Posted by admin on May 15, 2011 in
geekery,
lists,
technology Headphones are great things. They let you listen to Lady GaGa/ Britney/ Rebbecca Black (well, somebody must..) without anyone hearing you and judging you. They’ve moved beyond functional items (and a great way to make lessons more interesting) to stylish high end accessories, and are available in all sorts of styles and colours. Whether you’re an audiophile looking for a great frequency range, or a 5 year old wanting sound protection there’s something for you.. and then there are the following. Here are ten weird headphones created purely for the fact that people take a step back when they see them. Know any good ones not on the list? Leave a comment below and I’ll add it in with a credit.
Vesta Life headphones
These beautiful headphones add a certain artistry to a T-shirt, being both functional and decorative simultaneously. I love the zip style collar and they come in a variety of designs, without compromising on sound quality. Can’t find them online, but they should be available here eventually.
[via]
Stethescope Headphones
The popularity of Scrubs and ER has shown us that everyone loves a doctor (and George Clooney), so why not listen to your tunes, stethoscope style? Designed by Anterpo Design Industry, the headphones include a mic and remote and let you listen to tunes, and make and receive calls. No prescription pad included.
[via]
EarMuff headphones
Stay snug from the elements and listen to Disney/ Ben Folds Five on the sly. Available in multiple colours, from neutral shades to baby pink, you can get these from Strapaya World.
Transformers Takara Headphones
The Ultimate in fan chic, these cool looking headphones actually morph into soundbuds you can hook into your ears. You get the options of Rumble or Frenzy! Love the fact you can play with them, but sound quality is below par. Still, with these in your lugs- who cares?
$119.99 from Amazon Read more…
Tags: jersey shore headphone, kitten headphones, strange headphones, vesta life, weird headphones
Posted by admin on May 10, 2011 in
opinion,
technology 
Twitter is a fabulous resource for many things. I use it for monitoring trends, finding cool sites, sharing my links and getting top expert advice for free (from the many accountants, recruiters and developers that populate Twitter). Twitter has evolved from being a somewhat dismissed ‘Facebook status update site’ where people shared the culinary delights of their breakfasts to a playground for tech lovers and communicators where views are shared , expressed and deliberated on. You have instant contact to all sorts of experts, from magazine editors to realtors, and I’ve had a lot of free expert advice when I’ve tweeted out for help (and reciprocated in kind). It’s a marketers dream as you have untapped access to a potentially huge audience, so it’s no wonder most brands are hiring social media consultants ( a moniker I’ve been known to adopt) and getting heavily Twitter involved. Where this strategy falls down though is when people get to obsessed over the number of ‘followers’ their account has and starts to look as Twitter as a numbers game rather than a service about engagement. They get into a desperate race to get as many followers as they can, little realizing that this is actually a fools errand. Services have sprung up to cater to these execs, marketing themselves as being able to get you ’10,000 followers in 10 days’, for a price, naturally.
Twitter n00bs may see this as an exciting offer- they’ll quickly be able to impress their boss, look like they’ve been hugely productive and push their catfood/ mobile phone/ really funny vid they’re calling a ‘viral’ out to loads of people. In theory it sounds great, but the reality is something very different.
Here are my four reasons why this wouldn’t be a clever action.
Reason One: There is no engagement when you buy Twitter followers
The whole point of Twitter is to create a discussion, and if you have loads of followers/spambots who haven’t followed you for any reason other than cash, they’re not going to interact with you are they? They won’t reply to your queries, click on your links- they’re essentially dead weight in numbers.
Reason Two: Many services require you to follow back your fake followers
The majority of paid ‘Increase you Twitter Foloowers’ services operate on a one in, one out basis. A lot of people have accounts set to autofollow anyone who follows them and you hand over your account name and password (also a security issue) to the providers and they proceed to follow 10,000 people, unfollowing anyone who doesn’t reciprocate. You’ll now have an account where you follow approximately the same number of folks who follow you (Give or take a few followers who drop out) meaning you have numbers but zilch authority. You could pay more to have followers who ‘don’t follow you back’ or you could spend loads of time ‘unfollowing’, but wither way, authority wise you’ll lack credibility. Read more…
Tags: buy twitter followers, how to get more twitter followers, Twitter followers
Posted by admin on Apr 22, 2011 in
books,
geekery,
technology
I’m a lover of all things booky, and think this book/iPhone dock is amazing. It’s a fully functional dock that has been installed into a real life book, and there are a variety of books to choose from. Current ones on offer include classics such as Huckleberry Finn, Jane Eyre and Little Women as well as authors like Tom Clancy and Joseph Conrad. The books used are gorgeous, with thick spines and glossy covers with embossed lettering. The charging cord has been secured into the book, which has then been sealed shut (sigh) and is a very cool way of docking your iPhone or iPod. Necessary? Definitely not, but very desirable all the same. Read more…
Tags: book ipod dock, Inbook Etsy
Posted by admin on Mar 24, 2011 in
news,
opinion,
technology 
People’s attitudes to apps baffles me. Like, really REALLY baffles me. The way they react to a rubbish App is completely different to their attitude towards any other purchase they make. If you buy a dress that doesn’t fit you return it. If food is off, you’d get your money back. If you bought Monopoly that was missing the money, well, that’s straight back to the shop. People don’t like faulty, rubbish goods that fail to deliver- so why does that attitude not follow through when they buy applications? It’s REAL money that you have shelled out for that app, so why not reclaim it? You have purchased a service after all, and if it’s not lived up to expectations, well you deserve a REFUND. Refunds are available as well- they just tend to be fairly well hidden.
Before you start rubbing you head and telling me that you don’t need a refund, I’d just like to draw your attention to a few events in recent years. Reclaiming Bank charges. People said it couldn’t be done, that was just the way it was, don’t challenge the status quo, but helloo- the huge excess charges banks whacked on your statement if you were late paying have been declared Unfair by the Office of Fair Trading, and the amount you have to pay has now been capped, rather than spiralling out of control. This change was due to people MAKING a fuss, and getting their voices heard, so never just give up on something because it hasn’t been done yet.
What about the whole UK politician expense charges scandal? For years politicians had got away with letting the public pay for their second houses/ flatscreen TV’s/ moats, and then it all came out, enough was enough, and many hands got more than slapped. Just because something hasn’t been done YET doesn’t mean it won’t be, and I’m sick of the lack of transparency that the various Application stores have in regards to their refund policy. I’m going to tell you just how you can get your money back when you buy an app you aren’t happy with- and what we collectively can do to stop those companies keeping us in the dark about our App purchases.
Buying an Application from an App store falls under the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 and the key elements of this (the relevant ones) are that:
- you must give consumers clear information including details of the goods or services offered, delivery arrangements and payment, the supplier’s details and the consumer’s cancellation right before they buy (known as prior information)
- you must also provide this information in writing
- the consumer has a cooling-off period of seven working days.
Whilst most app stores DO give part one and part two of this to purchasers, I think you’ll find that they don’t offer part three- how can a 15 minute window (Android store) be a seven day cooling off period? Whether or not they say you only have 15 minutes to choose your refund, that is illegal in the UK, so you still have the FULL seven days to make up your mind. Just to be clear I contacted the Office of Fair Trading and asked them to clarify whether the application stores were breaking the The Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 policy.
Read on to find out what the Office of Fair Trading replied and for my detailed GUIDE ON HOW TO GET A REFUND FROM EACH OF THE FOUR APP STORES- Apple App store, BlackBerry App World, Windows 7 Marketplace and the Android Market.
Read more…
Tags: android app refund, Android Marketplace, app, app refund, Apple app refund, application refund, BlackBerry App, blackberry app refund, Distance Selling Regulations act, iPhone, Windows 7, Windows 7 app refund, Windows Mobile
Posted by admin on Mar 23, 2011 in
opinion,
technology 
My DirectBikes scooter
Last year I decided I was sick of my daily struggle with public transport and decided to get a moped. It would be quicker than the bus, more economical than a travel card, and would invest me with the type of ‘cool factor’ that you only get in Shoreditch. Alas, my budget wasn’t quite as big as my dreams, so I settled on buying a Chinese import scooter from import company Direct Bikes- and this is my tale.
There are many options when buying a Moped, and they range from purchasing a brand new model from a dealer, to getting a second hand version on eBay. Models and prices vary from around £500 for a used version to £1900 and up for a brand new scooter. Options do tend to get a bit more limited when your budget is low and you’re set on owning something pink (repressed Barbie fantasies) so I was a little bit stuck when searching for one. I have a full car licence, but annoyingly it was issued in 2003, which means I need to complete a CBT (a one day training course, approx £110) to ride a 50cc or 125cc scooter. Anything above 125cc required an investment of around £1500+ to get the correct licence, and I wasn’t willing to go there.. yet. The rest of the costs are negligible, as I live in London and scooters don’t have to pay congestion charge. Parking is also free in most places in central London, apart from Westminster where it’s £1.
DirectBike moped in detail
With these facts in hand I set off to buy a moped and experienced issues at every turn. Either they were well out of my price point- like this beautiful pink Vespa, or they were based in Manchester and I had no easy way of getting there. eBay wasn’t a huge help, nor was Gumtree, and then I stumbled across a site called DirectBikes. They ship all their bikes in from China, and sell them brand new in the UK at a markup. Even with their markup it was still only £649 for a BRAND new bike, plus a non negotiable £80 odd pounds for delivery. And no, you couldn’t pick it up yourself. Boo. OK, so that’s £731 all in so far.
I ordered it online.. and it didn’t go through. I rang them and they said my address had been wrong (it wasn’t) and reordered it. Same issue. Different card tried, same issue. Now my bank was calling me because they though there had been some fraud taking place and I had zero cash (frozen ) and no bike. Four days later I tried again, this time ringing them straightaway. Exact same problem. Losing hope, I got the boyfriend to try them, and somehow it went through. No apologies from them about this, and no mention of when they’ll fix their website ordering process- consider yourself warned. Read more…
Tags: buying a moped, chinese import scooter, DirectBikes, moped
Posted by admin on Feb 21, 2011 in
geekery,
lists,
technology 
We all know that password security is important- you only have to read the Daily Mail/ Gizmodo to know that hackers are rife, and all keen to get their greedy geeky hands on your hard earned cash. A lot of research has been done on what passwords are repeatedly used- even though people should know better. To up the security ante many companies have created pretty looking infographics to stress the importance of good security online. Here are a couple of my favourites for you to enjoy.
Code Breaking Graphic
I love how this divides up passwords into groups- and just what they suggest the likes of teens, douches and geeks might use. Love how they’ve decided that a ‘princess’ password is from a douche, whilst it’s acceptable for a teen to opt for ‘ihatemylife’. Maybe it’s an American thing? Read more…
Tags: common passwords, hack passwords, password security
Posted by admin on Feb 2, 2011 in
news,
technology,
Television 
The idea of engaging a third sense in the televisual world is a not a new one, but one which as never been done with any great degree of authority. My last memory of this type of integration harks back to 2003 when the Rugrats Go Wild Movie was released on the big screen, complete with scratch and sniff cards (called Odorama cards) that had to be used during the film. At various moments in the animated movie you were given visual cues (such as the number one) and then would scratch the corresponding number on your sheet and anything from strawberry lollipops or smelly socks would be inhaled. The idea is that adding smell to a movie will give you a richer all round experience, but I’ve yet to see anything that could cope with today’s demands. Read more…
Tags: Scent Sciences, ScentScape, smellovision
