Ofwat calls for lower water bills

"BBC NEWS | Business | Ofwat calls for lower water bills
Proposals set out by water regulator Ofwat will see average household water bills fall between 2010 and 2015. Taking out the impact of inflation, the proposals, if accepted, would see the average water bill fall by £14 to £330."

How come Ofwat can control water prices, whereas Ofgen are completely powerless against the money-grabbing electricity and gas suppliers?

BBC NEWS | Business | Ofwat calls for lower water bills

Price of petrol creeps up in 2009

"BBC NEWS | Business | Price of petrol creeps up in 2009
The price of petrol at the pump has been steadily rising since the start of January, figures have shown. However, the price of crude oil is now 40% lower than the last time petrol cost 90p a litre, back in March 2007, according to the AA."

Blatant profiteering by the oil companies again - and of course the Government benefit, so they're in no hurry to say anything untoward.

BBC NEWS | Business | Price of petrol creeps up in 2009

My iPod Touch

Never thought I'd own an iPod. The few times I'd tried them, I could never get on with that wheel-like interface. But as I'm part of the OU's iTunes U/Podcasting project (I am currently building the website, backend database and XML creation system) I've now become the posessor of an iPod Touch.

"Designed by Apple in California" they proudly state on the iPod's box - but where are they made? And why don't they say?

Apple's iPod now takes about 40% of the world's solid-state music player market and it is by far their biggest money spinner. To cut manufacturing costs, they are of course made in China in factories owned and operated by Foxconn. A bit old now, but here's some links to articles on "iPod City":

Inside Apple's iPod factories - Mac - Macworld UK
Apple responds to iPod factory claims - Mac - Macworld UK
BBC NEWS | Business | iPod 'slave' claims investigated

What of the iPod itself? We'll, its a very impressive bit of kit. The wireless functionality means that its much more than just a music player - I have a Sudoku game on it, plus I use it to read web forums, to keep up with Facebook (although its only partically functional) and to post messages to Twitter. The touch screen is easy to use and the predictive text typing works very well. I'm subscribed to the SkyNext podcast, plus I can play movies on it. Battery life is good and even the standard earpiece headphones do a reasonable job.

But then for £210 (16Gb model) it should be impressive - you can get a fully-functional Windows laptop for that money.