Second Chinese Android Phone..

The phone that I ordered for my wife for Christmas has arrived fairly promptly - I ordered it using the 'standard' free postage, and it arrived in about 10 days or so which I was happy about as the estimated delivery is 15-30 days... It's dual SIM again, which is particularly useful as it means we can put in the old 'pay as you go' SIM alongside the new contract SIM whilst waiting for the number to migrate from one to the other.

The deal is that I am providing the phone and the contract as a Christmas present so my wife no longer has any phone expenses to pay AND she gets a smart phone into the bargain. However, she really wanted to keep her old number, so we obtained the PAC code for the old PAYG Orange phone number and have given the details to Virgin Mobile, they need about 72 hours or so to do the changeover - so at the moment both SIMs are active (on two separate numbers)which can be a little bit confusing....

The new phone is a DOOGEE DG300 (also called 'Voyager'), and I have to say I actually prefer it to my new phone - it's slightly smaller at 5" - which in my opinion is a bit more manageable - it is just dual core rather than quad core, but still as fast as you need it to be as far as I can tell - Android 4,2 runs nice and smoothly and it is a really neat package all told. I chose this model because of the large battery (2500mAh) and the central button. I like the idea of a solid button for returning the phone to the home-screen - but on mine the two 'soft' buttons ('back' and 'menu') sometimes seem a little unresponsive - on this model however, they seem to work every time - It came with a flip cover which comes joined to a removeable backplate for the phone, so you remove the 'orginal' back cover and clip on the flip cover which I think is a really neat touch... The only issue I have (and it's not a big problem) is that there is no spare battery, but there is a charger and USB cable etc.. as you would expect. No SD card as standard, but I have some spare 8GB cards which I think will be perfectly sufficient. The bottom line then? a phone which seems to (almost)perfectly emulate a Samsung Galaxy S4 for just £66 - you can't really knock that can you? The specs are admittedly lower (camera not quote as good at 5MP - still good enough... onboard memory not as large...) but really still an incredible bargain if you don't want to pay five times as much for the branded version!

restaurant pagers

Here's an idea to make your guests/clients feel that they are being cared for even whilst waiting. The range of restaurant pagers available can be used in a variety of different businesses. In fact any business that through necessity, will have clients waiting to be 'served' can benefit from a system like this. In essence the pager lets you know when your table is ready, but there are other benefits. For one, it gives your client the reassurance that they are not going to be forgotten - in my experience people don't mind a reasonable wait as long as they can feel that they are not being ignored. There is however another benefit to this system in that it can also be used to interact with your client and promote your business whilst they are waiting. Adverts can be played on the system in the form of 'info-mercials'. For instance, whilst diners are waiting to be seated, they could be learning about the function facilities of the restaurant - the meal offers available, the charity event that you are sponsoring... Wherever you may have clients waiting on your premises, this system should be considered as a great tool to make them feel valued.

'Friendly Fire' game on Android

OK, so this is the addictive Android game I mentioned last time I 'talked' about my new Android phone... Naturally it's a free game (otherwise why would I be playing it?) although they do try to get you to pay to upgrade, obviously that didn't work on me, but I suspect others have been cajoled into paying out to get quicker results from the game...

It's a military base-building game with a twist - the twist is that it adapts the actual location of your home as the location for your base - it uses google maps for it's basic layout and then overlays the playing 'board' where the action takes place - so you end up defending your own street which is a very neat twist... Difficult to explain it further without trying it for yourself..
The gameplay is familiar, you build up your defences, and some attacking forces then attack other bases - you can choose to attack people in your own locality, your own country or attack others all over the world. I started this game with a few friends at work and you can attack each others' bases when they are in the same locality which again is another nice twist. I was told it would be addictive, and it lives up to it's billing...
You will be attacked from time to time, but a successful attack means you are immune from further attacks for 12 hours (or until you decide to attack someone else), and although your base is instantly rebuilt, you may lose 'resources' and 'rank' as a result.
As you progress through the levels, you build better defences and better weapons - it's a simple enough concept and much-used, but this has some nice touches which makes it a real addictive pleasure.

Cheap Chinese Android Phone

Well, so far so good - I've had my new phone a couple of weeks now and worked out that it is the same dimensions as the Samsung Note 2. I know this because I found a case in Tesco's that matched the phone's dimensions perfectly...
I'm not sure how much a Samsung Note 2 costs, but am pretty sure it is upwards of  £300, my phone was just £96 from McBub, and may not be exactly that same spec as a Note 2, but is pretty tasty all the same. It has 4GB on-board of which 1.7GB is free for storage, and 1GB ROM - it can take a 32GB SD card (don't buy a cheap one!) and most extraordinary of all...has a quad-core processor.

I have now ordered a dual-core phone from McBub for my wife - costing just £66, and have ordered an extra SIM from my mobile provider that will give reasonable use for texts and mobile internet etc.. for £7 a month. Both phones come loaded with Android 4.2, mine has a 8MP camera, and my wife's will have a 5MP camera - you can get better spec cameras but to be honest if I wanted to take brilliant photo's, I would get a decent camera instead of a 'phone.
I have already started loading all sorts of Apps on the phone, so will be reviewing them over the next few weeks - watch this space for reviews of a really addictive game, and some boring but essential utilities for your Android phone..

samson c01u USB microphone

This microphone, and others like it have already revolutionised home recordings. What you get with the samson c01u is a quality recording microphone that can the 'patched' straight into your PC or laptop. This is the perfect tool for pod-casts or webinars, but will also be perfectly usable for recording vocal performance of all types.
I don't want to get carried away and start comparing it with classic condenser mic's that cost the earth - but nonetheless, it has been a ground-breaking mic proven over quite a few years now.

A possible gift idea for the youngster who is making youtube videos of their singing/guitar playing etc.. If they want to move up a level from relying on their laptop microphone, the C01u will take them up several notches. Or for the serious gamer or 'skype'r who likes to chat online, this will definitely be a welcome gift.

So busy...

My new Android 'phone has arrived from China, despite the wrong carriage charges being applied and then being charged import duties, despite all that, the phone is really pretty good. It came with a spare battery and a flip cover, and worked straight out of the box - the only thing it needed was a micro-SD card. I had a spare 8GB card from my old phone, so I used that until a new 32GB card arrived from eBay.
My initial mistake was buying a 32GB SD card for £5.99 - I know, it was NEVER going to work, but it was a UK seller, so I thought it might be OK - it was rubbish and started to lose apps after the first day. Every time I switched off or rebooted the phone, all the apps I had downloaded would disappear! So I bit the bullet and shelled out a cool £15 on a SanDisk Ultra 32GB card and that is running far more sweetly - no lost apps yet....
I will have to start reviewing Android Apps again now as I can get a much larger selection on the new phone, plus my massive SD card can hold masses of apps, so I don't have to keep uninstalling them like with my old phone.
Oh, and the phone is HUGE, it's a 5.3" screen which I think is equivalent to a Samsung Note 2, and apparently is a 'phablet' - somewhere between a phone and a tablet. Of course, it's tricky to take a photo as I tend to use the phone itself to take photo's...but I will try and get a photo uploaded soon...
I have delayed writing about the phone because work has been so busy lately - no sign of any let up so I think I am going to have an exhausting run up to Christmas, at least my much-awaited pay-rise materialised this year - fingers crossed for a Christmas bonus...

squier bullet - gift ideas

Let's say you are looking for the perfect gift for a budding guitarist, but not sure what would be a cool gift yet at an affordable price... Look no further than the squier bullet at m123...

Not only is the 'blackout' as cool as a stealth bomber when it comes to looks, Squier are definitely NOT one of those companies that knock out cheap copy Fenders - Squier is a brand name used by Fender for guitars it makes outside of the USA using the original Fender blue-prints, and often using the original Fender pick-ups.

So the Squier Bullet has looks, an impressive pedigree, a close association with the legendary Fender brand and is affordable - to be honest, even if your budding guitarist already has a vintage Telecaster, they are still going to love this guitar...

heated floor mats - gift idea

As Winter draws in, there is a real chill in the air at night times now. Here's an idea for a Christmas gift or Winter birthday gift:

There are a huge variety of heated floor mats available from simple mats to stand on while working at a counter, to foot rests to use in the office, or a foot-cosy to wear in bed. In my experience, this is going to be a gift that particularly appeals to the ladies....

Latest update

Big week this week... the company I work for moved premises which was really hard work and quite traumatic - It has taken about a week to get the bare bones of a working environment going - the 'phones and the computer network are still not exactly sorted, but most of what we need to carry on working is in place...
Also... I ordered my new quad core phone from McBub, but hit a few teething problems already... I found that their ordering system wasn't totally compatible with the Chrome browser, so when I clicked on 'other delivery options' I found that the total cost would not update when I tried to click back to the 'free delivery option' - so against my intentions, I ended up with the expedited delivery and an extra £11 on my bill. I immediately emailed McBub but got no reply - A day later I received acknowledgment of my order but no response to my message about the delivery costs. I then thought 'well OK, it's supposed to be a 3-5 day delivery so maybe the extra money will be worth it' - nope not really... Turns out there is a 'processing time' of 1-3 days on average. Well how can an average be 1-3 I wonder??? surely an average of 1-3 is 2!
So I checked the processing time and here is the timeline:

Ordered (ie. money removed from my PayPal account) 16th October
Order Acknowledged: 18th October
Order Despatched (According to DHL): 25th October

Already it has taken 7-9 days of 'processing time' as compared to the average '1-3 days' so much for the 3-5 days delivery, although I have a feeling that DHL will probably be able to make the delivery a lot quicker than McBub have taken to process my order.
Not only that, but I have been hit with an import tax bill - OK I hold my hands up to hoping to circumvent customs charges, but I think because the 'expedited' option was chosen for me rather than the free delivery, this probably attracted unwanted attention from customs. In itself, I am not too bothered about the tax, the phone is cheap enough for it not to be a concern, BUT when you consider that I was hoping to get a phone for £96, my bill is already at £120, and I haven't got the phone yet!
I have a feeling that once the 'phone arrives, all the hassle will melt into the background, but I won't be letting McBub get away with this completely, they will get an email from me, and if I get no response I will be leaving feedback for the phone which will highlight issues to future customers.
I intend to buy another 'phone from them as a gift too, so I should be able to use that as a lever to get good customer support, although I have a feeling that they may not value my custom very highly judging on the correspondence received so far...
Watch this space...

a Michael Kors watch - gift ideas

I must confess that I have a real love for both watches and pens, I don't know what it is but I love the feel and look of a nice watch, or a posh pen.
Now I bought myself a relatively inexpensive watch about 18 months ago, but it is already damaged from using it in the workplace.

So I am hoping that I may get a gift at Christmas which would be something like a Michael Kors watch (see the picture) that I can use for leisure 'time' whilst keeping my older watch to use at work.

louisville real estate

The city of Louisville is a historical area, owing it's name to Louis XVI of France and was founded in 1778 and is strategically located as a major shipping port due to it's central location in terms of the continental United States.

It's shipping business still thrives today ensuring that it remains a thriving business area. In fact louisville real estate is of high quality and the crime rates are very low, maybe the perfect place for relocation?

Tablet or 'Phone

I have been considering getting an Android tablet to replace the laptop(s) in the house as it would be ideal for the type of things that we use the laptop for - ie. emails and browsing the web. A laptop is really over-engineered for the sort of tasks they are generally used for in the home environment, a tablet is nice to use, cheap and a very effective tool.
Now I had been looking at various options for quite a while and was set on maybe buying something previously enjoyed from eBay - however, with these type of devices, you can get products direct from China that are not much more than second-hand prices, yet they are brand new and with the latest spec.
Further thinking persuaded my that actually I could get a replacement for my 2-year old smartphone that was as powerful as a tablet, yet not much more money. I was directed to the McBub website where they have a massive array of tablet and phone technology for rock-bottom prices.
I mused about whether to get a low-cost dual core model, but ended up maximising my budget by going for a top-of-the-shop quad core model instead. So far I can report that the value for money aspect of McBub seems almost too good to be true - whether the goods live up to expectations, or whether the customer service is any good at all remains to be seen...

Looks like we are going to have a change in phones for everyone in the house this Christmas, possibly with our young daughter inheriting my 'old' smart-phone, and maybe a second purchase (a little more modest than my quad-core model) for a Christmas present for my wife. I should be able to get two spare contract SIMs to add to my contract for £5 a month each, and we should all be able to keep in touch for free on the same network (well it won't be free for me, but I guess £10 a month for two extra phone contracts is not too bad).

Trailers

The company I work is preparing to move premises, and the main question we are facing is how to get everything from here to there - ie. the new offices. We are fortunate in that we have a variety of small and large vans at our disposal as well as a trailer.

Were we a bigger company, we would certainly be looking at hiring in a professional outfit to carry out our move, and maybe hire in some really heavy duty trailers.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird is the latest change to the search algorithm from Google search, but it's not a change to the ongoing algorithm like the Penguin Update and others, this is a NEW algorithm in it's entirety - starting from scratch.
You will read much speculation about how the new algorithm works, and if you are overly-concerned about this, really you have to ask yourself why. Ultimately Google search wants to be the best it can be at delivering accurate 'answers' to search queries. If your website serves it's niche well, and is full of relevant information, then whatever Google algorithm is used, it should rank your site in it's proper position. If however you are trying to somehow 'fool' or 'game' the algorithm, you are part of the web that Google is determined to weed out, and you may well find that you are edged out of search results.
I have no insight as to how the new algorithm prioritizes sites, but then I am no different to anyone else in the respect, these things are kept under wraps for a very good reason, they are Google's main asset of immense value to the company - they are not about to share the goods. However I do know that Google will want to prioritize 'good' websites that provide good information in a structured way, therefore if webmasters provide good content in a well-structured way, then they stand a chance of getting a good ranking.
Carry on doing what you are doing, provide good content and keep it up to date, add good content as regularly as you can - steer clear of anything that promises fast result in terms of Search Engine Result Position, and you won't go too far wrong.

pillows and cushions

I have a slight confession to make, we bought a baby support pillow when our little one was born, and nine years later, we still use it every day as a support pillow on our sofa. I was reminded of it when I saw the pillows and cushions from foambymail.
The pillow we had is basically a nursing pillow, but we love it so much it has become a permanent part of our life. It's great for giving that extra bit of support when you want to relax watching TV with your feet up.

Working for Hunny..

Well, I set this blog up as an experiment to see if it was possible to make online earnings from a blog. My intention was always to use the income to buy things that I could otherwise not afford, hence the 'Hunny' part of the name is supposed to represent 'treats' of whatever kind. I am now all set to buy a new Android phone as a 'reward' for all my hard (!) work. I just had a job in from another online income source that will pay me around £100, just enough for me to get that new phone I have been looking at.

I think I can also justify offsetting the costs of the phone against income for tax purposes as I do use that phone line for the business. I don't put the phone charges through the business although I probably could do that too.

I also hope to find loads of new Android Apps that I can blog about too!

Disposable coveralls

The major project of decorating the hall stairs and landing is finally coming to a close. Although to be fair, the stairs will remain untouched for a while until I can summon up the energy to scour the remaining paint from the ancient timber. The major task has been to cover every inch of wall and woodwork with fresh paint, and the results are a huge improvement. In the background of course, there has been a steady use of paint brushes, disposable coveralls and rags - the hidden costs of decorating, but the costs have been well worth it. I must try and find some pictures of the hallway and stairway for a 'before and after' comparison - We moved in 18 years ago, and I took some photo's on the day we arrived, In all that time, this is the first time we have decorated the hallway, even though we stripped all the paper off years ago!

Android - making my mind up

I have now pretty much made up my mind on what I am going to get, but haven't actually taken the plunge yet.. I have been wavering between wanting to buy a tablet PC for using around the house, or getting a new Android phone, and I have settled on getting a 'phone. My current phone is a bit slow and often gets a bit confused. It's only Android 2.1 I and single core, but I have seen a quad-core with Android 4.2 and I reckon that's the phone for me. It currently costs a little under a hundred pounds ($130??) from the McBub website - I am waiting on a cassette conversion job that will bring in around that amount, so I am using that as my trigger, If I get the job, I will use the money to buy the phone.
Can't wait to see how much better it will be than my old 'phone and hopefully I will be in a better position to try out more apps - my current phone cannot hold many apps, and despite the fact that I have a decent sized SD card in there, it cannot move apps to the card, so adding apps always means removing old ones...

Immigration lawyers

With the increasing migration of labor evident throughout the world today, it is no surprise to find immigration lawyers in los angeles, new york and all other major cities in the US as well as in Europe. Immigration law is being examined frequently by the public and the media, and those that are planning to move around the globe need to ensure they do it in a manner that complies with local laws and regulations.

Dog bite lawyer

If you ever need to find a san diego dog bite lawyer, you may be surprised to find that there are personal injury lawyers who specialize in such areas. Pretty much all personal injury claims can be taken to court, and dog bite injuries are really no different. Naturally, it is the owner of the animal who is culpable and will end up in court... not the offending dog!