Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Should you switch to a no-contract phone carrier? - CNET

Should you switch to a no-contract phone carrier? - CNET: "I'm notoriously bad at predicting the future (I once dismissed Bluetooth as a niche technology that would never serve any useful purpose), but I feel like we've reached a tipping point. No, I don't mean that all future fundraising efforts will involve getting doused with a bucket of something, though that's a pretty solid bet."



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Hybrid Hard Drives Explained: Why You Might Want One Instead of an SSD

Hybrid Hard Drives Explained: Why You Might Want One Instead of an SSD: "Hybrid hard drives promise some of the performance of a solid-state drive with the capacity of a mechanical drive. They’re bigger than an SSD and faster than a plain-old mechanical drive.

These are sometimes called “SSHDs” — solid-state hybrid drives. The drive automatically caches data in the solid-state storage for you, offering faster speeds for the files you use most."



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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Cover Your Home: How To Find and Remove Wireless Blind Spots

Cover Your Home: How To Find and Remove Wireless Blind Spots: "WiFi is everywhere and, for most readers, that it includes your home. While desktop computers still frequently use Ethernet, the majority of laptops, tablets and smartphones use WiFi; indeed, the latter two often can’t connect to anything but a wireless network, be it your home router or a carrier’s cellular data."



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How Computer Technology Will Transform Schools Of The Future

How Computer Technology Will Transform Schools Of The Future: "In the 1800′s, students sat in a classroom, listened to a teacher and took tests. In 2014, students do exactly the same thing, with maybe the addition of a pocket calculator and some slides.
Nearly every other industry has been changed beyond recognition by the invention of computers.  Why not education, arguably one of the industries with the most to gain?"



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How to prepare your iPhone or iPad for iOS 8 - CNET

How to prepare your iPhone or iPad for iOS 8 - CNET: "Apple announced the eighth major release of its iOS mobile operating system at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. The latest version of iOS include improvements to the Siri voice assistant, a new health and wellness app, and revamped notifications, among other things."



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Maximizing cloud storage - CNET

Maximizing cloud storage - CNET: " dare you to find a word more used and abused in the tech world more than cloud. It's the buzzword in every boardroom. Everything is suddenly moving to the cloud, whether it's music or software, or your great grandma's oatmeal cookie recipe."



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Free way to boost your Internet speeds only the techs know | Komando.com

Free way to boost your Internet speeds only the techs know | Komando.com: "It seems like everyone is upset about slow Internet speeds these days. YouTube and Netflix are even pointing fingers at Internet service providers and blaming them for sluggish streaming.

-ADVERTISEMENT-

Are you getting the Internet speed you pay for? Click here to test your connection in less than a minute."



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Monday, August 25, 2014

6 Smart Home Projects You Can Take On This Weekend

6 Smart Home Projects You Can Take On This Weekend: "Your home could be smarter, and it needn’t break the bank. Here are six ways to add a little ambient intelligence to your daily routine.
Most of the smart home projects I’ve listed here are based on lighting or home entertainment – the proliferation of cheap LEDs makes this affordable, and home entertainment devices almost always have an infrared control with which you can easily (and safely) interface. Unfortunately, a lot of other home appliances are just impractical to upgrade with “smart” features – they have physical switches and dials. Even the new generation of smart home devices are disparate and use proprietary control protocols not conducive to hardware hacking and DIY tomfoolery."



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