Kind of Baggages

I've had a bit of an arduous day getting back from Stockholm and I still have a TON of things to post about but this post about this particular LCF graduate has been due since the MA show last week when her out-of-control luggage caught my eye. Nay, "caught" is an incorrect word. They very elegantly swayed and glided into my path of vision. I wanted to wait until the other half did a very indepth interview with LCF MA Fashion Artefact grad Sarah Williams who has fused her love of impeccable craftsmanship with pushing the boundaries of conventional luggage. I don't think I've ever seen such a literal collision between the new-gen and respect for old techniques. I'll leave her to explain her thought processes and intentions but suffice to say, she's keen on setting up her own design label which means I'm going to start saving up the pennies for the ultimate vanity case and portable trunk complete with overly-specifically shaped pockets for storing all of my odd-shaped accessories.

The cases and the work of other LCF MA Fashion Artefacts and Footwear grads are on exhibition until tomorrow at the Mall Galleries if you want to double check that these shapes are....and I can't quite believe I'm ending a post on this... fo' real!

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Buying a Nexus One in the UK: The Guide

So, you’ve seen our guide to Google’s Nexus One and its spec and you want a piece of the action. If you’re in the UK and fancy getting your hands on a Nexus One, you’re in luck.

The UK is one of only three places outside the USA that Google will ship a handset to (the others being Singapore and Hong Kong).

Ready to take the plunge at importing a phone from the US? Here’s our guide to what to expect…

SIM-free only… for now

At present you can only buy the Nexus One SIM-free in the UK. A subsidised version with a Vodafone contract will be available “soon”. Precisely how soon we don’t know but Vodafone is saying early Spring. So, for know you’re going to have to get your head around the idea of paying 529 USD for the phone. It’s actually a bit more than that all-in, but we’ll get to that shortly.

Is it worth the hassle and up-front expense?

Whether you think a smartphone is worth a total cost of £450 (see below) is up to you. Buying a phone up front and then using a SIM-only deal can actually work out cheaper than buying a subsidised handset and signing up for an 18-month or two year contract.

T-Mobile, for example, offers a ‘Solo 20‘ plan with 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £20 per month. There’s only a 30 day commitment too; you’re not signed up to a length contract so you can change at any time if you wish. If you’re out of contract with your current network you’ll be able to port you number over to one of these plans by asking them for your PAC code.

Even when you compare the Nexus One to other unlocked phones, it’s no more expensive. It’s £50 cheaper than the highly regarded Nokia N900, while a pay-as-you-go iPhone costs nearly £100 more.

So, if you want to take the plunge here’s how it works…

The order process

Ordering your Nexus One is simple. You simply head along to google.com/phone, click ‘Get Your Phone’ and you’re away. After selecting the ‘Nexus One Phone’ option you get the option to engrave your phone with a message if you choose.. Then you’re on to the (potentially) troublesome bit: paying for it.

Paying for the phone

The upfront cost is 529 USD plus $29.64 for international shipping and an optional $20 for a mains adapter. If you’re planning to charge your Nexus One only by connecting it up to a computer via USB you won’t need this, but it’s worth getting as you never know when or where you might need to charge your phone.

You’ll be billed in dollars and your bank/credit card provider will convert the payment into Pounds Sterling at the exchange rate they’re using (which may be a little less favourable than the rate quoted by sites like xe.com). I got charged £361 by my bank in total (including the optional mains adapter).

Delays possible

When I ordered my Nexus One there was a two day delay between submitting my order and getting shipping confirmation. However, once it’s ordered you’ll be able to track its journey from a depot somewhere in the USA to your door using DHL’s excellent tracking service.

Additional costs on delivery

Bear in mind that when you receive your phone you will be expected to pay 17.5% VAT and 6.5% import duty. This applies to any goods purchased from abroad. If you’re lucky your phone will slip past HM Revenue & Customs without charge but don’t count on it. The courier (DHL) will require you to pay this sum (which amounts to just under £100 in this case). This takes the overall cost to roughly £450 at current rates. From reports we’re getting, buyers are not being asked to pay these additional costs on delivery. Instead you are likely to receive an invoice through the post at a later date, so keep an eye out in the mail.

Potential pitfalls

Google Checkout appears to be a bit temperamental when it comes to payment. It wouldn’t accept my credit card at all and I kept receiving an ‘Order Failed’ message. Upon switching to my debit card I had more luck. However, I don’t make a habit of spending that much money in one go so my bank suspected fraud and blocked the payment.

Google alerted me to the problem with an email. A quick call to the bank later (explaining that it was a legitimate purchase) and I was back on track. If this happens to you, make sure you follow the instructions in the email Google sends you – don’t just start a new order.

How long will the Nexus One take to arrive?

As yet, we don’t know. Google doesn’t quote international delivery times but you’ll be able to track the progress of your order through the website. We’ll update this post with more information when we get it. UPDATE: Ours took one week to arrive. It sat in the DHL depot for a whole weekend and only started moving after we sent an email to DHL asking what was happening. Hopefully you won’t need to do this!

by Martin Bryant
January 6, 2010
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Get Ready For The Google Branded Chrome OS Netbook

Most of the tech world now considers it a given that Google will be selling its own unlocked phone, called the Nexus One, to customers directly early in 2010. A few stragglers are still debating the finer points of the difference between Google working with handset manufacturers and carriers on a good Android experience v. them dictating the hardware specs and selling it directly to users. While they work that out for themselves we’re off to the next story – the Google Chrome OS Netbook (although we think Google has a few surprises left around the Nexus One, too).

Google has said from the beginning that they plan on working with select manufacturers to ensure a good Chrome OS experience for users when devices first hit the market next year. From an early FAQ: “The Google Chrome OS team is currently working with a number of technology companies to design and build devices that deliver an extraordinary end user experience. Among others, these companies include Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.”

Most people assume that “working with” around Chrome OS means the same thing as “working with” around Android – lots of meetings to make sure the devices and software work together as well as possible. But sometimes those pesky hardware guys just don’t do things quite right. And when you’re competing against Apple, everything most definitely needs to be quite right.

That may explain why Google has, according to multiple sources, been talking to at least one hardware manufacturer about building a netbook for Google directly. As in Google gave the company a RFP with quite detailed technical specifications and has begun discussions on building it.

They’re not in any particular hurry and seem to be aiming for the 2010 holiday season, a full year from now. Our understanding is that Google intends to have the devices built, branded with Google, and then sell them directly to consumers. The only firm tech spec we’ve heard is that they’ll be mobile enabled, and likely tied to one or more carriers with a subsidy.

I’m dying to get my hands on that RFP and have been feverishly calling our contacts in Taiwan and China to see if we can get someone to quietly hand it over to us. In particular I want to know whether Google is going with an Intel Atom processor, the current leader in netbooks, or may be considering an ARM CPU. I’d be willing to bet one of our writers’ right hands that it’s ARM. And I’d even go out on a limb and suggest that they may very well be targeting Nvidia’s Tegra line. Those chips are outperforming Atom in every way, say some of the hardware guys we know. HD Flash video no problem (something the Atom can’t do), and at a fraction of the power usage.

What does that mean? It means next Christmas you may be getting a high performance Google branded netbook running Chrome OS for next to nothing. And if it’s running ARM, Intel is going to be freaking the hell out about it.

As an aside, if you need a netbook now, I’d recommend the Nokia Booklet 3G. It’s amazing, and you can get it for $300 with a 2 year AT&T data plan. Nokia may not be able to make phones anyone gets excited about any more, but that netbook is cool.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

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The Best Times to Buy Anything, All Year Round [Buying Guide]

You're always hearing about off-season, post-peak times to save money on purchases and food, but it always arrives too late. We've compiled a timeline and lots of best-time-to-buy suggestions into one post to help you plan a more frugal 2010.

We scoured the net for advice from financial sites, gadget bloggers, and other sources on the best times to buy particular items, ranging from little goods you can stock up on (aluminum foil) to big-time purchases you can easily overpay for in the wrong season (boats). We threw together all these tips, organized them by time frame, and, through the keen eye of one Jason Fitzpatrick, assembled a timeline of some of the major items to keep in mind throughout the year.

Click on the image below for a larger version, and right-click it and save it to grab the 1200-pixel-wide version for safekeeping.

Want the specifics? Here's the data dump from our little research experiment. The reasons for these items being suggested in their particular months varies, but generally they're pinned to getting a better deal when sales are slow, when new products are just about to roll out, or when every single retailer is selling at a discount. If you're interested in the source articles for this compendium, we've listed them near the end of this (already long) post.

Winter

Jan. 1 - March 31

Spring

April 1 - June 30

Summer

July 1 - Oct. 1

Fall

Oct. 1 - Jan. 31

Buying and Saving Good Food

When's the best time to buy food? That all depends on where you live.

Honestly, we would have loved to assemble an all-in-one chart and help you buy peaches in vast quantities, then dine on the canned and frozen rewards all year long. But while pretty much everything is available and fresh all the time at, say, the Lifehacker West office, those of us who can see snow outside are in the thick of basement potato season, with grocery stores stocked full of goods trucked or flown in.

That doesn't mean you can't benefit from smart shopping and preservation, however. Here are some great resources that will get you informed about what's good and fresh when you buy it, and how to keep it edible throughout the whole year.

Find fresh food

• Epicurious' Peak-Season Map: (Pictured above) Click a month, click on your state, and see what's growing good, plus grab a few recipes for those ingredients.
• Seasonal Chef: Geared toward farmers markets, but valid information on coast-to-coast food availability.
• Sustainable Table: Pulls information from the National Resource Defense Council on foods you can feel good about buying, and when to buy them.

Store your food
The basics on freezing fruits, vegetables, and meat come direct from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA's page on freezing and food safety gives the skinny on freezing vegetables:

... Most vegetables that freeze well are low acid and require a brief, partial cooking to prevent deterioration. This is called 'blanching.' For successful freezing, blanch or partially cook vegetables in boiling water or in a microwave oven. Then rapidly chill the vegetables prior to freezing and storage. Consult a cookbook for timing.

Helpful, but not super-specific. Food blog The Kitchn offers lists of items you can buy in bulk, and our archives offer up a few hints on getting the most from frozen food:

• Getting Started With Canning, aka Home Food Preservation
• Freezer Jam: A Baby Step To Canning (Original post)
• 10 Simple Freezer Tricks to Save You Time and Money

What about meats, both raw and cooked? Here's how the USDA breaks down freezer life at o degrees Fahrenheit:

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ThingsYouSawInAMovie Helps You Find Products Used in Movies [Movies]

If you've ever seen something in a movie that you wanted for yourself, ThingsYouSawInAMovie can help. Want the shoes a character was wearing? The car they were driving? ThingsYouSawInAMovie catalogs products used in films.

The editors at ThingsYouSawInAMovie pore over movies and search out the products seen in them. You can search by movie or simply browse the titles. Each movie has the identified items listed and when available a link to the item—the famous red dress in Resident Evil is identified, for example, but not linked to because it is no longer produced.

One notable oversight is the exclusion of user-submitted items, it seems like a ripe topic for heavy user participation. Hopefully they intend to include crowdsourced movie product identification in future versions.

Have a cool service for getting more out of your movie-watching experience? Let's hear about it in the comments.

[ Via ThingsYouSawInAMovie ]

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