Passive/Active 3D & Anaglyph

There are a myriad of monitors that can render 3D movies and games, but most of them fall into two different categories: active and passive 3D.

All 3D equipment works much the same – it takes two different images and shows you both at the same time with slight differences that trick the eyes into perceiving the presented objects at different depths. This concept is known as stereoscopy.

Not too long ago, stereoscopic images were rendered by the eyes through red and blue (cyan) glasses. The displays would present an image with slightly displaced red and blue tints, making objects seem closer than they really were. This is known as anaglyph 3D. It’s an outdated technology that doesn’t really let you see sharp images with deep colors.
Recent developments in 3D technology have successfully made screens that can show you images with brilliant colors. This is where active and passive 3D comes in.

Passive 3D

With passive 3D, a viewer is required to wear a pair of circular-polarized glasses. Each lens on the glasses filters a different image. While both images are presented by your display, each image’s light is polarized separately. The left image is polarized in one direction and the right image in the opposite direction. The glasses will filter each image according to the direction in which it flows. Passive 3D monitors function by polarizing light in different directions.

Active 3D

In active 3D, monitors and glasses both synchronize to produce a 3D image. The glasses have shutters that alternate between the left and right eye. The monitor quickly alternates the left and right image in sync with the glasses. Each eye sees its image with the refresh rate being so high that the shutter effect isn’t noticed. It eliminates many of the problems experienced in 3D movies.

Glasses-Free

The technology known as “glasses-free 3D” is still kind of new and presents new problems. As the name suggests, you don’t need any glasses to view an image. The system works by presenting left and right images at the same time (like Passive 3D), but in a way in which the light reaches the eyes separately. This requires no polarization, since the light separation occurs through screen mechanisms rather than through the glasses.

There are two types of glasses-free systems. Both of them actually use very old technologies that form what is known as autostereoscopy.

The first one, known as parallax barrier stereoscopy, puts a barrier between left and right pixels, directing light at two different locations so that each image goes to a separate eye.

The second one, known as lenticular array stereoscopy, places a curved lens between each left and right pixel so that light is refracted in two different directions, landing on each eye separately.

Both technologies are seen in different displays, and each one is suitable for a particular purpose. Parallax barriers, for example, are ideal in environments where the viewer is relatively close to a small display. Lenticular arrays are often used in larger displays.

Active 3D vs. Passive 3D Overview

Passive 3D:

Pros:

• Glasses are considerably light.
• Monitor and glasses are always compatible.
• The technology is considerably affordable, with glasses costing anywhere from $2 to $30 for a pair and monitors ranging from $400-600.

Cons:

• The polarization on the glasses can bleed out colors when you tilt your head.
• Vertical angles of more than ten degrees can cause images to look distorted (ghosting).

Active 3D

Pros:

• Viewing angles are much more permissive.
• No color bleeding is experienced.
• Users often report that they see more vibrant images through active 3D monitor technology.

Cons:

• Images might appear more dim than usual because of the liquid crystal lens. Some Samsung models actually have addressed this issue. You can solve this by raising the brightness of the monitor.
• You might get headaches, depending on how sensitive you are to the shutter effect.
• The shutters might be visible under certain lighting conditions and when the battery starts to drain.
• The glasses are slightly heavy because of the batteries.
• Monitors and glasses are very expensive, with glasses costing you about $100 a pair and monitors costing from $800-1500.
• The glasses must be compatible with the viewing monitor.

Problems Presented By Glasses-Free Technology

In light of this new technology, there’s only one advantage: You don’t have to wear glasses. But have a look at these issues you may experience with glasses-free 3D technology:

• Horizontal viewing is highly limited. There are only a number of angles movies can be viewed in. Any other angles will cause distortion. Also, viewers have to be seated within that narrow viewing area to enjoy the glasses-free effect. This may present problems when you have many guests or just want to lay down to watch a movie.

• Because of the filters on the screen, you may see background objects rather blurry. This may cause some discomfort that’s difficult to adjust to.

Aside from that, glasses-free 3D has many of the same problems that other technologies have. Not only are they usually more expensive than active 3D displays, but they also really don’t fix anything. If money isn’t an issue, consider getting active 3D rather than glasses-free.

How Movies Are Played in 3D

The most popular method of playing a movie in 3D is the “side-by-side” (SBS) method. In this method, frames are compressed into half their width and each image (left and right) is shown in its respective position. A 3D monitor combines the two images and polarizes the light emitted or alternates between the two images rapidly.

There’s another method, called the top-and-bottom (T/B) method, which does much of the same thing as SBS, only it compresses the frame height not the width.

The third method of 3D is the native interleave method, where both images are already combined, and the monitor passes the data on in the form of light.

A Word Or Two About DLP Projectors

Since DLP projectors generate light through a lamp and present an image reflected from a surface, they obviously don’t have as much flexibility in 3D capabilities as monitors or TVs do. You probably won’t get such vibrant colors if you get a passive 3D DLP projector. The recommendation is get an active 3D setup. Keep this in mind when buying a projector. If you like the 3D movies you see at the cinema, a passive 3D projector will be adequate for you. But if you want the full resolution and all nine yards, as well as a higher tolerance for viewing angles, you should definitely get an active projector!

Questions?

If you have any further questions on 3D technology, please post in the comment section below. If you have something to add to this discussion, please mention that below as well.

If you’re thinking about purchasing a 3D monitor, this article will answer many of the more popular questions about them.

What are the types of 3D monitors and which one should I get?

There are three types of 3D displays: active, passive, and glasses-free. The latter is more rare and expensive, to the point it’s not even worth mentioning. It’s not worth paying a 300% markup (as of this writing) on a monitor that has only a couple of good viewing angles. We will just focus on active and passive. In a later article, we’ll discuss all three in depth.

With passive technology, you use the same glasses (pictured above) that you get in movie theaters. In fact, in many cases, you can keep your cinema glasses and just use them on your monitor! The only drawback is the eyesore you get when you view it at an angle above or below the recommended range. This means you can’t lay down to watch 3D content and have to be sitting upright. Many cheap monitors don’t allow you to adjust the angle very much, limiting you to a measly 15-20 degrees of adjustable viewing angle. Other than that, these displays are good and also cheap.

Active monitors are a bit on the high end of the price spectrum, use special glasses with batteries (pictured above), and have a very obtuse viewing angle. However, I don’t recommend watching more than 4 hours of 3D content in one day with these. The way the glasses work might give you headaches after quite a while. If you start to feel a little disoriented, put the glasses down and drink some water. You need to call it a day (or night).

If you have a small budget, you’ll have to go with passive, but get active if you have the money to spend. You won’t regret being able to view your content from a wider angle.

What Graphics Card Do I Need?

If you’re thinking about watching some 3D movies, you can use practically any on-board chip or graphics card available today. A film is no biggie.

If you’re looking to play 3D games, you’re going to run into some problems. Graphics cards each have their own conventions for 3D games, and AMD and nVidia can’t agree on which method to use for rendering the games. nVidia has 3D Vision, and AMD has HD3D. Games are split between the two, most of them being compatible with only one type of technology.

Fortunately, you can get the TriDef 3D driver and get rid of this issue entirely. It’s compatible with most games on the market. 3D Vision is supported by more games, but in order to use 3D Vision, you’re going to need to buy a lot of hardware, including a “3D Vision-ready” monitor, which has a higher markup on its price tag. The same goes for AMD’s HD3D. It’s best not to purchase a card from nVidia just because more games support 3D Vision. You will get a better deal paying the 50 bucks on the TriDef driver (after you buy a card compatible with 3D games, of course).

It’s a lot of money to spend, right? A card will set you back $200-500, and then you have to pay $50 for the driver. On top of that, you need a monitor compatible with this technology, which burns another $300-1400. No one said it would be easy, but I’m saying it’s worth it. Cinema’s over-rated anyway, and this way you get away from the annoying audience that sits around you.

Do I Need Drivers?

One question that is asked often is whether you need special drivers (like TriDef 3D) to view 3D movies. My short answer is “no.” Most monitors come with a switch that alternates between different 3D modes. My set, for example, has a button that renders a side-by-side 3D movie into one polarized image. There was no need for drivers.

On the other hand, if you’re playing 3D video games, you will need a driver. The easiest way to get everything done is to get a 3D vision-ready monitor, glasses package and a graphics card with nVidia 3D vision technology. The chief incentive for this is complete compatibility and easy setup. You won’t bang your head against your desk as much, although you’ll end up paying more.

What Video Players Support 3D?

Bino (free) and Stereoscopic Player (min. 39 EUR) are two very popular options. Since most movies output side-by-side (SBS) 3D, you must select the appropriate input from the video player. Once you select an SBS input, you can select the output you want for the video. For passive monitors, I’d recommend interleave. For active monitors, I recommend an alternating mode.

Can’t I Just Use A Normal Monitor For 3D?

No! When this question is asked, some even ssuggest it’s a market conspiracy. It’s just that your normal monitor isn’t able to polarize light in the same way that 3D monitors do. Don’t listen to people who talk about special software that converts normal monitors.

However, there’s one way in which you can view 3D through a normal monitor: Anaglyph cyan-red 3D. This requires a pair of anaglyph glasses (pictured above), which are generally very cheap to buy. You’ll lose a lot of color depth, but you’ll see things in 3D. All you need to do is get the glasses, download Bino, and set the output on the movie to the appropriate anaglyph setting. This is very easy and self-explanatory. Just match the anaglyph setting to the color of your glasses and you’re all set.

To see 3D in its full splendor, though, you’ll need a real 3D monitor. Once you add a pair of active glasses, you’ll quickly become addicted to the vibrant colors!

Any More Questions?

Is there anything you’re wondering about 3D monitors? If so, leave a comment blow and we’ll get to it as soon as possible.

Image credit: LG

1. Wired vs. wireless

Whenever possible, connecting your PC to a wired Internet connection will always offer the best Netflix playback. Wired connections can get up to 100 Mbps depending on your ISP, modem and/or router configuration. Wireless connections, however, can be fickle depending on the weather and interference, and often have performance issues. The wired versus wireless scenario can vastly change the quality of streaming in Netflix.

2. Testing your Internet speed, contacting your ISP

Netflix automatically adjusts playback based on your Internet speed. If you have two computers in your home, depending on the circumstances, one could have better playback than the other. If you notice the picture in particular beginning to degrade as you are streaming, it is possible your Internet speed has slowed below what is required for optimal playback.

Netflix has recommended the following speeds for certain aspects of playback:

• 1 MB/s: Streaming on a laptop
• 2 MB/s: Streaming on a standard definition television
• 4 MB/s: Streaming in HD
• 5 MB/s: Optimal audio and video streaming

Testing your Internet speed through a service like Speedtest.net can give you an idea of what your download speed is so you can see if you meet the requirements of Netflix’s.

If your download speeds are low, you will want to check your hardware first, and then contact your ISP to see if there’s anything they can do on their end to increase it. This could involve a change in hardware or a better Internet plan.

3. Change your Netflix video playback settings

After logging into Netflix, click “Your Account.”  Then, click “Manage video quality” under Your Streaming Plan.

Netflix offers users a chance to control how much data is downloaded to offer better streaming quality. You can choose which quality you want; Netflix will not choose one by default for you. If you are not capped by your ISP, you can increase the quality for better overall playback.

4. Finding the right window size for playback

Window size can impact playback for many Netflix users utilizing monitors or screens 20″ or higher. If you are using two monitors or more, this can also affect playback, and at the moment, there is not many ways to combat that issue.

However, you can reduce the window size of Netflix in your browser for better playback. This will take some tweaking, as no two computers will have the same configuration. You will have to play with the Netflix window size to find the right streaming playback.

For example, on my desktop PC, I use two 27″ monitors for my setup. Coupled with the amount of temporary memory and Internet connection I have through Comcast, I have found if I reduce the Chrome browser window to about 1024 x 748 in size, I can get optimal playback as long as my wireless connection is steady.

5. What else is running in the background?

When you stream through Netflix, part of the video you are watching is temporarily stored in your computer’s memory. If you are using a lot of programs, playing games or doing other things while trying to stream, this can impact the quality of playback from Netflix. Ideally, you want to run the bare minimum when streaming Netflix, especially if you want to use full screen mode to watch a program.

Conclusion

There is no catchall solution for fixing Netflix streaming performance that will work on all PCs. It takes some time to find the right setup, but these five tips can help optimize your Netflix playback on your PC.

How Digital Cameras Work

Digital cameras are found on many devices in this day and age. Webcams, smartphones, camera phones, wrist watches, and even some pens have such mechanisms attached to them. The digital camera owes its success to its ability to fit in almost anything that people use daily. But what’s behind a digital camera? Is there some magic going on?

The digital camera is basically a piece of hardware with a light sensor chip, known as a Complementary Metal Semiconductor (CMOS), a couple of filters, a digital or mechanical shutter, and a set of lens. Many of them come with adjustable lens, allowing for zoom. Others use charge-coupled devices (CCDs) as light sensors instead of the CMOS.

Once the shutter activates, all the light that enters through the lens is captured and the image is rendered into a binary map. This binary map is a computer-readable file (often a JPEG) that can be transferred from device to device. Still, the CMOS on its own can only capture light intensity, but it cannot capture colors. That’s what the filters are for. They each filter the light into a color and render its intensity, adding all necessary information to the binary map.

While this may be a bit of an oversimplification, digital cameras all function by these standards. The quality of the filter and how it interprets the light signals through smart software such as light extrapolation differs largely from camera to camera.

Resolution

Resolution is the width and height of an image. A 1920×1080 (1080p) resolution is 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high. This is a full-high-definition landscape resolution. Images are often measured in megapixels (millions of pixels). The higher the resolution in MP, the more high-definition the image will be. Some typical resolutions include:

• 256×256 – don’t expect any quality picture from this resolution. This resolution is mostly found in those cheap (or ancient) cameras and is almost unacceptable.
• 640×480 (0.3MP) – Some of the lower-end smartphone (or dumb phone) take photo in this resolution. It is good for small screen viewing, but it won’t make the mark for prints.
• 1600×1200 (2MP) – With this resolution, you can print it on 4×5 inch format and still have a clear picture.
• 1920×1080 (2.1MP) – This is probably the highest resolution your monitor can display without resizing it. Good to use it as a wallpaper.
• 2304×1728 (4MP) – This is great if you are looking to print up to 16×20 inches.
• 3262×2448 (8MP) – Commonly found in most digital camera, including the iPhone 5.
• 4064×2704 (11MP) – Any picture at this resolution can be printed to a 13.5×9 inch format without any loss of quality.

As can be seen, for on-screen viewing, you won’t benefit from any photo that is bigger than 2MP, since you will have to resize it to view it properly. In most cases (and depending on what you need to do with the photo), you will be able to get by with a 4 – 5MP photo.

Note: Higher resolution also means larger image size.

Resolution is not equal to the image quality. Why Some Cameras Are “Better” Than Others

While a camera with higher resolution can add more details to the photo, it doesn’t necessary mean the photo is of better quality. In fact, the megapixels don’t really dictate the image quality. That’s because megapixel quantity is solely determined by the CMOS you have installed in the camera. The more transistors the CMOS has, the more megapixels you’ll get out of the image. When it comes to the image quality, other factors are involved.

First of all, the camera’s ability to detect objects at night greatly affects how its hardware will render your image. If the camera has software that detects such things as night conditions and renders the image in a way that tries to amplify light in objects that are dim, then you’ll have a clearer picture when taken in the dark. The flash bulb in the camera can only do so much.

Here’s another piece of camera magic: Large aperture diameters. The aperture is limited by the size of the lens. Cameras attached to phones have overcome the limitations caused by their small apertures with software emulation. However, aperture is still king in the digital photography world. The larger your aperture, the more light enters the camera. You can better adjust how the image will look by making slight adjustments to the aperture, increasing or decreasing its size. It allows for great pictures with faded backgrounds like the image below.

In the case of smartphones, the image sensor, the lens’ focal range, and the software rendering the image all play a part in the image quality. These things are indispensable and by far more important than the resolution of the image.

There is a whole encyclopaedia on perfecting the image quality and we won’t go into details here. All you have to know is that more pixels doesn’t always lead to better photo.

Conclusion

We are not going into great details on how digital camera works as that will take days and nights. Hopefully, this article has given you a big picture of how digital camera works and why you should not be overly obsessed with the pixels in your camera. If you are buying smartphone based on the resolution of the camera, think twice.

Image credit: Digital Camera by BigStockPhoto

Before You Start

Before assuming that a piece of hardware is causing problems in your computer, make sure that the socket on your wall is working and all cables are properly connected both outside and inside the computer. Check for loose connections and ensure that you’re not attempting to use the computer at a voltage that’s not recommended.

1. The Power Supply

The computer cannot turn on without it. The power supply is the piece of your computer that gives it life. It’s directly connected to the motherboard and many other components of the computer such as your DVD drive and your hard disk drive. Here’s a list of common problems you can experience with your power supply:

Computer doesn’t turn on

The power supply provides the power to your computer, so if it cannot be powered on, the power supply could highly be the culprit. The best way to determine whether the power supply’s causing this is to listen for any sounds coming in from the computer. If you don’t hear any fans whirring, then your power supply might be faulty. If the only noise coming from the computer is from the power supply, perhaps its fans are the only things working or maybe it’s not properly connected to the motherboard.

DVD drive or hard drive doesn’t function

A peripheral drive may cease to function when its connection to the power supply comes loose. Check the power cables connecting to each to see if they’re fastened properly. If you can wiggle them, they’re not connected well enough.

Insufficient power

If you have just added a new component to the computer and the computer doesn’t turn on, perhaps the power supply isn’t providing sufficient power to compensate for the new hardware. Remove the hardware and turn the computer on again. If it’s working, you need a more powerful power supply before adding this hardware.

Faulty power supplies often occur after short circuits and power surges. Make sure you connect your computer to a surge protector on a grounded socket to prevent these incidents.

2. The Memory (RAM)

Computers store components of their operating systems and running programs/services through the random access memory (RAM) cards. If they’re malfunctioning, you may experience the following symptoms:

Computer doesn’t display anything when turned on (accompanied by a weird beep sequence/lack of beeps).

If your computer normally beeps once when it turns on, listen for two or more beeps, or no beeps at all. For a more detailed overview on beep codes, you can visit this page. If you get strange beeps, assume it has something to do with memory if you didn’t just add hardware.

Excessive blue screen errors.

Blue screen errors often happen when there’s something wrong with your memory. This isn’t always a rule. However, if they’re very random and aren’t generally reproducible, then you’ve probably got a memory problem. If you can reproduce the issue by clicking something, it’s probably that “something’s” fault.

Unacceptably slow performance.

If your computer is taking long to open programs, first open your task manager to make sure that your RAM is not full. If it’s full, try closing programs that use a lot of RAM. If that’s not enough, you need more RAM, assuming that you’re not also infected by malware (I suggest you try also scanning for malware using some software like malwarebytes before jumping to conclusions). Slow performance is often the result of using the minimal amount of RAM necessary to run a computer. You often need at least twice (sometimes three times) as much RAM than what the minimum system requirements for an operating system tell you to get.

One good tool for testing your memory (just to make sure it’s malfunctioning) is memtest86+. We’ve covered this little handy tool many times because it works. If you see problems in your RAM while testing it (a big red label on the screen), then replace it. If there are no problems during at least three passes of the test, then you’re likely to have another issue.

3. Input Devices

Sometimes, keyboards and mice can do pretty weird stuff! Here are some problems caused by your input devices:

Erratic computer behavior (known as the ‘computer poltergeist’). 

One time, I had a faulty keyboard that randomly sent a key sequence to the computer that caused it to open windows insanely, open and close the Start menu, and sometimes shut down the computer on its own. It is by far the weirdest keyboard malfunction that I have ever seen. When the computer starts acting weird like that, unplug the keyboard. If it settles down, then the keyboard was at fault. Replace it with a spare.

Battery discharge.

If your keyboard and mouse are wireless, don’t forget to replace/recharge the batteries! This is a common oversight since batteries last so long nowadays. We often take this for granted and forget that this might be the reason there’s no registered input.

4. The Hard Drive

Hard drives are the snails of the computing world since they contain moving parts. They store all of the permanent data on your computer. All of it. Here’s a list of symptoms that your hard drive is causing problems:

File transfer gets stuck

This is often a sign of a bad drive sector. Run “chkdsk /r” in the command line to try fixing this.

Small rhythmic clicking noise when computer first turns on

This might be a sign of a head crash and is a very dangerous premonition to the death of your hard drive. Make sure you make a full backup of your system if you still can. This drive’s about to go bust!

Complete and sudden loss of all data despite no format

If you didn’t format your hard drive and you lost all your data, you’re likely dealing with a corrupted partition and file system. This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, the effects are devastating. To solve this, try using software like Recuva.

Very slow performance

If your computer takes a long time to boot and start programs (and, you’ve already tried singling out your RAM as the issue), then you have a slow hard drive. Defragmenting it (search “defragmenter” in your Start menu) is one of the first things you should try. If that doesn’t solve anything, you might need a new hard drive, assuming your computer is free of malware.

5. The CPU

The CPU can be a very troublesome piece of hardware because of the amount of heat it emanates and the amount of responsibility it’s given. After all, the CPU is the heart of your computer. Let’s look at symptoms of CPU issues:

Frequent and sudden random shutdowns.

If you’re not getting a blue screen, but the computer’s always just shutting down on you without any prior warning, this is a telltale sign that your CPU is overheating. Either get a better cooling fan for it, improve the airflow inside your computer, or replace the CPU and hope that the next one has a better stock cooler. Sometimes, thermal grease might be wearing out on the CPU, and there are also cases where the CPU is overheating because many of its transistors have already reached the end of their lifespans. You often end up getting a new computer long before a CPU would need to be replaced for this reason, though.

Slow performance

If your CPU is not old, you can forget about this. If you bought a CPU that was released within the last year, you’re not likely to have performance issues because of it. Anything older, and you should check the task manager. Assuming that you’re not infected with malware, a 100% CPU usage with a couple of light programs open should indicate that you need a new CPU. Of course, it could also be a program’s fault. If one program is using 100% of the CPU consistently, you really need to close it. After that, see how the computer performs. If you’re still getting very slow performance (and 100% CPU usage across the board), then you really need to replace this piece of hardware.

Computer won’t display anything

Again, like with RAM, a failed CPU will cause your computer to completely stop in its tracks when turning on. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to determine whether the CPU’s at fault. You should first try replacing your RAM with some spare cards to see if they could be the culprit. If you still get the same problems, you either must replace the CPU, or you may even have to replace the motherboard.

6. The Motherboard

The motherboard is tied closely to the CPU, RAM, and power supply. If you can’t seem to find any problems with your RAM and CPU, the motherboard may be at fault. Unfortunately, this is a very complex piece of hardware to test, as it’s the nerve center of the computer. If you’re unsure whether a problem pertains to the motherboard or another piece, mount that piece on another computer to see if it works. There’s a lot of trial and error involved, and a guide like this is very useful in such times. More often than not, though, the CPU or RAM are at fault. The motherboard seldom has problems. You often end up buying a new motherboard anyway before the old one has run enough time to fail.

Computer Support Engineer by Big Stock Photo.

1. Internal Sound Cards

The vast majority of computers (laptops, at least) come with not-so-good sound cards which, despite doing their job well for the regular user, are far from being the best cards for people who are into music. Before buying a new computer, check the quality of the included sound card. If you have already bought a new computer and wish to get a better sound card, there is always the possibility to change yours for a new one (warning: if you are not certain on how to do this, DO NOT do it. Not only is it a hard process, especially for laptops, it can also void your warranty).

Most of the best best internal sound cards in the market are made by ASUS and Creative. The ASUS Xonar Essence STX is considered to be the best, followed by the ASUS Xonar Essence ST9 and the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi. They all cost between $150 and $215, and they are considered to be “professional”. In fact, the ASUS models do not have any regular 3.5mm jack ports (but they do come with an adapter), while the Creative one has two such ports.

2. External Sound Cards

External Sound Cards are useful for those who are not able to add an internal sound card to their system. It can be due to a lack of PCI Express port or the laptop casing is not removable. In this category, there is a wider spectrum of products to cover. There are several ways of connecting these devices to our computers, such as USB or FireWire. The external sound cards use these interfaces to communicate with computers and improve its sound reproduction capabilities. They also come in many different configurations, from USB sticks to devices looking like external hard drives, and different prices, from $10 to $1000.

Once again, Creative comes as one of the most reliable brands in this category, with its X-Fi series (Sound Blaster X-Fi HD, Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1 Pro and Sound Blaster X-Fi Go! Pro). If your budget is lower, there are plenty of other options from lesser known brands that will also do the trick. I have one of these “USB sticks,” and I guarantee you will notice the difference, because they emulate a 5.1 card (and they do not require an existing sound card since they work completely independently).

3. Headphones and Speakers

If I said the external sound card market was really big, this one is gigantic – earphones, headphones, regular speakers, surround speakers, cordless, you name it. And since they are the last devices the sound gets through before reaching your ears, they obviously have some influence in playback quality. They also come in many colors, models and prices, so ultimately this is just a matter of taste and/or budget. According to Lifehacker, who polled their users for the best earbud, headphone and speaker, the respective favorites are the Shure SE215 Sound Isolating Earphones ($100), the Grado SR80i ($99) and the Klipsch Promedia 2.1 ($150).

What are your favorite ways to improve audio experience? Let us know in the comments below.

1: When A Computer Is Slow, It’s The CPU’s Fault

When a computer starts to run slow, it is easy to put all the blame to the CPU. In fact, there are tons of reason why your computer is slow, and the CPU is probably not one of them.

One of the cause could be that the computer have insufficient memory or low-quality memory with a slow clock. Sometime, it could also due to a poorly coded software that constantly take up tons of memory and system resources.

The lesson: have a look at your other hardware and see if that’s what’s causing the issue. Scan your computer for viruses and eliminate any threat before blaming the CPU. Lastly, switch to another software that are less resource-intensive.

2: Windows Made My System Crash

A long-promoted idea among people who dislike Microsoft is that Windows crashes often. When you use a computer, you expect it to do what you tell it to do. Once in a while, this doesn’t happen, and the computer throws a blue screen.

This horrible display of information often tells you a lot about the problem while, at the same time, assumes you understand that information. This is an ultimate failure of Microsoft Windows’ core programming, but it doesn’t mean that Windows is at fault for your crash. In the above image, the problem was due to a faulty driver for a processor. How could you tell? Googling “gv3.sys” revealed this easily. The “.sys” represents a driver. An address fault like this one is often caused by an issue that occurs while the driver is trying to allocate memory.

The lesson: More often than not, blue screens are caused by memory errors rather than errors in the operating system itself. To stop these kinds of problems, keep your drivers up to date and check your memory once in a while.

3: The More GHz A Processor Has, The Faster It Is

This is flat-out wrong. It comes out of the obsession with numbers, leading people to believe that a higher number in a processor’s specification chart means it’s better. This couldn’t be further from the truth. A Core2Duo processor is generally going to be slower than a Core i3 processor of the same clock rate (GHz). This is because of the architecture. This also has to do with the number of transistors that can fit on the dye, which is why semiconductor manufacturers have this sort of vigilante obsession with making smaller transistors. Processor pricing indexes are often very reliable, meaning that you can rely on a more expensive processor being better than its less expensive counterpart (even though the Ghz speed is slower), from the same manufacturer.

4: The Terms “Megabyte” and “Megabit” Mean the Same Thing

Often, this happens to the most novice computer users when they encounter these words and don’t really understand what values they represent. First, one must understand what “bit” and “byte” mean. A “bit” is a binary value of 0 or 1. Eight bits compose a “byte”. So, when you’re seeing a value in megabits, you can divide that value by eight to get the amount in megabytes (i.e. a 100-megabit Internet connection will net you at 12.5 megabytes per second, tops). Often, the notation for megabit is “Mb,” and the one for megabyte is “MB.” Megabytes are often used to measure file sizes and the amount of transferred data. Megabits are often used to measure transfer speed across a network.

5: When My Computer Shuts Down Suddenly Without Turning Back On, It’s Broken.

What happen when your computer suddenly turn off by itself? Some of you will probably think that it is broken. Even the best of us get kind of distraught, caught in the moment, and rip our hair out. It’s normal to feel disappointed. But, your computer’s likely not “broken.” Computers – particularly desktop computers – don’t just “break.” More often than not, a component of the computer just stopped working and needs to be replaced.

When you’re in a panic, just relax and check whether the power chord is attached to its socket and whether all the cables are still connected to the rear (it could have been pulled out accidentally). Try to turn it on again and see if it works. If yes, then it could be a software, likely to be the OS, glitches. Repeat the same thing that you are doing just before the computer turn itself off and see if the same problem occurs.

If the computer’s still not turning on, one of the computer hardware components could be spoilt. it’s time to call a technician.

Discussion

If you see something in this list of computer misconceptions that could be debated, or something I might have unintentionally omitted, please comment below. Also, don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you need help understanding something!

1. Tablet Stand

If you want to work long hours on your tablet, you have to make sure you have a good stand that can allow the tablet to stand at different angles. The good thing about a tablet stand is that it can be portable and attach when required or even double as the protection cover for your tablet.

2. Keyboard

It’s obvious what is missing from a tablet to make it truly like a laptop – the keyboard and trackpad/mouse. First, forget the trackpad/mouse. Touchscreens eliminate the need for a trackpad or mouse. For casual browsing, the keyboard is redundant as well, but for serious work, you will be more productive with a physical keyboard.

There are plenty of keyboard options in the market, and most of them make use of Bluetooth to connect to your tablet. Tablets such as the Transformer series from ASUS even come with a keyboard dock that is fully integrated with the tablet.

One note of caution: examine the keyboards before you buy them. You have to make sure that you can type comfortably on it and it is not missing necessary keys like “Shift” or “Enter”.

3. Apps

Now that you have a physical setup that resembles a laptop or a desktop, the next thing is to setup the software. This needs a slightly different way of thinking – instead of the regular software you install on your desktop, we will mostly deal with apps on your tablet (unless you are using the new Surface Pro). To use your tablet the way you would a desktop, you just have to find apps that do all of your required functions.

Browsers

Most of the browsers that you use on your desktop are also available on your tablet. Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari (mobile) and Opera are available for both iOS and Android, and Microsoft’s Surface uses Internet Explorer 10. Other browsers include Dolphin, Skyfire, Maxthon and more.

In term of capabilities, these browsers are not up to mark as compared to their desktop version, but I have found no (or little) issues when using them for my work.

Documents

Whether you want to take some quick notes, write an essay, or write your blog, there will always be an app for it. Tablets reign over laptops in that you can even handwrite notes and illustrate them with handwriting apps. You can work on Microsoft Office documents with Quickoffice, Documents to go and iWork documents in iWork. For document collaboration, Google Drive is one good app that allows you to create document and share with others.

Social Networking

One of the easiest things to do on a tablet is social networking. All the major sites have apps, and sometimes they have functionality built into apps. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are all available in apps, as well as video communication like Skype.

Music

You can start with iTunes, but it only gets better from there. You can use a player that will also identifies music for you with SoundHound, can play radio stations across the globe with TuneIn Radio, and can stream music with Pandora. Or you can combine your music and social networking with site like Spotify.

4. Cloud

Unlike desktop where it is comes with TB of storage space, most tablets are short of physical storage space. This is where a cloud storage service comes in. Whether it’s iCloud, Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc., you can now store all your documents, photos, media without your tablet running out of space. You can create a network of all your devices, and back up everything to each device, or only back up what you want where you want. Many of these start as a free service, but also have paid premium service for an extra cost.

5. Simulating Your Desktop

Lastly, there may be a few times when your tablet just won’t do, and you really need the services of a laptop or desktop computer. For that, you can remote connect to your desktop and control your desktop directly from your tablet. Splashtop is one of the more popular app for remote controlling your desktop. Teamviewer is another great alternative.

It’s definitely possible to make your tablet as powerful as a desktop. What makes tablets more attractive these days than desktop or laptop computers is technology eliminating the need and giving more advantages to the tablets.

How do you make your tablet as powerful as a desktop?

Energy Saving

There are plenty of concerns for leaving everything on at all times. Chief among those are for energy-saving reasons and that the computer components may be harmed by staying on at all times. Let’s handle the latter first. It has never been proven that leaving your computer on will harm it, or your mobile device for that matter, and many consider that thought to be technology myth.

As far as saving energy, yes it can help to shut your computer down every night. But there are other methods that can save some money as well. Certainly leaving any electronic device plugged in and on will add up on the electrical bill. That’s a valid argument. However, you can also power down the monitor and hard drive overnight so that they are using less energy. It’s somewhat of an electronic compromise.

Will regular shutting down hurt the computer?

Confusing the matter, there are also concerns with doing a daily shutdown on your computer and devices. Some believe that the computer components can be harmed with this practice as well, feeling as the the constant on and off will put additional strain on the components. While it does affect the components, it’s never been proven that it’s a particularly harmful effect.

And of course, the number one reason we want to leave our computers on is because it’s a pain to open up and sign back in to numerous apps and websites. Of course there are plenty of apps and browsers that will save that information and automate the opening process, but it can still be a pain. It’s so much easier just to leave it on. With phones, we often leave them on because we don’t want to miss that important call.

Since it’s a hot debate, we put this question to our staff here at Make Tech Easier, asking them what they do with their machines. Surely we can look to them for some expertise. Not only do we write about them, we’re on them all day long.

Laura Tucker

I’ve gotten into the habit of never shutting anything down. I’m one of those who hates to open everything up again. I used to shut down every night, but no longer. One of the reasons I got out of the habit is because of my use of mobile devices. Most work I do is on my iPad, and there just seems to be no reason to turn that off. When I do shut my Mac Mini, iPad, or iPhone down it’s because I’m turning it right back on again. If something’s not working right, my first option is always a restart. It clears out memory and makes things work quicker and better, even if it’s just a little bit. I do utilize the sleep modes on my Mac and my devices.

Ruji Chapnik

Ruji is a lot like me in this regard. She never shuts down her devices, as she doesn’t see the need. She, too, performs shutdowns when a computer is acting up, yet logs right back in again. “I loathe the process of waiting for my computer to boot, so I avoid shut-downs.” She only shuts her phone down when she’s changing the battery.

Emmanuel Banks

Emmanuel is one of those who shuts his computer down every day, sometimes twice a day, as he does it before bed, as well as before leaving. He doesn’t want to waste the energy of leaving it on all the time. If he has to perform a large upload or when he’s updating OS X on his Mac, it falls under the very few times he will keep it running all night. He likes to use the Mac’s Power Nap feature in that instance.

Damien Oh

Damien is very conscious of his electricity bill, so he, too, shuts down every night. However, he won’t completely shut down, but will perform a hibernate “so it can retain my session for the next boot-up.”

Trevor Dobrygoski

Trevor is another one to make sure everything gets a daily shutdown. He shuts down his Android phone and tablet daily and his Windows laptop gets power-cycled usually every day. He finds the devices gain some speed after a reset, especially his phone. Some apps he uses seem a little glitchy if he doesn’t power down every day or two.

Soumen Halder

For Soumen, the option to leave his computer on or shut it off depends on how the PC is being used. He has a Lenovo laptop with a really bad battery life, so he just leaves it connected to an external monitor and uses it for secondary tasks. He never shuts it down and just does restarts every few weeks or so. On the contrary, his Dell laptop, the PC he uses for all his professional work, enjoys a regular shutdown schedule. It stays in standby when he’s working, and he shuts it down every night.

Like Soumen, whether or not to do a daily shutdown depends much on your usage and what you feel comfortable with. Just know that it’s neither safe nor unsafe for your computer or devices.

Image credit: Save Energy by BigStockPhoto

In this PC troubleshooting guide, we will show you the possible problems that could happen to your PC and how you should fix it.

1. Your Memory Is Corrupted

One of the most common problem that I always encounter while troubleshooting a PC is that Windows stops working inexplicably at random intervals. Most of the time, it is the memory RAM causing the problem. The easiest way to verify this is to swap the RAM cards in your PC with some spare ones and test to see whether this works or not. Of course, if the RAM cards aren’t easily accessible, you can run memtest as an alternative. Corrupt bits of memory can cause a computer to act funny, and even crash, every time it starts.

Solution: The only way to solve a memory problem is to replace it with new memory. You will most likely end up replacing all of the memory sticks (usually two to four).

2. Switched Boot Order

When you can’t boot up your PC, it could be due to a switched boot order where the system cannot find the partition to run the bootloader. This usually happens when your CMOS battery (a small round battery found on your motherboard) runs out of juice. It could also happen if you (or someone else) have accessed the BIOS recently and changed something accidentally. You’ll know your boot order was switched if you get the “no operating system found” error when starting your computer, or something else besides your operating system’s loading screen.

Solution: access your BIOS (press “F2″ or “Del” button when the BIOS screen appear) and reconfigure the boot order. Your boot order should look like this:

• CD/DVD Drive
• Hard Drive
• Everything else

If your configuration already looks like this and it still cannot boot up, check your CD ROM and eject any disc that are in it, then restart.

3. Corrupted Bootloader

If the above solution does not work, your problem could be due to a corrupted boot loader.

The Solution: Use Super Grub Disk to fix the bootloader.

4. Registry Issues (In Windows)

Your Windows Registry holds important information to your system, and it can often cause problem when it is mishandled. This happens when an application write into a key that doesn’t belong to them. They also could be caused by viruses built to sabotage your computer’s resources. That’s why it’s good to back up your registry once in a while. You’ll know that you have registry issues when there are errors on startup, often leading to using your PC in safe mode.

The Solution: Use CCleaner and nCleaner. They will eliminate things that don’t really belong in the registry. If a program wrote over something system-based, however, it usually cannot be fixed without either restoring a backup of the registry or re-installing Windows.

5. Hardware Is Sending Bad Signals

This one is a common one in systems with Windows XP or earlier, but isn’t uncommon in Vista and later systems. Usually, hardware problems of this nature happen because the wrong driver was installed for a certain piece of hardware. As much as Windows tries to mitigate hardware issues, they will happen at one point or another regardless of how careful you are.

How to Find the Issue: You can see where hardware conflicts occur by accessing the Device Manager. In Windows 7, you can click the “Start” menu, type “Device Manager,” and press “Enter.” In Windows 8, access the Start screen and just start typing the name followed by the “Enter” key. Conflicting devices are often shown with an exclamation point next to them. To find out the cause of the problem, simply right-click the device and click “Properties.”

The Solution: You must uninstall the driver for that specific piece of hardware and then install the proper one. This will take some searching unless you still have its instruction manual. This often happens to video cards and hard drive controllers, although sound cards and virtually anything else are prone to such issue. Once you install the correct drivers for your hardware, restart the computer.

6. Corrupt Clusters in Hard Drive

Corrupt clusters within your hard drive might cause your computer to crash (either Blue Screen of Death, or the PC restarts), especially when trying to access a file. If you feel you have this problem, you can confirm it by performing a maintenance check on your hard drive. You should do this at least once a month.

The Solution: If you would like to scan your hard drive for problems and fix them along the way, read the question asking “What’s the best way of finding out my hard drive’s health for free?”

7. Improper Airflow

It might seem like a trivial issue, but PCs can suffer from airflow problems that prevent them from cooling down effectively. You can almost identify this immediately when the CPU’s or graphics card’s fans start to whirl loudly.

Causes for this could be a dirty, or spoilt fan, the heat is not directed to the case opening, or that the heat sink is not dissipating the heat effectively. In case you are wondering, here’s what a heat sink looks like:

The Solution: Check the fans. If they’re dusty, clean them. If they’re making noise, replace them. Also, check the direction in which the air is flowing (by checking the direction of the fan rotation). A computer’s airflow ideally should match this diagram:

8. Infection

Viruses are nasty things that usually make a part of the computer – or the entire system – exaggeratedly slow. Some of them also intentionally or unintentionally crash your computer. After analyzing a lot of the code inside of a virus, it’s more often the latter than the former because the programmers who wrote the virus didn’t really have your computer’s longevity in mind.

The Solution: To quickly determine what’s wrong, get your hands on Microsoft Security Essentials or AVG’s free antivirus. It’s worth a try. They’ll eliminate the threat and hopefully restore your computer to working order.

9. Corrupt Software

When software uses the hardware-software bridge to communicate with your hardware, it might just be speaking a bunch of gibberish that causes Windows to crash. This happens especially with software that’s newer than the operating system you’re using, but some old software does this as well.

The Solution: Try using an older version of the software. If that doesn’t work, then you’ll probably have to renounce using the software entirely and try alternatives. If you use MS Office 2010 and it keeps crashing your computer, you might want to switch over to the 2007 version, for example. This works more often than you may think!

Did We Miss Anything?

If you know of another problem that’s easily solved when troubleshooting a PC, let us know by commenting below!

Speed Up Startup Process

This is one of the most annoying things about old systems. You hit the power button, and it takes an eternity to get things loaded before you can actually start working. This happens mostly due to the startup programs and sometimes the hardware and the operating system. Windows 8 has an impressive startup time and so do some Linux distros, but on old computer with older version of Windows, you will need to do some tweaks. Programs like Startup Delayer or Soluto are great apps that can monitor your startup time and inform you which apps can be removed from the startup list.

In addition to the startup items, there is also the context menu entries that get loaded while the computer boots up. While some of menus are necessary, some stay unused. Using tools like File Menu Tools or MooO RightClicker allow you to configure the context menu and remove the entries that are not necessary.

System Performance Management

For those who never bothered to clean up their computer, you will be surprised to find that a little cleaning up and optimization can lead to a huge performance gain, even on an old computer. On Windows PC, this means you have to maintain a regular schedule to defragment and clean up your disks. Tools like CCleaner works great. Other tasks include repairing registry errors or a faulty partition, optimizing your network for faster Internet access and uninstalling useless programs or switching to newer/older versions that are faster. Also, paid tools like Auslogics Boostspeed have built-in tools to do everything mentioned above automatically on a defined schedule. A little price for some peace of mind. You can try disabling the graphics features for more RAM juice.

Get a Hardware Fix

Depending on your old computer hardware specification, you can get a performance boost by upgrading a single (or few) components. Upgrading the RAM is the first upgrade you should get. You can also consider upgrading the graphics card, provided your motherboard and CPU can support the newer generation of graphics hardware. Changing a new case with better cooling feature can also make the system run faster and smoother.

If your PC doesn’t provide you with options to upgrade, you can consider overclocking the CPU to squeeze more processing power out of it. Of course, this will require skill and knowledge, and not every CPU is overclockable. Taking proper precaution is necessary here to make sure you don’t end up destroying the existing hardware.

The whole “old computer as good as new” notion is somewhat deceiving. There is no doubt that it won’t be completely new, otherwise all the money flowing into R&D every year would be pointless. However, with a little effort, you can a get a considerably better performance out of your old PC as long as you have the proper understanding of the above-mentioned methods. If none of these really satisfy your quest for performance and you are hell-bent on dumping that clunker, don’t give up on your old PC yet. There are still plenty of use for it.

After the resulting panic, shouting, and cursing, then it comes time to make a decision on what to do. We all know electronic devices are not meant to get wet. But not everyone knows what to do once that inevitable finally happens. Our writers were asked to share their personal stories of water damage and also asked them what they have done or will do in the case of water damage.

Laura Tucker:

I have more experience with water damage than I care to even think about. I’ve lost a couple of phones and a MacBook to water damage. My son has lost countless phones. When my son lost one of his first phones in a bowl of cereal, we had heard that packing it in a bag of rice would be its saving grace. It helped … some. I have also read that silica gel packets will do an even better job than rice.

My iPhone 3GS got knocked into the sink once when I was washing my hands. It wasn’t totally enveloped in water, but definitely met with more water than it should have. I packed it in rice overnight, and it worked the next morning, but it kept indiscriminately restarting every few minutes. A month later the replacement fell out of my purse and into the toilet when I was washing my hands in a public restroom. It was cashed. I knew it immediately. No amount of rice was going to save it.

I recently lost a MacBook as well. The faucet on my kitchen sink is broken, and there was just a hose hanging there. I turned it on, and the water pressure snaked the hose right out of my hands, spraying all over my kitchen. My daughter was sitting behind me on the MacBook. I held it upside down for a good fifteen to twenty minutes with water dripping out of it. Again, I didn’t even try to save it. It was done for, and I knew it.

Emmanuel Banks:

Emmanuel also lost an iPhone 3GS to water damage. However, with most of his gadgets, including the iPhone, he says the rice trick usually works. With his iPhone 5, he’s taking extra precautions. He put extra money into buying a Lifeproof case. He suggests anyone who can’t afford that should just get as good of a case as they can afford. “It doesn’t have to be waterproof, but any case at least can help when your phone (or other gadget) goes for a swim.”

Trevor Dobrygoski:

Trevor got caught in the rain at soccer practice once, leaving his Blackberry to be a victim. He left it in front of a fan for a few hours to get most of the moisture out, then had it in a bag of rice for about a day. It worked, although imperfectly. Perhaps because of this experience, he tries to back up everything regularly so that a wet phone is “more of an inconvenience than a disaster.” He’s also had a few stressful moments with Windows computers, but with the backups and a little time, all were fixable.

Ruji Chapnik:

Ruji also had a Blackberry. She dropped it in the sink while doing the dishes once, and also had it get soaked in the rainy Portland weather. She always removed the battery, and let it sit in rice for a few days. After a day it would boot, but act buggy unless it sat for at least two days. She also had a MacBook Pro she would take into the bathroom with her. The humidity got to the trackpad disabling the clicking. She found a workaround in the system settings, but booting from a CD didn’t work then. Her ThinkPad’s keyboard is spill-proof, and she now always buys silicon keyboard covers as well.

Miguel Leiva-Gomez:

Miguel has some very practical advice for when your favorite device receives water damage. He suggests turning it off, removing the batteries, then taking it in for service as soon as possible. He suggests that it “might not have reached the main PCB, so service personnel might be able to air it out. You can alternatively air out the PCB yourself by disassembling the device and leaving it to dry.” He warns that under no circumstances should a blow dryer ever be used to speed up the drying process, as it might stress some of the components. He suggests wiping it off with a microfiber cloth.

Damien Oh:

Damien, aka the voice of reason, perhaps has the best advice of all. “Surprisingly, I have never had a water accident with any electronic device, maybe because I am careful enough not to bring them to the toilet or bathroom.” That certainly needs to be addressed. Most of the water-damaged computers and devices here tempted fate in the bathroom or kitchen, and if not that, they were out in the rain. That should serve as great warnings for us.

Conclusion

On our advice, it’s best not to take your expensive toys into the bathroom with you or near the kitchen sink. If water hits, take out the battery if you can (Apple makes it hard to reach some of their batteries), and either pack it in rice of silica gel, or take it immediately in for service. Do note that most devices have water sensors, making it hard to convince those at the service desk that your device never saw a drop of liquid.

Now it’s your turn to tell us how you revive your water damaged computer/device.

Image credit: Cell by BigStockPhoto

1: Your Screwdrivers

This one’s so obvious, I’m not really going to explain it in detail. I suggest, however, getting a single screwdriver with interchangeable heads.

This screwdriver will save a ton of space in your toolbox, which you can now use to fill with other things on this list. Also, matching a properly-sized screwdriver head to a screw prevents stripping, a phenomenon that’s shown more precisely in an image below.

2: Spare SATA & IDE HDD + Cables

You should always have extra hard drives in case you’re going to be doing some recovery work. The hard drive should ideally have an operating system already installed, such as Linux. If you don’t know what “PATA” means, it’s basically the new name for ATA/ATAPI.

3: A Laptop Motherboard Tester

This one’s definitely a big item that should be on everyone’s tech tools list! I can’t stress it enough: if you don’t have a laptop motherboard tester, you’re going to bang your head against the wall for a long time until you realize what’s wrong. I’m surprised to know that not a lot of my techie friends know about this kind of device. Let’s show a picture:

You will plug this thing into the laptop’s PCI slot or whatever the instruction manual tells you, and it will give you a code that you’ll interpret according to the manual. These things are very precious!

4: Diagnostic Software

Take everything you can with you. Here’s a simple list of software you should have:

• CPU-Z
• RealTemp (for testing the CPU temperature)
• memtest
• Process Explorer
• Process Monitor
• CCleaner

You should also have helper software (like “Everything,” a very fast file search utility) with you so that you can perform tasks more productively, especially on a troublesome system.

5: IDE/SATA-To-USB Interface Cable

Oh, this one’s a real treat to have around! If you need to quickly connect a hard drive to a system, you can just plug it in through a USB cable instead of messing around with the insides of the PC. Want to see what one looks like?

It’s unbelievably simple to set up. However, if you’re looking to protect the spare hardware you bring along, stick it in an enclosure or run this USB setup from within an anti-static bag.

Anything to Add?

We’re always forgetting something, and I’m no exception to this rule! Please comment below to add any tech tools suggestions you have to expand this so that no tech whiz shall ever go again without his/her tools to the field.

1. Create a Digital Photoframe:

If your PC is as good as junk, you can try turning it into a digital photoframe. Familiar is a free app that can help you accomplish the job. Other similar apps, such as Flickr slideshow or Picasa, are also handy for this.

2. An External Portable Storage

When nothing but your hard drive from the old computer is working, you still have an option to turn that into a portable external storage with a little investment in a USB caddy that can be bought from Ebay.

3. A Second Display

For Web professional, having a second (or more) external display is definitely useful. Using your old monitor as an additional external display is surely a cheaper alternative to buying a new one.

4. Sell It to Fund the Next One

You might ask why you would sell your old computer when the whole article is about using it. That’s true, but it is always wiser to invest in newer technologies. They don’t just look brilliant, they are greener and a beefier performer, designed to run better and safer apps. Selling it for quick cash is definitely better than just throwing it away.

5. Donate and Bring Smiles to Faces

What’s of no use to you might be of great help for someone else. If you think that your old PC is nothing more than an expensive waste, donate it to a charitable organization like Freecycle, Computers with Causes or Donate Your PC.

6. Contribute with Your CPU time To Distributed Computing

Iif you’re unsure about getting rid of your old computer just yet, you can volunteer your CPU power to people who can make the best out of it. BOINC is a wonderful tool to start with. You will find tons of causes, including cancer research, and can donate your time to them on that old computer.

7. Build Your Own Super Computer

If you have hardware lying in the garage, with a little technical know-how and PelicanHPC, you can get a cluster up and running for fast parallel computing with MPI (Message Passing Interface). This ensures a faster computing experience with combined processing speeds.

8. For All the Software You’ve Been Wanting to Try

If you’ve been wanting to try that new Linux thing you heard last night, but your new PC is too cramped with Windows to go for a fresh installation, this is a great chance to put your old laptop/PC to good use. If your old PC meets the requirements (no matter how old your PC is, there’s bound to have a Linux distro that will work in your PC), use it for testing new apps before installing them on your work PC.

9. Add an Extra Level of Firewall Protection

With the right set of tools, you can actually use your old PC as a firewall that sits between your new PC and the Internet. The following links demonstrate how you can take some time off and create a business class firewall with your old PC. [Link1][Link2]

10. A Media Station with Your Old PC

Within a budget, you can buy a new LED display and a proper sound system or a wireless headset and turn your PC into a media player. With all the free and versatile media players and online streaming services, you can undo the burden of entertainment on your work PC/Laptop.

11. A Game Server

If you are a passionate gamer, this is a handy use for the 10-year-old junk. Most games nowadays have an option for a dedicated server. If you wish to go online for a multiplayer experience, configure your old PC to deal with the web traffic while you enjoy the sport on your gaming rig.

12. Printing or File Server

If you own or administer a network of computers, that’s great, as you can use your old PC as the remote print or file server. Here is a guide with Windows XP as the OS on the old PC. Alternatively, you can use the old laptop storage as the file server for the network of the computers. Start with this guide to get the best out of the e-junk. If you are a fan of Ubuntu, with this resource you can turn it into a streaming server or a networked backup plan.

13. A Video Recorder or a TV

A modern day TV tuner card is capable of recording soap without a scratch. Why not use your clunker to record the F.R.I.E.N.D.S episode, while you finish your assignment.

14. A Granny Guide

While your grandmother wants to try her hand at computer, for obvious reasons, you can’t trust her with your your new PC. If you want a novice to get used to the computing environment, your old PC is a good one to start with. Teach her a few things, and she will be more than happy to use your old PC to browse the Internet. Additionally, your 5-year-old son will love to play classic Mario or Road Rash on your old computer.

Apart from those ideas mentioned above, there are other interesting thoughts like putting up the old PC somewhere visible in the room so when a thief gets in and sees it, he might have a notion you are poor enough and that might frustrate him to leave. In any case, we are already living in a state where e-junks are creating shortages of landfill, so even if you do not care about any of the above, do recycle the PC for a greener future.

What Is A Refurbished PC?

Anything that’s “refurbished” means that it’s been returned within a certain period of time by the customer to the distributor. The distributor repackages the product and sends it on its way to a special shelf where refurbished materials go. This is not to be confused with a “used” product!!

Anything that’s described as “used” has been in the possession of the customer for a long time. Refurbished products often aren’t even opened and are returned because of an error in the transaction.

Let’s say some guy clicks the order button twice when buying a 400 GB hard drive. He gets two of them at his house and returns one of them because he didn’t need it. That’s usually how the refurbishing process begins. The store has no choice but to sell it as a refurbished product since it was already ordered, therefore reducing the price of the product. The reduction could be a sum just shy of what it cost before or something more significant, depending on how many days this product has stayed in the hands of the customer.

It Gets More Complicated: Manufacturer Refurbish vs. Store Refurbish

A store-refurbished PC is simply a unit that wasn’t sent back to the manufacturer for repackaging. It means that the store has reason to assume that the product isn’t damaged in any way. The store sells the product at a lower price with a short warranty usually lasting 30 to 90 days.

A manufacturer-refurbished PC is one that was sent back to the manufacturer for quality control inspection before repackaging. In this case, the PC will be sold with a long warranty, if not a full one. Warranties could even exceed a year if the manufacturer refurbishes the product. This is the safest bet and gives you a significantly better deal than a new PC.

So, Why Not Just Buy New?

Well, you can buy a new PC. That’s the safest way to make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth on a product that hasn’t been shipped and handled a load of times. Also, you get the fullest warranty and support package you can get. But if you’re strapped for cash and want to save a bit of money, you can buy refurbished models. Just make sure that you get a manufacturer-refurbished product. Store refurbishing is more of a gamble.

Also, new PCs still come in the pretty box they originally shipped out of the manufacturer in. Refurbished models rarely give you this privilege.

The Final Run-Down

So, if you want to buy a refurbished PC, remember that while store-refurbished PCs might cost less sometimes, they’re more of a gamble. Manufacturer-refurbished PCs give you the guarantee that the product has been inspected by an expert in its manufacturing process. New PCs still offer you more advantages by giving you a device that hasn’t been shipped back and forth (hard drives are delicate). Another plus is that you will always get the best warranty. The decision between a refurbished and new PC is ultimately yours. Refurbished PCs are often just as good as new ones. The risk is minimal.

Comment below if you’d like to speak your mind about this subject!

1. Amazon.com

You can never go wrong with looking for any type of a deal at Amazon.com. It’s always the first place I look online. They seem to literally have everything. This season they’re offering up deals on Dell, Apple, Lenovo, Samsung, Coby, Toshiba, Acer, HP, Verizon, and ASUS laptops, desktop computers, and tablets. You can get some of these computers for up to $500 off.

2. DealNews.com

DealNews.com has the tagline of “Where every day is Black Friday.” They’re always showing deals all year long, and the day after Christmas promises great deals. They’re offering all the major brands with good deals. The lowest-priced laptops include the ASUS for $260 and Toshiba and Lenovo for $270. It’s even better than Black Friday, because you’re shopping for yourself and not for something to wrap and put under the tree for someone else.

3. Retailmenot.com

RetailMeNot.com has been offering coupon codes for all your favorite retailers, such as Toshiba, Dell, Best Buy, AT&T, etc., for Christmas shopping, and many of those codes are valid through the end of the year and into January. One of these deals is for AT&T, offering $100 off any tablet, plus free shipping. It could be a way to finally get your hands on that iPad. Or maybe you want to get 50% off that iPhone 5 or $475 off a custom Qosmio gaming laptop. Those deals are hard to pass up.

4. Apple.com

If you don’t need to be the first owner of an Apple computer, you can check out their refurbished deals that are offered all year long. I’ve gotten refurbished MacBooks and iPods, and you would never know the difference, that it was previously owned by someone else. Additionally, you still get the standard one-year warranty, along with a discounted price. They also have refurbished
iPhones, iPads, and Apple TVs. Check back often, as they restock often.

5. Bestbuy.com

Of course Best Buy is always a great place to shop for computer deals, whether you go to the store locally or shop online. This is many times where I check for a deal right after I try Amazon. Some items are available only online, and some are available only at the store. The site can check if the item you are interested in is available at your local store. They have great deals throughout December, and it only continues.

There’s no need to do without if Santa wasn’t particularly good to you this year. There’s no shame in just buying it yourself, especially if it’s a big-ticket item like a computer or a tablet. Start shopping the deals and find the one you’ve been waiting for all year long.

Nikola Tesla, an inventor and electrical engineer, in the early twentieth century first postulated that it is possible to transmit electricity through the air. This scientific concept led to the formulation of the ‘resonant magnetic coupling’ or ‘magnetic induction’ process which the wireless charging technology is based on. For example, magnetic induction is utilized for recharging electric toothbrushes. The base of the toothbrush has a magnetic coil that creates a magnetic field. In the toothbrush, a second coil encapsulates some of that magnetic field which generates an electric current. However, in this particular scenario, the power transfer between primary coil to secondary coil needs to be performed at a close proximity for it to function.

Due to recent developments and practical applications of this science, the wireless charging technology has been designed to effectively charge objects that are around three or four feet away – even farther – from the primary source of electricity. Marin Soljacic, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is responsible for formulating Witricity’s revolutionary technology. Prof Soljacic and his colleagues managed to extend the length of induction by amending the structure of the magnetic coils that create oscillating magnetic fields. They successfully engineered the magnetic coil that plugs into an outlet to resonate at the same frequency as the companion coil embedded in the electronic device. As a result, static energy is transmitted from the wireless receptor pads in the charger through the air to effectively charge up batteries in nearby electronic devices. Professor Jason W. Fleischer who has no financial affiliation to Witricity, but has research is in electromagnetics and optics claims that this novel technology is a ‘better form of induction’. Prof Fleischer elaborates that electronic devices will no longer have to be directly connected or placed in a certain position to recharge.

Now with the Science component figured out, how would the wireless charger work in day to day life? In a typical scenario, a power transmitter could be installed in a room and starting charging your device when you enter it. It could also be placed in a workplace, allowing numerous employees to keep their devices full of juice. Although there may be instances where an electronic device is unable to charge wirelessly due to it being too outdated or requiring an adapter capable of transmiting electrical energy wirelessly to the device. Furthermore, all electronic devices may not charge equally.

Wireless chargers will have far-reaching implications for our lives as it will make it everything that little bit easier. As the technology continues to improve to the point where you could be in any location and your electronic devices are able to charge wirelessly will be a magnificent achievement.

1. The “CPU & MHz/GHz” Debacle

The biggest mistakes people make when selecting a CPU is to base one’s decision entirely on how many MHz/GHz it’s packing. Some are more savvy and also look at the number of cores instead. But why is the Intel Pentium 965 cheaper than an Intel Core i3-2130, if both have 4 cores and relatively the same clock rate?

The answer is: They don’t operate under the same technology. The Core i3 uses different technologies that make each tick on the clock count more. So, despite the fact that the Pentium has a higher clock speed (3.73), the Core i3 can do more with each of its 3.4 billion cycles per second. Also, the Core i3 has a GPU, meaning that it can process graphics out of the box. You won’t need a graphics card with the Core i3. The graphics aren’t the best, but they’re there just in case your dedicated graphics card fails.

Another thing to consider is the size of its transistors. The Intel Core i3 CPU has a 32-nanometer Nehalem-based transistor architecture. The Pentium has the old 65-nm Penryn architecture. Why is this important? Think of the electric bill. The more distance electricity has to travel, the more power you need to get signals to travel from point A to point B. The Core i3 can pack more punch in a smaller amount of space and still consume less power.

2. Picking RAM Based On Quantity and Size

Most people pick RAM based on how many they’re going to get and how big the RAM size is, but forget to factor in how fast it is. A 4GB RAM running at 1333 MHz is obviously slower than one that is running at 1600 MHz. The RAM today is very cheap. There’s no excuse for not spending the extra $20 for a faster card. Don’t make that mistake.

3. Picking A Graphics Card Based On VRAM Quantity And GPU Power

If the amount of video RAM and GPU power on a graphics card was all that mattered, then you could just spend $30 on a GeForce GTS 210 and be done with it. Judging from the various prices and countless model, things are apparently not that simple. A graphics card is like another PC entirely. It has its own RAM clock, its own GPU clock, and a number of other specifications you need to have a look at. When buying a new graphics card, consider also what kind of bandwidth it’s packing. This will determine how much data it can send to your computer over the course of a second. Since this is such a complex subject, read reviews that compare the card you’re considering with another. Hardware Canucks provides excellent reviews and comparisons.

4. Picking A Hard Drive Based On Size

It is a fact that the hard drive is the slowest part of the computer. The hard drive drags everything else down with it while everyone else’s waiting for it to access something. That’s the problem with mechanical hard drives. Solid state drives (SSDs) fly in comparison, but they have problems of their own. The biggest mistake people make when choosing a hard drive is to pick out the biggest (storage size) one and walk home with it. This is utterly preposterous!

Every hard drive (not SSD) comes with a pre-defined spinning speed. The slower the spinning speed, the longer it will take for the data to be retrieved. A hard drive that spins at 7200 or 11000 RPM is almost guaranteed to work faster than one that spins at 5400 RPM. Check also the seek time in milliseconds and compare it to other drives. You’re not done shopping until you’ve chosen the fastest hard drive out there. Remember, you can get a bigger and faster drive at the same time, there is no need to compromise one for the other.

5. “Wattage Isn’t Important, Amps Are.” Are you sure?

Many “experts” will tell you that amps are more important in a power supply in this day and age. These people aren’t completely wrong, but they don’t seem to acknowledge that most new power supplies contain a significant amount of amperage on the 12V rail where computers draw their most power. This means that you don’t really need to worry about how many amps are on your power supply. Usually, the amperage is much, much higher than what you actually need. In the case of a power supply, you don’t really need to be selective, unless you are a building a graphics-centric terminal. Most high-end graphics cards will require a power supply with minimum of 450W to function at its optimum.

6. Picking A Monitor Because It’s “Big”

Many people get a monitor because it is big. The fact is, you shouldn’t judge a monitor solely on its size. Perhaps the light from the button will annoy you. The menus could be more difficult to access. The monitor could include some fancy sensors you don’t want. The images look kind of dull despite increasing brightness and contrast. There could be any number of problems with the monitor, and if you are going to stare at it for hours, make sure you get one that you are comfortable with.

The trick is, never shop online for a monitor, unless the specific model is the one you are looking for. Get off the chair and go to a PC hardware store. You won’t regret trying out what they have.

Anything Else?

If you need hardware advice or would like to add to this article, leave a comment below!

If you own an iPhone, iPod, iPad or any other smartphone or tablet, sometime you may need to place your device upright on the table so you can free your arms and view the video/content comfortable at a distance. In this case, a phone stand would be useful, and iMag iPhone stand could be a great tiny gadget for you.

Using its “magnetic” power, iMag can suck itself onto your phone or tablet and act as a phone stand so you can leave your phone/tablet upright on the table without holding. Alternatively, it can also be used on a laptop as a cable holder

As a disclaimer, I must say that iMag is not a real magnet, and no magnetic part is used in the production. You don’t have to worry that it will spoil your phone. The “magnetic” power is provided by two suction cups attached at the end of the horseshoe. Simple design, but have great effects. Here are some pictures:

Technical Specs

Weight: 0.05 lbs
Dimensions: 0.75 x 3.75 x 5.5 inches
Material: Plastic
Made In: S Korea
Designed by: Lufdesign

iMag iPhone Stand Giveaway

The iMag iPhone Stand is available at the price of $7.88, excluding the shipping charge. We are glad to have 8 pieces of this small and useful gadget to give away. The best part is that the shipping charge is also included in the giveaway so you won’t have to pay a cent (ok, well, there is a $0.01 charge) to get it shipped to your house, no matter where you live.

Update: Contest Ended

Contest ends November 21, 2012.

Thanks to Geek Living for the kind sponsorship. If you would like to sponsor a giveaway, do contact us here

iMag iPhone Stand

This is how it looks:

Initial Configuration

The wireless media stick works with Windows, Linux and Mac. Before you can use the stick to stream your content, you need to configure it in your computer. In Windows, plug in the stick to your USB port, open your Windows Explorer and its content folder. Double click the “WMS_SetupWizard” to run the installer.

As part of the setup, it will prompt you to select your Home wireless network.

Once you are connected to the wireless network, the next step is to select the file sharing type. For Windows, you can just select the “Basic File Sharing” option.

Next, you will be prompted to select the folders to share. Select all the folders where you store your media files.

Stream to your TV

Once the setup is completed, unplug the media stick from your stick and plug it into your HDTV (or any other media player). Wait for about 60 seconds for the media stick to boot. Once it is done, you will be able to select your media files and stream them from your computer.

Points to note

1. Your computer need to be running and remain running while streaming.

2. The streaming is done via your Home network and router. The media stick have to be reconfigured if you bring it out of your Home network zone.

Connecting with Android device

Other than streaming media from your computer, the Wireless Media Stick can also connect to your Android device. Once connected, you will be able to share your files (in Android) to the a computer.

Install the media stick app from Google Play. When you run the app, it will scan for the existence of the media stick and connect to it. Once it is connected, you can then select the files/folders that you want to share. This is particularly useful if you you need to send a file over to your friend’s computer urgently from your Android phone.

The Wireless Media Stick is available for US$89.95.

Thanks to hsti.com for providing us with the Wireless Media Stick to test and review.