Photo by ginnerobot.
Just like insurance comparison sites on the web, it pulls up a bunch of different quotes from different buyers, so you can be sure you’re selling for top dollar. Whether you’re grabbing a new phone, or just have an old one gathering dust on the shelf it’s worth a look, read on and find out how much you could make!
SellMyMobile.com is straight forward and fuss free. Just tap in your old mobile’s make and model, and it’ll search all the different phone recycling sites (Boots, Mazuma, envirofone, fonebank and more) for quotes to find the one that’ll cough up the most dough.
You can forget about trading in your old Nokia 3210 for anything more than the bus fare home, but if you’ve just switched feature phones or smartphones you stand to gain big time by checking it out.
SellMyMobile.com pulls price quotes every day, so they’re bang up to date, and recent comparisons of an iPhone 3G 16GB show the price offered can vary by as much as £80 between different recycling sites. Unless you fancy being ripped off, it’s in your best interest to find the best site to sell to.
It’s not just new phones that fetch large sums either. Got an old Nokia N95 kicking around? It might be two years old, but it’ll still make you more than £100.
SellMyMobile.com is live to try out now, and it compares old iPods for the recycling treatment too, so open up that drawer full of old gadgets (we’ve all got one) and make yourself a mint now.
Out Now | £TBC | SellMyMobile.com
Filed under: Software, Holidays
Have you completed your holiday shopping yet? Neither have I. Well, if your friends or loved ones have a particular affinity for LEGO's construction toys, consider using LEGO Digital Designer to order a customized building block set for them. Via LEGO's DESIGNbyME, Mindstorms, and Creator-based themes, users can choose a starter model as the foundation of their design, or use the free build option to design something from scratch (for the more imaginative ones out there). Using a DESIGNbyME template, I customized (pictured above) a Penske Racing-looking LEGO IndyCar. As an IndyCar needs a driver, I figured I'd throw in one that looks like the Joker from The Dark Knight (in the scene when he was dressed as a nurse). This building block set came out to about USD $22.
LEGO Digital Designer is available as a free download [download link] at LEGO's website.
TUAWBuild customized LEGO packs with LEGO Digital Designer originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Website the INQUIRER is stating that the supply of 3.5-inch hard disk drives (HDDs) for use in desktops and servers has started to dry up.
It appears that drive makers Western Digital (WD), Seagate, Hitachi, Toshiba and Samsung Electronics have been caught off guard by a sudden increase in demand for 3.5-inch hard drives.
Analysts are now predicting that there will be a shortage of desktop hard drives into the middle of next year.
This could see the price of 3.5" drives going up in price! Perhaps now is the time to buy those drives in case prices do start to increase.
More info here.
A few months ago, Fasthair did a couple of excellent articles on Kris Rodenhausen’s great add-in for Windows Home Server called P80.
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/09/27/review-of-the-p80-add-in-for-windows-home-server/
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2009/10/16/p80-2-0-5-add-in-released-for-windows-home-sever/
Last week Kris released an updated version – version 2.5.0.
I was going to do a quick post about it but didn’t get a chance until now.
It seems that there were a few problems with this version, and just to prove how hard Kris works he has been trying to solve them and has released a couple of updated versions since then – so as of today, he is at version 2.5.3.
For version 2.5.3. click here. If you have a previous version of P80, make sure you uninstall it first.
New additions and fixes for this version:
1. Cloudberry Support: You can now view your Cloudberry information on P80. In future versions you can start/stop/pause the backup plans.
2. Languages: P80 now supports Japanese and French!
3. Memory on WHS: P80 now displays the current free memory on your WHS
4. Installer Fix: No matter what port/header/ip you use for your default website, P80 will now install
5. Fixes in regards to the refresh checkbox reporting errors
6. Removal of P80 link from WHS Website on uninstall of P80
7. New P80 Logo! Thanks to the team at Cloudberry for designing this for me for FREE! You guys rock!
8. Alerts on certain actions on the summary page will now display on the top of the page
9. New User Interface design. This new design is not so “scrunched” and is easier on the eyes. Thanks goes to Will (Wriker).
10. P80 Service Images share deleted. You can now find the images at \\yourserver\Software\P80 Service Images. No “ugly” share anymore…
Photo by jimmyroq.
We've previously tackled 10 tips for productive travel, covering helpers for laptops, smartphones, and the humans that use them. This list, however, is purely software, and hopefully adds more to your mobile agility.
by AJ Peck (aka usacomp2k3)
One of the difficult aspects to having all of one’s equipment in a cabinet is knowing what to do about the heat. In my setup, the 3 main heat generating equipment are the xbox 360, the receiver, and the DVR (in descending order to the best of my knowledge). I have resorted to just leaving the cabinet doors open when in use to allow for ventilation. However, having some active ventilation would certainly be a a better solution. In the past I’ve looked into adding cabinet fans. However, these tend to be rather expensive. I don’t need anything complicated, I just want there to be air moving when the equipment is on, and then turn off when not in use.
Just as a little context, I’m using one of the old outlet strips that has the ability to turn off power to a specific outlet at the press of a button. (similar to this one except the buttons are on a separate small device hard-wired to the outlet strip) I have all of the equipment (except the DVR) plugged into another outlet strip that is plugged into one of those switchable outlets, and so we flip the switch on when we want to watch something, and then flip it off when we are done. This way there is no wasted power but components being vampires in standby mode.
Anyway, since I’ve got a background in computer components and case modding, I thought I’d do a little DIY project. I went to fanwholesale.com/ and spent $26.82 for 3 120mm fans, plus 6 120mm fan grills. I’m going to be using one of these in my Media Center PC to help with the cooling, so the total cost for this project on the entertainment so far is $18. One of the nice things about the way that PC fans work is that they run off of straight DC voltage. The max is 12V, but if you give them less voltage, they will just run at a lower speed, and thus less noise. However, the fans I purchased were low-speed anyway, so I went to a local thrift store and spent $1.50 for a 12V power supply. The fans are rated for 300 milliAmp each, so I needed to get a power supply that can supply at least 600 mA. The step step was to connect the wires. I cut the connector off of the new-to-me power supply and took an old molex cable I had and connected the 2 wires of the power supply to the yellow (12V) cable and black (ground). Each of the fans has a male and a female connector, so I simply connected the cable that is from the power supply to the first fan, and connected the first fan to the second fan. Voila, all done. Well almost.
The last step is to figure out where to mount the fans. Since heat rises, I decided to mount the 2 fans in the top corners of the entertainment center. I held the fan in place and used my cordless drill to make the holes for the screws. I then used a random round object I had to draw a circle on the back of the cabinet and then used a jigsaw to cut the hole out. Lastly, I took a screw, put it through the first grill, then the fan, then the screw holes I had drilled in the cabinet, and lastly the 2nd grill. I went digging through my workshop in the garage and didn’t have any machining screws long enough, so I opted to temporarily just use regular wood screws and put a plastic wall-anchor on the back to have a non-sharp edge. Voila, project done. Another problem I ran into was putting one of the fans on backwards so that the grill was hitting the fan blades. It was simple to unscrew the fan and flip the grill around.
As always, here are some pictures of the project:
Cutting the holes:
A view through the cabinet:
How it looks from the back all finished:
All-in-all, a successful project, in my book. Total time was about an hour of work. Total expenses were around $20.
This DIY project is super easy and super inexpensive. Here's what creator and Instructables user sbgstudios has to say about the project:
I work from home a week at a time. I recently got a new keyboard at work and loved the 'newness' so much i wanted to keep it that way. So I thought of creating a cover for it to keep out the dust while I was away. Oh, and I did not want to spend $ on it. Call me cheap...
This Instructable could not be easier and costs next to nothing to make. Most of the materials you have in your desk drawer already.
All you'll need is some paper, scissors, tape and a few writing utensils, and that's it. Hit up Instructables for the full tutorial to make your own.
On the other hand, if you're working from a laptop you can always try making a keyboard cover from an old T-shirt; if you're past the point where a cover can help and you just need to give things a thorough, deep cleaning—we can help you with that, too.
Continue reading Kingston 40GB SSDNow review
Kingston 40GB SSDNow review originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Dec 2009 12:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Hindsight is always better than foresight. One of those niceties I should have known to look for when buying a houswe was an ease-of-updating feature. Case in point: my house does not lend itself to running new wiring or cables, as it has finished drywall ceilings in the lower level. I should have known the need for Ethernet wiring long before the term “home networking” was coined, and looked for a home with an easier ability to upgrade the wiring. Yeah, right…
Oh well, there is a reason why wifi is a big deal for many homes. As in “Where no man hath gone before”… Wireless is great if you can plug the adapter into your device. If you have the appropriate drivers. If you choose the “right” router that can seen anywhere in your home. And so on. For the most part, wifi does work quite well for what I would term “simple” networking.
In my education at WGS, I have been introduced to many devices that require a wired connection to allow it to be configured for wireless access. Which is part of the reason I have a switch in my home office. WHS and NAS devices are often headless, and either do not recommend a wifi connection or have limited support for wifi adapters.
If the device is portable, wifi is all important. If a device is not designed to be portable, a wired connection is always going to be the better option. As the general population begins to introduce more Ethernet-enabled devices (TV, multimedia devices, etc.) into their home, the greater the need for wired connections due to increased bandwidth needs and the inherent reliability of a wired connection.
You might ask, where am I going with all this BS? Well, in order to
I needed a wired connection to a point in the house that would be quite expensive to run wiring. So my search for a powerline kit began.
It would be nice if I could get a gigabit powerline adapter. I have been trying for months to get one to review, without success. The next best type are the 200Mbps versions, which is really all I need, as my router is “only” 100Mbps capable and I have had no problems with bandwidth at that speed. So far…
Quite often, I usually end up going to Newegg to narrow down the possible options, once I decide on the type of computer item I am looking for. They certainly do not have everything, just enough to make finding what your need usually quite easy. Anyway, I went straight to the powerline section and began looking at the various options.
The result?
A Linksys PLK300 Powerline AV Network Kit. $120 and several days later, I had one in my possession. The question is: did I make a good choice?
The Unboxing
The day arrived and I opened up the shipping box to get to my new toy. Excited, yes. Apprehensive, yes. Why, you might ask? Even though I get stuff to review (occasionally), a review item
So, I am excited because it is something I *wanted*. Something I *needed*. Something I could *almost* justify to that person who controls the purse strings.
The pictures:
Dang, everything seems to be that highly polished black plastic that is so darn difficult to take pictures of. Anyway, that is all there is, 2 “boxes” and 2 sets of cables/wires and the obligatory QIG and CD. I have no idea what is on the CD, as I never popped it in the DVD drive. The one important piece of information that I gleaned from the QIG is that powerline adapters “like” to be plugged directly into the wall socket. No power strip for these devices!
The Specifications
Tech Specs
Key Features
Installation
Installation is ridiculously simple.
That’s it! No more, no less. For me, the device was a QNAP NMP-1000 I was reviewing. I tuned it on; I went to my workstation; I searched for the NMP-1000; I configured the NMP-1000; I began my NMP-1000 review.
In the pictures above, you will notice that the adapters are installed in stands that vertically orient the devices. You do not have to use them, however, the stands do have rubber feet that lessen any slippage problems and reduces the footprint of the adapters. Smaller footprint equals easier to hide.
And for anyone is interested, the following is a diagram of my current home network showing how the PLK300 has been integrated into it. Like anything else, the network grows as needed in a hodge-podge kind of pattern.
The NMP-1000 and the IP cameras (review items) will disappear soon, which will make my little network a bit more manageable. It is interesting to note that the number of “appliances” far exceeds the number of physical computers at this time.
Bench Marks
Sorry, no networking benchies on this one. It works, quite well actually. I have no need to test how fast the connection is. I can stream all sorts of media through the switch, and hook up multiple devices. As a consumer (not a reviewer), what more do I need to know?
Conclusion
It is said that powerline adapters are dependent upon the house wiring, and the pathway the signals have to take to get from one point to another. I am 110% positive that the wiring went through my breaker box, which is supposed to have a detrimental effect on the signal. My home is 20 years old, so the wiring is modern which is a plus for powerline adapters.
The end result is that the PLK300 powerline kit worked perfectly. For me, at least. Over several days of playing with the NMP-1000, I never had a problem with network glitches. Whether watching movies, listening to music, etc., I never had a stutter or similar glitch.
In the pictures above, you may notice that the receiver has four Ethernet ports. As a result, you can use this receiver to hook up four devices. While I am writing this up, I have the NMP-1000 and a D-Link DCS-1100 IP camera plugged in the PLK300 receiver. I have plugged in but not tried out my LG BD300 Blu-ray player yet, but I do have a 30-day free Netflix offer to take advantage of.
And the final plus for this device is that it is easily moved. My wife likes to rearrange the living room, kind of on the same cycle as the seasons. The PLK300 will move easily to wherever the TV goes.
You might say “Your mileage will vary” regarding a powerline adapter. My answer to that is you can say the exact same thing about a wifi router. If you need wired access in an area that precludes a direct cabled connection, here is a great solution, IMHO!
If you need a device like this, just get it!
Cost: $149.99 MSRP
$119.99 (Newegg)
I did a search on Amazon.co.uk and found only the older 85Mbps item for about £61.
