Image: Aileen (via Flickr)

We have to accept the fact that our lives revolve around gadgets and we cannot live without them. These gadgets are power hungry and unless we keep feeding them, they close down, shutting everything and bringing life to a still. Our reliance on gadgets can be scary, if we are not prepared.

Most of us carry at least two of these energy monsters; laptops, phones, iPods and digital cameras, which make sure they run out on us just when we need them the most. How many times have you had your laptop give up when you are about to send an important email? Didn’t your digicam die when you spotted something you wanted to capture? It happens to all of us all the time.

But you can be smart and get the better of your gadgets. There are a few tricks that will help you squeeze more juice out of the batteries in these gadgets, to ensure they keep ticking for longer.

Keep them cool at all times

We all love the fact that our gadgets have fancy covers and cases to keep them safe. We even buy a good looking case when we see one. What we fail to understand is that these cases are the number one enemies of your devices. As if battling the heat outside and the warmth of your pocket or bag is not bad enough, your devices are tortured and stand no chance in these hell holes.

Batteries die faster due to heat. The power in batteries comes from a chemical reaction and extreme temperatures make batteries work harder to generate the same amount of power, using up the battery life in huge chunks. So, you will have to keep your devices cool if you want your battery to last longer. Read the rest of this entry »

Credit: Nicholaschan (via Flickr)

We’ve been talking about Windows Mobile 6.5 for months and finally you can get your hands on one.  It has been launched on Oct 6, 2009. WM6.5 is being backed by most major players.  In Europe, mobile operators Orange, Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile); and Samsung, Acer, Sony Ericsson, LG Electronics, HTC and Toshiba.

AT&T has announced two phones based on Windows Mobile 6.5: The HTC Tilt 2 and the Pure.  Microsoft expects to have a huge variety of phones running the OS by the end of the year, which includes touch screen phones with slide-out keyboards, compact flip phones as well as sleek full-keyboard smartphones.

With this version, Microsoft seems to get its mobile platform in order.  Here are some improvements in 6.5 compared to the previous version.

New Today screen – Although, the classic Today screen is still there, 6.5 comes in a new version that gives this mobile a fresh look.  Unfortunately, the users may not be able to experience this screen as some manufacturers replace it with their customization, such as HTC. Read the rest of this entry »

The Internet takes tax-free shopping to a totally different level. This is one of the main attractions for customers to shop online. However, the fact is that some Internet sales are subject to sales.

The pressure on the major internet retailers like Amazon.com is forcing them to scale down their operations in states where they are being demanded to collect taxes from buyers.

Online business is growing rapidly and is expected to reach almost $160 billion this year, according to Forrester Research.

Online Retailers With A Physical Presence In A State

But most online sales do not have to collect sales tax, unless they have a physical presence in the state. If an online retailer has some sort of a physical presence in any state, such as a business office, warehouse or a store, then it must collect sales tax from customers of that particular state.

To better understand, let’s take an example: If you have a store in California and you sell online who is also from California, you will need to collect sales tax from that person, even if the item is being shipped from a warehouse located elsewhere.

Currently, there is no need of collecting sales tax from customers who are located in a state where there is no such physical presence.

This rule comes from a decision by the Supreme Court in 1992, where it was said that mail-order merchants did not have to collect sales taxes for sales into states where they did not have any physical presence. This ruling includes all remote sellers, including online retailers.

Independent Partners Selling Through Major Online Retailers

While many online retailers may not have presence in many states, they are still responsible for collecting taxes if they have independent partners in states. For example, Amazon and Overstock permit independent companies with physical presence in different states to sell their goods through their sites and charge them a fee. These major retailers will have to collect taxes even in states where these independent companies exist, as they are selling indirectly through them.

This rule came into effect last year in New York. If you have been following the internet sales tax drama, you would remember that it was even challenged in court. Now, Hawaii, Rhode Island and North Carolina also have passed similar laws. As a response to this law, both the internet giants have cancelled all their associate programs in these states.

Amazon will not really be affected even if all their associate partners are cancelled, as it constitutes only 10% of their total sales. In fact, the margins from these indirect sales are lower than their direct sales.

Local Stores Creating Legal Subsidiaries Online

There are exceptions to this rule. Local stores sell products online tax free by establishing separate legal subsidiaries to handle the business online. Since the online business does not have a physical presence in the state, they do not have to collect sales tax on online purchases. This practice of getting around the rules to avoid sales tax is not appreciated by the “solely” brick-and-mortar retailers who still have to collect taxes from their customers.

Why Local Retailers Feel At A Disadvantage

Read the rest of this entry »

Small, light and inexpensive laptops that are best suited for general computing, internet applications and accessing web-based applications are now also going to do the job of navigation devices.

The Netbook, typically weighing 2-3 pounds could be your latest personal navigation device that shows you the way around.

Dell has introduced a GPS and Wi-Fi card in their netbooks, and turned them into gizmos that can offer turn-by-turn directions as perfectly and as efficiently as any other good standalone navigation device.

Alan Sicher, a senior wireless product manager at Dell said, “Smartphones already have GPS capabilities. We are now bringing it to netbooks so the devices know where you are and can help you where you want to go.”

Now that the traditional standalone GPS gadget has been around for a while and taken for granted, navigation device makers are looking to create something innovative and are looking to offer their software on other devices too. Read the rest of this entry »

In this digital age, users from around the world are looking for ways to store information, data, movies, videos, music and photos. This is where external storage devices prove to be extremely useful.

External storage devices such as hard drives can be used everywhere; offices, homes and when traveling with a laptop. Small drives can have large capacities and are bus powered, and take the power from the laptop, thus eliminating the need for an external power supply.

Here are a few excellent external storage devices that seem to be doing their job perfectly. Read the rest of this entry »

What is bigger than an iPod Touch and smaller than the Mac?

An Apple Tablet perhaps!

Rumors are rife that Apple may be on the verge of releasing an Apple Tablet soon, and it all started with a report by the Financial Times claiming that it has inside news that the Apple tablet is ready to be launched.

One set of rumors say that it will be released as early as September and the others say in early 2010.

It is speculated to be 3G enabled, have a 10-inch touch screen and high computing power, providing users the ability to even watch movies. It is said to be more like a large iPod rather than an iPhone, complete with the ability to download media through iTunes. It may also give users the ability to read books, rivaling the Amazon Kindle. Financial Times quoted as revealing that, “It’s a portable entertainment device. It’s going to be fabulous for watching movies.” It sounds like this device is going to be an iPod Touch with the processing power and memory of a netbook. Steve Jobs is said to be the brain behind this. If this is so, then the product is certainly going to be solid.

There have been no rumors on the carrier this 3G device will be on. Amidst all the assumptions, we can also assume that it would be AT&T. But Apple may also deal with someone else, as there had been problems with AT&T and Apple has been communicating with Verizon too. Read the rest of this entry »

Intel Core i7 processor is the product of the next-generation Nehalem architecture, which features the latest innovations and is the most sophisticated in the world. It is currently one of the fastest processors and is highly acclaimed by the entire IT community as a technical marvel.

This is the first time Intel has introduced such an advanced single-die chip with four cores for the desktop market. All of its previous quad-core chips had two dies on a single chip. The new technology is meant to boost performance on demand and maximize data throughput. This is also the first mainstream Intel chip with an integrated memory controller.

Intel claims that these Core i7 processors are the best desktop processors in the world. The combination of Intel Turbo Boost technology and Intel Hyper-Threading technology provides users the ability to multitask applications faster and with wonderful digital media creation. Read the rest of this entry »

The younger generation literally eats, sleeps and breathes computers, and the older generation is catching up fast as if in competition with the youth.

Advances in computers began in the 1960s and the impact they have on our society today is immense. We are able to access the World Wide Web, which has become our lifeline. Acquiring knowledge has become much simpler and things are done faster than ever before. Living in the electronic age has great advantages and we have the world at our doorstep, or should we say finger tips.

But with all the comfort and convenience that computers offer, there are potential problems they can cause too, such as health perils associated with their usage.

The physical manifestation of problems is usually noticed after years of using computers. As we all know, sitting for long in a fixed position puts strain on the lower back. If we ignore that, it can lead to major problems later on. It is better to take care before our body intervenes and things get out of hand. Read the rest of this entry »

Would you like to own a computer that comes with filtering software? Like it or not, the government of China insists that all computers be installed with this software, which is produced by a local firm, from July 1.

In spite of government officials clarifying that this is only meant to protect children from pornography and all other unhealthy content, there have been protests galore from various quarters.

According to Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau, “The nationwise move is purely to protect the youngsters from Internet pornography and violence. The software has proved to be effective in trials in schools.”

Even the producer of this software, Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. said the software only filters nude pictures and other pornography. Their official media quote says, “Our software is simply not capable of spying on Internet users, it is only a filter.” Read the rest of this entry »

Apple has decided to increase the power of the Mac OS X. Towards this end, significant improvements have been made in the software that has been developed for this edition of the Mac. This new version of the Mac OS X is named “Snow Leopard.”

This will use a new technology called Grand Central Dispatch (GCD) that can better use the multicore processors and graphic processors in chips. It takes complete advantage of optimizing the Mac OS X multicore for easy allocation of tasks across multiple cores and processors.

Previously, turning up the clock speed on the processor was the method used by chip makers to develop high speed systems. As the clock speed increased, software also ran faster. But the problem with doing that is the generation of more heat and consumption of more power. The chips are also idle most of the time, with the memory cycles not meeting the speed.

Because of these problems, the focus was shifted from increasing clock speed to making multicore processors, which means chips with multiple processor cores were put into a single CPU, and this consumes less power and provides better performance. Read the rest of this entry »