I’ve just added some new charts to mediaprices.co.uk - that show the cost per gig in easier to understand terms, spread over a timeline. You can now see whether the item you are thinking of buying was cheaper in the past.
I’ll add some more info shortly about how best to read the graphs - but it will take a few days for them to pick up the pricing data and for them to actually mean anything. Drop me an email if you have any comments etc.
It’s the question of our times (well - maybe) - what do you do with an ipod shuffle/nano when the battery dies? Throw it away and add to the masses of landfill already building up around of ears?
NO!!!
The answer is you use it as a USB storage device! Simple - but a lot of people don’t realise! You have to use the ipod software to put tunes onto the ipod - but you don’t need the software if you’re just going to use it like a normal USB stick! Just plug it into your USB port and hey-presto - 512MB/1GB/2GB etc of storage!
Can anyone confirm if a normal ‘big’ ipod can be used like this too?
I’ve bought tens of thousands of pounds worth of computer peripherals over the past 15 years, from a 3.5″ floppy for my Acorn to a 4TB RAID5… But I’ve never bought anything as useful as I bought a few months ago: A USB to SATA/IDE connector.
You’ve probably seen one - they’re quite popular on ebay and the like - you can pick one up for about a tenner. I bought mine from Hong Kong - and it was delivered within a few days (I’ve had UK sellers take far longer to deliver!).
I made sure the one I purchased came with the power supply - as it can be quite difficult to isolate a 4 pin molex connector if you’re wanting to hot-plug stuff into your laptop etc. It’s a long slim brick style PSU with 3-pin kettle connection.
The IDE end of the connector contains three connections: a 3.5″ IDE, a 2.5″ IDE (for laptop HD’s) and an SATA. One thing to note on the one I bought was the IDE connectors had the middle pin blanked out - however one or two of the HD’s I’ve connected it to have actually had the pin present… One to watch out for!
Connecting the HD is a breeze - just plug it in -connect the power and turn it on at the switch. Once you’ve done this your PC recognises it like a normal removable drive (eg. USB Stick) and you can move files etc. as per normal.
All-in-all a piece of kit well worth 10 quid - but that will save you having to turn your computer on-and-off everytime you need to rescue some files off a friend or family members HD.
One thing to keep in mind when using a device like this: Sometimes if you’re using a non-powered USB hub it can’t provide enough power to power-up a 2.5″ HD (doesn’t matter for 3.5″ and SATA but 2.5″ power comes through the IDE cable).
Rating: 5 *.
Amazon have them for £35 ish here - they tend to be about £10 ish on ebay.
OK - so over the next few days I’m going to be adding more retailers that I can find … I’m hoping to add Aria and dabs.com first, then I’ll have a look at ebuyer and scan.
Drop me an email if there are any retailers that you’d specifically like to see on here!
Welcome to mediaprices.co.uk — a new website that I’ve decided to start that allows you to figure out the best deals for your hardware and specifically storage/memory needs. Hopefully it will help you find a good deal and you’ll enjoy some of the articles on here.