techtoad.com/articles The latest articles from TECHTOAD.COM en-gb Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:14:53 +0000 Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:14:53 +0000 http://techtoad.com/rss/articles techtoad.com Kirk Saywell TECHTOAD.COM 5 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-02#newsid372 We've been keeping an eye on our inbox and were surprised by the number of requests we've had for the classic "Mac vs PC" argument. Let us make one thing clear: We cannot answer the question "Which is best?" because each have their advantages and disdavantages. Which is what we will look at in todays article. Price: When we talk about price, it's not as simple as comparing the lowest price PC to the lowest price Mac, because that's not fair. We have to look at value for money - that is, what does your hard earned cash actually buy you at the end of the day, and which gives you more for the money? It's easy for us to jump to the immediate conclusion that "You will always get more for your money with a PC", and in the past this may have been true. If you keep an eye on the market, you will find that the difference in price between a PC and comparible Mac has significantly reduced in recent years. It does still seem to be the case that you will get a higher "on paper" specification from a PC than a Mac for the same money, usually a Mac that is a similar price to a PC will have less memory and storage space. That said, when we consider the cost of a computer, and talk about value - we must consider two crucial factors; life expectancy/futureproofing and software costs. Does spending more on Mac hardware with Apple's Mac OS save you more money in software licences and do you get a product which can work for longer before requiring an upgrade? We will come back to these points later in the article. Hardware: Our research from Intel suggests that on todays market, a PC typically comes with 2GB - 8GB of RAM, where as a Mac typically comes with 1GB - 4GB RAM. This makes us question, does the Mac use the memory more efficiently so that less RAM is required? Or do you simply get more for your money with a PC? When it comes to storage space, you will definately get more for your money with a PC. Some may argue that a Mac files and applications require less space, but at the end of the day, you are still going to have the same amount of data to store whichever you choose. The battle may be over, but the war has not been won just yet! System Stability and Compatibility: PCs which commonly run Microsoft Windows have a notorious history of instability, where as Macs do not seem to crash anywhere near as frequently. In recent years, PCs have become more stable - and so have Macs. It is fair to say that Macs are more stable than PCs, but there is a good reason for this. Macs are designed and built by Apple to a certain specification. The Operating System (Mac OS) is also designed by Apple specifically to run on their hardware. Microsoft have the challenge of making an Operating system that works on many more thousands of hardware variations. The big advantage of a Mac is that it is built for purpose and designed to work with it's operating system, but with modern PCs which are almost as stable, you have the freedom to choose from a much bigger variety of components, meaning you can build a PC for a specific purpose that suits your budget, rather than spending a lot of money on a Mac with limited customisations. Almost all off-the-shelf software is designed to run on PC or Mac today, but there are a number of open source programs and applications which only target one or the other, and since PCs have been more popular for such a long time, it is easier to get software to achieve your needs for a PC. On the other hand, Macs are becoming increasingly popular, so this might change. You can actually run Microsoft Windows on a Mac, but you can't run Mac OS on a PC. If you're somebody who likes to use both platforms, you'd be better off buying a Mac and installing Windows as a dual-boot option. Service, Repairs and Upgrades: Because Macs are exclusive to Apple, it is harder (and more expensive) to obtain parts and service for Macs than it is for PCs. However, as Macs become more popular, this may no longer be an issue as more and more computer service shops will begin to support Macs. On todays market though, having a PC fixed or upgraded will cost less. That is assuming, you don't have to make more trips to the computer repair shop BECAUSE you have a PC rather than a Mac. Something else we will touch on later in this article. Style and Stereotypes: It is well known that the PC is branded as the "Office Worker" and the Mac is the "Fun and Creative" machine. Both of these stereotypes are false. Both are very similar hardware, with very similar software, capable of achieving the same end result - it's just a matter of how that result is achieved and what the user prefers. The Mac definately offers more style and sophistication than a PC, but it can lack the precise functions and options available in a PC environment which give the user more control. Performance: So we compared a 13" MacBook Pro running Mac OSX Snow Leopard to a similar specification ASUS Laptop running Microsoft Windows 7 Professional - we tested boot up times, shut down times, program launch times, high-detail graphic gameplay framerates, battery life and connectivity options. Originally, we had planned to publish a detailed report of our results, but quite honestly - there was no need. The MacBook Pro won hands down - beating the ASUS in every test with a clear margin. However, the difference in price was around £600. So we then found another ASUS laptop which was only £100 cheaper than the MacBookPro and repeated the tests. The results were close, the Mac still performing SLIGHTLY better in almost all of the tests - but with significantly less memory and a lower clock speed. Reliability: This is an important topic. Everyone always talks about how PCs are easy targets for viruses and that there "are no viruses" for Macs. THIS IS NOT TRUE. There is simply a higher population of PCs compared to Macs, and most businesses in the UK use Windows based servers and PCs in offices - it is still just as easy to write a virus for a Mac, there are just more PC viruses around. As Macs become more popular, the risk of viruses may become equal to that of a PC. We are very impressed with the reliability of Macs. Working with Nexus Technology in Colchester, we can see that the majority of Macs that come in for repairs are a result of accidental damage. It seems to be an undeniable fact that the components in a Mac tend to last longer than those in a PC. Since Apple use many of the same manufactures for their memory and hard drives as PC manufactures, we can only assume that the components last longer becuase the software is more efficient and does not strain the components in the same way that a PC does. It may also indicate that the high-quality materials that you pay for on a Mac do protect the components from damage more so than the flimsey plastic that you'll find on most PCs. This might mean that buying a Mac will cost more in the first place, but will last longer before it needs to be replaced, and may not need to be repaired as frequently as a PC. Networking: Almost all computer devices, from servers to mobile phones are capable of accessing content on a network, but it's PCs that hold the crown when it comes to a secure and controlled domain. Macs are very much targeted more towards a personal user, or group of few users. PCs have far more flexibility when it comes to large corportations and schools that need software replication and water-tight security on their network. Apple have demonstrated amazing innovations in networking with their recent launch of the "iCloud" service. If this technology is integrated into large-scale networks, Apple may be able to take the crown from the PCs, but not for the moment. Conclusion: As warned at the beginning of the article, we can't really tell you which is best. What we can tell you, is buying a Mac is probably a worth-while investment compared to a PC becuase it will probably last longer, and research suggests that you will get a better overall performance. However, that said - You could get the same performance from a PC for a much lower cost, which would be particularly beneficial if you want to use your computer on a large network or domain as Windows has better tools for controlling this. It very much depends on your needs and your budget. What is our opinion? Have both, that way you can make the most of all the advantages, and resolve the disadvantages by switching between platforms. Can you trust what the rest of the world think? This graph represents the popularity of each platform in the year 2011 - Source hongkiat.com   You can get the latest statistic from hitslink.com - Today, Microsoft Windows holds an 85% overall market share compared to Apple's Mac and iOS which have a combined share of 10%.     Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-02#newsid372 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-02#newsid373 Written by Jack Christmas If you happen to have walked past any greeting card shops recently, you’ll have been reminded that a certain holiday is right round the corner. That’s right; St. Valentine’s Day is nearly here, folks! The day when people in committed relationships give themselves large pats on the back while making uninspired and clichéd romantic gestures, and the day when lonely people spend their free time cry-wanking, drinking copious quantities of cheap supermarket cider, watching back-to-back episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, and staring forlornly into mirrors. But for those of you who are too often at the faeces-covered end of the St. Valentine’s stick, I bring a message of hope. You don’t have to be alone on Valentine’s Day. You just need to know the tricks of the dating trade. Of course, you have to bear in mind that these tips may not work if you want a permanent relationship after Valentine’s is over, but if you’re the sort of person that cares about having a date on Valentine’s Day just because it’s Valentine’s Day, then I imagine this won’t bother you. Here are my Top Ten Ways To Make Someone Your Valentine. Note: Your love interest may be of any gender. I used female pronouns in this Top Ten for the sake of simplicity.   #10: The Power of Democracy We’re incredibly lucky to live in a country where every citizen gets a say in how things are run, but unfortunately many of us take this for granted. Election turnouts continue to get worse and the sheer dumb-fuckery of the average cabinet minister seems to have done little more than inspire political apathy. This is exactly why you should use your democratic rights to increase your chances of getting laid. Step 1: Send a letter to your local MP explaining why you and your love interest would be perfect for each other. Ask him/her to bring it up in parliament. Step 2: Design a leaflet detailing why your love interest should go out with you. Print a few thousand of these and deliver one to every house in your neighbourhood/city. Step 3: Gather a group of at least a few dozen people and organise a protest outside your love interest’s house. You should carry signs expressing your point of view and loudly chant to attract her attention. Ideally you should do this when your love interest is asleep so you catch her at the time of day when she is most susceptible. Step 4: Wait patiently for her willpower and standards to be eroded away by the sheer awesomeness of democracy. Step 5: ????? Step 6: PROFIT!   #9: Romanticism Sometimes using the more traditional methods of seduction can work well too. To impress your love interest with this method, you should buy her chocolates, write her poetry, send her emails that include a winky face and at least 3 kisses, buy her a car. You know, all the standard romantic gestures will do fine. The key is not to let up. Bombard her with so many seemingly selfless gifts and so much romantic sentiment that it eventually makes you look desperate and pathetic. If she hasn’t fallen in love with your charm by Valentine’s Day, then she’ll most likely agree to go out with you anyway, just out of pity and a sense of politeness, much like how some women agree to public marriage proposals because they can’t bring themselves to humiliate someone on national TV.   #8: Persistence Let’s face it; people are generally arseholes. They obviously aren’t going to get along without first putting in a great deal of effort. This is why persistence is the key to making any relationship work, and exactly the same method can be applied to the dating game, because your love interest may say that she’s not interested in going out with you, but she just doesn’t know you well enough. How could she possibly make a well-informed decision about whether or not she wants to date you yet? She barely knows you! This is why you need to hang around her as much as possible and ask her out over and over again until she says yes. Eventually she’ll just get to the point where she doesn’t have the energy to reject you anymore and she’ll have no choice but to be your valentine. Some people may like to throw around words like ‘stalking’ or ‘harassment’ when describing this kind of persistence, but that only applies to people who aren’t as charming or sexy as you are.   #7: Hypnosis If your love interest outright refuses to be your Valentine, then this only means that her conscious mind doesn’t want to go out with you. You still have a good chance of courting her subconscious mind. You just need to put her in a state of trance. Now, I’m presuming you aren’t a professional hypnotist, so you can’t just randomly go up to her in the middle of the day and go all Derren Brown on her. You need to perform the hypnosis when she’s in a more suggestible state of mind. The best time to do this is during REM sleep, because this is when she’ll be dreaming and sleeping most deeply. So, you’ll need to break into her bedroom in the middle of the night without being detected or waking her up, and because there’s no other way to tell when she’s in REM sleep without waking her up first, you need to bring an EEG machine with you. Next, hook her up to the EEG machine and wait until her brainwave patterns indicate REM sleep. Now it’s simply a matter of putting her in the trance. To do this, play her LMFAO’s ‘Party Rock Anthem’ backwards and at 5% speed, and say “You are now under my control” three times in succession while clicking your heels together. Once she is under, simply tell her to ask you out. The idea of this is to plant an idea in her head that she will be compelled to act on, basically like Inception. Once you are done, say “You are now free from my control”, turn off the music and make your escape. The next time she sees you she will chat you up without any prompting.   #6: The Power of Prayer If you’re so unlikeable and repulsive that there’s no force on Earth that could find you a partner, then there is still hope. Question: who or what is more powerful than anything on Earth? The answer is, naturally, God. You know: Jehovah. Allah. Zeus. Ganesh. The Big Kahuna. The Dark Lord. The Big Pizza Pie in the Sky. The Dickhead Deity. Or, as I prefer to call him: Colin. So the only solution is to ask Colin to create a partner especially for you. After all, if it worked for Adam then it can work for anyone. Granted, Adam did have to sacrifice one of his ribs, but that was only because Colin was drunk when he created Adam and couldn’t remember how to do it, so he needed something to go on. You shouldn’t need to worry about that because the second time around Colin remembered to make a back-up and put it on one of those water-resistant flash drives. You can increase your chances of success by getting as many people as possible to pray for you at the same time and in the same place – though bear in mind that this won’t work if the people you use are starving Africans or victims of a natural disaster.   #5: Lie About Your Sexuality A desire for the forbidden is psychologically ingrained in all of us. Not being able to have something automatically makes you want it more, which is why at the end of a Year 8 R.E. lesson I suddenly really wanted to holiday in Mecca. You can use this to your advantage. If your love interest is hetero, pretend to be gay. She’ll immediately become obsessed with you, and pretty soon she’ll be begging you to go out with her and give heterosexuality a second chance. If you need to be convinced that this will work, just name any gay celebrities you can think of; Rupert Everett, Neil Patrick Harris, Sir Ian McKellen, Paul O’Grady, Alan Carr, Justin Timberlake, Sir Elton John… all of them are major sex icons for straight women. And hey, if it doesn’t work then at least you can use your new homosexual façade to get some dick.   #4: Use Reverse Psychology It’s human nature to want to act independently and not just blindly obey what anyone says, because we like to think of ourselves as intelligent beings that don’t need other people’s why. This is why a great way to make your love interest want you is a partner is to make yourself seem like the worst possible choice imaginable. Step 1: Stop washing or grooming yourself. Step 2: Get into the habit of vomiting and farting into other people’s soup. Step 3: Tell everyone how much you love the Twilight series and the music of Justin Bieber Step 4: Pretend you’ve contracted several STDs and brag about how many people you’ve passed them on to. Step 5: Tell your love interest that you wish she would die a horrible, bloody death, and that her corpse would be gruesomely disfigured so that no innocent soul would ever have to look at her hideous face ever again. Then cough phlegm directly into her face. Follow these steps and pretty soon your love interest will be practically begging for you to go out with her.   #3: The Power of Technology Science! It can do some mind-bogglingly amazing things nowadays. I’m still astounded that it’s genuinely possible to talk to people who aren’t even in the room with you. The fact that so many people take this technological miracle for granted shows just how far technology has come over the past 200 years. So if humanity can create a vehicle powered entirely by steam, who’s to say humanity can’t create a device that forces people to fall in love with people they don’t even like? To be honest, even I thought that this was impossible, because at heart I’m an incredibly cynical person, but these days there’s an App™ for everything. ‘App’, for you techno-noobs out there, is short for ‘Apptitude’, because each new piece of software they release has a different aptitude. The extra ‘P’ stands for ‘pwnage’, because Apps easily pwn all other kinds of digitally distributed data. So I was browsing the iOS AppStore one day, and I came across a miraculous App called ‘Hormone Handler’. It’s essentially a fun and simple mini-game that allows you to directly control someone’s hormone levels. All you need to do is put in your love interest’s blood type, star sign, approximate elbow size, and a hotness rating out of ten, and Hormone Handler will lock on to her automatically, provided she is within a 500m radius and you have a sufficient 3G signal. You then get to play a mini-game which is basically like a cross between Tetris and Call of Duty. The better you are at the game, the more hormonal chemicals you’re able to manipulate. It’s a prime example of an easy to play/difficult to master control system. Once you have control of all her hormones, you can essentially make her feel any emotions you want. For example, you could make her feel happy and horny whenever she’s around you, or sad and angry whenever she’s around any other men. You can plainly see how this could be used to get you a Valentine’s date. It works great, but is difficult to get exactly right and can be a bit glitchy sometimes. All things considered this is a wonderful App and well worth the money. ‘Hormone Handler’ is currently available to download from the iOS AppStore for free, but if you want to use it there is a monthly subscription fee of £6.99. There is currently an Android version in development, but unfortunately it won’t be available for a few years. Ironically, when it comes to the availability of third-party software, Android is the Mac of smartphones.   #2: Become Interesting It’s most likely that the reason you haven’t got a date already isn’t that you’re horrifically ugly and behave like a dick’s arsehole, but that you’re simply boring and average-looking. You might be a perfectly lovely person, but if you don’t stand out from the crowd, it makes not one jot of difference to your chances of scoring. Basically, you just need to change as much of your personality and behaviour as you can in order to make yourself seem more unique. You can start off by wearing unusual clothing, like a stylish polka dot pyjamas/black leather jacket/red high heels/bowler hat combo, for example. It’s best to go with your imagination when choosing your outfit, but as long as it catches your love interest’s attention, it’s done its job. Next you should make some distinctive alterations to your voice, so that your conversations with your Valentine-to-be are more memorable. You could start shouting every other sentence you say. You could put on an exaggerated Italian accent. You could pretend to have a stammer. You could start saying everything in a mildly sarcastic tone. Feel free to be creative. Your speech affectations can be as subtle or as blatant as they need to be. The final and probably most important step is to think of interesting things to talk about. If you have the time, the most effective way to do this is to spend a few decades burying yourself in all the world’s cultures and arts, and absorbing everything there is to know about history and international politics. However, I am aware that some of you may not have that much patience, so there are some other options. One solution is to become telepathic and just read your love interest’s mind, which can be achieved be either exposing yourself to enormous quantities of X-radiation or being bitten by Sally Morgan. Having said that, I imagine most of you won’t want to risk the often lethal health problems that occur as a result of being bitten by Sally Morgan, so there is a third option. You simply need to find a topic that you can bullshit about at length. It doesn’t even matter if the subject matter is boring, because you can make up for that with the sheer power of madcap enthusiasm. For example, you could discuss how out of all the animals on this planet, turtles – teenage, mutant, or otherwise – would make the absolute worst ninjas! I mean, come on, the whole point of ninjas is for them to blend in with their surroundings! It doesn’t matter where you are in the world; a group of 6-foot tall muscle-bound turtles would stick out like Ann Widdecombe at a Gay Pride parade! And ninjas are supposed to be fast and agile! Turtles are infamous for being slow-moving and inflexible on land! Turtles are about as good at being ninjas as John McCririck is at modelling ladies’ underwear! None of it makes sense, goddamnit! And if that doesn’t make you interesting enough, you could just start taking acid. So, anyway, once you have all these elements together, you know for sure that your love interest won’t be able to resist your uniqueness and will fall in love with you straight away. It’s as simple as that, folks.   #1: The Power of Lust Do you seriously think that people choose who they go out with based on their personality and how wealthy they are? Well, OK, yes, they do that, but it’s mainly about sex. This is why the best way to convince your love interest to go on a date with you is to make her so desperate to touch your genitals with her genitals that she doesn’t have a choice. To do this, you need to make yourself sexually desirable. This is actually a lot easier than most people believe, even for the most aesthetically challenged among us.  Step 1: Gain weight. You can do this with a combination of regular heavy weightlifting and binge eating deep fried Mars bars (other fatty, sugary, salty snacks are available). Now, at the end of this gorging and bodybuilding process you may have gained a lot of excess fat. Don’t worry. This is perfectly normal.  Step 2: Unfortunately, fatness tends to be unattractive. Luckily, you can easily convert this fat into muscle. This is done by running a 174µA electric current through your body, sucking on 174 currants and being carried by a south-south-south-south-easterly river current concurrently. This process briefly puts all of your body tissue into a malleable state called Current Quadruplicity, the exact machinations of which are far too complicated and long-winded to detail here. All you need to know is that it works. So do it, et voila! You just traded in your fat-ass for a bad-ass.  Step 3: Your transformation to sex beast is not yet complete. You’ve got the bulging muscles. Now you need to grow out your hair. Long hair is the sexiest thing about any man or woman, so make sure to completely abstain from shaving. If your facial, armpit, leg, arm, back, chest and pubic hair doesn’t grow to great length naturally, use testosterone supplements to help. They should be available at your local chemist, or if you can’t get a prescription, my mate Dave can hook you up.  Step 4: Shave your head. While it’s true that long hair on the rest of the body is overpoweringly erotic, the exact opposite is true for the head. This is because people often find a large brain just as much of a turn-on as large breasts or a large penis, and if someone has head-hair you can’t see how big their brain is. Having hair – long hair in particular – just makes you look like you’ve got something to hide. Just cut it all off already.  Step 5: Dress up in tight, revealing clothing, or no clothing at all, and approach your love interest. If she can stop herself from jumping you right there and then and doesn’t pass out from swooning, she’ll ask you out on a date immediately. I think you’ll find that you, my friend, are in there.  You can see why using The Power of Lust is easily the most effective method for getting a Valentine’s date. It bypasses the brain – the only part of the body that can decide to reject you – and goes straight to the love organs, guaranteeing that you won’t be alone on this St. Valentine’s Day. Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-02#newsid373 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-01#newsid370 Written by Kirk Saywell Over the past decade, computer technology has drastically evolved. There have been major improvements to the speed of processors, the speed and capacity of RAM, the power of graphics cards and the energy efficiency of computers, especially laptops. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much improvement of computer storage technology, until a new storage technology called "Solid State" was invented a few years ago. We've been in two minds about SSD technology, although on paper the SSD seems like a good idea, there have been some concerns about the cost, lifespan and write speed of SSDs. But have things changed? We were very excited when the new NAND Flash Memory Solid State Drives were introduced, and now not only are they becoming available in larger capacities, but the prices are coming down. So what does the "Hard Drive" in a computer do? The hard drive is the long-term memory store of information. Every program you install, every file you save, every setting you change - it's all stored by the hard drive. A larger drive allows you to store more information. Traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or "Spinning Disk" drives store data on 'Sectors' of a spinning disk, which reads and writes magnetically with a head that floats just above the disk. This type of drive has been around for years, and has seen many improvements in speed and capacity. However, since it is made with moving parts that can wear out or be damaged, it is quite susceptable to failure, and is usually the first component to fail in a computer system. Solid State Drives (SSD) or "Flash Storage" drives store data on microchips, the data is reads and writes electronically so there is no need for any moving parts. Advantages of SSD: No spin up time - Where as a traditional hard disk needs time to start spinning the disk, the electronic Solid State drive has no disk to spin so is ready almost immediately.   Faster Random Access (Read) Speed - Traditional drives need to wait for the head to align with the sector that contains the data on the spinning disk, Solid State drives can access the information they need instantly because data is accessed directly from the flash memory.   Consistant Performance - Traditional hard drives performance varies depending where the data that it needs to access is stored. Solid State drives do not have this problem because data is stored directly on the flash memory, so the performance is consistent no matter where the data is stored.   No Need to Defragment - Because data can be accessed directly from the flash memory, it does not matter where it is stored, or how it is stored. There is no longer any need to defragment the hard drive because it makes no difference to the performance.   Silent - Unlike traditional hard drives that are known for whirring, clicking and clunking; Solid State Drives have no moving parts and are completely silent.   Reliable - Due to the fact that Solid State Drives have no moving parts, they are more reliable as they are not susceptible to mechanical failure. Also, where as traditional hard drives suffer from shock and vibration which can cause damage to the heads and spinning disk, the solid state drive can be moved and held at any angle with no negative effects, it is also less sensitive to shock and is more likely to retain data in the event of being dropped.   Energy Efficient - Since there are no moving parts, Solid State Drives use much less energy than a traditional hard drive. They also produce less heat. This makes them ideal for installation in Laptops and mobile devices where longer battery life is essential and there may not be much space for ventilation. This all sounds very good, but what does it really mean for you? In terms of everyday computing, with a Solid State Drive: - Your computer will start up much faster - Programs will open much faster - Files will be listed and will open much faster - Risk of data loss due to mechanical failure is eliminated - The chance of recovering your data if you drop/damage your computer is increased So, we know why they are good, but we're interested to know what Solid State Drives are not so good at, and why they might be a bad idea. Disadvantages of SSD: Price - Although prices are coming down, SSDs are still very expensive. The cost per gigabyte (GB) in the UK for Solid State Drives is between £1.00 and £1.60, compared to HDDs which cost between £0.05 and £0.20 per GB. Don't be too put off by this, we suspect the price per GB could reduce drastically as the technology becomes more popular.   Capacity Limitation - At the moment, it's difficult to get SSDs in large capacities. We are just beginning to see 500GB Solid State Drives in production, but commonly they are available in sizes up to 256GB. This again is something that could drastically change over the next 12 months, and there is always the option of using a traditional hard drive for long term storage and using the SSD for programs and files that are used on a regular basis for a faster computing experience.   Slower write speeds - Commonly, it seems that Solid State Drives have a slower write speed than traditional hard drives, meaning although you can load programs very quickly, it takes longer to save files or copy data to an SSD. Newer SSD technology suggests that this may no longer be an issue as more expensive SSDs are beginning to show write speeds above that of a traditional hard drive.   Limited Write Cycles - This has always been a big concern for people thinking about Solid State Drives. The NAND Flash memory chips typically only last for 1-5 million write cycles, however, new advances in SSD technology mean that drives can last for decades without this kind of failure. You need to consider how these disadvantages will effect your computing experience, aside from costing more in the first place, the only negative effect you may find with an SSD is the write speed. You write to your drive any time you want to store information, but because most things are stored on computer RAM, you would probably only notice the slow write speed when saving very big files such as video, or when copying large amounts of data to your SSD. Balanced Up Comparing what we know about Solid State Drives (SSD) and Hard Disk Drives (HDD), it seems that the SSDs are a much better option if you are looking for performance and reliablility overall. However, if you want to cut your costs and have very large amounts of data, traditional HDDs would be ideal. Maybe when the prices come down and the capacity goes up, SSD will be the best option all round. You can order Solid State Drives online or in-store at Nexus Technology in Colchester. Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-01#newsid370 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-01#newsid369 Written by Kirk Saywell This is the first installment of our monthly TECHTOAD TOP 10! On the 10th of every month we will publish a "TOP 10" list for you to sink your teeth into. For January 2012, we have picked out our Top 10 favourite iPhone Apps. #10: BBC iPlayer We like iPlayer, it's a really great idea and almost everyone who watches TV knows it's a real pain when you forget to tune in, they change the TV schedule, you get caught up on the phone or simply don't even realise your missing a program you wanted to watch! Now it's easy to catch up with those BBC programs you missed on your iPhone. The app is specifically designed to work on low-speed internet connections, like mobile 3G internet meaning it's ideal if you're not at home and don't have access to your main computer. It's not so good if you want to watch with other people as the iPhone has a relatively small screen, but it's perfectly suitable for personal viewing with headphones, and best of all, it's totally FREE! So we feel it deserves a place in our top ten. #9: Unblock Me Unblock Me is a game with a very simple concept. There are a number of blocks in a small area that can only be moved along one axis. One of the blocks is coloured red. There is a single gap on the outside "wall" and you simply have to arrange the blocks so that the red block can be moved out through the gap. This game is really ideal for mobile devices such as the iPhone because it's the kind of game that you can pick up and leave any time. If you commute on the bus or train, you have time to complete a few levels, but if you get an important call or have to transfer to another train, you can close the game with no worries and come back to it later. It's a logical game that gets you thinking, and can be quite addictive! We like it because not only is this another great FREE game, but it offers loads of different levels and it really is suitable for anyone. #8: eBay That's right. Many of you may feel that this doesn't deserve a place in the "Top Ten", but let's be fair - it's one of the most popular apps available on the AppStore and it really is a great tool. What we love specifically about this app is how it makes the whole buying and selling experience easier. The eBay app allows you to list your item on ebay simply by scanning the bar code (if the item you are selling has a bar code) which finds all the information for you, and even shows you the average price it's selling for on ebay. You can use the bar code scanner to search for products too, which is a great way to save money when you're see a book, dvd or game in a shop and want to know if you can get it cheaper online. Once you sell an item, there is usually the burdon of taking it to your local post office or arranging a courier collection. Although the eBay app doesn't relieve you of that burdon, it does make it easier by allowing you to instantly update your item status with a tracking number to mark your item as dispatched. Not to mention instant alerts when an item is sold and paid for, meaning you don't have to wait until you get home to check what needs to be posted when you could do it in your work lunch-break. This applies to buying items too, how many times have you missed out on an auction item because you're not able to be at a computer when the listing ends? Now with eBay in your pocket, and with notifications reminding you of items ending soon, you can quickly update your bid from work, on the bus, in bed, at the pub - anywhere! It's another great free app which we highly recommend for anyone who uses ebay. #7: Doodle Sprint We're not sure if it's the simplicity, addictiveness or the casual doodle design - but Doodle Sprint is another one of our favourite FREE games. Very basically there is a roughly drawn stick figure who continuously runs forward, you just have to tap the screen to make him jump when there is an obsticale or a gap in his path. It does get more diffcult as he speeds up the further you get - but it's easy to find yourself having "just one more try" to beat your best score - a really fun, addictive game which is suitable for anyone and perfect for filling those waiting times at the bus stop, or those moments when you have a few minutes to yourself and just need to kill some time. Definately worth a quick sprint! #6: Fall Down! It's another game, another FREE game. Guess what, it's also another amazingly simple game! Quite literally, a ball falls from the top of the screen onto rows of platforms which move up the screen. The platforms have one or more gaps in them, and you just have to tilt your phone to let the ball through fall the gaps before the ball get's squashed at the top. WARNING, it's VERY addictive. There are a few bubbles you can collect by rolling the ball into them which give you extra points, a faster ball, or pauses the platforms from moving for a couple of seconds to give you time to catch up. You can compete with friends and family to beat each others top scores, or just play yourself to beat your personal best. Another great game app for killing some time, or want something fun to do at home, school, work, or the pub with your friends and family. #5: Facebook We had trouble deciding where to rank this one. It's very easy to think about Facebook as a whole, but we want to focus specifically on the iPhone app and how useful it is on a mobile device. We've placed it here at number five because it is, without question, one of THE MOST POPULAR apps on the AppStore. Almost everybody who owns a smartphone is connected on Facebook, and it has so much to offer. What we like most about this app is the very quick and easy check-in feature. You can quickly post your location and tag your friends, presented with a list of all the local places making it very easy to tell your friends where you are and what you're doing (Although, this might not always be wise!). It makes life easy by allowing you to quickly upload your photos and check out the photos that everybody else took on your night out and all-in-all it's a really nice app for quickly catching up with what your friends and family are doing. We thought about it's application on a mobile device and we can't deny that having instant access to all your contacts on facebook is definately one of the most favoured features, along with the Facebook Messenger app (which we're including as the same entry into the top 10). Unfortunately, in our experience the Facebook app is quite unreliable if you're not using WiFi and even when you do have a good internet connection, it seems to be very slow - but we're fairly confident this will improve in the near future, so we're keeping it in our top 10! #4: Angry Birds Probably the most popular mobile game on the market. Available in many different flavours, even the FREE versions are great fun. For those of you who have never played Angry Birds, the basic story line is that some (rather funny) birds are angry at some (rather strange) pigs for stealing their eggs, you simply catapoult the birds towards the pigs and various constructions around the pigs to "kill" them (they just burst into a cloud) and earn as many points as possible by causing the most destruction with as few birds possible. There are a number of different types of birds which do various different "attacks" - it really is a classic game that everybody loves. We're getting a bit bored of the concept now, but we're keeping at at number 4 because they are always making great new levels for it. Keep the sound on, it's aproximately 200 times funnier* than with the sound off. *In our opinion. #3: Rainbow RSS Reader At number 3 we have the Rainbow RSS Reader app. It does what it says on the tin, it's an RSS reader. It allows you to colour-code your RSS feeds making it easy to quickly categorise your feeds. We love it because it's very simple, you don't need an account, it's totally FREE and it's really easy to set up and use. In fact, you can add http://techtoad.com/rss to it and get the latest news from us directly to your iPhone! It's quick, simple and works perfectly. #2: iHandy Alarm Clock Now, this one is available for free, but we're ranking it at number 2 using the paid version, although it's not too expensive. The iHandy Alarm Clock is a digital clock for the iPhone which runs in full screen. You can choose the "LCD" background colour, you can customise the time display (12/24hr, weather, date, etc.) and you can set custom alarms, such as a reccuring alarms on specific days of the week. There are a few alarm tones to choose from, or you can set it up to play a song from your iPhone music library. What makes this app stand out from the others is the quick brightness adjustment. Simply run your finger up or down the screen to change the screen brightness - and when you exit the application, the brightness remains the same until you next lock your phone. This is great if you quickly need to check your phone in the night because you can instantly dim your screen and write a text, check your mail - whatever you're doing, without a bright glaring screen - which of course by morning when you want the screen to be bright, will revert back to whatever brightness you have set your phone to in the main settings. This app also is capable of playing your alarm tone even if the app is not "active" and also if your iPhone is on silent, meaning you've got no excuse for your alarm not going off! #1: Shazam SHAZAM! It's number one! Literally our favourite app. King of the music quiz, Shazam can identify any music playing, whether it's on TV, radio, from your mates phone, in a shop, in a pub, in a club, from your home stereo - never sit there wondering what that great song was again. It's free for the basic version and it only needs a few seconds to identify almost anything. We have not yet found a song it can't identify! Once it's identified the song, it gives you all the information you could want about it, and if available, even shows you the lyrics in time with the music as it's playing! It really is a great little free app which anyone can use. Never be beaten at the pub music quiz, you'll literally have all the answers in your pocket, with no preperation required! We hope you enjoyed reading about our TOP 10 favourite iPhone apps. Check back again for next months Top Ten list! Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://techtoad.com/articles?month=2012-01#newsid369