Tag Archives: Ipad

Frost’s Top 10 Brands to Trust for a Stress Free Christmas

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Christmas is a stressful time of year. We’ve all had a Christmas where it ended in tears because the food wasn’t right or a present broke right out of the box. Unfortunately most companies can’t be relied upon. Revenues and profits are the main consideration. After the sale has been made most brands will consider the relationship with the customer over. But there is a small minority of companies who buck this trend and put the customer experience above all else. Brands which can be relied upon at this important time of year. So here is Frosts independent guide to the brands we believe can be trusted for a stress free Christmas

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Top Electronic Brand – Apple

No one was ever disappointed to get any Apple product for a present. You can also almost guarantee it will work right out of the box with minimal stress and frustration and provide an amazing Christmas experience. If on the off chance something does go wrong, Apple is excellent at sorting out any problems you have. The company prides itself on the ‘user experience’ and this definitely comes across. The company’s products are always a joy to use. Of course the downside is the cost which can be exorbitant. However this year you can get an iPad mini for £219 from John Lewis (another one of our top ten brands) http://www.johnlewis.com/electricals/ipad-tablet-pcs/apple-ipad-mini/ipad-mini/c8000030510

It’s an incredible product and experience but the mini is still by no means cheap. For a cheaper alternative why not try these amazing Bluetooth headphones we reviewed earlier this year. https://www.frostmagazine.com/2013/10/groovez-bths800-bluetooth-headphones-by-stk/

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Available from Amazon for £36.71

Top Online Shopping Brand – Amazon

The online shopping giant has always been reliable and easy to use. Although its not as relatively cheap to the highstreet and other online competitors as it was a few years ago, it’s still unbeaten for choice and reliability.Amazon has always prided its users and has always put there experience before profits. In fact the company still barely makes a profit despite turning over hundreds of billions of dollars every year. If you buy from Amazon you can be fairly sure your items will arrive quickly and as described. And if by any chance anything does go wrong in our experience Amazon has always issued a refund. This is definitely a company which takes some of the stress out of Christmas. In second place is notonthehighstreet.com which offers products from small boutique companies. There’s a really nice feel to the website and it can be a great place to find a personal gift at a reasonable price.

Also check out shuffle hub a great new way to shop online. Shuffle Hub scans major websites and randomly shows you a small selection of products. If you don’t like what you see you can just hit the shuffle button. You can filter it by gender, cost, item type etc Definitely worth a look. We love it.

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Top Supermarket – Sainsbury’s

Of the major supermarkets Sainsbury’s is the one we are trusting with our Christmas this year. The supermarket has been getting better and better recently. The produce and suppliers can be trusted and the food in our experience is of better quality than most peers.

The experience in the stores is warm and even the infernal self scanners are better than in most competitors. The staff are all friendly and seem to be enjoying their jobs. By contrast I think Tesco has really taken its eye off the ball recently. Both price and quality are not as good as they once were and shopping in the store is stressful. A close second in the top supermarket department is Morrisons who offer some great Christmas produce. https://www.frostmagazine.com/2012/11/morrisons-christmas-showcase-event-what-food-to-buy-for-christmas/

Top Highstreet Retailer – John Lewis

John Lewis is as reliable as they come. The company has always put a tremendous focus on looking after customers. Shopping in the stores has always been easy and there are loads of good ideas for Christmas presents. On some items you will pay more but if your clever you can often avoid this. Remember John Lewis has a policy of never knowingly being undersold. It’s worth using for the same items you might have bought from another store anyway (like the iPad mini above) because of the great customer after care.

pandora2Top Jeweler – Pandora

We’ve visited Pandora’s new flag ship store on Oxford Street and it was a great experience. The company is best known for its charm bracelets. You buy a bracelet and then add to it throughout the year on memorable occasions. It’s a great present to give wives and girlfriends. It’s personal, its jewelry and its fun. Better still it takes the stress out of buying presents in the future since you can just keep adding more charms. The company has a great range of products which it is constantly updating and prices vary. The products are well made and in our experience can be trusted.

Top Chocolate – Divine

Chocolate is an important indulgence at Christmas. Ditch the multi national brands and go for Divine chocolate. In our opinion there chocolate is more intense and simply better than the majority of their rivals. They offer a big range of products from hot chocolate to mini thins. All tastes great.

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Top Drink – Disaronno

We at Frost can’t get enough of this delicious Amaretto. We love it and in our experience there aren’t many who don’t. Definitely worth having some around for Christmas. Here’s our Disaronno cocktail guide.

https://www.frostmagazine.com/2013/04/disaronno-cocktail-recipes-and-drink-review/

Top Whiskey – Chivas Regal

We have been given our fair share of Chivas over the years, their 21 Year Old Royal Salute being a particular favourite.

Top Clothing Brand – Burberry

They are as far way from the tarnishing of their image when their unique and patented (though possibly not for long) plaid became synonymous with chavs  and every market stall was selling a knocked-off version than it is possible to be. In the past few years they have had the best of Britain fronting their ad campaigns and their clothes have left all negative stereotypes behind. Like a phoenix from the ashes, Burberry rises again and become our top clothing brand of the year, Sienna Miller fronts their ‘kisses’ marketing activity for Autumn/Winter with fiancee/baby daddy Tom Sturridge.

Top TV Shopping – QVC

QVC has to win for this. They have grown enormously in the past few years and now everyone has got in on the act. They even have top designers and personalities designing for them. Giles Deacon recently did a jewelery range for them and they sell the most beautiful Lulu Guinness bags. You can also buy everything you want from QVC on their excellent website. From beauty products, home decor and fashion: QVC has it all.

 

Atomic Floyd AirJax In Ear Acoustics Review

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Atomic-Floyd-Airjax-reviewAirJax are made especially for iPhone, iPad and iPod. They can also be used on non-Apple products Skype and Blackberry. They offer amazing audio quality and style. Unbelievable style, they are the Naomi Campbell of in-ear acoustics. Just beautiful.

Just to up the style quote they come with a black leather case which is red suede inside and opens when you apply pressure. They are ‘hand-crafted in metal’, this metal includes acoustic steel, an ultra thin metal, titanium and 24k gold. They are high quality as you would expect, well made and just sigh-worthy.

They come with a microphone and have a button for answering calls. The earphones have removable metal hooks which turns them into fitness earphones, very handy and you do not even notice them as they are so comfortable. The earhooks also come with black sleeves, a flight adapter and mini jack.

Now to the audio: it is just perfect. Everything works in harmony and every genre of music sounds magnificent. The rich, creamy bass is first class. These gorgeous and pretty much perfect earphones, their only negative for some people is that they are not compatible on a PC or ordinary MP3 player, are a must if you have the extra cash for beautiful, high-quality earphones with impeccable sound. Amazing.

Atomic Floyd AirJax Stereo Headset with Remote can be bought here

Idea To iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad

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Idea To iPhone- The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPadApps are big business and the media is full of stories of app millionaires. The internet has made becoming rich easier than ever, or has it? How easy is it to make an app? Or more importantly, how easy is it to sell it?

17-year-old Nick D’Aloisio hit the headlines by selling his app, Summly, to Yahoo for an estimated £18m, making him a tech superstar. But what about the rest of us who are not teenage whiz kids? I reviewed new book, Idea to iPhone to find out. Read on….

Idea to iPhone: The Essential Guide To Creating Your First App For iPhone and iPad by Carla White talks you through building an app from idea to iPhone, iPad, iPad mini or iPod Touch. Chapter 1 kicks off with your app adventure. It lists the excuses you may have not to make an app and dismantles them. I immediately liked this book when I was flicking through it for the first time. It is 294 pages of hard to find knowledge that you would not get anywhere else. Well, maybe if you trawled the internet for days, but even then I am not sure.

The graphs and pictures are great. The book is easy to understand anyway, but they add to the information getting into your brain. I learned that making an app is not as hard as you think and nor is it as expensive.

The other great information in this book is on Apple. How to grab their attention and how to work with them. Carla goes through everything you need to know about working with Apple and how iTunes can help or hurt sales. For instance, did you know that Apple take a 30% cut? They also pay you once a month after a four-week delay. There is also a step-by-step guide on becoming an Apple developer. Each chapter ends with a handy table of key points.

Chapter 2 is Shaping Ideas into Apps People Want. An essential chapter as there is no point in making apps that no one wants. This brilliant chapter lets you know how to find your audience. It also tells you how to integrate your app with Facebook and which device will be right for you.

Another thing I liked about the book is the quotes doted throughout. Perfect for inspiration.

Teaching you about finding an audience and building an app is one thing but marketing is also paramount. This book also covers that. You don’t need to hire an expensive PR company (at least not at first) you just need some hard work and imagination. There is also a checklist on building a press kit and information on how people scan iTunes. Essential for marketing your app.

It also has tips on finding a great designer, or designing yourself. And also a lot of information on finding and working with a developer. Tech tips on Xcode are also incredibly useful.

Further tips on making a profit, keeping track of money and getting the press interested make this book essential for anyone who wants to create their own app and become successful.

Idea to IPhone: The Essential Guide to Creating Your First App for the IPhone and IPad

 

‘APPY VALENTINE’S DAY

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The Poetry App hits 100k downloads as Brits burst with love for romantic poems to recite on Valentine’s Day

 

Tech-loving Casanovas are searching for romance in the lines of poetry, with help from The Poetry App, to woo their loved ones this Valentine’s Day. The app has been receiving 900 downloads a day in the run up to February 14.

 

With February 14 a few hours away lines from W.H. Auden’s O Tell Me The Truth About Love, are proving the most popular with the app’s 100,000 users.

 

Great delivery really gets to the heart of poetry and tongue tied romantics can hear Auden’s famous poem read aloud on the app by actors Ralph Fiennes and Julian Glover.

 

Other popular romantic love lines on the app include ‘What is all this sweet work worth, If thou kiss me not?’ from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy and ‘All that’s best of dark and bright, Meet in her aspect and her eyes’ from Lord Byron’s She Walks in Beauty. Along with a host of others, Brits can be sure to make sure ‘love’ is the word on everyone’s lips.

 

Actor Dan Stevens, who reads work by Kipling on the app, said: “I cannot think of a better way to fall in love with the majesty of poetry.”

 

Users can compile their favourite poems into an online anthology to fill their digital bookcase. If they’re suffering from writer’s block, the app allows users to take inspiration from the great poets via collections of words which feature in their poetic masterpieces.

 

The Poetry App, created by The Josephine Hart Poetry Foundation, includes a collection of 115 poems from 16 well-known poets from Keats and Shelley, to Plath and Larkin read on the app by over 30 great British actors and actresses including Bafta winner Dominic West of The Wire and The Hour, Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens, Silent Witness’ Emilia Fox and Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons.

 

Users can read, listen and even write their own poetry on the app.  The app is available now for free download on Android, iPad and iPhone devices and features in the Top 40 book category on the iTunes App store.

 

Pixengo: New iPhone App helps people with their Christmas trimmings

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Last year people spent nearly 1.4 billion pounds on greetings cards, more than was spent on tea and coffee put together! But with many families looking to slash festive costs this Christmas, tis the season to be thrifty.

Now you don’t have to spend a fortune posting Christmas cards. Pixengo, an innovative new App for the iPhone available to download from iTunes, is FREE and allows you to add thoughts and emotions to still images by fusing them with 30 second sound bites.

Record a festive message, whisper sweet nothings to a partner or even sing a Christmas carol if you are brave. Let your photos do the talking!

Pixengo means you can send personalised Christmas greetings to friends, family and loved ones. Capture a photo using the App or select an existing one from your camera roll – perhaps one of you, your family or even a pet! If you want to enhance the image Pixengo comes complete with special creative tools and filters.

Add a recording and share via your Pixengo stream, email, Facebook or Twitter publicly or just with your nearest and dearest. If you mess up you can rerecord, simple.
Lucky recipients see the photo, click on a play button to listen to the sound clip and have the option to like or comment. You can view ‘Pixengos’ in a web browser on your mobile or a computer; you do not need the App.

Pixengo saves you time and hassle as well as money by allowing you to send Christmas greetings on the go from your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, and to multiple recipients if you wish – all at the touch of a button! This means you can spend more precious time with those closest to you.

Personalised Pixengo greetings are perfect for any celebration or special day, not just Christmas. You can send birthdays wishes, congratulate someone on getting married or having a baby, and wish people luck in a new job.

Check out our example Christmas greeting Pixengo by visiting http://new.pixengo.com/p/18CYJ74

Top Apple Products For Christmas

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No 1: iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 is slick and beautiful. Slimmer and faster than it’s predecessor. When it came out people queued around the block, and no wonder, it has a bigger 4 inch retina screen, faster wireless and a powerful A6 chip. In fact Time Magazine named it the best gadget of the year.  It is twice as fast as the old iPhone, and twice as beautiful. It is the best smartphone on the market by a significant margin. Get it at the Carphone Warehouse.

No 2: iPad

I love my iPad. In fact, I am writing this blog post on my iPad. It is intuitive and knows what I want before I even know. Everyone I know who has gotten an iPad has no idea how they lived without it.

 

 

No 3: iPad Mini

Like an iPad but smaller and more portable. If you want to join in the iPad fun but want something a bit cheaper and smaller, this is for you.

No 4: iMac

If you need a new computer, Apple’s new iMac is just perfect technology. This is Apple’s most advanced desktop ever, and it is incredibly thin, 5mm at the edge. It is 75% less reflection than the last model. I even saw a picture of someone in Starbucks with an iMac. Funny, but it also lets you know how light it is.

No 5: iPod Nano or Touch.

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I usually have an iPod shuffle, but I lost mine (sob) and got an iPod Nano for my Christmas. While my brother has an iPod Touch. The iPod Nano also has an FM radio, a new design, and is smaller than a credit card. It also has a pedometer built in and the Bluetooth lets you connect to the headphones and the heart monitor. Sigh.

Sponsored Post

 

Microsoft Surface Tablet First Opinions – Could the Surface Flop Badly?

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So the first opinions are in on the new Microsoft Surface Tablet and the verdict isn’t great. Sam Biddle from Gizmodo gave his view on Bloomberg TV and he was pretty critical calling it ‘a real let down’.

According to Biddle the device was a complete flop as a computer replacement. The keyboard was a real struggle to type on and the track pad was unresponsive and didn’t ‘cut it’.

However he said the design was great. The engineering on the keyboard was phenomenal and it snaps beautifully into place. The kick stand was also a great addition.

Biddle thought the Surface worked better as a tablet but was not a challenger to the high end. Overall he seemed very disappointed.

Bloomberg’s Rich Jaroslovsky was more positive. One bright point is that the keyboard which Biddle disliked so much can be replaced with one with real keys (although this is more expensive at $130). Jaroslovsky found this easier than typing on glass. This might solve many of issues Biddle had.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment with the Surface is the confusion over Windows 8. The Surface only runs Window RT, a variant of Windows 8. It doesn’t run software for earlier versions of Windows. I thought the whole point of Windows 8 was to have one seamless operating system across all devices. But now they seem different anyway. Moreover Jaroslovsky saw the potential for a lot of confusion between tablet and desktop mode on the tablet. For example there are two different versions of internet explorer.

The tablet side of the Surface is not as intuitive as similar rival devices and takes getting used to. The space also gets eaten up very quickly by the windows operating system and built in apps. So it doesn’t seem as good as a laptop or a tablet.

The price is also very disappointing The Surface starts at $499 the same as the latest iPad. But at this price the Surface doesn’t even come with the keyboard cover which turns it into a laptop so it’s largely irrelevant as this is pretty much a necessity. For that it’s $100 more. At such a high price it’s difficult to see the Surface making big inroads with so many other great cheaper alternatives. Neverthless as Jaroslovsky says Microsoft get points for being bold, and the $499 version of the Surface has already sold out. The jury is still out for the moment but the first opinions suggest this product is in danger of being a flop.

Apple iPad 3 and iPad 4 Anger Latest – Exclusive – Apples Major Blunder and What You Need to Do to Upgrade

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As you probably know, along with launching the iPad mini yesterday, Apple also launched a major update to the iPad 3. Understandably, many people who just bought an iPad 3 are very upset that there product is immediately and unexpectedly out of date. See our full earlier article here for more.

At the moment the situation is unclear. There are reports that one Apple shop will give you a free upgrade if you bought the iPad 3 less than 30 days ago. This represents an extension to the standard 14 day return policy. However you’re still not going to be happy if you bought it 31,32 days ago etc. days ago.Today we tried to get to the bottom of the matter.

Our Findings

We bought an iPad 3 in early October (Outside the 14 day but inside the 30 day policy). We first called the Apple care centre. They told us it was a false rumour that there was a new iPad and that we were not entitled to a refund or an upgrade. This was  frustrating and irritating to say the least. However we had more success when we called the store where we’d bought the iPad from. They told us that if we returned the iPad to the store within thirty days of our purchase they would be happy to refund us.

So that’s what we did. We went into the store and explained the situation. The staff were helpful and friendly as always but initially reluctant. In fact we had to be pretty insistent (and point out that we’d already been offered a refund on the phone) before they  offered us a refund. There was no way to pre-order or upgrade we could only get a refund. The member of staff said to us, ‘We don’t really have a clear policy and we’re not sure what’s happening at the moment’. So we got our refund.

What You Need to Do

You need to call the store where you bought it and insist on an upgrade/refund. If your iPad was bought longer than 30 days ago you may struggle. I would try and call the store first, get the name of the person you spoke to and then go into the store in person. Try and not put this off as you don’t want to go over the thirty day period.

What is going on?

Apple’s management has really screwed up on this one. Apple should have predicted this before the launch and certainly should have had a clear policy in place by today. What’s obvious is that no one has any idea what’s going on and store managers seem to have been left to fend for themselves. This is a PR disaster.

Apple may be trying to ignore this and hope it goes away. In my opinion that’s a very poor strategy. They fear a mass recall of iPad 3s. Going by recent sales, 5 million iPad 3s might be eligible for a recall within the 30 day period. That’s a lot of iPads for a product which is no longer supposed to sold. It would be a big problem but Apple needs to bite the bullet on this one. At the moment a lot of people are upset and they risk doing lasting damage to the brand.

What’s clear is they didn’t plan for this. What a terrible strategy to offer us a refund and not an upgrade. We might take that money and spend it elsewhere (such is the strength of the product we won’t). There should have been a clear way to upgrade.

This incident raises serious questions about Apples strategy and its management. Where is the leadership?