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Change Donations: Donate Digital Loose Change To Charities

Marty
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Change Donations: Donate Digital Loose Change To Charities

In just a few short years, how we pay for goods and services have changed dramatically.

I can honestly say I rarely have a bank note on me, let alone any loose change. While I find card payments, especially contactless or mobile payments, really convenient, it wasn’t until today I thought about how charities are losing out on the donation of till-side loose change.

Do you know what I mean?

When you used to buy some groceries in the shop and they’d hand you twenty cent change, you probably popped it into the charity box. Well, that’s pretty much a thing of the past thanks to card and mobile payments.

At Dublin Tech Summit 2019, I caught up with Change Donations, a really smart company with a solution to bring donating loose change to charities into the age of digital payments.

Who Are Change Donations?

Change donations is an Irish donations service and the modern answer to popping your twenty cent change from your grocery shop into the charity box beside the till. Say you buy a few bits and bobs worth €19.60. Back in the day, you’d get two twenty cent pieces back and you might have been tempted to pop them into the charity box for a worthy cause. These micro-donations generally make little or no impact on your own pocket, but with thousands of them taking place around Ireland daily, they added up to a significant bit of cash for charities.

Today, you’re much more likely to tap your card and pay the exact amount for your transaction. Sure enough, you’re back up forty cents, but you likely won’t even notice that few cents. Charities, on the other hand, do miss the thousands of these transactions taking place daily and this is the gap Change Donations is trying to close.

Change Donations is a service where you connect your bank account and your bank card. The Change Donations service then looks at your card transactions, rounds up to the nearest euro and donates your digital loose change to a charity of your choice.

Effectively, it’s the exact same as donating the loose change that the shop keeper would have handed back to you.

The example I gave earlier might be a bit rich for some people, so let’s take a closer look at how much control you have over the donations.

Controlling Your Change Donations

In the example I gave, some people might have preferred donating just twenty cents instead of the full forty, which is fair enough. While the platform can’t do this kind of break down you can control your total daily, weekly or monthly donations.

William Conaghan, a co-founder of Change Donations speaking about your donations, explained that “you can cap it at either a daily, weekly or monthly limit, let’s say five euro every month or five euro every day. Or you can turn it off”.

Simply set your limit to a fiver a month and you won’t be able to go over that.

donation limits change donations

If things are particularly tight this month, set your daily limit to zero and when things free up again, either raise your limits or boost your charitable contributions with a once off payment.

boost change donations

For added control over your donations, you can even split your contributions across several charities, choosing exactly which percentage of your digital loose change goes to which charity.

Where Does The Money Go?

Change Donations charge charities a 10% listing fee. This means charities receive 90% of the funds you send them. If your monthly limit is €5, your chose charity will get €4.50. This is a very similar setup to charities who request you donate by texting a keyword to a number to donate a small sum like €4. I looked at Like Charity who runs one of these SMS services and they also charge a 10% fee on donations. The big benefit for charities here is the simple fact that donations will likely be ongoing for months instead of a once off payment. That’s the beauty of microtransaction donations.

Benefits fo Local Clubs

When I met with the Change Donations team at Dublin Tech Summit, I had Jon with me and he quickly spotted the benefit for local clubs. Whether it be grassroots soccer teams or the local GAA club, there’s potential for Change Donations to expand beyond not-for-profits to sports clubs too. I think this is massively exciting for the Change Donations team because I’ve seen local clubs get behind these kinds of initiatives. Through this platform, clubs can mobilise their members, players, friends and families to make constant donations through micro-transactions, adding revenue streams the club can benefit greatly from while the people donating will barely even miss the loose change.

How Does It All Get Set Up?

I just ran through a test set up and it couldn’t be easier. When I chatted with the team behind Change Donations, my immediate concern was linking to bank accounts. Irish banks are notoriously un-digital so how could they possibly get the likes of Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB accounts and cards linked to the Change Donations platform.

Lizzy Hayashida, the co-founder of the service, outlined how it works, stating they “work with two partners. One that lets Change Donations link your bank account and see transactions. That’s ‘read-only’. Then we work with Stripe to make the donation on your behalf to the charity”.

When I set up my Change Donations account this evening, it was remarkably easy and felt very similar to the process which I recently went through while adding a Bank of Ireland account to my KBC account thanks to some PSD2 innovation. While this isn’t a PSD2 integration, it is something the team is looking at down the line.

For the time being, to get set up, you add your online banking credentials into the Change Donations system which allows the system to see your transactions. For the more security conscious of you out there, be rest assured. Change Donations uses 256-bit TLS bank-level encryption. Without getting technical, that’s some serious encryption!

You then add the card you’d like to donate spare change from and voila! You’re ready to go. Quite brilliantly, Change Donations has been cleverly designed that from day one you can use the service with Bank of Ireland, KBC, AIB, Ulster Bank and Permanent TSB.

Change Donations: The Verdict

Being totally honest, Change Donations is one of the most exciting ideas I’ve seen in a long long time. I’m a Revolut customer and I do use a feature they have which rounds up my digital loose change into a savings vault. I’ve racked up over €100 euro, purely from rounding off my transactions. I can personally vouch for the theory that you don’t feel the micro-transactions or micro-transactions leaving your pocket.

With the ability to place a limit on the rounding up of your digital loose change, you can strike a happy balance between donations and savings. Everybody wins.

What makes me most excited about this platform is just how on track it all is to be a success. I can really see GAA clubs and football teams around the country getting their members to sign up. Some might focus on the 10% service fee, but in truth, the 90% of donations that charities or clubs do get will be practically a completely new source of income. More importantly, it’s going to be a fairly regular stream of income.

Watch out for these guys. Change Donations is currently in BETA and will launch fully in Ireland, later this year.

 

 

Electric Cars: The Biggest Transport Change in Our Lifetime

Marty
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0
Electric Cars: The Biggest Transport Change in Our Lifetime

I watched Deep Impact yesterday, followed by David Attenborough’s latest documentary on Netflix, Our Planet.

It was a random combination of things to watch but it made me realise something. Movies like Deep Impact, Armageddon and, on a lighter note, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World all make us think about a world-ending asteroid hit on Earth. These are works of fiction, made purely for entertainment and they garner huge amounts of public attention.

Our Planet on Netflix isn’t fiction and depicts a much more real threat to humanity; global warming. There’s a lot we should be doing to protect the environment, but electric vehicles could genuinely be the biggest change we see during our lifetimes. It’s absolutely rooted in fact and not science fiction.

Why Electric Cars Are Key

Electric vehicles are just one way we can all reduce our carbon footprint. They’re not exactly the perfect solution yet, mainly down to question marks around the where electricity is sourced. If the power you charge your car with is being generated from a coal plant, well then electric cars aren’t that green. Fortunately, Ireland has committed to increasing green energy by 2030. We’ve also committed to banning cars with fuel pipes by the same year, but not all countries are the same. This is huge.

Within the next ten years or so, petrol stations will need to rethink how they operate. Fewer people will need fossil fuels and instead will start looking for charge points. Will petrol stations start to vanish altogether? Most people charge their cars at home, so this is a reality we really have to face. I’ll admit, I never look forward to such dramatic changes because we’re talking about people’s livelihoods. People will lose jobs and need to upskill to earn a living.

But this is humanity. We’ve done it before through the industrial revolution. People don’t like change, especially at the hands of technology which has led to a massive amount of misinformation out there.

Trumpian Logic

Today, Donald Trump suggested that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer.

This is the same Donald Trump, President of America, who insists on defending the coal industry and who removed the US from the Paris Agreement.

I try to remain as impartial as possible, but that’s enough. The man is clearly, at best, a complete moron and, at worst, suffering from severe mental illness issues.

Trump is pro-fossil fuels because that’s his demographic. Old-school America that drives big pickup trucks even when you only take a trip down the road. These people still work in mines and feel forgotten about. Or at least they did until Trump came along and promised them a future. Trump is into protecting votes, not the environment.

Thankfully, it’s just America, right?

Politics of Electric Vehicles in Ireland

This might be a cheap shot, but I’m going to take it.

The Healy Raes

Michael and Danny Healy Rae are elected officials in Ireland so it’s not that low a blow. They are TDs which means their opinions, as much as I don’t want to admit it, well, they matter to a certain extent. The two brothers have come out speaking negatively about electric cars on several occasions.

Danny believes the range on electric cars warrants them totally useless while also incorrectly asserting that ‘one splash of water’ is enough to damage them.

Michael Healy Rae believes electric cars to be ‘a load of rubbish’ and that government money could be better spent.

Electric Scooters

Yup, I’m going to talk about scooters, yet again. Last year, TD Noel Rock brought electric scooters up in Dail Eireann. The reason being it was clear they were growing in popularity even though they operate in a grey area. Almost a year later and still, nothing has been done. The problem now is that there are almost 3000 of these on the road in Dublin alone.

Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs), like electric cars, can help us move towards a cleaner greener environment. Just like electric cars, they’re being hassled too. Gardai have started to seize PEVs for being uninsured MPVs despite many falling beyond the definition of MPVs.

Once again, the green option faces barriers to adoption.

Will These Barriers Stop Electric Cars?

Into the land of speculation we go, but I will claim this to be educated guesswork.

Green Energy

Ireland is making serious commitments towards green energy. By 2020 40% of all our energy will be renewable. By the time we’re heavily dependent on electric cars, that percentage will be much higher.

The Range of Electric Vehicles

In larger countries like the US, UK and Germany, I can kind of understand hesitation over range. Ireland is not that big people. Sure, you might need a charge on your trip, but in the event you do, chances are you should have been taking a break anyway. A Dutchman has just shown just how practical electric cars can be.

Wiebe Wakker and ‘The Blue Bandit’ drove from the Netherlands to Australia using only an electric car. Through his ‘Plug Me In’ website and Twitter account, he asked members of the public to give him a place to crash, eat or charge. He was on the road for 1,119 days with the aim of showing just how viable electric cars are as a proper replacement for fossil fuels like petrol and diesel.

Wakker drove a modified Volkswagen station wagon now named the Blue Bandit. Before the car was modified, it would have used a whopping 6,785 litres of petrol to complete the journey.

The Misinformation Around Electric Cars

This will only stop if we’re all aware of it. Trump’s comment on wind turbines is laughable, but that’s kind of the problem too. While sensible people laugh at the notion, old school America laps it up. While the Healy Raes, particularly Danny, are laughed at for their backwards way of thinking, I don’t doubt for a second people around the country listen to them, maintaining it’s politicians like them that remember the locality.

Protecting the environment for future generations required us all to think about people other than ourselves. It’s our children and their children that will benefit most from the introduction of electric cars. It’s without doubt the biggest change we’ll go through in our lifetimes, but the rewards for humanity and the ecosystems you can see in Netflix’s Our Planet right now that are greatest.

ROAV Viva Pro: The Echo Dot In Your Car

Marty
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ROAV Viva Pro: The Echo Dot In Your Car

The raw chicken moment.

This is what every company developing an app or skill for the likes of Amazon Echo or Google Assistant is focused on. The raw chicken moment is about finding the perfect moment in a person’s day where voice-controlled assistance is needed. You’re making dinner, cutting chicken and need to set a timer. “Alexa, set a ten-minute timer”. And there you have it. The raw chicken moment. Driving is another obvious example of this and I’ve been testing out the ROAV Viva which is effectively an Echo Dot in your car.

What is ROAV?

ROAV is the automotive element from one of my favourite brands; Anker. They are focused on bringing smart home tech into the car including dashcams, smart chargers and, as you might have guessed, voice controlled devices through the VIVA range.

VIVA Pro in car
My ROAV Viva Pro in my KIA C’eed

Voice control is the most exciting in my eyes given the additional control over gadgets and communication this gives you in the car.

ROAV Viva Pro: Features

The ROAV Viva is both like and unlike traditional in-car phone chargers. In the ‘like’ pile, you get in-car charging by plugging a device into your cigarette lighter socket. The exciting stuff comes from the ‘unlike’ features.

Amazon Alexa: Like an Echo Dot in Your Car

The biggest feature of the ROAV Viva is the fact it’s powered by Amazon Alexa. Effectively, this means popping a ROAV Viva into your car is the same as having an Echo Dot in your motor. More on what that means for your driving experience later.

New Age Charging Technology

ROAV’s parent company, Anker, was founded on the idea of making top-notch power products.

No surprise then that ROAV packs in some fast charging technology and two USB-out ports allow you to charge your phone. I’ve had in-car chargers in the past that only slow down your battery dying, so having a great in-car power source for my phone is fantastic.

ROAV Viva Pro charging tech

Universal Connectivity

Modern cars are coming fitting with a range of great tech, including Apple CarPlay, voice control and Android Auto. Great if you want to fork out for a new car, but ROVA Viva Pro lets you add all this tech to a much older car. This is possible down to how versatile the device is. You can connect the Viva to your car through Bluetooth if your stereo supports it, AUX if it’s available and you have an AUX cable and even through a built-in FM transmitter if all else fails.

It’s important to note there are two devices: the ROAV Viva and ROAV Viva Pro. Both are very similar but the Viva Pro gives you the additional connection options of AUX and FM transmission.

Benefits of Having Something Like Echo Dot in the Car

What are the raw chicken moments you have in your car? Having something like an Echo Dot in your car thanks to the Viva Pro can overcome some common problems and enrich your in-car entertainment experience.

Making Calls

One of the most obvious benefits of Alexa in your car is making calls. the Viva Pro comes with the additional benefits of offering great call quality and noise cancellation. If you know other people with Amazon devices, you can also drop in on their Echo just like you would Echo to Echo.

Bonkers Amount of Radio Stations

Amazon Alexa supports TuneIn radio which features a wide range of radio stations from around the globe. Sure, you have a perfectly good radio in the car, but having a ROAV Viva means I can listen to local radio from Kilkenny in Dublin. It goes beyond that too. If you’re living in Ireland but come from abroad, having a Roav Viva means you can listen to your favourite radio stations from back home. I love this feature.

GPS navigation is another logical feature for when you’re in the car. If you’re driving along and need a route change, you can simply tell Alexa where you need to go and your phone will start navigating.

Smart Controls

Once you have Alexa controls in the car, you also have the power to control other devices. Now, this is going to be a great feature in the States where nearly everyone, according to TV and Hollywood, has a garage with electric doors. In Ireland, there might be limited uses for these features. Like, I can control my smart lights in my gaff from the car now. Honestly, that’s pretty useless to me, but if you have an automatic gate or external lights at home, I could see connecting all these together being really useful.

Spotify: The One Catch

The only catch with the ROAV Viva and Viva Pro is that they don’t support Spotify yet. This wasn’t too big a problem for me because I’m an Amazon Prime member. I just swapped over to Amazon Prime Music. But if you don’t have that luxury, I could see you being a little let down by the lack of support for Spotify.

Surely it’s only a matter of time until ROAV gets Spotify onboard considering it’s on the average Echo Dot, so watch this space.

ROAV Viva Pro: The Verdict

I love this thing. I’ve got both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant devices in my home, so I’m already well versed in how to use smart assistants in my daily life. I don’t think you do need to have other Amazon Alexa devices to get the most out of the Viva or Viva Pro. These gadgets immediately transform your in-car experience to be much smarter.

The ROAV Viva is another brilliant gadget from Anker that can give you a lot in return for less than €100. As always, pop your questions in the comments or drop us a line on social.

Pick up the ROAV Viva Pro for around €60. I also recommend pairing this with a magnetic phone holder that I reviewed ages ago and is still going!

 

Quad Lock Bike Mount Review: The Deliveroo Phone Holder

Marty
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Quad Lock Bike Mount Review: The Deliveroo Phone Holder

When I’m looking for products to review, I get inspiration from some strange places.

Sometimes, it’s two odd places. It’s fairly public knowledge that I’m a massive electric scooter fan, but my own scooter doesn’t have a screen. This means you need to use an app on your phone as your display. Naturally, this means you need a good phone holder. One night, a Deliveroo rider was dropping off a takeaway and I spotted the bike mount they were using for their phone and I just had to try it. They were using a Quad Lock bike mount; which also fit scooters – just about.

When I’m looking for products to review, I get inspiration from some strange places. Sometimes, it’s two odd places. It’s fairly public knowledge that I’m a massive electric scooter fan, but my own scooter doesn’t have a screen. This means you need to use an app on your phone as your display. Naturally, this means you need a good phone holder. One night, a Deliveroo rider was dropping off a takeaway and I spotted the bike mount they were using for their phone and I just had to try it. They were using a Quad Lock bike mount; which also fit scooters – just about.

What is Quad Lock?

Whether you ride a bicycle, a motorbike, an electric scooter or drive, chances are you’ve looked for a phone holder at some stage. There are a lot of options out there but Quad Lock always seemed to be the choice of people who generally know what they’re talking about.

Quad Lock is more than an iPhone holder or a mount for your smartphone; it’s a whole phone holder solution for a range of scenarios. First, you either buy a case that fits your phone or buy the universal fitting which sticks onto most phones.

This gives you a locking point.

quad lock for huawei mate 20 pro
My Mate 20 Pro fitted with a Quad Lock system

That’s the super simple part. Quad Lock gets really clever when it gets to the secondary part of the whole system; the mounts.

My Xiaomi m365 with Quad Lock mount sans phone

In the above image, you can see my Xiaomi m365 electric scooter with the Quad Lock mount. I’d removed the phone to grab a quick picture, which means you can see the mount system.

And that’s the beauty of the system, to be honest. If you’re stuck at a red light or pulled over needing to take a called, the Quad Lock system means you can pop your phone out ridiculously fast. Putting it back in is just as fast. You angle your phone at a 45-degree angle, press down and twist it back to 90-degrees. Just like that, your phone is safe has houses in a nice convenience place.

How easy is that?

Benefits of the Quad Lock System

For me, the benefits of the Quad Lock system were pretty simple, but I would imagine these same benefits would be felt by mountain bikers, Deliveroo riders or my fellow electric scooter riders.

Give Yourself A Display

This system means your phone is in a great location on your bike or scooter. You can seen the screen nice and clearly without having to fidget while you’re on the move. If you’re following maps or trying to find a JustEat or Deliveroo customer, this is extremely valuable.

Free Your Phone

The ability to grab your phone for a quick call, photo or Google Search on the go is priceless. Being able to put it back just as quick is also quite the treat.

Stability

I’ve used a few phone mounts and holders over the years. From clamps to magnetic solutions, I’ve never really trusted the holder in bumpy scenarios. Riding a suspension-less electric scooter is a great test for the Quad Lock system. If you’re in the market for a mountain biking phone holder, I’d imagine this is what you’re after given the punishment mine has survived.

Versatility

When I started looking into the Quad Lock range, I kind of assumed it would just be a simple enough handlebar mount. Instead, I found a wide range of fittings and options to suit your needs. You can get one of these mounts to fit the stem of your handlebars, the handlebars themselves, your car, a strap on your arm for running and even fittings to suit motorbikes. The level of detail these guys went into is best seen in the fact they have a special handlebar mount which also has an additional piece which lets you hang your GoPro from the Quad Lock mount.

I don’t often say this, but it’s very clever.

Which Phones Does Quad Lock Fit?

You have two options when it comes to buying one of these mounts. First up, if you’re using an Apple iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, you can buy a case with the mounting point built into it. Secondly, if you don’t have one of these phones, you can buy a universal mount and stick this onto any phone.

While both systems work similarly, the universal mount does come with the only real flaw I could find in all of this.

One Catch With Quad Lock

When I opened up my phone mount system, I followed what seemed to be fairly simple instructions. Using the provided wipe, I cleaned off my phone case and prepared it. I reluctantly removed my Popsocket because the mount takes up most of the phone’s real estate (nope that’s not the problem). Next, I peeled off the cover which protects the mount’s sticky pad and pressed it against the case. I removed the phone from the case for this so I could REALLY press the two together.

I held this for about a minute or so, but when I released it the mount immediately fell off.

It turns out that you can’t stick the universal mount to certain cases made from rubber. Now, I’m not sure but I’d imagine that’s most smartphone cases. I can’t imagine many would be happy enough to stick the mount straight onto the phone either as this means no more case for you. My solution was lots of super glue which did work, but it’s a little messy still.

Quad Lock: The Verdict

If you’re after an iPhone bike mount or a Samsung phone holder suitable for a mountain bike, you really can’t look anywhere other than the Quad Lock phone mount. It’s brilliant, easy, quick and reliable. The one snag is the universal mount probably won’t stick to a lot of good phone cases on the market. It’s not a deal-breaker, there’s a workaround and I learned to live with it but just be aware that it’s not the absolute perfect solution unless you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy or Apple iPhone.

Quad Lock is available on Amazon.co.uk starting at €65. Check out our guide to ordering from Amazon UK to Ireland. It could save you a packet.

Amazon in Ireland: Free UK Shipping And Some Other Tips

Marty
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Amazon in Ireland: Free UK Shipping And Some Other Tips

With Brexit still around the corner in what seems to be a never-ending corridor of WTF, shopping over on Amazon.co.uk is still an option for consumers in Ireland. Actually, it looks like it won’t be going anywhere any time soon. I’ll be honest, I fully expected Amazon Ireland to appear in the two years since the UK announced they would be leaving the EU.

I’ll admit, sometimes I feel a little guilty about shopping with Amazon. They’re a massive company and quite a few people believe online shopping is killing the high street in local communities. Unfortunately, we can’t always focus on shopping with local stores and we need to go shopping online. Having these two options of shopping online with Amazon or shopping with a high street store, I’m left asking these two questions.

  • Do I need it right now or can I wait a few days?
  • Could I save a few bob by buying them on Amazon?

If you’re really clever, you can even avail of free UK delivery to Ireland too using some tricks of the online shopping trade.

Looking to bag a bargain? Check out our Amazon Prime Day 2019 Guide

Benefits Of Shopping On Amazon.co.uk?

The UK online shopping market is huge compared to Ireland. Don’t get me wrong, us Irish are hefty online shoppers too, but the UK is bonkers for online spending. As a result, the range available online in the UK is amazing. Online retailers offer a huge range of products you could only dream of picking up on the high street in Ireland. Because they shift larger volumes, there’s also a fair chance you’ll pick items up cheaper from the UK.

Some online stores are still coming to terms with home-shopping but it’s becoming easier to shop online than traipsing into town. The likes of Amazon, Zara and Mango make shopping online and returning either in-store or by mail really straightforward. In the case of Amazon, their customer care is nothing short of incredible.

Back when I started using Amazon I forgot to cancel my Amazon Prime trial and was charged the annual membership rate. That’s about €95. After five minutes on web chat, I was refunded with a full apology. Yes, an apology for my mistake. On another occasion, they covered my Parcel Motel costs for a return, but more on that later. I digress.

Shopping on Amazon opens up a world of choice and the piece of mind that they care about customers. Go a step further, and get yourself an Amazon Prime trial to really live it up like royalty with next day delivery (which takes about two days to Ireland).

But Isn’t Amazon.co.uk Just For The UK?

This is where things get a little interesting. With Brexit just around the corner, this might very well change, but many of the sellers on Amazon.co.uk offer delivery to Ireland. Whether or not there is a charge or not varies between sellers. Others will only ship to the UK, but believe it or not, this is where your biggest chance to save some money lies.

How to Use Parcel Motel with Amazon to Get Free UK Delivery to Ireland

When a seller insists on only shipping to the UK, all is not lost. There is a free delivery trick you can use with the likes of Amazon. In recent years, there has been a rake of new shipping partners popping up in Ireland and the best known of these is Parcel Motel.

When you sign up to Parcel Motel, they give you a free virtual UK address. You pop this in as your shipping address when shopping on Amazon.co.uk. Parcel Motel will recognise your order and do the rest. The virtual UK address itself is free, but you’ll pay €3.95 per day your package waits in a Parcel Motel.

Of course, this delivery trick will work with hundreds of UK stores that don’t deliver to Ireland.

How Does This “Parcel Motel-Amazon Free Delivery Trick” Work?

Don’t be intimidated by the idea of having a virtual UK address. Having one has grown massively in popularity over the past few years. Here’s how it works:

  1. Sign up for Parcel Motel
  2. Get your virtual UK address
  3. Shop and Amazon, delivering to your virtual UK address
  4. Parcel Motel will then ship to Northern Ireland and driver your package to a locker of your choice in Ireland.
  5. You’ll pay €3.95 for every day your package remains in the locker.
Image of a Parcel Motel site courtesy of John Finn

Of course, this is handy when sellers only ship to the UK, but you should always check UK shipping costs. You’ll often save money by choosing free UK delivery to your Parcel Motel over standard delivery to Ireland.

What to Look out for When Shopping with Parcel Motel

While it’s a great service, you do need to know a few things when shopping with Parcel Motel.

Limited Lockers

If you’re shopping around Christmas, give yourself plenty of time. There are limited lockers and if someone doesn’t pick up their package, you could be waiting for space. The lockers also have size restrictions. Big packages or bulk orders might need to be collected from the depot.

Double-Check Your Dates

The delivery date Amazon provides is the date your package reaches Parcel Motel. They will usually take at least another day to get your package to you.

Parcel Motel Alternative

There are a few scenarios where you may need to use a Parcel Motel alternative. One particular situation you might yourself in is an Amazon seller not offering delivery to the island of Ireland, or limiting to mainland UK only.

The reason why some items cannot be shipped to Northern Ireland comes down to what you’re trying to ship. For example, to get that screenshot I looked at a power bank. Items are usually shipped via air and some postal companies have strict rules against lithium-ion batteries being flown by air. 

One way around this is to use An Post’s AddressPal service. Parcel Motel works by using an address in Northern Ireland. AddressPal uses an address in England, which means the first leg of your delivery never leaves England. Technically, you shouldn’t be able to get smartphones or power banks delivered via AddressPal either as they’re restricted items, but I’ve heard from many shoppers who’ve received their packages no problem at all.

Shop With Confidence

There you have it. The handiest way to save some money, shop online and have your package wait for you. We often get asked, what does Amazon think about Parcel Motel. The honest trust is, they are very supportive of the service. As I mentioned above, Amazon has covered the cost of me returning items through Parcel Motel in the past. I was really impressed recently to receive an email from Amazon ensuring I was using Parcel Motel properly:

That’s as close to an endorsement as you get.

Will Amazon Ireland Ever Be a Thing?

Given time, it will be impossible for Amazon to ignore the value of entering the Irish market. With the now inevitable Brexit visible on the horizon, it’s likely that Amazon Ireland will be a thing sooner rather than later. It’s hard to tell just how virtual UK address providers will last through Brexit, so it makes sense for Amazon to set up shop in Ireland.

You can sign up to Amazon Prime Video in Ireland right now. This is actually Amazon’s only official service to Ireland right now.

If you have any questions all of this craic, pop them into the comments below.

Amazon Echo Now Supports Apple Music

Marty
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Amazon Echo Now Supports Apple Music

iPhone is purely a secondary device for me so my music listening is spread across Amazon and Spotify. With this in mind, I apologise for never realising Apple Music users couldn’t easily stream their tunes on an Amazon Echo. The good news is, Amazon and Apple are finally seeing eye-to-eye on this one.

While this appears to have launched Stateside in mid-March, Irish users can now enjoy this feature too.

Stream Apple Music on Amazon Echo

The first thing you’ll need to do to enjoy Apple Music on an Amazin Echo is to have a subscription to Apple Music and an Amazon Echo device. In the Amazon Alexa app on your phone, you can link your Apple Music account to your Amazon account.

Once you’ve done this, Amazon says playing music gets really easy. All you need to do is holler out something like “Alexa, play today’s hits on Apple Music” and away you go.

It might seem like a fairly simple thing, but I bet there are some users out there who have Apple Music and Spotify, with the latter being kept for the smart speaker in the living room.

Problem solved.

Someone Just Hacked a Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus Fingerprint Scanner

Marty
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0
Someone Just Hacked a Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus Fingerprint Scanner

This is one of the most legitimate Mission Impossible things I’ve ever seen in real life. As much as I wish it was the ultra-realistic spy mask, this is all about fingerprints.

In-Screen Fingerprint Scanners

Samsung recently launched the Galaxy S10 series in the shape of an S10, S10 Plus and an S10e. The Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10 Plus feature an unlocking system Samsung refers to as an Ultrasonic Fingerprint reader. The long and the short of this means Samsung was able to build a fingerprint reader into the screen of their latest flagship smartphones. Huawei achieved this last year with the Mate 20 Pro with an optical sensor which requires bright light to shine onto your finger. Ultrasonic, Samsung promised, would work better with wet fingers while remaining secure.

But an Imgur user has shown there’s a way around these fingerprint scanners.

Mission Possible: 3D Printing Fingerprints

Imgur user darkshark wanted to see if he could trick Samsung’s Ultrasonic Fingerprint reader on his new Galaxy S10 Plus. To be fair, he’s got access to some tech to make this a real Mission Impossible attempt, namely a 3D printer, but all in all the process he has documented was pretty simple.

Fingerprint on a glass captured using the Galaxy S10 Plus

First, he took a picture of his fingerprint on a glass using nothing more than his smartphone.

The fingerprint after some Photoshop work

Next, he brought the fingerprint into photo editing software to increased the contrast and make the fingerprint sharper.

From here, he was able to import his fingerprint into 3D printing software and made a few final tweaks before printing his fingerprint. The print took 13 minutes and this particular attempt was darkshark’s third attempt to fool his phone with the first two proving unsuccessful.

The printed fingerprint

Now with his fingerprint ready, all that was left was to test it all out and see if he could fool the Samsung fingerprint reader.

Just like that, it only bloody worked. I wondered if it might have been a trick using Bluetooth smart unlock but it all looks legit to me.

So What?

To be totally honest, this doesn’t come as a complete surprise. Smartphone security often comes under question. Fingerprint sensors are pretty secure, but at the same time they can be fooled. Front facing camera technology combined with 3D facial recognition is pretty secure, but some phones use quite simple facial recognition with standard cameras – not very secure at all.

You are most likely better off with a pin number and remaining conscious about who sees that number. Convenience is arguably the biggest threat to people’s security these days. Many use the same password because it’s easier to log in, but that comes at a security cost.

Prime Time Electric Scooters Segment

Marty
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Prime Time Electric Scooters Segment

The debate is going national.

Gardai have started to clamp down on electric scooter usage in Ireland. Last week, seizures increased with Gardai citing the driving of an MPV without tax and insurance as the law being broken. This is despite most electric scooter users that I’ve seen around Dublin riding the Xiaomi m365; a scooter which cannot be classified as an MPV.

Legislation has been slow to change, leaving scooter riders in a grey area right now. Gardai have decided it’s for a judge to choose whether or not these are MPVs while scooter riders continue to argue they cannot be classified as such. The debate has roared to the point where it got a Prime Time slot tonight on RTÉ.

It was a good, honest account of the situation and plenty of positivity on Twitter too.

Now, time will tell how scooters fair in the country. I’m feeling more positive after that piece.

Electric Scooter Seized In Dublin

Marty
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Electric Scooter Seized In Dublin

For the past few months, I’ve been commuting in Dublin using my Xiaomi m365 electric scooter. My commute is entirely within the city centre so I’m the perfect use-case of these nimble green modes of transport. There’s a downside though. Right now, electric scooters are moving within what some perceive to be a legal grey area, a grey area one scooter rider found himself on the wrong side of this week after Gardai seized his electric scooter.

The Problem With Electric Scooters

That title is a bit unfair because the problem isn’t actually with electric scooters at all. Legislation in Ireland is generally quite slow to change and as a result, An Garda Siochana are often left dealing with legal grey areas. For electric scooters, this grey area boils down to one simple question: are electric scooters mechanically propelled vehicles (MPVs).

you need to push off and reach 5 kmph before pushing down the throttle

I’ve already written about why my own scooter, the Xiaomi m365, is not classified as an MPV. To start the scooter, you need to push off and reach 5 kmph before pushing down the throttle and letting the electric motor kick in. For this reason, the scooter is not mechanically propelled, a point which is specifically called out on several key websites, including the website of An Garda Siochana and the RSA website.

On the website of An Garda Siochana, they state “the legal position is that if one of these scooters can be powered by mechanical or electrical power alone, and does not require pedalling or scooting for propulsion, then the scooter is considered to be a mechanically propelled vehicle (MPV) in terms of road traffic legislation”.

According to the RSA, “if it can be powered by mechanical or electrical power alone (i.e. it can go without you pedalling or scooting it) then it is considered to be a mechanically propelled vehicle (MPV)”.

With this in mind, I personally feel quite comfortable on my own electric scooter that I’m not riding an MPV and as such, I don’t require tax or insurance. I still ride it safely, using only roads and bike lanes, never riding on a footpath and always wearing a helmet, hi-vis and using my lights when it’s dark. Sensible stuff.

But recently, another scooter owner got in touch with me to say his scooter was seized by An Garda Siochana.

Gardai Seize an Electric Scooter

George rides a Kugoo S1 electric scooter. While different to my own in a few ways, the Kugoo S1 is a kick-scooter. That means, like mine, you need to push to start before the motor will kick in. For this reason, the Kugoo S1 is also not classed as an MPV.

A Kugoo S1 electric scooter, similar to the one seized by Gardai

I chatted with George who explained what happened.

He was stopped by a Garda when riding in a bicycle lane on the Templeogue Road, near the Terenure Library. The Garda had parked his motorbike in the bicycle lane and had already stopped a rider of an electric unicycle.

The Garda asked George to step down from his scooter before explaining that he would be seizing the Kugoo S1. I asked George if he was given a reason for the seizure, to which he explained the Garda had stated it was for “riding an MPV without licence, insurance and tax”. George told me that he tried to explain to the Garda why his scooter was not an MPV, but soon after a tow truck came along to take both the electric scooter and the electric unicycle away.

To get his scooter back, George had to visit the Garda impound and pay €125 to get his scooter released, the same fee paid to have should you ever have your car impounded.

Regards the insurance argument; I’ve contacted insurance companies and here’s what happens when you ask to get electric scooters insured…

Why Did This Happen?

I’ve seen quite a few electric scooter riders do things which, to me, would justify their scooter being seized. Some might think I’m a bit harsh, but riding without some hi-viz, lights and a helmet while staying off the footpaths, is just a requirement for me. If you’re doing any of these things, you deserve to lose your scooter. Like this guy from a few years ago, not wearing a helmet on a scooter with a seat…

So I asked George if this could be the case. He informed me that it was daytime, so he didn’t need a light on but he was wearing a helmet and hi-vis with a flashing red light on his backpack too.

In my eyes, this is a really unusual case because not only is the scooter in question not an MPV, the rider was being as responsible as possible. Rather interestingly, I also chatted to another scooter rider who was stopped in a similar situation on the same day.

Again, a Garda with a motorbike parked near a bike lane and stopped this rider who was riding a Xiaomi m365, just like my own. In this case, the rider explained to the Garda that the scooter wasn’t an MPV. This time, however, while the Garda disagreed with the rider he was let away with a warning and was informed that if he saw him again, the scooter would be seized and it would lead to a court date.

So What’s The Actual Stance Of An Garda Siochana?

I spoke with another scooter rider who, in light of hearing these stories, headed to his local Garda Station in Crumlin Village to see what they make of electric scooters. He asked them if they would stop him if they saw him riding his scooter and they said they wouldn’t bother unless he was doing something stupid. They also stated that they understand the scooters are in a legal loophole.

This does leave the question: why was George’s scooter seized and another rider was told he was being let off with a warning?

To get the answer to this, I reached out to the Garda Press Office for more information. I outlined what happened to George and the other riders and at first they sent me the same information the RSA make available which I’ve shared above.

I asked for further clarifications around why an electric scooter could be seized as an MPV despite falling outside the classification. The Press Office responded, “whether a vehicle is an MPV is defined in the Road Traffic Act and it is ultimately a matter for the courts to decide based on the evidence provided”.

The Garda representative concluded, “our normal policy is not to interpret any particular piece of legislation. If someone has a complaint related to any Garda action there is a process for making such complaint”.

The Verdict

Gardai seized a scooter on the assertion it was an MPV even though it would appear electric kick-scooters fall beyond this definition. On the spot, it’s not the job of An Garda Siochana to interpret the law, but instead, to apply it as best they can. In this situation, it would appear that electric scooters are operating in a grey area. Naturally, with grey areas, this means Gardai are put in a difficult position when it comes to applying the law.

What we need now, more than ever, is those who draft legislation to make a move and shine some light on these legal grey areas. Irish legislation is dramatically behind the requirements of Ireland’s modern inhabitants and it needs to be sorted as soon as possible.

Update: Since I researched this article, another electric scooter rider named Victoria got in touch with Newstalk and discussed how her scooter was seized. She was the fifth scooter on the night to be confiscated and this all took place on the same day. What followed was an incredibly interesting discussion which centered on the possibility that electric scooters were illegally taken by Gardai.

Even more interesting is the experience by the guys over at escoot.ie. After being pulled over on a Xiaomi m365 and presenting Gardai with a printed sheet defining why his scooter wasn’t an MPV, this rider was informed he was completely correct by the Gardai and sent on his way with no further action. I’m away to print this sheet off immediately.

Rethinking Smartphone Photography: Meet the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro

Jon
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Rethinking Smartphone Photography: Meet the Huawei P30 and P30 Pro

A few years ago, Huawei started making some pretty decent smartphones. Martin has said before that he references the P8 as the point where he realised they were onto something. To be fair it’s hard to disagree. At an event I attended in Paris the other day, Huawei announced the long-awaited P30 Series, including the P30 Pro. Strap yourself in becuase here’s because here’s what they announced.

First Thing: Is Huawei Bigger Than Ever?

Well that’s a loaded question. Answering it quite easily, yes. Yes they are. Take a look at the Google search trends for both “S9” and “P20” last year, the flagships of Samsung and Huawei respectively.

trends.embed.renderExploreWidget(“TIMESERIES”, {“comparisonItem”:[{“keyword”:”P20″,”geo”:”IE”,”time”:”2018-01-03 2018-12-31″},{“keyword”:”S9″,”geo”:”IE”,”time”:”2018-01-03 2018-12-31″}],”category”:0,”property”:””}, {“exploreQuery”:”date=2018-01-03%202018-12-31&geo=IE&q=P20,S9″,”guestPath”:”https://trends.google.com:443/trends/embed/”});

While Samsung’s launch went well, Huawei had an incredible year competing with Samsung for the public’s interest. It’s no wonder the Chinese manufacturer took second spot away from Apple for the top-selling smartphone maker.

In our opinion we’re no longer looking at the Huawei that made a couple of decent phones a few years ago, we’re looking at the Huawei that creates best in market phones today. Over the past year or so, Martin has been using both the Huawei P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro, and he’s been blown away by both. That pretty much sums up where Huawei are now and we can’t wait to test out the P30 Pro in detail. You’ll have to wait for the hands-on review, but for the time being, here are the specs on paper.

What Phones Did Huawei Announce?

We expected to see Huawei announce their P30 Series and with that expected to see a P30, P30 Pro and P30 Lite. We nearly got the lot except for the P30 Lite, a prepay favourite, which will come at a later date.

Let’s focus on what did get announced in the P30 and P30 Pro. First up…

The Huawei P30 Pro

While Huawei’s phones have been improving over the past few years, it was 2018 that I dubbed the year of Huawei. That started with the P20 Pro which totally changed smartphone photography. Naturally, this has left me with high hopes for the P30 Pro and it looks like Huawei delivered again. As now seems to be the Huawei focus, this year it was all about the camera and if initial tests are anything to go by then we could well be looking at an early contender for the phone of the year 2019. So let’s look at the camera.

P30 Pro Camera

Holy moley. What is Huawei at. Seriously, at the event in Paris there was a contingent of approx 30 people from Ireland who got to see the new P30 up close and personal. Every single one of us was blown away. When it comes the Huawei P30 Pro, the spec are completely ridiculous. The first thing you will notice is how Huawei have jammed in five cameras in total on the P30 Pro. One on the front and four on the back.

Huawei P30 Pro with Quad Leica Lens setup

And they’re not just lenses. These are the ever-stunning Leica lenses that really upped the quality of photography that Huawei was able to achieve.

The quad lens setup on the P30 Pro makes this Huawei shooter is incredibly versatile. If you’re a photography nerd, here are some stats for you. The P30 Pro has an ISO rating of 409,600. The quad camera setup on the rear comprises of 40 MP (Wide Angle Lens, f/1.6 aperture) + 20 MP (Ultra Wide Angle Lens, f/2.2 aperture) + 8 MP (Telephoto, f/3.4 aperture) and a HUAWEI Time-of-Flight(TOF) Camera. The TOF Camera is designed to detect depth of field and increase the quality of your shots without you having to do anything at all.

The nuts and bolts of the Huawei P30 Pro camera

If you are an advanced photographer, like those extremely talented people over on Huawei Creatives, then you might just prefer to leave the camera in Pro Mode where you can edit settings yourself.

The most impressive feature I have seen so far is the zoom. Not even lying but on hearing about the 10x zoom and the 50x digital zoom, my first reaction was “Yeah right, in a smartphone, suuuure” and then I got to play with it myself. Seriously the below pic is only the 10x with no filtering or editing and just look at that detail. It’s black magic pure and simple. Wait for the full review to see what this is truly capable off.

The Camera for Everyone

Now, if all that went over your head, don’t worry. Huawei has included built-in AI which means if you’re anything like myself you will still end up with great shots every time. Here’s one I considered, would I be tempted to get out for a walk just to try to capture some decent shots? Yes, yes I would. Just look at this quick shot of the Eiffel Tower that was taken about a few short hours after getting the P30. Imagine what you can do with a little bit of practise.

Finally, if looking into all those numbers you feel like you still have no idea if this camera will be any good or not, I have one more little bit of news that’ll make it much clearer.

DXO Mark, independent lens reviewers and smartphone photography review specialists, also announced that today they gave the Huawei P30 Pro an overall rating of 112. This means the P30 Pro overtakes both the P20 Pro and Mate 20 Pro which sat atop the same chart in joint position.

Nice Night Shots

There’s one more feature which has grown in popularity since last year. Night mode. While Huawei went big with this on the P20 Pro, it actually became best known for featuring on the Google Pixel 3, turning light into dark almost magically. As you might have noticed most of the early test shots have been taken at night and that’s because, with the P30 Pro, Huawei have gone big. Again as we’ve mentioned already, we will need to test this camera in full detail before we go and make any claims. But on paper and early testing, it’s mighty impressive indeed.

Watch out for the full hands-on review. Coming soon!

P30 Pro Design

The design of the P30 Pro hasn’t massively departed from the P30 Pro. One key change is the smaller notch on the front of the phone. With Samsung opting for an in-screen, hole-punch camera, Huawei opted for a tear-drop notch. It takes up around the same amount of screen as the hole-punch method, give or take.

But the clever design doesn’t stop there with some of the coolest P30 Pro features being things you never see.

The P30 Pro is IP68 water and dust resistant so you don’t need to be afraid of getting it wet or dirty. Next up, is the sound. One slight failing in my beloved Mate 20 Pro is the sound. Huawei has deployed an in-display speaker which should improve call quality and your music listening experience too.

In-screen Fingerprint Sensor

Finally, at least finally for noteworthy features, the P30 Pro will also feature an in-screen fingerprint scanner. This is fast becoming a new standard in smartphone security and you will always feel like you’re living in the future because of it.

Power It Up

Power has become another bragging point for smartphone manufacturers and last year Huawei brought two new things to the table; reverse wireless charging and charging so fast, you could see it.

This tech, introduced for the Mate 20 Pro will now feature on the P30 Pro too. You’ll be able to reverse wireless charge a range of devices or other smartphones, sharing your massive 4200 mAh battery with others. Now at a guess, I would say the charging time of third-party products would be slow and that’s just from what we’ve seen before. Then again we didn’t think that 50x zoom could work so nicely, so let’s wait and see.

Knowing full well I’m a total nerd, I’m probably most impressed with just how fast this phone will charge. Going by the Mate 20 Pro, fast charging will be incredibly important. If you buy a phone like this, use the charger you get with it. It’s capable of getting you from an empty battery, all the way up to 70% from a 30 minute charge.

If you want to get a sneak peek of what’s the come, get on over to the Goosed.ie Instagram and checkout how I got on in Paris, at the Huawei P30 launch day.

The Huawei P30

Samsung and Apple have a different approach to their flagships than Huawei’s approach. Samsung and Apple pack the exact same tech into different sized phones while Huawei does go all in for their Pro model while making the regular model almost as impressive but more affordable. With this in mind, the Huawei P30 packs in lots of the tech you enjoy with the Pro model but does give up a few bits.

For example, instead of the quad camera setup, the P30 opts for a Triple Leica camera. You still gets lots of the features, but lose out on the Huawei TOF sensor. While you won’t have the apparently ridiculous zoom available on the P30 Pro, you will still be able to shoot incredible night shots. In truth, when it comes to the camera, the P30 looks like it’ll be brilliant and the P30 Pro will excel. Again, watch this space.

The P30 will also pack a slightly smaller battery, weighing in with 3650 mAh worth of power on board. The screen is slightly smaller, given it’s 6.1-inches in size versus the 6.4-inch P30 Pro and you will give up a small bit of RAM. All in all, the specs step down a bit for the P30 from the P30 Pro, but to me it looks more like Huawei is creating a two phones for two very different users who are both willing to shop at very different price points.

Speaking of which…

Huawei P30 Pro and P30 Pricing

We’re still waiting to see how much the P30 and P30 Pro will set you back on Vodafone and Three, but eir and Harvey Norman have given us an indicator of what you can expect in terms of price and pre-order goodies.

With eir, the P30 Pro will set you back €349 on their €55 per month plan. The P30 will set you back €149 on the same plan.

If you were to pick this up SIM-free from Harvey Norman instead, you’d be looking at €999 with the P30 coming in at €739.

You can also pick these models up at Carphone Warehouse, selling the phones on eir, Vodafone, Three and SIM-free. The P30 Pro will be available in Black and Breathing Crystal. Yes, it’s called Breathing Crystal. I’m not joking. It’s white.

The P30 will come in Black, Breathing Crystal and Aurora as an exclusive in Carphone Warehouse. Aurora, yeah that’s blue. Notions.

Huawei will also be giving customers who pre-order their new P30 or P30 Pro before 4 April a Sonos (Gen 2) smart speaker worth €229. Even though I’m quite a big fan of Huawei as it is, I’ve got to admit. That’s one of the best pre-order gifts I’ve seen in a long time.

So. It all looks so good so far, right? Well as of now the baby has been handed over to the resident Huawei expert in Martin who will be popping his sim into this phone and giving it a proper run out to check if it matches how good it looks on paper when used in real life. Be sure to give us a follow because if you’re in the market for the new phone, the P30 Series is going to be right up there.

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