geoff.mayhew

Very easy to sign up, connection was completed about 2 hours later. I have been on a 50/20 plan with my previous provider over the past 10 years and now I am getting what I pay…

for (and better) at all hours, rather than only at 3am. I no longer get dropouts, and have continued using my 10 year old modem.

I love this car – When Toyota released the 2nd generation Kluger in 2007, I ordered one as soon as we test drove, as it felt so good after 30 years of driving many large wagons as a service rep. We…

had retired and wanted something to explore Australia in comfort. So, long trips, weekly shopping and no commuting.

It was white with tan fabric interior 2wd and 7 seater base model kxr. After 7 years, 160,000km over a lot of dirt roads in outback QLD and NT, 3 sets of tyres and nothing else replaced (even the battery was original), we looked at the just released 3rd generation (USA made) models thinking they would be even better, but found they had dropped our favourite features, so when we saw an AWD 2012 kxr, (a slightly updated 2nd gen but virtually identical to ours) in white, with only 50,000km, we traded up and continued our explorations around OZ.

The AWD made a fair bit of improvement on outback dirt roads and creek crossings, but reduced our range from 700km per tank to 650km.

When the latest hybrid Kluger was released in the last year or so, we took one on a test and rejected it straight away as it didn't really offer much more than what we had apart from fuel economy.

So this year, with 160,000km on our second (now 10 years old) 2012 Kluger kxr, which had only tyres and brake pads replaced, we decided to update to a good used 2013 (still second gen) Grande in white and with tan leather and trims with 140,000km, which has had nothing replaced except tyres. It took us a long time to find this particular year and colour combination, but it was worth it.

Now I don't know what it is but this Grande is even better, quieter and smoother than its kxr sibling. We have, in the 6 weeks since owning it done 2 trips into western and central QLD. Our only criticism, is that whilst the 19inch wheels seem to track and feel better on city roads and carparks, they aren't as forgiving on corrugated dirt and send more vibrations through. I put this down to the lower profile tyres compared to the high profile kxr 17 inch wheels. (I have always fitted Michelin tyres so there's no difference there.

So I can say with confidence having owned three, that the 2nd gen Kluger is a very reliable and comfortable safe car and going by other reviews here will keep on going with very high kms on the clock.

Good design, but a couple of issues – This is our third Samsung fridge, the first, a large top mount in white, we had for 10 years before giving it to our son, whose family including two teenage boys are constant…

entertainers, love the size and reliability.

The second Samsung, the largest available bottom mount in black with reversible doors to fit our narrow galley kitchen, hasn't quite got the capacity we need. Two water jugs with inbuilt filters use up a lot of door pocket space, and the small and fiddly ice tray and bucket is insufficient for our needs, whilst the freezer is a bit too small for less frequent but larger shopping trips due to Covid.

We had used French and twin door fridges in holiday apartments but noticed the external ice and water dispensers couldn't handle QLD summer heat, which seeped through the rubber ice flaps and melted the ice cubes. But we liked the overall door idea and were happy to see Samsung reworking the plumbed water and ice system to overcome the shortfalls.

So this new Samsung, in a French door design, fits our kitchen due to having narrow doors and its internal water and ice system works a treat. The inbuilt filter means both our ice and water has been treated, and the automatic jug and ice bucket filling means we never run out of either. The water dispenser is great for filling a glass or water bottles.

The freezer is huge with lots of drawers and door pockets, and the twin ice buckets with included scoop, never need any manual filling. The wide shelves in the fridge are very handy.

One can never get everything perfect, and the three main downfalls are the beverage centre cant hold a milk carton, and the fridge section only gets down to 8 degrees so champers and beer never get icy cold. Additionally, the fridge uses twice the power of our bottom mount unit, but it is still lower than our first Samsung.

Good screen and phone with nice feel, but laggy GPS and camera – I have had mobile phones since the days of the Motorola "Brick", and in recent years have bought many unlocked low end handsets direct from China based shops, but more recently…

from Australian shops to guarantee service across all Australian frequencies. I am a tutor in technology for seniors and like to be able to talk about what is best suited for elderly people on limited budgets. Some of my reviews are on this board.

This time I wanted to own a phone based on Android One, which is a pure Android OS without any bloatware or other unwanted stuff. Pure Android normally is only available on the very expensive Google phones and I was keen on the idea of 2 years of OS upgrades which again normally only happens with very expensive phones.

Nokia is a brand of phone I was familiar with, having owned several many years ago and this model was just the right size with a removable battery, so I bought it for $115 with a no questions return policy.

At first I thought it was a beauty, it has a lovely clear screen, felt nice to hold, and during set up it carried out several upgrades within Android 9 and downloaded the backups of my current phone. That all took many hours which I put down to a relatively slow processor, but that slowness annoyingly extended to Google Maps, whereby during a drive it just couldn't announce the directions properly, only managing to speak the last word or two of the instructions. I tried out the camera, in nice bright Brisbane winter sunlight but the 2-3 second lag between pressing the button and the snap being taken was just too much, I took the same shots with another phone, and had a look at them on my PC and both pics were the same good quality.

As a phone though, the Nokia 2.2 was perfectly clear, and the wifi was good too. So for someone just after a phone, SMS and basic apps and who only takes photos of things that don't mind hanging around, it would be OK but it fell far short of being really useful.

I am sold on the idea of Android One and Nokia as a brand from what I experienced, but I returned the phone and will look for a higher spec'd handset in future.

Doesn't do a thing – Started getting marks on my clothes from my 6yo top loader washer, and as there has been nothing particularly dirty being washed over the years, I figured the gunk transfering to…

the clothes was just general detritus, so bought a tub of the Magic Cleaner, followed the instructions to the letter by using the whole tub in warm water and running a complete wash and rinse cycle.

As I was expecting lots of dirty water to be pumped out I collected the wash cycle water and it was a clear as a bell, as was the rinse water, and the filter had nothing in it either. There was just the faintest smell of acid.

I pulled out the water chute, as well as the softener and filter chutes and they were just as grimy as they were before I started, as was the bottom device. That was surprising as I expected that litres of the cleaning solution in water being pumped through these chutes would clean them, but no, I had to use a brush and cloth to clean them after using the Magic Cleaner. I am not prepared to try to dismantle the inner and outer drums to clean them which is why I bought the Magic Cleaner expecting it to do that for me.

I was hoping the "Deep Clean Formulae" would be able to clean parts as the water circulated through them, but I am afraid it was $11 flushed down the laundry tub with nothing to show for the money.