Packing My Son off to Uni!

Posted by on September 30, 2011 Comments Off

If, like me, you are the parent of a child that is heading off to university as a fresher this year, then you will know about all the frantic organisation that this involves, never mind the worry. We’ve done nothing but argue the past few days, fresher’s week starts on the third of October and so far, nothing is organised. He’s off to the South Bank University in London and because he’d gone through clearing to get a place, there was no room left in halls. I’d have been much happier if he could have got into halls, apart from anything else there’d be less stuff to pack than there will be because he is house sharing. I know that
I’ve probably been clucking like a mother hen, but it’s scary knowing that child has never
lived away from you, let alone been responsible for a house with a group of other 18 and
19 year olds.

We need to take him down to London at the weekend and I’m worried about getting everything packed up, while he seems to think it can all be done in an hour. My husband said that the best way to pack up kitchen stuff and his Xbox and television was to get some cardboard boxes. I didn’t want to go to the local shop for boxes as they tend to fall apart if you put too much weight in them, aside from which, most seem to have stopped giving boxes away preferring to sell them to recycling companies. I phoned my friend and after we’d spent our usual time having a good gossip she suggested that I tried looking online for I wanted. I
wasn’t sure about the timing because we really need to start packing over the next couple of days but I thought there was no harm in trying. I found a company that said they would be able to deliver the next day, so I took the plunge and placed an order. The prices I paid for the cardboard boxes and bubble wrap i ordered were pretty competitive, and the quality was great. If you’re struggling with the same problems as me then I would suggest you spend a little money and save yourself a lot of time and aggrevation and just buy some decent quality containers which are fit for purpose!

HTC Desire Review

Posted by on September 30, 2011 Comments Off

I’ve now had the HTC Desire for a month. When I bought it I charged the battery to full capacity and started to use the phone straight away without reading the instructions. The reason behind this is I wanted to find out how easy the phone was to use. I’ve written this review from notes I kept when using the phone for the first time. I have highlighted what features were noticeable first and how easy they were to use. Next I have reviewed all the features that the HTC Desire has that make it original.  Finally I have reviewed the aesthetic qualities of the HTC Desire, how it looks and how it feels when held in the hand.

Stand out features:

  • qHD display- sharp clear display, vibrant picture colour. I was really impressed with the picture quality that came from the HTC Desire. However I did turn the brightness of the screen up as I prefer a brighter picture. Please note that although turning the brightness of the picture up gives a brighter screen, it does use more battery than normal.
  • HiFi audio technology – crisp crystal clear sound, the sound on the HTC Desire is fantastic and a world away from other mobile phone speakers! With headphones plugged in the sound quality is even better. However I didn’t really like the earphones that came with the HTC Desire and tested the music player using a pair iPod earphones and then a pair of Urban Decay headphones.
  • Contoured glass edging – fits neatly into the palm of the hand
  • Camera – The camera in the HTC Desire is a 5MP camera that features instant capture. This means that there is no waiting for the picture to be taken. This reduces wobbly and blurred images.
  • Internet multi windows – supports flash player for quick video playback, quick search tool. There are 7 windows in total and you can zoom in and out of them by using a pinching motion using two fingers on the phones screen.
  • Touch screen – The HTC Desire has seven home screens and each one is available at the touch of a finger. To zoom in and out on the HTC Desire’s screen you need to use a pinching motion with your fingers across the screen. I found this really easy to use on the first attempt.
  • Weather function – gives up to the minute weather reports and also demonstrates the weather report through a series of pictures

On further exploration I found that:

  • Video editing – videos can be edited by trimming them and cutting them down in size and length. These videos can then be uploaded to the social networking website of your choice within seconds. I uploaded a 50 second video to Facebook and it took 2 minutes to upload. I had used the trimming tool to reduce the video from 1 minute to 50 seconds by trimming the start and the end of the video. This was all very fast and I was very impressed with the application.
  • Sharing videos via DLNA – this is a good idea in theory but the television has to be set up correctly. I tried twice to set up this service between the HTC Desire and my television and failed both times. However I am sure that this is because of the age of the TV and not the phone. The TV I tried to connect it to is 8 years old and I could not be sure that it supported the technology needed to share videos with the HTC Desire via the DLNA application.
  • Connect to a Wi-Fi printer – I was very impressed with this feature, my printer is 6 months old and I have been using the Wi-Fi feature to print documents and pictures from my laptop and have never had any problems. I tested the Wi-Fi connection between the HTC Desire and my printer by printing a picture of my cat, it took minutes to set up and the HTC Desire picked up the signal from the printer within seconds. I was holding the phone whilst standing directly opposite the printer.
  • Polite ringer – the HTC Desire has a very unique feature called the ‘polite ringer’. When you receive a phone call it will ring at normal volume till you pick it up and then it will ring at half the original volume. If you then want to silence the phone, turn it over so it is face down and the phone will continue to ring but will ring silently. I have found this a great feature to have, especially when I’m too busy to answer the call or want to ignore it completely!

Aesthetic qualities of the HTC Desire

The HTC Desire is a very well made phone. On first glance (the phone was off) it looked like it was made from high quality polished glass yet it has a very light weight. The size of the HTC Desire means that it fits into the palm of an average sized human hand. The back of the phone is made from a dense black plastic that has a nice touch. Personally I prefer a plastic backing to a metal one as it is easier to open and scratches less easily. This of course is just my personal preference.

Update…

I’ve come back to writing this review two weeks later and have now owned the HTC Desire for three weeks. Since the initial week I have found the phone to continue to be very easy to use, the processor speed is definatley very fast! One thing I did alter about the phone was the touch settings, I have quite a light touch when using touch screen gadgets and found the initial touch screen settings quite heavy at first.
Something to be aware of is that I found that the HTC Desire’s screen scratches very easily. I am not the most careful personal and have dropped the phone twice already, once on a carpeted surface and once on a wooden floor. Unfortunatley when it fell on the wooden floor it feel face down and now has a few light scratches on the screen. I did a little market research and found that leather covers can be bought for the HTC Desire from Amazon and eBay.