I have a Nokia 920 and really like it. As a work phone it is pretty good as it does Outlook sync nicely. Bluetooth had a couple of issues to start with in my car but is now pretty solid. Very nice camera built in. Not big app user so for me it was no big deal and even with Apple / Android the fact that there 000’s of apps means little to me as that just seems to mean more meaningless crappy apps to wade through.

Wifey also now has a Nokia having been adamant that she didn’t really want to change from her old HTC Wildfire. Tried an 820 and really liked it. Was impressed with the camera and is now a very happy WP8 user. If you have a Live / Hotmail / Outlook email address then you can get seamless sync between the phone and SkyDrive such that photos automatically get sync’d to Skydrive and are then immediately available on your Windows 8 machine or Xbox. Personally I don’t really like Android phones as they have always seemed a bit clunky and unfinished.

Son has an HTC 8S which he likes. Apart from when he dropped it and cracked the screen. Prefers it to the old HTC Android he used to have.

And as for the contrast between Bing and Google – over the past couple of years I can’t say I have noticed that much difference between them. The comments above slating it tell me the person either is just an MS hater or hasn’t used it for a long time and is going on what others may have said rather than making their own assessment.

I think you need to socialise that idea a bit more first before it can be properly landed.

There are a few offers on Virgin at the moment if you are in a cable area. However, I think most of the offers do not apply to their cheapest package and are only valid for 6 or 12 months. Provided you don’t want the extra TV channels then you should be able to get it all comfortably under £60 a month. Well, when I say comfortably, probably between £30 and £48 depending what specifically you want.

I used to live with a guy who was 6’3 and looked like a renaissance statue of a god with his shirt off, despite loafing around, doing little exercise and eating and drinking tons of shite all the time.

I didn’t realise we had met before. [Cough]. Or not. :D

And amidst all of this the vital ingredient for making it all work is the mental commitment to it. It is still quite easy to read all this debate and think it’s all positive and interesting but until you commit to doing something about it that’s all it will be. He says, taking a long hard look at himself!

Rose Revived is a good shout for a pub by the river but not sure the food is anything special. Trout is better from my experience. You could always go the other way and try the Merry Miller at Cothill for a nice country pub with enjoyable food or The Fox on Boars Hill. Obviously, being on a hill it is not beside the river but you can follow it up with a nice walk around the top of Boars Hill and admire the dreaming spires of the city without actually having to go into it. It has a sister pub (Barley Mow) in Clifton Hampden which is by the river. Also the Bear and Ragged Staff in Cumnor is quite nice. Again, not by the river but is outside the city.

Well, thanks to Toys nifty link I have saved myself the subscription fees for now. Actually, not that I was ever going to subscribe based on the slightly overstated nature of the advert. :D

Just say no! :D

As others have said – it really comes down to the channels you watch. And of those channels that may only be available on Sky how bothered are you if you don’t have them? We have been happy with Freeview for a long time now. Only recently moved to Virgin Media as I wanted to ditch BT as a phone provider and Orange as a BB supplier. Decided on the collection approach and got TV as well. Our old Humax was not an HD box so we didn’t get any of the free HD channels, and now we do. But the new YouView boxes are HD so that could be an option. Plus a lot of TVs now have a built in tuner an also the “smart” TVs allow connection to internet based sources so you can even get iPlayer etc direct from the TV.

While I like the idea of a good surround sound system the perceived wisdom from a couple of years ago was you needed to spend a wad load of cash on a decent AV Receiver to get a decent hifi sound for music along with the films. I gave up on the idea and we just plug it into our main hifi system and on the whole that does a pretty good job. I have an old Rotel amp so have no output for a sub woofer which would probably be nice for the full ambient soundtrack stuff but we get by. The main thing we miss is the “surround” experience ie hearing sounds coming at you from behind and the side. For the money you are spending you may get the best compromise by going for a good quality hifi amp that supports a sub woofer and decent speakers.

All IMHO of course. :D

I am a casual FB user dipping in maybe two or three times a week. Very rarely post. My kids are more permanent residents and it is a medium that supports their social group in a wider context without the limitations of texting. It has become a social phenomenon and has stayed rather longer than some would have predicted. This is probably down to the way it has / is evolving and because companies are getting on board with it.

I see no compelling reason for me to sign up to twitter – so I haven’t. My life seems no emptier or fuller in my blissful ignorance. Twitter does seem to be more geared to vanity though with the ability and willingness of people to indulge whatever stream of consciousness may be gripping them at any given moment.

What seems to be more “worrying” is the apparent trend of businesses to be adopting social media style interaction internally through tools such salesforce and yammer. Just don’t understand it, at all.

However, as Molgrips points out, there are some uses to it. Public opinion is now more easily gauged and grievances have a more public platform. Look at the cases posted on this site of complaints about some service or other that was posted on twitter and there was follow up by the company. Perhaps us poor people are starting to get a bit more publicity when things are not going well. Probably won’t last though…

Did have a Vectra estate which was huge. Awesome load carrier as you could pretty much just open up the boot and throw it all in. I personally preferred it to the Mondeo at the time. Changed the car last year and was expecting to end up with an Insignia but really was not impressed with the drive nor the practicality of the boot. Ended up with a new shape Mondeo which I think looks very nice and drives very nicely too. Same as the Vectra in that the boot is huge.

Had a Passat many years ago and that was a lovely car but I fear that these days they are way overpriced for what they are and are not all that dependable or reliable.

You probably need to think about the size of the car you want as the models listed vary. As mentioned above the Octavia, 3 series, Focus and to a degree the A4 are all a similar size which is smaller than the Mondeo / 6 / Insignia brigade which themselves are slightly smaller than the V70 / A6 / 5 series. It also depends on what else you will be using the car for when carrying bikes. Had a Vectra hatch before and if it was only me or me and passenger, with the rear seats down I could fit the bike in without having to remove the wheels. So do you actually need an estate? If so, can you get away with something slightly smaller and probably more economical for the majority of the time? In which case go with the Octavia or Focus or Astra estate.

Are you seriously saying that Nu Labour were of the left?

Ideologically they said they were. And had tendencies towards that. What they actually did ended up being generally quite centrist and a mix of a left wing group trying to do right wing type things in a way that won’t upset people too much and frighten them away. And broadly not very successfully. The average man in the street would define Labour as the left leaning party. Whether that’s true or not is a different matter. :)

Personally I don’t see a proper left wing party being electable in this country – almost certainly the reason nuLab arrived on the scene as they came to the same conclusion. What would a proper left wing govt stand for? What would the policies be that would impact us citizens? How would they change the country for the better? When we have answers to those questions lets see how many would be happy to vote for it. Although I was only a youngster at the time the 70s felt like an utterly miserable time to be living in the UK from a political perspective and that is the abiding image people like me have of what a socialist govt means in this country. And it is for that reason that would struggle to vote for one. What nuLab did was to position a party that looked like it had socialist ideals but was still a centrist party so not too extreme and thus looked like a palatable option to vote for.

Should be fairly easy to know who won it last year as it has been featured in all the publicity building up to the show. Welsh lass who decided that she didn’t want the fame and hard work that goes with trying to build the singing career she allegedly wanted when doing the show. So she didn’t really do much and the record label are probably on the brink of dropping her – if they haven’t already.

Don’t suppose she would like Bakewell Tart would she…

Or Cotton Eyed Hoe?

Much as it is tempting to trundle down to PC World for a new computer it is most likely that you will not be getting the best value or best machine for your money. As others have pointed out good places to look for pre-built machines that will almost certainly be better spec and value include Ebuyer, dabs, scan, novatech.

Interesting thread as we are doing something similar this summer as well. Flying into SFO and returning from SEA. Contrary to the popular choices we are starting in the south and driving north. Only thing booked so far are the flights. Still waiting to see where we want to go / see while we are there before we look at where we might stay. Leaning towards having three or 4 “base camps” from which we do the sight seeing / experiences and then just do a couple of bigger drives on a fewer days. Already beginning to think we could be coming back again in a year or two as we will have found some amazing places that we feel we need to visit again / spend more time at.

My son’s a drummer and in our experience the pads on a real kit are pretty rubbish. For quieter practice electronic drums are the way to go. As others have said though they are not silent. You will still hear the rapping of stick on pad but you do not get the associated boom and resonance that you do with a real kit so it is easier on your ears and will be quiet for the neighbours. Great for [practice as well as you can hook up the mp3 player and some headphones and he can drum away to his hearts content. We ended up getting the Yamaha DTXplorer. Bottom of the range Yamaha but was functional enough for what we wanted. Preferred over the Roland in the end because you can at least use a real bass drum pedal with it which gives you a more realistic feel for what you are playing. By comparison the Roland felt disconnected.

And a positive recommendation for DrumWright. Used them quite a lot over the years and always been happy with them.

You really need to get out and try a few bikes and as CG says not limit yourself to a WSD bike. Daughter has a Trek WSD bike as she was most comfortable on that but wife has a men’s frame on her bike as she found that more comfortable. As a male riding a WSD bike they feel all wrongly balanced but that’s going to be down to the likely perception that wimmin have longer legs to torso ratio. But that may not translate into what feels comfortable for you to ride.

jekkyl – Member

have you ever used one? it’s like a smart phone for grannys, absolutely blindingly awful. Windows phones are for dummies, also the app store is very limited.

I have a nexus 4 and it is ace! – if you’ve had an iphone before have a go with android. I’ll bet you won’t go back.

You mean in your opinion? I’m guessing you haven’t used one for more than a passing sneer in a mobile phone shop. True, the app store has fewer apps in it than either Android or Apple but really, for most people, how big a deal is that?

Personally I have a Nokia 920 and love it. Wifey has a Nokia 820 which she also loves. Her previous phone was an HTC. She is not a granny. Or a dummy.

Typical STW eh? Someone likes something that you personally don’t like and they are an epic failure of humanity. And yet you think Android is ace. Hmmmm

Now have one of the newer Mondeo Estates and ’tis a very nice car to drive. I can only assume you have a deficient one as the steering is incredibly light. Switched to the Mondy from a Vectra which despite widespread derision was actually a very decent car. The Mondeo is a heavy car though and if you want something resembling “sprightly” performance you are better off getting the 160bhp version over the 140bhp. We have the 140 version and no one is ever going to accuse it of it having brisk acceleration but these days I can sort of live with that. I do miss that bit of snap that the Vectra (150bhp SRi) had over it. Test drove an Insignia when we were looking and it was one of the more disappointing cars I have ever driven

Hmm, double post thingy.

No it isn’t. Quite. But it is money that is owed and needs to be paid back (assuming you meet the criteria etc etc). And that will have an impact on your disposable income once you get a job which will also have an impact on what you want to do with regard to housing and general living. I really do wonder about the value of a degree course for a lot of students these days when you look at what it is going to cost them vs the subject they take and their aptitude / intellectual capability. Although the flip side is what other choices are there for them if there are no jobs for them? As was also pointed out ^^ I really question how many jobs these days actually require a degree.

I did my degree part time as a mature student. That was quite hard work as I was still working full time but I was focussed on what I wanted out of the course. I didn’t really do the more immersive student bit which I do regret a bit, but the effort was worth it in the end. I was 26 when I started and not the oldest on my course by a long way.

Best bet is to get yourself along to Richer Sounds and see what looks good to you. Generally it seems most people reckon best brands are Panasonic, Sony and Samsung as these are the three primary LCD screen manufacturers. A few shouts for LG as they use Samsung screens but their own electronics and cost a bit less. Might struggle to get a good 40″er for £300 though. Best bargain would be to skip the 3D side of things as well.

All IMHO of course. :lol:

And if you have an outlook.com or Hotmail address you can also use skydrive.

There’s nothing that could persuade me to use anything with Windows as an OS. I use a PC at work with Windows on it, admittedly an old OS; XP, I think, but I absolutely hate it.

Fair enough – we all are free to choose what we want. Having said that XP is now pretty old (over 10 years) but at the time was a very good OS. Times have changed and moved on since then. Windows 7 was overall a very good release – quite possibly the best Windows version ever. Windows 8 has changed the Microsoft game by going fully touch which has enabled a lot of potential in the device market giving lots of choice across a spread of prices. I can’t help nodding admiringly in the direction of Apple and what they have achieved over the last 15 years from a company that was almost dead and buried. However, having spent some time looking at their devices I’m not so sure they as good or as far ahead of the competition as popular opinion would suggest. And their products do come at a cost.

That’s been on before – very good programme. Fascinating insight.

Seen the reviews? Buy the 64Gb version, you get 24Gb of usable storage; the Windows OS on tablets is a classic example of BloatWare.

Not completely accurate. That used disk space is not just the OS. It is also a recovery partition. Plus that looks like a specific device you are looking at ie the Surface. There are lots of other devices that may well be configured differently. Although the Surface itself is actually a very nice device having seen and played with one.

Personally I’m rather partial to the US so could easily consider it. However, I love Canada and they do seem to have a pretty outdoorsey sort of lifestyle. Stunning scenery. Yeah, I think I could pretty easily live in Canada.

And for a bit of heresy – if you want a bit more flexibility and the ability to do your excel stuff why not look at one of the Windows based tablets? There are actually quite a few choices of device out there now including some that can switch between tablet and notebook (detachable screens). Some very nice devices to choose from.

Glasses and CAP used to be the industry guides but they were typically only showing trade prices ie what the trade would expect to pay for a car. The trade selling prices were then the guide to forecourt prices to account for the extra stuff a dealer has to do. They then have to clean it, service it, advertise it, store it, provide even some basic sort of limited warranty on it and then make some profit on it to pay the sales commission and some profit to ensure the business still keeps going. A private user would be very lucky to get book price for a car they are selling as they do not offer any of these things.

Not sure I agree that a finance deal is the only one dealers are interested in. A salesman gets commission on selling the car anyway and the dealers like to see stock being turned over. So someone coming is with cash is still an attractive proposition as they will not have any PX nonsense to worry about and salesman will probably get his commission faster. [When I worked in the trade many years ago, the salesmen were only paid their commission when all the cars in the chain had been sold, so the last thing a salesman wanted was an ok / duffer of a car on PX]

As stock turns over they get cash flow. No good to a dealer if a car is sitting on the forecourt for months not selling because they will only look at someone who is doing a finance deal. The main things to look at are what you are prepared to pay and what the overall cost to change is to you. As others have said, provided you are prepared to walk away if the deal is not in your interests or you don’t feel comfortable then you should be ok. The dealer will have a figure he can’t go below and a figure he doesn’t want to go below. At month / quarter end they may be tempted to break the latter if it means a sale and stock shifted – especially if it has been a slow month.

I’d get them an ipad – unless you love having to go around and update their virus scanner, clear out malware, update software about once a month.

Really? I guess you haven’t used a PC for many many years or are a habitual “dodgy web site” frequenter. Or have no idea what you are talking about but just have some “I look cool” windows hating attitude. Personally I have not had a virus on a windows machine for 12 years so not sure what you guys get up to.

I would avoid Toshiba as a laptop. You only need something basic so an i3 with 3-4GB RAM (seem to be pretty much the base spec of machines these days) would do the job. Windows 8, on the whole, is fine. It takes a bit of orienting for people who are used to the Windows interface but are not regular Windows users. If all they want to do is browse the web and view stuff then you could consider a tablet. If you like the Windows world then try a Surface or similar Windows 8 based tablet and that should give you the best of both worlds (small form factor, light, and with the ability to create and edit Office docs).

Thank you chaps for the feedback. Much appreciated.

I have found them to be pretty responsive on all things so far. Had a few cases where the discs have arrived before / the same day as the email notification that they are sending it out to me. Had a disk that was freezing recently so sent it back and raised an issue. Resolved very quickly. Although I am still not sure about the value of the service to me ie is it worth it, I can’t knock the service itself in how it delivers.

No experiences or comments? Hmmm

If you are looking at a good value contract based phone then it may well be worth having a squint at 3. Both my kids are on contracts with them that are not breaking the bank (£18 and £20 per month) for which they get 300 minutes of talk time, 5000 texts and all the data you can eat. Daughter has a Samsung Galaxy Ace and son has an HTC 8S (Windows phone rather than Android).

It can be tricky to work out what the data usage would be but once you have a smart phone you then start to find all sorts of ways to use from managing email, browsing, sat nav, apps etc. My son was previously on a T-Mobile contract and although he mostly used it for facebook, texting and youtube he was chewing through an average of around 1GB a month.

Top post Cougar – made me smile :D

Although it doesn’t properly wind me up the one that does get a trifle annoying is travelling on trains during rush hour when the somewhat dim array their worldy goods across all seats in their vicinity and then look disgruntled when someone wants to sit in the spare seat. Really? You didn’t expect that?

And there was me thinking you were going to say “Went to a carol concert / service”. :D