Author Archives: GEEK!

Are wireless headphones just over-hyped or are they worth the extra money?

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I was recently browsing through the Amazon store for a new pair of headphones. I have countless pairs of earphones – some of which have great sound quality – but they tend to break so easily and are only goody for light use.

However, whilst browsing, it crossed my mind to have a look at some wireless headphones. I’ve previously known them to be very expensive and many of them seem to have poor build and sound quality.

However, I stumbled across a £24 pair on Amazon that had good reviews and thought I didn’t have much to lose – so I bought a pair.

It’s fair to say – considering the price tag – they’re brilliant. They aren’t branded (so those of you who like to show off their brands – these aren’t for you!), but that never seems to bother me!

The sound quality is relatively good and I was pleasantly surprised. The headphones have decent bass and don’t seem to sound “tinny” in the slightest.

They will happily connect to any Bluetooth audio device in stereo and/or mono (eg PC, iPod touch 2G or above, iPhone, any smartphone, etc) and it’s really simple to get them going. Simply hold down the multifunction key for 7 seconds (when the blue and red LEDs flash) and connect to them as normal.

I was also really impressed by the battery life. I’ve had these headphones for several days now and have used them for hours on end – and they’ve still only been charged once! They usually outrun the battery life of my iPod by miles!!

My only minor complaint is the LEDs on the device. When you’re using the headphones, a blue LED flashes occasionally. Whilst this is fine in a well lit room or outside, it can be irritating if you’re trying to use them in the dark or at night.

Other than that, they’re a fantastic pair of budget wireless headphones and seem to outsmart many of their more expensive competitors. At £24 a pair, you really don’t have much to lose.

Post tweets to your facebook page (and vice versa) thanks to Ifttt

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Recently I discovered that my twitter tweets were no longer being posted to my facebook page. I’ve never really got to the bottom of why my twitter settings no longer give me an option to posts tweets to my facebook page (only to my own profile now?) but nevertheless I pretty much gave up trying to sort it directly.

However, thanks to BBC Click, I’ve found a new service that does the same thing for me. It’s called Ifttt (with 3 t’s) and basically it’s a social network roundabout. It links together with countless social networks at your request (many of which I’ve never even heard of) and gives you the option to perform a wide range of tasks based on certain variables.

For example, I can link it to my last.fm account and make it post a custom facebook status to my profile every time I love a track. Pretty cool, eh?

What’s handy for me, though, is that I can tell it to post a message to my facebook wall every time I tweet. This resolves my problem and means my twitter ramblings can now be seen to my facebook fans once more!

It isn’t perfect, though. My main problem is that it only checks for new events every 15 minutes – which does mean that there’s a small delay between an event occurring and a task being completed. Still, it’s far better than nothing!

It amazes me how many networks it can communicate, so if you’re one who likes to publicise you’re events on all your social networks – this is the service built for you! It’s totally free and has a very tidy website, so why not take a look?

Is the new “Find My Friends” app by Apple a handy tool or a stalker’s paradise?

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To coincide with the release of iOS5 on October 12th, Apple released several new optional apps for iPod touch, iPhone and iPad. One of these apps is Find My Friends, which claims to be a handy tool for locating friends and family by making use of their GPS and A-GPS functionality.

The new app has been met with mixed reviews – with many claiming the app could simply be used as a stalker’s tool in the wrong hands.

However, I happen to think that the app is a very clever idea – with many not-seen-before features that make the app a safe, unobtrusive yet helpful way of keeping track of friends and family.

First of all, the app is completely opt-in only. This means that people can only track you with full permission granted by you – meaning nobody can publicly see where you are.

You can either invite people to permanent access to your location, or temporary “event” access which gives people access to your location for a set date and time. This means, for example, that if you’re meeting somebody at a festival, you can give them temporary access which terminates when the festival is over.

Also, you can quite easily turn off the app’s location tracking if you’re going somewhere you’d rather other people didn’t know about – simply by switching on ‘Hide from Followers” in the Me tab – making it easy to hide personal places. Whilst I’d quite like it to have a function where you could tell it not to report specific places, I’m sure this could eventually be possible.

Overall, I think this is an improvement on many previous tracking apps that have been released – and could seen as very useful to many.

MP3Puzzled – Compare MP3 download prices

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If, like me, you’re one of those people who still purchase MP3s, this site may be of interest to you.

It’s called MP3Puzzled, and it allows you to compare prices of MP3 downloads from various legitimate retailers – such as iTunes and Amazon.

You can even view how the prices have changed historically – which is both pointless and kind of handy at the same time!

In any case, it’s a handy, free little tool that I thought I’d mention.

Skype finally fixes “Skype Home” bug

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Skype has recently released Skype version 5.5.0.119, which – finally – fixes the bug where Skype Home appears every time the program launches.

If you downloaded the KillSkypeHome applet, you’ll now need to remove that from your system after installing the update.

The update is available through Skype’s own update system, or from FileHippo.