Thursday 14 January 2010

BookArc - Vertical MacBook Laptop Stand

Oh my god, I can't believe I've just spent £34.99 on a small piece of metal!

About a week ago I was trying to work out how I could make a bit more space on my desk so I started looking for a solution via the Google search engine.  I came across loads of normal laptop stands, some plastic, some metal and some with built-in fans to help keep your laptop cool - but none that would help me free up some space.  :(

Then I came across a company called Twelve South who produced a vertical laptop stand specifically for MacBooks - hooray!   I had a quick look on the shop on Apple's web site and when I saw the price I quickly closed my web browser in shock!   £39.99 + delivery costs!!!

I refused to believe that it would cost so much so I had a good search around and the best price I found was on Amazon.co.uk where after much debate with my wallet, I finally ordered the stand at a cost of £34.99 + 4.50 delivery.

After placing the order 3 days ago (despite all the snow we are currently experiencing here in the UK) it landed on my doormat this afternoon!  :)


Straight away I could see that a lot of effort has been put in to this premium product as the packaging looked very 'Mac-ish'.  After removing the sleeve and opening the box you are greeted with a thank you message.

The BookArc comes with 3 differently sized pieces of rubber which you can fit to the BookArc depending on what model of MacBook you have.  I have to say though, it's not as snug as I expected and I'm not sure this is a design issue or if it's meant to be like that.

My MacBook is now working in Clam-Shell mode and is sitting to the left hand side of my monitor and has freed up a fair bit of room.

So is the BookArc worth spending around £40 on?  Not really, but are there any other vertical laptop stands?  Not that I could find, so if you want a vertical laptop stand then it's the BookArc or nothing.

In conclusion, if you're looking for a vertical laptop stand then there is one available, but it comes at a price.

Sunday 10 January 2010

Greased Lightning Showroom Shine - Waterless Wash & Wax

I had a look out of the window this morning and was pleasantly surprised to see the snow had melted off of my car, time to try out the Greased Lightning Showroom Shine Wash & Wax that I received in the post earlier on in the week!

The first thing I did was to nip out to Tesco Extra to get a couple of micro-fibre cloths, one to put the stuff on with and the other to buff it with.

I wanted to see how long it would take me to wash my car so using my mobile phone I took a couple of photos of my mucky car which would have a time stamp on it so as long as I took a photo at the end I would see exactly how long it too me to clean my car.

I put on a pair of rubber gloves, shook the bottle and the proceeded to liberally spray it on the roof of my car.  Using a blue micro-fibre cloth I rubbed the liquid on the roof and the dirt started appear on my cloth and not on my car - I then used my yellow micro-fibre cloth to buff the area I had been working on.  Why two different coloured cloths?  For no other reason to make sure I remember which one is which - one for putting it on and the other for buffing it!

I then continued the process for the rest of my car and found it to be so much easier than lugging a bucket of soapy water around with me!  Spray, use a cloth to remove the dirt and then buff with another cloth to make it shine - that's as complicated as it gets!

My Father came out to see what I was doing and remarked that I was brave to be washing my car in such freezing cold weather (snow on the ground and the temperature was at 1.5 degrees) as he assumed that the bucket of water would start to freeze and my hands would be frozen.  He wandered around my car looking puzzled, he could see half my car was glistening and the other half was dirty and there was no bucket to be found!

The whole process was very easy and to be honest, whilst I was washing my car I thought to myself that even if it takes the same amount of time to wash my car than my old method, it was still well worth buying as it was so much easier to do!

After finishing by cleaning my alloy wheels, I immediately removed my rubber gloves, got my mobile phone out and took some photos of my car so I would now have a 'before and after' set of images with that all important time stamp on them.

I started 'washing' my car at 10:38 and finished at 11:50 so it had taken me 1 hour and 12 minutes to clean my car.  Normally I would start by rinsing my car with a hose pipe to remove any loose dirt, then I fill a bucket with water with some car wash shampoo and then wash my car with a sponge, (I normally use two buckets of water with car shampoo in it).  I then get the hose pipe and rinse of the suds and then chamois the car until it shines.  I'm never in any hurry when I'm washing my car and it normally takes me about an hour and 45 minutes to do all that.

So overall, by using Showroom Shine I have saved myself about 1/2 an hour which is pretty good going if you ask me!  I'll time myself the next time and see if I'm any quicker!

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AND NOW FOR THE PHOTOS!

The ones on the left are BEFORE and the ones on the right are AFTER.

(Click On The Photos For A Slightly Bigger Image)







And not a scratch to be seen!  All in all I am very impressed and very pleased with my purchase as the results are brilliant!

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Greased Lightning - Parcel Arrived The Other Day

Finally the order I placed on Ideal World has arrived on my doorstep.  I was slightly concerned to see a read warning label on the box saying "FLAMABLE LIQUID" on it...

It seems that up to 30% of the liquid in the bottles is Petroleum Light Distillate which sounds pretty flammable to me!

With all the snow about (and more on the way) it is far too cold for me to venture outside to wash/clean my car so I'll have to wait to see if this stuff is any good or not.

:(

Monday 4 January 2010

Nintendo DSi XL

First came the Game and Watch, then came the GameBoy, GameBoy Colour, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy Advanced SP, DS,GameBoy Micro, DS Lite, DSi and now...

THE DSi XL!!!

Recently made available in Japan, Nintendo's latest hand-held console (the DSi XL) is selling fast!

Featuring 4.2" screens the DSi XL is due for release in the UK "early 2010".  Rumoured to have built-in games and an additional larger stylus, Nintendo's latest offering will no doubt be something to keep an eye out for!

Sunday 3 January 2010

Where Have All The Games Gone?

For nearly a year now my Nintendo Wii has been gathering dust and today for no reason what-so-ever I decided to dust it down and power it up!  On looking for a game to play I remembered that as I hadn't used it for a while I sold most of my games so I had nothing to play so off down the town I went...

I went in to HMV, GameStation and Game and was dismayed and confused - where have all the games gone?  There wasn't a single game that took my fancy.  I'd already had a quick look on the Internet so was expecting to find the latest Need For Speed game for sale but in those three stores I couldn't see a single NFS game, let alone the latest one.  :(

As an absolute last resort I nipped up to Tesco Extra and was pleasantly surprised to see a much better game selection (namely a full chart plus a section of random titles) than that of the so called 'proper' games stores.

Not only did I find Need For Speed: Nitro (which claims to have been written from scratch just for the Wii) but I also saw Wii Sports Resort sitting on the shelf with the new sensor attachment thingy so I popped them both in to my shopping basket.

Is the Nintendo Wii reaching the end of its life-cycle?   If stores like HMV and Game aren't stocking many new games and leaving it down to the supermarkets such as Tesco to fill the gap is the reign of the Nintendo Wii coming to an end?  I suppose only time will tell...