Shopaholic? Me?

Yesterday I was accused of being a geek. And I must admit that it is true. For example, I love my playbook tablet which I insisted we buy rather than my IT hubby. I use it for the kids to learn on, to keep them occupied, to play on, to watch films on, for cooking, as a book in bed, to go house hunting, as a diary, as a camera (though not often), checking my email, surfing the web and loads more. This is aside from the fact that my phone has all these capabilitie but has a small screen, my camera is a DSLR and I could not live without my laptop.

So yes, I am a official Geek!

I needed a wireless printer to make life a tad easier and I bought an HP Deskjet 3050. It’s RRP is £100 but I paid half price at £55. The one thing I did not take into account was that although I thought I wanted a basic printer, I didn’t!

So let me start with the Pros:-

• Prints Fast
• You can make copies
• You can scan
• It has wireless
• It is easy to set up
• You can get 2 sizes of inks – Black 190 or 480 / Colour 165 or 330 pages per cartridge
• You only need 2 sets of ink – a black and a colour cartridge
• Inks are cheap costing between £10-£15 each
• You can get compatible inks for HP
• Printing from pc to printer is decent quality

Cons

• It does not do borderless printing, which I think is important for photos
• You cannot properly centre the photos so the border is uneven
• The quality of a copied photo is miserable
• There is no preview pane
• You do not have quality choices for scanning or copying

Summary

If you want cheap and good prints except for “photo” copies and are ok with bordered photos, then it is a good printer… otherwise sorry you need to spend a tad more!

We bought a new Samsung 3D Tv but it has been an absolute nightmare. It arrived broken and the stupid people are asking for £100 to redeliver! I mean seriously, if they do not pack it right in the first place, why do I have to suffer the consequences. So we are returning all the extras we bought too including the 3D glasses, the xbox 360 hdmi cable, the stand, the tv wall bracket etc etc

Now we are looking to buy it from somewhere else…

I will shortly post a full review of my tragic tale with my TV!

My 5 year old is really into his shopping scanners. Whether it is a Honeywell Barcode Scanner or just an app on our mobile, he justs adores it. He wants to scan everything.

You see scanning is the new way to shop particularly grocery shopping but all sorts of shopping.

In the case of grocery shopping, you scan your products with your app and voila it is in your shopping basket.

The other method is adverts add a barcode or QR Code and you scan it and you go straight to the website / object advertised.

Pretty cool. I just need to embrace the new method of shopping!

I am running a project from another country and encountering a few difficulties. My biggest is the ability to kick peoples backside when they let you down. I find conference call services help when you get through to people but getting through is another matter. And the reason I am project managing the job, is because it means I can shop and decorate a whole flat even if from remote, which I think is cool.

I love my navigation system (SAT NAV/ GPS). Literally I can get anywhere without any hassle whatsoever. You put in your postcode or address and bob’s your uncle. You take a wrong turn and my system automatically reroutes me the shortest way. Absolutely fab. Then there are the extras besides getting from A to B eg garman golf gps finds you golf courses, you can find restaurants, hotels, petrol stations, supermarkets and shopping centres. And you can use mine all over Europe including Milan, Paris and London. Needless to say, I like the shop finding facilities the best!

Batteries have come a long way… you can particularly see this from mobile phones. A decade ago they were the size of bricks and last 4 hours on standby. Phones came with a second battery as standard. Today a Nokia can last a week on standby and light usage. So they have come a long way but still not far enough by any standard. You see we talk “wireless”. But really they are not wireless at all. Wires seem to be everywhere. When I can use a cord cover I do, but still there are wires everywhere!!

One day wireless will really mean wireless… hopefully in not too many years!

I found a really cool gadget. I am sure it would make a great present for my hubby or for my sons very shortly. eotech have come up with a gadget that not only does night vision but holographic night vision. It means you can see everything in 3D whilst in complete darkness. I think that is so cool. I think my hubby’s geekiness is rubbing off on me! Argh!

Still, I think it is so cool.

Getting personal gifts for him (the hubby) is always next to impossible. So when he came up to me and asked for a phone, how could I refuse. Admittedly it cost a small fortune but then I never seem to buy him anthing substantial. It always seems to be chocolates, ties and socks.

This is the phone I am getting him – click here, which apparently is an all singing all dancing phone costing more than my laptop!

Anyway… he ordered it early this morning and later on received an email saying he should buy the phone he just bought as it was the best in the galaxy. This made his day. Made mine too as he now “owes me one”!

We saw some TV’s in the shops today, and we are still arguing over what to get. You see I would like one of these new 3d Tv’s but hubby says they are too new! He complains about HD TV’s because not everything is HD and when something is transmitted and is not HD, the visual is not so sharp. And then there is plasma versus LCD tvs and we still cannot come to any conclusion.

I think I am going to have to wait for our TV to die… and then we probably will have to wait for the kids tv to die and hopefully we then might come up with some agreement!