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!

 

The Nokia Asha 501 – Best of the Budget Smartphones Will Only Set You Back £65

May 13th, 2013Device Reviews, Tech News No Comments

Picture courtesy of the delightful Nokia.

We don’t like to play favourites. Okay, yes we do. But usually we’re being contrary about whether the iPhone 5 is better than the Samsung s4 and whether you should sell your iPhone to fund an upgrade. We’re as fickle as the next person when it comes to shiny new tech.

It’s been a while since Nokia did much to surprise us. The Lumia is pretty hot right now, but a lot of the folks using our sell for cash service to sell Nokia Lumia handsets are youngers looking to upgrade hungrily to the next big thing (the Sony Xperia Z is a common upgrade choice!)

But today Nokia announced the release of a new smartphone aimed at people who just want a decent, cheap handset with a long battery life – the Nokia Asha 501. And with up to 17 hours talk time and 1152 hours standby, the Asha is already looking like a bright idea. Features include a 3.2MP camera, plenty of apps, lockscreen notifications to keep you updated with emails, social network stuff and chat, the Nokia 2G Express Browser, Micro SD option and Bluetooth.

I mean, we all get a bit sick of piddling smartphone battery lives (we’re looking at you, Apple!), so it’s great to finally see a practical, feature-laden device hitting the stores.

 

 

 

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,

Tablets Will Die Out by 2018, Says Blackberry Boss

May 9th, 2013Electronics Industry Chatter, Selling Your Device, Tech News No Comments

Will the tablet live on? Let us know what you think in our comments section!

In the wake of analysts at IDC announcing tablet shipments are up by 142.4% in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period in 2012, we came across a speech by Blackberry boss, Thorsten Heins, saying the tablet will likely be a dead weight round the neck of the tech world by 2018.

Speaking to Bloomberg, the Blackberry leader was clear about his belief the tablet format will fall in popularity over the coming years, being replaced by bigger smartphones and better laptops.

“In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore. Maybe a big screen in your workspace, but not a tablet as such. Tablets themselves are not a good business model.”

Here at Money4Machines HQ, we can’t help buy think there could be an element of sour grapes about the tablet markets. Folks who visit us to sell tablet devices from the Blackberry range – the Blackberry PlayBook – appear to be terminally underwhelmed with the devices performance, look, weight and overall usability. Bloomberg reports as few as 150,000 PlayBooks were shifted in the first quarter of their release in 2011.

So, would you sell Blackberry PlayBooks to fund an upgrade? The folks visiting us to use our sell for cash service are typically offloading their disappointing Blackberry device to change to another brand. The Kindle Fire and Apple iPad ranges are very popular, leading to great rate increases for our customers.

 

Is Apple Losing Credibility and Innovative Clout?

May 8th, 2013Electronics Industry Chatter, Tech News No Comments

“Am I death? Destroyer of credibility?”

Not too long ago we reported on Apple announcing the company’s first fiscal loss in more than a decade. But let’s set this in perscpetive. Apple still enjoys almost 40% of the global tablet market, and despite a lot of to-and-fro with Samsung to claim the global smartphone market crown, Apple doesn’t show signs of letting go of said piece of headwear.

The iPad Mini Debacle

According to Gizmodo UK, the iPad Mini could be heard as the death knell for Apple’s reign. If you already have an iPad, what’s the point? Few folks visiting our website said they wanted to sell iPad devices to switch to the iPad Mini. It’s not retina display, so why downgrade if you have a retina display device or why buy a non-retina display device new when you could opt for something like the Kindle Fire HD? Also, it feel un-Jobs-like as a product. Steve Jobs just wouldn’t have been happy with the clear revenue drive that seems to have been behind the iPad Mini. So, is this a sign Apple are on the out?

We saw it happen to Blackberry – they got comfortable, they got sloppy and they very nearly went under. The pitiful effort of the Blackberry PlayBook marked a real low point. Here at Money4Machines HQ the PlayBook is frequently cited as the worst investment in tech made by the folks using our sell for cash service.

The bottom line is that it’s not quite time to wheel out the pipe and slippers for Apple. A quick look at this performance graph coving the past fifteen years of Apple’s fiscal performance and it’s clear the giant still has some growing to do.

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.

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