ITV Player Review

What a useless pile of Tripe!

I have been hearing horror stories regarding the ITV Player (Android) for over two years now. Friends and others have often ranted about how slow or how pixelated the streaming had been. Seems that over the past couple of years ITV had been trying to sort these problems out but to no avail it seems.

I myself had always steered clear of this App not just because this App was pants but because I don't normally watch much ITV telly.
That was until yesterday when I realised The World Series of Darts was been covered on ITV 4.  I love watching Darts so in an act of desperation I downloaded the software from the Playstore.

Honestly! What the hell is wrong with ITV and its App developers? The streaming was crap at best.
Every few seconds I was treated to horrific frame jumping which was amusing at first but slowly turned absolutely horrendous to watch even on non-action Darts games. I dread to think how this would look with a fast paced feature film. It is simply diabolical.

On closer inspection it seems that ITV Player pretty much eats all your available memory, slows down your device and consumes more data than perhaps it should. I don't really understand why? The BBC and SKY Go media player rivals don't seem to have these issues at all? It's not really rocket science lads!

Take a quick look at the good and bad reviews on the Google Store:

There are more bad reviews than good.. Surprise, surprise

Rating: 2/10
✅✅
And that's being generous
Its sad really how a highly respected company like ITV can leave this heap of cack to roam free on the Playstore unrepaired. It's staggering that they seem oblivious to the negative reviews and fail to address the issues.
Personally speaking this App will be deleted from my device as soon as the Darts Tournament is over and good riddence!
I would say don't bother downloading this unless you were absolutely desperate to watch something like I was.

Tesco Announce the death of Hudl

Hudl Project Shelved Indefinitely

It has been a fortnight since Tesco announced to the world that it was no longer selling the critically acclaimed Hudl 2.  (I only posted a review on it the other week!) This came as a shock to Hudl owners but was not entirely surprising considering the financial problems Tesco has been having recently. The rise in discount retailers such as Aldi and Lidl has badly eaten into Tescos market dominance. Combine that with the revelation that they had cooked their books when the auditors came round made Tesco rethink their strategy and focus more on their core business of flogging good old Groceries. This means that most of their non related lines have been axed including Blinkbox and the Hudl Tablet project. Early indications that something was wrong was when one of the chief bods on the project was relieved of his duties. The next indicator was the price slashing of Hudl accessories. The third was the empty Tablet spaces on the Hudl aisle displays....
So the Hudl 2 only lasted a year....

Tesco said they were not replenishing stocks but would still offer technical support and honour warranties. That's nice of them.

Quite honesty I find it staggering that they would pull the Hudl now and not after the Christmas period. Simply because they could easily sell all their remaining stock and accessories in one go. Plenty of people are still asking for them. The demand is huge. 

It's a shame

Duracell USB Charger Review

The Duracell Plug With A Small Charge!

Vendor:  Sainsburys
Price:  £20 reduced to £5 when purchased
Description: Universal Tablet/Phone Charger
What's in the Box?: Charger Plug and Cable (fixed) 2.4A output.

My weekly trot around the local Sainsburys almost always turns up a diamond or two and this week was no exception.
Set out on the clearance rack was this little number just begging to be picked up.
On closer inspection this looks like your standard spare generic Micro USB Charger complete with fixed meter lomg Canle but its not that mundane. The main selling point in my opinion is its high power output. At 2.4A this has been the most powerful I have come across so far.
My standard Tablet Charger is 2.0A Max and charges it up in around 2.5 hours or so. Hopefully this seemingly small increase would boost my Charging routine and bring that charge time down.
Why be that bothered? Well unfortunately as well as being a fantastic device, my Tablet has a shocking Battery life and as a consequence never far away from a wall socket.
Not being tied to sitting near the wall every time I want to play an Amdroid game would make this purchase seem a no-brainer!

Extreme Landings Pro Review

Extraordinarily good Flight sim on Play Store!
How often would you hear that statement? Not much I wager. That's because Google Play Store is full of so-called Flight sims. Not really but trying hard to be flight sims. With the exception of the equally excellent Infinite Flight there is absolutely nothing of any substance on offer. 

One Engine gone and chaos ensues

Being a fan of Flight Simulators (especially good quality Android offerings) I decided to download Extreme Landings Pro. Rather than taking the free version, I chose the full Pro package instead...

Android 6.0 Marshmallow Preview

Another massive treat or a little dusting of Sugar?

Now steady on Google! Only recently have I managed to obtain a working stable copy of 5.1 Lollipop.....and you're knocking this out? ? No sooner do I get my hands on something I could call working and up to date the big announcement came from Google Towers to say at all new Nexus Tablets will be getting this 'Marshmallow'. I hate Marshmallows. 
So not to waste too much of my valuable time on this I decided I would highlight the 'changes' and point out exactly what benefits an upgrade would bring.

New Paranormal Group in Town

News

Born from the ashes of the disbanded Paranormal Group NPG (Northwich Paranormal Group), new Ghost hunting group Searching For Casper promise to take Paranormal investigation to the next level with new locations and a new working ethic. They already have few successful investigations behind them and the group is growing from strength to strength according it its co-founder Frankie. A large investment in technical equipment and confirmed venue bookings have kept the guys busy recently. Some exciting locations have been promised in the near future.
Recent encounters have included Frodsham Hall and Stanley Palace in Chester. Next on the agenda sees the team track down some pesky spooks that reside at a Nuclear fallout Shelter in Nantwich. A throw back from the cold war, the Shelter now serves as a tourist attraction which has a number of reported phenomena within its rooms.
Searching for Casper are based in Northwich, Cheshire

Searching for Casper Website

Tesco Hudl 2 Review

The Best Budget Tablet Ever!?

Vendor: Tesco Stores
Price:  £99 (less if you use Club Card Vouchers)
What's in the Box?:  Hudl2 Tablet, Charging Cable and Plug, dedicated helpline support from Tesco Tech

Often spoken about as the best budget Tablet of 2015 the Tesco Hudl2 has a reputation to live up to.
Following the sad death of my regular Tablet recently I decided to have a hunt around to find a great spec Tablet for as little money as I could.
This is not as easy a task as you may have thought. Although the cheap Android Tablet market is more and more saturated with offerings, they are all pretty much similar in spec and finding a stand out choice was difficult.

Poundland DIY 8 Wood Drill Bits

Save Me The Best Bits

Price: £1

Vendor: Poundland

Description: 8 pack of Wood Drill Bits in a handy box

Ah! Today we see celebrity Bricklayer Tommy Walsh present something fantastic for only £1 and as usual he doesn't fail to accomplish his mission.

Not content with offering the standard 6 bits in a box Tommy dishes out 8 of the little beggars to us in this offering.

Sizes: 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and 10
Currently I have only had the need to use the size 6 for a little mundane changing of a Window Blind job so as yet unsure of the full pack potential.
The Bit I used looked fine and seemed good quality. There were no problems during drilling what-so-ever. The bit held together well and cut a straight true hole. Job done!

You can't moan at the price and they work really well.  I dont see the point in having to search around a big store like B&Q and pay over the odds when you can get these. Cheers Tommy!

AA Mini Air Compressor

AA gadget Blows Cheapies Outta Sight!

Price: £9.99 (varies)
Vendor: Spar. (Petrol Station)
Description: 12V Mini Air Compressor/Tyre Inflater (depending which packaging you get) 3 meter power cable and an internal LED light.
What's in the Box: Main unit, 2 x Adapters for Football's and Air Beds etc.

Frustrated with having to keep popping to the local Tesco to top up my tyres with air  (I'm sure I have a slow puncture?) I wanted a quick and easy home solution . I wasn't expecting a Pocket sized solution!
Having filled up at a service station I saw these on their "crappy gadgets which are normally overpriced" stand for £9.99. Deciding to take a chance on the the purchase and took it home.
Unboxing revealed a small sized square main unit with the Valve attachment tucked neatly into the body.  The main 12V fag lighter power lead was baled up outside the device. This measures roughly 3 Metres which is dead handy as I have come unstuck with shorter cables in the past.
Along with the unit comes a little bag with a couple of Adapters for blowing up foortballs (spike/needle tip) and one for blowing up inflatable beds, chairs paddling pools (tube shaped)

The overall look of the device is smart and compact. The no  nonsence switches, nicely hidden hose and handy LED torch add a practical element to the model.
As for the performance, I managed to blow up a Space Hopper from flat in under 90 seconds which I thought was good. I don't have a leaky car Tyre just now but I will update this post as the issue arises.

Having spoken to a few people and tried a few cheapo compressors, it seems this little beggar steals the show in terms of performance and being compact in design. A terrific little pocket sized tool!

Nestle Swiss Chocolat Brut

A Bag full of Heaven! 

"A blessing from the gods of Chocolate" is one way to describe these tasty little Morsels which waffted my way last week.  Not that I have ever seen these on sale anywhere before? It all very strange.

Curiously I bagged these at the local Quality Save, famed for their low prices and sometimes obscure or imported items. Perhaps this is one of those?

Price: £3.50 instead of £7.50 RRP.
Vendor: Quality Save
Description: 500g bag of mixed chocolate chunks (individually wrapped)  Milk, Plain and Hazelnut.

From the moment you lift this bag from the shelf in the store you know you have some serious chocolates on your hands. Not just by the sheer weight of he bag, but the quality look to the item.
The Bag has a locking style system for resealability which is handy as you are not likely to get through all these in one sitting!.
All three flavours are nice. Hazelnut being  my personal favourite. The Milk and Plain varieties are smooth, rich and velvety whilst the Hazelnut offering throws in a gorgeous subtle hint.

Overall then not at all bad for three and a half quid. I couldn't see me paying top dollar for these though as I'm not obsessed by Chocolate. I'd say that the price I paid for them was very good and more realistic than they're RRP. Judging from the size and design of the packaging you would have to say they are for "sharing". This advice is not mandatory however and as of this moment Im managing to ransack the bag perfectly well on my own thank you.

Work Zone Electric Glue Gun

Fantastic value if you are stuck!

Apologies for the joke, but I can back up that statement. wholeheartedly. You see, one afternoon I needed something cheap and fast to tackle a little project I had in the house. The superglue had run out and to be honest wasn't really doing a proper job so it left me on the hunt for something else and sharpish!
Taking a hasty trot through the local shopping precinct (and after dashing through Poundland) I thought I would take a look in Aldi.
Not always stocking the right tools you want at the time you need it,  I wasn't holding out any hope. Five minutes of wandering up and down the specials section I happened across the said Glue Gun! Looking down at the price I noticed it said £3.99....  Now then, that sounds right up my street. Any spare Glue sticks knocking around here too?.
Yes sir!, 24 of the littlele beggars in a neat little box for £3.99 . I took no time in picking up both the Gun and the extra Glue sticks and trundled off to the checkout.
So £8 for the lot. Really good value and a 3 year Warranty. Can't be bad!


Price:  £3.99
Vendor:  Aldi supermarkets
Description:  20W Hot Glue Gun
What's in the Box: Gun, Stand, 3x Glue sticks. Instructions.

Related Product:  24x Glue sticks (refil pack)
Price: £3.99

Both items bought together is £7.98

Maginon (Aldi) Wi-Fi Repeater Review

Aldi Gizmo is a clear winner!

Price: £5 reduced from £20
Vendor: Aldi supermarkets
Description: Plug in Wi-Fi repeater +Client+ Access point
What's in the Box? : 1x Plug in device, 1x Patch cable RJ45, instructions

Always on the lookout for a Bargain, I stumbled across this curious item in the local Aldi stealable items cabinets. The marked price had been reduced quite heavily from £20 to a fiver!

Wi-Fi Repeater what's that then?

This natty little number will happily relay your Wi-Fi radio signals to places in your house,office where there is a poor signal. Genius! I thought.
I do suffer from lame reception when I'm sat outside the house so this could be the best fiver I spent in quite a while. I read through the instructions and fired it up.
Immediately my signal gage increased on my tablet, from around 3 bars to 5 straight.

I have not tried the device on Client or Access point mode due to the fact I can't be hard wired into it with my tablet but I shall be connecting  via a PC or laptop at some point.
Overall then a working useful bit of kit for £5  this month

Android Lollipop 5.1 Early Use

The all new Android update with problems of its own

Where do I start with Lollipop 5.1?
Well I could start by saying how remarkably surprised I was to get the signal to download this software via the old OTA route.
Nvidia had been reglecting us Tegra Note 7 users for quite some time since KitKat with no update to Lollipop 5.0 when that came out ages ago. Some might say that this was a smart move by Nvidia seeing as though lots of people had reported major bugs with 5.0 after its release.
So along comes 5.1 a little over a week ago and so for me this was a totally new operating system and for others a huge bug fix. I was excited to get Lollipop for the first time regardless of the consequences!

The main new features of 5.1 apart from squishing loads of bugs is new animations, icons and behind the scenes stuff!? They always say that!. A new power saving mode has been added to cut down on background activity when in standby. This seems to work quite well. A noticeable extra 30 mins of Battery life can be acheived if you switch this on straight after you unplug your Charger.
Another new feature worth a mention was the Encryption or forced Encryption as I like to call it.  Having no choice in the matter, the whole system was Encrypted upon first install of Lollipop.
 Whilst this is a sound security decision and could be useful if my device is lost or stolen, I would have liked the choice, especially when it now takes an extra 40 seconds to boot up!!

Target Darts 2015 Launch review

New Releases Are Just Amazing!

Event Details:

Target Sports 2015 Product Launch. Held at Target Sports HQ, Harlow, Essex. 30/7/2015 from 11am

Presentation followed by reviewing of new products. Pro-Am contest with the Professionals. 

Guest list: 

16 times world champion Phil " The Power" Taylor, new signing and PDC pundit Wayne "Hawaii 501" Mardle, Dave "Chizzy" Chisnall, Keith "The Fella" Deller, Tony "Silver Back" O'Shea, Darryl "The Dazzler" Fitton, Ross Evans, Target MD Gary Plummer.

+ Suppliers, myself and others

A few of weeks back I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the ultra rare Target Launch tickets. These are particularly difficult to obtain and cannot be bought, an invitation only affair. Not wanting miss an opportunity like this I  felt compelled to attend to see all their new gear for this year. The new range will not be available to the public until early September.

As well as unveiling a whole range of new products Target invited the Team Target Pro's along! This of course would be a fantastic bonus to the event and one aspect I was particularly interested in. Being a Darts fan the possibility of meeting heroes such as Phil Taylor was too rare a chance to miss.

After we arrived we were seated at a table with a celebrity, ours was Stephen Bunting, he was a constant source of amusement the whole day. 

Target Goody Bag!

These are becoming a bit of a legend in their own right. (Speaking to participants from last year). So as I was handed a posh looking boutique style bag by an ageing old crone I started to Salivate! What was within...

> NEW Phil Taylor 8Zero (Black Titanium) 22g Darts set

> NEW Pro Grips (new size) 34.1mm Stems

> NEW Phil Taylor Power Flights

> NEW Adrian Lewis Jackpot Flights

> NEW Pro Grip Aluminium Stems

> Target Pin Badge

> Legends Team Target Poster.

When it comes to free stuff I'm straight there normally and as is common with 'free' stuff it's never really any good.

Not so with this little bundle!, specifically, a brand new set of Darts (not yet available) worth probably somewhere in the region of £25-£30 (based on the current 8Zero Darts

What's New Then? (Highlights)

Carte Noire Classic 100g

Price: £2
Vendor: One Stop
Description: 100g classic roast instant Coffee

Straight from the bargain shelf at One Stop we have Cart Noire Classic weighing in at a pocket friendly £2 reduced from £3. And its not such a bad slurp after all. It's rich, full bodied and has no bitter aftertaste. Definitely a step up from the more expensive Nescafe Original in every respect.
I shall be getting a few more of these tasty jars before the offer closes!

Coffee-meter: 👍👍👍

Douwe Egbert's Smooth Caramel 50g

Fantastic Coffee Fiasco!

Price: £2.00 but varies

Vendor: Asda

Description: Coffee with Caramel flavouring

Size: 50g

Eeeuk! Is the first word opener to this (thankfully short) review. 

Initially this item was purchased with curiosity having previously trying the Hazelnut variety and finding it OK.
It seems after having the first few swigs from the mug my stomach turned. It was just too sickly. Way too sickly for my liking and bad enough for me to abandon the remainder of my brew! That never, ever happens with me when it comes to Coffee. Something must be very wrong. And it is!

Unicorn Silver Comets

Migrated/Archive Post

Step back in time with Unicorn Heritage Comets

I took an interest in these historic darts when I heard John Lowe talk about them on an old obscure training video from the 80s. 

He remarked that they were a milestone in the history of Unicorn and Frank Lowy dating back to birth of the brand.
Originally marketed by Wisdens under the same name they were a technological leap forward in terms of design. 
Wisdens as a company went and Unicorn took over, the rest is as they say 'history' (bad clich'e)
A couple of years ago Unicorn relaunched the Comets under its Heritage range, changing nothing from the original box of the 1930's.
The Barrels, Shafts and Flights are the exact replicas of the original, even the presentation box has the original literature reprinted on it. The only difference it would seem is the inclusion of an outer card box to make it shop friendly when displaying.



As you might have guessed, these Darts have specialist parts but thankfully spare Stems and Flights can be bought quite cheaply if something goes wrong.

Constituent Pieces
√ sizes shown are approx 

Thread Type: 2ba
Weight: 21g
Barrel: 48mm Chrome plated Brass
Stem: 48mm Aluminium with Aluminium end cap
Flights: Special Fiber board two piece slotted

The Barrels are a nicely finished Chrome plate with the original patent number etched towards the nose. Standard shiny Steel points are fitted.
The Stems are deep slotted Aluminum with a protective end cap which screws tight and locks the Flight in. It also acts as an incoming dart deflector (which it does impressively).
The Flights are made from Fiber board and are V shaped and two-piece in assembly. Each pack of Flights contains 6 pieces.
The Presentation box is made from a textured card with a card darts holder inside (built into the box) the darts can be stored fully constructed without dissassembly.

Points of Happiness
1. Wonderfully and faithfully reproduced Darts which look good in any display cabinet.
2. Owning a piece of history albeit, repro.... but history all the same Unicorn call them "priceless replicas" themselves
3. Stunning design, compact, different. they still look good 75 years later. The end cap innovation is currently being reworked by other manufacturers in one guise or another.
4. Nice to keep as an heirloom... well, from 2015! wish I had some originals!!!

Points of concern
1. I cannot throw these darts! 
2. Flights are cardboard and have a tendency to bend when under any sort of pressure. You may go through a few sets! (more than likely)
3. They fly better when the two parts of the flight are flat?? I dont understand that? 


Point of principle
1. You got to have a set of these, even if you dont throw them. 

Conclusion
I cant throw them as I said before, tried moving fingers forward and back etc etc and they still land funny. 
The flights are a complete mystery as they seem to glide better when you dont fan them out?? I found that they had excessive drag when shaped properly.
The stems again are another bone of contention. Not because of the design. but because of the weight or so it seems. 
The comets seem to be very tail heavy when coupled to the 21g barrel?? 
I dont know, it might just be me?
Having said all that, I still love them for what they are. fantastic value (especially when someone buys them for you!) and a talking point.
The innovation cannot be ignored, specifically the end caps. You feel like you have a piece of history in your hands.
I dont know, some of you guys may be able to make some good scores with these so dont let me put you off if you are up for a challenge.

Nivea Men Ultimate Fitness Bag

A bag full of goodies for under £8

Vendor: Tesco
Price: £7.50
Description: Sports Bag containing 5x Nivea Men products, 1x Foldable drinks Bottle, 1 x Sports Bag.
What's in the Bag: 

• Cool Kick Deodorant - 250 ml
• Originals Moisturising Shaving Foam - 200 ml
• Cool Kick Shower Gel - 500 ml
• Originals Rehydrating Moisturiser - 75 ml
• Originals Deep Cleaning Face Wash - 100 ml
• Water Bottle
• Sports Bag

If you stink, or even if you dont stink this special offer could be for you! With a quality brand name behind you, your masculine hygeine care is more than taken care of with this little number. Everything from deodorant to Shower Gel is nestled with this retro style bag (A style once regarded as 'Gypo' style back in the 80's).
How can you walk past this and NOT pick one up.... Seems unbelievable at this price. It works out that each item costs just over £1 which is surprising especially when you throw in the high quality retro style bag. 

Target True Play 22g Darts

Tantalising Tungsten for a Tenner! 

Trawling the clearance shelf can be a hit and miss affair as many of us can testify. Stumbling into these however is not such a gamble. In fact these arrows will only bring joy and enjoyment to your game.

Vendor: Darts Corner
Price: £10 reduced from £12
Description: 80% Tungsten Darts Weight: 22g  Length:  48mm
What's in the Box: Darts, 3x Aluminium stems, 3x Target play flights, Tri-fold case.

Here they are with different Stems and Flights fitted.

Poundland USB Vacuum

Is this Vacuum worth a £1?

This was exactly what I thought when I picked this up in the local Poundland recently. How well can this novelty item perform with only a tiny motor and tiny amounts of power (5V)?

(Incredibly well as it turns out!) So after walking away from the item, then walking back my curiosity got the better of me and I took it to the paydesk and pay my £1.

Vendor: Poundland 

Price: £1

Description: USB Vacuum cleaner

What's in the Box: Vacuum + attached cable. 1x brush attachme.

After unboxing and connecting to a power source the Vac was tested. 

At normal running speed it barely picked anything up and sounded thin and weedy. Disappointment started to creep in and I was all for writing this item off. However, things started to change dramatically when the magic button was pressed, at which point the sound changed to that of a jet aircraft and the Sugar I had spilled deliberately was sucked up in an instant!. Fantastic!  Feeling suitibly impressed by the performance I continued and managed to comfortably suck up a whole tablespoon of sugar. 

Note: This Vac does not have a collection bag for all the bits and consequently collects in the end piece. Disposal of the dirt is achieved by tipping the Vac forwards into a bin. This is fine provided you remember that fact and don't tip it forwards prematurely! (You can guess what happened to me)

Another point to be mentioned is the filter. This could be cleaned by removing the O-Ring and cloth gauze. But I wouldn't bother. It took half an hour to get the whole thing back together!.

A nice extra feature of the Vacuum is the little white LED light which helps illuminate the area you are cleaning. 

Curiosity led me to wonder if you could run this Vacuum from a Tablet or other smaller device rather than just a standard PC and so here is the result! 

You never know when you might want to Vac up loose Sugar from your Tablet screen! 

I probably wouldn't recommend you power the device from a Tablet really due to the inteference and possible malfunction from the high power draw on the Battery. It was fun to have a truely pocket run Vacuum cleaner though. 

Curiosity and the tear down.. 

Opening the device reveals a small amount of components really with the center piece being the motor. A Motor from a Scalectrix car!. Thought I'd seen one somewhere before! 

For a proper look at what makes this tick then c!ick Big Clive's Vacuum Tear Down

Thanks to Electronics Maestro Clive for his analysis.

So in conclusion it would appear that indeed this item is worth the £1 asking price regardless of its minor downfalls. This portable Vac almost made the best bargain award but just fell short. Instead its is presented with a novelty award because that is undoubtedly what it is!

Sainsburys Universal FM TX

Cheap Transmitter Wins Bargain Award

 

Walking through the local store (and more specifically the clearance aisle) sometimes turns up some little gems that you just can't walk by and this is one example.

Sainsburys Universal Transmitter 
Price paid:  £2
Description: Gizmo for transmitting audio from any device (with a Headphone jack) to any FM radio in range. Useful if your car doesnt have an audio-in facility.
Whats in the Box?:  The unit/Device with LCD screen (and backlight) featuring auto off functionality. Lithi-ion rechargable battery installed.
12V Cigarette lighter charger.
(This can also be charged from the mains if you have the right plug)

Originally priced at £14.99 this product may seem a little overpriced especially when so many clones can be bought on ebay. Happily Sainsburys had reduced this item to £7.00 in the first instant before further dropping the price to just £2 by the time I go to it!! Unbelievable really.

Winner of Best Bargain Award

Aldi Butterkeks Biscuits

Loving these Keks!

Price: 80p?

Vendor: Aldi

Description: 'ButterKeks' biscuits (half chocolate)

If you are from the Northwest of England you will know the words 'Keks' means something totally different! Trouser aside, these are truly lovely Biscuits. I almost walked past these at the time and Im glad I stopped. These are delicious and exactly how I remember them from years ago. The biscuit itself is well baked and has a nice crunch whilst the chocolate half covering is thick and not too sweet. 
German in origin, Butterkeks literally means 'Butter Cakes' it seems the original creators misheard the word apparently and the name stuck.
They were first made over 100 hundred years ago by German bakers Bahlsen and called Leibniz-Keks.

Whilst on the subject of Butterkeks I have to mention IKEA and their 'Kex' brand. Not only do they have a 'trendy' sounding name but they are letter shaped so you can spell IKEA whilst having your tea.These are also tasty.

Music Angel Frienz Speaker

Best performing portable Speaker

Music Angel Friendz        Portable Speaker

Price: £20 approx

Vendor: Various (test model bought at Tesco)

Description: High quality active Speaker.
What's in the Box: Active Speaker system, flat-line audio cable 0.5M, Soft touch storage Pouch, instructions.

Features: 2x3W Digital Amplifier, 2 Speakers, 150 hrs Battery life (depending on use), straight through circuit for multi connectivity

It seems really difficult finding the right mini Speaker to boost your lame sounding Electronic gadget. The shelves are full of them in all different shapes and sizes. Do you opt for a large Boom Bar type arrangement, a Bass Box affair or do you just want something small and portable?
You can stand there all day in the Supermarket fumbling about or you could just purchase one (or even two) or these little beauties and you won't be disappointed.

DONT be fooled be its weedy little size, looks are deceptive. As with a lot of mainstream budget Speakers you only get the one Speaker Driver but the Music Angel Friendz has two! one at either end neatly covered by a grille.

Battery life on this item is INCREDIBLE!! The Music Angel website boasts of up to 150 hours play from a full charge and so far they have kept to their word. The test model has yet to run down from its initial charge despite countless hours of play at varying volume levels.
This Speaker surely has the best Battery life compared to ANY competitor at the moment.

The Music Angel Friendz is not Bluetooth so is connected via a flat line audio cable which comes in the box. Also included is a standard USB micro cable for charging.

Charging only takes a couple of hours. The Speaker shines a Blue LED when charging is taking place, a Red LED when almost dead and Purple when charging and power is on.
This little LED light show is a nice touch to an already nicely constructed device. It looks particularly nice at night.

Sound quality is very clear and precise although lacking of any depth of Bass.
The Trebles here are perfect and the mid range tones are equally brilliant especially when listening to a top quality BBC Podcast.
The Bass does suffer though and not surprising considering the size of the two Drivers inside. You have to ask yourself if its big Speaker big Bass or just small and portable you are looking for?

Build quality on the Music Angel is very good. The outer case is made from Aluminium with Steel grilles at each end. The switches are plastic but of good quality. Everything feels quality with no rough edges.

Featured on this device is the ability to connect to other Music Angel Speakers via a second input/output port on the rear of the unit.
The result of daisy chaining two of these units is that the overall sound is so much louder!. This could definitely be an advantage for parties and get together with friends. The sound from just one unit fills a room on it own but connecting two really boosts everything! Presumably you can connect as many of these together as you wish?

Overall, this is a fantastic little Speaker and well worth the budget price. The Battery life, well built design and superb sound quality make this one of the best in its class if not THE best. If you can live without thumping Bass then this Speaker is for you.

EVO Move N Groove Scooter

Scooting super cheap at under £6

EVO Move N Groove Scooter  ages 3+

Price: £5.50 reduced from £19.95
Vendor: Tesco
Description: Kids Scooter
What's in the Box: Scooter in 2x pieces (Handle and main body)

Nifty little two piece from Tesco featuring lean-to-steer technology.
This child's Scooter is a bargain right now costing a miserly £5.50! You can't really argue over the price when you consider what you are getting.
If its a lightweight travel Scooter you are looking for to occupy the kids on a holiday or day out then look no further. The whole assembly is two piece with the Handlebars being the only removable section. The bars are fixed and so steering is achieved by leaning one way or the other. Probably takes a bit of getting used to but the kids will be flying about in no time. Braking is taken care of by means of a rear mud guard style friction stop.

Excellent Value for money as you probably wouldn't pay £20 for it normally

Sainsburys Basics Instant Coffee 60g

Outstanding Coffee for under £1!

A POKE IN THE EYE FOR NESCAFE ORIGINAL!

Price: 60p per 100g refil pack

Vendor: Sainsbury supermarkets

Where do we start with this little unsung Gem? its very cheap, its very nice to drink and you would probably walk straight past this in the Tea and Coffee aisle, turning your nose up as you do so.

You would be forgiven for walking by this product due to the 'Basics' style two colour plain packaging and its very low price.

You might think its too cheap compared to the next thrifty instant on the shelves and you would be wrong,  very wrong!

Adding one spoonful to a Mug is plenty for a medium strength brew. The initial taste is nutty finishing with a slight citrus note. There also appears to be absolutely NO bitter after taste or over burnt roast flavour you often get with cheapo Coffees. This seems remarkable at the 60p price mark!

Comparison?

Having used this Coffee regularly for over a week it seems painfully obvious that this is far more palettable than even Nescafe Original (a premium instant) costing 3 times the price of Sainsbury s  in its 100g form. This is astonishing! Nescafe pails in comparison and has a noticeable burnt after taste

Buy some now!

                                                     Winner of Best Bargain Award

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