New Three Pay and Go Deal

Three, a mobile phone network in the UK have some pretty nice deals for pay and go customers, i actually found this out by clicking an advert on my own website too.

Every time you top up £10 you will get 300 free txts (600 if you do it online!) 150mb of internet usage and free use of Windows Live Messenger and Skype. If that’s not good enough they also say your txt and internet usage allowance will reset as soon as you top up and not in 30 days time.

I’m on o2 pay and go at the moment and spend £10 a month with that i get 300 free txts and 1mb (yes 1mb) of internet usage after I use that 1mb I’m charged £3 per mb. I also can’t use Windows Live or Skype with o2 even if I wanted to as its blocked!

I’m really thinking about switching to Three, as ill get double the texts and would actually be able to use the internet / Windows Live Messenger on my phone when im not in an area with Wi-Fi.

Just thought I would post this up anyway as it puts most pay and go tariffs in the UK to shame:

Three 2009 Deal 2

Three 2009 Deal 1

Also a little rant at o2: I’ve been with o2 since the start of 2003 (they were the best back then) but they really are in the dark ages when it comes to internet usage, with them unlimited internet access @ £7.50 a month has a fair usage policy of 250mb, not really unlimited is it?

If you pay for the £7.50 internet deal everything like Msn, Skype and so on is still blocked anyway!

You also get £10 free credit for transferring your existing number to Three, something i will really have to think about doing!

EU VS Microsoft, Has it gone too far?

The EU VS Microsoft has been in the news a lot latley, as some of you might have read Europe has had versions of Windows since XP that have features removed such as Windows Media Player because the EU consider it a violation of European antitrust law.

Microsoft originally wanted to call the version of XP Windows XP: Reduced Media Edition however it ended up been called Windows XP N Edition, the same with Vista we have Vista Home Premium and Business “N” Editions which basically just have Media Player stripped out.

Until now it’s not really bothered me as the normal editions of Windows the rest of the world get have always been on sale over here and no one has really bothered with the “N” versions of Windows anyway.

However if you read the CNET article published yesterday it appears we are only going to get reduced versions of Windows, either with Media Player and Internet Explorer ripped out or just Internet Explorer ripped out.

I’m sure some people will be quite happy about this, however I think shipping an OS without a web browser in this day and age is just stupid, say you didn’t have Google Chrome / IE or Firefox saved away some where you have a bit of a problem… although I’m sure you could easily obtain a web browser your average computer user most likely thinks the web browser is the internet and wouldn’t have a clue how to go about getting online.

The thing that concerns me is what component in Windows is going to be the next problem

Windows Defender
Windows Media Centre
Windows Firewall
Remote Desktop

You could argue all of the above shouldn’t be included with Windows for the same reasons Media Player and IE have got removed. A lot of alternatives to the above list exist.

Although it appears Microsoft made its own decision to avoid been forced to bundle other browsers with windows, what are the EU going to have problems with next?

I can see a Windows Reduced Functionality Edition with everything but the essentials been removed one day. All it takes is a company like Arcsoft to complain about how Windows Media Centre now its included with all versions of Windows apart from the starter edition and we could have yet another version of Windows.

Should Microsoft be allowed to include whatever they want with the OS? It appears it ok for Apple to include Safari and iTunes with OSX however people have a problem when Microsoft include there media player and web browser.

First unofficial memory card for Xbox 360

Datel have announced an unofficial memory card for the Xbox 360, this memory card is 4gb in size, i think it would be perfect for me. I could have all my saves on the memory card along with any DLC / Arcade games, making it easy to move my content between various Xbox 360 consoles. My 64mb memory card at the moment is full with just a couple of profiles on at (almost 10mb each!)

Datel Max Memory 4gb

Maybe Datel have found a way to allow any size Sata hard drive to be used in the Xbox 360 too.. we can hope! I plan to purchase one when its out in the UK!