There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch….. Or Is There ? 

If I had been asked the question just under two years ago, I would probably have just laughed or muttered something about not being born yesterday.

In recounting what has happened since, I should make it clear from the outset that I am not attempting to influence or convert anyone, just giving an honest picture of what was achievable for me and the real “cost”. 

As often happens with these things, I discovered the free gift scene totally by accident.  Christmas 2006 was rapidly approaching and I was trying to get hold of a cheap Xbox 360 console to use as a media centre.   One of the first listings I came across on eBay was offering information on how to get the console totally free; I didn’t exactly have money burning a hole in my pocket and am always up for a challenge, so decided to find out if there was a catch, expecting to get an e-book on bankrupt stock or police auctions.

Instead, I was about to enter the world of affiliate (referral) marketing.   I am sure there are volumes on the subject, some of which are no doubt labelled pyramid schemes, but for those who want a bit of detail on the specific business model employed in this instance, you might want to take a look at a short video podcast put together by the BBC’s Newsnight program or maybe my own guide how to get free stuff online.

All I had to do to get my free console was sign-up to an affiliate site, take out a free DVD rental trial and refer a few friends.  How difficult could that be?

I am a regular online shopper and knew the DVD rental company LOVEFiLM (the equivalent of Blockbuster or Netflix in US and Canada) from a recent national TV campaign, so had no problems with that part of the process. To be fair, the service they provide is actually pretty good!

The harder part was getting referrals…..and I needed 12 of those (who would each have to take up their own offer) to get the Xbox 360 console. Luckily, after running out of family and friends who were either willing to believe what I was saying or just gave in to my constant nagging, I stumbled upon eXceem forums.  They have a buzzing community of like minded freebie hunters who gave me confidence that I would get me gifts and provided tips on how to achieve that.   I have since discovered similar sites such as Anything4Free.com

To the cynics’ amazement, my Xbox 360 arrived on 2^nd December 2006 along with a second generation iPod Nano that I had also earnt…and a freebie addict was born.  I would be embarrassed to say how many other gadgets, gifts and cash have passed through my hands since!

I mentioned the real “cost” in my preamble. That has not been a financial one, far from it, you can get out as much as you put in…..and there’s where the problem lies; getting referrals can start to take up every waking hour, your whole life spent thinking about, talking about and implementing new “methods”.  Well, that is, if you are not checking your accounts for new sign-ups, waiting for account verification or delivery of your free stuff.  Getting your affiliate links out there will also almost invariably require an element of spamming and I am not proud of some of the tactics I have employed along the way.  In fact,  I could devote another who article and more to “methods”, the choice of free sites out there and how to avoid getting your affiliate account cancelled (termed “put on hold”).

Fortunately, things changed for the better when I set up my first ever websites, Simplyfreeiphone and Gadgets4nowt - my background is certainly not web coding or design but I love a challenge (did I say that before!) and now have them both ranking extremely well.   I obviously have to update the content and keep working on links but overall, it’s a fairly easy ride these days.  With the evolution of the affiliate sites themselves, I no longer get my free stuff in the form of goods, most now offer custom orders in the shape of bank transfers at £17 ($35) per referral.   My sites bring me in an average of 3 completed referrals a day, so there’s good money to be had. 

All that’s left is to decide where do I go from here?  I guess I could push some new keywords and increase traffic to my sites through rankings but there is a limit to people looking for a free games console or iPods.  Can the sites be taken in another direction or should I sell them?

Microsoft has sent a letter to customers saying that it will extend critical support for Windows XP until 2014, three years longer than is usual.

The company also pledged that its next operating system, Windows 7, will be available by 2010.

In the meantime OEMs will be able to supply systems with Windows XP preloaded as a ‘downgrade’ until 31 January 2009.

Given that Microsoft usually supports operating systems for only 10 years after their launch, the move can be seen as an admission that it is expecting some businesses not to bother upgrading to Vista.

“Windows Vista is a very significant step forward, but our customers have made it clear that they want broader support for devices and applications in order to enjoy the overall experience,” says the letter from Bill Veghte, senior vice president of the Microsoft Windows Business Group.

“During the last year, we have worked diligently with our hardware and software partners to improve compatibility to remove the barriers that prevent users from taking advantage of the important advancements Windows Vista delivers. It has been a year of exciting and critical progress.”

The letter also promises that Windows 7 will be released “approximately three years after the January 2007″ release date for Vista.

Veghte acknowledges that there have been compatibility problems between Vista and peripherals manufacturers, and promised that lessons have been learned.

“You’ve also let us know you don’t want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista,” he wrote.

“As a result, our approach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7.

“Our goal is to ensure that the migration process from Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward.”

The tiniest Bluetooth adapter we’ve seen

The Mogo Dapter is one of the smallest peripherals we’ve ever reviewed – it’s a tiny device, no bigger than the end of a thumb, with a USB plug at one end. Once plugged in it gives your computer full Bluetooth capabilities.

It’s true that most notebooks now come with Bluetooth, and if you’re using a desktop, saving space isn’t such a big issue. But for those with Bluetooth-less notebooks, the Dapter is an excellent idea. Since it hardly sticks out, it won’t get yanked out easily, and can be left in when the notebook is stored or carried.

It comes with the required software on a CD, which includes a nifty graphical display of nearby Bluetooth devices, and it will work with Mac computers as well as PCs running Windows XP and Windows Vista. At £15 it’s certainly good value. If your notebook didn’t come with Bluetooth, this is about the best way to add it.

Shuttle used to be known for making what are known as barebones computers – the company would supply the case and the most basic innards, and the buyer would pick up their own cheap processor, memory and hard disk to put in it.

While it still does that, the company is now producing more and more computers with full sets of components inside.

For instance, the XPC G5 6801M includes a Blu-ray writer and an ATI Radeon HD3450 graphics card with 256MB of its own memory, among other things.

The one we looked at included an AMD Athlon X2 6000+ processor running at 3GHz, with 2GB of memory and a 500GB hard disk. That lot is immensely capable for general web browsing and for music and video playback, although some of the more recent games might run slowly if you push up the quality levels. There is also a Freeview TV tuner and wired and wireless networking, along with more expansion ports than you can shake a stick at.

One thing to note is that although it includes a Media Center remote for controlling your viewing from the sofa, it doesn’t come with a keyboard, mouse or screen. The latter isn’t too big a deal – most people buying a Blu-ray computer will already have a flat-screen with a PC input to which they can connect it, but you may need to factor a keyboard and mouse into your price calculations.

The model we reviewed comes in at around £830 (once you convert from Euros) – to examine or buy, go to the Shuttle configuration website and follow through to the 6801M’s page. From there you’ll be able to fill in your details and one of the company’s UK resellers will get back to you with a quote. Slightly odd purchase method aside, the 6801M is a capable entertainment computer, albeit one that places a price premium on its Blu-ray capabilities.

The Dinovo Mini is aimed at the media PC and Playstation 3 market

Logitech made quite a fuss over its release last year of the Dinovo Edge keyboard, saying it was the most advanced keyboard in the world. It was admittedly an impressive keyboard, so how does the new Dinovo Mini fare in comparison?

The Mini is a small keyboard that’s compatible with Bluetooth 2 devices, so it would be suitable for use with modern phones and handheld computers, although Logitech appears to be aiming it more at users of media PCs and the Playstation 3.

Also included with the keyboard is a replaceable battery and the USB adapter (handily, this can be stored inside the battery compartment when it’s not in use). If you use the dongle provided, setup is simply a case of pressing the connect buttons on the keyboard and the adapter and waiting for the green all-systems-go light to appear.

The supplied Setpoint software can adjust the sensitivity of the trackpad and configure the operation of the various shortcut keys, so it’s worth spending a bit of time here to get it behaving as you would like.

As well as the usual typing, you can switch the Dinovo Mini to a media-remote mode for music and video, lighting up the dedicated media keys to make them easier to find at a glance. There shouldn’t be much of a problem here anyway, since an ambient light sensor, which measures light levels in the room, will fire up the backlight automatically when it gets dark.

Of course keyboards, particularly mini-keyboards, are all about usability, and this is where the Dinovo Mini falls down. The keys are quite firm and require a fair amount of pressure, but the fact that they’re so close together reduces potential typing speeds considerably, at least if you don’t want to spend half your time correcting mistakes. The touch-sensitive pad is also rather small and doesn’t really offer enough space to comfortably move the pointer around.

The Dinovo Mini is easy to set up, and certainly looks stylish, but taking into account the price and its flaws as a keyboard it is more like a luxury purchase for music and video fans.

Vista compatibility: Yes

The Airport Express is not one of Apple’s best-known products but it’s a handy little gadget.

It looks like a fat mains plug and it goes directly into a mains power socket. Inside that little white plastic case is a wireless access point – the new version is updated to use the latest high-speed 802.11n wireless technology.

However, the Airport Express isn’t meant to be used for setting up a wireless network. Unlike a wireless router/modem, the Airport Express does not include a broadband modem for the internet connection, so it’s not for those who need to set up an entirely new wireless network at home or in an office – a combined modem/router would be much better for that.

In fact, the Airport Express is primarily designed to be a wireless music system to be used in conjunction with an existing network.

The key feature of the Airport Express is the audio connector on the base of the unit that allows users to connect it to a speaker or hi-fi system so that you can stream music wirelessly from the computer to the Airport Express in any room in your house (though you’ll need Apple’s iTunes software running on the computer for this – it won’t work with the Windows Media Player).

You can buy multiple Airport Express units and pipe your music around the entire home if you want. They might sound expensive, at £65 each, but it’s a lot cheaper than rival multi-room music systems such as the Sonos Zoneplayer or Logitech’s Squeezebox. One other use for the Airport Express is as a portable wireless network device.

Its compact design means that you could easily take it on a trip and set up a little wireless network in the hotel room – perhaps using it to tap out a few emails while you lounge on the bed with your notebook. It can also be used to share a printer across the house.

As a wireless router the Airport Express is fairly limited, and there are many better options available. However, it works very well as a simple and affordable wireless music system that can be used to pipe music to any room in your house.

Apple’s Macbook notebook computers have sold like hotcakes over the past year and the iMac – formerly the flagship of Apple’s home range – has taken a back seat.

However the company recently updated its entire iMac range and one of the main beneficiaries is this new entry-level model priced at £799, which is cheap by Apple standards.

Like all iMac models the iMac has a compact, all-in-one design with the monitor, speakers and main unit housed within a single slimline design that measures barely an inch and a half in thickness, roughly similar to a standard flat-screen TV.

The display on this model is 20in and tucked inside the silvery grey case is an Intel 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of memory and a 250GB hard disk. That provides a good level of basic performance that is more than adequate for surfing the internet, running the Mac version of Microsoft Office or handling a bit of video editing.

It would have been nice if Apple had included 2GB of memory, as is standard on most new Windows PCs, but the Mac operating system Leopard needs less memory than Vista. A PC running Vista really needs 2GB but this iMac gets by with half that.

The graphics card could be more powerful: the Radeon HD 2400 XT used here doesn’t provide particularly good performance for running games with demanding 3D graphics. But there aren’t many games available for the Mac and it’s true that keen games fans are better off buying a PC or games console instead.

But though games are a weakness, the iMac does well as a versatile multimedia machine. There’s a webcam and microphone built into the unit, along with the stereo speakers.

It has the latest wired and high-speed wireless (802.11n) technology for networking and Bluetooth for connecting to devices such as mobile phones (so you can synchronise calendar and contact information between phone and computer). There’s also a good set of software supplied with the iMac.

As well as the ubiquitous iTunes music software, Apple’s iLife software collection also includes programs for organising your digital photos, video editing and DVD burning, music composition, and designing a website. This means that you’ve got everything you need to create, organise and share all your digital music, photos and video in a single – rather elegantly designed – box.

There are cheaper Windows PCs available but they rarely have the same range of hardware features and added software that you get with the iMac. That makes the iMac a good choice for anyone who wants a versatile and compact multimedia computer.

A wireless webcam – or Wireless IP Camera, as Edimax rather geekily calls it – can come in handy in all sorts of ways.

One of the most common uses is for security – like a low-cost CCTV camera, it can be set up to monitor a particular location, and then use it to beam images back to the computer so that you can always see what’s going on. However, there are other way in which it may appeal to home users.

Many people have webcams attached to their computers, but a wireless camera such as this can be moved around more easily, so that you can place it anywhere in your home. You could, for instance, use it as a baby-monitor to keep an eye on a sleeping toddler while you work in another room.

You can also share the camera with other people on the home network, so that different people can watch the action on their own computers. So we can certainly see lots of potential uses for the Wireless IP Camera. Its 640×480 pixel resolution produced good quality images, and at around £50 it’s pretty good value too.
However, Edimax should have done a bit more work on the camera’s ease of use.

As it stands, it looks like it was designed for IT specialists who understand the intricate details of network settings, rather than ordinary home users who want a simple device that they can set up without too much trouble. The 40-page manual provided with the camera (as a PDF on disc, not printed) is full of complicated technical details that many people will find quite confusing.

In the end, we had to call the technical support people at Edimax to get the camera working properly with our notebook PC. We can give full marks to Edimax’s technical team for holding our hand as they walked us through the process (although as with all services, your experience may be different), but we can’t help thinking that the whole process could have been a lot more straightforward.

So while the Wireless IP Camera is potentially very useful, the installation process needs to be simplified if the company wants to reach home users as well as corporate IT departments.

One of the recent trends in notebook computers has been for manufacturers to distinguish their products not just through the specifications but through the design as well.

That’s led to all sorts of outlandish designs as well as tie-ins with car manufacturers to produce garishly coloured computers.

Fujitsu Siemens has largely stayed away from such frivolity, concerning itself with producing good computers at good prices. However, the Amilo Si 2636 represents a step in the direction of style – it’s moderately outlandish, if such a thing is possible.

In fact, it’s fairly normal in design except for the bright red metallic trim along both sides and the front. Other than that, and the fact that the bottom of the screen tapers inwards slightly on both sides for a pleasing curved effect, it’s pretty standard, with a gloss black cover and grey-black styling elsewhere.

The computer is loaded with Windows Vista Home Premium and uses an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, which runs at 2.1GHz. There is 2GB of memory and a 250GB hard disk.

The memory is a reasonable amount, although we’re starting to see computers with more, and the hard disk is more than adequate for almost all users. Likewise, the processor is impressively fast and shouldn’t be too slow for anyone.

One sticking point might be the graphics – while they are fine for most uses including video editing and DVD playback, this computer can’t really cope well with recent games or high in-game detail settings. However, it’s fair to say that notebooks of this kind and at this price aren’t designed for gaming in any case.

The screen measures only 13.3in across the diagonal, which is smaller than the 15in found on similar models. However, it’s hard to discern the difference and in fact the screen feels just as big as larger models when it’s in use.

While the screen is crisp and clear, the keyboard and mouse trackpad are merely adequate. The keys aren’t very deep, so heavy typists will find their fingers hurting after a while. The trackpad is a little small, and it’s circular rather than rectangular, which is a bit confusing at first. The curved buttons aren’t very well designed either.

The Amilo Si 2636 comes with Bluetooth and wireless networking capabilities as well as a wired network port, two USB ports and an eSata socket for connecting newer external hard disks.

The only video output, should you want to hook it up to a TV or monitor, is an HDMI port. That’s fine for those with high-definition TVs, but others will need an adapter to connect to a standard monitor, adding £10 or so. The smaller screen makes it easy to pick up and carry, and battery life is impressive.

Design

MacBook Air is nearly as thin as your index finger. Practically every detail that could be streamlined has been. Yet it still has a 13.3-inch widescreen LED display, full-size keyboard and large multi-touch trackpad. It’s incomparably portable without the usual ultraportable screen and keyboard compromises.

Features

The incredible thinness of MacBook Air is the result of numerous size- and weight-shaving innovations. From a slimmer hard drive to strategically hidden I/O ports to a lower-profile battery, everything has been considered and reconsidered with thinness in mind.

Wireless

MacBook Air is designed and engineered to take full advantage of the wireless world. A world in which 802.11n Wi-Fi is now so fast and so available, people are truly living untethered — buying music and TV shows online, downloading software, and sharing and storing files on the web.

A USB adapter with a removable external aerial that’s ideal for desktop PCs

There are dozens of wireless network adapters on the market today, with more and more connecting to a computer’s USB socket.

This is certainly convenient, but if you use a desktop PC tucked under a table it can cause problems as the adapter and its aerial are often hidden behind the PC, obstructing the wireless signal.

Hawking’s HWUG1 adapter has a simple answer: it has an external aerial that can be turned around into the best position or even replaced with a larger one if needed.

The HWUG1 supports the older 802.11g wireless standard rather than the newer, faster 802.11n, but this is reasonable at its price. It works with Windows XP and Vista but like many manufacturers Hawking annoyingly insists on including its own program to manage wireless connections.

We think it’s simpler to just let Windows deal with networks, and in fact on our Windows Vista PC the Hawking program caused problems. After removing it the adapter worked well.

Otherwise the HWUG1 performed excellently. Notebook users may prefer a more compact adapter with a built-in aerial, but for desktop PC users this is a good buy.

Microsoft’s Lifecam NX 3000 is designed for use with Windows Messenger and skinny notebooks – skinny because the webcam attaches to the top of the screen and will work on nothing thicker than about 2cm.

It is a 1.3megapixel webcam that, in addition to video, takes impressively clear still shots. The camera was easy to set up: we installed the software, signed in to Windows Messenger and plugged it into a spare USB port. Once installed the camera uses its own dashboard, which has three buttons for snapping photos and recording audio or video clips.

Along the bottom of the window are shown the most recent photos and video or audio clips. On the top of the camera is a call button to quickly ’speed dial’ people and start a video call. The lens swivels up and down, should you need to move the notebook’s screen.

Video from the camera was very clear and we were impressed with the noise-cancelling feature, which was particularly effective at getting rid of extraneous sound. For £30 the NX 3000 does its job well and has some clever extras.