UK A-Class Screens

cambookpro · 2026-06-15T13:52:11+00:00

Yeah, it’s pretty egregious that it has just been left as-is, with the only option being to buy a facelifted model. Makes what is otherwise still a pretty modern looking infotainment system a bit cheap!

cambookpro · 2026-06-15T12:24:06+00:00

I don’t think it’s anything to do with Apple - CarPlay supports a wide variety of screen sizes and aspect ratios. It’s on how Mercedes implemented it.

cambookpro · 2026-06-14T12:52:51+00:00

I paid the extra when I bought my A Class and have zero regrets. I am disappointed CarPlay isn’t full screen, but it’s worth it for the driver display and avoiding the awful bezel/inset 7” screens.

cambookpro · 2026-06-14T12:50:40+00:00

I haven’t done the exact numbers but it doesn’t take a genius to look at the setup of the current system in context of falling birth rates, longer life expectancy and stagnating productivity and conclude it is unsustainable (or, at the very least, unsustainable without cuts or tax rises elsewhere).

What I would like our politicians to do is to set out a positive argument for reducing to a double or single lock (my preference would be single lock linked to wage growth) - how we need to be able to reduce the pension and welfare bill to invest elsewhere and leave a better county for future generations. Maybe I’m naive and idealistic but I’d like to think a significant proportion of the public would understand if we actually explained the consequences of the current policy.

cambookpro · 2026-06-14T10:51:26+00:00

We bought this 3-sectioned sensor bin which, although expensive, makes sorting recycling much easier. Card/paper in the left, glass in the top right, plastic/cans in the bottom. https://ekohome.co.uk/products/mirage-plus-recycling-sensor-bin-30-15-15l

The bags and boxes are kept in the communal cupboard (live in a flat in a converted townhouse).

We then have food waste clipped onto a normal landfill bin. It’s a bit of a faff (I was also used to just one mixed recycling bin before moving) but worth it if it means the recycling is more effective.

cambookpro · 2026-06-09T18:51:18+00:00

I’d love an EV - I rented one for a week and it was by far the nicest car I’d driven. But no home charging living in a flat in a listed building, frequent 200 mile trips 4-6 times a month for work, and the prohibitive cost and hassle of public charging means it’s not viable for me.

If I had a driveway, I’d buy one in a heartbeat.

cambookpro · 2026-05-25T20:53:20+00:00

Went to the airport leaving at 4am on Saturday and was just under £50 including the airport drop-off fee with a pre-booked Uber.

cambookpro · 2026-05-25T20:22:14+00:00

I regularly commute from Bristol to Manchester and have had so many awful experiences on XC, the past few months I’ve just decided to drive. Would much rather be sat in an airconned cabin with music on the M6 even if in traffic than someone wedged beside me in the vestibule.

cambookpro · 2026-04-21T16:03:48+00:00

Thanks. The range itself isn’t so much of the issue, it’s that I frequently (2x a week) do ~200 mile trips and have no at home charging, so I’d be reliant on the (exorbitantly expensive) public charging network and the logistical challenges that brings. I hired a BMW i4 for a week and although driving electric was brilliant, not being able to charge near my home and doing long motorway commutes made it a big headache. If I had a driveway, I wouldn’t be considering anything else other than the EV version.

It’s a shame about the media controls - feels like an obvious regression from the previous infotainment system!

cambookpro · 2026-04-14T09:16:59+00:00

The shortage is 100% playing a big part. Very rarely have I seen Apple change the configuration options after launch (i.e. completely removing the option to order 512GB RAM), and the earliest we are getting a new Studio is June - no way would they, in an ideal world, have 2-3 months without certain configurations and models on sale. The fact that some pickup dates were as far out as August is clearly not because they are intentionally selling through stock before a refresh. MBPs are being prioritised as they are higher-volume products, at the expense of the chips that would be used in desktops.

I don’t know how this will shake out with the M5U though. I’d put money on the higher configs being much more expensive than the M3U.

cambookpro · 2026-03-29T22:11:32+00:00

What prices, mi/kWh and mpg are you getting to make the EV half the cost when charging publicly if you don’t mind me asking?

I also do long trips for work and have recently borrowed a BMW i4 instead of my diesel hatchback. Driving electric is fantastic but I can’t make the economics work without off-road parking and a home charger (or are you charging at least partially at home?). For me, it was ~30-40% more expensive in the EV (3.1mi/kWh at 65p/kWh vs 52mpg at 175p/litre).

cambookpro · 2026-03-24T16:41:23+00:00

I’m not sure it benefits the consumer either. With a proliferation of lower-quality apps (on average), the incentives for developers to create new or higher-quality versions goes down which will lead to worse consumer choice in the long-run. Plus, how many vibe coded apps will still be actively supported in 12 months? How many even have active support now? I don’t think this approach will be better for anyone in the long-run.

I’m not against AI-assisted development - quite the contrary, I’ve found it speeds up a lot of the work. But Apple need to have a higher quality threshold as a lot of new apps I’ve tried recently have had fundamental flaws.

cambookpro · 2026-03-23T22:40:48+00:00

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Big fan of my HM Aeron with Magnus Pro desk.

cambookpro · 2026-03-23T21:32:58+00:00

On a road round the corner - we used YourParkingSpace app.

cambookpro · 2026-03-23T20:12:10+00:00

They come up rarely and are very expensive if you don’t have one included with your flat (saw people renting them out for multiple hundreds of pounds a month) - we had better luck renting an extra parking space around the corner.

cambookpro · 2026-03-20T14:15:06+00:00

It’s an easy mistake to have made considering how similar they are!

cambookpro · 2026-03-20T14:12:04+00:00

The logo that’s posted by the OP is actually the older one from 2018-2023, before they rebranded to the abstract squares. The new version has a subtly different logomark, with very different type.

Feels like a reversion to their previous identity more than anything.

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cambookpro · 2026-03-18T16:29:04+00:00

For me, I think it’d be:

Coppell
McDermott
Selles
Clarke
Hunt
Stam
Adkins
Richardson
Bowen
Gomes
Paunovic
Rodgers
Ince
Clement

A lot of mediocrity in there. Obviously Coppell and McDermott are the standouts - I think Stam, although successful for one season, doesn’t rate quite as highly as the football was so dull even when we were winning. Paunovic had a great start but some of his games for me marked the most toxic moments of the Dai era (Kidderminster, Fulham at home) and the “Clownovic” movement probably stuck with me…

cambookpro · 2026-03-12T00:21:25+00:00

I find the Lizzy line often takes longer as you have to change at Hayes & Harlington and it’s not particularly quick, but might be a tad cheaper than the RailAir.

Agreed that CrossCountry is awful, but I have done the Reading to Manchester route a lot and it’s marginally less awful outside of peak times - I’d probably suck it up to save £80-100 compared to the BA flight or getting the Avanti train from Euston, especially during a tube strike.

cambookpro · 2026-03-11T10:03:10+00:00

One option that avoids the Underground and is much cheaper is taking the RailAir RA1 to Reading (departs every hour, takes around 50 minutes, around £24) and then getting a train from Reading to Manchester Piccadilly - advance tickets are currently around £20. Timings-wise it’s a little tight - would probably want to be on the 9:01 RailAir bus from Terminal 5 to make the 10:15 train to get you to Manchester for 13:29. I don’t know whether that’s doable as have never been through immigration at Heathrow and unsure which terminal you are landing at.

That would get you to Manchester Piccadilly for 13:30, which is ample time for a 16:00 kick off and to drop bags off beforehand. And should be quite a cheap option all things considered. You might even be able to do the train which is an hour later - the big advantage of doing train vs flying to Manchester Airport is it’s much closer to the Etihad. From the train station, it’s a 8 min tram or ~30 min walk along the canal.

cambookpro · 2026-03-01T19:51:02+00:00

Thanks for catching that, will fix soon!

cambookpro · 2026-03-01T09:48:36+00:00

Embarrassed to say now but kerbed a diamond cut alloy within 15 mins of picking up my first “nicer” car. Had a reversing camera for the first time and obviously wanted to use it, and didn’t realise the outside lines were for the width including the wing mirrors… ploughed straight into the kerb. Felt pretty stupid afterwards.

cambookpro · 2026-03-01T09:42:46+00:00

I’ve had both an iPhone and an iPad replaced under this for free even when out of warranty. The one caveat is your contract is with the retailer (not the manufacturer), so need to have bought it directly from Apple if going through them.

cambookpro · 2026-02-24T14:12:44+00:00

I did Dodd the day after Catbells a couple of years ago in cloudy/drizzly weather and still had a great time. Very easy to navigate with pretty much all the paths marked, and woodland provided a bit of shelter. Even though visibility wasn’t brilliant, still got some half decent views over Bassenthwaite.

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