Just a quick post to say I’ve just found an interesting little application. If you want to backup your iPod or iPhone’s music tracks, you usually have to pay for some commercial piece of software.
However, I’ve just found an app called SharePod. It’s totally free and will backup as many tracks as you want (purchased or personal) to your specified destination.
Go and grab it if you want to rescue any tracks from your iPod or iPhone.
I was wondering around my local Maplin store and stumbled across a new gadget taking advantage of the sun.
Now if you read my blog frequently, you may be aware that I’m a big fan of solar gadgets. I love the fact that I can get free electricity for my gadgets with help from cheap(ish) solar technology.
This gadget is called the Freeloader Pico. It’s very clever because it’s no bigger than a standard mobile phone (if not a tiny bit thicker) yet it holds an 800mA battery and a 75mA solar panel. You can charge the battery via the solar panel or from a mini USB input. It can take as little as 10 hours to charge from the sun and 4 hours to charge over USB.
Once charged, it will charge a gadget for between 30 minutes and an hour. What makes it stand out for me is that it delivers it’s output via a standard USB port, meaning you can charge almost any device that supports USB charging.
It also comes with four output plugs and you can buy more online.
I think it’s great. I can carry it around in my pocket and get it out when I need juice. It charges fairly quickly from the sun and provides quick, efficient power. It’s ideal for walking trips or long trips without access to the plug.
I recently stumbled across this new UK mobile network, and I have to say – it’s a dream come true for me.
They are a very interesting phone network because they are unique in many ways. When you’ve got your SIM card running and you’re using the network, it all seems very standard and basic – but take a look under the hood and you’ll notice a very clever concept.
The basic idea behind giffgaff is very simple. They cut all the expensive marketing and support services and replace them with much cheaper and efficient solutions. By doing this, they can provide a mobile phone service that is considerably cheaper than competitors whilst having happy customers.
For example, they don’t do telephone customer service. Instead, they provide an online community forum that people can submit problems to and members of the network respond with possible solutions. There are also moderators and managers who can help with the slightly more technical problems. And for peace of mind, they also provide an “Ask an Agent” service for the people who need administrative help such as call bars and setup help.
They don’t own any masts – these are provided by O2 and work pretty well. 3G coverage is not brilliant (O2 have always had a bad reputation for 3G coverage) but 2G is coverage is very good for calls and texts. You’ll get 3G in large towns and cities but don’t expect to get it in your rural countryside home.
That brings me nicely onto the subject of costs. They are trying to keep things simple by simply providing one pay as you go tariff. The basic cost of this tariff is as follows:
So as you can you see, it’s pretty good value. They haven’t sorted bundles (eg for texts or calls) yet, but as far as I am aware, they are working on that.
If you’d like to give it a try, head over to giffgaff.com and request your free SIM. You’ll have to pay £10 when you get it to activate it (this will give you £10 credit) and you’ll be away within a few minutes of activation.
I really love it and I’m pretty sure 3 will be losing my custom as I’m not impressed by their upcoming price increase. I suggest you give it a try. You’ll need an unlocked phone – that’s it.
Many customers of Hutchison 3G in the UK have expressed their anger at the upcoming changes to pay as you go prices on the company’s blog.
The company recently proposed changes to the price plans starting April 22nd. The changes will include a charge for voicemail and slightly more expensive calls for people on the 3Pay plan.
I am one of the people who complained, and as a result I have now got my PAC code from the company.
I’ve just spotted the network Giffgaff and have ordered a FREE SIM from them. They look brilliant as they are totally community based – just what a phone network needs to be. Anyhow, I’ll review them when I’ve got my SIM.
I’ll be sad to leave 3 as they used to be fantastic. I have been with them for over 18 months on PAYG and loved them up until the price change. However, if they are going to rip us off with unfair charges, I’ll just walk away.
3 should have thought their plans through a bit more carefully. I think they’ll regret making a move like that so quickly.
Yep, sadly from 22nd April (a really bad day to choose for me!) 3 are changing their PAYG price plans and adding a couple of costs.
On all Pay as you Go customers, voicemail will cost and MMS messages will cost more. There’s also a slight increase in the cost of international calls.
From 22nd April:
In return for this, 3 are introducing free Twitter and 0.facebook.com access for all PAYG customers, permanently.
I think this is a bit of shame really – I loved the free voicemail. None of the other changes will bother me that much but the free voicemail was a big bonus for me.
In any case, 3 still provide fantastic network coverage and great value plans so I suppose it isn’t all that bad.
Never mind – I’ll just put call divert on and reroute it to my Skype voicemail.