If your into music, photography and video, I mean seriously ill into it and need to store 160,000 digital photos or 8,325 hours of MP3 music or 500 hours of video, then you need one of these. And this one is the cheapest I've seen, just £44 down from £55. It's moronically simple to operate.
Check it out here:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140807
The latest attempt to get the viewing public to replace their movie collections, this time with Blu-ray, feels, predictably, like a con. Why the high prices for a Blu-ray disc when DVDs are now retailing for a few quid?
Obviously, the movie business is suffering at the hands of pirates and they have to make a return on their investments.
So make the movies available and affordable! People will then buy them. And you remove much of lure of the black market. But no, the films are being drip-fed on to the market and the prices are laughably high.
It is, however, slowly improving.
I'm delighted to see that Play.com has just announced a sale with its own selection of Blu-ray films (others have similar deals) under a tenner. They're also advertising DVDs from £3. Worth a mention because the prices include delivery.
As ever, check out the useful Find-dvd.co.uk for price comparisons on DVD, Blu-ray, books, CDs and games.
Check out the Play.com summer sale
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Here's an offer from our broadband partner, Broadband Choices, which makes an already great offer really worth checking out either today or tomorrow.
Until 30 April, TalkTalk is offering 3 months free bundled broadband and phone, normal cost just £6.49 a month plus phone line rental.
TalkTalk has just been voted Best Bundled Services ISP in the value for money category in a survey by Broadband Choices. Sky and Tiscali were in 2nd and 3rd places. Check out our...
I've been waiting for this for a while, a flat-screen telly with Freeview for the bedroom for under £100. And this one seem to fit the bill: a 15" TV for £90 - down from a claimed £225. It doubles as a PC monitor. Order today for delivery tomorrow.
Vistron DB15-BD 15" TV Black Digital Freeview
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Switch broadband
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'Profiteering' BT to add £30 to broadband bills
One of my guilty pleasures, apart from poring over the attendance statistics for lower league football matches on a Monday morning, is wasting entire evenings looking through our old photo albums.
The former frequently gives rise to moments of incredulity. Chester FC often attract barely more than 1,000 people into the ground! How do they make any money? The latter, however, is the source of a tremendous amount of pleasure. For this reason, I've not bought in to the digital photo frame phenomenon. But here's an offer that is sorely tempting.
Ebuyer has a 7" frame for just £22.99, backed with a decent number of reviews that suggest it may be good value rather than merely cheap. You can easily pay up to 100 quid for something similar. Check out...
>> Extra value photo frame £22.99
PS> Another guilty pleasure of mine is listening to Joss Stone. Why rubbish football teams get such poor crowds is perhaps understandable. But why one of our greatest ever singers gets such a bad press is a complete mystery. Here are a couple of shots that might be on my photo frame if I ever got one. And if I'd taken them, of course.
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(I've always wanted to start a piece with the words 'why' and 'quite' with the first line in brackets. So here goes...)
Quite why, in the days that music downloads rule the audio waves, HMV doesn't offer an in-store facility to download music on to your pod or player is beyond me. You can do it on the website. In spite of this anomaly. HMV seems to be doing pretty well. It has just bought some of the vacant Zavvi stores.
Visiting Zavvi with its ridiculous over-the-top security presence often felt like you were visiting a crime scene rather than a shop with a few CDs and loads more CDs out of stock. I gave up with them ages ago. And this is someone who used to spend all day every Saturday in the Eldon Square Virgin Megastore who still spends stupid amounts of money on music. Dear old defunct Woolies frequently offered a similar experience; like visiting a badly organised jail with heavily guarded sweets, cheap tellies and Shania Twain CDs lining the aisles instead of cells. HMV take note - from my recent experience you seem to be filling the gap on the security front these days, it's not pleasant.
Aside in small print: I did a quick reccy yesterday in the High Street. At 1.30pm, peak lunchtime shop-a-thon time, the shops were almost all, almost completely empty - apart from Tesco (big queue at the cigarette counter) and WH Smiths (big queue at the cigarette counter). The Smiths branch is closing down at the end of the month.
If High Street retailers won't adapt the game's up. Sky has just anounced an online music service to rival iTunes. Amazon and Play.com are doing a fine job offering music downloads. There a loads of others. But these are the paid-for ones.
The free legal stuff is incredible. If you haven't checked out Spotify do it now because, frankly, I can't work out how they plan to make proper money.
And for today, here's another legal one.
Wolfgang's Vault has a smallish but worthy archive of concert and interview footage of some of the greatest bands. It won't suit people into the more modern stuff on show in last night's Brits - but hey what's modern about Duffy? There's some interesting 'old' U2 footage that fans may want to check out. They were on the Brits too.
http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/
You need to do a quick registration but unlike Spotify and our erstwhile music retailers it shouldn't be blocked by any workplace's overzealous security presence: the firewall, that is.
Related
>> How to get better and cheaper broadband + reader's experiences
What? I hear you cry!! Only half price!
Happy New Year by the way. But last year's fanatical discounting can't last for ever, I fear. But here's one more worth a quick mention if you have some digital photos you want to get printed.
Until 5 January, MyPix.com is offering ALL its customers half-price photo printing with the promotional code MYPIX2009.
There are plenty of these online upload, print and post back to you photo services but where this one deserves particular credit is that it also sells photo albums with slots that fit the digital format prints, that is 6"x4.5". Ideal for people who use modern cameras but like to file away pictures in the old-fashioned way.
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Retailers may have you believe that Christmas begins at the tail end of summer, just as as the kids go back to school, but what do they know about anything? For everyone else it starts today. And thanks to that internet we can track the progress of the man himself. (Is Santa real?)
The Norad Father Christmas tracking system has this year teamed up with Google to make it even easier to follow his progress around the world tonight. Whether that means Google now owns Christmas along with everything else is a debate for another time.
For today, if any children are getting far too excited, confused or overtired to the point of illness, get them to have a look at the progress of Santa. Because if they won't sleep, it ain't gonna happen.
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/home.html
Last years highlights
Just when you thought Christmas in Discount Britain, circa 2008 recession, couldn't get any more bizarre than every company offering 20%-offs, P&O Ferries, the ferry company that operates ferries for a living, has upped the ante with the launch of its Reindeer Training School. It's good to see marketing departments haven't lost sight of the important elements of keeping business afloat.
Speaking of which, if working for yourself is either how you operate now or is looking like a distinct possibility in the near future here is a great site for creating your own business cards and more. No more hanging around those printing machines at train stations for the internet generation. On Moo.com you can create lively calling cards with a different photo on each one if you so wish. And starter packs of 50 come in at £10.99. Just remember if you want your image and your business to succeed - be sensible. Leave the wacky stuff for the, um, experts.
Check it out, watch the video, at Moo.com
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Trying to find money-saving discounts worthy of posting is becoming increasing difficult. Almost everyone is cutting prices so there's not a lot of point singling out the most desperate offers. They all seem to be. Suffice to say that come January it will surely be a case of which chain will follow Woolworths into the mire.
Some of these offers are nonetheless better than others. For instance, Threshers/Wine Rack is currently offering 40% off wine. But let's take a closer look.
The popular French table wine from the JP Chenet label - the one with the funny shaped bottle - sells at Threshers / Wine Rack for £5.99 a bottle. Tesco is shifting it for less than £4 if you buy in bulk. But cross the Channel for a better idea of the true price and you'll see it's under £2 a bottle. Even at 40% off and considering the duty that UK Customs and Excise imposes - and even admitting that it's not an entirely accurate like-for-like comparison - it is a rubbish discount compared with its true French value.
Far better then to concentrate on some true bargains. Here are some of the best and most popular free downloads of the year. These offers are genuinely worth checking out.
Most popular free Windows downloads
Most popular free Mac downloads
Also worth checking
Songbird - open source music player
Related
Supermarkets cheat with bogus offers
This is really handy. Many thanks to voucher people Everydaysale.co.uk for compiling it.
Amazon.co.uk
For super saver delivery order by Thursday December 18 (free on orders over £5)
For first class delivery, order by Saturday December 20 (delivery rates vary)
For express delivery, order by 1pm Tuesday December 23 (£8.80)
For Christmas Eve delivery, order by 8.30am Wednesday
December 24 (£14.67 per delivery)
Argos.co.uk
For smaller items, order by Monday December 22 (1pm)
For bigger items, order by Friday December 19 Standard delivery costs £5.80
Boden.co.uk
Order by Thursday December 11 (£4)
Boots.com
To collect from store, order by Tuesday December 16
For standard delivery, order by Thursday December 18 (£2.89 or free for orders over £45)
For next day delivery, order by Monday December 22 (£5.38)
Borders.co.uk
For standard delivery on books, gifts and games, order by Thursday December 18 (free)
For standard delivery, order Saturday December 20 (free)
For express delivery, order by Saturday December 20 (£2.99 plus 70p for each item)
Currys.co.uk
Order by Sunday December 21, 12pm
Delivery charges vary by product
Dixons.co.uk
For small products, order by Sunday
December 21, 12pm For large products, order by Friday December 19
Delivery charges vary by product
Dorothyperkins.com
For standard delivery, order by Friday December 19, 12pm (£4)
For special delivery, order by Sunday December 21 (£5)
Figleaves.com
For standard delivery, order by Sunday December 21, midnight (£3.50)
For express delivery, order by Monday December 22, noon (£6)
Hamleys.com
Order by Friday December 19 (£4.99 or free for orders over £50)
Harrods.com
For standard delivery (excluding hampers), order by Monday December 15 (£4.95)
For next day delivery, order by Thursday December 18
Houseoffraser.co.uk
For standard delivery, order by Wednesday December 17 (£4)
For next day delivery, order by Friday December 19 (£7)
Johnlewis.com
For standard home delivery, order by Friday 19 December, 3pm (free)
Marksandspencer.com
For standard delivery on clothing, home ware, selected technology and wine cases, order by Saturday December 20, 12 noon (£3.50 or free for orders over £30)
For nominated delivery on the items above order by Monday December 22, 12 noon (£4.95 or free for orders over £150)
For larger home ware and technology items, order by Monday December 15
For food pick ups in store order by Friday December 19 to collect within 2 days, Tuesday December 16 to collect within 5 days; Sunday December 14 to collect within 7 days
Next.co.uk
For standard delivery, order by Tuesday December 16, 5pm
For UK courier delivery, order by Monday December 22 (£3.95)
Oasis-stores.com
Order by Wednesday December 17 (£3.95)
Pcworld.co.uk
Order by Sunday December 21 Delivery charges vary by product
Play.com
Order by Saturday December 20 (free)
RedLetterdays.co.uk
Order by Friday December 19 (Free for gift cards)
Superdrug.com
Order by Wednesday December 17, 2pm (£3 or free on orders over £35)
Tesco.com
Small items, order by Sunday December 21 (£4.85)
Larger items, order by Sunday December 14 (£4.85)
Thelink.co.uk
Order by Sunday December 21 (free)
Thorntons.co.uk
Order by Friday December 12 (£4.95)
Topshop.co.uk
For standard delivery, order by Friday December 19, 12pm (£4)
For express delivery, order by Monday December 22, 12pm (£5)
All orders over £90, shipped for free
Zavvi.co.uk
For standard delivery, order by Tuesday December 16
For special delivery, order by Sunday December 21 See website for delivery charges
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I don't know why I'm publicising Amazon again, the stock levels they hold of my book are up and down like something I can't even think about without being sacked from my day job. Keeping stocks low and a tight rein on the supply plain is why they are so successful, I'm told. And now they look like capitalising on that success by moving into the download music business with DRM-free MP3 albums from £3.
If that sounds like algebra extracted from a txt message, it means that for three quid you can buy an album that you can then burn on to a CD or play on any music device. You can't do that with DRM (digital rights management) protected music.
For £3 there are albums by Seasick Steve and, pictured below, Take That and Leonard Cohen among others.
Check out:
£3 DRM-free album downloads at Amazon
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Squeezebox Boom - is this really best music gadget?
On the face of it, £200 for a radio is an awful lot of money. But when tech-obsessed colleagues are moved by a piece gadgetry to the point of eulogy, it could be worth taking note.
The Squeezebox Boom is one such toy. It's a portable music player that can not only play radio but also all the music stored on your computer. Plus there's a massive archive of live music to listen to and it's wireless, so you can move it round the house.
It's strictly one for people with cash lying around - it's a lot of money - but it's hard to find a bad word about it. Here's a couple of videos with more praise for the 'best device of the year'.
The pound / dollar exchange rate may have slipped into the gutter and begun its slippery route into and down the drain but so has the US economy. If you are in any doubt, watch this video for a full-on doomsday scenario with more than an element of plausibility..
It means there are discounts to be had for anyone prepared to buy from stores in online America. Not everything can be delivered here and there are customs considerations but if you have time it's worth a look. Time, though, is running out for delivery in time for Christmas.
>> Last delivery dates to Europe for Amazon.com
>> Delivery charges for Europe from Amazon.com
>> Black Friday deals from Amazon.com
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Please note if you are ordering my book, How to survive the Credit Crunch, Amazon.co.uk currently cannot guarantee Christmas delivery. It sold out what we sent them. But try your local High Street bookstore or check out the list of other online outlets.
Richard Browning
As a former fanatical collector of vinyl 7" singles I fully understand the appeal and the addiction of collecting, however irrational and expensive a past-time it may be.
Sadly, my desire for gatefold and other rare sleeves and dodgy picture discs and colour vinyl isn't matched by anyone these days who is prepared to pay money for it. So I console myself with the knowledge that my great, great, great grandchildren and their grandchildren will one day be proud owners of Public Image Ltd by Public Image with original newspaper sleeve, the Undertones' Teenage Kicks with original fold-out poster sleeve and, one strictly for other John Peel (right) fans of a certain age, the Shapes EP (pictured above).
It's not the same for everyone, however, as our new section on collecting shows. Some of these people manage to hoard a fortune.
Me on the other hand will be spending dark the winter evenings this year converting my beloved collection into faceless electronic files on the computer. This is being made possible because finally the prices of USB turntables are tumbling. And while I know you can do it with the right cables from any old hi-fi, mine's out of action and in the loft - about to be joined by a couple of thousand singles.
>> USB turntable for less than £60 - from Maplin (also enables the transfer of music from cassette).
Greetings fans of the tenuous. After last night's historic election victory across the pond and we find ourselves waking up to the promise of a new dawn - you can have one too. In your bedroom. In the form of a wake up light. An alarm-clock-cum-bedside-lamp that slowly recreates dawn in your bedroom in winter.
Everyone I have spoken to who has one says how much better they feel at the start of the day as a result. Online critics are horrified by the price: £100 for a clock, bulb and a plastic cover. But it's coming down.
Argos is selling the The Philips Wake Up Light for £66.59
Amazon, meanwhile, has it for £59.99, a saving of 40%
Now, I'm well aware that the only thing of any importance is exactly how dead Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross will have to be before everyone is properly satisfied that they're sorry, but I have managed to get 33,000 words more or less in the right order. And that's some achievement. And there's some jokes in it.
How to survive the credit crunch is on sale now.
The hateful work of cyber-scum hellbent on infecting our PCs with spyware and viruses shows no sign of abating. And often if we notice something amiss on our screens, the first point of call is Google. This is not necessarily a good idea as it this may lead you into the hands of another bunch of rogues who'll try to take your money for clean-up software that at best is a rip-off of an established brand.
If you do feel under attack, you should check out the exhaustive list of rogue anti spyware from Spyware Warrior.
and its:
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Bank account details for sale online for £5
The World Wide Web is a web all right. A vast empire of information from the incredibly useful to the anarchically pointless. Finding what you want can be a tiresome process. So it comes as a huge relief when finally among all the automated directories you find one that has been painstakingly put together and is useful for everyone.
One such directory is Gizmo's tech support alert. It features a round up of the best free software with reviews and links to all those programs that can make life at your PC that little bit safer and more entertaining.
Check it out here:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/
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This is Money jargon buster - all the key financial terms explained
The electronics industry, particularly the computer sector, has a habit of keeping everything at the same price. Time was desktop computers were always £1,000 with all the peripherals. Just when it looked like price was coming down, they'd invent a new operating system or processor or software package to keep the price the same.
That's changed and things are a lot cheaper. The same goes for flat wide-screen monitors, which have come down in price significantly so they're all around the £120 mark.
If you haven't made the leap from 17" to 19", or 20" this may be a reason to think about it: a Samsung SM2032BW 20"TFT Monitor Widescreen 1680x1050 3000:1 300cd/m2 2ms VGA/DVI-D Glossy Black 3 Years Onsite Warranty for £120 down from £192.
It's got one of those glossy screens, which may be a problem if it's placed where there is a lot of reflection but, more importantly, it's backed by a manufacturer's three-year warranty, which means they're serious about what they do.
It also gets top marks from 70 reviews and delivery is free.
Check it out.
http://www.ebuyer.com/special/1708?eblt=product_3
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Just when you thought flat-screen TVs couldn't get any flatter along comes a new format to test the credit limits of psycho-consumers across the globe. The ultra slim telly, which began at a mere 44mm thick (less than 2ins), is gradually winging its way over here from manufacturers in the East. Sony has already trimmed its version to less than 1cm.
Korea is considered to be two or three years ahead of the rest of us when it comes to technology and this piece from the Korea Times explains the whole thing.
Read about the trend for slim
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When I was about 12 and I asked my dad for $700bn for Scalextric stuff and the whole Subbuteo floodlights kit as well as some of the more obscure teams in their second away strips he said 'no'.
'That's a lot of money to throw into a plastic dugout of pointlessness. You'll only end up squashing the goalkeeper, losing to Hull City reserves and not playing with any of it again. All that money will have been wasted,' he said. Or words to that effect. Harsh. But I survived.
So when this week Hank Paulson asked the $700bn question of the US congress, understandably they're finding it hard to say 'yes'. After all you can get Subbuteo for £22.49 these days - including free super saver delivery. The difference with toys is that you get something for your money. With this bailout no one knows whether it's going to make the slightest bit of difference. That's one expensive own goal if it goes ahead and goes wrong.
Whatever the outcome, it's all rather interesting. To follow the developments as they happen, sign up to our newsflashes and we'll keep you up to date with this sorry mess by email.
>> Get your free email newsflashes
And then play the...
>> Online Subbuteo freekick game
Related
>> US economy bailout may hit the buffers
>> How to get out of debt
>> Where to get hold of some debt
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, but because Britain is rubbish at customer service we often have to resort to writing to a company's top boss to sort out our various consumer messes.
If this sounds familiar here's a page worth filing away in your bookmarks:
Directory of email addresses of big company bosses
It includes the likes of:
stuart.rose@marks-and-spencer.com
Related
Discuss customer service | Change your bank | More Not Work technology
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At its launch the site claimed to be able to put you in touch with anyone, anywhere in the world for free. And I know it works because a colleague found a long-lost friend in Canada, who he met up with after one or two telephone calls.
Now there are scores of dubious-looking directories online but this one is still worth checking out.
>> Infobel
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Find a deal, cut your bills, sort your finances
There are three ways to win £92m I can think of.
1. Get a job in a bank selling mortgages to unemployed Americans, repackage the mortgage debt as investments and sell it on to stupid people in other banks around the world, pocket your bonuses and walk away while the Western economy collapses under the ensuing credit crunch.
2. Work hard and save really hard, starting with a top rate Isa, learning more about how to invest along the way.
3. Win tonight's Euromillions draw. It's a record £92m jackpot.
By far the best way to untold millions is number 2. I mean, number 1 is like so last year and number 3, well let me tell you about number 3...
Before he got a job on This is Money our technical developer made a lottery simulator for a college project. It plays the lottery every 'week' with either random numbers or the same set of numbers in each draw. And the result? In both scenarios it can take thousands of years for your numbers to come up. You have about as much chance of winning the lottery as Gordon Brown has of a pop career.
And that's the thing. Bizarrely, there is a slim enough chance of almost anything happening to make it possibly worthwhile having a go. Go on, watch the video of:
Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, singing When I'm Cleaning Windows
By the way, the National Lottery's online ticket sales have been offline this morning so if you can't access it to buy your ticket this lunchtime, maybe check out:
The great lottery conspiracy of 2005
The growing popularity of laptop computers is a complete mystery to me. They are vastly more expensive than the desktop equivalent PC and they are downright fiddly to navigate. Yes, say fans, but you can plug in a mouse and an external monitor if that's a problem. So save your money and get a desktop.
However, there is a low-cost alternative that is worth checking out. Our colleagues at the Mail on Sunday have just started video reviews of the latest gadgets and one that caught my eye is of the ASUS EEE PC901, a brilliant little laptop that 'does the business'. It carries out most of your word processing, household and web browsing tasks. And it runs Windows. The downside is there is no CD drive. But they argue, you don't need that. The plus side, and it's a huge plus, is the price: a mere £340.
Watch the video:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/moslive/article-1038667/Turn-Lives-video-reviews.html
Another site worth checking is:
In February, our parent company Associated Newspapers launched a mobile text service, MailTXT, aimed at slashing the nation's phone bills. And now the popular service has got even better as new users are being offered 50 free international texts.
The messages can be sent to any number anywhere in the world and after you have used your free allocation it costs a mere 1.4p to text a fellow user and 6.4p for a non-user. User-to-user texts within the UK a free.
Finding your way around This is Money is hard enough (we're working on that) but the entire world wide web is mind-bogglingly big. As big as a googol, let's say. The search engine Google has become the most-popular way to find your way around it all. But there are alternatives.
One site that tried to help is called Delicious. When you find a website you like, instead of bookmarking it to your computer you bookmark it on the site. Then you can see who else has bookmarked it and then see the other sites that person has saved. That way, so the theory goes, you can find a whole bunch of stuff you may never have found that you may also be interested in.
Did you know?
If you log in to This is Money and then search for a company, you can add it straight in to your virtual portfolio.
The logo is on probably millions of websites. Yet, most people I talk to don't have the first idea about what it is. I'm talking about Digg. And the verb, to Digg (it).
Digg is a product of the social networking craze, which hands control of the news agenda to users rather than journalists. If you think a story is worthy of wider readership you cast your vote, or Digg it, and the stories with the most votes rise to the top of the chart. Unfortunately, the only people with enough time to dedicate to such work tend to be children. It's why the so many of the popular stories are about conspiracy theories and silly videos. Check out 2012 the year the internet ends
There is a also business channel. The agenda is rather skewed but the site is a fine place to waste a lunch break if you haven't already.
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