Phones on the tenth day of Christmas

WHY do they call it them cell phones when prisoners are not allowed to have them?

And with that rather cute joke, I wish to inform you on the tenth day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me a cell phone,

Amazon has a stack of new and used Smart Phones with and without contracts

I HAVE only sporadically owned cell phones which I usually leave in a drawer somewhere until the Sim card runs out.

       As a veteran journalist I have never urgently needed a cell and, fingers crossed, as a daily motorist I have never been stranded and cursing for not having one.

       I know there are people reading this in horror, shivering at the thought of surviving, one day, one hour, one minute without a cell.

     

Vaughn is phoneless

I WISH I could offer the explanation of actor Shailene Woodley for not having a cell that it erodes personal interaction.

       But I am more in tune with actor Vince Vaughn who says a cell makes him more contactable and he values his privacy.

       Billionaire Warren Buffett only uses a rudimentary cell so a smart phone cannot be that essential for business people.

       When My Truelove sends me a cell, I wonder what live expectancy it has. I do like reading about cell phones without the hassles of owning one. And I like the idea of smart phones though I wish 100 people would refrain from raising them in the air at the same time at a wedding. It looks weird, you know, but I am not going to carry on about it. Weird, it looks weird, but no more on the subject.

This LG Smart Phone has more than 1300 reviews

AMAZON has so many new and used smart phones, with and without contracts, that it would make your head spin. I can imagine a smart-phone tragic spending a weekend pondering the photos, specs and reviews.

This Samsung has more than 300 reviews and is $100 off

AMAZON also has $100 off the Samsung Galaxy Star Pro DUOS S7262. It is in stock on December 16 and you can order now at $89.99 USD.

UPMARKET
WE could move severely upmarket to the Gold Apple iPhone 6S. As Amazon has shaved hundreds of dollars off the price, it comes in well less than an ounce of gold but still at $822 not within a lot of people’s price range.

The  Apple iPhone 6S has more than 190 reviews

THE less expensive iP6 (I made up that contraction in case it is incorrect) is more than $100 cheaper

The Apple iPhone 6 has only three left in stock

ONLY a couple are left in stock of the Apple iPhone 6 at $679. I have no idea what happens when they run out of stock.

Sony's Smart Watch has 660 reviews

THE Sony Smart Watch SW2 for Android Phones is reduced by $120. I presume when you look at the time on a Smart Watch, it says: “Don’t you even think about going to the pub after work. You and your partner are going to the theatre tonight and you better arrive home sober.”

I AM a big fan of inverse snobbery so I applaud you if you refuse to buy a big-brand smart phone.

       Below are a couple of phones one with lots of positive reviews and one unreviewed.

       

Blu Energy X Plus has more than 330 reviews

Check out the Indigi Smart Phone

THE Indigi 7" Android 4.4 Mega 3G has no reviews and sells for $99.19. Amazon has only 20 left in stock so someone’s buying them, why don’t they write a review. This one ships to Australia.

NOT IN US?  

A LOT of these smart-phone specials are not shipped into Australia so we miss out but at least we can investigate on Amazon and check prices or shipping elsewhere. Amazon are also helpful with alternatives for instance for the Sony Smart Watch Amazon advises: “This item does not ship to Lawnton, Australia. Please check other sellers who may ship internationally. Ships from and sold by CalvinNHobbs. Who is Calvin N. Hobbs? Merry Christmas Calvin N Hobbs, whoever you are.

 Our song:

A Bitcoin on the ninth day of Christmas

On the ninth day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me a Bitcoin

Bitcoin only exists digitally so these are  representations. Find out more at exmo.com

IT was heartening this festive season to see a fellow Aussie being credited with creating the Bitcoin.

       As you may know the Bitcoin is a digital currency often called a cryptocurrency for reasons known to people who know such things.

       I have read a fair bit about Bitcoin, enough to know it is a legit investment though of a risky nature.

       I am not going to go deeply into the technical side of Bitcoin because I would be out of my depth. I am quite happy to be confused but loathe to spread confusion. If you want to buy one or more Bitcoins at their current price of >$400 USD – why $400 USD is not a redundancy I will never figure out – you should go to a reliable currency exchange such as

exmo.com 

       I had a look at the Bitcoin exchanges and

exmo.com 

seemed as good as any and better than most. Check the exchanges  out for yourself to see what you think.

Is Satoshi Nakamoto really Keyser Söze or Aussie Soandso?

Is this Satoshi Nakamoto?

A JAPANESE man Satoshi Nakamoto said he had invented the digital money Bitcoin in 2008. No one believed he was Japanese as his English was real good (grammatical joke there).

      The word was that Nakamoto was an English-speaking genius or a pseudonym for a group of techies.

       A week ago both Wired and Gizmodo magazines outed Australian Craig Steven Wright as the inventor of Bitcoin.

BITCOIN AUSSIE INGENUITY?

AN Australian invented the aircraft black box and another Aussie created the first sophisticated rotary motor mower, the Victa. The Bitcoin would be a handy addition to our national resume.

       Mere hours after the outings of Craig Steven Wright by Wired and Gizmodo  about a dozen police raided Wright's New South Wales home and more raided his business premises.

       The coppers said the raids were prompted by tax matters and had nothing to do with Bitcoins. No one believed them which means we must be getting quite cynical about authorities. Personally I do not believe Australian police could organize so quickly but an already planned raid could have been expedited.

Don't want to buy a Bitcoin from this bloke? Try an Exchange.

BITCOIN PROOF?

WIRED magazine says it contacted Wright and received a response from an IP address previously associated with emails sent by Nakamoto. Wired claimed that Wright mortgaged three properties and invested more than $US1m in computers, power and connectivity to launch the cryptocurrency.

       Do I believe Wright is Nakamoto? My gut feeling says no though I can’t wait for the movie which proves me wrong. Previous positive identifications of Nakamoto have come to nothing.

ALL this intrigue can do little to harm the price of Bitcoins which fluctuates significantly. As the above chart shows Bitcoins are at their highest price for 12 months but they were three times as high in 2014. If you are an investor, it’s up to you to decide if Bitcoin will soar higher. If you want to buy a Bitcoin or three for fun, Christmas time is as good as any.

       Below is a list of exchanges. As always when buying something do your homework and ensure the final decision is yours.

Bitcoin currency exchanges

BitcoinX 

Bitnovo

Coinizy

Digital Securities Exchange

DigaTrade

Exmo

Here is our song (Don't worry, the fuzzy picture is intended, I think)

She sent me an action camera on the 8th day of Xmas

On the eighth day of Christmas day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me a

Go Pro Hero 4 Choose from 1100 reviews

THE history of the GoPro camera is one of those young –entrepreneur-makes-good yarns but it is also a tale of giving the punters what they want.

It is why you can get away with calling a camera HERO with only a smidgen of irony.

Around the turn of the noughties, young American Nick Woodman went on a surf trip to my country of Australia. He wanted to take quality action shots of his surfing, but no cameras of reasonable quality and price were on the market. In 2002, he decided to make his own.

I won’t lie to you, Woodman’s parents did invest 200 grand in his enterprise but he raised the rest of his capital selling trinkets from the back of his surf van.

GEN ONE

In 2004, Woodman sold his first camera system, which used 35mm film but the breakthrough came with digital still and video camera. 

The 1st-gen digital HERO went on sale in 2006.

By  2015 he was selling a fixed-lens HD video camera with a wide 170-degree angle and  two or more could be paired to create 360-degree video. Now that’s a action-camera set-up.

One thing about the GoPro is it has always been relatively inexpensive. It is not throwaway drugstore camera cheap but it is Hollywood movie camera inexpensive. That’s why they run the GoPro Movie Creator Challenge for users to show what can do with it. The GoPro channel is among the top YouTube channels based on views and interactivity.

HERO4

HERO4: there are 430 answered questions.

This year GoPro produced the HERO4, available in Black Edition and Silver Edition. The digital HERO 4. It is the first GoPro HERO camera to use a 170° angle of view, ultra-wide lens. The video modes supported by the HERO4 Silver Edition supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

ACCESSORIES

Check out the Go-Pro accessories

GoPro Studio is an  editing suite

Accessories kits are available and there is an editing suite.

BOOK

A GoPro user manual

If you are going serious about the GoPro you might want to add a good book on using the GoPro to your backpack.

THE COMPETITION

Competitor Ricoh has 38 reviews

 

Drift Innovation HD Ghost has 98 reviews

Before you go laying out serious dough on a GoPro you probably want to check out the competition and read the reviews. Below is a list of GoPro competitors:

·         Sony HDR-AS10, HDR-AS15 and HDR-AS30V.

·         Garmin VIRB

·         DRIFT Ghost-S

·         Xiaomi's YiCamera 

·         Panasonic HX-A500E

·         Toshiba Camileo X-Sports

·         Polaroid Cube 

·         Ricoh WG-M1

·         TomTom Bandit

Please check out a cross section of reviews and alternative products before you buy.

Today’s song is from a movie based on a Broadway musical in turn based on a play titled 

I am a Camera

7th day of Xmas My Truelove sent me an new old album or 3

On the seventh day of Christmas day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me an old album or three from Them, Eva Cassidy and Rush.

THEM boys go all right

Nostalgia never gets old as the spate of new-release veteran albums this Christmas testifies.

With impeccable taste, My Truelove sent me three veterans because she knows how much I love live music. So I have the likes of Them which gave me a Rush and I cannot find a bad pun for Eva Cassidy.

An album or two from Them

Them was a band formed in Belfast Northern Island in 1964 and featured lead singer Van Morrison. The original five member band consisted of Van Morrison, Alan Henderson, Ronnie Millings, Billy Harrison and Eric Wrixon.

Them scored two UK hits in 1965 with "Baby, Please Don't Go" (UK No.10) and "Here Comes the Night" (UK No.2; Ireland No.2).

Morrison quit the band in 1966 and went on to a successful career as a solo artist. Them are sometimes credited as having influenced the Doors

 The Complete Them 1964-1967 is a 3-disc anthology, of early studio and live performances. It includes all material recorded for the first two albums, the well-named The Angry Young Them (1965) and Them Again (1966)/ It also has singles, demos, live sessions, alternate takes and a 16-page booklet featuring an insightful new commentary on Them provided by Van Morrison.

Eva from Everywhere

This live album has 31 songs

EVA Cassidy was a US performer of blues, jazz, folk, gospel, soul, pop, everything. News of 

her talents never spread beyond Washington DC until after her untimely death from melanoma in 1996.

Nightbird contains 31 songs reportedly recorded in one night at the Washington Blues Alley jazz club on January 3, 1996, the same year she died.

Eva Cassidy performed classics over two nights at the Blues Alley. A sound stuff up happened on night one and an album Live at Blues was released back in the day.

The album contained 13 songs, way short of the 31 on Nightbird

An early rush for an album

Rush back to 1974

Guitarist Alex Lifeson, bassist Geddy Lee and drummer Neil Peart have received a stack of music awards from their peers for their skill playing their instruments.

       This bootleg album contains kinda life performances before a handful of people at the Electric Ladyland New York in 1974.

       Read the exchanges by the one reviewer and two commenters on Amazon.

      The comments claim this is a bootleg of dubious quality and the band will not get any royalties. Let’s have a little perspective here. Rush has been playing music for more than 40 years and they hardly need the royalties. As for accepting inferior quality, that is a choice of the buyer I am willing to accept this album contains the song Anthem, a tribute to the evil philosopher Ayn Rand, a far greater crime than a little harmless copyright larceny.

       

Posse album

Another live album which is not my cuppa but maybe yours is a 20-year re-run of an Insane Clown Posse album.

20 years ... Where did the time go?

Here is our song: The sound quality is not insanely good but Eva;s voice is

Free film noir on the sixth day of Christams

On the sixth day of Christmas day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me

A FREE FILM NOIR.

The 1946 movie The Stranger is rarely mentioned among the great films noir and remains one of the most under-rated works of the genre.

On the fifth day of Christmas

On the fifth day of Christmas My Truelove sent to me

http://bit.ly/1ONpA5X

Twitter Marketing Software which works

AS a publisher and author, I have tried all sorts of promotions on social media and websites.

       As long as it was relatively cheap I gave it a go.

       I read a confession on  a site selling blog tours and that caused me to cut right back on my advertising and promotional.

       You can see I am starting this post with one of those personal stories so beloved by persistent internet marketers. My story is worth it because it will save you a lot of money, maybe make some and definitely increase your Twitter traffic at a relatively low cost.

Save the Book: Book ‘em on the fourth day of Christmas

Save the Book: Book ‘em on the fourth day of Christmas