Category Archives: Product Reviews

GEEK! Product Reviews

giffgaff to launch new data-only goodybags on October 17th

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giffgaff has recently announced that it will, on October 10th 17th, be launching it’s latest service – data only goodybags.

These goodybags will be destined for iPad, tablet and mi-fi users who like to use their mobile connection to provide internet to other devices. Tethering will be permitted with these special goodybags.

Users may be required to order a seperate SIM for their tablet or mi-fi. Once activated, three packages will be available.

  • 500MB for 30 days: £5
  • 1GB for 30 days: £7.50
  • 3GB for 30 days: £12.50

These seem to be very competitive pay-as-you-go prices. The nearest competitor is 3, however they have a reputation of much better coverage and data speed than other networks.

giffgaff insist that the goodybags are sold at “cost price” – meaning giffgaff makes a loss if you use all of the data in your goodybag. A bold move – and one which could be extremely risky. giffgaff are betting on some people not using all of the data in their allowance, but I’m not confident this will be the case.

Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how popular the goodybags become.

To order a free SIM with giffgaff and get £5 free credit on activation, click here.

Orange removes broadband Fair Use Policy

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Long time readers of GEEK! may know the Orange complaint I made in late 2009. In the past, I’ve also written to Ofcom and complained about the vague FUP that gave no details as to what they defined as “unlimited”.

Well, finally, Orange have removed their FUP and now supposedly no longer limits the amount of data people can download. Orange claim that they now offer totally unlimited downloads.

Previously, Orange would contact you if they believed you were using an excessive amount of data in a given month. If they believed that you were not taking action following their warnings, they would throttle your connection to almost unusable speeds during peak periods until they were satisfied that you had changed your ways.

I love what they’ve written though: “Some of the other broadband providers out there track and limit your speed if you reach a certain amount of data, we don’t.” Of course, they would know that – because they used to be one of the few providers that actually did it!

Lovefilm – first class DVD/Bluray rentals – but at a cost

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A few weeks ago, I was offered a free one month trial of Lovefilm and a £15 Amazon voucher (I believe Amazon are still running the promotion, so check amazon.co.uk). I like free, so thought I’d give it a try. I’m pretty careful about reading the terms though – don’t want to get charged money – so I did check them over and they seemed fine. Basically, they give you one month free – during which time you can rent as many films as you like (2 at a time), and then if you don’t cancel by the end of the month you’ll be charged the recurring subscription price (£13.27 at the time of writing). You’ll be sent your Amazon voucher within 30 days after you’ve got 10 films on your rental list and the first one has been dispatched.

Anyway, conditions aside, I thought I’d sign up and see what it was like. You have to provide card details, and they’ll authorize a £1 payment from your account – but this is refunded after about a week. Got it going, added some films and waited for the packages to fall through the postbox.

I have to say – after three weeks of trying it – I really do like the service. The speed of delivery is very good – with DVD’s usually arriving next day after despatch. They are packaged well and seem to keep the DVDs in good condition while in transit.

I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of DVD in a couple of cases. A couple of the discs that I ordered (particularly with older titles) were scratched to the point of them skipping – which irritated me slightly. However, you can report a problem with any disc you’ve had out and they will check it for you.

The website is also very easy to use. You simply choose which films you’d like to rent and it adds them to your list. You can even make separate lists for friends and family and choose how many discs are dispatched from each list. That, together with the watch online feature – which allows you to watch many titles online for free, makes the website relatively enjoyable to use.

Unfortunately, the cost of the service is a slight downfall. £13.27 per month for 2 titles at a time, I would say, is quite steep unless you really are an avid film lover. It’s a shame, because with many older releases being £3 each, it does make the service look quite expensive.  think the idea of it is brilliant – particularly if you watch a lot of films – but for me, I’ve managed to get through most of the films I wanted to see within the month!

However, if you are interested in renting films on a long term basis, this is well worth looking into. I’d much rather use Lovefilm than a conventional film rental service (in a shop). You’ve just got to keep on top of it (and make sure you’ve got enough films to see), otherwise it probably won’t be worth your money.

Samsung N145P Review – a brilliant on-the-go netbook

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I recently decided that it was about time that I invested in some form of portable computing. I’ve been wanting a netbook for some time, but I was never sure what to get as I wanted a good balance of strong battery life and solid performance.

Last weekend I found the answer. Whilst browsing through various retail stores, I came across the Samsung N145P. I liked the look of the specs (see below) and the design so I took it home and gave it a spin.

The specs of the machine are:

  • 1.66Ghz Atom N450 with Hyperthreading
  • 1GB DDR2 (800mhz) RAM
  • Intel GMA 3150 graphics
  • 250GB hard drive
  • 3x USB 2.0
  • 6 cell 4400mAH battery
  • Windows 7 Starter

I have to say, I’m seriously impressed with the machine. I have made a couple of modifications to it – admittedly – such as replacing Windows 7 Starter with Home Premium and moving it from 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM (which made one hell of an improvement).

The battery life is brilliant. Before I upgraded the RAM, it would go for more-or-less 9 hours on a single charge. I’ve upgraded the RAM now which seems to have hampered battery life a little, but I’m still getting 8-8.5 hours of light use which is more than enough for my daily needs.

The Atom processor is more powerful than I thought it would be, booting up a clean Windows 7 installation within 30 seconds. The 1GB RAM was definitely limiting factor – making the system very jumpy if more than one application was open. I’m really not sure how anyone can sell a Windows 7 machine with 1GB RAM. Anyhow, sticking a 2GB chip in the back made no end of improvement. My system can now happily deal with 4 or 5 applications open at the same time.

The system also comes with a built-in webcam and microphone which perform well in Skype and Windows Live Messenger calls. The built in stereo speakers (1.5W each) cope will with music; a little lack of bass to be honest – but for a netbook you would never expect 5-star sound. Plugging in a decent set of headphones will solve the problem well.

The 250GB hard drive is speedy and seems to perform well in read-write tests. You also get a 4-in-1 card reader so there’s room for flash expansion if you want, but the cards don’t slot in properly so be careful.

The machine itself is very quiet. The only thing you can hear in the hard drive, but even that is very quiet. The built-in cooling fan is more-or-less silent, even at full pelt. In terms of comfort to use – I’m very impressed too, as the device does not get very warm after consistent use. The keyboard is a joy to use, with decent feedback and keys that aren’t too springy.

Overall – as you can probably tell – I’m extremely impressed. For a mid-range netbook, it does cope very well with some of my demanding software. If you’re looking for a machine to deal with your office work and light entertainment on the go – this is your netbook!

Ok, the BT Infinity upgrade is pretty cool

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I had a nice surprise today when I got home from college. My flat’s broadband is typically about 1.8Mbit per second down and has been since I moved in. However, as BT have been promising free fibre upgrades to people who can get it, clearly I’ve had an upgrade.

This is the new speed that I’m very much getting used to:

Now that’s more like it!