Monthly Archives: July 2009

Motor Insurance – Essential Points to Know

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There are many things that need to be considered to estimate the cost of the motor insurance quote and generally on the basis of these things a quote is prepared for motor insuarnce

1- PostCode : If a person is living in a city or urban area then there are higher risks as one parks the car in the street. The use of alarms and locks reduce the premiums.

2- Cars Value and Insurance Category : Cars are placed in different categories. The expensive and high performance car are the most expensive to do the insurance for example Fiat Panda falls for Group1 whereas Porsche 911 falls in the Group 20 .

3- History of claim : If you claim less then you can pay less as if there is no claims made then a person can avail the no-claims discounts. If one is involved in an accident then he loses two years of bonus.

Important : The no-claims bonus varies between insurers. One can get a 30% discount as he completes an year of the claim free driving which increases to 65% after four or five years depending upon companies. Few have got a maximum of 70% discount whereas some focus on giving high discounts at an early stage. It is better to look out for better offers.

4- Age of Driver / Drivers : As a young driver under the age of 25 are involved in more accidents than older drive who is more experienced than him . In case a teenager is driving and accident happens then the premium gets increased.

Important : if one adds a teenager for a temporary basis like on a holiday, or one can also ask the teenager to obtain a third party fire and theft quote on his name so that in case of self conducted accidents he can pay for the repairs. One can avail discounts if he attends special courses like those conducted by Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM).

5- Occupation : The kind of job a person is into also determine the cost of motor insurance like a teacher might give less compare to a doctor of the same age. Also a journalist might have to pay more for the insurance as it will depend on who he is taking for a ride.

6- Amount of Money : The total Amount of Money you will be able to pay before the insurer helps you with the additional repairs. The more money you will be paying for excess the lower the premium gets. The average amount is £200 but it can go higher also.

Fastest processor device, TG01, launched by Toshiba in UK

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TG01, the device with the fastest processor was launched in UK by Toshiba. I found that the launching of the TG01 has been the first step as a part of Toshiba’s plan to enter the European consumer market. Senior global account manager of Toshiba, Robert Pryke, was heard speaking to the Mobile: ‘We’re serious about business in Europe – this device [the TG01] is a statement.’

The manufacturer is set to release a complete roadmap by 2010. This roadmap would contain its plans and steps to be taken while working in UK. Pryke stated about their plans – “We’re speaking to all the operators, and by 2010 we will have a full roadmap”. I found that Toshiba had kickstarted its tour in UK last week itself when it revealed the TG01 exclusively to Orange. Now, Romania and Switzerland will also have the TG01 soon with France already having it. France had found the presence of this gadget a few times earlier.

I also found Toshiba admitting that it had been unable to get the huge success that it had desired, for the past years and had been a subject to some limited kind of success during these years. But it was also very hopeful over the TG01 winning the UK consumer market in the coming times. Toshiba was launching the phone with the same hope of gaining the UK costumer.

The manufacturer called the screen size and the speed of the handset to be the differentiating factor for the UK market. I feel that the gadget will be a sure thing to change the market with its Qualcomm 1GHz Snapdragon processor and a 4.1-inch screen. The Snapdragon has been found to be the fastest processor in the present times.

Orange signature series is the place, the manufacturer will take, permitting access to Orange TV & Video, Orange Maps and Orange World (Orange’s internet portal). After going through the gadget specifications and Toshiba’s plans I concluded that the TG01 is a device tailored for using application services offered by network. This handset, the manufacturer has produced working together with Orange, the provider.

Prepayment Meters: Avail charm of more lightening with this plan

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Nowadays electricity companies have come with some new energy bill schemes for their customers and also try to estimate how much energy is being utilised by its customers each year and its comparison will be based on the usage electricity in previous session. The measurement of energy consumption has been taken through its meter reading which has taken for couple of times in a year. However, if you the customer among 5.9 millions of UK who are availing the benefits of a prepayment meter, you need to pay for gas and electricity facilities. There are also some advantages and disadvantages of this prepayment meter as well, so one has to consider several things here before making any decision to purchase such prepayment meter scheme.

What is a prepayment meter ?

The Prepayment meters are generally used into homes that have diminished into debt with their energy supplier at some points. So, to help them one has to manage its debt and budget effectively. Because they work in many ways, including smart cards, tokens, keys, and in some cases of money as well and must be put straight into the meter.

What are the pros and cons of prepayment meters?

In case of prepayment meters, the disadvantages are more than the advantages for the customers.

Advantages of prepayment meters include:

* It helps customers to manage their debt and energy usage
* It prevents from unexpected bills

Disadvantages of prepayment meters include:

* It costs average for availing the services of gas and electricity
* The best deals of this prepayment meters are not available in the market
* An inconvenience also occurred that often customer need go the to the shop for ‘top up’ keys and smartcards.
* If you do not got the shop for purchasing top up then your meter could be switched off.
* Here, the prices of older meter needed to be updated manually after raising the price, which can take few months. You can have relief to for paying bills at older rates and owing somelump-sum money.

How can you save money with your prepayment meter?

If you want to save your money from your prepayment meter then you need to consider it as standard credit meter, which can be installed by your supplier. So, if you have a current account and also have been debt free at least for 3 months. So, once you installed, you can compare energy suppliers withuSwitch and take the advantage of the most valuable plans available in the market. But for this purpose, switching to a prepayment meter is not an option, you could still save money up to 138 dollar by using your prepayment plan through another energy supplier.

18% of UK public don’t understand the term ‘broadband’ or Broadband Deals Clearly

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Many of us take it for granted that what all we are talking about, when we mention the terms such as ADSL, cable or a broadband. The ISP Virgin Media has reported that 18% of the people have made a question that they did not exactly understand the meaning of a ‘broadband’. Although, around 40% of the people did not know the meaning of the ADSL. In fact, half of the people have raised a question that they do not know that how they can measures a speed of a broadband. A speed is treated as an one of the most promoted parts of its services.

It is found on the report that 40% of the owners do not know that what a web browser is? Whereas, some of the customers think that the high definition video format Blu ray is a form of Internet accessing. Some of the figures looks especially high but it is not a surprise that some of us do not even understand the technical jargon. It is very strange, when you consider a large part of the senior population of the UK who have not squeeze the Internet as much the youngsters does.

Virgin Media feels that ‘broadband schools’ information has to be originated in all those areas where education is needed. It will also include some of the major big cities. Such schools will be constituted to help all those interpret the jargon word in their every day life. This idea of attending a class on the subject seems to be little supreme. However, most of the individuals can pick up sufficient details on the terms and norms of the broadband. The information can be taken by reading some of the guides on the Internet or from their local bookshops. May be if you not get a technical knowledge, but at least you will make yourself a informed customer.

This is where the idea seems to be little distress of such schools that were capitalised by the Virgin Media. The question that comes in our mind is that are they going to trained the customers that the terms like ADSL and cable are both applicable options for the net users? Will such kind of education is completely autonomous. Because, it should be a powerful partial idea of accepting a fixed fibre optic technology that control a whole by Virgin Media itself? We do not know the information about the broadband schools that has been launched by them.

Executive Director of Broadband at Virgin Media, Jon James commented: “It’s great to see that Brits have a thirst for getting online but there is still scope to improve their broadband experience. We want to help people understand the language of the Internet, by cutting through the jargon, using simple and honest terms that everyone can understand and bringing broadband back to basics.”

Real time to get cheap gas and electricity

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Gas and electricity are the basic utilities which we need in order to cook food and also light the house. Apart from these two basic purposes, these facilities are used for performing many other daily tasks. These two services are essential for us to live a happy life and it is almost impossible to live a single day without these important utilities. But, if you are fed up with the service of your existing gas and electricity provider then the time has come to switch over to another utility service provider. Almost all suppliers have cut down the prices of electricity and gas for all kinds of users. Now, after this price cut, everyone in the U.K will get cheap electricity and gas. One of the leading utility service providers the British gas and Scottish gas have reduced the prices of electricity and gas by 10% . While other supplier namely the Scottish and Southern Energy cut down the prices of gas by 4 % and electricity by 9% for all its users. Similarly, EDF Energy cut electricity prices by 8.8 % in certain regions.

The Scottish Power is another popular supplier which is providing cheap electricity and gas to its users. It has also reduced the prices of electricity by 3% and gas by 7.5% for all kind of users. However, it must be difficult for you to select the best utility service provider as there are numerous energy suppliers available in the market. But for that you can visit various comparative websites that provide complete information about the different electricity and gas providers. It is a best way to compare U.K energy suppliers as it saves both money and time. There are around 70 energy providers in U.K and one can also get the relevant information about them by consulting different marketing experts as well.

However, there are several other ways as well through which you can cut down your excessive electricity and gas bills. First of all, if you pay quarterly bills then you can cut down the the costs of your energy bills up to 10% by switching to monthly direct debit. Secondly, it is advisable to do a meter reading after you receive a electricity bill. You can also reduce your energy bills by switching over to your company’s Internet Tariff.

I think, these useful tricks and the recent price cut by the leading energy suppliers would definitely help you in getting cheap gas and electricity.

3 Mobile Broadband comes with 30 Day only SIM facility

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Popular network provider 3, has recently launched a new 30 days rolling SIM-only mobile broadband deal which is available at £15 cost per month. This deal also comes with 5 GB data, and process the data at 3.6 Mbps speed.
This deal is very much useful for those who do not want to commit for a long term contract, but want to avail the services for throughout of the year. So, for such persons Pay As You Go deal is very much perfect. As we can also see that there are SIM-only plans also available with mobile phones in which customers need to pay for only 30 days contract, so there is not long term problem occurs.
The SIM-only mobile broadband packet will also be available with a modem, which will be beneficial for those who do not want to have a spare connection. The Huawei MF627, E156g and E1550 are also available at 19.99 dollar each.
3 is also raising finger that its single month mobile broadband providers are not offering for best value of money when they compared within the competition, whereas O2 and Orange are offering the services at 15 dollar per month and 1 GB is being offered by Vodafone. The O2 and Orange are also offering this contract after paying 59.99 and 29.00 dollars respectively with a USB modem, whereas Vodafone is charging around 49.99 for its services.

Ladies’ Mobile broadband

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Earlier, I brought you the credit crunch for female, and now ladies, I bring for you the female-friendly broadband.

Are you a girl on the move? Do you want to have the ability to check your e-mails on the bus or amend your Facebook status on your lunch break, and check cinema times on the way home from the office? Maybe, you’d like to subscribe to the Consumerchoices.co.uk blog and go through our posts wherever you are?

Well, don’t go anywhere ladies, as the mobile broadband is here.

So, mobile broadband is something old that has been around for a while. But it has never really been marketed specially for women (or any person who likes pink colour).

The intelligent broadband giant Orange has brought the cute little pink coloured Huawei E160 mobile broadband dongle and has removed the gap in the market.

Targeted to ladies on the move, the modern portable modem stick will provide you with download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps, and you can connect anywhere with just £9.79 a month contract for 12-month.

Select the length of your contract and the usage you need, plug your dongle into your laptop and you’ll be off. You can browse the net, do online shopping and Facebook to your heart’s content.

So, forget trying around for a WiFi hotspot, or trying to make out where you are on Google maps using a screen the size of a business card, because mobile broadband is now for everyone even the girls.

The HTC Hero is Born!

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HTC Firestone leak rumours are high before official announcement of the HTC Hero. The proper look of HTC Hero was displayed at a event held in London. It was the most interesting and launch-filled month that will be remembered by most of the HTC lovers. HTC Hero is a third Google Android powered mobile phone, leading all the other manufacturers behind by especially launching its ‘Sense’, their own user interface along the lines of TouchFLO 3D.

When talked about Sense, we must talk about the Hero, of what it offers. It is a 3G HSDPA phone with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, a 5.0-megapixel camera, auto-focus, having screen of a 3.2-inch HVGA touchscreen, coated with an anti-fingerprint layer. GPS, a 3.5 mm jack plug, digital compass and a MicroSD card slot.

HTC Sense is an official name of the leaked Rosie ROM. It’ll provide a customizable profile with the live updates for e-mails, SMS and social networking. In addition to this, a variety of widgets and the search bar displayed on the home screens. These all accessed without any dip in to the menu system.

The HTC Hero is expected to be launched in July of this year.

Transcend the lines with Virgin Media 50 Mb

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Spending life in the super-fast lane…

If you are exhausted of using your less speed broadband service of your phone which is much slower than Thomas the Tank Engine chugging up a hill all the time you fire up iTunes and effort to download a few tracks? Well, if you are planning to get your mobile phone connected with your service provider or you are already switched to VirginMedia, then you just chill because you do not need to worry anymore.

A new 50 Mbps broadband service has been launched by Branson’s chaps. This new service allows you to transfer your files at faster speed than Usain Bolt which circles 100m.

According to Virgin, this new service is benefiting around 1.5 million homes with the help of their extra rapid fibre optic network. And it is estimated that all single person of 12.5 million punters can get indulged by the middle of year 2009.

This highly advanced 50Mbps broadband service facilitates web surfers to download as much as they can i.e., a complete music album within 11 seconds which is really very less time. Moreover, one can record a TV show in only a short time of one minute. 3.5 minutes is quite enough to record a good quality movie plus the high definition movie record will not take more than 15 minutes. And with plans already in place for a super-fast 100Mbps service, it looks as if Virgin Media is going to be slapping down the conflict in a great manner over the next year.

Although, about the lightning speeds, it is little bit depressive. The lightning speeds do not come under cost effectiveness. The 50Mbps broadband service is not available at cheaper rates. The 50Mbps broadband package will come at £51 per month to standalone customers or £35 per month to consumers also switching Virgin Media’s home phone line for £11 each month. Consumers working with other services may also be able to get benefit from further bundled discounts.

Get fascinating pics with Samsung Pixon 12 M8910

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Samsung proudly presented the Pixon 12 at a recent launch in London wherein it was claimed as the ‘World’s first 12 megapixel camera phone’. The endless list of specifications and features that were thought to be the the ultimate earlier, like the accelerometer, TouchWiz interface and DivX/Xvid support are lost when we look at the screen, camera and connectivity feature of this device. The only drawback that one would see is the absence of the smart phone features as well as the simple use of OS. Although the design of this handset is average but the impact it will have in the market is surely going to be a huge one.

The new handset ‘Samsung Pixon 12 M8910‘ will be released very shortly .The phone features an amazing 12 megapixel shooter. The release is due in August and the device is sure to top the list of every manufacturer’s release schedule. The Pixon12 is sure to move ahead of the Sony Ericsson Idou, another 12 megapixel camera.

The Pixon12 features a 12 megapixel camera lens with Power LED and Xenon flash. It offers 3G network with HSDPA and HSUPA radios. It also features a GPS navigator and supports Wi-Fi. It has a lovely 3.1 inch AOLED touchscreen with a resolution of 480×800 mega pixels. The phone has a built-in Standard OS with TouchWiz UI. The original phone M8800 Pixon was an 8 megapixel camera phone with a touchscreen interface.

Samsung has mended the technical aspects to come out with Pixon12 which looks exactly similar to the Pixon. The one thing that would be the selling point of this phone will certainly be its 12 mega pixel camera.

The resolution of 4000×3000 leaves one without a doubt that the camera will obviously be a wonderful shooter with impressive image taking capabilities. Samsung has assured that the lens that will be used in the camera would surely be of high quality. The phone is also added with software which includes the smile, face and blink detection. Geo-tagging and smart mode are all this amazing phone has to offer.

The phone also features an autofocus which allows camera to focus on the particular spot where to touch in the screen of the view finder. The time between the shots has been reduced to 2 seconds by Samsung which allows user to take more photos in the same time than before.

The camera shoots video at 30fps with a resolution of 720 x480 megapixel. The Pixon 12 has built-in v2.1 A2DP Bluetooth , EDGE,GPRS and HSDPA/HSUPA with which one can be sure of an excellent data transfer capability of this handset.

The Pixon 12 features a microSD card slot which allows upto16GB cards. The phone also has a great entertainment features like the FM , RDS radio, music and video player and many kinds of games. Apart from a stunning camera qualities there is a lovely AMOLED screen which makes viewing and ultimate experience.