A few weeks ago I wrote a lengthy post on Why I Would Never Buy an iPhone. I hated the phone’s small touch keyboard, expensive price tag and the prospect of having to move to o2.
But, as it turns out, I lied. Two weeks ago, I bought an iPhone. For the price of only £70 off eBay! Sure, it’s only the 1st Gen model, but still. I’m in love.
Why did I get it so cheap?? There was a small fault with the phone: it was stuck in silent with the switch on the side broken. But a quick Google and some help from iClarified allowed me to fix the problem, by changing a file over SSH.
I also managed to unlock and jailbreak very easily with Redsn0w. Although, getting the iPhone to work with Windows 7 RC is a nightmare. And Recovery mode doesn’t work. I also bought a Crumpler case to keep my iPhone nice and safe. I love these cases, and I have a Crumpler one for my iPod Classic too.
So, over the past 2 weeks, I’ve been using the phone with Vodafone, and now I question myself: how could I live without an iPhone?? WiFi is great, and being able to check my emails quickly, and lookup places on Google Maps has been incredibly useful. It seems I have been converted!
This is just a quick post in tribute to Michael Jackson. He was a great performer, singer and dancer, and his music is and will always be the stuff of legend.
Today, I reserved my Facebook “Vanity URL”: at 7:30 in the morning. So, from now on I’m facebook.com/kilgour!
That’s right: I got my surname! Of cause, a lot of Kilgour’s in the world are related to me, I guess it’s really not a common surname. But still.
What the whole Vanity URL shows is that there are a lot of vain people in the world. Because really, there isn’t that much need for these urls. Why can’t people just do what they always did; use each other’s emails to find each other?
Anyway, I’m happy to have my new URL. I’m not even a serial Facebook user; in fact I almost never use it, apart from once a month or so. I find it boring. (That’s probably the ultimate sin, right?) But i felt compelled to stop anyway else using my surname.
Everyone! Everyone is on Twitter now: it’s the new facebook of the net. (And I find facebook boring). Everyone from Oprah to Ashton Kutcher, to CNN is using Twitter now, and so am I. You can follow my updates by adding jmkuk, or by visiting this page on my blog. Enjoy!
JK
Ads: they seem to be everywhere! Ad banners, popups, interstitials. They are never ending; a huge part of the web’s great commerce. However, these ads may be taking more from you then you realize.
Google, eBay and many millions of other sites use ads that spy on us: they find out what we are looking at, where we live, and a whole lot more. Google scans emails sent and received in Gmail, eBay uses are account information.
But what gives them the right? We haven’t asked for those ads, and we haven’t agreed with them, that prying on us and invading our privacy is ok.
A new ad site that has sprung up is Phorm. It already has agreements with BT,Virgin and other UK ISPs, that allows it to look at your live browsing history, and serve appropriate ads. The service isn’t yet live, but will be shortly. In my opinion, this is a direct invasion of our privacy. What gives Phorm the right?
Internet Advertising is now a valuable commodity, with many sites providing free services in return for the ads. Examples are Facebook and Spotify. While it’s great that we can get these free services, it is not ok with me, that these ads are spying on me. I should complain; if only I knew who to…?
Cheap holidays. Maybe something of the past, with the credit crunch setting in, and increased petrol prices and taxes. Well, Global Holiday is a new website which offers over 20 million bargain holidays, to Spain, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and other long haul destinations.
These types of “All-Inclusive” holidays are incredibly popular at the moment, as families can easily budget the cost of the trip, which is very important in the current economic climate.
So fancy a holiday to Spain? Soak up the sun, dance the flamenco and swim in the peasant med? Through Global Holiday, you can book a complete holiday package from only £139! Or how about visiting Florida? At Global Holiday, you can see all about the area, its attractions and even watch video tours of Orlando!
Global Holiday also has an informational travel blog, with info about the travel industry and the latest deals available. Learn the insider secrets from the blog!
Global Holiday is definitely a website worth checking out if you want a great holiday on a budget. We all need a holiday from time-to-time, in order to relax from our normal busy lifestyles. An All-Inclusive package is a great choice for any family!
PayPal offers “a safe way to pay”, being owned by eBay, and offering millions of users Internet payment facilities. It is the most popular service of its type, and all eBay auctions accept PayPal: it’s compulsory!
I recently sold an unwanted Christmas Gift on eBay; it quickly sold for £30.00, which I was quite happy with. eBay charged me 50p for the listing, (I’m quite happy to pay for this). As per the eBay rule, I accepted PayPal on my listing, and promptly got paid. When I checked my account, I found out that actually, PayPal had charged me another £1.25 in “Charges”. What for?
I had already paid eBay, (the owner of PayPal), the required fees, and now they were effectively charging me again! I make hundreds of fund transfers form my bank account each year, and never get charged a penny. Why should PayPal do any different? It’s not like they even provide good customer service: they are useless!
PayPal should have the sense to stop charging its customers, who don’t have a choice on whether they use the service or not. eBay seem to have a powerful position here: and quite frankly I don’t like it. I will have to think whether I use eBay for sales again: it’s not even the cost so much, but the principle.
So the government is going to pump 75bn in new cash into the economy, in a bid to stop the recession. They call this “quantitive easing”. However, to me, this seems like it will just ruin our economy further.
The British Sterling was one of the world’s strongest currencies. Now, with this development, that will surely fall, and if we are not careful, we could quite easily enter hyper-inflation like Zimbabwe.
In addition, the Bank of England has now lowered interest rates to history’s lowest: 0.5%. This is the sixth time rates have been cut since October. If it hasn’t worked before, why are they still trying?
In my opinion, printing more money is not much of a solution. We should try and weather the recession. If this new money printing idea does cause the economy to go caput, then Gordon Brown will be shot for it.
The Nintendo DS has been a worldwide success, selling millions of units. Now, Nintendo are about to release the DS’s replacement: the DSi.
Boasting two cameras, a media player, internet browsing a 12% thinner body than the ds lite, and bigger screens, the DSI certainly has the power to overshadow the standard DS.
Nintendo DSI Pre Order is now available in the UK. GameStock allows you to see all available deals and choose the cheapest; for example, currently HMV is at £146.80 and free delivery. That is a great deal to pre-order dsi.
GameStock also show new deals for pre-ordering other games and systems; such as Wii Music, and for seeing stock levels of certain titles, such as Wii Fit, which is in stock at Argos for £68.49!
Also, because GameStock uses live feeds to get it’s prices and stock updates, the information is very accurate. For me, this is a great site for checking and comparing prices of the latest games. This ensures the best price for me.
This kind of comparison service is readily available for financial matters, including car insurance and travel. However, this is the first I’ve seen of a gaming focused comparison service. Undeniably, it is very useful. I would recommend this to anyone into gaming, and wants to get the best possible price.
Posted by James Kilgour | Posted in Big Brother, Life, TV | Posted on 22-01-2009
My favorite to win Celebrity Big Brother was LaToya Jackson; and she was evicted last night, just before Tommy Sheridan.
I think this is a terrible shame; I wanted her to win! The rest of the house are quite boring; Coolio adds entertainment, but he is too annoying to win. I don’t know who to support know, but I guess Verne will win.
Unfortunately CBB this year has been very dull; almost nothing has happened really. People complain when it’s too racy and complain when it’s too dull.
Racism was too far yes, but Channel 4/Endemol didn’t have to dull the series down completely. They didn’t even let Tina and Coolio have a fight, calling Coolio straight to the diary room. How boring!
