Sunday, February 10, 2008

Review: Transcend 8GB SDHC Memory Card



With the cost of flash memory raipdly dropping, now may be the time to upgrade your camera's storage. If thats the case, Transcend is now offering an 8GB SDHC memory card for just $34 (available on amazon.com), which translates into a mere $4.25 per gigabyte!



Features:


  • 8GB storage

  • Class 6 Device (guaranteed minimun transfer rate of 6 MB/s

  • SDHC

  • Mechanical "Write-Protect" switch

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Five Laptops Under $1,000

Never before have so many powerful, feature-rich laptops been available at a price that won't break your bank account. Check out these 5 powerful laptops.


HP dv6500t

Sporting impressive features such as an Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 15.4" Widescreen High Definition Display, 2GB RAM, 160GB Hard Drive, WiFi Card, Bluetooth and a dedicated graphics card, the HP dv6500t is a multitasking champ that is sure to meet the needs of any user.




Sony VAIO CR

The Sony VAIO CR is a thin and lightweight marvel. The CR has all of the features as the dv6500t but also boasts a web cam, thiner form factor and five stunning colors to choose from, all at no extra cost. Definitely a mobile user's dream, the CR will separate you from the rest of the budget laptop pack.



Dell Insprion 1420

Outfitted with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (1.8Ghz), 14.1" 1440 x 900 WXGA+ display, 2GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, wifi, integrated Intel X3100 graphics, webcam, Vista Home Premium, 4 hour run time on a 9 cell battery and 4 USB 2.0 ports, Dell left no stone unturned in its quest for the ultimate laptop. All of these features and more are sure to make the Inspiron 1420 one of the hottest selling laptops this Christmas.



Fujitsu LifeBook A 6110

The Fujitsu LifeB00k A 6110 comes equipped with a slew of up-to-date features including an Intel Core 2 Duo processor (1.5Ghz), crisp 15.4" Crystal View WXGA display, Vista Home Premium, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HDD, wireless card draft N, 6 cell battery. With all of its remarkable compnents, the LifeBook is a lifesaver that will never leave you stranded.


Apple Macbook

Now before you start screaming "The Macbook costs more than $1000!", taking advantage of educational discounts lowers the cost of Macbook to $999. And although the Macbook may seem less equipped than similarly priced laptops, consider what you get for the price:

  • 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor w/ 4MB L2 cache
  • 1 GB memory
  • Leopard OS
  • 80 GB HDD
  • Integrated graphics
  • 13.3" Display (1280 x 800 resolution)
  • 1 year warranty (Apple Care)
  • Apple remote
  • Instal/restore DVDs
I'm not saying the Macbook is for everyone, because it definitely is not, but if you are unsure of what type of laptop to purchase, don't forget to take a look at Apple's. Macbooks have come a long way since they have switched to Intel processors and chipsets. Once considered only as an "alternative" to PCs, Macbooks now match PCs spec per spec on peformance measures. Its Apple's small attention to details that makes this laptop a worthwhile purchase.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Best Laptops for College Students

The college environment and learning experience have undergone a dramatic shift in the last few years. With the ubiquity of the internet and falling consumer electronic prices, a laptop is essential and affordable for every college student. That being said, there are a few critical features that must be present in a college notebook, the first being a wireless internet card. A wireless internet card allows the laptop to connect wirelessly to the internet, freeing the student from the burden of being grounded to an ethernet cable.

Wireless internet cards are standard in virtually every laptop, but the most useful wireless cards are sold by semiconductor giant Intel, as part of the Intel Centrino Mobile platform. The Centrino platform was designed by Intel to specifically address laptop issues on two fronts: wireless mobility and battery life. When purchasing a laptop make sure to look for the Intel Centrino logo, which brings us to the next point: battery life. In order to maximize mobility, the laptop must have a battery with enough juice to last through all those classes, totaling several hours of use each day. Most laptops are not up to the task of meeting the rigors of college life, including power demands, but a 9 cell battery with a 14.1" screen size or smaller will provide enough power to last through the day.

The final consideration when purchasing a laptop is size and weight. Portability is very important to college students. Laptops with screens measuring 14.1" and larger usually weigh more and that could turn out to be a deal breaker for most students. Imagine carrying an 8 pound laptop halfway across campus every day for the next four years, a great way to develop Herculean shoulders, but not at the expense of tiring yourself out just to get to class!

Pinpointing the following features will help to best serve your college demands:

- Cost
- Warranty
- Performance
- Ports
- Form factor
- Battery Life
- Weight
- Antivirus software

Now that we've developed all the essential features of a college laptop, I offer three recommendations:

1) Dell Inspiron 1420 Overall Best Value
2) HP Pavilion dv6500t Perfect for Multitasking
3) Toshiba Tecra A9-S9015X Expensive but Portable and Powerful

Linux OS for your iPod

The iPod is an invigorating consumer electronics device that many users have found refreshing in the face of stale, proprietary systems of yesteryear. There is one issue with the iPod, however, and that is its lack of open source software. Taking a cue from Microsoft, Apple hastily enacted a closed environment around its iPod lineup, namely, using a slightly tweaked version of its OS X software to run their mp3 players. That being said, hackers (a term once synonymous with "the dark side") have introduced the iPod to a truly polarizing force: open source software. In particular, one very well executed operating system that matches the iPods prowess has been Linux. Yes, Linux is like your 95 year-old aunt, she just won't die, but the once proposed slayer of tech giant Microsoft has injected new life into its veins by incorporating itself into the iPod. The open source iPod Linux project has the potential to free tens of millions of iPods and usher in a new era of user compatibility with musical choice. Other choices exist, but if you are serious about "unlocking" your iPod I encourage you to try your hand at Linux.

Disclaimer: Attempt this at your own risk. Author is in no way liable for any damages incurred to user, user's iPod, computer, etc.

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Monday, November 19, 2007

My Own Social Networking Website

Two thoughts have just crossed my mind: 1) Is it possible to start my own social networking website and 2) Is it possible to generate income from my own social networking website? The answer to both is yes...but it will be more difficult than I had originally thought. I must be suffering from delusions of grandeur as everyone else in the world has thought of that idea and there are a number of social networking websites currently active (MySpace, Orkut, the list goes on...), to boot.