Gadgets & Tech

Kitchen Gadgets: the Tassimo Vivy.

November 6, 2014 by Merry 2 Comments

We were recently sent a Tassimo Vivy to review. I’ve taken a look at what the family thought of it on my other blog but I wanted to put here a little more about the machine and the drinks itself.

The Tassimo Vivy is a snug 17cm wide drinks machine retailing at £99.99. It comes in black and white and uses a vast range of T-Discs to create all sort of different drinks. The machine itself has an Intellibrew system which reads the barcode on the disc and automatically puts the right amount of water through the machine for the drink required. The tank is filled with cold water and holds enough for several drinks and the machine heats it instantly as required, so no waiting for it to boil. I discovered, at a fairly desperately time short moment, that you can actually have a cup of tea in your hand in less than 45s, start to finish. As each drink finishes the brewing process, the machine cleans through with a steam cycle, making it ready for the next person. All you have to do is throw out the T Disc, which is no mess and self contained.

Our drinks selection included two types that involved a ‘recipe’ where you put in one flavour and then top up with a frothy creamer. It took us a while to get the hang of good mug sizes for these drinks but I’ve since found the website really helpful for picking drinks that fill a mug full 🙂

The kids LOVED the Oreo drink and the novelty of the whole thing and the husband grudgingly agreed that perhaps a gadget that delivered a coffee into his hands without his wife moaning constantly about hob top pots and messy filter paper was okay. He drank all the Kenco Discs I bought him anyway 😉

This leads me nicely on to cost; a quick bit of maths using the handy and easy to analyse information of their website shows you that drinks range from 25p a time up to about 60p, with the ‘recipe’ drinks that need 2 discs obviously requiring more. That said, you can find pretty good bulk deals on Amazon that bring that down to more like 20p and 40p and using their subscribe option, to have fresh supplies delivered every few months will also help on cost. With brands like Milka, Suchard, Costa, Kenco, Twinings and Carte Noire at your disposal, this is not as cheap as a bog standard home drink from a jar but much cheaper than a coffee shop and no more than an average drinks machine in the office. It’s almost certainly a lot nicer than that last option!

I’m really looking forward to treating myself to some of the Chai options and I love that I can have hot chocolate in the house knowing that if I choose to have one of them, the calories are controlled in the Disc and I can’t cheat with an extra scoop of power. It will also be good for the children who do tend of over indulge a bit at times; knowing they only have a certain amount of T Discs each is quite a handy greediness check.

So overall, we liked it. I think it will stay in the kitchen and I imagine it will be a treat or possibly end up in my room for early morning teas maid duty when I can no longer persuade a single child to do that for me!

Disclosure: this product was sent to me for an honest review.

Review: SodaStream Machine.

October 23, 2014 by Merry Leave a Comment

If there was one thing that I remember bringing utter glee into a trip to a friend’s house when I was a kid, it was getting to use the SodaStream machine that seemed to be an integral part of the kitchen of all of the places I might spend a day. Something about the deliciously naughty sound it made as it carbonated the drink, combined with the undeniable thrill of an unending supply of different flavours of sparkly drink – a luxury that didn’t tend to be on offer at my house – made it just feel like the height of naughty decadence.

It was obviously therefore completely impossible to turn down the chance to review a new SodaStream machine, especially as it came in sparkly bright yellow. I had a feeling my girls were going to be hugely entertained by the idea of a trumping drinks machine and I have a soft spot for the company, which was originally housed in the unit I drive past every day to get to work. I also sold the house of the man who invented the method of carbonating water in this way, something that just always pleases me. (I liked him a lot, reminded me of my grandad).

As predicted, the kids fell on the machine with delight. I admit I was slightly disappointed that it had a plastic BPA-free carbonating bottle, not a glass bottle like the olden days (although I see now you can get them with glass) and quite surprised by how tall it was; it is a sizable chunk of machine although this is because it accommodates a 1 Litre bottle. The starter cylinder was really easy to fit though (and makes 15L of drink after which there is a clever network of shops to swap them over with or a click and return online service) and the rounded and wipeable design does keep it nice and clean. The girls tried out the starter pack of flavours and were variably impressed by them (energy drink a bit weird, others really rather nice!) and then fell on the Del Monte fruit juice drinks we had also been sent to try out.

One thing about our family is that we don’t have spare mney to spend on fizzy drinks; there are way too many of us for it to be cost effective and I do kind of ‘mind’ spending a lot of money on a lot of plastic bottles; it feels – and it is – wasteful. So a SodaStream does allow the opportunity to have a bit of fizz easily and cheaply without too much of an additional waste impact. We do have juice drinks here (sugar free, yes, I know, I know) but mostly they drink water. Lemonade is a big treat. Having the opportunity to indulge in the silliness of trumping yourself a drink and being able to indulge in Orange, Carribean and Tropical flavours definitely did pull their string. We were trying it out at the end of the summer but I suspect over Xmas and through summer next year, it will be very popular. Certainly the Del Monte flavours were yummy and the range in general is pretty huge. (The man from Del Monte, he say yeah!)

I like that it is an option for a treat with less waste and I like that they aim to have 2/3 less sugar than a shop bought fizzy drink. My kids loved it and the only downside for me was the size, which in a small kitchen with limited cupboard and worktop space is a bit of a problem. It has a small footprint, it just feels ‘big’, if you follow me. That wouldn’t stop me recommending it, but it is a consideration.

Del Monte produced a hydration tip sheet as part of the release of their SodaStream drink flavours, which is included below.

Disclosure: we were sent this item for review. Thoughts are our own.

Review: The Gruffalo: Games App for iOS

October 12, 2014 by Merry 41 Comments

It’s hard to believe The Gruffalo is 15 years old, though in fact he came into our house rather later than for most and has only really been a hit with Bene, who shuns almost every other author for Julia Donaldson books. Josie however was a big fan of several of her books as were the older girls at various times. Tiddler, speaking in a Liverpudlian accent, is known by heart by everyone in the house!

We were offered the chance to look at The Gruffalo: Games on the iPad and it perfectly filled up an afternoon for Josie, who was home ill. Three in a Row, pitting mouse against Gruffalo, Snap, featuring the animals from the story and some other images and Nut Catch where the Mouse has to avoid the spikes and catch the nuts (you guessed that, right?) were all big hits with her, despite being nearly 10. Bene has since had a go and, despite being not yet 3, hasn’t struggled with it at all. (Really, the ability of little people to use technology is incredible I think).

What they thought: Josie said the sounds and artwork on it were really fabulous and she enjoyed it, rating it 8/10 even though she is quite old now and saying if she was younger, she would definitely have given it 10/10. It’s a hit with Bene.

What I loved: true to the images and feel of the book, simple for young users but still engaging for the older one, good for learning simple skills needed for next stage games and not a game that forces the constant cancelling of in app purchases.

Conclusion: At £2.99 it isn’t a cheap app but I do think it has wide appeal and real longevity too. The characters appeal instantly because they are known and love and the game play doesn’t involve shrieking or frustration, which is all good in my book. I like it enough that I plan to buy the Room on a Broom one too, also from Magic Light Pictures. The games are available on iOS and work happily on both our 7 & 8 installations.

“All was quiet in the Raymond House. Josie tried the app and the app was good!”

WIN!!!!!! A 15^th anniversary edition of The Gruffalo book, DVD, plush toy, puzzle, stationery and the app – worth £50.00.

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Disclosure: We received a free download of the app for this review.

Exploring Cyber Security with McAfee

September 7, 2014 by Merry Leave a Comment

Our recent trip to Bletchley Park included a visit to the McAfee Cyber Security Exhibition, to explore the reality of online information sharing and child safety on the internet. It’s quite an interesting (and very clever!) partnership, the codebreakers of the past combining with the code protectors of the present and future. In addition to the display and interactive material, we also attended an online safety education workshop with Nicola Halls, the in-house education officer, which most of my girls came to – one of them because I decided it would be a good idea after a recent transgression – which was quite an eye opener for me too.

The exhibition area itself was fantastic I thought and provided masses of talking points for us.

This display got us talking lots and followed on from a discussion I had with my smart phone enabled girls a while back about the danger of having personal information freely available online and location enabled. The Foursquare and Facebook combination was discussed widely a few years ago and would now apply to most apps; it is all too easy to share personal information and your location and be pinpointed quickly by someone who might abuse it. This particular display highlighted how much personal information we can casually share online in the course of public conversations that are entirely innocuous – name of your rabbit, where you were born, your mum’s interesting maiden name (that perhaps someone could pick up easily just from checking your Facebook relationships), your first car, where you went to school..

Sound familiar?

Oh yes, you just gave away every banking security question you’ll ever get asked. Pause for thought indeed 🙄 And you wonder why you have to have a banking dongle and a 16 digit entry code to your banking now!

There was another really interesting data collection display that asked us to consider who should be entitled to information about our online activities and under what circumstances; watching a variety of families navigating them and becoming increasingly unsure about seemingly simple questions got us talking – should be possibly dubious be enough to allow the police to check our records? When do we cross the line?

We didn’t have time to get all round the display but there was lots to look at; danger points, places where stranger danger comes into our home, virus protection and more. It was an excellently constructed exhibit, well worth the time.

After that we moved on to the safety workshop.

One of the girls recently made a (well intentioned) error of judgement regarding online behaviour that resulted in a total loss of gadgets and social media access for her own protection as well as for a punishment. It’s frighteningly easy for children not to realise that a foolish error online can spill over into danger at school, upset, danger walking home and even impact their right to be in their school. On this occasion it might have even involved the police, never mind making her look a royal idiot in front of her family members. This workshop which involved looking at app icons, among other things, reminded me how quickly online life moves on – I was totally unaware of the brand image of Snapchat and a number of others and it brought home to me that even feeling very online savvy, there is lots of it that is accessed by younger users that I’m unaware of and which, by the nature of the environments, has less natural adult policing occurring at user level.

I was relieved the girls were all oblivious to the dating app icons though (or very good actresses!)

Nicola reminded the children that online life is a little like a street, going to another website is like leaving your home and going down the street to a stranger’s house – different rules, different personal safety, different comfort zones. I think it is equally relevant to say all online transactions, chatting, signing in, information given out, are a little like opening a window of your own home – interesting and refreshing but a security risk. Nicola cautioned them to STOP. THINK. CONNECT. when engaging online.

Statistics from McAfee and Anti-Bullying Alliance research (Nov 2013):

o Half (45%) of parents are concerned about their child being bullied online

o Two-fifths (38%) of parents think that their child may have been bullied online

o A third (33%) of parents think their child may be a cyber-bully themselves

o Over half (53%) of children often go online without any parental supervision

o Nearly one in five (16%) of children have experienced mean or cruel behaviour online

You can read more about our day at Bletchley Park on Patch of Puddles.

Disclosure: we were invited by McAfee to spend the day with them.