Thursday, August 31, 2006

THIS is how you do it!

Just spotted this [via Digg]. THIS is how you do it!.. Electric motoring has always been a bit… well, bland! The Toyota Prius, has probably been one of the most successful electric car’s and even that has a petrol engine!. The Hybrid connection. One of the main problems for electric car’s though is the fact that they’re not very fast, and most dont seem to have much range on them

However, a britiish engineering firm (PML Flightlink) has gone and stuck 4 (FOUR!) electric motor’s capable of 160hp each, and stuck them in a Mini. So This mini is now able to push 640hp (ish) and top out at 150mph with a 0-60 of 4.5 seconds! Now that is pretty impressive for an electric car (in my eyes anywho). They’ve managed this by putting one engine in each wheel, and this is what PML specialise in!.. I think they’ve done a damn good job!

Brakes are done!

Well i got the brakes done! Which is good. At least i know i can trust them now!

Oh well.. That's nearly £300 quid gone over the last 2 weeks on the car :( !

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Meh!

Been 6 weeks since the last post. Exhaust started blowing & catching on speed bumps..

Then it fell off on saturday. Got it patched up with a new bracket. It failed again on tuesday. Took it to another garage yesterday. The pipe on the end of the cat has rusted away and any clamps going on there are just not working. £200 for a new catalytic converter.

Was also told that the brake pads are quite low on the front. Will get them done at the weekend.

Also have a dodgy O/S/R ? wheel bearing. Surely that should be O/S/F.

All-in-all.. not f'in happy!

On a lighter note, i got an xbox360 for my birthday! That will allow me to take my anger out on something :)

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Broken screens suck!

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My Girlie has an iRiver HP120 20gb MP3 player, and she loves it loads.. Even as far as to say “it’s the best gift she’s ever received”… However, a month or so ago, she showed it to me, and there’s a huge crack across the screen where it looks as if someone’s trodden on the player :(.. That’s no good at all! So i’ve been checking eBay for a replacement player. Either cheap, or broken just so i can whip out the screen and replace it on my girlies machine, however, that’s harder than it sounds!

So, we’re talking about getting her a new 20gb player for her birthday… Any suggestions?

 

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

CEX.. Heaven or Hell?

Cex (Computer exchange) is a cool shop. It sells used games, DVD’s, consoles, phones etc.. All things gadget-like. It’s nice as it’s generally quite cheap. Games from a couple of quid, same for DVD’s. Many a weekend i’ve walked out the store with 4/5 DVD / Games in my bag after shelling out a poultry £25!.. It’s generally a bargain shop and i like it.. for that.

Now, in my last post, i mentioned that it was my birthday, and i received a 360 premium console of my mum, dad, brother & sister!.. My Girlfriend also purchased me a 360 Hard drive & game unaware that a hard drive would be included in the premium console (as she thought i was getting the core package).

So i was now left with 2 Hard drives. One of which i had no use for. My girlfriend had picked the Hard drive up from CeX for £55 (OUCH!) which is a lot cheaper than new (£70+). Anywho, last night, i went to return the hard drive, which i hadn’t removed from the box. As far as i was concerned, i had had it for a week (hidden) and then when i was given it, i had no reason to use it, so it was in an identical condition as to when she bought it. It’s not difficult to understand!

However, Mr CeX had implemented some stupid company policy saying that if you want to return something for refund, you can only do it within 48 hours of purchasing it (?)! 48hrs is a bit rubbish. Especially as this Hard drive was over a week old now.

So i went in there last night asking for a refund for the hard drive (and obviously, got stung by the above 48hr rule!).. After standing around for 10 minutes waiting for my refund, the clerk came back to me and told me about their 48hr policy, and all i could do was sell the Hard drive back to CeX for a much lower price! If i wanted cash, i could have £30. Or i could take £40 in vouchers… What the fuck is that all about?

My girlfriend bought me a hard drive for £55. I hadn’t even touched it, removed it from it’s box, or used it, yet because of some stupid rule, i am now down £15, and they’ve now been given a hard drive & £15 for being thick!…

No wonder CeX is the biggest used game retailer in the UK if it can pull off tricks like that! Im certainly not happy, but i will be complaining so we shall see what happens there! 

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

mmm... next gen!

x360_logo
It was my birthday on Saturday, and having received a huge box from my family, i was quite intrigued as to what was in it. Come saturday morning, i woke up, made some breaky & had a cup o’ tea, then ripped the wrapping off to find a box full of crumpled newspaper. Hmmm..

Inside the box, covered in crumpled up newspapers stood a white & green box with the words ‘xbox360′ written on the side!

After picking my jaw up from the ground, i realised it was actually a 360 premium, with the Hard Drive, wireless controller etc already inside the box (Bonus!). Also inside the box was about 10 or so games that my brother (who also has a 360) had piled in there from his collection to keep me going till i get some of my own games!

Man im loving this next-gen business!!!.. So i shall be back in a couple of days with a proper review of the box & some of the games!

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Creative... Innovating or Immitating?

zenvplus
I’ve just caught sight of the new Creative Zen V Plus over at Creative.com. It’s another MP3 player, and a good looking one at that. Although it has a small storage capacity (1, 2 or 4gb), it does comes in various different flavours (5 trim colours according to creative.com). It also includes a ‘line-in’ recording socket which is useful. It allows you to encode mp3’s from various sources without the need of a PC. Hoorah! It also includes extra features like a calender, clock & task list. These additions, however, are a bit too extra for me. It’s an MP3 player, it play’s MP3s! (more on this later).

However, this is not my point. The Creative Zen V Plus looks a lot like Microsoft’s new offering, the Zune. I Mean, they’re both MP3 Players. They both have colour screens (most do these days) however, it’s the design similiarities that gets me. Both are set out the same way. Screen at the top (like most), but a circular button at the bottom which controls most of the tools, with seperate Play buttons.

Is the circular button too much like the ‘pods though? When i see an MP3 player with a big circle at the bottom, i immediatly think of an iPod. It’s all about branding & being unique. If your product looks similar to other products out there, it wont stick in people’s minds, they’ll say “oh, there’s that player that looks like a Zune”..

When it came to me getting an MP3 player. I could of gone for the iPod, but i didn’t want to follow the trend. For me, an iPod was more of a status symbol than an MP3 player. So i went for a Creative Zen Touch player. A 20gb model from Creative which does it’s job well. It plays MP3’s. It has a black & white screen. It works. This is what im talking about! When i look for something, i want something that is dedicated to what i want it to do! If your going to buy an Mp3 player, do you want it to have a calender on it? Do you want it to have a task manager on it? No, of course not. Your buying it to listen to music, not to see if you need to buy milk when you next go to Tesco’s.

That said, i think technology these day’s is loosing it’s mark. Too many features are trying to be bundled in with too many gadgets. I can see in 5 years time, there will be mobile phones with 10gb flash drives installed. You could sit on the bus and watch the latest episode of eastenders before it’s broadcast over digital tv because iTunes on your mobile has synced with the BBC via the buses wireless hotspot technology. Phones will no longer be phones, MP3 players will no longer be MP3 players…

However, i digress. I’ve covered many gripes (branding / uselessness / copycat / eastenders). In summary, i think the new V plus looks like a Zune (or vice-versa). Both look very similar to an iPod because both companies (Creative & Microsoft) want a slice of Apple’s pie, and in doing so, have turned themselves into sheep. Getting to the top of the pile isn’t about stealing your competitor’s customers, it’s about innovating your products & enticiing your customers. Give them a reason to buy your products.