Articles

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

The year 2009 was witness to the rise and fall of technology and gadget trends. It was characterized by intensified video gaming blow outs, a new approach to mobile phone use and computer portability, and an endless quest to create better and more advanced gizmos.

As the New Year unfolds, video game expert and technology analyst Scott Steinberg unveils at Digitaltrends.com a sneak peek on the “what’s what” in technology for 2010.

1. The year 2010 may be the time for eReaders and eBook Players — digital tablets designed to simulate the customary reading-on-paper experience — to come into their own. Expected innovations in 2010 include selections powered by Android OS, more affordable models and full-color eReaders with touch screen and wireless 3G support.

2. Smartphones will continue to shine in 2010, but with added surprises. Android-run and Windows Mobile-powered smartphones will create an established market. Cell phones will likely be run by applications that offer more power and flexibility, allowing these devices to evolve and potentially replace laptops. Adapting to lifestyles, Smartphones will be must-haves in 2010, and Google’s Nexus One Smartphone is to watch out for.

3. The household names in television manufacturing are keen at beginning a new era of TV viewership. Shops filled with a display of cutting-edge three-dimensional TVs, as well as Blu-ray players that power 3D flicks, will be anything but extraordinary in 2010.

(more…)

The year 2009 underscored an enormous economic meltdown that brought many United States businesses to their knees. But for some of America’s most famous moneymakers, the year brought enormous luck and vast gains. America’s top 25 stock gainers — composed of large stakeholders in publicly traded companies — made a combined $81.5 billion in 2009, Forbes.com reports.

Check out Forbes’ esteemed list of the ten biggest gainers in 2009:

1. The founder of Google, Inc., Larry Page raked in a whooping $8.4 billion between January and mid-December 2009. At 36, Mr. Page is ranked as the 26th billionaire in the world and the 11th wealthiest person in the United States. Technology stocks are enjoying broad boost with the economic rebooting, according to Forbes. As such, Google made a rise of 90% since January 2009.

2. Sergey Brin, the Russian-born American co-founder of Google, Inc. gained $8.2 billion in 2009. The 36-year old Internet titan gets a rebound after losing $11.7 billion in 2008 amid the collapse of Internet companies’ shares.

3. Oracle Corporation and NetSuite gave 65-year-old founder Larry Ellison a $7.9 billion gain in 2009. He made it to fourth spot of Forbes’ list of richest persons as of September 30, 2009.

4. Microsoft magnate Bill Gates generated $7.6 billion in 2009. The computer software company he founded with Paul Allen consistently places him on the list of the world’s richest. Over half of Mr. Gates’ fortune, however, is held outside of Microsoft. At 54, Mr. Gates grabbed the top spot overall as the wealthiest person in 2009.

5. At barely 46 years old, Jeffrey Bezos has made Amazon a household name. The online retail company gained $7.3 billion in 2009 amid a 175% surge during the past 12 months. Amazon’s shares hit an all-time high in early December 2009.

(more…)

A lot has been said about your privacy online. More and more people are getting victims of phishers, scammers and identity thieves in a range of privacy violations from getting embarrassing status updates put up on their social networking sites, to downright criminal acts like unauthorized use of credit cards and money getting stolen from the victims’ Paypal accounts or online bank accounts.

Here are the top 5 ways to protect your privacy online.

1. It is not limited to social media networks.
When talking about online privacy, social media sites like Facebook and MySpace immediately come to mind. While they are the most prevalent sites that identity thefts and other cyber criminals use to carry out their crimes, they are not the ONLY sites. You could get in trouble using e-mail, backing up your files online, or even through searching.

This is not to say that you should go lax with your privacy on social media sites, it is just the opposite: you should safeguard the personal information you have on your social media sites because they could be used for other sites as well.

To do this, you should use the site’s privacy option, which effectively makes your profiles invisible to people who are outside your contacts list. You be careful on adding people to your contacts list as well. If a stranger asks you to add him or her to your contacts list, think very carefully before you click that approve button.

Further, you should not post private information online, or information that would tell people where you would be at a particular day and time. Nor should you post pictures, blogs, and other content that may be deemed offensive, racist or reveals too much about you or your life that it could be used against you at some later time.

Lastly, do not share personal information online. This includes that of your friends. There may be sites that ask you to refer a page to a friend, and if you like their page, chances are you will input not only your name and contact details, but your friends’ as well. When asked to sign up with your e-mail address, you might want to create a new one for use on these sites, protecting your primary e-mail address.

(more…)

It used to be that you were employed, self-employed or unemployed. It was either you work in an office for someone else, or you had your own business as an entrepreneur, or you stay at home if you are jobless. The influx of online jobs has created another class of workers that does not really fall under these three traditional categories.

Enter the freelances, the telecommuters, the providers. No matter how they are called, people holding online jobs are increasing by the minute. A quick look at ODesk, one popular site for finding online jobs, would reveal that there are currently more than 350,000 providers signed up to the service, while more than 320,000 online jobs have been posted. The site also boasts of more than $96 million in earnings to date.

And why not? The benefits are seemingly endless. For businesses, they are able to get top talent for seasonal projects without having to worry about increasing their overhead cost, or rearranging their offices to make room for a new employee. They gain the expertise without the unnecessary expenses. For the online job holder, it means the flexibility and convenience of being able to work where they want, when they want. For some, having an online job means a higher monthly income than holding on to a regular job.

(more…)

Everybody wants to be a billionaire. The big question is: How? Forget Ivy League schooling or wishing that you were born rich. Get into these businesses now!

5. Petrochemicals
Environmentally damaging or not, oil and petroleum is still the world’s hottest commodity. With most industries and consumers needing it every single day, petrochemical products are in hot demand and there is no indication that the demand will wane soon.

Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani owes his fortune to petrochemicals.

4. Retail
Even with the economic downturn, people will still need to buy things. That is why retailers are still earning big bucks. Having a good sense of what people want, going with the trends, and offering value for money on your merchandise remain to be a retailer’s biggest challenge. However, if you get it all down to pat and you have built your brand better than your competitors, you are in for a great surprise.

Ikea’s Ingvar Kamprad is Sweden’s richest man. The 83-year-old is currently worth around $22 billion and runs an empire that spans more than 30 countries. Germany’s richest man, Karl Albrecht also made his billions in retail through his discount supermarket Aldi Sud. Other billionaires in retail: Jim, Christy, Robson Walton of Wal-mart,

(more…)

There are about 1.6 billion Internet users all over the world, according to a research by Internet World Stats. They log on the World Wide Web every day. This means that there are thousands of them who can be very vulnerable to Internet addiction—and around 10 percent of them really do.

Internet addiction may affect anybody from kids to seniors, and their mental problems can range greatly. Some of them can be so obsessed that they can spend almost 24 hours a day in front of their computers. Others are addicted to Internet porn. In other words, this type of addiction can potentially bring disaster to the life of the sufferer as well as to his or her family. To be brought into the right track, one of the best ways they should do is get the support that he or she definitely needs.

(more…)

In an age of competitive and aggressive digital upgrade, getting left-out is a major turn-off. What’s worse, it’s just as shameful to own a piece and not know how to tweak it for some pampering and pimping. This article provides 10 ways to enjoy your personal computer; somewhat similar to MTV’s Cribs, only for computers.

(more…)

Most people find themselves in situations wherein twenty four hours is no longer enough to finish daily tasks. To accomplish your to-do list, you need an efficient organizing strategy. But what is organization, and how do we do it especially with today’s technological advancements? Here are suggested ways to lighten the load with the help of your digital buddies.

(more…)

Your MAC is a bundle of many joys if you take the time to explore its many features. To save on that effort, here’s an updated list of the best features and add-ons that are sure to help you enjoy your MAC to the fullest.

(more…)

You already have your monitor, your CPU (the Central Processing Unit), your keyboard, mouse and printer. The recent Windows Microsoft’s OS (Operating System) is already installed, as well as other basic office programs. Your PC seems to be complete yet you find yourself bored with it. Here are 10 easy steps to liven up your PC:

(more…)

Rumors are spreading that a new version of the Conficker worm will be causing widespread havoc again on April 1, its anniversary date. Media reports have related that Conficker could be activated on that day giving a hacker access to millions of computers affected by the worm. Others reported that the French military has grounded a few of its fighter planes due to the threat.

While the media are concocting doomsday scenarios, worm and virus experts are shrugging off the threats. Anti-virus company F-secure has already said that there is no likelihood of a widespread, global attack. Only those that are still infected by the Conficker worm will be affected, if such an event should happen.

(more…)

Apple has done it again. This time it produced the world’s most powerful desktop computer. The new 8-core and 4-core Mac Pro has been describe by Apple as “perfect for power users”. Its most appealing spec is its innovative Nehalem microprocessor with a clock speed of approximately 2.26GHz. This processor utilizes one of Intel’s most potent lines of processors – the Xeon 3500 / 5500.

Among its latest and refurbished parts include:
- a new video system
- a new hardware look
- 4-core processors on 1 die
- On-chip memory controller
- Turbo Boost
- A whooping 4 Tera-byte of hard drive storage (maximum capacity)
- Up to 6GB of memory
- Enhanced Data Rate wireless
- NVIDIA GeForce GT 120

All these specs make the new Mac Pro 1.7 times faster than the 2008-released Mac Pro model.

But all beautiful and powerful things come with a price. For a Quad-Core Mac Pro (with a clock-speed of 2.66GHz), its price ranges from $2,300 to $2,500. On the other hand, the Eight-Core Mac Pro (with a clock-speed of 2.26GHz) can go up to $3,400.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last January, Dell unveiled this sleek, sexy, ultrathin notebook called Adamo which had techies speculating furiously. Is this going to be a Macbook Air nemesis? Will this be the notebook that will give Apple a run for its money?

Sadly, answers could not immediately be found, because Dell revealed no specs nor internal features (booting wasn’t even allowed, reportedly). The sleek, black Adamo was literally just displayed for all to see and nothing else. On the outside, the machine sports a 13″ display covered edge-to-edge in glass, three USB ports, an eSATA jack, a backlit keyboard. It also is 0.65″ thick.

(more…)

Ready for IE8?

Microsoft’s latest browser upgrade, Internet Explorer 8, is here. The official market release schedule is 4PM GMT on Thursday, 19th March. However, a release candidate has already been made available to the public since January, allowing people to download, install, and play around with the new browser.
I myself have not tried it, as I have been a long-time Firefox user (with occasional forages into Google Chrome). I had abandoned Internet Explorer since IE6. I have IE7 installed but have never felt like actually using it. But this newest offering from Microsoft has me curious, especially with the promise of a faster, safer, and more enhanced browsing experience.

On that note, here are 5 features of IE8 that have caught my interest.

(more…)

During the last quarter of 2008, Google horned its way into the already crowded mobile Smartphone market when T-mobile launched the G1. The G1 is the world’s first (and so far, the only) Smartphone that is powered by Google’s mobile operating system, Android.

Although still dominating that segment of the market, Apple found a worthy competitor to its beloved iPhone, with some Apple iPhone users defecting to the newer Android based G1. More than just bankrolling the platform, Google is also banking on the open source movement to provide more innovations for the Android, which it hopes to translate into more applications, software and overall improvements to the operating system itself.

(more…)