The gaff - 1st December 2017
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:00
giffgaff Happenings
by bluemoonbaz
Payback Charity Vote 2017 Starts Now
Yes, it's time to choose your charity for December 2017. Your choices this time are as follows:
- Internet Watch Foundation - https://www.iwf.org.uk/
- Whale and Dolphin Conservation - http://whales.org/
- British Heart Foundation - https://www.bhf.org.uk/
- Save the Children - https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/
- UN Refugee Agency - http://www.unhcr.org/
giffgaff will be sending out emails to everyone who's received payback points. The vote will be open until 23:59 on December 3rd, so keep an eye out and make your choice. Click here to see the full thread and the FAQs.
Members Christmas parties: Run By You 2017
If you can't make it to the giffgaff Christmas Santa Run and Party in Uxbridge? (Check it out here) Worry not. You still have a chance to join together in celebrations. We all have giffgaff friends, so all you need to do is find somewhere to host your get together. Make sure it's available and let giffgaff know. You can contact the team through @aggy_agate or post on this thread.
Roaming Prices Update - Nov 2017
Some good news from @gary_1989: We're updating some of our roaming prices, with all the changes below going live on 29th November. While we can’t make all usage free with a goodybag in these countries, we will be significantly dropping the prices for calls and texts in Switzerland, Jersey, Guernsey and Isle of Man. Also, we’re delighted to announce that we’re dropping the price of using data while abroad for another 25 destinations. The price is going from £5 per mb, down to 20p per mb. For full details and the destinations, click here.
What should our next stickers be?
@t_will would like our help. If you have seen the new stickers that pop up next to your posts, it's our new community reward system. It's to automatically showcase someone's achievements on the community, and how they make giffgaff run by you. You can post your suggestion and discuss it on the thread, or just pop an idea into the form here.
Lab Highlights
by as7861
Special Mentions
- Again @firoze has given a lot of feedback. Nice One!
- Again @mcilwraith has given a lot of feedback. Nice One!
- @k1ngvidic15 you have commented on ideas. Nice One!
Changes / Updates / Idea Updates
- A staff member has been spotted adding an idea on the lab, great!
- @ronster83 had the idea about a live feed of lab ideas at giffgaff.com.
- Plus, watch this space for 2018, there is a lot coming according to @prescilla_g and @fadlur_f.
New Ideas
- Subtitles on the Meet the community video for people hard of hearing - the KB team have started to look into the idea @f1nola.
Welcome to all the members who have been doing their 'progression profile' visits to the Lab - whether you are visiting the lab for the first time, or an older member enjoying doing the 'missions'! For those of you who have visited for the first time, I particularly want to give you a warm welcome. I know all you folks will help them through the amazing journey of becoming inventors of great ideas.
Glad you made it. You can now search for an idea you like by using the search bar located here. If you do not find the idea you are looking for, you can always post your idea in the contribute section, this would firstly allow you to get feedback on the idea and secondly there might be an idea that has been described very differently to what you were thinking. If all else fails, you have a chance to develop your idea and post your idea in the Lab. Good luck fellow inventors!
If you want to contribute to the changes (that will be listed under changes/idea updates section). Please free to join here, you just have to hit the join button.
High-Tech Highlights
by jammydodge
Cable-laying drone wires up remote Welsh village
A drone has helped bring superfast broadband services to an isolated Welsh village. Cable company Openreach used the drone to avoid having to lay cable across "challenging" terrain that included woods, a river and steep hills. The drone was flown across a section of forest near Pontfadog, Wrexham, to help sling wires between telegraph poles. The community's 20 homes now have access to ultrafast broadband that can run at speeds of up to 1Gbps.
"It's a bit different to connecting an apartment block in London, that's for sure," said Openreach chief engineer Andy Whale. "If we tried running the cable through woods it was also very likely we'd get it caught up in branches and other natural obstructions, so we figured the best option was to fly it in over the top of the tree canopy and then lift it up to make sure it was clear of the tree line." The small drone was not powerful enough to lift the heavy fibre cable so instead it was used to string a 100m (328ft) length of high-strength fishing line between two points above the trees. The fishing line was attached to a "draw rope" secured to the fibre-optic cable, which was then pulled along the route the drone had forged.
The drone helped string the fibre-broadband cables across the remote Welsh valley. The cabling job had been all but done in an hour, said Mr Whale. Retired teacher Chris Devismes said: "It has made a world of difference to us. I live here with my two teenage sons and they're often online - watching films, streaming music or Skyping their friends. When all three of us were online at the same time, it could often be a struggle and things would start to buffer and freeze."
Featured Member
by t_will
For the past four years and counting, @johnrooney80 has been a fixture of the giffgaff community. No matter whether you're looking for help with your phone, want to discuss potential improvements, or are just after a good natter, chances are you'll have run into John, greeting you with a genuine, friendly welcome.
Put simply, John's a lovely bloke, and no matter what he's turned his hand to at giffgaff he's found himself adept at it and willing to grow. John, we're honoured to have you on the community - here's to another four years.
Say Hello!
by kathleen414
Our newcomer @majorette ventured into the community to say "Hi everyone it's my first time on just thought I would check it out, hope you have all had a good day."
Well, my day has just got better 
, it's lovely to meet you and welcome you to your fab community.
I do hope you will be a familiar face in the future 
. Pop over and say hello.
Welcome to your giffgaff community @tonilou93.
I hope you're enjoying your time on giffgaff, we have lots for you to get involved with , be it having a chat or helping out or finding fab offers to share.
We love everyone to fab time, you can find tonilou here and get to know our member.
Welcome to your community @danielkinnu
Although Daniel has been a member over a year, it's a new foray into the community. And for the moment Daniel is trying to figure it out what can be done on giffgaff and would like some assistance.
Now then, that's what we're here for and help is at hand. So, let's get over and give a big warm welcome and pass on any help that's needed. Just click here.
Photo of the week
by premierphotosuk
This week's photo deserves a shout out to @aim101 for their lovely photo of Exeter Sunrise. What they had to say about this photo: Out and about in Exeter today, caught an early sunrise on the quay, rowers on the river and a very calm day.
I must admit I love photos like this and when I saw this photo it certainly caught my eye!
So, in view of what the members had to say and what I think of it, I believe this photo needs to be seen and featured in The gaff, you can see the members comments and photo in their main thread here.
Some of what the giffgaff members had to say regarding this photo: Beautiful photo, very nice, like the colour of the sun rising framed by the grey water & buildings. Very atmospheric.
Thanks for your lovely photo of Exeter Sunrise and sharing your photo with the giffgaff community 
. So, in light of what I have seen and what the community has said about your photo, and not just for receiving kudos, this week your photo deserves to be featured in this week's edition of The gaff. Well done aim101, keep up the great photos and sharing them with the giffgaff community. I hope to see more from you .
Interested in sharing a photo you've taken? Have a look at the thread linked below. While you're there, you can see all the previously featured photos. You never know, your photo could join the list!
Tech Developments
by revilo10
Google’s newest range of phones also brought along with them, the Pixel EarPods. Now, these are not just normally functioning EarPods, with good sound quality considering the price. They come with Google Translate functionality. You can use them to translate songs, audiobooks and text using the text-to-speech feature. Although this is a good feature to have, it's a well-known fact that Google Translate is not perfect, so Google have said with the release of these EarPods, they will be working more towards a more accurate and cleaner system, working with native speakers, to ensure that each language is as accurate as it can be.
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Previous Edition | Next Edition (8th December 2017)
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:02
Sorry everyone, the PMs are still broken. Also, my apologies go to @johnrooney80 who was featured member last week but I failed to notice - instead you have been featured this week .
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:02
Evening, gaffer's it's that's time again Folk's!!!
The gaff week after week: The gaff team are willp789, bluemoonbaz, premierphotosuk, toxiic, kathleen414, brulaw, revilo10, jammydodge, as7861.
I have a new challenge running NOW in photography: The Winter Christmas photography - graphic challenge for December through to January 2018.
So from all of The gaff team for now,
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:03
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:07
just about to have some scran so will have a look through this weeks issue shortly
thanks to all involved
@johnrooney80 featured member woohoo
on: 01/12/2017 | 18:18 - edited: 01/12/2017 | 18:20
Congratualtions to @aim101 for Photo of the week
Congratulations to @johnrooney80 for Featured member
Well deserved recognition for you both 
Happy giffgaffing everyone
on: 01/12/2017 | 19:42
Hi @willp789 and The gaff Team,
Thank you all for your hard work in putting together this weeks edition of The gaff, as always it is very informative and jam packed.
A very warm welcome to our new members: @majorette @tonilou93 @danielkinnu glad to have you with us and I hope you enjoy giffgaff as much as I do.
Congratulations to @aim101 for this weeks photo of the week, it is a great photo.
Congratulations to @johnrooney80 for being the featured member this week.
Well done to @mcilwraith @firoze and @k1ngvidic15 for getting a special mention this week.
I hope you all have a great weekend everyone.
Kind Regards
a1ant