USB 3G Modem....to keep or not to keep?

Its getting towards the end of my 7 day money back offer with the 3G USB stick from T-Mobile UK. I ordered the device to give me decent Internet while on a coach trip of 2.5 hours each way. That was yesterday and I was very impressed with the speed - even YouTube loads quick with no buffering - and just now I downloaded a song off iTunes in 15 seconds over 3G...God knows how quick full HSDPA would be!


Its really quick!


So anyway, the cost to keep the service would be £15 per month and that capped to 3GB per month, but - unlike Vodafone - if you go over the allowence you wont be punished financially the first few times. I currently don't travel all that often, but I will plan to when at University in London in October, and my Dad doesn't have Internet so it would be great when visiting him.

Financially I can afford it with my current job and my £24 per month gym membership will get cancelled in 3 months' time before heading to University, so then I'd be paying less per month as long as my phone bill remaind sensible.

I want to keep it, 'cos its cool, quick and very useful in certain circumstances...but on the other hand I may end up paying for a month having not actually used it in that month.


Its only 50p per day.


Maybe I could become one of those guys who sits in coffee shops all day to make use of it...

Why...? Because I can

Im currently sat downstairs on the MacBook, watching trhe Gadget Show on Channel 5, while blogging via a T-Mobile 3G usb modem, despite having a much faster wifi network buzzing around me. After the setup its a rather good device, seems quite speedy, even on YouTube!

Quidco

Quidco is basically online cashback and works like this;
you go to, lets say, the Apple store via a link in the Quidco site, you buy something and Apple then pay Quidco 'cos they got your custom through then. Quidco then give that money back to you! Simple as that.

They do ask for £5 at the end of your first year, or however much you made up to a fiver, after that whatever you make is yours.

I've set up my bank account with them and have altered all my bookmarked sites to go through the Quidco link, incase I forget to go to their site first.

Most purchases will see a return of between 2 and 10% but the real good deals lie elsewhere..
For example, if you take out a mobile contract with Vodafone, or mobile broadband which I might do at some point, you get £90 straight up!

Other deals include switching your gas supplier or car insurance, offering in the region of £100 each.

You do have to wait a month or so to get the cash but then its a rather welcome surprise.

I do buy a lot online so I'll keep you posted as to how much cash I get back over the following months....

Media Exam

Got home from a grueling 3 hour media studies exam today. I'm normally alright with media but got kinda nervous today, probably 'cos it actually matter an' all that...

Anyhoo, all went well, except I was sat under an air con unit and was well and truly frozen by 5pm. A quick run to the car and a blast of heating on the way home sorted that out nicely.

I've found that I'm unable to type or write all that well, thanks to a bit of glass stuck in my finger after my, erm...incident with a glass door the other day. And my sunburnt face is peeling like theres no tomorrow, grr.

WWDC 2008

After watching the keynote on Apple's website this morning I'm quite liking the look of Mobile Me; despite the dodgy name. The services offered look pretty neat and if its as quick as we're lead to believe - that includes speeding iDisk up, Apple - then I think I'll be happy enough to pay for it. .Mac was ok, but incorporating the services into a slick looking web 2.0 site is a vast improvment.

The iPhone 2.0 software has pretty much all been seen before - and I've had 1st hand experiance with one leaked build a few months ago. The AppStore is obviously the headline feature of 2.0 and rightly so; the apps shown yesterday do look rather impressive, with decent pricing and over-the-air purchasing from the iPhone is a bonus.

But of course the headlining act at WWDC was iPhone 3G - possibly the worst-kept secret in the history of tech. Despite the like of front-facing camera and larger memory, the rumours were pretty much spot-on with regards to the tapered shape, optional black or white colouring, plastic back, 3G and GPS. Even the priceing was correctly guessed by some, with the second coming of the Jesus Phone coming in at "no more than" $199, which equates to £99 in the UK on the cheaper tariffs. And it'll be free on the more pricy plans from O2. Another point worth mentioning is that it seems to be impossible to purchase the phone and activate at home, resulting in no way to unlock the phone without signing a heafty contract.

However, this would seem not to be the case in the UK, with the O2 site still claiming the ability to activate at home via iTunes, and the mention of a 'Pay and Go' iPhone also available on July 11th; the price for this possibly unlocked phone has yet to be announced. I'd be happy to pay the original price of £269 for an unlocked 8GB but only time will tell on that one.

Testing photo emailing via iphone

Testing iPhone with blogger

Testing blogging to blogger from iPhone via email

Testing Scribefire

Just testing the Scribefire pluggin for Firefox