My week according to Twitter - Week 7

Had a call from @Eggheads13 this afternoon asking us to go for another audition. Will have to try and get the team back together!

— Matt Fazakerley (@mfaz) February 15, 2012

A couple of years ago I auditioned for Eggheads along with a team of some friends from uni. We were regularly going to pub quizzes and avidly watching Eggheads so we decided to send off an application form. We then had a trip up to Leeds for an audition. A couple of weeks after the audition we found out we had made the shortlist and were given a list of dates for the recordings. Unfortunately they were during our exams so there weren't many dates we could do and we weren't asked to go to a recording.

My week according to twitter- Week 1

So its the end of the first week of 2012 and I still haven't got round to writing my review of 2011, but I am about to write a summary of my week according to twitter (@mfaz).

#thebankjob and #millionpounddrop. Two programmes that are only watchable with the ability to fast forward through the slow, boring parts

— Matt Fazakerley (@mfaz) January 2, 2012

On Monday a new show started on Channel 4 called the Bank Job. A few weeks ago Channel 4 launched an online version of the game (The Bank Job online) to get people for the show. I got quite addicted to it, answering questions, winning 'money' and trying to beat my opponents for a good hour, so I thought I would watch it on TV. Unfortunately it was very much in the same category as The Million Pound Drop. I liked it but it was very slow with 2 minute rounds taking nearer 20 minutes. This is definitely a programme I will only be able to bare if I record it and fast forward through the pointless chat and attempts to build up tension.

Kik vs WhatsApp

Ok, so I haven't got round to writing my review of 2011 and look forward to 2012, but I wanted to write about somethings that are quite current.

Firstly, the Kik vs WhatsApp question. Which is better, Kik or WhatsApp?

I've been using Whatsapp for a while now, mainly to send free photos, videos and voice messages to my friends and for group conversations when organising something. However, yesterday I saw 'Kik' trending on twitter so I decided to investigate. After discovering it was another messaging app for smartphones I thought I would download it so I could compare it to WhatsApp.

After having it for 1 day this is what I have found.

The benefits:
- Kik is free to download on all phones (WhatsApp costs a small amount to download on an iPhone). 
- Kik takes up a lot less space on my phone compared to WhatsApp, which is a big benefit for me as my Samsung Galaxy Ace doesn't have much internal memory.
- You need to register for Kik and get a username, which then allows other people to add you as a contact without them having your phone number.
- You choose what name and photo is displayed to people you chat to with Kik, not the other way round like in WhatsApp.
- Kik has a better Sent/Delivered/Read notification system for each sent message than WhatsApp's tick system.
- You can block people who manage to get your username/ phone number so they can't contact you.

The disadvantages:
- It seemed to be slow to send and deliver my messages at first. Not sure if this was due to my data connection or a lot of people downloading the app and trying it out for the first time.
- There are a lot less emoticons available in Kik than in WhatsApp.
- None of my existing WhatsApp contacts were using Kik until yesterday. Now 2 of them are.
But that's all I have found so far.

Conclusion:
I've decided that the benefits definitely outweigh the negatives though as one of my friends uses Kik but doesn't have WhatsApp. I can now send him photos or videos for free which I could not previously do.

So for now I will still be mainly using WhatsApp still and occasionally use Kik. That might change though if more and more of my friends download and start using Kik.

Let me know if you disagree with anything or if you have found out any other benefits or disadvantages.