Reviews – Reverb Studios Design

Quitting Stripe for Braintree Payments?

I’ve written a lot about Stripe on here in recent years, mostly singing it’s praises as a great new, easy and cheap way to accept credit card payments from clients. Lately however it’s begun to annoy me that no progress has been made with getting the bank transfer times down for Irish customers. It still takes 7 – 9 days and I find myself groaning a little each time someone pays me via Stripe as I know it’s going to affect my cash flow. I’d prefer if they used PayPal or Bank Transfer at this stage so I get my money within a day or 2 max. Stripe are pretty slow to respond to support queries too and any time I ask them about the slow transfer times they roll out the same cut & paste response. This is my only real issue with Stripe however. It’s still pretty cool apart from that.

Braintree Payments are a newish credit card processor that I seem to keep hearing about this year. They are a PayPal owned company and offer essentially the exact same service as Stripe, ie – you sign up for a free account with no monthly fees and they offer credit card payment integration on your website, virtual terminal etc, charging just a percentage of each transaction. Braintree like Stripe also integrates easily with my invoicing system Zoho Invoice and you can get scripts, plugins etc for your website though the choice/range might be slightly smaller than for Stripe. At the minute the fees are pretty much the same as Stripe.

Here’s the things that interest me the most and what might make me switch from Stripe:

Fees

Braintree currently take NO fees for your first €50k income which could be a saving of hundreds each year for me for about the next few years at least. The fees are zero for the first €50k whether you use Braintree itself or the integrated PayPal payments option*.

Transfer Times

They also guarantee bank transfer times of 2 – 4 days max (including Ireland*), nearly half of Stripe’s which is damn significant. Braintree also integrates with Paypal so you can easier accept PayPal payments via a credit card form on your site so you can still get PayPal’s 1 – 2 day max transfer time.

Having just signed up for a Braintree account I must say I much prefer the Stripe website and dashboard. Braintree’s site seems awkward and overly complex but money talks! It’s worth giving Braintree a bash for a while at least I think.

Leon

* Confrimed by Braintree support.

IMPORTANT UPDATE:

After a month or so of using Braintree I can confirm that it works fine and transfers are a little quicker than Stripe although the first few are only marginally quicker. HOWEVER I have had to abondon my Braintree account and revert to Stripe because of a series of fraudulent transactions that happened on Christmas Eve and day. There were over 100 un-requested payments totaling over €3,000 made to me by people I don’t know over those 2 days ranging from a few cents to €1,000 and all were made via a third party script on my website but were processed by Braintree and lined up for transfer to my bank account which could have caused all kinds of chargeback hassle and fees with my bank. I was in contact with Braintree’s support and risk departments and feel that they were of almost no help. They seemed to suggest that I may owe them money if the fraudulent transactions weren’t dealt with quickly by me and went to a chargeback situation which I didn’t understand at all. Braintree doesn’t appear to have any risk, fraud or security prevention setup by default and some of the payments that were made to me were different names with the same credit card number which shouldn’t be allowed happen by any modern payment processor in my opinion. Nothing else like this ever happened during my 2+ years with Stripe and I feel they are a safer bet still despite the slow transfers.

NOTE:

Also, since I started using Braintree, Stripe have reduced their fees considerably from about 2.5% to 1.4% so if they can just get those transfer times down and answer emails quicker they could still be the perfect solution.

Nest Learning Thermostat Review

Why Buy!?

I have to admit, this was an impulse buy for me after I seen it mentioned on Facebook. It was pretty hard to resist a cross between an iPhone and a “smart” thermostat and rarely have I got so excited about a household appliance type thing! It’s kinda pricey at about €220 from Store.nest.com/ie/ and it had only just gone on sale in Ireland when I bought it so it was kinda unproven here but the promise of smarter heating and possibly reduced heating bills helped me justify the expense to the wife. The reports online were all pretty positive too and the caliber of the companies behind it put me at ease further.

Background

Apparently, the guys behind it used to work in Apple on the iPhone and you can definitely see similarities in design and interface. Google bought the company behind the Nest earlier this year for billions and has plans to add cool new features such as voice control and integration with other home automation products and even Mercedes cars! Everything about the process of buying and installing the Nest “Learning” Thermostat was fairly smooth and professional from their website and checkout etc to device control, except maybe the delivery time as mine seemed to get lost for over a week somewhere between The Netherlands and here. I was also slightly disappointed to see that there was an extra box (Heatlink) and level of install complexity over and above what I had seen online for the US version which meant I had to get an installer out to put it in for me. Luckily, I just caught a free install period though. People handy at DIY should be able to manage the install themselves though. For the Irish market, the extra Heatlink box basically connects to whatever wires your old controls were connected to and the Nest can then be wired directly to the Heatlink or moved anywhere else in the house within 30m. The Nest communicates with the Heatlink wirelessly but needs to be plugged in if it’s not wired directly to it.

Control

The Nest website, web control dashboard and mobile apps are all very user friendly and simple and everything worked flawlessly straight out of the box including connection to home Wifi and your Nest online account so it can be controlled remotely. The unit asks all kind of questions on start up from the year of construction of your house, to fuel type, to floor size, to room location in an effort to teach itself as much as possible about your setup and run as efficiently as possible which makes it pretty reassuring. It also updated itself on first run. I like devices that update themselves and add new features & fixes all the time! There’s a nice feel to the unit too. It’s has a heavy, quality feel to it and using it (by pressing the face in and turning the frame clockwise or anti-clockwise to go through menus, temperatures etc) is very smooth and satisfying.

How it works?

The basic idea of the Nest is to “learn” your patterns of activity in the house so it can provide heat only when you really need it. What you are supposed to do is tweak the temperature by turning the dial left or right whenever you need it and over a week or two it will learn the times you do this and start doing it automatically for you. I personally didn’t like the sound of having to remember to adjust the heat every time we walked into or out of the kitchen so I just picked a base temperature of 16 degrees (mimimum “Cosy” house temperature recommended by ESB) and setup a schedule (see above) that basically tells it to make the house 18 degrees from 7am and go back to 16 from 8am. We get up at about 7:30am so the house is warm when we’re up. I set a temperature of 12 degrees for around 10pm for the night while we’re asleep so the heat doesn’t come on. If we ever have to adjust the time manually then the Nest will apparently add this to the schedule info and do it’s thing automatically!

Night time and Empty House

The first night we had it I wasn’t quite sure what would happen if it went below 16 degrees. I didn’t particularly want the heat maintained at 16 overnight while we were asleep. I guess the way around this is to just set a much lower temperature for sleeping hours, ie around 12 degrees or something but it’s not clear whether the “Auto Away” feature kicks in overnight or not. The Nest can be set to sense when you are away for long periods like at work or on holiday and it wont turn on at all except to maintain whatever temperature you set as the “Away Temperature”. I have that set to 4 degrees just to prevent freezing but I’m not sure how it differentiates between away times and sleep times. Perhaps the on board sensors can tell when it’s dark or bright?

Conclusion

Overall I’m very impressed with the Nest. It has quality written all over it but you’ll have to wait a few months if not a full year to try see if it saves on heating bills or not. At the very least though it’s very cool to be able to dial up the heating on your phone from bed before you get up or before you come home and it’s great to have a heating control and thermostat all in one that focuses on the actual house temperature rather than a simple on/off schedule. I’m also looking forward to seeing what future software updates will bring.

Leon

UPDATE: I’ve been using the Nest for a few months now and it’s not generating any data for the monthly reports I get via email. Without the report data, I’m not sure whether it’s saving me money or not. Also, every couple of weeks it seems to slow down and become unresponsive and I have to reset it. I’ve downloaded the latest firmware update but no improvement. I’ve tried emailing and ringing their support for the last month or 2 and I’ve got nowhere. Communication is very poor from them.

Hootsuite Social Media Manager Review

I think I’ve tried most social media apps for phone and desktop at this stage and was happily using one particular one for ages when it suddenly dropped support for Facebook so off I went to look for another one. My requirements were simple enough. I needed to be able to update multiple social networks and profiles at once, mainly the different Twitter and Facebook profiles I manage. I needed a desktop or browser plugin version and I needed it to run without bugs, be intuitive and easy to use and be free. After a long enough search I settled on Hootsuite. Here’s my review.

Hootsuite Features:

Multiple Social Network Management,
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Foursquare, WordPress,
Social Profile Analytics,
Scheduled Posts,
Update multiple social networks at once,
Teams and In-Company Communication (Pro only),
Pull in and re-post RSS feeds,
URL shortening,
iOS & Android apps,
Browser apps/plugins (Chrome & Firefox).

You can add 5 different *social profiles in the Free version which will probably be enough for most people but I’ve upgraded to the PRO version at about €7.70 per month to get 50 social profiles and extra reporting/analytics features.

* A social profile includes for example 1 Twitter account or 1 Facebook page OR personal profile etc.. A single Facebook account with personal profile and multiple pages does not count as just 1 profile.

Standout Features for me:

Nice layout,
Easy addition of new Tabs and Streams,
Posting to multiple networks simultaneously,
Android app syncing,
Analytics,
Track brand/keyword mentions,
Hootlet (Chrome plugin that lets you share a url you’re on via Hootsuite).

Here’s how my Hootsuite desktop app looks:

Jack L The 27 Club Review

I’m not a CD buyer anymore really but I’m a big Jack L fan and fan of a lot of the ‘27 club‘ – the club of rockers that died at the age of 27 and the music of which Jack covers on this album. My favourite 27 clubber is Jim Morrison so I had to hear Jack singing the Doors covers if nothing else and of all the artists Jack covers on this album, he’s chosen more Doors songs then any other artist (at least jointly!) which is cool! I have heard Jack and Jim mentioned in the same breath on many occasions and while he can’t scream like Morrison, he was made to sing Doors songs.

This album might finally be the one that moves Jack Lukeman onto a higher level of popularity than he’s had so far in his career. I’ve always put his lack of international success down to the simple fact that his songs are not exactly ‘pop’ and have a fairly dark edge, after all it can’t be for lack of talent. Through all the gigs I’ve seen Jack at from a boat in Leitrim to the Olympia, I don’t think I’ve ever heard him sing a bum note!

Some of the songs covered are not written by 27 clubbers themselves but covers they done which is slightly at odds with the marketing for this album but I guess the songs might have been made famous by their illustrious coverers. First off, the Doors songs. Wasn’t too impressed with “Touch Me” or “Alabama Song” the latter of which I would have thought suited Jack down to the ground but “The Crystal Ship” is class. It’s one of my favourite Doors songs anyway so that helped.

With “Love in Vain” by Robert Johnson, Jack playfully turns off the mic as I’ve seen him do in a few gigs to try recreate the old style sound of Johnson’s recordings. Works well..

For me, Jack L is best when he’s singing slow ballads so the slower songs on the album are standout for me but here’s a few of my favourites:

Purple Haze – Probably the best song on the album, great ‘slow’ version with lovely electric piano. Reminds me of AIR,
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Up there with Purple Haze, great to hear such a different version of the song,
Paint It Black – Dark feel with lovely strings,
The Crystal Ship – Lovely tune anyway! Some great Piano too,
The Killing Moon – Lovely arrangement and strings,
Love is a Losing Game – Moving version for obvious reasons.

Conclusion:

I think I would have preferred an over produced studio version of the songs rather than a live take. Not huge on listening to live music on a CD, only live music when I’m actually there. Having said that it’s great to hear Ireland’s best singer let loose on some of the best songs ever written/recorded. Worth a purchase and listen.

Listen to some demos here.

Buy the album here.

Track List (Track – Band/27 Club member):

Paint It Black – The Rolling Stones/Brian Jones
Touch Me – The Doors/Jim Morrison
The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen/Pete de Freitas
Purple Haze – Jimi Hendrix
Voodoo Child – Jimi Hendrix
Goin’ Up The Country – Canned Heat/Alan Wilson
Mercedes Benz – Janis Joplin
Motorcycle Emptiness – Manic Street Preachers/Richey Edwards
Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana/Curt Cobain
Ruby Tuesday – The Rolling Stones/Brian Jones
Up On The Roof – The Drifters/Rudy Lewis
The Crystal Ship – The Doors/Jim Morrison
Lithium – Nirvana/Curt Cobain
Love Is A Losing Game – Amy Winehouse
Keep Dancing – Jack L (This song is Jack’s own ‘dedication’ to the dead)
Thirteen – Big Star/Chris Bell
Jumpin’ Jack Flash – The Rolling Stones/Brian Jones
Love In Vain – Robert Johnson
Alabama Song – The Doors/Jim Morrison

Leon

Eventbrite Review – Online Event Registration & Ticket Sales

If you are a business or organisation that organises Events and would like to take registrations or sell tickets for events, then you could do worse than use Eventbrite.ie. It has pretty much been the worldwide market leader for online event registration and ticket sales now for a number of years and they now have an Irish site!

Stand out Features:

I’ve used Eventbrite one or twice as a booking engine for client sites thanks to it’s widgetised code which can be pasted on any site. Here’s some features which stood out for me though.

FREE to use (unless you take payments),
Take ticket payments via Credit Card, Paypal or ‘at the door’,
Show the Eventbrite booking system on your own site or a customised page,
Send attendees pro, bar coded tickets they can print off and bring,
Easy event promotion,
Social Media Integration,
Save attendees email addresses for mailshots,
Auto Name badges and attendee lists,
Multiple ticket types,
Personalised event links/URL’s,
iPhone and Android apps,
Add Google Analytics to Event Pages.

Here is a full feature list:

FREE Event creation,
Professional Ticketing,
Event Pages,
Event Reports,
Sell from your own site,
Events Widgets,
FREE event promotion,
Save email lists,
Send customised email marketing,
MailChimp Integration,
Event tracking links,
Accept Donations,
Absorb paid ticket processing fees or pass on to customer,
Manage reoccurring events,
Wait lists.

Here’s a screenshot of the Create Event process so you can get a feel for how simply it all works.

Signup for FREE at Eventbrite.ie today!

Bullguard Internet Security

The second of the all in one PC security suites I tried out turned out to be the winner, no further experimentation required with any other software. This one did everything I expected and needed straight away. Continue reading Bullguard Internet Security

WordPress Custom Fields Plugin Review

I’m sad to say that despite using WordPress for ages now, I’ve only recently got into using custom fields. I can see myself using them a lot more now! Very handy things altogether.. For a recent web project, the client needed visitors to be able to register for the site and submit specific information about themselves while doing so. I needed an easy way to add questions and form fields to the existing WordPress registration form and also to make these fields available and editible to users who were logged in and wanted to change their profile info.

I done a general Google search for such a plugin and there are many but I remembered seeing one on the Tribulant site whose excellent plugins I’ve used before and been happy with so ‘better the devil you know’! Tribulant’s Custom Field plugin is a commercial one but costs only $14.99 for a single site licence ($74.95 for developer/multi site) so I bought without testing, confident that it would live up to expectations and it did.

Here’s a run down on what the plugin can do:

Add Multiple fields to the Wordpres Registration Form,
Add fields to the ‘Edit Profile’ admin screen,
Field Validation,
Drah and Drop Field Ordering,
Add Multiple Field Types including:
Text,
List,
Drop Down,
File Upload,
Country List,
Text Area,
Radio Button
Date picker,

The standout feature for me was probably support for different field types. Predefined Country and date picker fields are also very handy as was the ability to order fields. Of course, data entered in any additional custom fields can also be used and displayed on the site front end giving endless possibilities for data display, ie – creating a business directory using WordPress in which companies submit their business info on registration and have it displayed on the site.

Here’s an example of a site I built using this plugin in conjunction with some others – www.RecruitAuto.ie

Demos, Documentation and Support HERE.

Get the plugin HERE.

Leon.

Gravity Forms WordPress Form Plugin Review

You’ll always need some kind of contact or conversion Form on your site and since I use WordPress a lot both for clients sites and my own, I’m always on the lookout for good Form plugins. I prefer to stick with free plugins for the most part. There are tons of excellent and free wordpress plugins to do almost anything you wish including some good free form plugins such as Contact Form 7 and Cforms but there comes a time when you need to fork out a little to get that extra bit of functionality, quality and support.

I’ve been using Gravity Forms for quite a while now and for me it stands apart from the rest. It’s a very reasonably priced ($39 at time of writing) commercial WordPress Forms Plugin with an incredible feature list including:

Standout Features:

Simple drag and drop form creation,
Accept WordPress Posts/Articles via form submissions,
Conditional Fields that change following fields based on previous input,
Limit the number of form submissions, eg First 20 competition submissions only,
View and respond to generated querys from within WordPress admin,
Calculation Fields,
Excellent Addons including Paypal, MailChimp and User Registration.

Other Features:

Easy embedding into posts and pages,
Multiple field types,
Advanced Address fields,
Advanced Auto-responders with form field integration,
Quick bulk population of predefined lists, drop downs, etc,
Upload images and files,
reCaptcha anti-spam,
HTML content fields,
Import/Export/Backup forms,
Export form data to CSV,
Notification Email formatting,
Notification to different email addresses based on submission rules,
Valid HTML form code,
Dynamic field pre-population,
Schedule a begining and end date during which your form will appear,
New form submission notifications in the WordPress dashboard,
Present category list for post submissions,
Choose status of submitted posts,
Pass form data to a confirmation page for integration with 3rd parties,
Use supplied hooks to integrate with other WordPress plugins.

Check it out at GravityForms.com

Leon