New Technology

I've been investing in new technology recently. Anyone who knows me is well aware that I love well designed gadgets, so it should come as no surprise that I've bought a few new ones.

It all started when I was walking through the Arndale in Manchester a few months ago and I happened to see the new ipod Touch in the Apple store. I'd never even heard of it before, but I just couldn't resist its charms, and before I knew what was happening, I had walked up to the counter.

"Can I buy a Touch" I asked inquisitively.

"Certainly Sir" he replied. "Would that be the 8gb basic model, or the full 16gb model?".

This threw me slightly as I didn't realise there was a choice of two. As if in a trance I heard my voice say "16gb please".

So before I knew it, I was leaving the shop with quite a small package in a nice apple bag, and £269 less in my bank account.

My next set of purchases have actually been an investment to reduce future costs. When I moved to Stockport I signed up with NTL (now Virgin Media) for there combined TV, telephone and broadband package. But since they stopped showing Sky channels I've found myself watching as much TV through the Freeview box in the bedroom as I have through the Virgin set top box in the living room. I've also found that even though I was making some free calls through Skype on my computer, both my landline and mobile telephone bills have been increasing.

My first step has been to cancel the cable TV. I've now bought a Freeview box. It has an 80gb hard disk to record/pause live TV and a 2nd tuner, so I can watch one channel while recording another. This cost £50 from Morgan Computers in Manchester.

The next step was to change the way I use a telephone and was much more complicated.

Until now I've had a pay-as-you-go mobile and a regular landline with a standing charge and then charge per minute for calls. I've also been using a Skype headset on my computer to make free computer to computer calls, and very cheap calls overseas. When I took my laptop to France earlier this year, I also used Skype to make very cheap calls back to the UK.

For Christmas, one of my friends has bought me a Skype wifi telephone. This looks like a regular telephone handset, but rather than being plugged into a telephone socket in the wall, it connects (through wifi) to the internet to send and receive Skype internet calls even when my computer isn't switched on. There was no set-up cost (as it is a Christmas present), and no ongoing costs for useage.

The second stage was to switch mobile phones. I went for a cheap contract with 3. I get 300 minutes or texts a month, plus it also works as a mobile Skype telephone allowing me to make free Skype internet telephone calls from my mobile telephone. This costs me £12/month.

The last part of the puzzle was to get a new telephone number from Skype. As I live in Stockport I chose a Manchester "0161" number. When people call this new telephone number it actually connects the call over the internet through Skype. If I am sitting at my PC I will see the incoming call. If I'm not at my PC, but am at home, then I'll be able to answer it on the Skype wifi telephone. If I don't answer the call either on my computer or on the wifi telephone, then it will divert the call to my mobile.

The final piece of tech I bought recently was a new laptop. I think this qualifies as ultra-portable. Unlike some laptops which need a car just to transport them, this new laptop weighs only 0.9 kilogrammes. It is so small I can easily carry it everywhere I go.

It has a 7" screen, a SD card slot, built in wifi, a web cam, and 40 pre-loaded applications. Yet it only cost just over £200.

"So", I hear you say, "why is it so cheap?". Perhaps a hint is that I bought it at Toys 'R' Us.

The Asus Eee PC is really designed as a second computer for kids to do their homework, while still allowing mum and dad to use the main home computer to download p0rn and play Warcraft.

For a start, to keep the cost down, it doesn't come with Windows installed as the operating system. Instead it is pre-loaded with a very easy to use version of Linux. However, most of the manual is taken up with instructions on how to replace this with Windows XP if you really want it.

The second sacrifice is that it doesn't have a hard disk. Instead there are 4 gigabites of built in flash storage. If you want to increase this, then you will either need to use the SD card slot, or one of the USB ports for a pen drive, or external hard disk.

However (in theory) you don't need to buy any additional software with this machine. It comes pre-loaded with lots of great free programs, including; Firefox for web browsing, Thunderbird for POP3 email, Open Office the Microsoft Office clone, Skype, a media player, various games, a chat program, a simple art program, and direct links to useful internet sites like wikipedia and many webmail providers (like GMail).

Even though its clearly not designed for the purpose, the Eee PC forums have even shown people using the device to play PC games like World of Warcraft!