Cheap Alternative to the New iPad

In the world of tablet PCs there has long been one king - Apple's unique iPad. But as more and more companies have jumped on the tablet bandwagon, can the iPad retain its unblemished crown?

The secret to subverting the jewel in the crown of Steve Job's legacy could never lie in challenging the technology or design of the ubiquitous gadget, but in offering something that does a similar job for a very different price. While prestige has allowed the iPad's price to creep up to £649 ($899) for the top of the range model, serious development work from Android tablet producers has allowed for good quality products to be sold at much more pocket-friendly prices.

Money Saving Man's recommendation is the Gemini JoyTAB. Not only is Gemini a British company, which assures build quality and reinvestment into a local market, but it has also managed to produce a budget Android tablet of remarkable quality. Available in 7", 8" or 10" offerings, and running the latest tablet-specific Ice Cream Sandwich operating system, customers wanting a decent everyday tablet without worrying about having the top-notch quality and prestige of the iPad will find a very interesting prospect in the affordable Gemini range.

Prices are £129.99 for the 7", £149.99 for the 8" and £199.99 for the 10" inch. You may not be getting a Retina display for those sort of prices, but you are getting solid design, including aluminium back covers to match the iPad and decent 1GHZ to 1.2GHZ processors with 512MB RAM. Memory is of course limited for the price, but upgradeable to 32GB by way of a Micro SD card.

The problem with many cheap Android tablets is that they run unofficial versions of Google's Android operating system and thus don't offer access to Google Playstore (formally Android Market). There is no such problem with the JoyTAB - you also get Gmail, Google Maps, Youtube and an Ebook reader out of the box; the 8" and 10" models even support Adobe Flash.

So does the iPad have a challenger to its crown? Probably not the crown of technology and prestige, but there may just be room for another ruler - that of value - and the Gemini series seems to be headed to the throne without opposition within the coming months. See the links below:

http://geminidevices.com/products.html
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Search/searchTerms/JOYTAB.htm

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Is it a Tablet, is it a Phone..or is it a Money Saving Trade-off?

Samsung have recently weighed in with a unique product that could save you money.  By offering the features of both a smartphone and a tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Note could save you time and money as your gadgets are centralised into one device.

By Offering a huge 5.3 inch, Super AMOLED screen, an 8 mega-pixel camera, 1080p full HD video recording & playback and the multi-touch input of both a full touch screen and advanced smart pen stylus, the Galaxy Note beats all comers on the phone market for quality of pictures, videos and display. Surfing the web is also as close to that on a tablet as you could want, and due to the huge screen also beats all other smartphones hands down.

The drawer backs of tablets have traditionally been their size and lack of features that you can't find on any high-end smartphone - who remembers the accusations of the iPad simply being a blown up iPhone you couldn't make calls on when it first came out? Well, the same is still true that, beyond Skype, you cannot use tablets as phones (the idea of trying to hold it to your ear is ridiculous enough). The Note successfully gives the best of both worlds, being a device that has tablet functionality and quality while still offering phone functions. Some reviewers have been rather negative about its size, but if you don't fancy holding it your ear then you can simply invest in a good Bluetooth headset.

Samsung have been brave in launching a hybrid between smartphones and tablets, and Apple are very unlikely to follow suit due to the desire and prestige surrounding their products that has consumers clambering over each other to own the iPhone 4S AND the iPad 3. If you have more sense than money, you might just want to invest in Samsung's vision.

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Free Car a Reality?

It may sound far-fetched to be given a car for free, but there is a chance that you could indeed be handed the keys to a shiny new motor, or at least be paid to drive your own.

This media saturated generation is obsessed with visual advertising, and a way of making a company's advertising as ubiquitous as possible is by slapping it on the side of a car. Many of us would be familiar with those garish Red Bull cars hurtling around the place with a giant can on the back.

If you are patient and willing to drive a car that may look unusual then you could stand a chance to receive a free car as part of an advertising contract - you simply pay the petrol and insurance. Minimum contracts are normally 12 months and you may be expected to drive the car for a set amount of miles; you also stand a better chance of being selected if you regularly drive through high visibility areas such as city centres or motorways.

The other option is to have advertising put on your own car. This could see you making as much as £1500 a month for attaching vinyl or magnetic advertising to your motor. If you are a regular driver and are looking for an additional source of income over a free car then this could be the option for you.

The best site for either of these options is listed below. There is a small one-off fee for joining and receiving access to their database of advertising companies, but this may prove a small investment for a sizeable return:

http://www.drivefreecar.co.uk/

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The Blessing of the Snob

The thing about being snobbish is you miss so many great ways to save money and end up managing your finances badly for the sake of pride.


One way that the non-snobbish can save money is by targeting snobbish areas and taking advantage of the deals that snobs refuse to consider for being seen as cheap. I recently discovered a hotspot for this at my local Tesco Express.

Usually discounted items in supermarkets are snapped up when they start to be offered near the close of the day,  and this will normally happen no matter the locale of the particular store you visit. The thing with local chain stores is that they will not attract out of town shoppers due to their limited range of items, and thus the local demographic will make up their clientèle almost exclusively.

In richer areas this can lead to discounted items being over looked as some (but not all) people living in those areas would rather not buy them. I have started to find this incredibly helpful recently - I picked up three roast meals retailing at £3 each for 30p each! Most food can be frozen and eaten at a later date, so picking up something on its sell-by date is not going to be an issue if you plan to eat it within a few weeks of purchase.

Being peckish on the way home has also become a decidedly cheaper experience as I have regularly found sandwiches stacked up for as little as 20p each. Find those hotspot areas and start saving yourself money!

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£100 Off Villa Holidays

Smooth Radio have a promotion code that will save you £100 off of a holiday with James Villas.


The blurb goes as below:


"With the widest choice of villa holidays everyone's happy on a James Villa Holiday
Established in 1984, James Villa Holidays now offer more than 2,500 handpicked villas across 60 destinations in Europe, Florida, Egypt and beyond.

They offer the widest choice of accommodation styles, plus flights from 27 UK airports. So whether you're looking for something off the beaten track or in the heart of the action, James Villa Holidays has something for everyone.

Their collections include: 
Villas with pools - a wide range of properties with their own private pool
Leisure Resorts - all the benefits of villa living, but with a wealth of facilities on the doorstep in a village style setting, with helpful reception staff to assist your needs. 
Florida - villas and Leisure Resorts throughout Florida. Disney Area villas in Orlando are within a 25 minute drive of the main attractions. They also have properties along the Gulf Coast and in Miami 
Luxury villas - within the Villas with pools, Leisure Resorts and Florida collections they also feature luxury villas - truly spectacular properties that offer the ultimate in comfort and indulgence"


Go to the holidays page, click on the link and enter the following promotional code: JVH505


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Halifax Cash for Switching Accounts Extended

Good news is that in response to huge demand, Halifax are extending their offer of £100 for switching your bank account over to them.

I can't give an exact date, but a little bird told me that it will be extended to at least March. I suspect that this may be at least mid, if not late March. To reiterate, the offer is a free deposit of £100 into your new account the day you switch. All you need to do is ring up your local branch and make an appointment to go in and switch, bringing your current bank details (preferably your bank card and a statement), passport and proof of address.

Halifax will arrange transfer of your direct debits and standing orders, and if you bring a payslip, your salary. Just make sure that you time this correctly or you could find debits bouncing on your empty old account. Switch to their Reward account and you'll be paid £5 for every time £1000 or more is paid in each month. The Ultimate Reward account will cost you £10 a month, but brings a host of benefits including travel insurance, breakdown cover and mobile phone insurance.

Here's the link to find your local branch:

http://www.halifax.co.uk/branchfinder/search.asp

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The Tricks of the Trade - Supermarkets

Sometimes saving money is about not buying things...

In the first of a series of posts on the tricks that supermarkets use to get us to spend money we shouldn't be spending, Money Saving Man lets you into this little secret:

"Supermarkets put usual items in strategic places. They don't put them at the front so we can walk in, buy bread and walk out again, but they put them further to the back of the store so that we have to walk past offers and more unusual but attractive items to get to them.


This can result in a larger shopping bill than intended or needed, and is one of the ways supermarkets go out of their way to get us to go out of ours".

More coming soon...