Easy Everything (Manchester)

...Accessing the Internet is extremely easy in these cafes. The log on process is simple, and the main Internet screen includes a number of help facilities for those surfers who may need a bit of guidance. Furthermore. easyEverything cafes are open 24 hours a day – which means if you want a bit of privacy then you can surf when it suits you. One thing I would point out – particularly at peak times – is that users can easily see what ...
...be seen browsing through www.bigknockers.com then you may not want to surf here… The other thing I’m not so keen on is that that the Internet browser is adjusted to the top right corner of the PC screen to allow for clickable icons to be located down the left hand side and along the bottom – I would prefer the browser to be located centrally.

The easyEverything cafe has a relatively up beat ambience – this is ... more

Internet cafes eh? Whenever I’ve visited them, they’ve always been small, expensive and not terribly interesting. Over recent years, these places have started to spring up all over the place, but good Internet or Cybercafes are hard to find – I’m afraid a few PCs and a coffee machine just don’t cut it as far as I am concerned.

Enter the “easyEverything” Internet café concept. I must confess that I am unsure which major cities boast one of these emporiums, but I have been in the Manchester outlet many times, and have been consistently impressed. The Manchester café is located on two storeys off Exchange Street in the city centre.

So what’s so special about easyEverything?

Hardware and Software
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Manchester’s easyEverything café boasts a capacity of 375 PCs – let’s be in doubt about this, by normal Internet Café standards, this place is enormous. All PCs are located in rows of wooden benches, with mounted flat screens, and the whole thing looks not unlike a Cyberman Processing Unit (ask Crazy-Christian for more details on that). Needless to say, the PCs operate on the latest Microsoft software (bit of a shame if you’re a Mac lover) and the Internet access is fast – very fast. This is largely due to the fact that the site operates on broadband Internet access, so the chances are that surfing the Net here will be smoother and faster than your standard home PC and Internet connection. The café is relatively new, which means that all the fixtures and fittings are modern, clean and trendy – my one complaint would probably be that the lighting is rather harsh (but I guess that’s down to personal taste).

Cost
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This is where easyEverything comes into its own. There are essentially three pricing options:

1. Purchase £1 worth of surfing time

This is not as straight forward as it seems, because according to when you use the café, £1 will buy you differing amounts of surfing time. easyEverything state that £1 will buy from 20 minutes (peak times) up to 4 hours (night time) so the most practical advice here is to pay for your access at the most unsociable time you can manage. Once you have paid your £1, you will be issued with a user id that enables you to log on to the PCs. The good bit is that this user id is valid for up to 28 days – so if you don’t use all your £1 worth of surfing time in one go, you can come back up to 28 days later. This is more advantageous if you’re lucky enough to get 4 hours for £1 – but then that’s not so difficult if you simply stagger in and pay your cash on the way home from a club.

The obvious disadvantage with this option is that your £1 may only buy you 20 minutes access – and at best, this option is by far the least economical option. So it’s on to Option 2…..

2. Purchase a 24 Hour Pass

This is particularly handy if you want to visit the café at a peak time and know that you are going to need a fair amount of time online. In a similar fashion to the £1 pass, you will be issued with a user id, except this time, the id will only remain valid for a period of 24 hours. A 24 hour pass currently costs £4 – which is not a bad deal when equated against even the minimum cost per hour. Nonetheless, option 2 is only suitable if you need to spend a lot of time online over a very short period of time. But there is another much better option…

3. Monthly Pass

easyEverything rather cheekily suggest that this should allow you to tear up your AOL subscription – but that is actually a serious consideration. A monthly pass will allow you unlimited access for a period of 30 days from the date of purchase (if it’s a 31 day month – tough!) for the princely sum of £10 – far less than any monthly ISP subscription and phone line rental combined. Whilst I am not naïve enough to discount the merit of having your own PC and lounging around at home (I certainly wouldn’t get rid of mine), for city centre living easyEverything offers a genuine alternative to having personal Internet access. Needless to say, easyEverything is extremely popular with students and city dwellers who share property where there isn’t enough space/cash to permit PCs for everyone. Furthermore, there is a designated section of the café made available to monthly pass holders, so you can pretty much guarantee that at peak times you will still be able to get on to a terminal.

Please Note: The cafes offer additional services that are NOT included in any of these price deals. These include access to Microsoft Office products, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Encarta and the use of any of the terminal web cams. These services are all offered on a pay as you go basis. You can also make cut price international phone calls (there is a handset at each terminal) which offer excellent discounts on international calls – but you do need to have paid for Internet access to be able to take advantage of these discounts.

Ease of Use
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Accessing the Internet is extremely easy in these cafes. The log on process is simple, and the main Internet screen includes a number of help facilities for those surfers who may need a bit of guidance. Furthermore. easyEverything cafes are open 24 hours a day – which means if you want a bit of privacy then you can surf when it suits you. One thing I would point out – particularly at peak times – is that users can easily see what is on your screen – so if you’re embarrassed to be seen browsing through www.bigknockers.com then you may not want to surf here… The other thing I’m not so keen on is that that the Internet browser is adjusted to the top right corner of the PC screen to allow for clickable icons to be located down the left hand side and along the bottom – I would prefer the browser to be located centrally.

The easyEverything cafe has a relatively up beat ambience – this is not a place to come and relax, unless you find the noise of keyboards tapping therapeutic! There’s lots of hustle and bustle, and quite often groups of surfers come in and have a bit of a lark – but that’s not such a bad thing. The café is vibrant and busy and sometimes this is a good atmosphere to be in. When there are fewer people around, I find the background music a bit excessive – I would probably find it hard to concentrate on something detailed. The range of drinks and snacks is fairly limited – mainly coffee and cakes – but then a three course meal would hardly be appropriate anyway!

I REALLY like the easyEverything cafes – they are exactly what Internet access should be all about. Cheap, modern and vibrant – and I would highly recommend a visit.

For more info visit one today or log on to www.easyEverything.com.
 

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