Just trying out the Android Blogger app.
It works, well worth a try
Saturday 5 February 2011
Friday 18 July 2008
Checked it out -eBay
I guess I when looking at eBay, I have pretty well checked it out.
Having been a seller and buyer on eBay, for over 5 years, I have found it a changed place during that time.
When I first started, it was a bit of a gamble when either buying or selling, but things rapidly improved and became a sellers market. Prices secured as a seller were consistent and quite high.
eBay changed their marketing stance, looking to drive more buyers to the general marketplace and prices as a seller dropped considerably, which was a good thing for buyers and still remains the case.
The perception of eBay has changed over time and it is unusual for a transaction to go wrong and the support infrastructure makes it a pretty safe place to buy on the internet.
The range of features, searches, tracking asking for products and product reviews, along with a vastly improved feedback system, makes it a venue of choice for many online purchases.
It is always worth a search, to see what eBay prices are for items, before heading over to 'regular' shops, as there is often a decent bargain to be found and for the more obscure, or collectors item, it remains and always has been a first choice venue.
If you haven't done so, take a look around eBay and see what you can find.
Come back to see what else is on checked it out
Having been a seller and buyer on eBay, for over 5 years, I have found it a changed place during that time.
When I first started, it was a bit of a gamble when either buying or selling, but things rapidly improved and became a sellers market. Prices secured as a seller were consistent and quite high.
eBay changed their marketing stance, looking to drive more buyers to the general marketplace and prices as a seller dropped considerably, which was a good thing for buyers and still remains the case.
The perception of eBay has changed over time and it is unusual for a transaction to go wrong and the support infrastructure makes it a pretty safe place to buy on the internet.
The range of features, searches, tracking asking for products and product reviews, along with a vastly improved feedback system, makes it a venue of choice for many online purchases.
It is always worth a search, to see what eBay prices are for items, before heading over to 'regular' shops, as there is often a decent bargain to be found and for the more obscure, or collectors item, it remains and always has been a first choice venue.
If you haven't done so, take a look around eBay and see what you can find.
Come back to see what else is on checked it out
Monday 5 May 2008
Checked it out Morphy Richards Stainless Steel Jug Kettle model 43311
I had been looking for a while for a new kettle, and have been happy to say the Morphy Richards kettle was the one I chose and I have now checked it out.
I was looking for two key features, quick boil and quiet. The third factor was price, which I will get onto in a minute.
The 43311 stainless steel kettle has:
Quiet boil technology
Whistle on boil (can be activatged or turned off)
Blue illumination in water gauge
Large spout for easy filling and pouring
Top button lid release
3KW Element for rapid boil
8 Cup / 1.7 litre capacity
360 Degree cordless base for right and left handed use
Removable limescale filter and concealed element
I have found the kettle stacks up to the description. Quiet it certainly is, I was convinced the whistle would never be used, but apart from the slight click as the power cuts out when the kettle boils, there is no other sound, in a nearby room to distinguish between it boiling and having boild. On more than one occassion, I have gone to reboil the kettle, only to find it had quietly gone about its business.
The jug shape and stainless steel casing, doesn't look out of place in most kitchens, the illuminaiton, which is a feature on more and more kettles, I personally find a gimmick. But it is common on so many kettles now, I guess it is all about keeping up with the Jonese's and it certainly isn't a hinderance to its efficiency.
The final considertation was price. Many kettles of a similar quality form competitors are selling at over £50.00, so I was delighted to find this was generally available at below £35.00. I was able to find it at below £30.00 form an online retailer and it to this retailer I will direct you.
Checked it out ratings.
Looks: 3 stars: well it is difficult to rate any kettle above this
Efficiency: 4 stars. It boils very quickly
Noise: 5 stars: Undoubtedly the best feature of the kettle from my point of view
Price: 4 star: Beats the vast majority of the competition hands down.
Overall: 4 stars: does exactly what it says it will, at a great price.
Available at 24 Studio for less than £30.00
Having checked it out, I would definately suggest you do the same.
I was looking for two key features, quick boil and quiet. The third factor was price, which I will get onto in a minute.
The 43311 stainless steel kettle has:
Quiet boil technology
Whistle on boil (can be activatged or turned off)
Blue illumination in water gauge
Large spout for easy filling and pouring
Top button lid release
3KW Element for rapid boil
8 Cup / 1.7 litre capacity
360 Degree cordless base for right and left handed use
Removable limescale filter and concealed element
I have found the kettle stacks up to the description. Quiet it certainly is, I was convinced the whistle would never be used, but apart from the slight click as the power cuts out when the kettle boils, there is no other sound, in a nearby room to distinguish between it boiling and having boild. On more than one occassion, I have gone to reboil the kettle, only to find it had quietly gone about its business.
The jug shape and stainless steel casing, doesn't look out of place in most kitchens, the illuminaiton, which is a feature on more and more kettles, I personally find a gimmick. But it is common on so many kettles now, I guess it is all about keeping up with the Jonese's and it certainly isn't a hinderance to its efficiency.
The final considertation was price. Many kettles of a similar quality form competitors are selling at over £50.00, so I was delighted to find this was generally available at below £35.00. I was able to find it at below £30.00 form an online retailer and it to this retailer I will direct you.
Checked it out ratings.
Looks: 3 stars: well it is difficult to rate any kettle above this
Efficiency: 4 stars. It boils very quickly
Noise: 5 stars: Undoubtedly the best feature of the kettle from my point of view
Price: 4 star: Beats the vast majority of the competition hands down.
Overall: 4 stars: does exactly what it says it will, at a great price.
Available at 24 Studio for less than £30.00
Having checked it out, I would definately suggest you do the same.
Wednesday 30 April 2008
Checked it out - Littlewoods
Having languished as a reactive catalogue shop for some years, they are rebranded and repositioned and I have checked it out.
With a recent spate of television advertising, Littlewoods Home Shopping have embraced the internet, making shopping far more simple and attaining a much wider reach. The days of wading through hundreds of pages of rubbish has nbeen replaced by a simple internet search. They do still sell through catalogues if that is preferred.
The old days of over priced catalogues full of over priced cheap tat, look way behind them.
Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited is the UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer, with annual sales of around £2 billion and five million customers. They sell all of the major brands, including Sony, Nike, Levi’s, Adidas, Phillips, Kodak, Dyson, Bosch, Amanda Wakeley, Morgan and Miss Sixty.
With a recent spate of television advertising, Littlewoods Home Shopping have embraced the internet, making shopping far more simple and attaining a much wider reach. The days of wading through hundreds of pages of rubbish has nbeen replaced by a simple internet search. They do still sell through catalogues if that is preferred.
The old days of over priced catalogues full of over priced cheap tat, look way behind them.
Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited is the UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer, with annual sales of around £2 billion and five million customers. They sell all of the major brands, including Sony, Nike, Levi’s, Adidas, Phillips, Kodak, Dyson, Bosch, Amanda Wakeley, Morgan and Miss Sixty.
Having appeared from almost nowhere, they aim to double nline sales to £750 million in the next three years.
To support the expected growth of online retailing, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group has a highly valuable and efficient infrastructure that no other UK retailers can rival – sourcing, warehousing, single pick and pack distribution, home delivery to customers.
Over the past four years, they have transformed and modernised the entire business.Having made an online purchase from them for a antony worral bbq, I was delighted with the prce, (securing a significant discount as a new customer) which made the purchase highly price competative with 1 years interest free credit on orders over £60.
The bbq arrived quickly and the whole process of shopping with them was simple and easy.
Ease of purchase: 4 star
Speed of delivery: 4 star
Price: 4 star (the interest free credit terms and discounts available offset the web page price, which can be higher than other stores)
Well worth a visit, you may be as pleasantly suprised as I was
£15 off your first order of £25 or more at LittlewoodsThanks for taking a look at checked it out
Monday 26 November 2007
Checked it out Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista, Home premium, I have checked it out over the past two months.
According to the geeks, it is no good and has all kinds of problems, with the stark warning, keep away until the service pack upgrade in the new year.
Well, my experience, as a Computer user, doesn't support that view. It is easy to use, easy to set up and easy to manage.
One of the complaints about Vista, is the processing capacity required by the computer to run Vista. Sure, an old computer is going to struggle, but on a relatively robust 6 - 12 month old system, it really is no big deal. The PC I have been running it on, has 512mb Ram and a processor speed of 2ghz, the dashboard tells me, I can't watchTV on my monitor using Vista comfortably. Hey strangely enough, my world isn't going to end, as I have a TV.
The operating system throttles back to accommodate the computer being used, which is ideal for someone who doesn't want, or know how, to tweak their PC.
The widgets available for the system home page, are a bit gimmicky for my use, but if you want rss feeds, weather and a host of other applications on your screen when you start up, Vista has it.
The ability to tile windows in a 3d style format is a cool application, which I happen to like.
One bug bear when you first get Vista, is the security settings are so high, you almost need to confirm you really want the computer switched on. But that is easy to change, like the security settings on a browser.
I guess the technicians don't like Vista, because it enables the user to do much of what they used to pay technicians to do.
One pain, is compatibility. There are many applications which are not Vista compatible, which will undoubtedly change as the system becomes more widespread.
In my view, for the average home user, small business application, it is a better, more stable product that XP.
Marks
Ease of use 4 stars, easy to manage and set up, does need tweaking when you first start
Stability 5 stars, not had a crash
Speed of start up 4 stars, as slow or quick as XP
Gimmicks 4 stars, if you like them it is full of widgets
Overall 4 stars, it is a Microsoft product, which you can view as either a good or bad thing.
Make sure you keep coming back to see what else is blogged in checked it out.
According to the geeks, it is no good and has all kinds of problems, with the stark warning, keep away until the service pack upgrade in the new year.
Well, my experience, as a Computer user, doesn't support that view. It is easy to use, easy to set up and easy to manage.
One of the complaints about Vista, is the processing capacity required by the computer to run Vista. Sure, an old computer is going to struggle, but on a relatively robust 6 - 12 month old system, it really is no big deal. The PC I have been running it on, has 512mb Ram and a processor speed of 2ghz, the dashboard tells me, I can't watchTV on my monitor using Vista comfortably. Hey strangely enough, my world isn't going to end, as I have a TV.
The operating system throttles back to accommodate the computer being used, which is ideal for someone who doesn't want, or know how, to tweak their PC.
The widgets available for the system home page, are a bit gimmicky for my use, but if you want rss feeds, weather and a host of other applications on your screen when you start up, Vista has it.
The ability to tile windows in a 3d style format is a cool application, which I happen to like.
One bug bear when you first get Vista, is the security settings are so high, you almost need to confirm you really want the computer switched on. But that is easy to change, like the security settings on a browser.
I guess the technicians don't like Vista, because it enables the user to do much of what they used to pay technicians to do.
One pain, is compatibility. There are many applications which are not Vista compatible, which will undoubtedly change as the system becomes more widespread.
In my view, for the average home user, small business application, it is a better, more stable product that XP.
Marks
Ease of use 4 stars, easy to manage and set up, does need tweaking when you first start
Stability 5 stars, not had a crash
Speed of start up 4 stars, as slow or quick as XP
Gimmicks 4 stars, if you like them it is full of widgets
Overall 4 stars, it is a Microsoft product, which you can view as either a good or bad thing.
Make sure you keep coming back to see what else is blogged in checked it out.
Saturday 17 November 2007
Checked it out freewebs
Having used Freewebs for a couple of months I can safely say, I have checked it out.
Freewebs, is a great site for blogging, as it provides many gadgets and widgets which can be added to a site, from videos, images, through shopping, to fun ideas. Freewebs, offers a free blogging service, which really comes with all many people will need for a blog, but there are also premium services available.
Although I was impressed with the site I have always found the statistics on visitors to be useless. It is nigh on impossible, with a free account to add one of the proprietary trackers and I therefore didn't use the service to anything like it's full potential.
That now is all behind us, as freewebs have just added a tracking system to the blog.
While blogger, remains a perennial favourite for new blogs, freewebs is fast on the tail, with it's comprehensive widgets and tools. Well worth having a look.
My own site over there is pretty basic, but will give you some idea.
Visit My Website
Ease of use 4 stars, easy enough, but a lot to learn
Personalisation 3 stars, a free account is a little limited with the templates
I will certainly be staying with freewebs and expect to use it more frequently, now the stats issue has been resolved
Freewebs, is a great site for blogging, as it provides many gadgets and widgets which can be added to a site, from videos, images, through shopping, to fun ideas. Freewebs, offers a free blogging service, which really comes with all many people will need for a blog, but there are also premium services available.
Although I was impressed with the site I have always found the statistics on visitors to be useless. It is nigh on impossible, with a free account to add one of the proprietary trackers and I therefore didn't use the service to anything like it's full potential.
That now is all behind us, as freewebs have just added a tracking system to the blog.
While blogger, remains a perennial favourite for new blogs, freewebs is fast on the tail, with it's comprehensive widgets and tools. Well worth having a look.
My own site over there is pretty basic, but will give you some idea.
Visit My Website
Ease of use 4 stars, easy enough, but a lot to learn
Personalisation 3 stars, a free account is a little limited with the templates
I will certainly be staying with freewebs and expect to use it more frequently, now the stats issue has been resolved
Wednesday 31 October 2007
Checked it out - Helium
Having been a member of Helium for about 4 weeks, I have now checked it out.
Helium, is a website for writers. A site on which it is possible to write about practically any subject. The aim, as stated by the site owners, is to make Helium the number one source for information on the Internet.
Helium, has a few interesting twists to it, which helps manage the integrity of the site and information.
All articles, once submitted, are subject to voting in comparison to other articles on the same subject. So poor articles drop and better articles rise to the surface.
Debates can be instigated with writers submitting articles to support their point of view, once again articles can be rated against each other.
Articles are commissioned by magazines, journals, bloggers etc. The commissioning client makes the final selection, of course, but the articles are again rated against each other. The commissioned article is then paid for by the commissioning client. Articles selected earn upwards of US$20.00
In addition, revenues from the site are shared with article writers. Articles earning a weighting for their level in comparison to other similar articles and earning in relation to the traffic the article subject draws top the site.
It is a great place to develop writing skills, whilst simultaneously receiving payment.
Writing in Helium, is not like writing on a blog, as the articles are generally longer and more formally structured.
If you enjoy writing, or want to develop your writing skills, I would say Helium is a great place to go.
Having checked it out, I will certainly continue to write on Helium
Helium, is a website for writers. A site on which it is possible to write about practically any subject. The aim, as stated by the site owners, is to make Helium the number one source for information on the Internet.
Helium, has a few interesting twists to it, which helps manage the integrity of the site and information.
All articles, once submitted, are subject to voting in comparison to other articles on the same subject. So poor articles drop and better articles rise to the surface.
Debates can be instigated with writers submitting articles to support their point of view, once again articles can be rated against each other.
Articles are commissioned by magazines, journals, bloggers etc. The commissioning client makes the final selection, of course, but the articles are again rated against each other. The commissioned article is then paid for by the commissioning client. Articles selected earn upwards of US$20.00
In addition, revenues from the site are shared with article writers. Articles earning a weighting for their level in comparison to other similar articles and earning in relation to the traffic the article subject draws top the site.
It is a great place to develop writing skills, whilst simultaneously receiving payment.
Writing in Helium, is not like writing on a blog, as the articles are generally longer and more formally structured.
If you enjoy writing, or want to develop your writing skills, I would say Helium is a great place to go.
Having checked it out, I will certainly continue to write on Helium
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