It’s been a while since I last posted on this blog. In fact I haven’t posted on here since last year I even messed my birthday so it seems only fitting that the first blog post in 2012 is about my new iPad.

Since I gave my old iPad my sister in January I have longed for a new one. I knew it wasn’t too far away until one was released but it felt like an age. It was great to hear the improvement Apple had made with the iPad on 7th March and I couldn’t wait so preordered one straight away. Well today is release day and at 8:50am it arrived and I’m really pleased so so I thought I best make a blog post as I haven’t done one in a while.

This whole post was written using the dictation built into my new iPad with only some minor corrections.

Merry Christmas

It’s that time of the year again. You know that time that comes around, well, every year. The time when people are rushing around in a mad panic buying things they neither need or actually want, but feel they must because, it’s that time of year again. If your not sure what time i’m talking of then either your reading this waffle of mine at a time of the year that is not December or you don’t celebrate the festival that is know by the name, Christmas.

Often you will hear on the wireless, radio, (I’m not that old), mentions around the idea that “Christmas gets earlier and earlier every year” and most years I have to agree however this year it doesn’t feel that way at all. In fact to be writing this 4 days into the month of Christmas and to only just start feeling “Christmasy” feels all too odd. I mean we are so often thrust into Christmas the day after that awful event to which Americans seem to hold so dear and yet in England so many would love to ban. I’m talking Halloween. That day when annoying little children and teen trouble makers descend on your home to prise treats from you to which you have specially taken a trip to the local supermarket to buy treats to feed these…. imposters. “Get a sofa in time for Christmas”, “Great Christmas Savings”, “Roast the Christmas turkey on a new cooker”. All are little phrases the retailers love to emboss on our skulls when really I have sat on the same sofa for the last 5 years and if I do decide to buy a new one it won’t really spoil my Christmas or change my feelings towards the sofa in any way at all if I got it say, in January. In fact i’d probably save some of my hard earned money by purchasing the sofa I don’t really need but have been told I do in the “January Sales”.

You see, all to often it seems we forget what Christmas is all about. Now I’m not here to preech to you about the Bible or Jesus Christ or any form of religion for that matter, but no matter what you believe or who you believe in the idea of being thankful and spending time together rather than spending time killing zombies on the latest console you bagged for Christmas, seems to be the meaning behind it all. So this year, why not take a moment. Step back, look around you. You may not have the latest smartphone, and maybe the Turkey is burnt to a crisp and maybe you have lost your job this year, but look around you. Look where your sat or standing if your reading this your in a far better place than many and I think we all, me included, take the little things for granted.

I’m thankful, thankful to you for spending a moment of time to read this. Merry Christmas!

Mark

Amazon is quite possibly the largest Retailer in the UK, (It might be behind the likes of Tesco). Yet shockingly Amazon do not seem to be bothered about reducing the size of their packaging to reduce impact on the amount they use every day. I fully understand products come in all shapes and sizes but surely such a huge online retailer should be striving to make leaps forward in terms of their own packaging. In fact Amazon has an opertunity to be a pioneer in this field.

Really Amazon?

….No it’s not the start of a wicked joke…

I am writing this blog post today after receiving my new monopod from Amazon. Its a small monopod and comes in a rather small box yet Amazon decided to ship it in something huge! Now this hasn’t just happened this once, I often get packages from Amazon in huge boxes and to me it seems such a waste. I mean really, it is necessary. Can’t Amazon look into developing a method of only needing a box the size of the product that is needed. i.e. Why not look to cutting the cardboard for each box needed. I understand this will take time but once a slick method is found it will not only save money for the material used but means less will used, less will need to be recycled and thats a big thumbs up all round!

Amazon, I address this to you. Don’t follow the others, do the right thing. Show your customers your investing in their world and they will invest in you! It’s great you use recycled materials but if you can use less in the first place there’s more to go around. I’m not trying to say I know the logistics of your packing facility, or the methods of recycling and its impact but surely using less packaging would help, somehow? I open an invitation for you to reply.

To everyone else I’d love to see your pictures of products and there delivery boxes either from Amazon or anywhere else. Send them to me, or tweet with the hashtag #deliveryboxes

Dell Outlet

Ok so at first glance at the title of this post your probably thinking, “yeh doesn’t everyone?”. Well as we all know many companies often sell stock of an item before they actually have it physically there in their warehouse. Dell, Apple, Amazon you name it often when buying something online we have to wait a few weeks either for stock to come in or our item to be built to the specification that we desire. However Dell outlet is Dells little online store that sells refurbished or partially damaged computers at a much lower price than they are to buy brand new and you still get the same 1 year warrenty and support so whats to loose? (more…)

Three Mobile

So I’ve just got off the phone with Three Mobile. The company has been ringing me for the past few days but I couldn’t be bothered to answer until now. I thought here we go, what “offers” do they have. The foreign lady, Pakistani or Indian spoke pretty good English which was great so I was able to answer and ask her questions. She started by asking me some details about my current contract (which is with O2 by the way). She asked how many minutes, texts and bundles I get. I thought id stretch the truth a little by telling her I have Unlimited web, 1000 minutes and 1000 texts all for £15 a month. I also stated that I had 10 months remaining on my contract and assumed after saying all that she would of given up.

But no she continued to ask what phone I had, which I informed her truthfully it was an iPhone 3GS. She then offered me a great deal with a Samsung phone! I told her no I only want an iPhone. (Id wouldn’t actually mind a Samsung Android phone but I thought lets see what she says to the iPhone). She then told me they “Have no iPhones due to complaints and therefore there is no stock”. Yeh I couldn’t believe it and surely Apple wouldn’t be happy her saying this! I therefore pushed her saying well if there’s so many complaints surely there should be stock? I said the iPhone is very popular im surprised of all the complaints. She quickly tried to retract her statement by saying there are complaints but that might not be the whole reason why there is no stock.

No iPhones due to complaints!

I then asked if I have a contract with you and I have 10 months of mine left would 3 buy it out she of course said “no” so how she could think that she could give me a worthwhile deal I will never know!

Moral of the story, networks love to make stuff up to make you choose a phone they have plenty of stock of and are struggling to shift. Personally I would recommend never agreeing to anything when a network provider calls you have a look around online first!