Tag: Consumer Technology

OK, I recently posted about my HP Laptop and promised to update you on any interesting escapades which occur whilst I try to get it repaired. Firstly, I would like to point out that my colleague Seb managed to send his ACER tablet off and have it back within four days. It arrived this morning – they even cleaned it thoroughly to make it look brand new. What’s more they added a new DVD drive as unbeknownst to him that was faulty too. So to ACER’s customer service team, I salute you for a brilliant repair job and excellent customer ... Read more

After much deliberating it seems I have to take my beloved HP laptop back to the shop. I currently use a HP Pavilion dv9000 and it was specifically chosen by us as its an award winning laptop with a lot of hidden added extras. As we (Wolfstar) work in social media it made sense to buy a laptop of good quality which could do several things. So we created a very specific brief as to what type of laptop we required. It had to have a decent processor, a webcam, remote control and of course be HD ready etc etc. ... Read more

I picked up The Guardian this morning and read an interesting article by Mark Sweney about the Financial Times which plans to create an exclusive social network. The proposed scheme will be a membership only network costing a fee of £2k a year for each lucky networker. The Guardian describes the membership as including: “attendance at any one FT Global conference plus 20% off subsequent events, face-to-face members’ networking events and a 12-month premium subscription to FT.com.” Oh I think I should point out that the FTwill also be using your details to target you for anything they possibly can ... Read more

As predicted it seems Toshiba is about to throw in the towel with its HD DVD format. The BBC article reads: “”There have been media reports that Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD business,” a Toshiba spokesman said. “In fact, Toshiba has not made any announcement or decision. We are currently assessing our business strategies, but nothing has been decided at the moment.” Last month, Warner Brothers became the fifth Hollywood studio to throw its weight behind Sony’s Blu-ray format, leaving just Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures favouring HD DVD.   Analysts had seen this decision to switch allegiances as ... Read more

I have been contacted today and due to my interest in Netvibes, kindly asked if I would write about Pageflakes which is yet another Ajax based personalised homepage. I currently use Netvibes to access my email, Facebook, Twitter, weather, football and business news, YouTube and eBay – although I am considering ending my Poweseller status with eBay after the recent revelations on negative feedback which I wrote/ranted about recently. With Pageflakes, you can sign in quickly to the website, add url’s (‘flakes’) to your page (‘pagecast’), shuffle them around in priority of importance, create a snazzy background and off you ... Read more

A while ago I wrote on my blog that I felt Sony had got it right with Blu-Ray and they would win the battle of the two high definition DVD formats. Well as the battle has hotted up, it now appears that Blu-Ray really is beginning to dominate. According to reports Best Buy, which is the largest consumer electronics chain in the US, has stated it will not recommend HD DVD to its customers. It will still stock the HD DVD format but it will be given much less prominence. Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer Brian Dunn said: ... Read more

I have just read an article on BBC News informing me that eBay is to remove the opportunity for sellers to leave negative feedback for dodgy/bad buyers. I have been trading on eBay for the last three years and I am a powerseller with 100% positive feedback with more than (550 trades to my name), so I know a little about trading through the online auctioneer. I have to say I am pretty disgusted that they will be removing the two way feedback system. This system is what has made eBay successful – it’s at the very core of its ... Read more

I am an eBay powerseller and I have been for the last 2 years. I sell pretty much everything although I have recently downsized what I sell due to my public relations commitments. I received an interesting press release which I have attached to this post about Typobuddy which to me sounds like a great idea. When you are a powerseller you are constantly listing different items with varying titles and descriptions and its quite easy to misspell a word. This new product/system claims to find you (the buyer) the best deal by tracking down the misspelt items you are ... Read more

I read an interesting article in the Guardian this morning which said Nokia are reportedly in meetings with Facebook to try and develop a mobile version of the social networking site. The article states: “Facebook already offers its own mobile application that can be used to upload photos, notes and to exchange messages on the site, and a look-up function for phone numbers.” I must say that it would appeal to the millions of people who commute everyday who are stuck with nothing to read on the train. The simple functionality of being able to have a quick gander through ... Read more

It seems Sony’s Blu-Ray format is finally winning the public relations battle of the high definition formats. Blu-Ray and HD DVD have been frantically fighting a bitter war over the last couple of years – similar to the VHS Betamax one back in the 80s – to win consumers hearts and minds and to create the next dominant movie format. In October, I researched both formats myself to see which would be best to have in my home and I nearly decided to go for a Toshiba HD DVD player. However, just as I was about to pop into my ... Read more