite a while to take the 16 individual images required from which the panorama is processed. To help you line up successive shots the app gives you a semi transparent guide strip of the end of the previous shot, although this can be a little difficult to see at times depending on subject matter. The stitching process, which has to be done before you can take another panorama, also takes a long time on larger images. Although not perfect, the results are definitely better than the 360 app. To find out more about Pano go to http://debaclesoftware.com/

The 360 app

Sunset on Hove seafront 2 [top photo is a crop of the lower image]

The 360 app creates panoramas from a slowly continuously rotated iPhone. It didn't fare well in this shoot out against Pano. Its only advantage is in being slightly quicker. I find it strange that it puts the ends together in the middle if you overlap slightly. Even this cropped image isn't smooth, and the low resolution makes it even worse. It may have creative potential for exploiting the 'faults' to abstraction, but not much good as a 'straight' image. Apparently the new gyroscope feature on the iPhone 4 helps makes panning smoother, and would probably make it easier to use this app. For the moment all I can say is it might be improved if it was in steadier hands than mine or on a tripod, but this IS an iPhone app... I will have another go in better light to see if I can improve on the results from it. And if anyone wants to donate an iPhone 4 to the cause it'll be welcome! If you want to try 360 for yourself go here http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/360-panorama/id377342622?mt=8

Meanwhile I'll leave you with a couple of shots taken with Pano where I had fun on my balcony and the bandstand. If you'd like to see more you can find some on my flickr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliaclaxton