Half-Geek

Car Insurance Comparison at Captain Compare

James Fleet — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:29:09 +1100

First post in a while - that's because Im hard at work making sure that Captain Compare offers the best service to help Australians compare car insurance and save money on a bunch of other services! Keep an eye on Captain Compare!

You can also check out the growing list of Captain Compare facebook fans - currently sitting at a tad over 13,000!

AR Drone Review

James Fleet — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 17:10:09 +1100

I received an AR Drone to review from Parrot a few weeks ago and i have to say what an amazing toy!

We have been witness to many outlets selling these units and were extremely excited to get the chance to fly one.

Like many RC toys the unit does have a few downsides but this has to be one of if not the best RC heli's we have flyed.

Upon opening the box we were a little surprised with how big it was, the outer foam that protects the unit is quite large but none the less very exciting.

We also noticed that the unit was extremely light which made flying enjoyable due to being easily manoeuvrable

For those of you who don't know much about the Parrot AR Drone, here is some information directly from the Parrot website.

First quadricopter that can be controlled by an iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad

Thanks to its on-board Wi-Fi system, you can control the Parrot AR.Drone using an iPhone®, iPod Touch®, or an iPad®. It was initially designed for the Apple platforms and will be also available on other platforms in the next few months.

You can also control the Parrot AR.Drone from a Linux PC and a joystick with the software AR.Drone Navigation designed for application developers and available for free.

Play with other users via a Wi-Fi network

Another major feature is the use of several AR.Drone on a network.

Thanks to its own generated Wi-Fi network, players can create a game party where others players can join and play against each other.

The multiplayer game, named AR.PURSUIT, makes it possible to have a battle between two AR.Drone. Hulls are available in three different colors to easily identify your AR.Drone

Although we didn't get the chance to play a multiplayer game we have watched many videos and if you and a mate are considering buying them as a pair we are sure you will enjoy yourselves 10 fold.

We have flyed RC helicopters quite a bit in the past and the thing they have lacked has been more excitement, although they are fun this is better.

The AR Drone has both a front and bottom camera so flying around the house becomes simple (as long as your connected via wifi).

Upon downloading the AR Drone iphone app and connecting the iphone will portray what’s seen in the front cam. You will be given an option to lift off which in my thoughts is fantastic as the drone just hovers allowing you to maintain control and get the feel of things.

First Flight:

Now you can go crazy or you can do it the right way. Going crazy will no doubt only land you into a wall or a TV (trust me we know).

I recommend lifting off and hovering for a moment then going back and forth slowly, up and down slowly. You will soon find that it's quite easy and that the drone has limits. The drone isn't the most responsive unit so getting used to it is a must.

The downfall with the AR Drone is by far the battery, it has a short life span so if you’re serious about getting one, invest the extra $50 for another battery, in my case I will be buying 2 as I hate down time.

Dom

new adwords interface coming

James Fleet — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:11:08 +1100

Google is introducing a new interface for adwords. This is a big deal for Google, the adwords product is still an unrivaled revenue stream within their business and they have not made any significant changes to the existing interface since 2003.

The official launch for the big change is at SES NYC on March 24, however, those who are interested can sign up for the new adwords beta and have a play with the new system, switching between the old a new interface at will.

The new interface incorporates a number of updates including:

New 'account tree' style navigation
In-Line editing of keywords, bids & ad placements
Integrated reports on campaign management pages
Roll-up views of all keywords, ads & placements in a campaign
Ability to filter data faster
Performance summary graphs to help pick trends faster

A little bit of research suggests that the new interface has already been tested by our English counterparts late in 2008. Have any of you had a play yet? If so what are your initial thoughts?

best use of bad language award

James Fleet — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:29:42 +1100

Sony Releases New Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't Fucking Work

TwitterFox

Trent Allan — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:23:29 +1100

If you are a regular user of Twitter, you may notice that the majority of the tweets do not in fact come from the web, but instead one of the many Twitter designed apps available. The core reason for this is that logging into your Twitter account whenever you feel like 'tweeting' something does take a little bit of time, while using your mobile phone or an app does make it a whole lot easier.

Not yet to take up Twitter on my phone, I am a FireFox user and managed to come across a great app, it's called TwitterFox. This app sits in the status bar of the browser and allows you to easily view everyone's latest updates, as well as make updates of your own.

Since installing the app I am much more frequent on Twitter and find it a much more powerful social networking site. It is now obvious to me it is not Twitter itself that makes it so popular, but the many ways in which you can use it.

Don't Just Watch - Buy

Trent Allan — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 10:32:36 +1100

I recently discovered a company called Video Infusion who specialises in the making of interactive videos - videos that enable viewers to be able to view, click and buy products right from within the video. This type of technology is similar to Youtube's click-to-buy where if you are not familiar users are able to buy songs and movies via Youtube videos using link overlays (links that appear in the video). Currently, as far as I am aware Youtube is only testing this in certain countries and as yet is not available in Australia or New Zealand.

It will be interesting to see this technology evolve as so far Video Infusion seem to be main player offering more then just songs and movies. I feel it will not be long before Youtube too enables the purchase of not just songs but any products. My guess is Google Checkout will somehow be involved.

To give you an idea of how the technology works, have a quick view of the below video, courtesy of Video Infusion.

I would be interested to hear from anyone who has seen this technology used anywhere else.

Online Shopping to Shine in a Time of Despair

Trent Allan — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:32:20 +1100

It is now 2009 and depending on who you speak to regarding the future economic situation in Australia, you will hear a variety of different answers. In my view, I believe the worst is yet to come and I think 2009 is going to be a year off despair for many Australian businesses. I think what we have seen to date is no where near the worst of it and people who say otherwise are only avoiding the truth, 2009 will be a great test for many.

Now in any economic downturn there are usually businesses who actually benefit, fast food outlets such as McDonalds are a good example as people look to save money by eating cheap takeaway. Like McDonalds I think that many Australian and International online businesses will actually benefit as well, as people look to save cash by buying from online retail stores who have less overheads and are usually much cheaper opposed to your local bricks and morter retailer.

According to Hitwise, traffic to the Appliances and Electronics sector in Australia grew by 27.2% comparing December 2007 to December 2008, showing a massive increase in the span of just one year. It was also very interesting to note that the major driver for this traffic increase was paid search, many online businesses made big investments in paid search which goes to show a lot about the quality of this traffic.

I believe there is a major opportunity ahead for online business in Australia, and I predict the online shopping market will continue to hold strong in 2009 and into 2010, as many other big Australian retailers such as Harvey Norman continue to struggle.