Nespresso

Bought myself a new coffee machine the other day - I plumped for a Nespresso having had a demonstration in a local cookware shop. Whilst the Tassimo I already own can make teas and hot chocolates as well I decided that I wanted a machine that made proper strong coffee with a good crema layer - the Crema layer on a Tassimo is no so good, and on many coffee's comes out with "holes" in it revealing the coffee underneath, and thus allowing the flavours etc to escape.

What I like about the Nespresso is the small footprint of the machine, and the choices available, I purchased the new Pixie model and this machine features the ability to make 2 coffee sizes at the touch of a button - Espresso and Lungo, and gives you the chance to customise the size as well, so that the coffee coming out of the machine fits your cup perfectly. There is also storage in the machine for 10 used capsules.

There is a great choice of coffee for the machine - the standard range features 16 Grand Cru's - 7 Espresso Blends, 3 Pure Origin Espressos 3 Lungos (larger coffee) and 3 Decaffeinated blends - 2 Espresso and 1 Lungo, thankfully to help you decide which blends you like, you 1 capsule of each blend with the machine, along with a guide to each blend, giving a description and strength guide. Also I have been told that throughout the year limited edition coffee's are produced as well - be interesting to see what comes out this year.

Getting capsules for the Nespresso is different to other coffee machines, as you can only order capsules online or purchase them from a Nespresso Boutique (to give the machine more class I guess) - the nearest boutique to where I live is in London, and I have a choice of going to boutiques in the top London department stores Harrods, Selfridges or the stand alone boutique in Knightsbridge, where I also have the chance to buy accessories for the machine. However if you live in France you can purchase L'Or capsules from a French supermarket. L'Or being a brand of coffee made by Maison Du Cafe, rather than Nespresso, so I am looking forward to getting some of those when I next go to France, as I'm told it works out cheaper to purchase these rather than Nespresso capsules.

All in all I'm really pleased I bought the machine and am looking forward to enjoying the pleasure of drinking coffee even more.

Hava Naglia - Andre Rieu - Live at the Royal Albert Hall (HD)

A friend suggested that, since I like James Last, I might enjoy listening to Andre Rieu, and he was right. This is a really enjoyable video, from what looks like a great concert. I for one will be listening to Andre Rieu's music in future, perhaps even purchasing some of his CD's.

life.contacts

Downloaded an interesting widget for my phone the other day - life.contacts by Sony Ericsson. This widget is designed to make contacting the people you call and text simple, jut by tapping on their photo. What makes this widget really useful is that it learns who you contact the most, and constantly updates the contacts on the widget to reflect this. Facebook support is also included in the widget, so that the most recent photo on the contacts Facebook page is displayed

What would make life.contacts even better, is that when you tap on a photo, you are able not only to see options for interacting with that contact, such as call / SMS / email etc, but also see their latest Twitter and Facebook status as well.

Unwanted Mobile Apps

Got a great Andoird Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 but there is one problem with it. My network operator 3 has installed programs on it I don't want to use - Spotify n Facebook to name but 2. However I cannot uninstall them! I think the time has come when you should be given the choice by your network operator if you wish to uninstall what they have placed on the phone, or if you are not allowed to uninstall it, have the option to disable the program from running on startup, so that it does not waste memory.

Having an Android phone I am suprised that no one in the Android community has come up with a simple way of uninstalling unwanted applications. It would be great if this changed in the future.

I think when I get my next phone, I will be thinking very carefully about which phone and network I choose, so that I get a phone that does not have a lot of unwanted items on it.