Category Archives: Recreation

iPhone Tips for Beginners

Computers & Electronics, Internet, Lifestyles, Recreation, Social Networks & Online Communities, Technology

So You have a New iPhone!

iphone-tipsSo I am assuming that you have just got yourself an iPhone and with it a plan that comes with 3G coverage so that you can access the web wherever you are. These days the plans are very reasonable but if you don’t have web access then you can use the wireless features of the phone when you are in an area that has wireless coverage.

In that lovely new box there are a few goodies but one thing that there is not is an instruction booklet – I guess that Apple think that you can get all the information online in their help manuals but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it and even some basic things need a small about of explaining when you first start using it.

Firstly, I have to say I now love my iPhone and wouldn’t want to be without it, which is what I guess Apple want you to think! It has loads of great features and by downloading apps you can use it for more and more things. Anyway, here are a few basics to start you off.

How To Change The Sim Card

It sounds obvious but from experience I looked and looked for where the iPhone SIM card went and couldn’t find it! So in order to change the iPhone SIM card you will need the SIM card pin that came with your phone (it looks a bit like a paper clip). Use the pin end on this to poke into the hole at the top of the phone and the SIM card holder will pop out of the top of the phone. Whenever you need to open the SIM card holder you will need to use the pin.

Synching Your iPhone

Firstly, in order to synchronise your data with your computer you will need to have iTunes installed and also have an iTunes account. These are pretty simple to set up if you do not already have one.

You will need to link your iPhone to iTunes via a usb port on computer with the usb cable that was supplied with your iPhone and within the iTunes interface you can synchronise your contacts, music, calendar and pretty much everything else on your iPhone (except downloading photos).

Once you plug your phone in iTunes should start up automatically and it will start synching all the data on your phone. Don’t unplug your phone until it has finished.

Copying Photos from your iPhone

You can choose photo albums to synch up to your phone within the iTunes interface but it seems you can’t synch your photos down 🙁

If you want to copy your photos down from your iPhone to your computer then you basically need to do this in Window Explorer. Open the phone in explorer and copy them to your chosen directory.

However, this does not always work so one other way of doing it is to use Google’s Picasa tool to import the photos.

How To Change the Number of Times The iPhone Rings Before Voicemail Cuts In

When I first got my iPhone it would ring only 4 times and then go straight to voicemail which I thought was very annoying as more often than not I did not reach the phone before it stopped ringing. After much investigation, I found that they way to change the number of rings on your iPhone before going to voicemail was as follows:

Call *#61#

Take a note of the number that comnes through as ‘Forwards to’

Dial *61*/Forwards To/*11*n#

where n= no. of seconds that you want it to ring for before going to voicemail. After a bit of trial and error I set it to around 30 seconds to give me a chance to find the phone!

Battery Power

From my experience the battery on the iPhone lasts between 10 hours and two days but obviously it depends on how much you use it. You can recharge the battery with the USB cable either through your computer or with the power adapter for the USB cable that plugs into the mains. You can also buy many music systems to play your iPhone music through and these will charge your iPhone while they play.

How Do You Take a Screenshot with Your iPhone?

Well this is actually a really easy thing to do once you know how. All you have to do is to navigate to the page that you want a screenshot of, then you press down the power button at the top of the phone and at the same time you hit the round ‘home’ button on the bottom of the front screen.

This saves a shot of the screen to your camera roll where you can do whatever you like with it!

Fishing for Catfish

Recreation,

Catfish as a species are one of the most diverse range of fish, particularly in terms of the range of sizes of catfish that you can catch. There are quite a number of different species of catfish and they live in areas from caves to running freshwater.

So with the variety of species you can get catfish that are only around 12cm long but when people go out to catch big catfish, they can be fishing for catfish up to 2 meters long!  Catfish are bottom feeders and have up to 4 pairs of barbels which are what make then look like they have cat’s whiskers.

Catfish are often caught for eating all over the world and fishing for catfish is a great pastime for a lot of people, all trying to catch the biggest fish. As with a lot of fishing, in order to catch the fish the best bait is what the fish normally like to eat, which in the case of catfish is smaller bait fish but you can also use worms as bait.

Catfish are both a freshwater fish and a saltwater fish due to the number of varieties and so you have many options with regard to fishing for catfish, depending on which species you are looking to catch.

How To Create Friendship Bracelets

Recreation,

There are many different types of friendship bracelets and to be honest you can choose any type of bracelet as a friendship bracelet if that is the manner in which you are giving it to your friend. Quite often with friendship bracelets, you can either buy or make 2 similar or identical bracelets that both you and your friend wear so that you have that connection of the dame friendship bracelets between you.

If you want to know how to make friendship bracelets then there are plenty of detailed instructions on the internet for different types of friendship bracelets – the most common type are ones that are made with embroidery floss and the floss is woven into patterns by hand by following  a pattern if necessary. Instructions are quite easy to follow and involve twisting and knotting the floss.

Custom Search

Of course the easy way out is to buy friendship bracelets and you can buy then for a reasonable price (although obviously not as cheaply as you can make them) on craft websites like etsy.

As well as friendship bracelets you can also find friendship necklaces which often have two halves of one piece of metal or symbol that match each other, split between the two necklaces. When the two pieces are together they form one solid piece.

Winter Pool Covers

Recreation

Once the weather starts to get a bit colder a lot of people start to think about getting pool covers to keep their pool clean and stop debris getting into the water. but not only are pool covers a good idea for winter, if you get the right one then you can also use them for a safety barrier should you have small children or animals around your yard.

The types of pool covers that you can buy vary in not only style but material and price. If you want a super secure pool cover then you may have to buy one that is made of a solid material so that anyone who slips into the pool will be held above the water. You can also get pool covers that have straps that fix tightly to do this or that have a mesh.

If you just want a simple pool cover to stop debris then there are plenty of cheap options for buying just such pool covers.  They are easily available so it is just a case of getting one to fit your pool.

The type of pool cover that you get might also depend on the type of pool you have – whether it is an above ground pool or an inground pool and also what shape the pool is. If you have a custom built pool of an unusual shape then you may need a custom made pool cover.

In any case a pool cover is a good idea to protect you pool and you can get more information here on pool covers.

Nissan Leaf Electric Car

Automotive, General, Home & Garden, Lifestyles, Recreation, Shopping, Travel,

My thoughts on the Nissan LEAF

So it has really been a long time coming I think that we have a fully electric car for family use. I personally have wondered if this was ever going to happen. When you hear stories about the oil companies not wanting electric cars to be developed then you wonder if it ever will come to the masses. Of course we have had the Toyota Prius hybrid car for a while as the main option in the green automotive industry, but this is a whole other ball game with a totally electric car.

The Nissan Leaf
The Nissan Leaf

The car itself is called the LEAF (Leading, Environmentally Friendly, Affordable, Family Car) and it is a zero emissions, 100% electric car with no gasoline required. The car was released onto the market in December 2010 in the US and a few other countries, with the release date in the UK being February 2011.

It looks like a nice standard family car with 5 doors so it will appeal to the main market and I think it actually looks a quite attractive car. It can travel at speeds up to 90mph and it’s range is about 100 miles before you will need to plug it in and charge it up again.

It does come with a few nice extras including the Nissan Navigation System, alloy wheels, bluetooth hands free system and the one thing that I personally find essential when buying a car – cup holders! (and even better, it also has bottle holders!) The audio system also sounds pretty good and of course you can plug your iPod in it 🙂

The price as always for a green car is going to be higher than your everyday petrol car but this is only to be expected and with the cost of petrol/gasoline increasing what seems like daily people are realising this could be a good investment. Cost in the US is around $25,000 but there are certain tax credits available.

US Pre-Orders Are A Sell Out

So, 6 months before the car is launched and the Nissan LEAF electric car sold out. The car was available in the US for online registration and buyers were required to put down a fully refundable $99 registration payment for the right to buy the car. Nissan have been overwhelmed with the number of applications that were made and the car has now officially sold out. The price of the car in the US is lower to that of other countries as Nissan said they wanted to make more sales there so it looks like that incentive has worked. Or maybe Americans are just becoming greener, or like the idea of saving lots of money on fuel costs or of taking advantage of the federal rebates, who knows!

Government Incentives to Buy the Nissan LEAF in the UK

It has been announced in the UK that the government will offer a £5,000 incentive towards the purchase of a Nissan LEAF car which will bring the price down to approximately £25,000. Although this is still an expensive car for an average family, you need to take into account that it will only cost around £2 to charge the car up with electricity. So, assuming you can go 100 miles on a full charge and it would normally cost you around £16 to go 100 miles with conventional fuel, then say you drove 8,000 miles a year, you would save over £1,000 a year just on fuel.*

* estimated based on price per gallon of £5.35 and fuel economy of 33 mpg.

Recharging An Electric Car

One of the biggest problems that may put people off buying an electric car is where to recharge them. Most electric cars car be recharged through a standard electric point so you can charge your car from home. However, if you are planning a longer journey and need to charge your car on the way then you may need to find a public charging point. These are becoming more common and there is beginning to be a network of public charging posts installed. in time these will become more commonplace but in the meantime the car will most likely just be used for shorter journeys where the owner is able to charge the car up themselves.

There is also the issue of hong long does it take to charge up an electric car? Well the answer in the case of the Nissan LEAF is it takes an 8 hour charge on a standard 220/240V power supply to fully charge. There are of course other variations but the option to take a long journey in one day is one that is not really going to be possible. However, to drive around town will not be a problem.

Nissan LEAF Top Gear Review

Recently the hugely popular TV show Top Gear reviewed the Nissan Leaf with Jeremy Clarkson taking it for a ride to the seaside. Although the car itself got a good review – nice looking with a good feel and good features, the main issue that the Top Gear team had was with the recharging. For starters they found it hard to find a point to actually recharge the car. It appears that Nissan will be adding ‘quick charge’ point to all of their dealerships in the coming years which will be able to charge your Nissan LEAF up in 30 minutes. That may sound good but at the moment they are not there to be used. Also, quick charging the battery will seriously affect the battery life, possibly destroying it in as little as 3 years.

Even if you use the normal slow charging way of topping up the battery the life of the battery is likely to be only as much as 10 years maximum and the cost of replacing the battery is estimated at £7,000. So in addition to the high purchase price of the car the price of the battery may pretty much negate any cost savings made on fuel. In fact Clarkson commented that if you charge the car up at certain times of the day it may cost you up to £8 to charge it fully – just to take you 100 miles.

So the question raised was – ‘is this a white elephant rather than the future of motoring?’