Great Website - LifeHacker

http://lifehacker.com/

If you love DIY projects from small to large then this site is for you. Full of hundreds of helpful articles covering every subject you could imagine. There are articles advising what to do to get the most out of you disused old gadgets, articles on how to turn IKEA furniture into luxury items and articles on how to paint your nails. It's the little "hacks" I like the most though. The videos showing you how to open a bottle of beer with your bicep is a particular highlight.

Since discovering this site about two months ago I've lost many hours just browsing through hundreds of articles. I have bookmarked many that I plan on implementing when I finally move house. The Site doesn't generate all its content with links to other great sites. Hackaday.com and Ikeahackers.net are two very notable ones.

If there was one downside, it's that the site is US based but that only really effects the bare minimum of articles with the vast majority still being relevant in the UK. The Site was also having problems running on Google Chrome but they seem to have fixed that now.

Gadget Podcasts

I'd just like to take this chance to talk about a few gadget podcasts I listen to on the way to work. I've got a long one hour drive to work and back five days a week so I take this opportunity to listen to some podcasts.

First off I'd like to mention the iOS app iCatcher. It cost £1.49 on the app store. If you subscribe to podcasts via this app it will auto download each episode when it becomes available. You can set it so it only auto downloads when connected to wifi or if you're one of the lucky ones to have an unlimited data tariff then you may as well set it to auto download on 3G. You can also select a number of back episodes to download too if you want to catch up on anything you've missed out on or get a good listen to a few episodes before commuting to subscribing. A pay for app that's well worth the fee.

Gadget Gurus - This is the only US based podcast I listen too. It involves a lot of heated and amusing debates and some rather abrupt opinions. Well worth a listen even if you're outside the US.

T3 , Wired, CNet - All light hearted but informative views on the latest gadgets. Each has their own merits and I listen to them all.

Which Gadget - This is the gadget podcast by the popular Which consumer magazines. It offers some very useful legal and technical information. They also offer some god recommendations.

Click - BBCs podcast from their Click radio show. Tends to cover a wider scope of the gadget world than the other podcasts. A more "mature" podcast so to speak but not overly serious.

Great Apps - Fat Fingers

If you haven't heard of fat fingers, it's essentially a tool which searches for misspelt items on eBay, you type in what you want on the app and it will search eBay for any listings where that item is misspelt.

The theory is that misspelt items get less views and often sell for cheap. The evidence I have for this was an Xbox Kinect we bought for £40. It was as good as new but was spelt Knect. On eBay. A bargain I'm sure you would all agree.

You will struggle to find misspelt things like iPads or xboxs but items with longer names like blackberry and playstation may yield some results.. Difficult to spell item searches can be bountiful.

The app was free when I acquired it and I imagine it's still free now. The app is on Android and iOS and here is also a website you can use.

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.