Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: travel blog

iPhone on T-mobile in the UK

If your iPhone contract has run out (or about to) then you can ask O2 to ‘unlock’ your iPhone. Once unlocked you can get a PAC code and transfer your existing number to T-Mobile.

Advantages

  • The £10 a month unlimited internet and texts for life is a great deal for anyone, like me, who doesn’t make many voice calls.
  • Since its pay as you go when you travel abroad you are no longer faced with a horrendous bill on your return. You can get one of their £5 roaming bundles easily by text whilst you are away.
  • Topping up is a delight, they send a message when you are running low you can send a free text back with the last 4 digits of your previously registered credit card  the amount and three security digits, and away you go.
  • The itemised billing is excellent, totally itemised bills to the last K of data transferred and instantly available on the web.
  • 3G Coverage so far is awesome!

Disadvantages

  • If your phone breaks and Apple replace it then according to the local Apple store it will be locked. Will O2 unlock a phone if you have no contract? When I asked at Apple they just said speak to O2 and yes O2 say speak to Apple. Maybe this issue will clear up as more iPhones get legally unlocked and Orange etc come to the market.
  • At the moment  if I put the iPhone in Airplane mode the iPhone asks to be unlocked again by iTunes (to do this you have to remove the SIM, take it out of flight mode, reinsert SIM and then iTunes will unlock it).
  • You get the silly Content Lock screen (in picture) if you access blogs 🙁
  • The iPhone seems to eat the battery in 3G mode. I guess with O2 it never found a 3G mast!

Conclusion
Its great to have an always on internet, even in the depths of cafes and lecture theatres, so I’m sticking with T-Mobile until either I buy a Nexus or the latest toy from Apple.

Orwell to Wimpole circular walk

The A team were back in action today!  Rita ably led the Cambridge Rambling Club on its first walk of 2010. A 14mile circular walk starting from Orwell then across the fields to Whaddon, Dyers Green and lunch at Wimpole Hall. In the afternoon we scaled the heights Everytrail profile across to Eversden and on down the old Clunch Pit back into Orwell.

Unfortunately the GPS ran out of battery just before lunch so the overall length should be longer than the 13.4miles indicated! (Sally‘s GPS said 14.3 miles)

A gorgeous cold and crisp sunny day.

Here are the pictures and trail:-

Orwell to Wimpole circular walk

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Ramble from Shelford to Haslingfield

Todays little walk was with the B team of The Cambridge Rambling Club, ably led by John, we set of from Great Shelford and ventured across to Haslingfield. We did quite a bit of road walking which with the mud and ice was probably just as well. Our lunchtime drink was at the Little Rose in Haslingfiled (no food served at lunch time). Followed by a tea and mince pies at John’s house in Shelford. Sally and I as A group walkers decided to add an extra 4 miles onto the day by walking back to Cambridge – exploring the not completed guided busway and very nearly getting stuck in a car park!

On the way I had an interesting talk with Paul who I discovered was another map geek plus we shared mutual friends from my Cavendish days.

Here is the walk and today’s pictures:-

Shelford – Haslingfileld walk

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Walking winter wonderland

Our friend Ellee has just done a great blog post on The Wonders of Walking.

Tis a pity she wasn’t with us today as Sally and I had a beautiful walk with the Cambridge Rambling Club. The leaders for today should have been Margaret & Larry. However, due to the icy road conditions and because they live in the remote regions of Cambridgeshire where gritter lorries never appear (although it has to be said Cambridge city centre pavements have yet to be gritted!) they couldn’t make the walk.

So Ron & Margaret stepped into the breech and gave 9 of us as a totally stunning walk around Cambridge starting from Cherry Hinton Hall taking in the chalk pits and the old lime kiln and thence through the Addenbrookes industrial complex onto Nine Wells and the start of Hobson’s conduit then along the Cam into the city and a welcome break of hot mince pies and coffee at Henry’s. Then onward across Jesus Green, Midsummer common, Coldhams common and back to Cherry Hinton Hall.

The weather was very cold (well -4ish) with crystal clear skies and beautiful mellow winter sun bringing out the best in the college brick & stonework.

A beautiful satisfying walk in the winter sun and a fitting tribute for a great 2009 walking year. So Ellee’s post is very apt!

Here is the walk and pictures (please excuse the thumbprints on some of the images ) on Everytrail:-

Cambridge in the snow

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