It’s February already, and Christmas is a dim and distant memory. What a month January was. Firstly it has been cold, very cold. I have spent a small fortune on my air conditioning bill this month. I’m sure that Iberdrola shares have shot up. Harry and Meghan, ooh. Ta-ra then. We have a government in Spain, finally. A dodgy and flaky coalition between the PSOE and Podemos parties which will probably last for about five minutes. Then we had storm Gloria which forced Alicante airport to close due to the strong winds and rain. This was just days after they had previously been forced to close the airport because the roof of the terminal building caught fire (rather suspiciously / coincidentally in the same area as the Burger King restaurant). Then we had the corona virus outbreak, originating from China. This is most definitely not under control yet and is spreading rapidly. The Chinese are building two 1000 bed hospitals in two weeks to cope with this crisis. I am deliberately resisting the urge to make any comment on the perils of eating ‘exotic’ animals, but I would just point out that koalas belong in trees, not cooking pots. This is the year of the rat, what more can I say? Then we actually, honestly, really got Brexit - phew. The UK has finally left the European Union and has now entered the transition process to negotiate a new trading deal with the European Union. Glasses of sherry were raised across the land!
So, February is hopefully going to be a bit quieter and tranquil, except for the mobile phone industry. We will see a multitude of new smart phone announcements this month. Samsung will be unveiling the successor to the Galaxy S10 range, which will be the S20 range. What happened to the S11? Poco (sub-brand of Xiaomi) are due to announce the Poco F2. These poco phones are typically full of top spec parts, for relatively speaking little money. Xiaomi will start releasing their Mi 10 range of phones this month. It is also the month of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona where many of the manufacturers will be unveiling their new models. The trends are likely to be folding or dual-screen phones, android 10, and of course 5G handsets. There is also a vicious rumour that Apple may be announcing the low-cost “iPhone SE2”, the successor to the 2016 iPhone SE, in the next couple of months. These are the little iPhones with a ‘tiny’ 4.7 inch screen, smaller prices (rumoured $399 price), but with the latest apple processor technology. If you prefer a smaller phone to those big 6 inch + monsters, this might be right up your street.
Finally, it’s always nice to receive feedback from people who have taken my advice. A few people have bought new Xiaomi phones on my recommendation and have been very happy with them. I am delighted with my Mi 9T and have just received the update to android 10, although I haven’t noticed any differences really. I have also been contacted by quite a few people who are happy they took my advice and bought an HP Envy printer with instant ink, including my Dad! I also recommended an HP Pavillion x360 touchscreen laptop to several people who asked for advice, who subsequently bought them and are absolutely delighted with their new laptops. I not sure why people have been surprised, I do know what I am talking about you know, ha ha ha! I don’t sell these things obviously, but I am happy to offer my advice to people who are looking to buy new equipment, so please feel free to ask.
