Vopium a Copenhagen based tech start up works with VoIP and GSM based technology, dedicated to help friends and families to keep in touch, regardless of where they are in the world. At the moment Vopium is available in 18 countries as further expansion is planned to provide premium call quality at much reduced costs covering over 180 international destinations.

Vopium solution works independent of networks or operators and is compatible with handsets in the market across Java, RIM, Symbian, Windows Mobile and iPhone.  The reasons for Vopium’s acceptability are - it is simple, affordable and 100% mobile with support for over 500 phones. Vopium WiFi users can even make 100% free calls and avoid roaming charges when abroad. It also offers its new users 30 minutes free calls and 100 free SMS for trial..

In addition to that Vopium is the first mobile VoIP provider to offer mobile backup - a free service which allows Vopium customers to store their address book contacts and calendar securely online. Integrated with the Vopium application, Vopium Sync backs up a user’s contacts and calendar direct to their online Vopium account.  If a user loses their phone, all they need to do is log on to their Vopium account and retrieve their saved contacts and calendar items.  They can also log into their online account at any time and edit contacts and calendar items.

How to Get Vopium:

STEP 1   Register your phone
You register your phone by signing up or by sending an SMS with "Get" to +447781480717 SMS short codes

STEP 2   Download Vopium
You receive an SMS with a link to the application. You download by clicking on the link or opening it via options. The download typically takes less than a minute.      

STEP 3   Start making FREE calls.
You are now ready to try this new service. Vopium provides you with 30 FREE MINUTES to call any fixed line or mobile in the world.

Play.com are selling sim free iPhones!

http://www.play.com/Mobiles/Mobile/4-/9352150/Apple-iPhone-3G-16GB-Sim-Free-Unlocked-2-0-Megapixel-Mobile-Phone/Product.html?source=9593#

I promised I would do a video of how fast your laptop can go with a good SSD drive. Here it is…

Here are very different products that would potentially be used for the same purpose. Working on the move. I’ve had these photos sitting around for a while so I though I would pop them up here so people could see a comparison between an ASUS EEEPC and one of DELLs Ultraportable offerings. Although the specs are very different the DELL comes in at around £1000 the EEE901 was £300.

Here they are side by side…

Here they are on top of each other!

Sorry that the pictures are slightly blurry I had a dumb moment with my camera!

Took my wife to have a look at an iLiad this lunchtime at Borders in Cambridge. We saw it advertised in the window whilst sitting in Prett eating our lunch. My wife has lots and lots and lots of books and I saw this as the perfect opportunity to look at a digital alternative.

The good bits. The screen looked great, you can plug in all of the most common storage formats i.e. MMC, SD, CF, USB so good all round there it also supports PDF so I could see it being used to read all sorts of stuff. It may have done some more stuff but I kind of lost interest when I found out the price and what the battery life was like! See below…

Now the bad stuff. This is the first time I have used a ebook reader like this so I wasn’t sure what to expect- it seemed slow to me - maybe I’m impatient? The worst part is a 4 hour battery life, if you are away from a power source for a couple of days, lets say you go camping or fly to Canada from the UK you will be out of juice before you know it. The price tag isn’t exactly great either its £400! That’s like $800!!!!! Yikes! You better have some paper based books as a backup!!!!

Is there a market for a subsidised ebook reader with a monthly contract for books? Surely if these devices were lets say from FREE to £50 with a monthly contract many more book people would be snapping them up.

Also bare in mind that the sub notebook market is just about to get really competitive with lots offerings from lots of different manufacturers so there may be good alternative in there as an ebook reader / email / internet / games machine.

Verdict: we haven’t quite saved the rain forests yet!

This is what happened on a recent trip to Cwmcarn to go biking! I had recently aquired a Nokia N95 it was my first trip to Cwmcarn so I though I would try Nokia Maps out. Um I think the picture speaks for itself! If you look closly there is even a finished flag on the N95 screen.

Two weeks ago I was on my way to Centre Parcs at Whinfell forest and it took me to Ullswater (thats in the opposite direction). This was all well and nice but not with my pregant wife who needs to pee every 15 mins!