October 26, 2012
Laptops are small, light and portable. They are also, in a strange twist of fate, often far more uncomfortable than the bulky desktops they replace. Being forced to place the screen, touchpad and keyboard in a compact box creates all sorts of ergonomic issues. And then there’s the matter of carrying it around. Using a laptop as your primary PC doesn’t demand that you sacrifice comfort, however.
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October 25, 2012
How much do you know about RFID chips? Do you know how many you're carrying at any given moment? Do you know what information is stored on them? Do you know how close a hacker needs to get to you in order to steal that information? Have you considered any form of RFID protection? And most importantly, do you know what RFID protection will be effective?
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October 25, 2012
Microsoft took its time getting into the tablet market, primarily because it had to work on building an operating system that would offer a positive experience on the touchscreen form factor, which Windows 7 most certainly doesn't. With Windows 8 just around the corner, so is Surface, the new Microsoft-branded tablet.
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October 24, 2012
How do you dispose of your old computer hardware? Some people take their old PCs to the local landfill; others wipe the devices and donate them to schools or relatives. I prefer to make as much use as possible from the components. Some can easily be reused, such as optical drives, switches, USB devices, and slot cards. Power packs can also be repurposed after a clean, while fans and heatsinks can often find their way into other computers.
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October 24, 2012
If you’re in the market for a new TV, chances are it’s going to be 3D - not because you particularly want one that can do 3D, but simply becuase 3DTVs typically have better displays than their plain HDTV equivalent. Today I’d like to explain about the different types of 3DTV as well as touch on some confusion that surrounds them.
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October 23, 2012
The average consumer buys a laptop that costs about $600, a behavior that’s persisted for years. Yet there are also laptops on the market which cost two or even three times as much. Are they really worth the cost? Or does the average consumer have the right idea? I’m going to take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of pricey laptops by comparing them to both their less expensive brethren and desktop computers.
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October 22, 2012
As an avid user of Linux, I’ve been very interested in laptops specifically built to operate Linux, as my own laptop had a few minor issues that were never resolved. This high interest led us to buy a 15.6-inch System76 Gazelle Professional laptop. We're giving away a brand new one of these brilliant laptops designed to optimally run Linux worth almost $1000 to one very lucky reader! Read our review to find out more about this System76 laptop and then join our giveaway to be in the running.
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October 18, 2012
As befits a man with too much tech on his hands, I’ve been playing with my Raspberry Pi recently, configuring the device so that it works to its fullest potential. It continues to run as a media center, although I have no doubt that this use will be added to it in the very near future. However, installing an OS and adding XBMC is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to using the RPi.
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October 18, 2012
Earlier this week Microsoft finally revealed how the Microsoft Surface shaped up against the competition, and, crucially, how much one would cost to buy. The results are mixed, with many people expressing surprise and/or disappointment at the relatively high price point. But a Windows 8 tablet with Office pre-installed on it could still be a winner. It's time to poll you, the MakeUseOf readership, for your views on the product.
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October 12, 2012
Several months ago I turned my very nice tablet, the HP TouchPad, from a pleasant-to-use device into a handheld computing god thanks to the Android CM9 port of Ice Cream Sandwich. Since then, the device has gone from strength to strength, enabling me to enjoy movies and TV with Netflix, listen to the radio and of course play games and even do some work while I spent a week in the south west of England.
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October 11, 2012
YouTube - it sits there, in your browser, throwing new videos at you from big stars like Rihanna, clips from classic comedies, trailers for new movies and the thoughts of Evelyn Smythe, a history professor from Oxford likes to share her thoughts with the world. It is in this last type of YouTube video that the future of television is at stake.
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October 11, 2012
I recently reviewed a Samsung 830 512GB solid state drive that now serves as the primary drive for my computer. Before it, however, I was using a 60GB solid state drive. Why? For the same reason as anyone else - price. While prices are slowly coming down, any SSD with a capacity above 128GB remains intimidating for the typical consumer. What do you do when you have so little space?
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October 9, 2012
Water is a great coolant. It’s plentiful, cheap and can be easily moved via pumps. The need for specialized hardware has often made this solution too expensive and too complex for mainstream users, however. That has finally changed. Several companies now offer retail water cooling options that are no more difficult to install than any PC air cooler.
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October 9, 2012
On 21 September 2012, people all over the world queued up for the biggest thing to happen to iPhone since iPhone -- the iPhone 5. The iPhone 5 is the fastest, largest, thinnest and lightest iPhone Apple has ever made. It is also the very first Apple product which features a Lightning connector. We will be giving away an iPhone 5 at the end of this review! Read on to find out exactly which one it is.
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October 7, 2012
In light of the fact that most models today aren’t even meant to last much more than 3 years, we have decided to find out what happens to all these old phones. Do you throw them away? Give them to someone else? Donate them? There are many things you can do with an old phone, and while throwing them away might be the easiest option, we might drown the earth soon if we don’t stop to think about it. So what do you usually do?
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