More Laughable Future Smart Homes

You may have noticed before I don't take current smart home technologies very seriously mainly due to their pointlessness (5 Things All Future Smart Appliances Should Do, 3 Pointless Smart Appliances). Well here's another reason for me to continue to not take them seriously. This is not smart! You can get this future right now by attaching bells to things and listening for the bell ringing.

Watch this BBC video ad see what you think:

Richer Rounds Vouchers > Free headphones, 10% off WiFi Dongles & 10% off Pink Floyd Albums

All vouchers have moved to Vouchers Baby Yeah.

Here are the Richer Sounds Vouchers.

Here's the latest vouchers from Richer Sounds again. As usual you can just click on the image and then print it. Take it to your nearest store to use it.

This time we have Free headphones again (don't forget to see if you can get a free mug and/or keyring as well), 10% off WiFi dongles and 10% off Pink Floyd albums (online voucher code)...

Richer Sounds Vouchers > Free Headphones Are Back!

All vouchers have moved to Vouchers Baby Yeah.

Here are the Richer Sounds Vouchers.

The free headphones are back. This time I'm actually going to go and get some myself. Especially after the reports on MSE saying lots of people also got a free mug and keyring as well! Last time got to the local store only to find it had been looted.

Richer Sounds are fast becoming one of my preferred places to buy TV/Hi-Fi equipment. They're priced very competitively, although I probably still end up buying from Amazon most of the time. If Richer Sounds would accept Nectar Points it would be a game changer :)
I bought my Humax Foxsat HDR 500G from there a few months back, which I'm very pleased with. Unfortunately I wasn't as pleased with the channels available on Freesat, see the Freesat channel comparison to find out why.

Anyway here's the voucher....

Richer Sounds Vouchers > 10% off Cambridge Audio CD Player & Free Headphones

All vouchers have moved to Vouchers Baby Yeah.

Here are the Richer Sounds Vouchers.

Some more vouchers for Richer Sounds for you. Click on them to get a full size version then print off and take to your local store.
Click here for the Richer Sounds Store Finder

Richer Sounds Vouchers > Free Head Phones & £50 off Receivers over £400

All vouchers have moved to Vouchers Baby Yeah.

Here are the Richer Sounds Vouchers.

Here's a couple of vouchers from the Richer sounds VIP email. One for free Maxell BUDZ headphones and another for £50 off any receiver over £400. Just print them and take them in store.
Enjoy.

5 Things All Future Smart Appliances Should Do

So after my post about pointless smart home appliances, I thought I'd come up with some ideas on how all future homes and smart appliances could be better. So rather than adding cool but useless features, finding poor excuses to connect something to the internet, we should have good reasons and focus on costing less to run not more, in a financial sense and a ecological one.

1. Use Less Energy (and any other resource)!
   The most practical thing any new appliance can do is save you money over your current one! But most of the smart appliances look like they'll just put our bills up even more.
   

3 Pointless Smart Kitchen Appliances and How They Could Be Improved

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Robo-Fridge

During every tech show there's always a bit where some company will show off their latest inventions for 'smart home' technology. Sounds brilliant, but why are they always such pointless products.

Take for instance the LG appliances from this  BBC Click video  Smart kitchen appliances connected to the Web. So what's LG's vision of the future kitchen.

Freeview vs. Freesat vs. Freesat from Sky - Channel Smackdown

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Comparison: Freeview vs. Freesat v.s Freesat from Sky

I recently made 'the switch', not the switch from analogue to digital TV, but from Sky to Freesat. I thought saving £30 a month for just TV (just TV!, not including phone and broadband) would be a snap.


I already had a dish, I thought that there were more/better channels on Freesat than Freeview. So I bought the Humax Foxsat 500G (£250), thought I'd get a good box, as I didn't want to feel like I was in the dark ages after using a Sky HD box.

However, I was totally taken by surprise by the rubbish selection of channels on Freesat. I can't believe that after searching around the net and talking to friends and shop assistants, that no one had pointed out that there are major channels missing from the line-up.


The kicker is that I then found out that Freesat from sky with an HD box (although I'm not sure it records) is only £175! Or I can buy the viewing card for a one-off £25 quid and I could use it in my current Sky HD box, although again I'm not sure I can use the PVR features.

Solar Electric Cars

Flickr / Frankh

There's been quite a bit of buzz about electric cars this year. With several manufacturers releasing one. With promises like running costs of 2p per mile, why wouldn't you get excited. Maybe it's the low range, and long charging time. Here's a solution, why not have solar panels on the car (dashboard, roof, bonnet, etc)

The Problem
So several cars are stating a range of about 60 miles on a full charge. Which is great, unless you journey to work is close to 30 miles. If so you've got to start thinking, how many hills are there, how will the cold affect the battery, am I going to have to drive without the radio, heating air-con, etc to save battery power so I can get back home. Not to worry I have the solution.....

Chav Phonetic Alphabet

Charlie, Hotel, Alpha, Victor! Way too hard.
We need one much easier to remember than the normal phonetic alphabet. Turns out it's quite hard to get a good word for each letter.

Still refining the list:

1. Asda or ASBO or Argos
2. Bruv or Benidorm or Burberry or Benefits or Bluewater or Blud or Bianca or Bling
3. Chav or Coppa or Clinic or Cider or Chatham
4. Drugs

If carrier bags are banned what will you pick up your dog's poo with?

Photo from heatherspetcare.com

Carrier bags are very wasteful, we all know this, and gradually they are in the line of fire more and more. Environmentalists, supermarkets, governments are all coming up with ways to use less and reuse more.
However, we've missed the fact that many carrier bags are already reused by dog owners. The trouble is the bags are then chucked away. Shouldn't dog owners switch to a more environmentally friendly faeces receptacle. Also, it is likely, carrier bags will be done away with and everyone will use a longer lasting sturdier bag to shop. So what will dog owners use to pick up their dog's mess?

What do you think? Dog owner or not their must be some good alternatives out there.
Here are my thoughts:

Coolest Watches in the world

I thought I'd just share with you, what is in my opinion the home of the coolest watches in the world. My wife bought my wedding gift from Tokyo Flash, which you can see to the right.

The Coolest Thing I own
I think it's easily the coolest thing I own. In fact on the underneath it says 'PIMP'. 

Big Black Cat Sighting in Tealby, Lincoln

Just a few days after being shaken by the Feb 27th earthquake, one Lincolnshire resident is still shaking.
Not from the quake however, but from seeing a large black cat, possible a panther, in his garden, in Tealby near Market Rasen.
Robert Bonnet was letting out his domestic cats when has saw a strange shadow in his garden lights. When he shone a torch at it he could clearly see a large black cat, "bigger than an Alsation".
He immediately called his neighbour, who promptly came to the scene with his shotgun. Unfortunately he missed all the action.

The story is soon to be featured in the Lincolnshire Echo
A large black cat has been sighted before, and animals have gone missing from the locality.
Let's hope next time they are quicker with the shotgun, or at least a camera.