Time to get a new PC? Think again! Based on what you use your computer for, you may want to check out the new netbook.

If your use of the computer is limited to surfing the web and light application, you could easily make the transition from a PC to a netbook.

On the other hand, if you use your computer for playing high-end video games like Counter Strike, use Photo Shop or any of the heavy programs that need high resources, you are better off with your PC or laptop.

Although, a netbook is also a laptop, it is a “mini” version of the laptop. These machines are powered by Intel Atom processors, which means you cannot expect anything fancy from them. They have been specifically designed for tasks like surfing the internet, email, playing music, streaming video online, word processing and other programs that need low resources.

However, the advantage with a netbook is that it is cheaper than the regular laptop or PC, because it is fitted with smaller processors that are slower than the ones in a regular PC. The cost can be anywhere between $250 and $850. The low-end netbooks come with very small hard drives and are great for people looking to just surf and use the email. A good mid range netbook with plenty of features will cost around $400. In a high-end netbook, the processor speeds will be far better.

Netbooks are small, light and portable; have large hard drives to store movies, music and other files; streaming movies and internet games. Read the rest of this entry »

Power, performance and reliability are the three essential elements of a good processor and everyone looks for these features when buying a processing unit. Technological advancements have given birth to processors with far higher performance than ever before.

For people who wish to get the most out of their PC, here are some of the best processors in the market that stand out for providing the best.

Intel Core i7 920

This quad core processor is being hailed as the best chip in the market today. This 2.66 GHz processor easily provides the best performance. With significant architectural changes in the x86 architecture in 13 years, the Intel Core i7 has been completely reinvented. It comes with an integrated memory controller with the capacity to support Triple Channel DDR3 Memory. This provides more maximum memory, which can be as high as 24GB, and faster access.

AMD Phenon II X4 940 Black Edition

AMD has always been known for its power-packed processing units. The great thing about this chip is that it can be used as a simple upgrade from AMD AM2 or any dual core central processing unit. This will be a wonderful upgrade to any existing system with a huge increase in speed and performance. There is no need to get a new motherboard or memory as this chip will work well with the existing one. The stock clock speed of 2GFz and 6MB of cache make this one of the best processors available in the market today. Read the rest of this entry »

The iPhone applications are nothing short of amazing, because they leverage the groundbreaking technology in iPhone – like the GPA, 3D positional audio, real-time 3D graphics, the accelerometer and the Multi-Touch interface. You just have to tap into the App Store, choose and download from thousands of applications available.

Apple recently listed its top 20 free apps and top 20 paid apps for the iPhone, based solely on the popularity, which means the number of downloads from their App Store.

Take a look at the top 20 free apps in the exact order as ranked by Apple:

Facebook

This one is for social networking fans and is #1 in free apps. Facebook app can be downloaded at the iTunes app store for free. You have the chat facility, friend requests, check your friends photos, upload photos, full news feeds, notifications, news feed commends, your entire inbox etc.

Google Earth

Compatible with iPhone (2.0 software update) and iPod Touch, this app enables users to view the exact aerial imagery similar to the one available for the desktop version. You can view photos from around the world, search for businesses, cities and places, view mountainous terrain with just a tilt of the phone, geo-located Wikipedia articles and many more.

Pandora Radio

Stream music on your iPhone using this app! You can just use the name of the artist or the song and Pandora will instantly create a station to play that music. You can create stations based on the genre, read artist bios, store recently played songs and play song samples. Read the rest of this entry »

The little Twitter bird is singing the beautiful song of success! Nobody can deny Twitter is hot. The micro-messaging network is so hot right now that it is the topic of discussion wherever you turn. With their user base growing more than 1000% in just one year, it has registered the fastest growth when compared to other social networking sites, what else can you expect? Not one to be left behind, Oprah got in, opened a Twitter account and got 900,000 followers within a month. Everyone wants a piece of Twitter; including Jay Leno and Ellen DeGeneres and others.

It’s no surprise that all the big cats are now vying with each other to get their hands on this golden bird. Rumor goes that Google wanted it but was turned down. Facebook offered cash and stock worth $500 million, but it is believed Twitter investors were not quite sure that Facebook’s stock was worth as much as they claimed. The price has been going up as fast and furious as the Twitter users themselves.

Now, fresh rumors that have been circulating talk about Apply eying this social networking giant. According to sources, the purchase price it offered is $700 million – in cash and negotiations are on full swing. Oh yes! Apple has plenty of that (27 billion) and can pay cash. Gossip mongers even go to the extent of saying that the acquisition will be announced in June at the World Wide Developer’s Conference (WWDC) in San Jose.

Twitter is receiving “tweet” nothings from everyone that matters – Google, Microsoft, News Corp., and now Apple too; although this is being discarded by many as yet another rumor. Putting two and two together, observers remark that it was only a couple of weeks ago that Apple profiled the site. Read the rest of this entry »

The new iPod Shuffle – This one is the world’s first ever talking iPod! Although, iPod Shuffles have always been small in size, Apple has now outdone itself by creating a very small iPod Shuffle (nano) that has been given the capacity to talk and has much more storage room than its predecessor.

This tiny 1.8” tall and 0.3” thin and sleek gadget comes with increased storage of 4GB that allows you to store more than 1000 songs and create multiple playlists; one for the gym, one for driving, one at home and for any other mood you choose. Apple achieved this feat by removing the controls from the iPod Shuffle itself and creating a unique touch by transferring them to the right earbud cord. This not only makes the iPod smaller in size but also easier to access and allows users to activate features they need without having to stop what they are doing. Some of you may consider it a disadvantage – the fact that you will have to use the headsets that Apple provides with the Shuffle because of the controls being fixed on them; unless Apple comes up with water-resistant headphones in different hues and forms.

Just like all other iPod Shuffles, this one also has no display; however, the new feature, VoiceOver eradicates the need for a display. It tells the user what song is playing as well as give the name of the singer. It also announces the playlists that are available and this helps in switching playlists with ease, without having to look at the iPod to do so. The voice that is heard depends on the type of computer being used. The VoiceOver has been programmed to use over 14 languages, allowing users to listen to different songs from the world over – Spanish or Chinese anyone? Read the rest of this entry »

Technology is improving by the day and there are so many new developments that businesses have to keep up with to provide a perfect environment for their new-age tech savvy employees. Despite the fact that technology cannot replace human intelligence, it certainly plays a major role in assisting employees perform their tasks better.

SAP – Creation of Personalized Reports

Excel was and is still considered to be a powerful tool. Experts in Excel were in huge demand with people needing solutions. Now the latest development in software, SAP allows the creation of personalized reports, Many offices no longer consider Excel as the only tool. Excel proves to be insufficient for the amount of analysis and metrics that is needed for many. Not only that, the cost of getting MS Office itself is prohibitive.

SaaS Technology

Not too long ago, businesses used to look at local software developers to help them infuse the technology and dynamics their companies needed. The dependence of worry when these software developers forget to incorporate essential updates are a thing of the past now. Things are becoming more high-tech and we don’t have to deal with such issues. Employees also have the satisfaction of working with the latest SaaS technology that allows a high level of customization and systems that meet all their business needs can be developed effortlessly. Read the rest of this entry »

These days when traveling, you carry a ton of tools around with you. You have your notebook, camera, GPS device, MP3 player, smart phone, USB drives, power cords and many other gadgets.

So, does this mean that things are completely organized and you never face problems? No way! You still experience dropped calls, bad Wi-Fi signals, files that get corrupted, gadgets that die on you because of lack of power and the best part is that all these things happen when you need them the most.

Here are a few extremely handy tools that can help you keep connected at all times and alleviate the need to carry tons of cables, chargers etc.

Chargers

We now know that our laptops are the best chargers. The only problem is that most laptops need be charged with 110-volt AC and don’t come with many USB ports for charging other gadgets.

Imagine what a charger that can take power from different sources and charge all those gadgets can do. Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to have your game on your laptop, it usually means paying for it, but it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. There are many notebooks in the market that are game-ready; with high performance processors, dedicated graphics cards and plenty of system memory. Top gaming laptops these days use dual or even quad processors.

Most gamers prefer nVidia and ATI for Graphics Cards, 2 Gigs of RAM, although most high-end laptops come with 4 or more Gigs of RAM.

Be prepared to pay top dollar for high-end gaming laptops, especially when you are interested in the well-known brands.

Alienware Area-51 m17x

Alienware has always been a leader for gaming machines. But then for all that performance and style, you are expected to pay as they don’t come cheap. This 10.5 lbs machine comes with the 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 CPU, 4GB of RAM and 250GB hard drive (at 7200rpm), 512MB nVidia Quadro FX 3600M graphics, 17” dWideUXGA display 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview technology. It comes with Windows Vista Ultimate.

The only issue is with the battery, as you can expect with any gaming laptop. It is a power hungry monster that can use up the power pretty quickly. Although, it is mobile, it serves better as a desktop replacement rather than a portable laptop. But even if you wish to lag it around, it is still one of the coolest laptops – looks wise too. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine the feeling when the application you installed in your mobile phone has completely vanished! There is a high possibility of this happening, courtesy the “kill switch.”

This killer is being used in many areas in various forms:

A “dad man’s switch” stops vehicles and machines, in case the operator has problems and loses control. A kill switch at pumping stations is used for gasoline pumps and other devices that pump flammable or explosive chemicals. Even treadmills have a “safety key” that comes into action when a person trips or falls.

In IT language, a kill switch is a security measure used to shut off a device or a program. Where software is concerned, the software is rendered useless to users if it is pirated and not obtained in the right way.

Kill Switch in Apple and Google

Coming to the mobile phone segment, kill switch has been incorporated by Apple in the iPhone. Through these switches, the company has the capability of uninstalling or deleting any application that they think should not be on your phone.

This was not something Apple made a whole lot of noise about and preferred to let silence rule – until people discovered it for themselves and the world was up in arms.

The iPhone quietly connects to Apple’s servers to check an application blacklist, and disable any apps that should not be there. Read the rest of this entry »

Recent sales numbers of the iPhone and the BlackBerry have surprised people in the know. The reason for the surprise is that BlackBerry has always been considered to be synonymous with a business phone, but now the iPhone sold more.

Earlier, Steve Jobs announced that the iPhone would support Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which will enable users to synchronize their calendar and contacts along with receiving push mail on their iPhones. This announcement had many critics remarking that Apple is attempting to just grab a small slice of one of the most lucrative markets – the enterprise phone segment and nothing more will come out of it. Of course, diehard Apple fans are never deterred by these comments and have always counted on the iPhone to make a difference in this market, where enterprise phone segment is the arena of players such as the BlackBerry and the Nokia E-series.

The sales reports of smartphones reveal that Nokia still ruled, followed by Apple and then BlackBerry. This is a great achievement for Apple, considering that the iPhone does not have as many models as the other two. Another fact is that the competition has released high-profile devices recently too, such as Nokia’s E71 and RIM’s Bold. However, a device that has not been considered to be a suitable choice for enterprise use until now has won hands down. Read the rest of this entry »