Yesterday I finally got my iPhone back from being fixed. Some of you may remember me posting about my accident on this very blog a couple of weeks back.

It took a week from me posting it to receiving it back with it’s brand new screen. It’s doubtful that I’ll ever let anyone touch it again! I have to say that I am impressed with the good work the guys over at iPaq repairs have done. It works and feels just like it was before it was broken.

Now, I have taken precautions against it happening again by buying a case for the iPhone from eBay. It’s a good move because it’ll be (hopefully) protected against any further accidents that I may have. The case I chose was a leather one, but there are many different cases for the iPhone 3G available through PriceGrabber too.

The cost of repairing the screen was close enough to £70, but I’ve no longer got a warranty on it if anything else happens. It was a choice between paying that amount or sending it to O2 and having to pay £250 for a screen replacement.

If you have an iPhone and, God forbid, you have an accident then you should definitely look up the guys over at iPaq repairs.

I saw this on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross a few weeks back and meant to post about it then but other things came up and it was forgotten until today.

I remember the Rubik’s Cube coming out when I was a youngster and everyone competing with each other to see who could complete it in the fastest time possible. Although I never managed to ever get all the faces completed without having to resort to pulling the stickers off.

The Rubiks Cube salt and pepper grinders will bring back those memories to anyone who was lucky (or unlucky) enough to remember them. You can’t actually use them as a proper Rubik’s Cube though unfortunately.

Only the top layer of these cubes rotate to allow you to grind your salt or pepper. They are however exactly the same size as the original cube. Don’t worry about mixing your salt and pepper up either, the Rubiks Cube salt and pepper grinders top layer are coloured differently in order for you to be able to tell them apart. The salt is white and the pepper is red.

The Rubiks Cube salt and pepper grinders will certainly be a conversation starter amongst your 30 something friends who might pop round for a dinner party and no doubt, bring back memories of other 80’s embarrassments like big hair and Spandau Ballet.

Today is the first time that I have used my new MacBook outside of the house or college and I have to say I’m impressed with its performance. I’m sitting in a pub in Wales writing this entry. I am indoors though because the glare from the sun is too much.

My Windows Laptop was, and still is, way too noisy to use these days without deafening everybody within a 20 foot radius. It’s a shame really, because it was a nice laptop when I first got it. Maybe I should format and install Windows XP on it (currently has Vista). Having a Windows machine does have advantages too, don’t get me wrong. It has the software I use for my University course on it and I can’t afford to put them on the MacBook just yet.

It’s nice though to be able to go out and not be stuck in the house on such a nice day. The battery life on the MacBook is extremely impressive. I charged it this morning and have been using it for about 3 hours already, and it informs me that I still have 2 hours of charge left!! Mind you, I’ve only been doing basic word processing today on it. Everything about this machine impresses me if I’m honest. Much more than any Windows based machine ever did.

There’s always something new to discover and most times the software that comes with the MacBook for free would cost you an arm and a leg for a Windows based machine.

I’m definitely an Apple Fanboy now. Viva la Apple!!

It would seem that summer is finally upon us (hopefully) and that means it’s time to get those barbecues out. Obviously if you’re going to be having a barbecue then you need drinks to go with it.

That’s where the R/C Drinks Cooler comes in. The cooler is the ideal solution to keeping your drinks nice and cold in this heat and if you’re going to be eating burgers, sausages and chicken wings then you’ll need something nice and cool to wash them down with.

But the R/C Drinks Cooler is different to other cooler bags out there because, as the title suggests, it’s radio controlled. This makes it ideal even for couch potatoes who don’t really like to move much to get a cool drink. The R/C Drinks Cooler has a range of 30 feet and can carry up to 12 bottles. Having sure grip wheels means that the R/C Drinks Cooler won’t topple over on its delivery route.

This is a fun little thing and will have all your mates laughing as they pick up a nice cool beverage from it. They’ll probably even want to get one for themselves, so makes sure you point them in the direction of PriceGrabber. Costing under £40, it’s a sure fire hit this summer.

The end of my first year at university is quickly drawing near and I have to say it’s been good. The things I’ve learned will stand me in good stead for my second year. It’s certainly an eye opener and I would recommend it to anyone who’s thinking of doing it.

I’m a mature student and I decided to go for the plunge in 2007/08 by doing a Multimedia course. That gave me enough qualifications to be able to get in to Bolton University to do a degree in Special Effects Development.

The degree is an exciting and interesting one to follow. Learning how to use industry standard software, clay modeling and film making is something I’ve always wanted to do. Next year I’ll get to be more specialised in things. I can choose to do Pyrotechnics, SFX Make-up, Animatronics and even learn about the history of the Special Effects industry.

If any of you are reading this and are not sure if you should return to education I would encourage you to take those first steps. There are plenty of Further Education collages out there who will help and guide you. I personally went to a college in North Wales; Coleg Harlech. They specialise in adult learning and give the support that’s needed to get you into a higher education institution.

I wrote this post because I thought it would be a good opportunity to let you know how I have progressed over the year. Bring on year two!

I’ve mentioned a negative scanner in the past, but this is a different model, and I think it’s much better. The Film 2 SD Negative Scanner is better than the one I wrote about before because you don’t need a computer to use it.

The Film 2 SD Negative Scanner uses an SD card to save your scanned images. This makes the whole process much easier for the end user by removing much of the fiddling which would usually take place if you were to do it on a traditional negative scanner.

The process of scanning a negative in on the Film 2 SD Negative Scanner involves pressing one button and takes only a few seconds to complete. The Film 2 SD Negative Scanner comes with a 1Gb SD card which can hold about 700 pictures because of the resolution the Film 2 SD Negative Scanner scans the images. If you’re wondering, it’s 5 Million Pixel resolution.

Because you don’t need a computer with the Film 2 SD Negative Scanner you can pop the SD card straight in to your digital picture frame and view the images instantly.

The Film 2 SD Negative Scanner costs just under £110 which is great value for a negative scanner; I’ve seen some costing three times that amount for less resolution. If you have a drawer full of negatives and want to get them in digital form you won’t go wrong by buying this scanner. It’s probably the best value negative scanner that’s available at the moment.

Microsoft have released Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista recently. I’ve not downloaded it myself yet but I thought it would be good to let you all know of it’s availability. There are two versions of the service pack available; a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version.

Since getting my MacBook I’ve become used to it just working unlike my Windows Laptop that constantly needs to be checked for viruses and updates. I’ve also seen the difference in the load times between both machines (The MacBook wins hands down).

This new Service pack is meant to support new types of hardware and emerging standards according to the Microsoft website. Microsoft are working on a new Operating System at the moment too, which should see a release date soon (Windows 7).

I’m going to include liks to both the 32 and 64 bit versions at the end of this post for your convenience. I personally don’t know if I’ll bother with the download. It’s a constant battle with me keeping things up to date and because of the way that Windows Vista works on my machine it tends to slow everything down to a crawl when it does an update. I’m even considering going back to Windows XP an the other laptop because it used to work so well for me.

We use Windows XP at college, so it makes sense to have the same OS running on one of my machines. I tend to use the MacBook more these days because of the programs that are on it. iMovie and iDVD are the ones I’m using the most at the moment.

So, here are those all important links for the downloads should you choose to do it.

32-Bit version
64-Bit version

We had a bit of sunshine here today and although I posted about the dangers of it when I mentioned about the UV Monkey, I was glad to see it. You see it always rains here, or at least it feels like it always rains here.

Seeing the sunshine started me thinking of getting my tent out and going for a little trip up a mountain somewhere. Obviously if you’re only going for a day or so, the Pocket Shower won’t be of any interest to you. But if you’re going for a week or two the Pocket Shower will be of great interest.

As the name suggests, the Pocket Shower can fit in your pocket, but obviously if you’re going camping you’ll be taking a backpack with you, which is a much better place to keep the Pocket Shower.  It’s an ingenious thing to have if you’re a lover of the great outdoors because it means you can have an almost proper shower. The Pocket Shower heats the water by using the sun’s rays. You do have to fill it with water first and leave it for a while in order to heat up, but once it’s done that it’s as simple as, well, taking a shower.

Hang the Pocket Shower from a tree or any high place, turn the nozzle and enjoy the refreshing feeling you get in your shower at home. The Pocket Shower is ideal not only for campers, but festival goers too remember, and there’s a few of them coming up soon.

The Pocket Shower costs under £15 which is a great price if you ask me.

The UV Monkey is a great gadget for detecting those harmful UV rays that come from the sun we are hopefully going to get soon (apparently we’re due a heat wave soon!). But not only does it detect those harmful rays, it’s also an excellent gadget to have with you if you use one of those solar chargers.

If the reading on the UV Monkey are high, you’ll get a better charging rate from your charger. That in turn means that your other devices get charged up much faster. The UV Monkey is also quite stylish and small so it’s ideal to take with you everywhere. It’s handy key ring size means you’ll never need to be without your UV Monkey again. The UV Monkey is great for putting on your keys or hanging on your bag, anywhere that’s convenient for it to be in easy reach.

Lets face it, the UV Monkey is hardly going to make you bankrupt either is it with a price tag of just £3.95. I would think that parents would like to get these for their kids to make sure that they’re not in the sun for too long. A great addition to anyone’s arsenal for fighting the effects of the sun.

Polaroid are well known for their instant cameras, but have taken it one step further by producing the Polaroid Two. It combines a digital camera and their PoGo printer so you can have a print out of your images on the move.

I think it’s a great idea and am glad that the Polaroid Two is available. Nothing beats having a real picture in your hands. It seems that everything is done online these days so a device like this is a novelty. Saying that, it does come with a quite hefty price tag. At just under £230 it’s not the cheapest camera you can get. There are cameras on the market that have much more MegaPixels than the Polaroid Two which only packs 5 MegaPixels.

The prints that the Polaroid Two produces are 2″ by 3″ which is a good, handy pocket size. It’s a little on the small side for me to be honest. These pictures are printed on sticky paper for some reason too. From what I’ve read about the Polaroid Two it takes about 40 seconds to print an image out. That’s an excellent speed for getting instant pictures from the Polaroid Two.

There are some drawbacks to the camera though, and from reading the information that’s available about the Polaroid Two I discovered that you can only take 15 snaps per charge. That’s quite restrictive for this day and age really. If you want a camera that produces small pictures instantly and you have £230 to spare then the Polaroid Two is the camera for you. I would rather spend the £230 on a camera with better features, but that’s just me.