Hardware

Hardware

The world’s first wifi kettle now on sale in the UK

Posted by

0

ikettleDon’t let me buy this.

For the past few months, I’ve mentioned this kettle in my Blank Screen workshops but have had to say that it’s only available in the States. Now it’s officially here in the UK but I’d like you first to wait until it’s actually stocked – Amazon UK says temporarily out and Firebox says coming 23 April – and second to just think about what a wifi kettle means.

Stumbled in the front door from work exhausted? Nervy half-time ad break during the World Cup final? Slaving away on a late night project and can’t waste a second? Whatever the urgent hot-drink scenario, a simple one-touch setup allows you to instantly control the iKettle from anywhere in the house with your smart-phone.

iKettle on Firebox.com

I work at home and wouldn’t know one end of a football from the other, but yeah, otherwise, that’s me. I am drawn to the idea of being able to tap a button on my iPhone and have this kettle go boil itself in my kitchen. And for it to then send a push notification back that it’s done.

Except.

The kettle is £99.99 UK, or will be, depending on whose release date you see first. That’s not a problem. Well, it’s not a convenience either, but if you were in the market for a kettle and were looking north of whatever’s on sale at Tesco, you could spend a lot more. Seriously more. Amazon lists some kettles for over £300 apiece. So the £100 iKettle with wifi isn’t a bargain but it looks like one next to these others.

That’s not the except.

The except is that I know. I know. I absolutely know that I would press that button without having thought to put water in.

So I reckon that would work out at about one hundred pounds per mug of tea.

Snap review: Sky Fibre

Posted by

0

Get it.

Is that snappy enough, do you think? I think you need a little more, you need a link to follow. So let’s say my snap review is this: get it.

Sky Fibre is ultrafast broadband and that link will tell you more about it plus let you check whether it’s on your area. Take a look at BT Infinity too. It’s the same or similar and you may find that only one is available to you. I had a recurring task in OmniFocus for a year that prodded me to check whether BT Infinity was yet available to me and though it isn’t, it was on one of those regular prods that I found Sky Fibre had come.

I’ve always had very slow broadband so if yours is already nippy, maybe you won’t notice the difference so markedly. For many years, I would get calls from different broadband suppliers saying they could get me something like 10Mb/s and I’d go yeah, prove it. They’d type something and go Oh. And I’d say yeah. Tell me about it.

My house is about as far away from the nearest telephone exchange as it is possible to be without actually being on the next exchange along. And that distance, whatever it is, has crippled my broadband.

On a good day, when the wind is in the east and I am the only person on the street using broadband, I could get up to a dizzying 3.6Mb/s. More typically, I got 1.7Mb/s and pitying looks from friends.

We’ve now changed to Sky Fibre and at this very moment we have two Macs, two iPads and two iPhones working away online and my speed here is 20.13Mb/s.

I tell you, it is like when we went from dialup to broadband.

So, seriously, get it.

Hmm. Lego cases for iPad. Seriously.

Posted by

0

I am in the market for a case for my iPad Air and I am looking at one from Belkin but not this. Not these. Although, tell me you aren’t tempted?

Lego iPad cases:
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/125563-belkin-expands-lego-builder-case-range-to-ipad-mini

To be full about it, this is the one I am more seriously considering: Belkin Ultimate iPad Case in white.

It’s £99 here in the UK and do I want to be more sure of it before I drop a hundred pounds. But the iPad Air is so new that many cases aren’t out yet or they are in the States yet not here. While I can’t just buy it, I find I’m thinking about it more. And I’m glad for the delay: I was certain I would buy the Logitech Folio and now I’m certain I won’t. There is a version for the iPad mini and though the keyboard is rather good, the case is some kind of plastic and rubber. Can’t bear it. Can’t face holding that as I carry it around all day.

Of course, the Lego case must be rougher but at least in a fun way.

Ten months 0% finance offer at Apple

Posted by

0

Apparently only available in some parts of Europe – I just checked, the UK is one of the parts – this is a nice deal from Apple. I bought my office iMac through a similar deal last year and it was handy to keep my capital and only pay out a portion each month.

Mind you, it was also nice when the months ended and I could call the iMac my own. Just about the day my ten-months interest-free payment ended, though, Apple brought out a new iMac. It's as if they knew. The cunning rascals.

There are terms and conditions on this deal and you should eye them up carefully. See apple.com/uk/store for details.

But the key points begin with the fact that you can only get the deal on hardware (seemingly you might include some software through the store's attempts to upsell you). Next, it's 0% financing for ten months and this is separate from Apple's longer-term financing deals. I don't know anything about those. But they don't get any of this 0% lark.

Last and maybe a killer point: you have to spend over aproximately £450. But then this is the Apple Store, you can do it. The iPad Air that I raved about here the other day starts from £399 but I would (and did) spend more by getting one with greater capacity. The new iPad mini with Retina display starts at £319 but bung in more capacity or a Smart Cover and you're away