Thank god for the nice weather this past week - it has been much brighter than the last few weeks. As a result I have been spending time riding my bike. For a bike lover like myself whenever the sun comes out, I usually make good use of it. The only problem is that the cops would not allow bike riding in the park which means that the only few places to ride is the main roads and back streets.

so with today being quite warm and dry, I decided to go riding on the South Bank with a friend. The streets were calm - not a lot of traffic but nonetheless it was still busy with midday church goers all on the road which meant that we had to be a little more careful.

Before I move on, I would like to say a big thank you to those who wrote in with their feedback on the Tyre Inflator review. We bike enthusiasts love to share what makes life a little easier as well as the tools we use. With that in mind I thought I would share my experience with you on Astro Pneumatic.

The Astro Pneumatic is a much more expensive Tire inflator compare with  this one. It is not cheap - the reason is that it is a combo of inflater and gauge. Which means that not only can it be used to inflate your tyre, it can also be used to gauge it.

This gauge is awesome. Air seems to get through effortlessly without resistance when inflating -which is what you'd want. But if for any reason you think you've over inflated your tyre, depressing the lever a bit will bleed off extra air. Holding the lever all the way will inflate again. With this Astro Pneumatic you can easily achieve the pressure you want. The gauge shows you the pressure on the small digital screen allowing you to either inflate or deflate.

I've checked this against a few on the market which I have used in the last this appears to be what everyone should be using. You definitely cannot go wrong. Like I said initially, it is a little on the pricey side, but remember you always get what you pay for. Did I mention that it has a very long hose?

Since I changed job last year, my daily commute has also changed from cycling to spending over an hour on the train each morning -  which means that the only time I get to ride and enjoy my bicycle is on the weekends and evenings ( that's if the weather permits).

In my previous job everyone used a bike because the office was in an industrial complex on the opposite end of town with very little traffic. And because everyone was using bicycle, it was normal for me to get one when I joined. So, not only did I save on fares, it also allowed me to enjoy the great outdoors and also get to ride around.

But as anyone who owns a bicycle knows, one thing that can really dampen your is when you have a flat tyre. It doesn't matter whether you're on the road or about to set off on your daily ride. When I had one last week just a few minutes into my evening ride, I was forced to jump on a bus back home. Luckily I use one on those folding bikes from Evans Bikes. If I had one of those Tyre Inflator thingy, I guess that would have helped, but unfortunately, I didn't have any. Besides, how many people do you know riding around with Tyre Inflator in their Avenir Bigmouth Velcro Seat Bag?

As it turns out there are lots of very cheap Tyre Inflators on the market that is very simple and easy to use. The cool thing about it is that it's even very stylish and small to fit into your breast pocket. I just bought one after I had my tire deflated last week and thought this would be something I could take with me on my rides.

Here's a video of how small these Tyre Inflators are and how to put it together once you have the package.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest: Okay, so I made this my break book for work so I could read it slowly. After all, it is the last book for Larsson, ever (unless the rumors are true). That lasted until about halfway through the book because I then spent two late nights reading the second half of the book.

The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest starts about 40 minutes where the last book left off. Lisbeth is in dire straights and Blomkvist must protect her. The plot revealed in book 2 is a major plot line to this story. There are a few sub-stories that keep the pages turning. I started to get worried at the end because I wanted to see everything wrapped up because there are no more books.

I am so team Lisbeth. This whole series is exceptional. Yes, Lisbeth spends most of her time in a hospital bed in this book, but it is what she does there to free herself that is entertaining. Blomkvist is still a 'ho and Berger has new job blues.

Side note: I called my work roommate at home today to tell her that I had finished and we could now talk about it. She's on medical leave and couldn't talk too much. She had already finished the series and thanked me for introducing her to the series. She in turn, has two others hooked on it.

Robin Gibbs fans the world over are today worried as the star undergoes more intestinal surgery. He has not been in good health since the middle of last year when he first cancelled his tour dates due to health concerns.

But today, he tour manager has issued a statement to the media that the Bee Gees star continues to have serious health issues - and asked.

Earlier this year the singer announced that he had beaten the cancer, but it now appears that he's far from beating it. On Sunday, according to the statement, the singer underwent more surgical procedures and is currently recovering. In the mean time all his tour dates and appearances have been cancelled.

As it stands the likelihood of him touring soon is in serious doubt - so those who were lucky enough to get tickets for his Titanic Requiem concert are asked to seek refund. Titanic Requiem was a collaboration between Robin and his brothers and was on promotion tour when he first when into hospital.

He is set to have the world premiere of the music on April 10 at Central Hall in London where he is also due to debut a new song called Don't Cry Alone.

He has been having treatment for liver cancer since last year - including twisted bowl - which his brother Maurice died nine years ago from at the age of 53.

We all have our own journey, and map our own course accordingly. This book allows the reader a rare view of someone else's life journey unfolding at a young age when taking big risks are an easier decision than they are later in life.

I have rarely felt as moved by someone else's journey as I have this one, perhaps because Stayed's writing is succinct, accessible, but not overly descriptive. As my former college English professor chirped - "Show me, don't tell me!" Strayed does just this, leaving us to live the moments on the trail as if we were her past travelling companion instead of merely a seated reader flipping pages with abandon - immersed in the journey.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If you have ever left the prescribed path in search of a new life, or have wondered what would come of attempting to venture off in to the unknown in order to heal a painful past, this is the book for you.

I also love the fact that Strayed embarked on this journey as a normal working woman would or could - she is not an East/West coast elite liberal arts college grad who decided to strike off on a 'wild' post college adventure to find herself because of a huge trust fund and a taste for a bohemian lifestyle.

Strayed's journey comes across as true and pure. I for one am glad she made it from darkness to light, and am grateful for the opportunity to read about her amazing life. Thanks Cheryl!

If you missed my other blog on Formula 1 live streaming - please see that article on how to watch all the races live on your computer.

Now back to business. If you are a blogger or run a niche website, you will want to listen out for all the latest news and see how you can benefit from it. This is exactly what all major news organisations do - so it's nothing new in the industry.

For example, I just read about Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour dates and that some of those dates have been cancelled because someone in band has been ill. And the headline was Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour dates cancelled.

Lets use this as an example of how you could do a bit of new jacking.

The point here is to quickly and cleverly write a detailed post on what happened based on the article you just read, your research and offer other things in those cities that people could do instead whilst the tour dates are cancelled. For example, if you are in London, you might want to the last film premier at the Leicester square cinema. But what is important here is that you carefully use the keyword 'Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band' in your title and in a few paragraphs of your article.

So, let think of how we could write our little article about the Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band news we just read.

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Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band tour dates are in danger of being cancelled because of ill health. According to tour manager, one of the lead guitarists was hospitalised due to viral infection. Although he's well on the road to recovery, the tour doctor has suggested he stayed in hospital for another two weeks for careful observation.

Missing the gig? Don't worry, here at Top concert Tips we've been looking at 5 amazing things you could do on a short break to London instead...
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Now at this point you could talk about 5 things they could like visit the National Portrait Gallery, Late Night Laughs, The Penthouse, madame tussauds and anything you think may be interesting for them to see and enjoy. If you have affiliate links for these attractions you could instantly start earning from this targeted traffic.

What is good about this strategy is that you can easily apply it to any niche you are into. And you can never run out of things to writ and talk about on your blog or site.

Hopefully that was a good tip on how to start generating good quality content and start making more money online.

Good luck

Is Dr Peter James Hardy’s ‘Online Wealth Generation’ system a scam?

Ok, Online Wealth Generation from the fabulously named ‘Dr Peter James Hardy’ is really doing the rounds at the moment so I thought I’d take a look at this for Insider’s Edge.

So what is it?

It’s billed as a way to beating certain casinos’ so-called ‘random number generators’. Follow the sequence and apparently your odds of picking the right colour playing online roulette increase to 71.4%.

Sounds MAGIC… as do the tremendous profit claims. Hmmm.

Peter explains that all you have to do is deposit £45… or ideally “between £65 and £125 pounds” into his carefully selected casinos. Automatically this sets a couple of alarm bells ringing. Marketers like making big claims – that’s the name of the game. If they make honest claims that can be backed up I see nothing wrong with it. However, the upfront promise from Online Wealth Generation is in my opinion misleading, reckless even because unless he personally owns these casinos and hands you the key to their bank vault it cannot be backed up. Here’s what it says:

“The following method is guaranteed to be 100% risk-free & extremely profitable… you will earn £400 to £600 per day”.

By depositing £45 into an online casino you are automatically risking that money. Yes, some of these casinos will offer you a ‘welcome bonus’ to get you to sign up, but these always come with strings attached.

UPDATE! Does this face look familiar? Click here to see where else this scamster’s cropped up…

How much does Online Wealth Generation cost?

It’s a clever sell because you’re not asked to part with any money for this strategy upfront. You get the system for free when you fill in your email address (it’s sent to you). The payment plan that’s proposed sounds incredibly trusting, perfect even.

So how does the good doctor get paid?

You’re asked to ‘donate’ 5% of your earnings from using the system – sounds fair enough. But something’s amiss here. According to the blurb they claim that “93% of all our users do donate on a regular basis”. Call me sceptical but I doubt if even 60%, let alone 93% of people who sign up to this will even try the system. Although the world is populated with wonderful, trusting people, there are also folk who won’t want to go to the hassle of making regular PayPal payments, or will simply forget.

You might be thinking “well… what’s the harm in just giving it a go?” and to be honest if this was a Betfair strategy or one which involved any of the large online bookmakers I would agree.

However, I’ve been digging around and found some evidence which goes some way to explaining why Dr Peter James Hardy is so unbelievably generous with his system.

How I the good doctor really makes his money

To use his system, Dr Peter James Hardy recommends you use one of the 5 specific online casinos he’s hand picked. These are casinos which I had previously never heard of. So why does it have to be these 5? Apparently it’s all down to the RNS random number generator on which the system is purported to be founded on. This system “only functions on those listed casinos”.

I did some research into these casinos to see what I could dredge up. Nearly all of them are based offshore – partly due, no doubt to America’s strict gambling laws. This isn’t necessarily a red flag, however it does mean that you have to be on your guard. Big time. Why? Because you’re not subject to the same laws are you might be subject to in the UK.

Under ‘terms of use’ for one of these casinos it states: “**casino name** is incorporated under the laws of Antigua and Barbuda and is fully licensed and regulated by the laws of that country for the purpose of operating virtual casino gambling on the Internet”. I’ve blanked out the name here because it would be unfair of me to pick out one. Again, I’m not saying that these are scam casinos, what I am saying is do some research before you even think about depositing your money into any of them. Some people appear to have had trouble picking up winnings with at least two of them, others have had different wrangles, and others seem to suggest the casinos are kosher – though they could well be plants. Be streetwise on this.

I suspect Online Wealth Generation has struck a hefty deal with these 5 casinos. Since you need to create an account with them to try and profit from the ‘so-called strategy’ he would make a very decent income giving this away for free if enough people signed up. I wouldn’t have a problem with that if the system worked. The problem is he’s created an elaborate backstory to get you to open accounts.

You’re also asked to give your name and email address in registration which could be also be a motive behind this one – that he wants to flog you more products by email at a later date.

Avoid this one with 3 bargepoles and small dose of the plague. However this is not a closed shop. If anyone's had a good experience with this do let me know by leaving a comment below.

Watch Formula 1 Online Free - Since the new season started last weekend, many fans the world over have been struggling to find ways to watch formula 1 online free. I first though this was an issue with viewer in this country, as it turned out it is a wide spread problem. Even those sites where you could watch formula one free online have all closed down.

What this means is that to be able to watch all the races live, you either have to subscribe to a package like Sky (if you are in the UK) or speed.com. Both of the companies allow their subscribers to watch all the races live on their website as well as on TV and smart phones.

As I bloged last week about Formula 1 live streaming - you can also stream them on iPad and Android phones. Although their site says Watch Formula 1 Online Free, you are already paying for the service - which is why you are able to watch it in the first place. Of course they couldn't charge you for streaming it on mobile device because you are not using their network.

So, what if you don't have a satellite TV or cable subscription? Your options are limited. You could either watch it on one of those non English speaking sites and be prepared to put up with the frequent ad break interruption. This is what most people do at least they can watch the race live. Another option however, is to reduce the the volume of the tv and tune into and English speaking radio like BBC 5 Live. These guys are the leaders in live sport commentary - so while you are watching it on the website, you are listening to the radio commentary.

The obvious downside is that the radio is always 20 seconds ahead of the live web streaming. You will have heard the action 20 seconds before seeing that section on the live stream.

But if you are prepared to put up with that mismatch, then that is the closest you are ever going to get for you to Watch Formula 1 Online Free.

I've got a TomTom ONE. Since getting my new car, the suction pad holder keeps falling off from the windscreen, which fortunately has only fallen into the front passenger footwell or on the seat. I have cleaned the windscreen and still does this. I don't want the satnav to fall off and go into my footwell and esp under the pedals.

I would love to use a non slip mat. Problem is that the jack for the power cable to fag lighter is at the bottom, not on the side or back. So it doesn't sit flat. The only charger I have is the car charger.

Any ideas as how to keep the TomTom cradle sitting on the windscreen until I remove it myself or other suggestions. I know of friends who their satnavs died on them whilst driving because the battery life is rubbish.

I have read the reviews and am amazed that so many people are clueless as to the origins of this story in Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy.

The original story Master of the Universe was based off of the characters of Twilight Edward and Isabella and the description of some of his mannerisms is based of a real live human Robert Pattinson. The author was another fangirl of the actor and the saga.

If you are not a twilight fan and you are repulsed by the whole Twilight genre then you wont even begin to understand this relationship, or where this author is coming from. Yes she changed the names for legal reasons but that isn't going to change the characters they were built from and will only confuse most even more.

This is a classic Edward/Bella fanfiction written about their unrealistic love. They fall so hard and its so deep that NO one can ever understand that kind of love because they are human and this kind of love isn't realistic when both are human to an average outsider.

Edward was originally a vampire in Twilight and had no sexual experience for over a hundred and nine years and when he meets Bella and falls its VAMPIRE love that you are witnessing. NOT human love. It is fiction people it isn't real and I am surprised that men are expecting this awesome story when deep down its just another harlequin romance novel without the har.

You can call the characters TOM and JERRY and you will still never understand the true deeper meanings that the Twilight fans do understand that you all are not privy to. The twilight fans are the majority and there are a ton of older women in the fandom that do not reveal their obsession for this saga because Stephenie Meyer classified it as a YA book even though it was written for adults originally.

I am sure the raving reviews are coming from the closeted twihard women who have respectable jobs and images to uphold and fear ridicule from friends, co workers and family so that is probably why you are all a little confused as to why this book is so well received.

I don't care one way or the other if you find my taste in stories unacceptable, this is what I like and you can bad mouth the Twilight series all you want. I liked the ORIGINAL story and followed it religiously when it was MOTU. I bought the book and have to admit...I haven't been able to read past page twenty because it simply isn't acceptable to bother even trying to see this Fifty character as anyone other than Edward even with the name changes, it just doesn't work.

James had a huge following ranking number one in the fanfiction fandom at the height of the mania, and then pulled to publish.

In doing so, the story does not or will not make sense to the rest of the world who is diving into a trilogy that is without the saga it was originally based on. You will never get it or understand it so don't bother if you aren't going to invest you heart into it and read the Twilight saga first and then read the fanfiction version the way it was meant to be read. Then just maybe you you will get it, but there are no guarantees, because she had many haters of this falsely misleading genre.

I highly recommend that Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy story also be classified as Adult Erotica and remove the BDSM title. Never at any time does she submit to him and for those that call it porn, welcome to the new millennium of women enjoying a little kink in their lives. It is too bad that so many lack the desire to embrace sexual pleasure as a good thing versus taking us back to the 1950's where the word sex was hush hush....*rolls her eyes*

Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy is classic Romeo Juliet stuff...one would die without the other...and if you didn't understand Shakespeare you will never understand Fifty or Edward.

Being a fan of erotica, I was looking forward to reading this, considering how much publicity and praise it has received. Wow, was I disappointed. The writing of the book, along with the dialogue, is absolutely awful. I can handle that, as long as the actual sex is hot, but I felt those scenes left much to be desired, with the exception of the first one.

The actual BSDM, is tame compared to other erotica I have read. Erotica is fiction, but when the characters are put into a modern, everyday setting, I find it incredibly hard to believe a college graduate has never even masturbated. The notion of it is so distracting, it completely took me out of the story. Ana's conflicted feelings and tears over a BSDM relationship is what bothered me the most and left me unable to enjoy the story.

Ana wants to have a traditional relationship without the BSDM aspect, but seems to go along with it because she has fallen in love with Christian. That type of relationship, whether it is onlymwritten in books or in real life, is based off of a mutual want of that type of relationship.

How Christian pushes Ana into it doesn't float my boat. The way he dominates her outside of the sexual aspect is something I didn't enjoy. Women who are sexually submissive, does not mean they enjoy being submissive in other aspects of their life, even to the person they are submitting to sexually. Perhaps if this had not been in modern times, I would have liked it more, due to suspension of belief being greater.

Fifty Shades of Grey is completely the Twilight of erotica. It is poorly written, over-hyped,and is only enjoyed by people who rarely read erotica, or read in general. Like Twilight, it also features a heroine who had no self-esteem until she meets the hero, who also believes it okay to stalk her.

For anyone who enjoys erotica, skip this one.

First thing first - It is important that you do not watch illegally - we recommend that you either subscribe to watch or check how your local service provider charges for sport channel subscriptions. That said, whatever you do don't get anyone of these credit cards. Instead, go for these low interest credit cards for those looking for very cheap loans.

With the new season about to start in just a few hours time, most Formula One fans are desperately looking for ways to watch their beloved sport. Some of them prefer Formula 1 live streaming on their computer or internet enabled TV. But if you are lucky enough to be living in some of the countries where they still show the races live on terrestrial television, then you're in luck.

But for others, the luxury to watch formula one live on TV is no more. For example those in the UK have can no longer watch all the live formula One races on the BBC, this is due to the latest contract signed between the BBC, SKY and Bernie. What this means is that only a handful of the 21 formula one live races will be streamed on the BBC. But there will be extended catchup show in the evening after the race.

SKY, however, will be showing showing all the races. Formula 1 live streaming is something they will also be providing their customers with smartphones and iPads. So if you are a Sky customer you will be able to watch all the Formula 1 live streaming straight from your handheld devices or online.

So, how to you watch Formula One - F1 if you don't have Sky or other digital TV subscription? Well, you have a very few option:

1. 1 You could look around for some none English speaking broadcasters and see if they have any Formula 1 live streaming available on their site. I've seen a few myself and won't mind sharing it.
2. This follows on from point 1. If you are in the UK and watching one of those foreign channels, you could turn the volume off and tune your radio to 5Live sport. That way you can listen to all the Formula 1 live streaming commentary in English.
3. You could decide to just get Sky and watch all the live races.

I'm afraid you haven't got much choice. Things have changed and in the very near future all major sports will move to pay tv. But for now it looks like Formula One is the first to make that move.

Be sure to visit this article to see how this beautiful girl is making passive income online - I highly recommend it.
In the mean time, if you know of any better way to watch Formula 1 live streaming please let us know and we will be more than happy to share it with others.

Formula 1 live streaming

The first time I heard about this book I thought "interesting.. not sure I am into the whole BSDM thing, but what the heck". I am SO glad my subconscius, who yelled "oh come on, just give it a try" won the argument. I LOVED the story.

Anastasia Steel and Christian Grey as as different as two people can be, except for the fact that they are meant to be together. She is innocent and has saved her herself for her true love; He is well-versed in carnal desires to the point that his life-style is one of dominant-submissive relarionships. He has a kinly sex life and has no intention of changing...until he meets Anastasia. The first book, and really all three, focus on the evolution of their relationship. He is a difficult man to deal with, but deep inside he has reasons for being that way. Anastasia has a good heart and sees through him as no one else can. They argue, they make up (boy, do they!) and they show us that they are truly complimentary to one another.

I love the sense of humor. The plot kept me captivated. I could NOT put the book down, especially on their more intimate moments! Heck, made me want to get into a fight with my husband just so we could make up the way Christian and Anastasia do. :-)

I highly recommend the book, and I also recommend you get the second and the third as you WILL want to know how this turns out. I won't tell you, so find out for yourselfe. You will be captivated!

It’s been three days since Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad, but you’re still stuck with your trusty old iPad 2. You’re keen to get rid of it so you can buy the new one, but you forgot to log in to one of those buy-back sites before Wednesday’s launch. Predictably, the announcement sent trade-in values plummeting—before the launch, some of these sites were offering close to $300 for your entry-level iPad 2 (the 16GB Wi-Fi model), provided it was in “good” condition. Now they’re willing to part with far less: As of Saturday morning, if you’ve got a well-cared-for iPad 2, NextWorth will give you $241 for it. BuyBackMac is offering $224. eBay’s Instant Sale will net you $200. And Gazelle, the most popular of the buy-back sites, will only part with $185.

Sure, if you’re hurting for cash to subsidize your early adopter lifestyle, $200 is nothing to scoff at. But if I were you, I’d skip by all of these sites and instead log in to Amazon. As of right now, its trade-in service is offering $351 for a 16GB Wi-Fi iPad 2 that has “normal wear,” and up to $390 for one in “like new” condition. Indeed, Amazon Trade-In’s lowest offer for an iPad 2 is $300—if your tablet isn’t water-damaged and is at least in working condition, you’ll get that baseline amount.

What’s going on here? Considering that Apple is selling new iPad 2s for $399, how can Amazon afford to shell out up to $390 for your old one? What’s it doing with all the iPads it’s buying? Is Jeff Bezos running a charity?

Nope. There’s one catch to Amazon’s trade-in program, and it’s brilliant. While other sites will give you cash for your old goods, Amazon will only give you store credit. Thus, the “extra” money you get from Amazon compared to other trade-in services isn’t a total loss for Bezos. All that cash will be plowed back into Amazon’s own business. Depending on what you buy with your newfound wealth, the company may be making a nice profit on the deal.

To see why Amazon’s trade-in service is so clever, let’s try to think through the economics of an iPad trade. Say Amazon gives you $350 for your iPad 2. A company spokeswoman says that when people send in their gadgets, the company farms out the devices to a variety of third-party merchants, who then inspect, erase, and package  device for reselling. (The company says it does not harvest your devices for parts.) Where do these merchants resell your iPad? On Amazon, of course!

At the moment, good-quality used iPad 2s are selling for about $360 on Amazon. (That’s higher than the $335-or-so that used iPad 2s are selling for on eBay, but Amazon’s customers may be OK paying extra for the convenience of skipping the auction process.) Amazon doesn’t get to keep that full resale amount; it’s got to split it with the third-party seller, and the company doesn’t disclose the terms by which it distributes trade-in revenue to its merchants.

We can assume, though, that the split will be highly in Amazon’s favor, since it has done most of the work to get the deal: It procured your iPad, it paid for shipping, and it’s handling all the resales on its own site. Let’s assume that Amazon gets to keep 85 percent of the resale price—so let’s say it gets $306 on an iPad it sells for $360. This means that after giving you $350 for your iPad 2 and then reselling it, the company is out $44.
Remember, though, that Amazon didn’t pay you cash. It only loses $44 if you spend all the store-credit in your account. If you don’t spend it—which sounds unlikely, except that Americans leave billions of dollars of gift card money unused every year— Amazon doesn’t lose anything on your old iPad.

And if you do spend it, you’ll spend it buying stuff from Amazon, which means that it keeps some of the money for itself. How much Amazon keeps depends on what you buy with your trade-in money. The company’s margins are notoriously low, so it’s not a whole lot: If you spend your $350 on a wide range of goods, Amazon will likely net 1 to 5 percent in profit, so somewhere between $3.50 and $17.50. So now the $44 it’s “lost” on your trade-in shrinks to something between $26 and $41.

There’s a chance, though, that Amazon could get very lucky on you. If you use your trade-in money to buy a device or service that keeps you locked to the company for a long time, Amazon might end up making money on you over time.

What kind of purchase would yield that sunny scenario? There are a couple obvious ones—purchases that might be especially appealing to the sort of early adopters who trade in their old iPads to buy new ones: If you use your trade-in cash to buy a Kindle or subscribe to Amazon Prime, Amazon wins. Each of these services are long-term revenue generators for the firm. After people get Kindles, they start buying ebooks at a ferocious rate—and, of course, they can only get them through Amazon.

Prime, meanwhile, changes how people think about shopping; after joining Prime, people look to Amazon as the first place to buy everything. One analysis says that after joining prime, the amount of money that a customer spends at Amazon jumps from $400 per year to $900 per year. Thus if Amazon loses a small amount on a trade-in now but gets you addicted for the next decade, you’re the chump, not Bezos.
It’s true that not all trade-ins will turn out so well for Amazon. If the price of old iPads drop significantly between your trade-in and the eventual resale—or if Amazon pays slightly more to third-party resellers than I’m assuming—then it could be losing a lot more on the deal. But Amazon has always been willing to risk a lot in the short term for long-term value. Or, as Bezos once put it, “We are willing to be misunderstood for long periods of time.”

That’s its plan here. At first, Amazon’s high-dollar trade-in prices look like generosity. But by using the release of a new iPad to lock in new customers for itself, Amazon may be riding its rivals’ coattails to a long-term victory. Clever, clever Bezos.

I love it when authors construct a whole new world for their characters to inhabit. They go as far as writing spin-offs to successful series that are still set in the same world. Even writing guides/encyclopedia and making it feel authentic. JRR Tolkien exemplifies this beautifully with his invention of Middle-Earth used not only in his Lord of the Rings trilogy, but in everything else he wrote.

It looks like JK Rowling is going down the same path. After ending the hugely successful and much loved Harry Potter series, she released The Tales of Beedle the Bard, a supplement especially to the 7th book. It is a collection of five short stories for children that tells tales of bravery, wit, tragedy, and survival of wizards and witches. It even has notes by the late professor Albus Dumbledore at the end of each story. And I also must mention that this particular edition was "translated from the original runes" by former Hogwarts student, Hermione Granger. Haha, see what I mean? A huge Potter fan will get a major kick out of this. I know I did.

My personal favorite is The Tale of Three Brothers which is narrated in full by Emma Watson in the seventh movie (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow Part 1) as Hermione Granger. Dumbledore said in his will that his copy of the book will go to Hermione on the event of his passing. This story is directly connected to the 7th book for it explains what the "deathly hallows" are.

This book says something about JK Rowling's imagination. She gave the readers seven books to enjoy. And then she goes on and releases actual Quidditch Through the Ages, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and The Tales of Beedle the Bard. She is so creative and it makes me appreciate her so much more.

Overall, it is an easy read. I am not sure how non-HP readers will take this but if you loved the seven books in the series, you will definitely love this.

Recommendation: Every Harry Potter fan will love this.

The wifi on the Kindle Fire is inexcusably dysfunctional. I wish to do three things with my Kindle Fire (in order of importance to me):
(1) watch Netflix,
(2) browse the web, and
(3) read comic books.
When I watch a video on Netflix, I have approximately one hour of uninterrupted, glitch-free viewing time. After this hour, I will get a "Buffering" message. If I leave the device alone, 9 times out of 10, I will watch the buffering message for about 2 minutes, and then get a message that Netflix is experiencing network problems (the 10th time, the buffering will end, and the video will resume). Then, I must shut off the wifi on the Kindle Fire, wait 30-60 seconds, and restart the wifi.

I will then have anywhere from 5-20 minutes more viewing time before I must go through the entire process again.

When I browse the web, I have a similar problem, minus the predictability. At any time, the wifi will decide to no longer function, and I must restart the wifi on the device in order to get back to browsing. Even worse, occasionally, the Kindle Fire will simply refuse to reconnect to my home wifi network. The only way to resolve this problem is to unplug and power cycle my router. I have to cut off internet access to all my devices in my home for one minute, so that the Kindle Fire can reconnect.

For my final use, reading comic books, the Kindle Fire works quite well. However, its screen is not the same size as a comic book page, and thus I am forced to view panel by panel, and full or multi-page spreads can only be viewed at a lower zoom level. This limitation is something I knew going into my purchase of a Kindle Fire, but, at the time, it was a compromise I was willing to make in order to get a web-browsing, Netflix-streaming, comic-book-displaying tablet for $199. Sadly, that compromise has not worked out in my favor.

I've been using the Kindle Fire now since December 2011, and I am thoroughly disappointed. I have given it two stars because (1) it works as an e-book reader, and (2) it works as a comic book reader. I consider my $199 wasted, and I will now be buying a tablet that uses iOS, because that operating system has worked flawlessly for me on my phone - for each of the functions I've mentioned - for several years already.

Behold the World's Worst Timepiece. If you are like me, you are probably searching for a cute, inexpensive but fairly reliable clock. You are endeavoring to disregard the negative reviews and pin your hopes on the positive. Don't kid yourself, and don't buy this clock.

As soon as I extracted the timepiece from it's box, I knew something was terribly wrong. It was disturbingly light, even with the battery in. The backlight consisted of one microscopic bulb located at 3. The body was loose, flimsy, and rattled when jarred.
The battery being installed, the second hand ticked erratically for less than a minute, then stalled, alternating between two positions. I re-wound the clock, adjusted the battery, tapped, and pleaded to no avail. I earnestly believe it is incapable of working properly.

In short, run. This clock certainly won't.

"The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" concludes Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" series of three sex crime books featuring the hacker/detective Lisbeth Salander and her journalist friend Mikael Blomkvist. (A fourth novel reportedly was left unfinished on Larsson's laptop when he died of a heart attack.) While the first two books ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "The Girl Who Played with Fire") may be read independently of the other, "Hornet's Nest" requires reader familiarity with both of the earlier volumes.

"Hornet's Nest" picks up right where "The Girl Who Played with Fire" left off. At the end of that second book, Salander was awaiting transport to a hospital with a bullet in her head after being shot by her sociopath father, Alexander Zalachenko. "Zala," as it turns out, was a Soviet agent who had defected to Sweden. When Salander was only 13, and after Zala had brutally beaten her mother, Salander tried to kill him with a Molotov cocktail; she succeeded only in severely burning him.

Much of "Hornet's Nest" is concerned with Blomkvist's uncovering the rogue Swedish security police element that had protected Zalachenko and kept Salander locked up and mistreated in a mental institution through her teens. Late in the book, the story takes up the trial of Salander for the attempted murder of her father--or so it was presented, but after the testimony focuses on Lisbeth's mistreatment by the state, the attempted murder gets lost as the conspiracy unravels.

This points to a weakness (or a charm, depending on how you look at it) in Larsson's writing: his expository sections tend to go on ...and on. We don't really need all the background history of the Swedish Security Service, for instance, but we get it, seamlessly blended in with the fictional events of the novel. Also, the account of the trial, after slaking the reader's thirst for justice, drowns the reader in continued court dialogue. When the judge offers to let Salander go if she promises to return to court and Salander admits that she would flee the country if he did so, you're ready to go with her. When she at one point does leave Sweden for Gibraltar, the chronology becomes confusing, and in any case the sequence seems pointless. An editor needed to take scissors to manuscript, methinks.

A rather substantial subplot involves Millennium editor-in-chief Erika Berger's decision to accept a position with the prestigious if stodgy newspaper, Svenska Morgon-Posten. Once ensconced in her new job, Berger is threatened by a mysterious rival and detractor. This entire story line, though, aside from underscoring the overall men-who-hate-women theme of the series, appears to be a plot device to allow Berger's frequent lover, Blomkvist, to take up an unlikely affair with a security service officer.

The denouement is made for the movies: it is suspenseful, dark, and grim. The payoff is big, with a violent but satisfying finish. (One might say Larsson, ahem, nails the ending.) The coda, too, wraps (most) things up nicely.

All in all, it is the characters that make the story work so well. Salander is a compelling character: an anti-social, counter-cultural, almost idiot savant, technogeek, woman warrior. Blomkvist, too, holds great appeal, despite his lack of any apparent personal integrity in his intimate relationships. The three books have well-constructed stories, if overripe exposition, but it's the smart, strong and occasionally vulnerable characters that draw the reader in.

I can't praise the reader, Simon Vance, highly enough. His interpretation of the material really made this story come alive. I know I've elsewhere criticized his Count Chocula version of private security chief Dragan Armansky, but all of his other voices, including Salander's, are superb. He is the rare male reader who can convincingly do women's voices. Vance's reading is definitely worth springing for the audio book.

I received the Special Edition Keurig as a Christmas gift, and fell in love with it instantly. I used to hate brewing coffee in my work office every morning, it made such a mess every, single time! Having the Keurig makes coming to work honestly exciting, because I am just so excited to brew my coffee so quick and easy with no messes! I even set the clock on it and the auto on/off feature is great! The Keurig is ready to brew my coffee the moment I walk in my office every morning!

I did start having problems after a month of use. The machine would brew partial cups of coffee, and then started giving me the Prime message. After following the trouble shooting provided in the user's guide, I had to call customer service, as the issue was not going away. Customer service said they would have a technician call me back in 24-48 hours, and they actually called back in about 6 hours.

The technical support person was very helpful, and funny enough my machine worked fine while she was on the phone with me. However, she said that if the problem came back to simply call again, that she had documented all the issues and the trouble shooting we had done, and that they would replace my machine. It stopped working after a couple more days again, so I called them about the replacement.

They had my new machine to me within the week I called that last time, and I don't even have to ship back the old one, which I was super worried about! I just have to send back the K-cup part, to prove ownership, and that's that! Best customer service and replacement policy I've ever encountered.

My new brewer is working like a pro, and I'm so glad to be back to brewing! I love Keurig!

I have had my S100 for close to a week now and have probably shot about 1000 frames. Let's make no mistake, this is not a DSLR but it's a great little camera, takes great pictures and fits in my pocket. It will never take the place of my Nikon D90 but with this I always have a camera with me!!!

Canon did a nice job with this unit and they continue to be the king of the point and shoot.

I have used the camera outside for nature and scenery, inside for people and pets. It produces very nice results in auto and messing with the different functions allows me to fine tune the photo.

It does not work well for moving objects but that's why I have the D90.

I captured several images that I would not have simply because I had it with me. That the real value of this unit.