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Garden tool box talk about the best robot lawn mower

Best robot lawn mower

Just amazing aren’t they? A robot lawn mower has successfully replaced a human. That’s no small feat. As far as jobs at home go, it’s genuinely the first one a robot has successfully taken over and while many of us like to mow the lawn for a bit of exercise, or justify an afternoon Gin and Tonic on a sunny Saturday, there are many that hate it; that’s where the best robot lawn mower comes in.

A robotic lawn mower needs a decent start. You’ll have to give it a nice base to start from and install a wire line around the cuttable area which is supplied with all bots. Once you have, it will take over and make life a breeze. The feeling of the lawn staying in tip top condition with zero effort will feel surreal. Let’s be clear, it is zero effort too if you pick the right model that’s pretty polished in performance and software.

This review gets a bit long winded so I will fast forward you(if you don’t want an interesting read) I am including my findings now. I still highly recommend a long read though, it’s quite interesting believe it or not.

Best robotic lawn mower

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower or the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower

The Best robotic lawn mower aka the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower(when factoring price to performance for a larger garden) or the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower for a smaller garden will shred and mulch grass fine enough for it to fall between shoots of grass and decompose, sending nutrients back into the soil as part of the process. Yeah, sounds too good to be true right? Actually, apart from installing the boundary wire, that’s it. You’re done! The little robot will even head back to charge himself 🙂 and these two cracking lawn mowers will head to the main page to form part of an overall review of the best lawn mower.

On a side note. If you can afford it, the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower is literally the best robotic lawn mower. The problem is the value for money but we will go much more into detail further down the review.

The review of the best robot lawn mowers is a bit long so I’ve included a table of contents and just beneath that, a price and performance comparison table.

1. WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower

WORX WR130E S300 Landroid Robotic Mower 300m
4.4 out of 5 stars ( 23 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £498.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The S300 Landriod from Worx is my first pick in this budget lawn mower category. It is available on Amazon for £498.00. It’s dimensions are 62 x 53 x 29cm and it weighs just 16kg, so hardly a bulky machine and
 it’s powered by a single Lithium-ion battery that comes with the lawn mower. In operation, this WORX lawn mower robot runs very quiet at about 68 decibels and should be able to manage gardens up to 350 square metres. Great for people with ‘techno fear’ the S300 Landriod doesn’t need to be programmed. Simply set up the wire boundaries and the machine will do the rest.

WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower: Very tidy bit of kit, looks after itself and operates at up to 35 degree gradients

It has a dual blade cutting action where the blades spin in both directions. This makes the blades last longer and lengthens the time before you need to change them.
The way the Landroid cuts, little and often, actually leaves tiny clippings back in the soil, fertilising your garden for you.
 It also cuts close to edges, leaving an uncut area of just 2.5 cm.

Like most modern robot lawn mowers, the Landroid is fitted with sensors to let the machine know important things. For instance, it can sense rain and won’t come out to cut until it’s been stopped for a while. It can also sense when the battery is running low and will return itself to it is docking station to be charged.
 Other sensors, plus the lawn mowers AI, guide the WORX robot mower through narrow channels.

The all terrain wheels help this robot lawn mower to move over uneven ground and up gradients up to 35%.

Of course, the Landriod has it is niggles. Firstly, one of its drawbacks might be a preference, not a drawback, depending on your preference: it can’t be programmed. This might be great for some, but for others who like more versatility and control over their robot lawn mower, it could be an issue. 
Also, there seems to be a lack of documentation or online support in the way of an instruction manual.

There’s been complaints of the AI not recognising certain obstacles too, and instead of going around them, it bumps into them. It will work it’s way around eventually, it’s just off to watch it bump itself at the wall what seems like on purpose!

WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower Review

Best WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower Features

What needs work on the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower

No need to program Programming can’t be customised
Dual cutting action Reports of AI problems
Very quiet
Relatively cheap
Self charging
Easy to use
Rain sensors

Could they improve the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower?

All in all, the Landroid is a decent budget robot lawn mower best suited to people who are looking to save time and aren’t too bothered about being able to customise their mowing schedule. Quite frankly, it’s a hard ask to buy this when the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower and comes with so many positive reviews which is up next.

2. Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawnmower

Flymo 1200 R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawnmower Up to 400 sq m, 18 V
4.4 out of 5 stars ( 405 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £439.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

This offering from Flymo is currently available on amazon at a price of £439.00. It’s powered by 18 v 1.6 Ah Lithium-ion battery that will give you about 60 minutes worth of action before it needs to be recharged. When the battery runs low the robot lawn mower will return to its docking station automatically and charge itself.

 The Flymo 1200R robotic lawn mower measures 69 x 52 x 39cm and weighs only 7.4 kg when unpacked which is a lot smaller than the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower.

Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower: great robotic lawn mower, reliable, value, intelligent, and programmable.

 

The Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower is suitable for gardens up to 400 square metres. It is even quieter then the Landroid, producing only 58 decibels, the same as a normal spoken conversation.The 1200R cuts with razor sharp swing back blades with a cutting width of 17 cm and can be adjusted to cut from 20mm to 50mm. Like the Landriod, the cuttings are mulched as the machine mows helping to fertilise your garden and eliminating the need for raking making this easily a contender for the best robot lawn mower. This is extremely good value for money, just like the best cheap electric lawn mower, the Flymo Turbo Lite 250 Electric Hover Lawnmower.

A great feature of this robotic lawn mower is that it cuts in an irregular pattern insuring that all areas of the lawn get cut so you won’t be left with a patchy garden. When it bumps into an obstacle, it changes direction and continues mowing.

This Flymo is easy to set up and comes with a manual and quick-guide to help you along so you should be up and running in no time.

Unlike the Landriod, the Flymo 1200R can be programmed to cut on a schedule to your suiting. Just tell it what times and how often you want it to cut and leave it to do the rest.

The negatives to the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower are the same as most robot lawn mowers, you have to spend time setting the guide wire up and it won’t cut all the way to the edges of your lawn. This model has also been known to cut through its own guide wire on occasion and to run out of charge before making it back to its charging station but it does seem improved since those reports came to me.

Because of the way it cuts, this robotic lawn mower doesn’t leave stripes on your grass. 

So, although the Flymo 1200R is not without its faults, the vast majority of the robot lawn mower reviews have been very positive and is definitely the safe bet for a garden.

Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower Review

Best Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower

Great price Need to spend time setting up
Mulching feature Can’t cut to the edges
Programmable
Irregular cutting pattern
Moves around obstacles
60 minutes run time
Best robotic lawn mower
Best seller

Could they improve the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower?

This little Flymo robot mower is a brilliant bit of kit and certainly choice for a small garden. OK, it has a few niggles but they have improved and also its easily the best value for money. Also, with the reports of broken wire, I’m unsure how the wire has been cut because ideally it is placed slightly beneath the soil. There’s a possibility the wire raised there too. Overall a great bit of kit that works for 99.9% of customers no problem.

3. Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower

Yard Force SA500ECO Robotic Lawnmower with Lift and Obstacle Sensors, for Lawns up to 500m²
3.3 out of 5 stars ( 17 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £493.84
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The first thing you notice when you compare the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower to the two previous budget options, is that it has a much sturdier feel, mainly due to its great build quality. The Robomower gets its power via a 28V Samsung lithium-ion 2Ah battery and is good for gardens up to 500 square metres. It has a 60 minute running time and takes the same amount of time to charge, which, like most robot lawn mowers, it will do automatically when it runs low on charge.

Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower: Quality robot lawn mower, well built, irregular cut for even surface and overall not bad.

Although not fully programmable, you can select what mowing hours you would like the robot to work for you and then it will repeat the process every day.

Like the Flymo, Yard force’s robotic lawn mower cuts in an irregular pattern and also has sensors to help guide it around obstacles. 
The 28V Samsung battery gives the robomower enough punch to handle cutting inclines up to 27 degrees very well and the cutting height can be adjusted between 20mm and 60mm. This model also mulches the cuttings like the Landriod and Flymo 1200R.

Apart from the long set up time that is the problem with nearly all robotic lawn mowers, this Yard Force model also has another drawback: its docking station is comparatively quite large and could take up a fair bit of space.

Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower Review

Best Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower Features

What needs work on the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower

Good battery power Large docking station
Mulching feature Limited programming
Fast charging Long set up time
60 minutes running time
Good build quality

Could they improve the Yard Force SA500ECO Robomower?

I think all robot mowers, this is a work in progress. I don’t think it’s as polished as the Flymo robot mower but it shows plenty of promise and I think if they can reduce the docking station size and improve the software it will become a decent seller. It’s too tough to ignore the Flymo for me.

4. McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower

Mcculloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower 18 V, Up to 1000 m sq
4.6 out of 5 stars ( 46 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £749.99
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

The McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic lawn mower is designed for gardens up to 1000 square metres. It comes with 3 cutting blades, the boundary wire and 400 staples for you to set up with. It runs very quiet, almost unnoticeable and will do so for around 65 minutes before it will return itself to its docking station and charge.

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower: best robot mower[UK], most intelligent, best robot mower reviews, and all round performer

Charging time is fairly quick at 50 minutes. It is the best robot lawn mower for sure, the question is do you want to pay nearly double the price of a Flymo and is your garden big enough to justify it?

The ROB 1000 robotic lawn mower has a cutting width of 17cm and adjustable cutting heights of 20mm – 50mm. Like most robotic lawn mowers, it cuts the grass, mulches it and feeds it back as fertiliser. It can cut nicely on slopes up to 14 degrees.

Apart from the competitive price of £749.99, another thing I like about this lawn mower is it’s fully programmable. You can set the days, times, frequency and even the cutting length. It also follows an irregular cutting pattern that gives your grass a nice uniform cut.

McCulloch’s ROB 1000 robotic lawn mower has good security features. Firstly, it has a PIN code feature that needs to be entered to change the machine’s settings. Secondly, each machine is paired with a specific charging station and won’t work with any other. Thirdly, it is fitted with an alarm that sounds if any would be thief decides to take it for a walk. Once the alarm sounds it can only be turned off with the correct PIN code. Although it has to be said, the alarm could have been made to be louder in my opinion.

Apart from the quiet alarm, other complaints that have been made about the ROB 1000 is that it’s susceptible to water damage and also that it is complicated to set up, but this is a complaint made about nearly all robotic lawn mowers. Otherwise the robot mower reviews are pretty much exceptional.

There are also little details that need to be known before purchasing, like the charging station needing to be on very flat ground (no more than 3cm height difference from one end to the other) and the fact that flower beds and such need to be protected by a 6 inch barrier so that the robot will not bump into it and turn around.

McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower Review

Best McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower

Fully programmable Hard to set up for some people
Multiple security features Needs to be kept away from water
65 minute running time Charging station needs to be on flat ground
50 minute charging time
Comes with everything needed to set up
Best robot lawn mower

Could they improve the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower?

All robot lawn mowers need improvement. They are in the early stages of the product life cycle. That said, this one needs the least improvement and is the best robot lawn mower at sensible money you can buy. Apart from rain issues it doesn’t have any design faults and the quiet alarm is an easy fix.

5. Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower

Gardena smartsystem smart Sileno robot Lawn Mower 19066-20
Buy on Amazon for £929.00
Usually dispatched within 24 hours

Priced at £929.00, the Gardeno Smart Sileno is at the top end of our mid-range prices, but is the price justified? Time for a closer look.This robotic lawn mower runs on an 18V lithium battery that runs on average for 65 minutes, the same as the ROB 1000. At around 50 minutes, the charging time is also the same. It is designed to be able to cut lawns up to 1300 square metres and slopes up to 35%. Pretty impressive.

Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower: nice robot mower but the McCulloch still seems better value for money

With dimensions of 63x51x25cm, it’s bulkier than the ROB 1000 but at 8.5kg, weighs only 1.5kg more. 
The bigger frame houses a larger cutting deck of 22cm, significantly wider than ROB 1000’s 17cm and the 3 thin razor blades leave a nice cut at multiple height adjustments from 22mm to 60mm.

Gardena’s smart Sileno robot lawn mower is part of their smart system gardening range and can be linked up to other products in that range through an internet router. You can also get the gardena smart system app for your smartphone (both ios and android) and control your new gardening toys from the palm of your hand.

The Smart Sileno really is smart. It has sensors that can read how long the grass is and will only cut it when necessary, saving energy. It also has a very good navigation system that allows it to guide itself through areas and channels as long as they are wider than 1.5 metres.

As with the ROB 1000, the Gardena robot lawn mower has a PIN system and alarm for security. It also has a lock feature that stops anyone using it without the pin.

Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower Review

Best Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower Features

What needs work on the Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower

Can interact with other gardena products such as sprinklers Highly priced
Can be controlled by smart phone Has problems navigating narrower passages and channels (less than 1.5m)
Is able to sense the length of your grass It’s quite bulky
Has security features
Comes with everything needed to set up
Handles slopes up to 35%

Could they improve the Gardena smart Sileno Robot Lawn Mower?

For a start, they don’t provide anywhere near enough information on Amazon to get taken seriously and so the feedback is limited. Personally, at the price tag, until more information becomes available I would head to the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower.

6. Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower
1 out of 5 stars ( 1 customer reviews )
Buy on Amazon for £4,496.34

 

This is one of the most expensive robotic lawn mowers out there with a price tag of £4,496.34.

The main reason for the high cost is the fact that the Ambrogio L60B requires no installation.

While the vast majority of robot lawn mowers out there require you to spend at least a couple of hours setting up the boundary and guide wires, this one is wire free.

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower: no setup robot lawn mower, the next generation is here. Easily the best robotic lawn mower if you can afford it.

It works through a sophisticated system of sensors that tell the machine where the borders of your lawn are. It even has sensors on the blades so that this robot lawn mower knows when it is over grass or not.

The L60B uses four wheel drive to move around and it is brushed motors can tackle slopes up to 50% when not cutting and 40% while mowing.

It is small and lightweight, with dimensions measuring 44x36x20cm and weighing in at 7.9kg. This makes it fairly manoeuvrable and allows the unit to get into smaller areas of your garden.

The cutting deck is a 4 pointed star design that cuts at a width of 25cm and the lawn mower has reinforced bumpers so it will try to cut as close to the edges as it can without worry.

Unfortunately, the Ambrogio L60B has a few flaws. Firstly, it’s only suitable for smaller gardens of 200-400 square metres. Secondly, this robotic lawn mower isn’t self-charging and it needs to be done manually, and finally, for such an expensive lawn mower, the run time is only 2 hours with an hour needed to fully charge the battery.
In summary, the Ambrogio L60B is a step in the right direction with its no installation, no boundary wire operation. However, for such a high price I would have expected it to be able to tackle larger areas.

Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower Review

Best Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower Features

What needs work on the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower

Wireless. No need to set up boundary Very expensive
Four wheel drive Doesn’t auto charge
Can handle slopes of 50% Only suitable for smaller gardens
Lots of smart sensors for various features
Comes with everything needed to set up
Lightweight

Could they improve the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower?

Yes, for the price tag they need to make this thing self charge. Apart from that it’s the next level. There’s barely any negative feedback online and it’s a good buy if you can afford it.

Best robot mower

The best robot mower is the McCulloch ROB 1000 Robotic Lawn Mower if we are talking pound for pound. If we are talking simply the best robot mower irrespective of value then without hesitation you’ll go to the Ambrogio L60 B Robot Lawn-Mower. You have to question it’s value though at £4,496.34.

I can get my lawn cut for me about 80 times. Now, I don’t know about you but I cut my lawn about once a week maximum maybe 30 times a year. You see where I’m going with this… so while it is the best robot mower I’m not convinced this mower is solving a problem just yet.

Best robot mower [UK]

The McCulloch by contrast, cuts 1000m2 and will pay itself back in no time at all. This is a mower that’s fixing a problem and definitely worthy of the best robot mower[UK] title. I really can’t wait for these little robots to continue to improve.

Robot lawn mower review

The robot lawn mower review winner by a mile is the Flymo 1200R Lithium-Ion Robotic Lawn Mower. With literally hundreds more robot mower reviews than the competition it is most definitely the safe best for any small garden. Also, there’s no way the competition, other than McCulloch are going to be able to keep pace with research and development of Flymo.

Robotic mower reviews

In terms of being unbiased, Flymo does have a couple of negative reviews. The most alarming is the mower cutting it’s way through the wire fencing. I am not convinced the wire has been installed correctly though and would love Flymo to step in and research and investigate this so that if it is not user installation error, they can make a fix rapid! Overall though, if you buy based on robot lawn mower reviews, you go Flymo, no hesitation.
It’s hard to trust low robotic mower reviews volume and so Flymo gives you the piece of mind and comfort that you would expect from a top mower brand.

WORX lawn mower robot

I’m genuinely quite surprised the WORX lawn mower robot is as good as it is. While that seems rude it’s not. They are not a company with unlimited development budget and with the limitations of their resources have produced a really cool piece of equipment in the shape of the WORX WR090S S300 Landroid Robotic Mower. I should be surprised though they are doing great things, take the WORX cordless lawn mower for example. An accomplished bit of kit! Where I think the problem lay, they have effectively positioned themselves right up against Flymo with this model.

If there’s anything history shows us about lawn mowers, the only people that won’t be beaten are Flymo. So you have to question the sensibility of battling them when your price point is nearly the same.

WORX robot mower

I think this shows though, the number of reviews of the WORX robot mower is around twenty times less. Whilst I think it’s a good product, it’s a hard think to beat off Flymo when they decide they want a market, invariably they take it. Whilst I don’t like monopoly, Flymo are winning here due to a superior product, not because of the brand. The WORX robot mower doesn’t need much to catch up though.

If they keep plugging away at this robot mower I can see great things, so I hope they so. It will benefit us all in the future which is almost certainly going to be full of weird and wonderful robots that help around the home, not just lawn mower robots.

Flymo robot mower

The Flymo is the best robotic lawn mower pound for pound in my mind. While it’s not the best robot. It is the best value. I expect them to continue to develop this product and we can expect amazing things from the Flymo robot mower. While it’s already worth buying, it’ll only continue to improve to the point of making all other options redundant. That is my prediction for the future.

You can always rely on Flymo to produce great results, you only have to look at their range of best hover mowers to see where this will end up for them.
Well, that review brings an end to this section on robotic lawn mowers. I hope that it has given you a better idea of the different models and features available at the moment.

KCOM Broadband and all the Alternative Service Providers

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With close to 9.5 million subscribers, BT are the crowned kings of broadband providers here in the UK, but that doesn’t mean they are the number one choice for everyone.
Sometimes, exploring the alternative service providers can land you with a deal that is much more suited to you, and often cheaper than going for one of the larger companies such as BT or SKY.


In Hull and east Yorkshire, KCOM are the most popular providers and offer ‘fibre to the premises (FTTP)’ which means that the company runs the fibre cables all the way to your house and not just to the main service box in your street. This is supposed to supply you with better connections and faster speeds which is a spin off from net neutrality we spoke about recently.


While KCOM might not be available in your area, this does illustrate that some alternative service providers can offer things you might be interested in, so we thought we would take a look at them and provide you with a little guide, highlighting things like price and extra services.

Cheapest broadband service providers in the UK (under £20)

If you’re looking to save money and don’t mind sacrificing a little speed and the extras that you might get from a ‘premium’ provider or package, there are quite a few companies offering good deals here in the UK.


The cheapest available is actually provided by the Post Office, offering 11Mb/sec for £15.90 a month for 12 months with no upfront payment. They also offer other packages such as 38 Mb for £20.90 per month, and at the moment their fastest package of 67 Mb/sec is available for only £26.90 per month reduced from £42. That’s excellent value.
Other low cost broadband providers are Origin (£17.90), NOW TV (£18- £33.99), and Uno (£18.49). this is all great news if you want to stream videos on your android boxes!


Talk Talk, Plusnet, iTalk, Hyperoptic, and pop telecom are also all offering packages at under 20 pounds per month.

Low priced UK service providers will superfast speeds

You don’t have to pay extortionate fees for high speed broadband in the UK and there are plenty of providers to choose from who will keep you downloading, streaming, and playing online without it breaking the bank.


As we already mentioned, the Post Offices special price of £26.90 per month for 67Mb/sec is a phenomenal deal but it’s not the only one out there.  Hyperoptic are offering 50Mb/sec at £22 or a whopping 150Mb/sec for a reduced price of £28 at the time of writing, although this will return to the normal price of £35 after 12 months.


If you go with Vodafone who sell nokia phones, they aren’t just one of the fastest 4g providers, on an 18 month contract, you only have to pay £23.95 in exchange for 55Mb/sec guaranteed download speeds (or your money back) and 20Mb/sec maximum upload speed. You also get a 6 month free trial of F0secure thrown in as part of the deal. On top of that, of you already have a monthly mobile contract with Vodafone, you get a discount on your broadband.


Other companies to look into for superfast internet bargains are SSE (£22.00), XLN (£22.74), and Talk Talk (£22.95).

 

Best user rated service providers in the UK

BT might have the most users but they are not top of the pops when it comes user ratings. That honour goes to AAISP who have an average user rating of four and a half stars out of five. Customer reviews praise this service provider for both their consistent broadband speeds and their outstanding customer service.


Another top rated provider is Uno broadband, whose unmetered packages starting at £27.99 are proving a hit with their customers. They too are getting a reputation for having very good customer service with knowledgeable agents available on the end of the phone.
Coming in a close third in the rankings of top user rated service providers is Hyperoptic with the vast majority of their customers saying they are very happy with the service the company provides as well as the reasonable prices.


I’ve spoken to a lot of hardcore gamers, especially those who like fast playing FPS games online and a name that kept popping up was Leetline. These gamers were happy that they could call up the company and talk about things like latency and actually have the person on the other end understand the issue and help deal with it efficiently.

 

Conclusion 

In summary, there are so many internet service providers out there in the UK that we are spoiled for choice. I hope this short article has opened some of your eyes to the options available to you and made you see that there are some incredible deals out there to be had, and also some very high user rated services. If you enjoy making Raspberry Pi’s then picking a fast broadband provider is also of paramount importance. So be sure to pick wisely!


It might be in your nest interests to spend a little time online visiting the various companies’ sites to see what’s on offer in your area, and you could end up getting a better service and save money at the same time.

What has been done to prevent another ‘heartbleed’ vulnerability?

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What is the ‘Heartbleed’ vulnerability?

The heartbleed vulnerability was discovered in April 2014 and sent a wave of panic through the internet, especially large web servers with millions of users, as it left personal data of those users unprotencted and vulnerable to attack.

The reason for the vulnerability was a weakness in the OpenSSL open source code that was used for encryption. Under normal circumstances OpenSSL is a very secure piece of software but hackers found a bug in the system and exploited it.

The bug was part of the TLS/SSL protocols where the system automatically checks that the computers remain connected if there hasn’t been any communication/activity between them, such as uploading or downloading data.

This checking system is called a heartbeat and how it works is that one computer will send an encrypted request for a certain amount of data, say 30KB, and in return the other computer will store it in a memory buffer, read the encrypted information contained in it, then send back that exact 30KB worth of data.

Unfortunately, there was a flaw in this system just the the Whatsapp paypal ssl issues and the receiving computer never actually checked the size of the incoming encrypted data request. So what actually happened was a hacker could send a request of up to 64KB, but that request might only contain 20KB of data. This would cause the receiving computer to store it in a memory buffer just like before, however it would be allocation 64Kb for only 20KB of actually data.

When it returned the heartbeat check, it would send the original 20KB back with the other 44KB being attached from whatever was next in line in the memory banks of that computer. This could be anything from useless code, to actual names of accounts and passwords stored locally, not on cloud services.

Heartbleed Vulnerability Fix

Nobody really knows if the heartbleed vulnerability had been exploited before April 2014, or for how long if it had, but once it was clear that there was a problem, and that problem came down to only one line of code, it was an easy fix.

Patches to repair the flaw are free and readily available online. You can simply visit the OpenSSL website and download the latest update from there.

While most servers should have updated long ago, there is always the possibility that it has been overlooked by some and that the vulnerability is still there. If you are concerned, there are actual web based checkers that you can use where you simply add the URL into the checker and they will do a test for you to see if the heartbleed weakness is still there. A good one to use is Pentest-tools.com.

Lastly, if you discover that those vulnerabilities are still present on any server that you use, you would be wise to change your passwords. If you are aware that a server you are in charge of is vulnerable, you should renew the SSL certificates as well as updating to the latest OpenSSL version.

So what can be done to prevent another heartbleed vulnerability in the future?

There are a quite a few things actually, but I don’t want to bore you with a long list of techno jargon so I’ll just highlight one which I think should work best.

Released in 2012, Address Sanitizer is something that does an excellent job of detecting problems with memory buffers, such as over-writes and over-reads, and would have gone a long way to recognising the heartbleed bug.

This in combination with other security methods such as binary simulators and guard pages are our best chance of preventing such a bug from affecting our servers again.

Is Net Neutrality a Good Thing?

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What is net neutrality?

If you’ve been paying even a little bit of attention to the news recently, you have probably heard the term net neutrality, and might even know that there is a big debate going on about it across the world, and especially in the United States of America.

Net neutrality is the idea that internet service providers (ISP) must not favour any websites and instead provide equal access to all content.

Is Net neutrality a good thing?

Quite simply, for the vast majority of people, yes it is.

You see, without net neutrality CEOs of ISP companies would be free to slow down internet speeds, redirect traffic, block access to certain sites, and pretty much any other thing they decide to do in order to make money.

They could even make sure that most traffic is sent on super fast bandwidth to big companies’ websites instead of smaller, up and coming businesses who would have much slower connectivity, or even make you pay a premium for getting full access to content like many other subscription services. Imagine having to pay for your Netflix subscription and then having to pay your internet service provider a premium on top just to get the speeds you need to stream the videos properly and you can do that with cloud services!

Another that could happen is that the ISP makes a deal with sites like Netflix and charges them for faster connectivity and then that cost is put onto you in the way of higher subscription fees by Netflix with an android box. Either way, it is you, the consumer who will be getting the sore end while the CEOs get richer.

Another even more dangerous side to not having net neutrality is the very real possibility of it affecting politics. Let’s take an election for example, supposing a certain ISP is paid a lot of money by (or has connections to) a candidate or political party to restrict or block access to their oppositions content, making things even more in favour of the rich and powerful than ever before.

Then there is the possibility of the government telling providers to block independent news sites or illegal sharing sites like pirate bay and other such content that shows them in a bad light, or hides something that they don’t want the public to know, so next time you question who has the best 4g coverage for youtube mp3 downloads, consider that.

There are a few arguments in favour of abolishing net neutrality. One in particular that caught my eye recently was someone arguing that just like we don’t force restaurants to serve all possible dishes, or book stores to stock every book in existence, ISPs shouldn’t have to provide equal access to all content.

He argues that sites like mainstream news organisations and kids TV shows should not have to share bandwidth with adult content, and that if people want access to that sort of thing, they should expect to pay a premium for it.

While I can see where this person is coming from, and I personally wouldn’t care if people had to pay extra to access adult content online, I feel it would only be a matter of time before internet service providers start doing the same thing with less ‘taboo’ content and eventually lead into much more control over what we get to see and this is why I think net neutrality is a good thing and we should fight to keep it in place.

‘Leo’ the worlds first computer over 60 now

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Computers and technology are something that we take for granted nowadays. They are so integrated in our daily lives that the fear of solar flares causing our satellites and computers systems to go down is actually a real worry for a lot of people.


Young people of today probably can’t conceive or a time when we didn’t have computers unless it is somewhere in the very distant past like knights on horseback, but the truth is, computers as we know them today haven’t been around all that long.

It was only during World War 2, less than a hundred years ago, that the first digital computers were used for calculating big gun and missile trajectories accurately, amongst other things, now a Raspberry Pi is more powerful ten fold.


However, it took until 1951 for the first public business computer to walk onto the world stage and it came from the most unlikely of sources. 


If you asked 100 people which company they thought brought us the first business computer, it’s a fairly safe bet that the answers you’d receive would be big tech companies like IBM, Apple, Microsoft, and Dell, and they would all be very reasonable assumptions.


The truth of the matter is though, that ‘LEO’ (the name given to what we regard as the first computer) was actually developed by a British catering company called J. Lyons & Co. who were famous for having chains of tea shops across the country.


In addition to their tea shops, the company also operated bakeries, ran hotels, provided catering for major events including Royal ones, and also packing factories.
To handle this varied and complex organisation took some serious management personnel, and J. Lyons & Co. made sure that they had the right people for the job, earning them a reputation as forward thinking employers.


One such personnel acquisition was a Cambridge educated mathematician called John Simmons who, after proving his worth by upgrading many of the company’s existing systems and procedures, set up a specific research department with the intention of creating and developing the next generation of business ideas and methods.


It was from this department, years later in 1947 that two trainee managers were sent overseas to the United States to look into the business practices used there.


They returned without any real new ideas except for one that had caught their attention- the use of electronic digital computers to crunch large numbers. This was something that would certainly help an organisation the size of J. Lyons who could use it to monitor outputs at their bakeries and factories, and also business transactions.

After getting permission from the company’s boardroom, Simmons made a deal with Maurice Wilkes from Cambridge University who would let J. Lyons & Co. copy their EDSAC computer that they were working on in exchange for funding ongoing research.


A team of top engineers were tasked with adapting the EDSAC computer into a business orientated machine and in 1951 they successfully created a business application, the world’s first.


Consequently J. Lyons & Co. established LEO computers in 1954 and began offering services to many large businesses and organisations. 


After this, the company developed LEO 2 , an upgrade on the first model with some important design features. Leo 2 computers found their way into the main office buildings of various world leading companies and the information age was officially born.

Models following the second generation LEO computer were the LEO 3, then later, when LEO computers became part of the English Electric Company, they produced the LEO 360 and LEO 326 models which were considerably faster.

So, there you have it, the birth of the first business computer. From there we have incredible innovation such as cloud computer services through to 5G lightening fast internet as well as incredible database technologies a well as youtube mp3 downloaders that have sprung from the hardware movement and even more surprising the cyber attacks and ssl vulnerabilities that now plague computers.


The next time you look adoringly at your latest smartphone like an iPhone 11 Max, and you use VoIP, you can tell it-

“You know, your great, great grandfather used to count cakes for a living”

Will They Ever be Able to Block Pirate Bay Fully?

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Pirate Bay’s Origins and History

The Pirate Bay bit torrent site was originally founded by three Swedes- Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, and Gottfrid Svartholm in 2003 whose orginazation ‘Piratbyrån’ (pirate bureau in English) was dedicated to anti-copyright and the free sharing of information and content through the internet. with the help of technology like youtube to mp3 downloaders.

From October 2004 to the present day it has been run as a separate entity, and has been an almost constant source of controversy, beginning in May 2006 when the Swedish authorities, spurred on by the US movie industry’s complaints (and some would say pressure), raided The Pirate bay website’s servers.

The three founding members, plus Swedish businessman Carl Lundström, were brought to court on charges relating to copyright infringement and the assistance of, and in April 2007 were found guilty as charged. They were sentenced to a year in prison and had to pay a large fine of 2.8 million pounds (30 million SEK).

The raid on The Pirate Bay’s servers wasn’t the end for the site though, not by a long shot, and in fact, it was only down for 3 days before being operational again.

Even when the website was taken offline after an injunction against the provider of their bandwidth in June 2010, it still did not spell the end for The Pirate Bay, and connectivity to the site has been provided by various organisations and groups ever since, starting with ‘Serious Tubes Networks’ in May 2011.

The popularity and resilience of The Pirate Bay 

The popularity of The Pirate Bay can not be overstated as it was the most visited torrent site on the internet for 11 years spanning from 2003 to November 2014, when it was usurped by Kick AssTorrents. 
The following month, The Pirate Bay was once again raided by Swedish police, resulting in the seizure of various hardware and software such as computers and servers.

However, after only a couple of days, the website’s resilience was shown to the world once again and copies of the site in various forms were made available to the public once again, the most notable being oldpiratebay.org which was set up by IsoHunt.

National and corporate censorship

There have been many attempts to block the URL to The Pirate Bay in various countries, but for the most part they have proven ineffective with mirror websites providing a way to get around these blocks. 
There has also been censorship by large corporations in an attempt to weaken the Pirate bay’s position. Google has removed thousands of pirate bay links from their search results and also any apps on their Playstore that contain the words pirate bay. Facebook also block links to the torrent site and have even gone as far as blocking private messages between users that mention The Pirate Bay and it doesn’t stop them searching with TOR. Microsoft have also gotten in on the act blocking instant messages that contain links to the Pirate bay site.

Despite all of these measures being taken out in an attempt to stifle The Pirate Bay, the site continues on, and is seen by many who favour free sharing of files and information as a beacon, or symbol, of their ideals.

With so many of these people out there willing to help protect the Pirate Bay, and with so many of them having the technical skills to do so, I would have to say that I can’t ever see a time, at least in the foreseeable future when they will be able to block the Pirate bay fully.

Has whatsapp fixed the paypal google account ssl vulnerability yet?

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What is ‘Whatsapp?’

Whatsapp is a free service that allows users to send instant messages, stickers, photos and videos, play games, and make audio and video calls, much in the same way as Facebook messenger.

Seen by many as a competitor of facebook, in truth Whatsapp is actually owned by Facebook themselves who bought the company for 19 billion dollars in early 2014.
Whatsapp vulnerability controversy

Whatsapp is no stranger to controversy, especially when it comes to hackers taking advantages of vulnerabilities in the service’s code and encryption.

In 2013, the internet was awash with stories about Whatsapp’s SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption that was used to protect payment services such as paypal and google wallet and you could use them on Nokia phones. Fears that the connection between the whatsapp server and the browser were not secure when making payments turned out to be true and this led to some panic among users.
Hackers were able to intercept the legitimate payment payment services and then redirect the user onto their own site where they would extract their payment details.

This brought criticism from cyber security experts, not only aimed at Whatsapp, but at mobile based apps in general, and is similar to the mac vs windows battle of security, with some saying that mobile apps were often ‘hastily constructed’ and this was a big risk to internet security in general.

Since then, there have been multiple scares and admittances from Whatsapp about security fears, bugs, and malware making their way into the app. An Israeli security firm called Check Point discovered a vulnerability in the browser based version of Whatsapp, and although this didn’t affect the mobile app, it still did little to inspire confidence in users.

This particular vulnerability came via hackers sending an attachment that would spread the malware once opened and allow them access to the user’s account and allowing them to take control of it and with the new 5g speed a virus could be downloaded in seconds.

As recently as December 2019, there were reports from Facebook about remote code execution attack vulnerabilities in Whatsapp versions before update 2.19.274.
This bug is sent to users through MP4 video files by hackers and could cause denial of service or remote code attacks.

Has whatsapp fixed the paypal google account ssl vulnerability yet?

This is a hard question to answer with a fully confident affirmative, and I’ll explain why.
Yes, the original issue that Whatsapp had back in 2013 has since been looked at and dealt with by the owners of the app, and that particular vulnerability is no longer an issue.
However, cyber security is an ongoing war between security companies and hackers who are growing ever more sophisticated and are constantly trying to find new vulnerabilities to exploit. This is just the way the internet is and I can’t see it changing anytime soon.

Apps like Whatsapp are particularly vulnerable to hackers, and are an easy target in many regards. Hackers only need to disguise their malware as an attachment and most will click on it without a second thought as it is one of probably hundreds that they get sent every week.

This combined with the fact that many people have their PayPal and other payment services linked, make them a prime target for hackers.

These days, the mobile version of Whatsapp is considered safe for users to use but I would still be wary of the browser based version as it is easier to be hacked that way.
Always be on your guard about the possibility of being hacked and delete/report any suspicious attachments. A lot of the time hackers need your ‘permission’ to access your account and you give them this by opening the attachment, so just be a little more careful and it will increase your account’s security.

Choosing the Best HP Tablet with Windows is Good Business!

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Choosing the Best HP Tablet with Windows is Good Business!

Hewlett-Packard HP) are one of the oldest, if not the oldest, IT giants. From their humble beginnings in a small garage in Palo Alto, California, in 1939, they have grown into a multinational company and a household name when it comes down to both hardware and software products.

Over the years HP have built and sold award winning personal computers, cameras, printers, PDAs, and pretty much every other major tech trend, so it came as no surprise that they are right up there with Apple and Samsung when it comes to producing tablets in today’s modern word.

In fact, HP probably have a much wider range of tablets available than any of their competition, from small devices like the HP Pro to larger models like the HP Elitepad that are packed with features.

In recent years there has been a growth in the number of companies that are incorporating the use of tablets into the workplace. Modern tablets can do pretty much everything a PC or laptop can do, yet are more compact, more environmentally friendly due to lower power consumption, and are easy to carry around.

If you haven’t already purchased a tablet for the purposes of improving your business or work life, you are probably going to be in the minority within the very near future, and nobody likes being behind the curve.

HP tablets are known to be reliable and are often less expensive than both Apple and Samsung models with similar specifications, and their lower cost can actually save you a fair bit of money if you are planning on buying multiple tablets for use in the office by your staff. Another reason some people choose HP over Apple tablets is because HP models usually come with windows and so are more compatible with other devices.

So how do you choose the best HP tablets?

You read this article, that’s how.

Here are our picks for the best HP tablets with windows that are good for business.

HP Stream 7 32GB Tablet


This cheap and cheerful little tablet is a good option if you are looking to save a few quid and are only going to use the tablet for work tasks, watching the odd video and playing a game or two.

Priced at under 100 pounds, you could be forgiven for not expecting much, and while the HP stream 7 doesn’t blow you away, it is a solid piece of kit.

The 1.8 GHz intel atom quad core processor, 1GB RAM, and 32GB of storage are just about what you would expect from a budget HP tablet with windows. It’s enough to handle the things that most people use devices like this for, you just have to keep an eye on the memory getting full and also how many applications you have running at once if you want to keep performance up. Micro SD memory extension is available though.

Both the clarity of the 7 inch IPS screen and the sound quality from this HP tablet is on point and I had no reasons to complain about either, whether it was using Microsoft word, watching Netflix, or playing a game.

There are front and rear cameras in the device, but they are nothing special so if hi definition video calling is high on the agenda, you should probably aim to buy a more up-market tablet.

The main draw of buying the HP stream 7 is that first of all, it is inexpensive, but in addition to that you also get a year’s free subscription to Office 365 personal, which if purchased separately would cost about 70 pounds. That’s a good saving in my book.
In conclusion, this HP tablet with windows is a good budget option and delivers the type of performance and features you would expect at the price.

HP Pavillion X2

The HP Pavillion X2 is one of the new generation of 2-in-1 laptop/tablets where the keyboard is detachable and the touchscreen can be used like any other tablet.
The keyboard on this HP tablet has been designed with smaller keys in order for it to fit with the tablet properly, and with my clumsy fingers I found to be a little bit annoying, but probably something that you would get used to fairly quickly.

Detaching and reattaching the two pieces is very easy, with only a slight tug needed to separate them. When connected together in laptop mode, there isn’t any unwanted movement and it actually feels nice and solid.

This model offers very good value for money, with 1.44-GHz Intel Atom x5-Z8300 CPU, 2GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC flash storage, it has more than enough power for you to use it for work and play without too many issues arising.

If you plan on doing a lot of gaming, this probably isn’t the tablet for you as it doesn’t have a high powered graphics card, but for movies and all other purposes, the graphics are more than ample.

The screen is only 1.75 inches tall, but 3.75 inches wide, and the touchscreen worked smoothly as expected. There is also a HP true vision webcam top centre above the touchscreen for doing video calls.

The HP pavilion x2 tablet with windows has a better than average battery life (for the price range) of around 9-10 hours, and I also noticed that there weren’t any particular hotspots after it had been running for a while.

The front facing speakers on this HP tablet do a good job at producing quality sounds for you to enjoy your favourite tracks while getting on with your workload.

The HP pavilion X2 features ports for USB 2.0, USB type-C, a mini HDMI which is good if you want to connect the device to your TV, and a headphone and microphone port.

To sum up the Pavillion X2, I would say that despite its relatively low price, it is actually a very well made HP tablet that performs better than expected. The longer than average battery life is also a nice bonus.

HP Zbook X2

If you’ve got deeper pockets, and you are looking for a tablet that has a bit more ‘oomph’ you might want to take a look at the HP Zbook X2.

While our previous two reviews were for HP tablets with windows that are suitable for general office work tasks and some leisure activities, the Zbook is aimed at professionals such as graphic designers, engineers, and architects, who need and demand more from their tablet/laptop combo.

With the latest generation of Intel Core i7 as a processor, teamed with Nvidia Quadro M620 GPU that has 2GB of GDDR5, and backed up with 32GB of DDR4 RAM, this HP tablet is designed to handle big workloads on a regular basis without any driver issues.

The 14 inch anti-glare touchscreen produces very sharp images whether they are still photos, game graphics, or movies. Being a 10 finger multi-touch screen, using your hands to navigate menus is very smoothly done, and there is also the option of using the battery free Wacom EMR pen that comes with this HP tablet. If you don’t now about Wacom EMR pens, you’re in for a nice surprise about how excellently they work, with incredible pressure sensitivity.

Now onto the detachable keyboard. For the most part, I tend to find keyboards that come with these devices a bit flimsy and I don’t enjoy using too much. However, this one actually impressed me and felt solid. There is no connectivity issues with this keyboard once detached either thanks to it having Bluetooth.

Overall, the tablet is quite a large and solid feeling piece of kit, with large buttons on either side of the screen that can be mapped to specific functions on apps like Photoshop. Obviously this is a feature aimed at specific professionals who would see the value in this more than your average Joe.

Finally, let’s talk about battery life. The problem with the discrete GPU that this HP tablet uses means that it drains the battery quickly, about 4-5 hours. There is a way to activate the switchable graphics feature and prolong the battery life to about 8 hours but this involves rebooting the tablet in a different mode. It’s hardly convenient.

Ports included are 2 Thunderbolt 3, 1 USB 3.1 generation 1, HDMI 1.4, SD and a 3.5mm headset. There are also 2 cameras- a 720p one at the front with Windows Hello IR face recognition, and an 8MP camera at the rear of the device. In addition to face recognition there is also fingerprint reader on the side you can use for security/access purposes.
So, how to sum up the HP Zbook X2?

Well, it is an impressive machine but the high price and some of the functions lead me to surmise that unless you are a professional artist or the like that will really get to use this machine as it was intended, you might just end up paying over the odds for what you need.

HP Pro Tablet 608 (128GB)

The 128GB version of the HP pro tablet 608 has been around for a few years now but it is still a device worth considering.

The small, slim and sleek design of this HP tablet hides the fact that it actually packs a bit of punch. Under the hood, there is a 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Atom x5 Z8500, HD Graphics, 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage.

It comes with the latest version of windows installed and the OS runs perfectly, as does every other app that I ran on this tablet.

The images on the 7.9 inch screen are crystal clear at 2048 x 1536 pixels, and the wide screen makes it easier to view documents (which I think is what it was intended for).
Sound is also crisp and clear and comes out of the two front facing speakers situated at the top and bottom of the screen. There are also two microphones, which can only improve the quality of your video calls and voice memos.

Even though this HP tablet is very thin and lightweight at only 360g, it is far from flimsy. Hp have given this model a strong metal body and have made sure the screen is very scratch and damage resistant by covering it in Corning Gorilla Glass 4.

This tablet is designed for business use, and if operated as intended, the battery will stretch to about 8-9 hours between charges. However, spending too much time on YouTube or playing games will definitely have a considerable impact on battery life.

If your business is retail, you can choose the optional retail solution dock which transforms the HP Pro tablet 608 into a payment processor, complete with card reader.

I don’t really have anything negative to say about this handy little tablet except for it is a little old in the tooth when compared with the brand spanking new models that are coming out. It’s still worth a look though if you are only focusing on business or retail tasks.

That last review brings this article to an end. There are so many HP tablets with windows available these days that it was hard to pick the best, and I’m sure not everyone will agree with our choices. However, we tried to give a selection of tablets that would suit very different people and their needs, from something to keep the kids quiet, to a device for design professionals.

We will obviously come back to this page and update it as we take a look at more HP tablets with windows, so please pop back to check once in a while.

Battery technology is raising the quality of wireless solar security cameras

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Battery tech is improving home and outdoor security in leaps and bounds. With smaller units able to store more power, and solar cells that are increasingly more effective at storing energy, it’s making wireless solar security cameras not only affordable for the average home, but massively improving the resolution which is improving image quality. This is giving us the ability to genuinely protect our homes through use of wireless systems that are small and compact, making them easy to hide, as well as the option to have them placed in the most prominent positions to act as a deterrent.

Why wireless solar security?

They are so easy to install and require no electrical wiring skills at all. You only have to be capable of using a drill and hanging the unit on the wall in order to get going with this outdoor security. Factor the cost of the unit only and this makes for an extremely affordable way of protecting your home from intruders. Gone are the days of cabling and installing camera teams what would result in a huge bill for the same performance. This is helping the average homeowner protect themselves and their family and it’s all down to the development in battery technology that’s storing enough power to get through a whole night of recording.

Did you know wireless solar security cameras have night vision too?

As one well known website reports, wireless solar security cameras come with night vision too. They go on to mention that the camera has a 32ft sensor with incredible imagery resolution up to 1920 px which will leave you with a clear image of any potential intruder – even in the dark!

This was once a luxury product reserved for the rich and elite. We are only going back a decade too. There wasn’t any wireless equipment that you could rely on for quality images, let alone solar, and certainly it wasn’t night vision equipment! The leaps in technology are making them all the more affordable too.

The benefits of wireless security cameras

Without question the most important benefit is the affordability. You don’t need any cabling and this is considerably reducing the costs as well as making the unit far more portable. Yeah – something worth considering is the fact you can undo a couple of screws and remount this in any part of your garden and home in less than half an hour! Without the need to worry about cables and electric mains there is far more freedom to test the best places for your security system.

This is doubly useful because you’ll need to find a sunny spot in the garden to ensure the solar panels are capable of absorbing enough solar power to run your unit all through the evening. Most quality units have a rechargeable battery that can go for a whole day without sunlight. This is a must due to the reliance on the sun (which we can’t always guarantee).

Is it worth buying one or should I accept the costs of a wired system?

If you go down the route of a cabled system that’s wired into the mains then you have the piece of mind it’s always going to work with the rider that national grid power goes down sometimes too. Overall, given the sheer cost savings, wireless solar security cameras are really worth a go and could save you a huge amount of money whilst protecting your home to an acceptable standard.

Youtube to mp3: converter and download options

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There’s no denying that YouTube is the biggest media platform in the world. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for an educational ted talk, a documentary, movie trailers and clips, or even just catching up on the latest song releases, Youtube has you covered.
In fact the only downside to youtube (apart from the ads) is that it is online and requires an internet connection. Sure, that’s no problem when you’re at home or ina coffee shop as wifi is readily available but there are times such as when you are travelling on a bus, train, or plane and you can’t get a signal.

It’s for times like these that you need a youtube converter or downloader so that you can take your favourite videos (as long as you have permission to do so) anywhere you like.
These programs are far from rare, in fact there are so many to choose from it can be hard to make a decision on one. There are Youtube converters that you install on your computer, youtube downloader apps for your smartphone and tablet, and even websites such as keepvid that you can visit to convert Youtube videos into a wide range of formats without the need to download any program.

However some of the options available aren’t as good as others and you might find that your file size or file type options are limited, or that you have to navigate through ads and pop up pages and other annoying things and you might not want to make one from a Raspberry Pi yourself.
To help clear things up, we’ve put together a list of the best Youtube converter and downloader options out there and featured them here for you.

1. Converto

https://www.converto.io/en
If you are looking for the simplest way to convert Youtube videos to MP3 or MP4, then Converto might be the right choice for you. some people use TOR to download youtube videos and then convert from there.

Although it doesn’t have all the extra features that you find on some other downloadable converters, it also doesn’t have the downfalls of them either. There is no software to download, so that means no extras bundled in, and no adware either.

All you have to do is visit the site, copy and paste the Youtube video link, select the format you would like, and that’s it. 
The video download speed is fast, as long as you have a decent connection, and there are varying video qualities to choose from.
This is a great, no frills, no hassle option for straight up converting from youtube. The only drawback I can see is that there are some videos such as playlists that I had problems with.

2. 4K YouTube to MP3

https://www.4kdownload.com/products/product-youtubetomp3
Sometimes, all you are after is the audio in MP3 format, such as with songs from music videos or soundtracks. With this Youtube converter you get a program that is dedicated to just that-audio only and the downloads really quick because it’s stored in cloud.

Obviously this speeds up the downloads to lightning fast even if you are going for the highest quality, and this program isn’t just limited to Youtube. You can also download from many other popular sites such as Vimeo and Soundcloud.

There is also a separate 4K video downloader program available from the same company which works equally as well.

3. Free Youtube to MP3 Converter

https://www.dvdvideosoft.com/products/dvd/Free-YouTube-to-MP3-Converter.htm#DLBW_3_1066_a_2
Yes, that’s right, a free Youtube to Mp3 converter called…’Free Youtube to MP3 converter’. Genius.

Let’s start by getting the only fault I can pick with this program out of the way- the interface. It just feels very basic and a bit dated, but saying that, it is easy to use.

Don’t let that minor fault put you off though, this is a great product that has some very handy features such as being able to queue multiple files for conversion and the program will just work through them automatically.

4. Any video converter (free version)

https://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
Any video converter is available for both Pc and Mac and is an outstanding program. 
Able to take videos from a wide range of websites and convert them into pretty much any format and quality you can think of, Any video converter is a serious piece of kit.

It can also RIP from and burn to discs, and extract audio from video files.
This program uses HEVC coding which ensures that you get the highest quality images on your videos and can even download 4K quality resolution videos.

Batch downloading is also a feature of this Youtube converter/downloader so you can add multiple videos and leave them to download.
Unfortunately this software comes bundled with other stuff so be careful when downloading. Apart from that, this is a very good option.

5. Kastor All Video Downloader

https://ccm.net/download/download-16932-kastor-all-video-downloader
This video downloader is packed with features not commonly found on other programs. 
For instance, the Kastor All Video Downloader has a search feature that allows you to look for videos straight from the program and negates the need for visiting google or Youtube.

Not only can you search for videos without opening your browser, but also watch them before downloading too, all direct from the program.
This isn’t just a Youtube converter and downloader, it can be used on nearly 200 different sites, including some adult video sites.

Download speeds are very impressive on this program, and you can run up to 20 downloads at the same time, although this will slow things down somewhat.

All in all, a great program with impressive features and a wide range of supported formats.

So, there you have it. Our picks for the top 5 Youtube converter and download options available at the present time.
We tried to get a bit of variety in our list, from the simplest programs and websites, to feature packed converters, and we hope that we have done a good job of that.

New Youtube converters are being released all the time and we will update this list as time goes on, so please pop back from time to time to see if there are any changes and all that’s left is to use your android box to watch your new files!