Gigaset - a perfect phone for family use

Our home phone has not been working properly for quite some time I think it had a mind of its own and would just cut people off mid - conversation and wouldn't charge properly, I just hadn't got round to replacing it so when I was asked if I would like to Review a Gigaset home phone I was delighted.

Introducing Gigaset E630A

 

  

If I am quite honest, before I received this phone I had never heard of the brand before, but since I have been using it for the past few weeks I cant imagine using anything else let me show you why.

• The phone is shock, dust and splash proof. perfect when you are clumsy like me or you have little hands that manage to pick up things no matter where you put them!
• The phone book can hold 200 phone book entries so you have somewhere to store all those important numbers.
• It has 14 hours talk time so lots of life if you are a chatterbox.
• it has an inbuilt answer phone, with 55mins of recording time - so you will never miss an important call
• It has an in built hands free which is great for when you have things to do but need to use the phone, the quality is great.
• Vibrate mode.

The Phone was really easy to put together when I took it out of the box - lets say it was idiot proof, when you are not that great with technology like me.

The Gigaset phone has lots of additional features, it has a calender and built in clock in which you can double up as an alarm clock - it is quite loud so it will wake you up.

The phone has a function so you can double it up as a baby monitor which I think is a great idea and it works really well. As well as this function it has the option to send SMS messages through the phone just like a mobile phone.

The phone is very light in weight, it fits perfectly in my hand and I think its quite attractive to look at, it has a lovely little belt clip on the back of it  so its easy to use around the home when you are carrying out household chores or out in the garden relaxing - you don't need a belt I attached it to my top it fits just as well.

My personal favorite feature, is the little musical note on the phones keypad if you hold this down it silences the ringer - whats the point in that you say? The phone has a LED bright light on the top of the phone so if the phone rings and it is on silence the light flashes (you can also use this as a torch) so you don't miss the call and it wont wake up the children if they're light sleepers, like my boys are. This is called the day to night option.
I do love the choice of ringtones on this phone they are very funky and quite modern.

Over all this phone has all the classic features of a normal house phone with a modern day twist and all the extra features you need for day to day busy family life with children, I love this phone and its fabulous features I would definitely recommend taking a look at it - you wont be disappointed.

The Prices start from: £99.99, Handset size: H154 x W52 x D30mm, we were sent the single handset however there is the option to buy additional ones. The Gigaset is availble to purchase from Amazon

we were sent this phone for the purpose of this review all opinions remain honest and my own 

Goo.ey Phone skin - great when you need your hands free! #Review

If I said to you Goo.ey what would you think? a food maybe a kids toy - no guess again, this is a new idea in the form of phone skin.

We were sent over one of the Goo.ey phone skins to review, to be honest I didn't really know what to expect, as I have never heard of it before. Let me tell you a bit more about them and then I will tell you what I thought of this concept.

The company is British born and the Goo.ey was created in 2013 by entrepreneur, Rachel Verghis the idea of the skin is to be able to stick it on glass, mirrors and even on tiles - to make Skype calls, or phone calls where you need your hands free or simply just to keep your phone out the way of children.

The case is made from polyurethane epoxy and feels slightly tacky or a little sticky to the touch it is around 1mm in thickness. It won’t stick to anything that’s textured (such as standard kitchen worktop, a car dashboard or painted wall) but it works fabulous on anything glossy like mirrors, any sort of screen LCD or TV and laminate flooring it even stuck to the fridge.


The phone skin sticks fast because of the quite remarkable 3M adhesive which peals on and off without leaving any nasty residue behind, so you could if you wanted to take it on and off putting it back in the plastic packaging when you are not using it.

You are suppose to stick the phone skin to surfaces that are clean and dry, plus the Goo.ey skin is suppose to be free from and debris, but I found even on my Television screen with a thin layer of dust it still stuck to it quite effectively, However the packaging recommends things must be clean, so I wouldn't try this too often you could end up with a broken phone.

I found the Goo.ey, very useful in instances when I needed my hands free such as when I was cooking, or trying to get the boys ready to go out but wanted my phone out of the way so they didn't try and mess about with it, i even stuck it to my laptop a few times so I could look at my phone and still type. I think when your out in a restaurant its a great thing to have as well especially if you are sitting at a table and like me always have your phone out, as it takes a reasonable amount of force to remove or free it from things once it is stuck - therefore will prevent anyone from taking it and running off with it.

The only bad thing I have to say is you cant use it on its own you really need a phone case to pop your phone in at the same time, as when my phone was in my handbag with the Goo.ey skin attached I found my phone was stuck to an array of items, such as my keys, lipstick and other items I found myself fighting with things just to get it out of my bag!  


Overall I really liked the Goo.ey phone skin, I can see it has great potential and lots of different uses, it would make a great gift for the tech lover or just for a mum like me that needs to keep little sticky fingers away from my phone!

The Goo.ey phone skin is priced between £14-17.99 and you can find out more about this unique product at  www.gooeyskins.com you will also find Goo.ey on Facebook and Twitter

  I was sent the Goo.ey phone skin for the purpose of this review all opinions remain honest and my own.

HP 21 - inch Slate the massive tablet/device with a huge personality #Review

Over the last few weeks myself and the boys - well mainly me have been trying out the HP Slate its an all in one PC that is one of the first of its kind I am going to tell you about the technical side of it first then I will tell you my thoughts on it.

The HP Slate 21 looks just like a desktop, with its 21-inch, 1080p IPS panel touchscreen, you can use a keyboard and mouse if you want to, but it’s ultimately designed to work as a touchscreen so you won’t get the same level of productivity you’re used to with a standard desktop as it doesn't have the same shortcuts.The HP slate runs on Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. There’s a lots of ports on the rear, including power, two USB sockets and an Ethernet connection. On the side you’ll find the SD card slot, headphone jack and another USB port. There is a front-facing 720p camera is ideal for video chats and Skype calls, while underneath is a wide speaker grill which gives off surprisingly decent DTS sound. The Slate is powered by a speedy Nvidia Tegra 4 quad-core processor, which means browsing through Android is a snap and games will run very well.

The screen is so big and brilliantly bright, with fantastic viewing angles, plus you can tilt it at various angles you want too, using the stand.Meaning it is easy to use while standing on a table top or as a smart TV viewed flat from the other side of the room. 

Let me tell you how I have found it, well when I first took it out of the box I couldn't believe the size of it its huge and actually quite heavy, I am not very technical when it comes to electronic goods but it was very easy to work out how to switch it on and where the ports were for the keyboard and mouse, it was also easy to find the button to turn it on I thought the "battery" had no charge given its a touch screen and like an over sized tablet, I plugged it in at the mains for about an hour and then unplugged it as it was trailing across the living room, what I didn't realise it has no battery so to use it, you have to leave it plugged in at the mains, you have to remember It’s really not a laptop or portable tablet so there’s no battery – instead it runs off the mains. I really wish it did have a battery because moving it around and finding somewhere to plug it in can be tricky.

The apps are really easy to download and once downloaded of course like any other tablet or mobile device you can have access to all your favourite things such as Facebook, twitter BBC iplayer which is great but somehow because its so big it didn't quite feel very natural I mean for instance Facebook and twitter they run fine but seeing them elongated across the screen just looked odd using the device, because I think its so big.

However if you love the iplayer or netflix things like that this is perfect for. I don't have a TV in my room, this was great for standing at the end of my bed and watching a film after hours or catching up with programs I had missed. If you have children there is plenty of room for them both to play games on it without huge arguments and fighting, it would be great downloading educational apps and for planning on with the calender you could use it for family events, appointments and outings.  The HP TrueVision HD Webcam is quite low quality compared with what you might be used to on your phone, but for a low cost device I think it is pretty average. In bright light, it works well, but in low light it’s poor, struggling to keep up with even the slightest movement. Again as long as you’re in good light. I can imagine this would be great if you have skype - I don't but if you use it regularly to talk to family the huge screen would make it a great experience. 

I have really enjoyed using the HP Slate, I could see this being a great accessory for a child's room and for educational purposes - not only that they could watch all there favourite films on it. It would also be great if like me you don't have a TV in your room its easy to use and it has everything you need - I am going to miss having my late night films in bed!

The HP Slate²¹ All-in-One is available now from the HP Store and UK retail partners, with a starting price of £369.

I have been loaned the HP Slate²¹ for the purpose of this review.