Mac OS X birthday notifications appearing by the dozens.

This morning I noticed something strange on my MacBook Air. A birthday notification for one of my contacts for tomorrow. Their birthday isn't tomorrow. Also since I don't store birthday information in my contacts it didn't make sense. I then received another, and then another.

On closer examination I noticed a considerable number of contacts have the birth date 30 November 1999 and I certainly didn't enter this date into the contacts.

What I suspect has happened is I've entered contacts into my iPhone, at one point synchronised the contacts with iCloud and then the contacts have been picked up from iCloud by the MacBook Air. I've not directly entered the contacts. into the MacBook Air. I use other software for recording my contacts, but I do enter contacts into my iPhone.

It looks like instead of Apple not entering values into unpopulated fields, they've made an incorrect decision to populate the date fields with a default value.

As you can see from the above record which is for my own business in the contact list. From recollection I would have only included the entry o make the email address easily available. Certainly birthday and anniversary dates do not apply.

To fix the issue the only way I've found so far, is to visit each contact and remove the birthday and anniversary fields.

As a person who has done software development in the past, it always interests me to see these quirks where someone hasn't perhaps thought things through as well as they could have. These entires were entered back on an old iPhone 3GS, so perhaps this issue only affects people who have contacts entered many years ago.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Telstra mobile Wi-Fi - Sorry, Pre-Paid activation is currently unavailable

Over the years Telstra activations have often not gone as expected. Sometimes it may have been my fault, sometimes it may have been Telstra's. OK, mostly Telstra but no harm sharing the blame.

Since many people purchase Telstra mobile Wi-Fi devices, I thought I'd share this experience in case it helps others. The device in question was the Telstra Elite Mobile W-Fi. Unpacked, set up, and ready to go, I went to activate. At the end of completing the form and hitting submit, I received the following message.

At this point you get that sinking feeling. It's around an hour's drive to the nearest Telstra shop and since it's in the mid evening, the support line was closed. It was Friday and I wanted to use the device over the weekend whilst away. Ah well. These things happen.

Then I thought, there was a question about additional services for the plan. There was only one option and since there were no additional services with the plan, I thought not selecting the option was logical. I decided to redo the activation and the second time selected the option. This time the activation worked. It really didn't make sense to provide a single option, when if required, could have just as easily been set as preselected.

The lesson here is, if the activation doesn't work, then don't hesitate to start the process again.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe, Eltham and the surrounding area.

The Block auction results 2015 - South Yarra

For a little fun, the following are The Block auction results for 2015 as the auctions take place. Press Reload on your browser if you're watching this page to get the latest information.

1. Caro and Kingi
Level: 2
Reserve: $1,330,000
Result: $1,735,000
Profit: $405,000

2. Suzi and Vonni
Apartment: 3
Reserve: $1,480,000
Result: $1,829,000
Profit: $349,000

3. Dean and Shay
Level: Penthouse
Reserve: $1,645,000
Result: $2,300,000
Profit: $655,000

4. Whitney and Andrew
Reserve: $1,400,000
Result: $1,790,000
Profit: $390,000

5. Luke and Ebony
Reserve: $1,560,000
Result: $2,200,000
Profit $640,000

The winners of this year's The Block (the Blocktagon) are Dean and Shay.

I hope everyone reading this post has enjoyed watching the auction unfold. It was good to see Luke and Ebony do well. Congratulations to Dean and Shay, the winners and all contestants. Great results all round.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Free TV online - Keyword added to JustLocal search facility

Some years ago I signed up to Optus cable and found watching free-to-air TV via the cable service worked well. Watching free-to-air TV over a paid service doesn't really make sense, but sometimes having the ability to simply watch free-to-air streamed over the internet does make sense.

At last the ability to watch free-to-air TV over the internet is becoming a reality. Channel 7 has now gone live with three channels. with Channel 9 expected to go live in 2016. Hopefully Channel 10 will follow.

Those using the Search Australia facility available on JustLocal may already know you can access catch-TV using the keywords TV 7, TV 9, TV 10 and SBS TV. As the new live streaming services come online I'll add keywords for those services.

The first is LIVE 7, which provides access to the three channels from Channel 7. That is 7, 7 Two and 7 Mate.

LIVE 9 has been set up to access the new site for channel 9, but this isn't expected to go live until 2016.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
www.AdvancedSearch.com.au/SearchAustralia

ALDI Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502 (MD 98942) can't see TP-LINK access point, but can see other access points.

As I was testing the Aldi Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502, I noticed the smartphone could not see all the available access points. I decided to investigate.

The result of what I found is available in the MyAnswers solution 2501 (www.onlineconnections.com.au/myanswers/). For some people it may be wise to give the Aldi Medion 4.5" Smartphone P4502 a miss as it may be a problem for them.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Templestowe, Doncaster, Eltham and the surrounding area.

Convert kilojoules to Calories calculator

When dieting we have the strange situation where the energy stated on packets is in kilojoules, but often talk is about Calorie counting. Google when you search often presents calculators, but in this case I find their calculator confusing.

To make it easy for others I wrote a simple calculator which converts from kilojoules to Calories. You can find the calculator at www.convertkilojoulestocalories.com.au.

I hope you find it useful.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Message - Unfortunately, this PC is unable to run Windows 10. VirtualBox Graphics Adaptor

I was running Windows 7 on the MacBook Air using VirtualBox. There's some restrictions, but a technical oriented person I work around those issues. I decided to update to Windows 10 and received this message.

After a some trial and effort I now have Windows 10 installed on the MacBook Air. I'll provide the approach in a MyAnswers solutions shortly (www.OnlineConnections.com.au/myanswers) which will be available to clients.

I'd suggest at this stage to stick with Windows 7 until VirtualBox produces a stable version 5 as I've noticed a number of issues where the screen freezes or isn't handled properly.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Update: 15 Oct 2015
I'd suggest giving the update a miss at this stage. Virtualbox freezes very frequently (even as often as every few minutes sometimes) resulting in the need to quit and restart Windows. I consider this quite poor on Oracle's part. I'll update this post once I believe Virtualbox running Windows 10 on a Mac is again reasonably stable.

Update:11 February 2016
It's been a number of months now and running Windows 10 using VirtualBox on the MacBook Air is still not stable. Fortunately my Windows use on the Mac can be limited, and for the short periods quitting VirtualBox and restarting Windows 10 provides sufficient time between freezes for me to get what needs to be done.

Update: 11 March 2016
Applied the latest update 5.0.16r105871. Windows 10 automatic updates also applied. Windows 10 still freezes. Perhaps since I'm using a Mac to run VirtualBox this doesn't have the same number of users and thus not as high a priority. It really does seem strange VirtualBox is performing so badly.

Update: 1 May 2016
Applied the latest update 5.0.20 and still freezes. I decided time to investigate as I didn't feel a problem like this would last this long. Through trial and error I found the issue appears to be related to the settings. Once the settings were changed Windows 10 on VirtualBox so far hasn't frozen.

iTunes error message - Unable to connect to iTunes purchases.

I've noticed all day today error messages on the MacBook Air relating to communication errors with iTunes. I wasn't initially able to check the account, but then it worked.

Given Apple have just released iOS 9 I suspect there's quite a load on their servers and the intermittent message may be caused by that load.

In this case it's a good idea to simply wait a few days and when the initial rush for iOS 9 is over, things should go back to normal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.
Servicing Doncaster, Templestowe and the Eltham area. 

The Energy Cost Calculator has now moved back to the JustLocal site.

For a while the Energy Cost Calculator which is a web app I wrote, has lived under its own domain. I've decided to cull domains that aren't paying for themselves and as a result the Energy Cost Calculator now lives on the JustLocal site.

You can find the Energy Cost Calculator at www.JustLocal.com.au/clients/energy-cost/.

The Energy Cost Calculator is a great too to help you save money on electricity. You can enter the wattage of an appliance, the number of hours a day you use the appliance, and using your current electricity supplier's rate, you can determine how much an appliance is costing you. This calculator has helped me reduce my energy usage to around half, which is quite a saving each year.

The second part of the calculator enables you to determine the payback period of replacing an older less energy efficient device with a new more efficient device. It isn't always obvious whether or not you'll save money by simply throwing out an older appliance and replacing it with a new appliance. Remember you have to buy the new appliance and sometimes that will cost much more than the energy used. In those cases it's best to wait until the appliance reaches its end-of-life and then replace it. A good example of how you can save money is an old TV and set-top box I was using. I worked out by buying a new LCD TV the TV would pay for itself over six years. It makes sense to then dispose of the old TV/set-top box and purchase the more efficient, and I have to say better spec'd TV.

An example of when it isn't worthwhile to replace an old appliance with a new one is when it is rarely used. For example we have a couple of lights which are rarely used, and then only for a few minutes at a time. For example in an storage area. The old light doesn't use much energy since it is rarely used. The new low energy light would never pay for itself in that situation.

The Energy Cost Calculator has enabled me to put a cost against each appliance and in doing so has enabled me to be better informed. Being better informed allows me to make better financial decisions with the use and purchase of appliances. I hope others find the calculator as useful as I have.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Alert: Bunnings Giftcard/OralB Testpanel - You have received a giftcard/Wanted: Oral B Tests

This morning I received a number of Bunnings GiftCard and OralB Testpanel emails. The emails were sent to email addresses harvested from the internet, some of which aren't visible but embedded in code.

The emails are certainly scams and you should delete them.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Alert: Google Adwords: Ads soon stopping - Money almost depleted.

I received this message this morning and thought is this a scam, or is it a legitimate message.

Here's the situation. I haven't used Google Adwords for advertising since 2013. All the campaigns were paused. The only advertising I did was as part of my testing and I didn't find Google Adwords worked for me. I spent more than the work I received. All campaigns were paused.

This morning I received this message and when I went into Google Adwords, there was a campaign that was running. I paused the campaign and again made sure all campaigns were paused.

I then checked my statement and I can see there's been no activity since the period 1/8/2013-31/8/2013 and there was closing balance of $0.00 Yet today there's activity.

This really doesn't make sense and is a concern. I'm always concerned there's a possibility of an error on Google's part and charges could be incurred. I've now deleted all campaigns and removed the expired credit card details. I still prefer to have access to the tools in Google Adwords as I find them useful, but if I find an issue, it will probably be best to delete the account. The real concern is I've seen others rack up quite substantial bills unexpectedly in other online services. That makes me wary of any online service where you provide a mechanism for them to receive payment.

If you get messages from Google Adwords you should check your account and make sure everything is as you expect it to be.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

As a small business, can you handle the comments you'll receive from the public on online forums?

The internet provides many open online forums and over time, the forums I've participated in and the sites where comments are enabled, I've noticed one thing. The comments can become quite vitriolic much more frequently than I see in our normal interactions in society. Just visit any media site and start reading the comments. The comments will generally start out fine but before long they will often become quite vitriolic.

In 2003-2006 in the open source forums I participated in, I noticed it was only a matter of time before people would leave as they end up being attacked by another. It just seems to be the way of open forums online.

The problem is as businesses we're now encouraged to be very public on social media and that creates an exposure that most of us may find hard to handle. Recently I decided to disable comments across all my public sites. Most comments are spam, the next group tend to be negative people having a go at you, and rarely, there's valuable feedback that can help others.

I found the following on the The Registrar site and thought it was worth sharing. In particular the final comment, "That's why you never read the comments, Ellen. Take it from us.".

As a business it is important to know whether or not you can handle the vitriol you'll receive from the general public on public online forums. Most people are decent, but there are a few who seem far more active on open forums that are quite vitriolic and can impact you or your business quite a bit. You need to think carefully whether or not such activity will benefit or harm your business.

I know one group I participate in, since there's such a large number of vocal vitriolic people, it actually makes me feel like the whole group consists of such people and I'd be hesitant to use any of the services from the group. One section of the group tarnishes the whole group. So even if you're a decent person, being part of such groups can affect your reputation and ability to gain business.

When participating in public online forums make sure you know the benefits and the costs to your business from your participation.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Referral spam sites 4webmasters.org, webmonitizer.net, dailyrank.net, sitevaluation.org, success-seo.com

On the 22nd of June I wrote a post about the referral spam sites I was seeing in the stats. Referral spam is when you look at your stats and notice traffic coming from sites but there's really not actual visitor traffic coming from the sites. The sites have specifically targeted your site so you see their site and visit them. Being curious many people will check out the site they're seeing in their stats. They're using the stats to advertise their sites.

The sites in my stats today showing some traffic are: 4webmasters.org, webmonitizer.net, dailyrank.net, sitevaluation.org, success-seo.com.

If you see sites in your stats you're not sure of, keep in mind they may simply be spamming you. If sites are spamming you then I always suggest not using their services. Do you really want to give business to businesses using less honourable techniques to promote their businesses?

Sometimes curiosity will get to you. Not much you can do about that. Just be aware of why they are appearing in your stats.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alasdair Wilkins lost 45 kg in weight by walking.

The headline to a story I read was "How Alasdair Wilkins lost 45kg just by walking".

www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fitness/how-alasdair-wilkins-lost-45kg-just-by-walking/story-fnlsuulf-1227434091460

The problem with this type of article is it is very misleading to people and then people wonder why they can't lose weight.

Here's the problem. This article emphasises walking only and quotes "Basically, I just went to the gym and I walked. On a treadmill, uphill, at a brisk pace, for about an hour every day — and I do mean every day". It is only down further in the article there's a one line sentence "Alasdair wrote that he didn’t adjust his diet — just ate smaller portions." He didn't adjust his diet. Yes he did. He dieted as well. That is what eating smaller portions is.

Let's look at the maths behind what Alasdair Wilkins did. Alasdair initially weighed 285 pounds (129.5 kg). He walked for one hour per day for a year. That's 365 hours or 21,900 minutes. The Energy Exercise Calculator (www.justlocal.com.au/clients/dieting/exercise.php) enables us to calculate how much energy we use for particular exercises given a weight and the time taken. However since Alasdair's weight changes over time so does the energy used. To help us estimate we'll use his average weight for the period which is 129.5 kg less half of 45 kg giving us 107 kg. We now enter 107 kg, a time of 21,900 minutes, select fast walking (7 km/h) and that gives us energy usage of  768.895 kJ. If we divide this by 33,000 (the energy equivalent of 1 kg of fat) we get an expected weight loss of around 23 kg.

That's roughly half the weight that Alasdair lost. How was the remaining weight lost? It was those smaller portions. Half of the weight loss was from exercise and half from dieting, even though Alasdair didn't think he was dieting.

If Alasdair had simply continued to eat at his usual level, which was more than his body needed, there's a good chance he may not have lost any weight at all. Only when his energy intake comes below what his body requires would we expect to see a reduction in weight. At roughly 2,000 kJs per day for fast walking, it is very easy to counter the exercise with food or drinks.

Alasdair's story is a great story and I think it is inspiring. It shows if you increase your exercise and reduce your energy intake you can achieve a massive result. Keep in mind Alasdair did this seven days a week. You can't expect the same result doing it just 2 or 3 days a week.

I've tested losing weight by dieting alone (this worked very well), exercise alone (this didn't work), so my next test will be to diet and exercise using an approach similar to Alasdair's by doing one hour of walking per day, along with a 2,000 kJ reduction in energy intake. I'll share the results on my site www.WeightLossMaths.com.au. I provide links to all my weight-loss calculators on that page as well as on JustLocal.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Incoming Fax. Incoming Fax Report and Internal Only

This morning I've received four emails with various email accounts with the subject "Incoming Fax". All have a zipped attachment, but the service I use to scan the attachments (which tests using up to 55 of the commonly used anti-virus programs),  shows none of the anti-virus programs most people use will detect any malware.

The body of the email contains something like the following.

*********************************************************
INCOMING FAX REPORT
*********************************************************

Date/Time: Mon, 6 Jul 2015 14:01:59 -0800
Speed: 4945bps
Connection time: 06:07
Pages: 4
Resolution: Normal
Remote ID: 868-776-6359
Line number: 7
DTMF/DID:
Description: Internal only

To download / view please download attached file

*********************************************************

These emails and their attachments are very suspicious and if they do contain malware, at this point people are generally not protected. You should delete them immediately.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.OnlineConnections.com.au
Call 0415 910 703 for IT support.

Update: This post has a published on time of 8:53 am. It's now 11:36 am and I've rechecked. Seven out of 55 anti-virus programs now identify the attachment as malware. The only popular anti-virus program to identify the malware now is McAfee. This isn't an endorsement of McAfee as the next malware may have a different order of the anti-virus software being updated. What is important to realise is we're now well into the normal morning for a typical office and the majority of users will not be protected. Their only defence is common sense. Do take care with emails. 

Catch Up Coffee has again moved out under its own domain (and now back to Mapz)

A while ago I created the Catch Up Coffee site to make it easier for myself and others to meet to catch up for a coffee, network and discuss business.

Over the years I'd found attending informal networking meetings like those run in conjunction with councils had no result. I even decided to join BNI as I thought a professional group may produce better results. Whilst I gave a lot of business to others, and received a lesser amount in return, after 8 months I'd made just $300 above costs and put in at least 5 hours a week. I've tried others networking groups in between, but really the cost at around $20-$25 each time adds up and gives very little return.

Now all us smaller businesses are in the same boat and we don't want to be wasting thousands of dollars a year networking. In addition going to networking groups that are all over Melbourne often means the likelihood of staying connect is quite remote.

Catch Up Coffee on the other hand is an approach where anyone can organise a group of local business people and the only cost need be a coffee. I like this approach and I find others like the approach as well. Now as to whether it generates any more business or not, the jury is still out on that one, but at least it's reduced the cost of connecting with others. I do know others who have attended the Catch Up Coffees I've organised have made connections and I've even referred a few people to those who attended.

A little while ago I decided to move Catch Up Coffee under the Mapz site. Google appears to give no value to domains that are redirected, so having the .com.au domain redirected is really a waste. I decided rather than let the domain go to waste that it would be better to use the domain and move the content out from under Mapz. In the end if really made no difference so I've decided to let the domain go and return to having the site under Mapz at www.mapz.com.au/catchupcoffee/.

As I attend cafes, if I find there's some reason the venue isn't suitable  for a network meeting, then I remove the cafe from the map. For example one I removed because it was far too noisy, another because it was too cramped, very difficult to find, and the parking might have been an issue. As I check out additional cafes in the list, or find other suitable cafes, I'll adjust the list.

I suggest to others don't wait for me to organise a Catch Up Coffee in your area. Just grab a contact you'd like to catch up with and then invite others. At worst you still get to catch up with one person, but equally, you may find others who would also like to connect.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.mapz.com.au/catchupcoffee/
Helping local businesses to connect.

Prices can vary quite a lot for a simply petrol siphon.

I purchased the following siphon the other day to drain some liquid from a fish tank. The irony is I wanted to buy it from Supercheap Auto previous Friday, but arrived one minute to 8pm after being at the shopping centre. Never thought they'd have different hours so decided to wait another day.

The price at Supercheap Auto was $6.99

I decided to check the internet over the weekend and found the same item at BCF for $4.99. When I was on the road I was near a BCF so dropped in. Next door was an Autobarn so decided to check the price there and found the price was $9.96. This isn't a plug for BCF as one of the items I'd noticed in Autobarn for $3.99 was $7.99 in BCF. But it does show quite a price variance from $4.99 to $9.96.

This really is also a reminder that just because a business has cheap in their name, doesn't make it so. You really do need to shop around. Although at the same time do keep in mind driving around costs money too and researching on the internet takes time. I was once at the local Bunnings store and they'd run out of the length of curtain wire I wanted and only had the more expensive longer length. I was about to go to the another Bunnings store but first decided to do a quick check of the fuel cost using my web app the Petrol Cost Calculator (www.petrolcostcalculator.com.au). I quickly realised the cost of petrol alone (let alone the wear and tear on the car) would have exceeded the extra cost of buying the longer length curtain wire, so I went back into the store and made the purchase. I found this was a very useful and enlightening lesson.

You really do have to shop around to make sure you're getting a good price, but you also need to keep in mind travel and time costs if you make a specific trip. I built JustLocal to make it easier for people to shop locally, but also with the belief that people shouldn't have to pay more to support local. Sometimes however it's important to not just look at the straight out price, but also consider any other costs you may incur from shopping around.

As a side note I found this particular siphon wasn't very good. The secondary tube is not much longer than the main tube and I believe this resulted in the siphon not working as it should. Quite frustrating really.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Alert: Spam from Gerry Pencer, Priya and

We all receive spam every day.

This one from Gerry Pencer.

Hi onlineconnections.com.au Team,

 Hope you are doing well.

We went through your website onlineconnections.com.au and got to know few key points, which needs your attention on priority to transform your SEO efforts.

From Pencer Priya.

Hi,

Hope this email finds you well.

I am Priya Ray, SEO-Consultant.

I went through your website “www.onlineconnections.com.au”checked it for a few keywords on Google. Unfortunately, it was not ranking on any of those. It was not ranking on any of the search engines as per the keywords pertaining to your domain.

From .

Good morning,

I’m , a professional writer and best-selling author.

I am a regular Huffington Post contributor with one of my blogs generating 8.2k Facebook Likes and over 5k re-tweets on Twitter. I’ve also been published in The Age, The Business Woman Media, Rare Birds, Women in Focus, Blog Society and so on.

What I found particularly interesting pattern is how each of these used Hotmail or Gmail accounts to send their spam. You would think if they're promoting a business they'd use a business email address.

The best thing you can do with spam is hit the delete key. If a business is using spam to promote themselves that's not a business I'd want to to deal with. If you want to go the extra step report the spam to the email service provider. You'll find information on reporting spam on their sites.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au

Google to reduce the amount of accidental clicks on ads.

When using the mobile phone I've clicked on a lot of ads over time. The problem is I've never once wanted to click on the ads on my mobile device. Perhaps you've done it too.

The problem for me it's an annoyance in terms of user experience, but the bigger problem I think is for the advertiser. Clicking on ads can cost them real money and if sites are placing ads where they're more easily accidentally clicked for the site to generate income, the ads probably aren't going to convert for the advertiser. If this article is correct, then up to 50% of ads are being clicked on accidentally and that's a huge cost to businesses for no return.

http://betanews.com/2015/06/27/google-will-eliminate-accidental-mobile-ad-clicks/

I do place ads on my pages for revenue generation, but only text ads which means the links need to be clicked meaning it is more difficult to accidentally click on an ad. Image based ads however mean you can click anywhere in the ad and that makes it much easier to click on an ad accidentally.

When visiting sites such as news sites I often see those ads that that pop up on the mobile taking up the full screen. Quite often I click on the small X in the corner to find I'm now thrown across to a page advertising something I never wanted to visit, which of course means quickly closing the page.

For businesses this is one more thing to think about when buying online ad space. So far I've not found paying for clicks to be worthwhile, but the mileage for others may be vary. I do place ads on my pages for revenue generation, but only text ads, which means the links need to be clicked making it more difficult to accidentally click on an ad. Image based ads however mean you can click anywhere in the ad making to accidentally click.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.JustLocal.com.au
Single click access to local businesses.

Aldi car socket adaptor at an excellent price, but you can't tell what the mA rating is for the USB ports.

Over the years I've purchased a number of 12V USB adaptors thinking they were a great bargain. I soon came to realise some of those bargain USB adaptors may be a waste of money. The problem is for devices such as an iPhone, some of the adaptors can't deliver enough power and won't work.

When looking at the adaptors make sure you check the mA rating. There's 1,000 milliamps to an amp, so if you see the rating as 500mA that's 0.5 amps or half an amp.

The 12V USB adaptor I use has two ports one with 1A and the other with 2A and it works great.

The problem isn't that the good ones aren't inexpensive, the problem is often you're not aware of what is important so the companies sell you equipment which really isn't suitable to your needs.

If only Aldi provided a clear picture showing the rating it would be much easier to make a decision. At $4.99 if the rating is 1A I'd be very happy to buy one, or perhaps two of the units. I'm using 12V power now for more of my energy needs so these adaptors can come in handy.

With the 12V sockets, do be careful not to try to use too much power. I'm often reluctant to use some 12V devices in the car because one device (a scrolling LED sign) ended up damaging the electronics in the car and to get that fixed, wasn't a bill I was looking forward to. Luckily or unluckily, the car was in an accident and didn't need to be repaired. Make sure you understand the power limitations of your devices and your car's wiring.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.EnergyCostCalculator.com.au

UPDATE: 1 July 2015
The USB ports on this device are 1A and 2.1A. This is the power level of another adaptor I have which works well, so I was happy to purchase two of these from Aldi.