Category Archives: Business

Gadgets Priced the Same in Pounds and Dollars

Business, Computers & Electronics, ,

So recently we have been comparing the prices of some gadgets in pounds and dollars and there seems to be a great discrepancy for some reason. So why are a lot of gadgets priced the same in pounds as they are in dollars? (if not more).

One particular item in question is the new cheap Kindle. In Amazon in the US you can get hold of this Kindle for $79 yes in the UK you have to pay £89. Why is this? If you use the current exchange rate of pounds to dollars  of around 1.6 dollars being equivalent to a pound then £89 equates to $142 – which means that the price is 80% higher than in the States – which is pretty ridiculous.

            

If anyone has any input about why the prices of gadgets and technology in the UK are so much higher than in the US then please leave your comments below as we would be interested to hear.

This is just one example but if you look at other gadgets then they also seem to have a similar pricing structure so why are people int he UK suffering with higher prices?

Driving Directions – Mapquest

Business, Internet, ,

Gone are the days of having a mapbook in the back seat pocket of your car and getting it out whenever you needed to find directions to where you were going. Also gone are the days of stopping and asking for driving directions as it seems that these days there are much better ways to find a map for your route.

Not only do a lot of cars now have satnav installed where you can just program in your destination and be guided there by a softly spoken voice, but also now, if you don’t have satnav then you can just look up the route in advance on a website like Google maps or mapquest.

If you need driving directions, particularly to anywhere in the US, then all you have to do is type in your start and end points on mapquest or Google maps and it will tell you the route instantly. However, the problem for mapquest is that with Google being the biggest search engine, Google maps is also getting the most use for driving directions. Even more so when Google started putting a map thumbnail using Google maps into relevant searches.

Although Mapquest have been around since before Google even existed, coming up against a giant like this is always going to be a tricky situation. Mapquest are now venturing into the Android market, going head to head with Google maps.

It would be good to find that small players with good products could still compete with the likes of Google but the next few years could be the crunch point for Mapquest.

Converting Fahrenheit to Celsius

General,

It seems that people either think in Fahrenheit or Celsius and are often unable to really ‘feel’ what a temperature is unless they have it in the units that they are used to. That is often the case with weather temperatures anyway.

But not only do we have different measurements for weather in Celsius and Fahrenheit but also when cooking, some ovens use one and some use another temperature. Often it differs from country to country but in some places you can buy ovens that read either celsius or Fahrenheit.

Anyway, to convert from one to the other manually you do the following:

Celsius to Fahrenheit
multiply by 8 and divide by 5 then add 32

Fahrenheit to Celsius
Take off 32 then multiply by 5 and divide by 8

These are not totally accurate figures but this is the easiest way to remember it if you need to get an approximate number and you don’t have google to hand! The easiest way is to just type in Google the conversion that you want like ’28 celsius to fahrenheit’ and it will tell you the answer.

 

UPS Tracking and USPS Tracking

Business, ,

Both UPS and the USPS offer tracking of packages and parcels. In fact the truth is the UPS tracking comes as standard and at any time in the process you know exactly where your parcel is and when it will get to you or the person you are sending it to. I think we really take this tracking for granted as really it was only a decade or so ago when there wasn’t really any tracking that we couold see at the touch of a button.

Each parcel is given a barcode from the moment it is collected by the UPS driver and this is scanned in whenever the parcel goes from one location to the next. So you can see when your parcel gets to the depot and when it goes out in the delivery van. If you are expecting a parcel then with UPS tracking you can tell when it is on its way to you.

USPS tracking however, does not have such a good reputation with tales of tracking not working and systems not giving the right information. The USPS Tracking has its own tracking service called the Confirm service which gives customers access to processing data for both outgoing and incoming parcels and other types of mail. However, customers need to register for this kind of data and it is more geared to businesses than to individuals.

Blank Calendar – Build Your Own

Business, ,

If you are looking for a blank calendar that you can use for any year or any month then you can certainly build your own calendar using some software that you might already have installed.

You can find blank calendars for 2011 or 2012 in Microsoft Excel and in Microsoft Word and more than likely many other packages that you already have installed on your computer. if you are using Microsoft Word then open the package and click on New, then select document type Calendar. You will then have a selection of which type of calendar you wish to create including the 2011 calendar and more than likely soon the option of the 2012 calendar will come up. In any case, if you want to choose another year for your calendar  you can select these in the other calendar options.

The templates that are available for blank calenders are variable and you can choose from many different images for your calendar or styles depending on what type of data you want to enter for each day and how much space you might need for each entry.

So it is easy to customize and print your own 2011 calendar, 2012 calendar or indeed a blank calendar that is suitable for any year.