Posted by admin on December 19th, 2008
Everybody wants to own the best laptop don’t they? I know I do.
Is there even a best laptop?
I think so, and by best I don’t mean the one with the most memory, or CPU power or the one with the most gadgets of best quality screen. I mean the one that is best for the job in hand.
Take the Dell Vostro 1000 for example, this is by no means the best laptop for gaming or detailed graphics work but if you are looking for a cheap and tough laptop to use on the commute to or from work then you will struggle to find many better. The machine has everything that is needed to let you check email and have wireless access to the net and the spec will run many traditional business apps comfortably whilst not breaking the bank.
On the other hand the Acer Aspire 5100 could be the best laptop for you if you are a multimedia nut with a budget. Of course you can spend twice as much as the $899 price tag the Acer comes with and get a superior spec laptop but is that extra cash worth is then the 5100 comes with a massive hard drive, around 160 gig, has a high end HD Dual Layer DVD drive, great graphics provided from the ATI Radeon Xpress 1100 graphics card and has more ports that you’d care to imagine, from the 5-in-1 card reader, built-in wireless, optional Bluetooth module, Ethernet, four USBs, ExpressCard, DVI-D, FireWire, S-Video/TV, and PC cardslot you are definitely not left wanting.
So ask yourself the next time you look to buy a laptop or even desktop computer, do you need the best? or just the best for the job?
Posted by admin on December 18th, 2008
What would you say if I told you you could have a mobile phone on contract for 12 months and get 9 months of that contract for free? How about 10 months or 11 months free? Or how about the whole lot free?
Thats where 12 months free line rental .com comes in. This is a price comparison web site for mobile phones and a great one at that. A glace at the first page and I found a Sony Ericsson T303 Silver on Vodaphone where I get 600 minutes and 500 texts per month and I get 11 months of the line rental paid for. So how much do you end up paying for the above - £39.15.
OK how does it work?
First off you sign up and you get your phone and minutes each month, what you do is pay your monthly line rental and then 2-4 times a year claim a cash back from the mobile retailer. At the end of the 12 month contract you will have the phone and will have had 600 minutes and 500 texts every month all for £39.15.
It gets even better. A quick look on eBay and I found the exact phone going for anywhere from £60-75. You could sell the phone on and actually be up on the deal by £20 or more and you still get to use all the minutes and texts.
If you’re still looking for a late Christmas present why not pop across to http://www.12monthsfreelinerental.com/
Posted by admin on December 15th, 2008
Windows 7
Talk has started around the new operating system from Microsoft, Windows 7 will be the successor to Windows Vista and is expected to be available sometime in 2010. The new OS is currently part way through a 3 year development period and the exact launch date will only be released once certain quality targets have been met.
Some of the key features of the new OS will include:
* Advancements in touch, speech, and handwriting recognition, support for virtual hard disks, improved performance on multi-core processors, improved boot performance, and kernel improvements.
* Support for systems using multiple heterogeneous graphics cards from different vendors and a new version of Windows Media Center.
* Gadgets being integrated into Windows Explorer, a Gadget for Windows Media Center.
* The ability to visually pin and unpin items from the Start Menu and Recycle Bin.
* Improved media features, the XPS Essentials Pack being integrated.
* A multiline Calculator featuring Programmer and Statistics modes along with unit conversion.
A couple of screen shots of different builds are currently available, just click the thumbnails below:
Posted by admin on December 15th, 2008
Don’t get me wrong, I love my iPhone, its the best mobile I have ever had but it seems that now the novelty has worn off it is quite easy to pick out some major faults with the phone. I have a black 8Gig 3G model and here goes:
Camera - Its very basic, too basic for such a phone. I think the spec is about 2MP and with other phones coming out with 5MP as standard and camera phones having upto 8MP it just seems that it was chucked in there to say it has one. To top it off there is no functionality at all - no flash, no zoom and video mode.
Speaker - The speaker for music i very poor, but its not this I have problems with. I don’t like to walk around playing my music to everyone, just to me. What I have a problem with is the quality of the calls I receive. I have often had to ask people to repeat what they are saying because the speaker is crackling or just unclear.
Those are the issues I have had with my phone. I know someone who is still using the original iPhone and the battery charge icon has stopped working so you have no idea how much charge you have left i the phone and a friends 3g model decided yesterday that it wanted to stay in the phone option and not return to the main menu or even turn off. Even after a forced restart it returned to the phone menu so there was no way to even read text messages let a lone do anything else.
Looks like there might be a few bugs to iron out before the next version. But like I said, I love it and still would not change it for any other phone!
Posted by admin on December 15th, 2008
When it comes to quality Blu-Ray is the current king of the castle. I remember not long back when the PS3 was around £500 just after release and standalone Blu-Ray players were not far from double that amount. Times have changed however and not Blu-Ray is an affordable option if you seek only the best quality when watching movies.
Take the Sony BDP-S500 Blu-Ray DVD Player for example, a top of the range Blu-Ray player that can be picked up for under £400. To be honest though I still cannot see the point in paying that for a Blu-Ray player alone when you can also have a games console built in for the same or cheaper price. My argument is flawed on if -
- You are not a gaming geek like me
- You want the very best from your player
I can see a great argument in both cases as why not to get a PS3 as your Blu-Ray Player. For a start the S500 looks a lot better in my eyes than the clunk and large Playstation 3 and the Sony S500 also has some outstanding features including a wide range of playable formats including CD-R, CD-RW, DVD+-R and RW. The player also has the ability to upscale DVD’s to resolutions of 720p, 1080i and 1080p. Ideal if you don’t want to re-buy all your movie collection on Blu-Ray Disc.
I guess prices would have to drop at least another 25% to warrant me owning both, but for me its still too expensive when I can have the Playstation option.
