Why Did No-one Tell Us About the Robot Olympics?

August 23rd, 2012Curious Stuff, Tech News No Comments

Fancy a trip to Bristol (of all places!) to see the very latest in competitive sports? Running from 20th – 25th August, the FIRA RoboWorld Cup is set to be a mammoth even, pitting robot against robot in a bunch of games to vie for world records, medals and prizes.

According to our trusted buddies over at the BBC Technology news desk, our very own home-grown team from Plymouth University hare in with a hot chance against superstar team, Singapore, in the 6m sprint (that’s 3m one way and 3m back) Singapore are the current record holders, obliterating the previous record of 42seconds at 31seconds. UK native robots from Bristol University will also be heading out into the arena with their robot marathon runner, Panther.

So, is it your old iPad powering these guys? The boffins at Bristol University have built Panther from scratch using custom components and some pretty nifty software, but off-the-shelf robots are common at the competition. And before you think “I’m going to sell my iPad, buy a robot and kick some ass!” it’s worth remembering that even off-the-shelf robots are adapted by experts (by “experts” we mean people with access to actual technology laboratories!)

The competition ends on Saturday 25th August in a hail of glory (the football final) and will next return in 2013, which is plenty of time for you to trade in your old iPad, sell your laptop and become a robot-building mega-genius like Jaimie!

You can watch some of Jaimie’s brilliant building project videos here!

Make Reducing e-Waste a Priority

May 8th, 2012Eco Living, Electronics Industry Chatter, Selling Your Device No Comments

The internet is full of facts and figures, enough as to make it pretty easy to substantiate any claim with a little creative interpretation.

“One of the companies that focuses on collecting mobile wireless devices reported that it handled more than 550,000 device trade-ins during March 2012. That was a 300% increase over the volume it handled in March 2011.”

Thank you ZDNet.com! That’s not about us, but we love a bit of a proof that services like our sell for cash deals are helping the environment with every “sell my iPad” search that hits Google!

“More than 17 million devices worth a total of £762 million are needlessly binned each year.”

And a big round of applause for the Independent’s Gadget & Tech section! We need more folks to use in our sell for cash service, reducing e-waste and pumping some valuable income back into the economy.

Whatever the figures say, e-waste is certainly an important consideration for all of us. Here in the U.K the easiest way to sell computers, old iPads or whatever else you’ve got lying around is via companies like us online. But what about your less-than-net-savvy uncle Geoff and his unused satnav? Mum’s old Kindle? All those unused smartphones lying around in HR?

We believe society needs to do more to encourage e-waste recycling and the unwanted gadgets sell for cash market. It might be a bit much to quote Gandhi with his whole “be the change you wish to see in the world” thing, but the fact that, as a global community, we all need to shape up and change our perception of electronic gadgets disposability is indisputable.

Gadgets for Girls (With Minimal Stereotyping from Our Female Bloggerina!)

April 18th, 2012Curious Stuff, Device Reviews No Comments

Since it can come off as horribly patronising to do women-only gadget reviews about the Nokia Lipstick phone or USB sticks that also have a mirror on,  it seems best to quite literally leave it to the girls to point out which gadgets, apps and features they rate highest in the great game of life!

Bets Tablet: iPad

We love the iPad. We love old iPads, iPad 2s and – not surprisingly – the New iPad! All the best apps are foe Apple devices and we get heaps of folks looking to do the whole sell my iPad thing, boosting funds and upgrading to a shiny new device because of Apple’s holding as The Best.

Best Smartphone: Samsung Note/ iPhone

Torn between the huge screen and practical brilliance of the Samsung Note and iPhone 4S, we ladies are pure Samsung Note devotees in the end! Yes, the screen is massive. Yes, it’s a little cumbersome to carry around, but part of being a modern woman is about no pain, no gain! At the end of the day we love the Samsung Note’s huge screen, slim design and superb usability.

The iPhone 4S is a fabulous little anthology of super-impressive specs, but we girls love a little variety in life, so since we chose the iPad as our tablet du jour, the Samsung Note just pips Apple to the smartphone post. We buy laptops, mobiles and smartphones from Apple and Samsung, and the iPhone and Note both rank super-high on our rates lists!

Best Laptop: Macbook Air

Luxury tech taste isn’t just a man thing. We buy laptops and computers from oodles of brands, but it’s the Apple Macbook Air that holds the key to our kitten-filled, fluffy bunny little hearts. Lightweight, fast, practical, durable and fits into a vintage leather satchel like a puppy in a sock! But seriously, without the fluffy stuff; the latest Air is 2.5 times faster thanks to the Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, with lightening fast data transfer (Thunderbolt) and the peace of mind that comes from knowing that delightful flash solid state storage isn’t going to be shaken to bits like a packet of McVities Cheddars in your handbag! (That happened today. It was most annoying.)

Still thirsty for more? Head over to LadiesGadgets.com for an entire blog of women-centric gizmos and gadgets. They’ve got everything from USB flash drives with inbuilt whistles to Swarovski crystal-encrusted headphones.

Love. Them.

Do You Have the Willpower to Use Your Smartphone Properly?

April 12th, 2012Curious Stuff No Comments

Apps are great. We love scouring the net for the latest, weirdest and most definitively greatest new releases. But do we use them properly? Do we heck! If you could sell for cash all the unused apps we find on your old tablets and smartphones, we’d be living on the moon in a secret moon base filled with lolcats, fajitas, bean bags and copies of HowItWorks magazine! (Maybe we already are…)

The problem with lots of apps is that they require 100% commitment to get the best use out of them. Some of the top unused apps we find when you guys are doing the whole sell my iPad thing are to do with things like diet and exercise. The MyFitnessPal app is one of our favourite free fitness and healthy living apps, but few folks have filled in more than perhaps a ten day stint in total.

Lists

Some folks are list-mad, and there are plenty of list apps available for your smartphones and tablets. You want to sell iPads and old iPhones to us for some nice cash, so we reckon you’ve probably got a tidy little list of ways to make extra cash. The great thing about list apps is that, in theory, they help you keep track of stuff more efficiently. But in a little office poll we found only 20% of our main office team actually regularly update or check their To-Do app lists. The most popular list format turned out to be the good old biro on the back of the hand!

Finances

We buy consoles, smartphones and all that jazz at superb rates (which our long-suffering worker bees have toiled away on for the past few days improving, boosting and generally bettering!) You can sell consoles, smartphones and even old Kindles to boost your nest egg, but can an app really stop us lying to ourselves about those little splurges on PS3 games, shoes and lolcats?

Yes! We love finance apps like the Accounts app for iPad! You have to be strict with yourself, but the proof is in the figures when you REALLY get a hold on your spending and saving. For finance apps, a hefty chunk of willpower really, REALLY brings home the bacon.

Scheduling and Calendars

This was a tricky one. There are some strict Blackberry devotees in this office who log every teeny bit of their lives on their business Blackberry… but others who prefer to wing it with a thousand Post-its! Calendar apps work most efficiently when every dental appointment, meeting, free day and family lunch is entered, so commitment is certainly a big factor. Miss one thing and you’re hopelessly disorganised. We reckon calendars and schedulers require heaps of willpower to get the most out of them, and without the will there’s no way you’re going to stay 100% on the ball.

But enough about apps and the troublesome sides of e-organising your life for today. If you want to sell iPads, old Kindles, smartphone or consoles, forget apps and head straight to our quote area!

4 Common Misconceptions about Technology

April 10th, 2012Curious Stuff, Electronics Industry Chatter No Comments

The pursuit of knowledge leads down many a bright, blissful, thrilling little avenue. It can also make us confused, bored, more confused, more befuddled and less considerate of cold hard fact than before we started wondering exactly how emails work (we’ll do a blog on that another day!)
Now we could pluck a few random misconceptions out of thin air – the Great Wall of China CAN’T be seen from the moon, elephants do NOT leave the herd to die alone in an elephants’ graveyard, and waking sleepwalkers is fine so long as they don’t deliver a confused thump to the poor soul waking them! But just for you delightful folks, here are four tech-related titbits to pour over while you sell cameras, laptops and that old iPhone to us!

1. Cookies are the devil’s way of infiltrating your computer
Web cookies are not a way for evil corporations to steal your soul/personal details. They’re generally pretty helpful; you know how you set Facebook to always be logged in? That’s only possible because of cookies. They help you browse more smoothly and only pose a risk if you’re not keen on anyone being able to track your browsing history.

2. Apple devices can’t Get viruses
Almost true, but only about 99.9% Apple OS systems are designed to limit user administration, which essentially means you’re not given enough control to do too much damage to the system by running any software with adequate access to cause virus-y problems. There are a few viruses out there but the threat to Apple users is minimal.

3. The Web and the Internet are the same thing
The Web – a global network of physical servers created by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989 that facilitates the world of data we call the Web.
The Internet – the technology beneath the Web that enables it to actually exist. The Internet has been in existence since 1st January 1983.
Think of it like this – no Web and the Internet will still exist, but no Internet and there’s no Web (a bit like how there’d be no Big Bang Theory without Sheldon!)

Brought to you by Tim Berners-Lee

4. Tech stuff is too confusing for the layman the understand
Partly true. We doubt you’re using our trusty sell my iPad service whilst perusing the latest news on IBM’s atom memory storage project; you were probably looking at Lolcats like the best of us! Keeping up with developing technology – smartphones, cameras, GPS and stuff – is about finding a palatable way to understand new products and processes. There are plenty of great websites and blogs like the HowStuffWorks.com podcasts, TED Talks, Techcrunch, Wired, Lifehacker, Gizmodo, Xkcd and Endgadget. They’re all dedicated to the great world of technology, so find a bunch that suit and subscribe to RSS feeds for regular updates and humorous odds and ends.

Sell laptops and smartphones, sell cameras and tablets – we buy consoles, gizmos, gadgets and pretty much every other bit of I-can’t-believe-I-lived-without-this-but-I’m-damned-if-I-know-how-it-works but of tech you’ve got lying around waiting for you to get on board with the whole sell my iPad thing!