Royal Wedding Timetable / Schedule

The Royal Wedding Timetable between Prince William and his lovely Bride-To-Be Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey on Friday the 29th of April 2011 has been revealed.

It is as follows:

8.15am:    The Congregation Will Arrive at Westminster Abbey.

9.50am:    Governor-Generasl and Prime Ministers of Realm Countries, the Diplomatic Corps, and VIPs arrive.

10.10am:  The Royal Groom-to-be Prince William and his brother and best man, Prince Harry leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey.

10.20am:  The Arrival of Foreign Royal families at Westminster Abbey.

10.20am:  Kate Middleton’s Mother Carole and Brother James Middleton leave the Goring Hotel, Belgravia ,SW1, London.

10.25am:  Members of the Royal family make Their departure from Buckingham Palace To Arrive at Westminster Abbey at 10.30.

10.35am:  The Duke of York accompanied by his daughters Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie and The Earl and Countess of Wessex, The Princess Royal and Vice Admiral Timothy Laurence all make their way from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey.

10.38am:  The Grooms father The Prince of Wales (Charles) and his step-mother The Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla) leave Clarence House en-route for Westminster Abbey.

10.45am:  Her Majesty The Queen and her husband The Duke of Edinburgh arrive at Westminster Abbey.

10.55am:  The Royal bridesmaids and Pages arrive at Westminster Abbey.

10.51am:  The Royal-bride-to-Be Kate Middleton is accompanied by her father Michael Middleton, as they sets off together from the Goring Hotel, Belgravia, SW1, London, to Westminster Abbey.

11.00am:  The Marriage Service for Prince William and Kate Middleton begins and will be heard via speakers to everyone outside and all  along the Royal procession route.

12.15pm:   A Captain’s Escort of the Household Cavalry will Escort the Bride and Groom in their Royal Marriage Carriage which will be closely followed by her Majesty The Queen in her own Procession with a Sovereign’s Escort of the Household Cavalry,as it leaves Westminster Abbey en-route for Buckingham Palace.

12.30pm:   The Bride’s Carriage Procession arrives at Buckingham Palace.

12.40pm:   All other members of the Royal family and members of Foreign Royal Families arrive at Buckingham Palace.

12.45pm:   All the guests for the Wedding Reception arrive at Buckingham Palace.

1.25pm:      Her Majesty The Queen, Prince William and his new Royal bride Kate, together with all of their families, will make their  appearance on the iconic balcony at Buckingham Palace.

1.30pm      The British Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Make Their Fly Past In Honour of the Celebrations.

HTC Incredible S Australian release

Who really needs to read a thousand words about a new phone and its impending release. The early adopters thats who. Well thats fine but check out the other techy websites for that info. What I would like to see more of is mobile phones shops with working examples of their phones for the prospective buyer to really try it out before they make their purchase. Apple is well aware of this as a selling point but the likes of HTC and the other Android phones have to really rely on other phone dealers to do this for them. These dealers just want to get the phones out the door and are not too particular about one brand or another so it seems that the Android phones are already at a disadvantage. HOTheadlines gets about 10% mobile device traffic during the day and sorry if you were involved in the iphone auto redirect trial earlier this week. You will still see the message at the top of the screen though if you are on an iphone. Iphones and ipads make up over 60% of this mobile device traffic with Android devices responsible for only 13%. Granted Apple had the jump on everyone and the other makers are just trying to catch up but the iphone is right now leading the way. I can only guess that the traffic on here is representative of the rest of the market.

So back the HTC device. If any other maker is going to give Apple a run for its money then it is HTC. I have said this before. This is a solid device and is able to offer more than the iphone in some areas. This may be a more suitable phone for you than the iphone so make an effort to give it a try if you are in the market. It may surprise you but the iphone is not the only smart phone available and may not be the most suitable device for everyone shopping for a smart phone. I have nothing against the iphone, they are a real solid unit but dont rule out the other makers phones. As I said earlier HTC needs to give prospective buyers more access to the phones before they buy. This in my opinion will drive more sales and even up the gap between Apple and the rest.

The HTC Incredible S will be released soon, in Australia, if it has not already been released. Check it out as it looks like a great phone. There may not be a line of people around the block through the night waiting for its release but that doesn't make it any less of a phone. Also demand that the shops give you a working example of the phone before you buy.

POLLUTION

Noise pollution is something that we rarely think about. Just ask yourself when was the last time that all you could hear was total silence. We humans are really a noisy lot. Radio. TV. Trains. Cars. Industry. Aircraft. Games. just to name a few things. Most of these things have come about in just the last few hundred years and some of them in just the last few. We can only try to imagine what our world sounded like back say two hundred years ago. It would have been a much quieter place. I can hear some of you say, "So what?" Then let me ask you a question can you really concentrate on something if there is a lot of noise? Also for those of us that live in cities do you feel comfortable when there is silence? We go for a day's outing to a nice quiet place and then have to either turn on a radio, CD player or plug sound direct into our ears. The norm for many thousands of years has been a quiet earth with just nature mostly supplying the sound. It is my opinion that we should treat noise pollution the same as all other types of pollution and try to limit its impact on us and the environment

The Royal Wedding and the Media's Responsibility

The Royal Wedding of Kate and William, one of the biggest tabloid events in history, is about to happen. Of course without a doubt the tabloid magazines and the media in general around the globe are buzzing with excitement and the action has already begun. Of course any wedding is a cause for celebration and a time for happiness but it is also a time for a little stress, especially for the bride and groom. Let’s take a little time to look at the issues at play here and how the situation should be approached.

Kate Middleton the now fiancé of Prince William went from leading a rather normal life to one under the spotlight of the global media, obviously due to her relationship with Prince William. Here you have two young people in love who are making one of the biggest decisions of their life. Now that this decision has been made, Kate has no choice but to become a public figure. This is a kind of stress that anyone else would not have to deal with when getting married. Images of Kate and William are spread right across the media and it is just accepted that Kate has now become public property and we can do with her what we like. Not only her present day behaviour is scrutinised but her entire past is dragged out in front of the public. This would be a very stressful situation to deal with for her and the enormity of that would probably in fact overshadow the wedding for her and William.  Kate and William's smiling faces are almost daily in the media right now and my only hope is that the media storm around their wedding is not enough to cause any problems for the two.

Williams past experiences with the media especially surrounding the death of his mother would have galvanised him from its effects. His whole life in fact has been played out in front of the public; after all he does have royal blood. This kind of exposure to the media would have to have some kind of effect on a person and it cannot be disregarded. The media by its very nature has to bring stories to the public. Media agencies have to compete with other media agencies so they have to make their stories the best available. This means squeezing the subject of their story for every last drop that they can get then making up the rest of the information. Once they have everything that they want the subject is dropped for the next big thing. The public has had their fill of information on this topic so they are able to move on also. However this leaves the subject of the story to deal with the aftermath of all this attention. It is this aftermath that can cause serious problems for people. I hope Kate Middleton is not one of them as she seems like a nice person.

People should be allowed their privacy, even if they are public figures. Public figures are also human and need to be treated as such. If I was a public figure such as the likes of Prince William then I would like some privacy too. Ofcourse he has a duty to the people but there has to be a line. The death of Williams mother very much highlighted this issue so lets not let the same happen to this young loving couple.

The media usually does not care for the effect that it is having on any given sutuation. Merely by being present and breaking a story the media can have an effect that can influence a situation. This will then just feed more stories to the media outlets that have created them out of thin air in the first place. The media needs to take more responsibility for the effects that it is responsible for and start caring more for the people that make them their money.

Thank you Kate and William and good luck.

Climate Change

I am not a climate change denier just a skeptic. I question why Global Warming has now changed to Climate Change. I question why if the planet is warming why has most parts of Australia had the coldest March since recordings first began. This info from the BOM. I question why CO2 readings in the atmosphere do not take into account the amount contributed by natural events such as the recent volcano in Iceland. Apparently it spewed into the atmosphere many times what we humans contribute??

Online shopping heating up in Australia

I can think of nothing worse than getting trapped in a car park and fighting traffic, queues and thousands of people when I am just trying to purchase something from a shop. This is one very strong motivation of mine to change to online shopping for more and more items. There are no queues, there is no traffic and everything apart from actually getting the product is instant. I may or may not save any money in the process.

It is good to see that online retailers are competing well with traditional retailers in Australia and a case in point is the online electronics retailer Kogan. Kogan has been on the scene for the past few years in Australia and has been trying to make a name for itself. The business model for Kogan is simple. They import cheaper electronics from overseas and sell them online badged as their own. Ruslan Kogan the founder of Kogan is a savvy business man and is constantly getting under the skin of the more traditional electronics retailers in Australia. Good on Kogan for having a go and making a name for himself and I am following his journey closely. It must be hard to balance the price, quality and service to make it a viable business option.

Online retailers however have to be careful with their angle. It seems that they are all saying that the traditional retailers have got it wrong. They treat the traditional retailers as though they are a cartel that has been formulated to rip off and mislead the public. Online retailers use their price point to push this issue. This is just a marketing scheme and don't fall for it. By all means if the actual price you pay for a widget is your main motivation then buy the cheapest one you can find. Be prepared to pay for quality though wherever you find it. Quality however does not end with the actual unit but extends to the support you will receive after the fact. If you buy a cheap television online then it will be delivered in no time at all and you can start watching it and save a bit of cash in the process. Once your television breaks however, what support is provided to you?

What the public has to realise about online and traditional retailers is that this fight has been around even before the internet. Things like mail order purchases were around well before the internet and survived beside the larger chains. There is a place for both the traditional and online retailers and both of them should be concentrating more on the service provided to the customer and the quality of the unit sold. The main thing I concern myself with when purchasing anything is the advice supplied by the sales person. I would pay extra for good advice. How about you?

Audi Q3 due in late 2011

The much anticipated Audi Q3 crossover vehicle has been confirmed to go into production late in 2011. The SEAT factory in Spain will produce the vehicles with the first models expected off the production line in July 2011. With plenty of automotive pedigree to draw from the Audi Q3 will be able to choose the best of everything and will be based on the Volkswagen Tiguan with Golf sporty engine options. The target market for the vehicle will be the sporty about towner rather than the weekender off roader. With sales shifting more to the smaller crossover vehicles Audi will be filling a gap in its already large range with the new Q3. This will be the smallest in the Audi SUV category and is expected to compete with the BMW X1 and the Mercedes GLK class.

Spy shots of the pre production model have surfaced on the internet as usual to increase the buzz around any new product release these days. The car will however be based around the Cross Coupe Quattro Concept that Audi took to the 2007 Shanghai Motor Show. The production model is expected to be shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September of this year. So this car has been a long time coming.

As for the Australian release date there is no official word so we can only speculate that it will be late 2011 to early 2012.

HTC Desire S smart phone Australian release date and pricing

Smart phones have really taken off in Australia and roughly 10 percent of HOTheadlines traffic is from smart phones. The HTC Desire, released last year, was a huge hit and went on to become a top selling smart phone in Australia. It is the best competition Apple has had in the smart phone area and not going anywhere fast. The HTC Desire S coming to Australia in 2011 is sure to also be a hit as the interest is already high. First shown at the Mobile World Congress, the Desire S will be available exclusively on Telstra’s Next G network when it arrives in Australia in the first half of this year.

The HTC Desire S will feature the latest Android Gingerbread operating system as well as a powerful processor for faster web-browsing. With a mobile chipset capable of faster mobile internet speeds you will have faster access to the thousands of Android apps. It wouldn't be a smart phone if there weren't apps to go with it. You will also have ample screen space to use your apps and the 3.7-inch touch screen is set in a body made of a single piece of aluminium for great looks and a solid feel.

Exact pricing and availability for the HTC Desire S will be announced closer to the launch date although you should expect to pay around $650 Australian Dollars outright but don't quote me on that. See Telstra for further details.

The HTC Desire S – great features include:

• 3.7-inch touch screen
• HSDPA 14.4 Mbps peak download rating. Actual speeds are less.
• Weight: 130 grams
• Size: 115 x 59.8 x 11.63 mm
• Google™ services including Google Mail™, Google™ search, YouTube™, Google Calendar™ and Google Maps™
• 5 megapixel colour camera with power LED flash
• Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon™
• Operating system: Google™ Android Gingerbread
• More than 100,000 apps on Android Market