As you may have read before, our eldest daughter Marie has a bit of OCD when it comes to making space and clearing out what she perceives to be old unwanted and used items around the house and home, from sitting room, to kitchen to bedrooms if it has been there too long, at some point it has to go. The only real worry in all of this is that one day she may decide that it's time for ..... Well better not go there.....
On the other hand Ishbel and I, mainly me, never throws anything away, we even have stuff, including towels and and dishes that we got as wedding gifts for goodness sake and we have been married for 37 and a half years. Well A couple of months ago Marie decided it was time for a clear out and we ended up getting rid of tons of stuff either to charity shops, the local tip and to Free Cycle and it was a pretty cathartic experience.
While I still like to hang on to things I do now also look at much of it with a new perspective and think do I need to really hang on to it. Recently I looked at a bunch of electrical and other bits lying around and Ishbel had a couple of great wee MP3 players, pre apple and I had one or two computer drives and stand alone disks and bits and bobs and took them all along to Cash Converters which offers you money for goods or indeed you can pawn them and redeem them later.
As a result of that wee clear out I got just short of £90 GBP probably about $125-$130
As you know I have the iPad tablet and Ishbel has her beloved Samsung 10" but as she wanders about the South of England on Shank's pony, bus and train visiting the kids on her mid week off days I more than she waas often worried about her being mugged while sitting on the train on her own with her 'big' tablet so decided to 'upgrade' and 'downsize' to the smaller Galaxy tab 2 - 7".
This is a fantastic wee machine and the speed of it is pretty amazing. It only has a 3 mpix camera but the images are so clear and sharp and the sound system and watching movies on it are pretty sharp too. You get all the usual apps and connections and it really is a sweet little thing. According to the Samsung web site it comes with 8, 16 or 32 gb of memory but the only one we could get, as I wasn't prepared to wander around a half dozen shops, was a 8 gb one! but no matter as it comes with a memory slot so shelled out another £30 ($50) for a 32gb SD card giving tons of memory for all those game apps, photos and every cliff Richard song that has ever been recorded that Ishbel of otherwise impeccable taste, seems to adore!
THE ONLY PROBLEM IS, AS GOOD AS IT IS, SAMSUNG AND ANDROID ARE A BUNCH OF ARSEHOLES, COS GUESS WHAT, UNLIKE ON OTHER ANDROID OPERATING SYSTEMS WHEN YOU DOWNLOAD AN APP OR A GAME OR YOUR PHOTOS OR MOST ANYTHING, YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO TRANSFER THEM TO THE MICRO SD CARD BUT NOT WITH THIS WONDERFUL LITTLE TAB THAT SUDDENLY TURNS INTO A USELESS PIECE OF JUNK THAT SOON RUNS OUT OF MEMORY
So, my recommendation to you, if you are looking to upgrade, but downsize, DO NOT BUY A GALAXY TAB 2 OR ANY OTHER SAMSUNG TABLET THAT PROVIDES YOU WITH A MICRO SD SLOT BUT DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO UTILISE IT EASILY TO TRANSFER DATA THAT WILL CONTINUE TO WORK ON YOUR DEVICE.
CHECKING OUT THE MANY FORUMS ON THE WEB ON THIS, THERE ARE A LOT OF UNHAPPY PEOPLE OUT THERE BUT APPARENTLY SAMSUNG HAVE PUBLICLY STATED THAT THEY DO NOT INTEND TO FIX THIS 'CUSTOMER BUG'
SO, IF YOU WANT SOMETHING THAT WILL NOT RUN OUT OF SPACE PARTICULARLY YOU GAMERS, LIKE ISHBEL
DO NOT BUY THIS LOOK GOOD, FEEL GOOD, BUT OTHERWISE PIECE OF CRAP.
Port De Soller Mallorca
Sunset
Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Android. Show all posts
Saturday, 3 August 2013
Friday, 12 August 2011
Amid The Market Carnage, Apple's The New King -But is it digging its own grave?
Amid The Market Carnage, Apple's The New King - Yahoo! UK & Ireland Finance
As of last night, Apple was valued at a cool $337 billion, trumping the oil giant ExxonMobil at $331 billion. Other companies in the mega-cap list include:
Petrochina - $277 billion
Microsoft - $203 billion
This story got me to thinking about video recorders, whhhaaaat? I here you say, in fact some of you reading this probably don't even know what a video recorder is, or care for that matter.
But for those of us who do, do you also recall that there were two systems, Betamax and VHS and of the fight for survival between the two. Now if you look at the links for both you will see that Betamax comes out on top as the better system, technically, but clearly with drawbacks as described in the articles, and this is where VHS won the battle. But the battle wasn't just one of technical superiority, as I recall. There was also a cost implication for most people. As home video took of in the UK in the early 80's to buy a recorder of any description was one that had to be looked at as a major luxury item. I wasn't long out of the Army and I recall my first job was as a warranty administrator for a commercial garage and my take home wage was circa £75.00 after tax, etc., per week. So just under £4k a year. Video machines were on sale (and for rent) for anything from £300+ to £600+, so, as you can see, while desirable, one of these machines was way down the order in terms of things that we needed, but really wanted!
Interestingly while looking at this I found this blog that looks at all things 80's and there was also an article on videos recorders as well, here for your delectation is the link 1980s-coming-to-your-home-vcr
So, what is the link between Apple today and video recorders of the 1980's, well, maybe none, but it got my thinking going of again in a lateral direction, as I usually do with these things. Today, as in the 1980's I am working and as in the 1980's I do not earn a big wage and while Ishbel and I have been left to fend for ourselves by our children, who have grown up and gone on to have families of their own with no consideration to looking after us any more (only kidding), we still don't have that much money to throw around. Now being a bit of a technophobe, in that I like to own gadgets, but can't always afford them, I have and do, on a regular basis, pop in to the local Apple shop and drool over the sleek lines of the ipods and ipads, and macs, but I have never bought one. My kids have, (hate them) but I haven't. Ishbel wanted one as she travels around on the train to visit the kids mid week when she isn't working, but ended up with Creative's Vision M mp3 player . Having listened both to the ipod and the vision M I believe that the latter is every bit as good as the former. What drove me to that was nothing more than price, but since she got it about 4 years ago now, it has let us down only once. It was popped into a box sent back to Ireland and a replacement was sent by return, and that has functioned without problem ever since.
So, quality, of product, quality of sound and size of memory cannot be faulted. Compared to and iPod, well I can't really but I wouldn't change from Creative to Apple for those reasons mentioned and also for price. Sure Creative have much more expensive products as well but they are well below the price of Apples stable of gadgets and this is where I think Apple may well be digging there own grave ahead of toppling in to it!
Apple are now the most valued company on the planet and they have achieved that by building and selling what is unquestionably quality merchandise. But how can they justify the continued high prices that they continue to maintain, especially as, a) we have been told since Adam was a boy that the more of a product that is produced the lower the cost, doesn't seem to be the case with Apple though does it? And, b) we know that the vast majority of their products are built using what one would loosely term as 'cheap labour, in the far east and China, Again then the question has to be asked how they can continue to justify the continued high prices?
But the final spadeful of dirt being dug out of that hole that they may well get buried in surely has to be the Android operating system. As well as the report that Apple is now the most profitable company on the planet we learn that Smart phones and other gadgets containing the Android OS are outselling Apple by two to 1 across the world. As I said I do not have an iPhone and nor does Ishbel. I have an HTC and Ishbel has a Samsung Galaxy S. We both 'love' these phones, although I am a late entrant to the smart phone market, I wouldn't want to do without it now. On the other hand for our daughter's, Marie, who swears by her iPhone and Jennifer is counting down the 'sleeps' until she gets her new iPhone, but Brian, our son, who according to Ishbel, 'gets more like his dad' everyday to the riposte, 'Oh shut up, mum!' also swears by his HTC.
The point of all this is of course, that Apple, like windows before them have a virtual monopoly on their OS system and will not share. They continue to charge premium prices in every country they operate in and while we all might aspire to own an Apple gadget, it is always going to be out of the reach of many more than it sells to. On the other hand Android is in everything else from the cheap and gaudy to the, 'as expensive as an Apple' and can much better supply more economical gadgets to the masses around the globe. Surely this has to be a warning to Apple to change their strategy and make their product less elitist!
So, quality, of product, quality of sound and size of memory cannot be faulted. Compared to and iPod, well I can't really but I wouldn't change from Creative to Apple for those reasons mentioned and also for price. Sure Creative have much more expensive products as well but they are well below the price of Apples stable of gadgets and this is where I think Apple may well be digging there own grave ahead of toppling in to it!
Apple are now the most valued company on the planet and they have achieved that by building and selling what is unquestionably quality merchandise. But how can they justify the continued high prices that they continue to maintain, especially as, a) we have been told since Adam was a boy that the more of a product that is produced the lower the cost, doesn't seem to be the case with Apple though does it? And, b) we know that the vast majority of their products are built using what one would loosely term as 'cheap labour, in the far east and China, Again then the question has to be asked how they can continue to justify the continued high prices?
But the final spadeful of dirt being dug out of that hole that they may well get buried in surely has to be the Android operating system. As well as the report that Apple is now the most profitable company on the planet we learn that Smart phones and other gadgets containing the Android OS are outselling Apple by two to 1 across the world. As I said I do not have an iPhone and nor does Ishbel. I have an HTC and Ishbel has a Samsung Galaxy S. We both 'love' these phones, although I am a late entrant to the smart phone market, I wouldn't want to do without it now. On the other hand for our daughter's, Marie, who swears by her iPhone and Jennifer is counting down the 'sleeps' until she gets her new iPhone, but Brian, our son, who according to Ishbel, 'gets more like his dad' everyday to the riposte, 'Oh shut up, mum!' also swears by his HTC.
The point of all this is of course, that Apple, like windows before them have a virtual monopoly on their OS system and will not share. They continue to charge premium prices in every country they operate in and while we all might aspire to own an Apple gadget, it is always going to be out of the reach of many more than it sells to. On the other hand Android is in everything else from the cheap and gaudy to the, 'as expensive as an Apple' and can much better supply more economical gadgets to the masses around the globe. Surely this has to be a warning to Apple to change their strategy and make their product less elitist!
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