Dell Profits Slump 79% As Buyers Opt for Tablets and Smartphones

May 19th, 2013Curious Stuff, Electronics Industry Chatter, Tech News No Comments

The laptop is by no means dead. We buy laptops and plenty of other personal computer staples that prove folks are still looking to have a personal computer that does the heavy stuff. Who wants to sit around trying to use Photoshop on a Microsoft Surface tablet? Bottom line, sometimes nothing beats a laptop or a PC.

Try telling Dell that.

The former no.1 of the personal computer industry recently reported a 79% drop in profits in three months – February to May –  to £85 million on revenue of £14 billion (down 2%) The hardware giant blames people making the switch from PCs and laptops to smartphones and tablets.

Personal computing means something different to everyone. To our Money4Machines order processing teams it means whatever hardware does to the job quickly and efficiently, but to our CEO and the folks who run about a lot it means something portable, light, efficient and practical. And this is where Dell is falling short. Folks who once had no other option than the smallest laptop they could find now have access to hundreds of smart devices that fit the bill a lot better.

Dell is currently going through an in-house tangle between shareholders and Dell founder, Michael Dell, over whether to take the company private. Mr Dell says he can save the company’s PC division, which is performing poorly in contrast with the 12% rise in profits from the new technologies and software arm of Dell. Some shareholders insist new management is all that’s needed to make a difference.

Want to sell laptop hardware using our sell for cash service? Dell laptops are well-made, numerous and still a big brand name, so we try to keep great rates an option for folks looking to make a bit of cash on their old laptop.

Google Told to Give Auto-Complete a Good Clean by German Court

May 15th, 2013Curious Stuff, Tech News No Comments

Type in “Mila Jovovich” and Google will try to auto-complete your request to “Mila Jovovich Feet”. Weird.

We’ve all done it. Typed something completely innocent into Google and ended up with plenty of rude/questionably valid auto-correct options from Google. We thought about providing a link something like  a top 40, but we think it’s more the kind of thing to find on your own time after leaving Money4Machines‘ website with your nice hefty sell for cash quote!

A German court recently informed Google that it had had enough of the search engine’s nonsense and future auto-correct results must not be defamatory or offensive.

We’re not sure what the deal is with Mila Jovovich’s feet or whether she’d think of it as defamatory that people seem keen to get such a specific image search, but we do know what the German court ruling means for Google. It’s means Google needs to clean up auto-complete in it’s German networks to remove all defamatory/rude endings when told about them.

Would you sell your mobile if the service provider brought in a similar system of cleaning up content? Google say they’re disappointed with the results, as they’ve always claimed auto-complete is the result of organic searches and therefore not really something they should be policing.

Facebook Turns Us Into Liars (Well, 80% of Us, Anyway!)

May 14th, 2013Curious Stuff, Tech-y Life Advice No Comments

“Won Settlers of Catan against an 8-year-old! Must tell everyone! And I’ll make him 25-years-old and a master player… Why not a group of Settlers of Catan gamers brought down by my mighty intellect? Yes. That’s the one!”

We all love to have a little brag.

“Yeah, yeah I finished this year’s marathon in a personal best time!”

“No, no, my cat never poops in my shoes.”

“Little Crispin has just had his comedy novel accepted by the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse committee… at age 7!”

And mostly these little brags fall on ears that say, “Fail. One day. At something. And let it be in front of me so I can witness it.” We all do it, and sometimes we tell little “fibs” to make the brag better.

But we don’t brag to make friends. Which seems odd because making friends is exactly what social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are apparently there for.

According to an article in the Telegraph, women lie A LOT on social media sites, usually about things like relationships status, diets and exercise.

But it’s not just the ladies telling little embellished brag tales. A study by a popular online dating website found 80% of those questioned admitted to lying on their social media profiles. And a study published on Stylist.co.uk also hit the 80%… with people who lie (embellish!) on their CVs. According the the article, lying is a legitimate way to succeed, and we all know Facebook is a bit of a popularity contest.

So, what are your top social media fibs? Would you sell your iPhone/grandma/morals for a few comments? We do like our last sentence to be a little plug to remind you why you’ve visited our sell for cash website, so here’s a nice bit of truth – we buy mobile devices at super rates, and no word of a lie!

 

World of Warcraft Losing Gamers

May 12th, 2013Curious Stuff, Tech News No Comments

 Here in the Money4Machines office we’re a pretty mixed bag of gamers. Monkey Island to Bioshock – the heart wants what the heart wants! But while you’re crusading with Guybrush Threepwood on your Xbox 360, it’s worth sparing a thought for the shrinking landscape of World of Warcraft.

It seems subscriber numbers are way down on last year, indicating the avatar-laden landscape could be on the wane in terms of global popularity. Activation Blizzard reported a 14% drop in numbers between January and March this year, with most of those jumping ship in the East.

Despite creating an expansion pack aimed at the Asian markets – Mists of Pandaria – World of Warcraft has failed to take quite the grip on the exceptionally competitive Eastern gaming sector as it has elsewhere. 2.7 million copies of Mists of Panderia were bought in it’s first seven days of commercial release, helping to boost player numbers to more than one million in China.

But before you sell Macbook or PC devices as some kind of odd protest, it’s worth remembering that the entire nature of online gaming has been altered by things like free games and high quality competitor virtual worlds like Disney’s new venture, Disney Infinity (more on that another day!)

Fancy using our sell for cash service to fund a PC upgrade? You can shift your Xbox 360, Wii or other consoles to make some fast funds!

More Mobile Phones than People by 2014

May 11th, 2013Curious Stuff, Tech News No Comments

 Okay, so you’ve used Money4Machines to sell your iPhone and upgrade to something splendid like the new Samsung S4 (congrats!)

But you’ve probably get a spare somewhere in the labyrinth of ‘stuff’ drawers just in case that shiny new smartphone takes a trip to toilet land or drops off the face of the dashboard. Makes sense. You sound like a very sensible person.

And according to a UN agency report, there will be more active mobiles by 2014 than there will be people, passing the seven billion mark early in the year (the six billion figure was smashed back in October 2012)

More areas of the globe now maintain a mobile phone market, with Russia topping out at 1.7 active mobile subscriptions per person. Third world areas like parts of Africa and India are also helping out by adding at least sixty-three mobiles per one hundred people. The UN says struggling economies can benefit from your old mobile phones, encouraging communication and commerce to blossom in tough environments.

But perhaps the most sobering statistic is that come 2014 we could see more mobile devices per person than toilets! According to UN figures, only 4.5 billion people have access to a toilet.

Want to add a little to your own new smartphone fund? You can sell mobile phones and all those other gadget-y odds and ends through our sell for cash service.

Externals pooping aside,

Is Google Glass a Gadget Too Far?

May 7th, 2013Curious Stuff, Electronics Industry Chatter, Tech-y Life Advice No Comments

You photograph your day and post it to Instagram. Bored, you write on Facebook about how you might sell your iPhone and give the new Samsung S4 a try in a bit. Tweet this and that throughout the day. And we want more?

Google wants to augment our reality and provide the first practical way to interact with the real world and virtual world on your own terms and in the most fluid way possible. But really, what’s the point? We came across a great article on Gawker all about how the absolute definition of an asshole is someone who requires all social interaction to be on their own terms, which is basically what Google Glass seems to be.

We can’t help but see the point. Our sell for cash gadget customers aren’t tech-mad folks embroiled in a terminal battle to have the latest technology. They’re folks who want their lives to be convenient and well connected. And that’s not what Google Glass looks like right now. Right now they’re walking the fine line between ridiculous and innovative (as Mark Wilson points out, they could easily fall into the Segway box of silly ideas!)

Google has followed us like a helpful little dragon of advice from our first tentative efforts at getting from A to B after passing the driving test to providing cloud storage for our first small business venture. As blogger Mark Wilson put it – Google never had to be pretty. It has always been smart. So far we’re not seeing anything that sets Google at the head of the design table, and we can’t help buy wonder, what’s the point of being “on” all the time?

 

GeekDad’s Data Free Weekend Advice to Wired Readers

May 4th, 2013Curious Stuff, Tech-y Life Advice No Comments

This cat is also going data-free!

Leaving the country. For many Money4Machines customers that means rationing a piddling data bundle to try and stay in contact with your favourite Instagram, Facebook and Twitter feeds. After all, what day is complete without seeing what your mates back home have been eating for lunch?

For our favourite tech blogger, GeekDad, leaving the country ended up meaning going data-free (so pretty much device-free) once the frantic purchasing of local SIM-cards, borrowing of unsecured Wi-Fi and apparently even a Wi-Fi-sniffing trip to McDonalds didn’t pay off.

So he did it. He turned off the data on his iPhone.

A week back from his holiday and GeekDad realised he still hadn’t turned his data back on. For us this raised the same question – how much access is too much access?

Seriously, how many times each day do you NEED to check Facebook or browse new Pins on Pinterest? We put it to the test here in Money4Machines HQ and found that controlling your data bundle is actually pretty empowering.

Sure, apps like WhatsApp are only accessible when your smartphone data is switched on, but how many ways do you really need to be contactable? When we process your sell for cash order and sell my mobile quotes, we sometimes ask a few questions about things like data use and so on. We really only do it out of interest so we can report back to our blog on any interesting trends.

One of the main reasons you want to keep your data turned on seems to be ease of use. Great. GeekDad agreed and suggested a solution – an app that turns your data on/off without the usual navigation through settings. Another reason is that you’ve got unlimited data with your contract so you may as well use it. But what if you could monitor your data use and cut your bills by giving up that unlimited bundle for a cheaper option?

Let us know what you think in the comments section and we’ll keep you updated on any splendid little apps that pop up to help you turn your data on/off.

Google Specs Find Their First Diehard Fan

April 28th, 2013Curious Stuff, Device Reviews, Tech News No Comments

It’s not anyone in Money4Machines HQ. For one thing, we don’t have the time to count ourselves as tech bloggers since we spend most of our time processing quotes and helping you to sell mobile phones and get cash for your old electronics!

It’s not a bad life, but apparently tech blogger Robert Scoble has decided it’s not worth living without the latest bit of tech from Google – Google Glass augmented reality specs. Without going into the whole history of Scoble’s highly successful blog, Scobleizer, it’s safe to say he’s definitely a clever, tech-savvy guy with a massive following.

Scoble was selected as one of about 2,000 developers who received Google Glass specs to review and generally have a bit of a play. The specs still don’t have a commercial release date, so folks like Scoble are the only way we’re going to see the glasses in action in the near future.

After ten days in the specs Scoble says they’ve changed his life and he wouldn’t be without them, refering to them as game-changers in the way the iPhone was. Folks visit us to sell iPhone handsets all the time, and our rates are perpetually good because even older models are damn well made and in demand.

You can read Robert Scoble’s chattering on the subject of Google Glass for Business Insider’s online edition.

3G Users Hit Two Million in North Korea

April 27th, 2013Curious Stuff, Electronics Industry Chatter No Comments

We all watched the BBC documentary on North Korea and wondered how they get through life without being able to mess about on Wired and BuzzFeed. But it seems poor old North Korea has taken a giant leap forward towards the kind of internet browsing the rest of us enjoy (cats and funny videos) with the promotion of its first and only 3G mobile service.

Two million North Koreans are now using the government-run 3G service which operates in partnership with Egyptian telecoms organisaiton, Orascom, and the North Korean government under the banner of Koryolink. figures have been a bit hazy since the service launched several years ago, but recent data released by Koyolink suggests 3G is being embraced by North Koreans with user numbers growing steadily.

The 3G service works by offering North Koreans native services (so no international communication of any kind) but running an international option for visitors that allows international connectivity but NOT access to North Korean local phone numbers. Sneaky.

We don’t know if folks in North Korea would sell mobile devices to upgrade. We don’t even know concrete information about the state of their technology market and whether they’re allowed to sell mobile phones! In such a cash-strapped country, being able to sell your mobile certainly seems attractive.

At the beginning of this year, Google’s Eric Schmidt visited the country and urged its leaders to allow broader communication for North Koreans (e.g. international access to the internet) We’ll keep you posted from Money4Machines HQ on any developments with this story.

No Webcam Snooping for FBI Says Texas Judge

April 26th, 2013Curious Stuff No Comments

We kind of wish Texas Judge was some kind of superhero. Alas, today’s Money4Machines blog titles merely refers to a recent US court case where a Texas Judge ruled against the FBI’s request to install web-cam take-over software on the laptop of a fraud suspect to find out where the sneaky crook has fled to.

Despite this kind of malicious software being pretty common elsewhere in the world of technology (it’s not uncommon to find the odd example when we run data erase software on the computers you send in once you’ve decided to sell laptops!), it seems the official watchers are yet to make lawful use of web-cam spy software.

Is the Texas case a one-off? According to the presiding judge, the FBI have little information on the target. They know that he (or she?) hacked an email account and tried steal a big bag of cash from the account holder using his stolen identity. The warrant for malicious search software could only be granted for the laptop used, not the individual. The Texas judge decided this was too general as far as search parameters go, saying,

“What if the Target Computer is located in a public library, an internet café, or a workplace accessible to others? What if the computer is used by family or friends uninvolved in the illegal scheme? What if the counterfeit email address is used for legitimate reasons by others unconnected to the criminal conspiracy? What if the email address is accessed by more than one computer, or by a cell phone and other digital devices? There may well be sufficient answers to these questions, but the government’s application does not supply them.”

When you sell laptop, mobile phone or tablet devices, we always run tough data erase software to make sure NO data is left on the device. Want to know more about privacy before you sell your mobile? We’re happy to answer your questions!

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