Cheap gadget on order - 8gb slim key USB/Flash drive

Yet another bargain from Hong Kong and eBay. £4.37 for an 8gb flash drive.

I don't really have a need for an 8gb pen drive but at this price I couldn't say no. It will probably come in handy in work occasionally as the ones work buy in are bulky and don't fit into a lot of USB slots. This slimline one should fit in most.

I've ordered myself the gold one above and my two brothers a silver one each which I'll hopefully get engraved and give them as gifts for being ushers at my wedding in June.

Cheap but useful gadgets - Watch Pin Remover

First things first, I need to apologise to the seller who I believed had scammed me. To my amazement the item was waiting for me when I got home yesterday. I feared the worst when I had seen they had deleted their account but all is well.

I gave it a quick go last night and my god it made the job a lot easier than using a drawing pin on a hard surface. Usually the drawing pin just bends. The handle on this thing is a nice size to get a good grip and twist to extend the pin which pushes the watch pin out the other side.

It will be just my look that their wont be any new watches this Xmas but at 99p it's certainly going to pay for itself with time saved eventually.

Scammed

So, the watch pin remover I ordered from Hong Kong has failed to show and the seller has removed their account. I've started a complaint with eBay to see if I can get my 99p back. It's the principle etc.

I really didn't expect to be scammed out of 99p. Thinking about it though, if a company offers 4 week delivery on say 100 items they lost at the same time. In that 4 weeks say maybe 20-30 people are enticed by the 99p and free delivery on the each item then that could be £2-3k they make before shutting down the account score people even realise they are not getting the item.

Oh well anyway, lesson learnt...or maybe not as I'm about to buy another watch pin remover for 99p from hong kong.

Cheap but useful gadgets - More on the Blackberry Playbook

The playbook has had many critics but i cant see why. All you have to do is delve a little deeper.

I've sideloaded the kindle app and put on hundreds of my favorite books.
I've installed a SNES Emulator.
I've installed a Sega Megadrive Emulator.
I've installed a Gameboy Advance Emulator.
I've installed ScummVM (An old DOS game emulator).

Now I can read my favorite books and play my favorite old school games from Road Rash to Final Fantasy III to Monkey Island and Grim Fandango. With the game emulators I don't need any of the crappy games on the AppWorld. I am genuinely over the moon with my purchase now. I was at first beginning to wonder if it was worth it when scrolling in vain through the AppWorld but now, I wouldn't change it for anything. My fiancee will be lucky to get two words out of me on our honeymoon.

I've also learnt how to convert .apk android apps into .bar playbook apps and sign them. So there is no need to go searching for a converted file when i can just get hold of an easy to find .apk file and convert it myself.

Its not as pick up and play as the iPad but im really happy with my purchase now and i cant wait to get stuck into some oldschool LucasArts magic.

Great Apps - Pano

This app let's you take panoramic photographs with your iPhone. To take your panoramic photo you take the first picture then the app leaves a small semi transparent edge of the picture on the screen which you the line up for the next picture. There is no limits on how many segments you use apart from obviously only having 360 degrees to play with. Once you have finished taking the pictures the app magically merges them all and creates a beautiful panoramic photo for you.

This app has been available for a while but with the iPhone finally having a decent camera this app has come into
It's own. At £1.49 this app is a bargain in my opinion and a must have for your holidays this summer. Screen glare can be a problem when trying to line up the shots but a matte iPhone screen protector should eliminate the glare.

Cheap but useful gadgets - Blackberry Playbook

At £169 it's not what I would usually call cheap but as far as tablets go it certainly is. It's no iPad but at a fraction of the price it's impressive.

The AppWorld is dreadful I won't deny that. However, they are accepting more and more apps each week from android developers after updating the market for android apps. The AppWorld is irrelevant though when you learn how to side load android apps which are not yet available on the RIM market. I side loaded Kindle and instantly turned my device in to a kindle that can do a lot more. You can't get apps for iPlayer etc but you just need to navigate to the website on the browser and bookmark them to the home screen. I now have a folder with iPlayer, ITVPlayer, 4oD, Demand 5 and Catchup TV turning this into a great mobile media device.

Along with the very capable specs I think this is a very sleek looking tablet and at just 7 inches it is certainly more portable than an iPad. Despite its size, websites are easily readable without the need to zoom in. The lack of 3G could be a let down for some but merely as a laptop replacement in the home this tablet is great.

Despite RIM pulling out of the market i would recommend this to any casual internet users instead of a laptop. In my opinion it beats the kindle fire as the best budget tablet.

Great Apps - IFixIt

This app is certainly great. It is basically a repair manual for various electrical goods. It has lists of potential problems for various gadgets from xbox 360, ps3 to iphone and blackberry playbook, and how to go about repairing them. Some of them even contain video how to's. The best thing about it is it's free on iOS.