TechWire

Bebo Ireland's visitor figures are hard to swallow

Can Bebo really be as popular as it claims to be in Ireland? According to the folks at Generator (which sells ads onto Bebo), it has 1,120,969 "registered" Irish users. But only a small fraction might use the service regularly, right? Not according to Generator. It claims that a whopping 439,657 Irish people are "active" users, meaning they use the site at least once a week. The ad firm also quotes Bebo's Comscore figure for May as 579,000 "unique" users. Are there really more people watching Bebo than the majority of TV shows? Or any single radio show? It's hard to believe.

How to deal with mobile bores

Ever wished that that bore on the bus would just shut up? Now you can make them -- with a portable mobile phone jammer. Just flick this little gadget on and any phone within a 30 feet radius will lose its signal. Also very handy in the cinema, theatre, library, or restaurant. Note that phone jammers aren't exactly legal for use in Ireland. €190. Available from phonejammer.com

Where to buy electronic stuff online

Looking for laptops, cameras, tellies, MP3 players and other gadgets? Here's a rake of sites available to the Irish web-shopper:

www.dabs.ie
Great clearance corner, such as 1GB Ram/80GB HD Acer laptops for €600 (inc Vat). Delivery: €5 to €21, depending on value and weight.

www.directvalue.ie
Delivery: from €12 to €24, depending on size and product category.

www.peats.com
The prices are generally the same as in its stores. Delivery: €14 for all products or €20 per 25kg for next day service.

www.sonystyle.ie
Only sells Sony equipment. But it’s worth visiting as Sony stuff can be hard to source online. Delivery: Depends on product.

www.play.com
Unlike CD wow, Play.com also has a sizeable tech webstore, selling lots of gadgets. Delivery: free.

www.amazon.co.uk
Be warned: much of its electronics and gaming equipment is off limits to Irish shoppers. Delivery: from €6

www.komplett.ie
Decent for IT parts and peripherals selection. Delivery: €12 or €13.50, depending on service used (An Post or DHL).

www.laptopsdirect.ie
Delivery: from €7.34 to €60, depending on product.

www.buy4now.ie/galaxy computer
Delivery: from €8 to €15.50 depending on location and number of items.

www.microaid.ie
This veers far more towards a business market than a consumer one, with prices quoted without Vat.
Delivery: from €5.75 to €17 depending on weight and delivery time.

www.apple.com/iestore
Delivery is prompt and the site often has offers not available in shops, such as a free printer with a computer purchase.

www.dell.ie
Delivery: €3 on orders under €50; €6depending on orders exceeding that.

www.buy4now.ie/3G
Delivery: from €8 to €15.50, depending on location and number of items.

www.vodafone.ie/onlinestore
Delivery: free

www.meteor.ie
Phones and downloads. Delivery: free.

www.three.ie
Phones, accessories and music downloads. Delivery of phones: €7

www.elara.ie
Massive range of gear. Delivery: free to €23, depending on product and delivery schedule

Interesting IT names (part 12): George Nazi

Nazi is the vice president of global engineering for BT Global Services. As such, he is responsible for the CTO office and all engineering activities, core, domestic and access, including service development, network design, engineering, planning, implementation (for IP and data), voice and multimedia, transport and subsea, fibre, accommodation and, finally, access. He also holds overall lead responsibility within BT Global Services for defining and delivering network platform architectures and strategies.

Golden Discs' example

Buying a box set of Yes, Minister today in Santry's Omniplex shopping centre, Golden Discs' credit card machine had difficulty connecting to the server. The sales clerk apologised and promptly gave me €5 off the price of €40 for having to pay in cash. That's what I call customer service. I'll be going back there.