New Dyson Vacuum Range is Launched!

Today, Dyson are releasing two new floor care products into the marketplace, and Bing Lee are excited to show them off to you in store and online.

By now we would have all heard about Dyson and the way that name has become synonymous with high quality floor care products. Who would’ve thought that a vacuum cleaner could be so full of technology and design? Well, Dyson are taking the concept of floor care to the next level with the new DC54.

With the introduction of the DC54, Dyson once again redefines the term “no loss of suction”. It’s called the Dyson Cinetic, and it doesn’t use any filters. No filter cleaning means no loss of suction, ever. All you do is dump the dirt and dust after doing your floor cleaning. It means no maintenance whatsoever outside of simply opening the bin latch. Other than that, you’ve got the only Vacuum in the world that will never, ever lose suction.

How is this possible? Well, this new Dyson, called the DC54, uses very small cyclones. The smaller the cyclones, the faster the air spins inside the Cinetic system, and the better the dirt and dust separation. There are 54 cyclones working at once to make this work.

 

But if they are that small, how do they stay unblocked? Here’s another key breakthrough that the Dyson team have delivered – each cyclone has a flexible tip that keeps oscillating, similar to a sifter that moves slightly to nudge fine particles. The dust never gets trapped and all the dirt and dust gets sent in to the dust bin for easy release.

And of course the now-famous Ball technology is as much a part of the DC54 design as the reinvented cyclone system. The Dyson Ball, as it is called, contains the motor, the entire power cable when it’s retracted, and two wheels carved out of the spherical design.

Here’s our video on the DC54:

The other new product launched today is the DC59 Digital Slim, powered by the Dyson digital motor V6. This 350W motor, 2 Tier Radial cyclones and a re-engineered nickel manganese cobalt battery combine to provide powerful suction. The latest motor head with carbon fibre filaments aids in achieving high dust removal.

The DC59 battery lasts up to an incredible 20 minutes, so you could conceivably run around a large portion of your home for a quick clean without dragging your main vacuum out for the task.

Together these four technologies enable DC59 to remove as much dust as a corded machine.  

Like its predecessor the new Dyson digital slim is lightweight. It is designed with the motor in the handle so it’s easy to use up top – cleaning ceilings and other hard to reach places – as well cleaning across all floor surfaces.

Dyson engineers used Archimedes’ simple, but brilliant lever principle to perfect the balance in hand. So it’s just as easy to clean cobwebs from ceiling corners, as it is to clean crumbs from the floor.

The DC59 is a portable, but incredibly powerful vacuum cleaner that means cleaning up those in-between messes is now quick and easy…so easy and so powerful in fact you may find yourself quickly zipping through the entire house regularly…just because you can.

Here’s our video on the new DC54. Have a great week!

Father’s Day Gift Ideas

With Father’s Day fast approaching on the 1st of September, it’s probably a good time to think about how to spoil your dad – and Bing Lee’s got some great Big Boy’s Toys to kickstart your ideas.

GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition: All GoPros are 15% off from this Thursday until Sunday, but it’s the Black Edition that has all the bells and whistles. This action camera can shoot video up to 4K resolution, so dad will have the clearest footage possible of his bike rides, track day races or underwater adventures. The waterproof housing is good to 60 metres deep! The Hero 3 comes with inbuilt wifi for use with a compatible smartphone, but the Black edition also comes with its own dedicated wi-fi remote control.

Samsung 60” Smart Plasma TV: If you’re looking to upgrade your TV, then why not hit two birds with one stone and impress your dad to the max at the same time? The 8 series takes TV discovery to the next level – you can ask it, with your voice, to help find shows you’re looking for. Whether it’s a genre like cooking or sport, or shows with particular actors, you simply use the Smart Hub remote and speak into it. Swipe using your hand between different panels of the TV, select and open apps, even change channels and adjust the volume. And with Wifi built-in to the TV, it’s very easy to get this connected to your home’s wireless router. Once you have online connectivity, you can load in your Skype, Facebook, Youtube and Twitter passwords and get social from the comfort of your lounge.

Samsung Sound Bar: When Dad sits down to watch an action flick (what else would he watch, right?), it won’t be using just the speakers on the Samsung Smart TV – the HWF450 soundbar and wireless active subwoofer will deliver a dramatic audio experience with dynamic range and impressive sound quality – and with wireless connection, there’s minimal clutter and a great streamlined design to suit just about any modern entertainment area.

Breville Nespresso U Solo Espresso Machine: If your Dad likes a caffeine hit before he starts the day, upgrade him from instant coffee to a new Nespresso machine. Whether it’s espresso or milk based coffee, the BEC300W will be able to provide that morning or afternoon shot.

Palsonic Wine Bottle Cooler: Moving onto the evening, if your Dad is fond of the odd drop or two, or likes to collect wine but doesn’t have a good place to store it, then the Palsonic PAL42BWF will keep up to 42 bottles at the right temperature for long term storage, and with the see through safety glass door, Dad will be able to look fondly at this wine collection whenever he’s in the mood!

And of course we have a full range of Samsung Digital Still smart cameras as well. How smart? Check out our video below showing the range we carry and a short tutorial on how easy it is to connect online and to compatible smartphones. Hopefully that helps with those last minute gift decisions for Dad. Have a great weekend celebrating Father’s day!

Hands on with the Samsung NX300 Smart Camera

It’s almost second nature for us to share our daily goings-on with our social networks and on blogs. A camera that had the performance and flexibility of a digital SLR with great connectability and eye catching design could add some great flourishes to your status updates. Let’s have a look at the new Samsung NX300 which represents the best of the mirrorless range that is gaining popularity.

The 20.3 megapixel CMOS sensor is a professional class component that helps you create high resolution, lifelike images. The ISO rating up to 25,600 delivers awesome low light moments. With a shutter speed selectable to a super fast 1/6,000 of a second, even fast moving objects will be captured with great precision and clarity.

The shutter speed can be slowed down to 30 seconds for one shot for those long exposure compositions (you’ll definitley need a tripod for those shots!). On the flip side, you can shoot bursts of up to 8.6 frames per second, great for sporting events.

And let’s not forget video – with the NX300 you can record full HD video at 1080p and 50 frames a second, producing content that will look great on your large screen flat panel or to edit and share online.

The retro brown leather look of the body, makes the camera a talking point even before it’s turned on. The brush aluminium design of the top and bottom completes the eye catching design.

On the back there’s a bright AMOLED touchscreen display that flips up ninety degrees and down 45 degrees, giving you great flexibility to frame your shot even in hard to maneuver situations, and can be used in bright, daylight conditions. And being touch screen you have access to all the important commands.

If you’re coming from a DSLR and are more comfortable using physical buttons, then the iFunction toggle on the lens. This is also much more useful when you want to keep your subject in frame and on screen and make adjustments on the fly. By pressing through on the ifunction button, you’ll be able to make the changes and see the difference on the screen, before you take your shot.

Move the dial to wifi, and you’ll be presented with a few different options. If you have a skydrive account, simply click on the cloud icon. It will ask you to connect to a wifi account, and then you enter your skydrive details. All the photos on your camera will sync with your skydrive, allowing you to access them from any other cloud connected device.

You can also upload to facebook, picasa, and videos to your youtube account. Once you enter your account details, you’ll have them there for seamless uploading from then on. You can even email selected photos as well to any person with an email address.

Using the Samsung Smart Camera app onto our compatible iPhone or Android device, allows you to transfer pictures wirelessly to the paired tablet. You can also use the autoshare function to send any photo snapped on the camera directly to your device – so you’ll end up with high quality shots right on your phone. You can then use your tablet/smartphone to edit or simply share your pics on your favourite social networks.

Here’s our video that goes into more depth on the camera features and the connectivity – and right now we’re bundling the NX300 with a Samsung Tab3 7″ tablet at no extra charge so you can get connected and start snapping and sharing right away!

Have a great weekend!

What Is a Chromebook?

If you spend a lot of your time online, then chances are you’re probably doing that via a browser. And when it comes to browsers, there are many options – Microsoft’s Explorer, Apple’s Safari, Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome.

Google’s Chrome Browser has become one of the biggest browsers in the world, with features such as the omnibrowser which allow you to both search and type in URLs in the same area, and Instant which prepares your chosen page for viewing even before you’ve finished typing in the address in the omnibar.

Chrome has evolved into its own operating system, Chrome OS. The Chrome OS is, in simple terms, a computing environment based entirely on the browser environment. It has its own app store and is fully integrated with all of Google’s sign-in services, including Gmail, Calendar, Google plus and Google Drive.

Chromebooks are notebooks that run on the Chrome OS platform. The keyboard is tweaked for shortcuts related to Chrome functions, and it’s an ideal second PC for someone that uses online (and Google services) regularly.

We’re excited to now carry the Samsung Chromebook, with an 11 inch screen, a dual core processor, 2GB RAM and 16GB solid state storage. For connectivity there is a HDMI output, two USBs – one standard and one superspeed, and an SD Card slot. The Chromebook stays connected online via an 802.11 a/b/g/n wireless LAN. The battery will last around 6 hours, and it also has a webcam.

Specs aside, there are quite a few reasons to consider a Chromebook as your backup or second notebook, especially if you are already a google account user.

Inexpensive: Without a doubt, if you compare the price of this to any other notebook in our range, it will come first (or close first) if you sort by price from lowest to highest. And for the screen and keyboard size, it really is money well spent if you are a heavy keyboard pounder while online.

Fast bootup: Despite the price difference, this is one area that Chromebooks can go toe-to-toe with the more heavily featured Ultrabooks, and that is boot up time. Chrome OS is very lean and isn’t much more than launching a more sophisticated version of the browser, albeit with a file management and total PC settings support system. For quick status updates or email checks, the speed is terrific.

Multiple users: You can share your Chromebook with confidence as other users can set up their own profile, or even as a guest, where all their browser history and downloads are deleted at logoff.

Automatic updates: Just like the Chrome Browser, updates are pushed to the Chromebook without the user needing to get involved – no patches or service packs.

Free cloud storage: Using a Chromebook pretty much depends on you using cloud based storage. One benefit is that if you happen to misplace your Chromebook, or a stranger picks it up, there is no locally stores data – you could literally pick up a new Chromebook, sign in and you’d be able to pick up right where you left off. Right now, owning this Chromebook gives you 100GB of Google Drive Storage free, for two years.

Many apps work offline: Even if you are offline and need to work on a document, this is possible with some major apps now available to use offline, including Google Docs, Gmail, calendar, as well as a whole set of third party apps and games, the list of which is growing all the time.

Hopefully this gives you a good overview of the Samsung Chromebook and the Chrome OS.

Have a great weekend!

Regional store introduction

Most of you would know that Bing Lee is a NSW-based company, predominantly based in Sydney Metro. What some of you may not know is we have northern region stores reaching all the way up to Armidale. Today, we’d like to show some of these stores off to you and introduce the teams to you.

First store is Taree. Located in Taree’s city centre with access from the street, our 1,350 sqm store has expert staff ready to assist you in any facet of home electronics. Our wide display of large screen TVs will inspire you to upgrade your cinema experience along with our home theatre solutions. Try out a new camera and take a few snaps before you buy, print photos from your existing camera, browse our computing range while you wait. We also have the Asko range of laundry and dishwashing solutions as well as a cooking display to help you decide on your kitchen upgrade or renovation.

Next is Port Macquarie. Located off the street with plenty of parking, our 790 sqm Port Macquarie store is filled with the best in electronic appliances, from computing and audio visual solutions to climate control and refrigeration. Our Port Macquarie store displays Asko and Miele laundry and dishwashing products, along with an impressive cooking display, including Miele, to help you choose your next components to enhance your kitchen upgrade or renovation.

Further up north is Tamworth, home of the Golden Guitar. Located just outside the city centre at the Longyard Homemaker Centre, our 800 sqm Tamworth store has friendly, helpful staff along with a great selection of brands across the range of home electronic appliances. Browse through our Smart TVs, fridges, air conditioning and heating options, as well as a great cooking display. Check out our Miele laundry products if you are looking to update or replace your existing clothes washer. Get hands on with our range of computing options from handheld tablets to large screen notebooks.

And our northern-most store is Armidale. Located in the city centre with easy access from the street, the 650 sqm Armidale store has a great range of air conHave a great weekend!ditioning, fridges, TVs and computers. Armidale have a great range of Asko appliances as well as a cooking display to help you decide on your next kitchen purchase, along with experts in store to help you with your digital imaging needs.

Have a great weekend!

Bing Lee Alive App July Competition Winner

We’re excited to announce the winner of our July Bing Lee Alive competition!

Joseph Licastro submitted the following entry for the question “where would you most likely use the Samsung Galaxy Tablet, and why?”:

“I would most likely use it at home because it is a moreconvenient way to surf the Internet and it is easy to use, especially when I need to look for something really quick, I don’t have to turn on my big computer, all I would have to do is use my Samsung galaxy tablet”.

Congratulations Joseph, you’ve won a Galaxy Tab2 7.0 Tablet courtesy of Bing Lee. Thanks to all entrants who participated and look out for more competitions on our Bing Lee Alive app soon!

What’s Hot This Week at Bing Lee?

The last few weeks have been full of new product launches for us here at Bing Lee, and today’s the day we get to highlight a few of them with you.

First up, a brand new Nespresso Coffee Machine called the U Milk. This great looking coffee maker has a really small footprint, so it will fit on benchtops of any size kitchen without cramping your style. The water tank rotates 180 degrees to help fit snugly into tight spaces. Three touch sensitive buttons allow you to choose between three pour sizes, and the bonus Aeroccino3 milk frothing device gives you the opportunity to make your own macchiatos and add froth to your espressos.

After you’ve relaxed with a great cuppa, it’s time to get on your feet and hit the road, trails or bike tracks with your new Magellan fitness GPS. The Magellan range includes devices to track your running stats such as speed, distance and time; a cycling range that mounts directly onto your bike and keeps track of all your riding stats, is weather proof for any riding conditions and has downloadable data for use on a desktop tool; and the Explorist for hikers with camera, mic, ability to create waypoints, use road maps for Australia, US, Canada and Western Europe, colour touch screen and has 16 hours life off 2 AA batteries.

Bing Lee has launched our own range of audio-video accessories, with a focus on value for money and great features. The powerboard range includes energy saving features that turn off slave devices once the master product is turned off as well as USB charging for your mobile devices. The range also includes antenna cables and HDMI cables with rotating ends for easier connection in tight places. Check these out online and in-store now.

Finally, a great accessory for the latest generation of Smart TVs is here, with a Hard Drive specifically designed for recording and playing back from your TV. It’s called the My Book AV-TV, and the storage has been optimised for smooth video playback and consistent recording. It will respond, to your rewinding, fast forwarding and pausing commands effortlessly, converting your Smart TV into a PVR.

As you can see, some great new products are in store and online right now. Have a great weekend!

Parrot Drone – The Ultimate Smartphone Accessory

A lot of us own smartphones and tablets, and the entertainment we derive from it is usually… well, let’s just say pretty passive. That is, we’re watching a movie, swiping the screen or tapping it when we’re gaming. But, nothing physical is happening, and it’s probably a little hard to share your virtual achievements.

A new generation of smartphone and tablet games are now here, and they involve real life objects. Meet the Parrot AR Drone. This high flying quadcopter is controlled by an iOS or Android device, using one of many official AR Drone flying apps.

The way to connect the AR Drone is really simple. Download AR Freeflight from the App Store or Google Play onto the device that you want to use as your controller. Charge the battery, connect it to the Drone and it will automatically broadcast its own wireless network hotspot. Connect to the hotspot with your iOS or Android device – it will connect automatically.

Open the Free Flight app, and you will be presented with vision from the camera on board the drone. That’s right, it has a 720p camera built-in. If you’re a short film maker, you’ll love the opportunity to capture your drone’s flight and post it to Youtube or share with friends and family.

The AR Drone has a USB connection so you can secure a small flash drive and have the Drone record directly onto the drive for editing later after you transfer it. The other way is to use the wifi-connectivity to both control the drone and record the camera footage using the iPad. Simply press the record button on the screen to begin recording and once again when you have completed it.

The Drone will finalise the video, and you’ll be able to view it in your gallery. You can then use other third party apps to edit the vid, and post it to your favourite social network. Who knows, your clip might go viral!

Flying the drone brings everyone’s attention to the hovering object, and of course you’ll have to impress them! You’ll be able to flip the Drone in mid-air, and believe me, you’ll get some amazed gasps from your onlookers.

One big hint is to use the view from your smartphone/tablet as your frame of reference – that way you won’t be confused which way is left and right. It makes it easier to navigate obstacles and really fine tune your flying skills – which you will need in the ultimate aerial combat – racing and dogfighting against another Drone!

The Parrot is available in the following stores: Alexandria, Bankstown, Bennetts Green, Blacktown, Brookvale, Chatswood, Fyshwick, Haymarket,  Hornsby, Liverpool,  Mona Vale, Moore Park, Old Guildford, Rockdale, Rhodes, Rouse Hill, Shellharbour and Thornton.

Here’s a great example of the AR Drone being used to fly over the complete opposite of this lightweight quadcopter – the massive A380 aircraft. Enjoy!

Size Does Matter – The Advantage of a 90cm Oven

An oven and cooktop 90 centimeters in width? It may sound excessive, but for those with large families and who entertain guests on a regular basis, you would never want to go back.

Having an oven space that can handle 4 chickens at once will mean much less time having to prepare one dish, take it out, put another one in, and so forth – until all the dishes for your party or event are ready.

When you consider the cavity size of these ovens, mass production of treats and healthy meals becomes easy. Dozens of cupcakes, many loaves of bread, trays of biscuits – the possibilities are endless.

One of the overlooked benefits of having a wider oven is not just what you can put inside the oven, but what you can put onto the cooktop. Let’s face it, on a standard cooktop it can get pretty squeezed for space once you put a large pot or pan – it becomes a game of pots and pans tetris to get the best configuration.

With a 90cm oven, if you do use larger pots for boiling and pans for frying, you have much more space to spread out your cooking tools – less chance of spitting from one pan to another as well. And you could actually use 4 burners at once, a great help if you’re preparing for a large crowd.

If you love to cook, then the 90cm freestanding oven from Westinghouse could be a great option. And if you’re looking for a wall oven, Westinghouse’s 90cm wall oven counterpart could be the answer to your large family, party and even home baking business.

After all, they do say that the oven is the heart of a kitchen, and a big heart is appreciated by everyone!

Here’s a video segment showing some great features of the Westinghouse 90cm ovens we mentioned above.

Winter Guide to Heating

If you’re starting to feel like the doona is the best place to be when you really should be getting up to face the day, then it could be time to look for a heating solution for both those cold mornings, and the wintry nights.

There’s actually a lot of choice when it comes to heating, so here are a few tips:

Split system air conditioning: If you’ve decided to invest in a split system cooling air conditioner and are waiting for the summer to roll around, now might be the time. Reverse Cycle Air conditioners are slightly more in price than cooling only, but they do have the added benefit of heating large areas with the same kind of air reach that they do when pushing cool air around the room. This keeps hot and heated objects away from the floor if you’re worried about accidental collisions with temporary heaters.

Fans: If you have a smaller area and you do want to heat it up quickly, the Dyson Hot And Cool is kind of in a category all its own. It contains no external blades, so children and pets can literally stick their head into the fan with no issues. It also contains a shutoff if the unit ends up on its side. Definitely one to consider for dressing in the cold early morning!

Gas Heaters: If you have Gas connected to your house, investing in a gas heaters will convert your cold open area into a warm sanctuary. Gas heaters can quickly, effectively and efficiently heat large and open-plan areas. This is because Gas heaters are more energy efficient because they provide high heat output in relation to the energy used to generate that heat.

Oil Heaters: If you don’t have gas in your house, then an oil heater for single room heating may be your next best option. Although oil heater do take a while to heat the room, it does keep the room toasty once you get to a selected level. A lot of them have timers so you can have them turn on and off at regular times of the day, and water containers to keep the air from drying out – especially important in sleeping quarters.

Radiant heaters: These heaters are most effective at warming up a person than a room, so you do have to be in fairly close proximity to the radiant heater for it to deliver warmth. The air itself does not heat up, just the area directly in the radiant heaters’ perimeter.

Electric Blankets: We just had to mention these, because (speaking from experience) there is nothing like climbing into a prewarmed bed on an icy night. Electric blankets have expanded from the tie-down models to heated throws, that you can snuggle into while still on the lounge watching TV – or even deliver symptomatic relief for a sick member of the family. Hey, they even look nice with a variety of patterns so you’ll be cosy and trendy at the same time!

There are plenty of heating options available – just come in to see one of our staff at our store locations, have a chat to our online staff or simply browse our website catalogue for our full range.

Have a great weekend!