How to Find the Best Hi-Def Camcorder

When it comes to capturing video, high definition is still a relatively new technology, and there is a minefield of confusing terms and poor standardisation surrounding the various types. The display resolution of hi-def video footage is either 1,280x720 pixels, or 1,920x1,080 pixels, which is higher than the standard definition resolutions on current television and DVD. The higher end of the pixel spectrum, at 1080 resolution, is generally recommended for gaming and HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disks and will mean that you'll get the best picture possible. One of the biggest decisions to make when buying a modern camcorder is the recording format you want to use. One option is a built-in hard drive. Hard drives have the advantage of allowing in-camera editing functions, while also using far less battery power. Hard drives are useful when recording hi-def footage as they allow for a lot more storage than other options available such as DVDs. Hi-def video means that a greater number of pixels are packed into each frame and more data means bigger files. For this reason, a large amount of storage space is essential when filming in hi-def. The Sony Handycam HDR-SR8 boasts an enormous 100GB hard drive but it will set you back £1,000. However, for that price, you get excellent HD image quality in possibly the best consumer HD camcorder out there at the moment. There is also the HDR-SR7, this is slightly cheaper and is equally good. It also boasts a still very impressive 60GB hard drive.

Camcorders are great gadgets for capturing all of those moments and events that you want to remember forever and hd camcorders will ensure that your memorable moments are shot in the best quality possible. If you're after a camcorder, the best thing to do is to shop online to make sure that you get the best offer available.

Improving Your iPhone Battery Life

Why is it that your iPhone battery always seems to run out at the most important time? This is one of times when the fact you can't just slip off the back of the phone and slip in a new battery is very annoying.

We've therefore put together some simple tips that will allow you to enjoy your iPhone for longer by increasing its battery life.

Cases

Firstly if you carry your iPhone around in a case charging the phone while it's in that case may generate more heat than is healthy for your phone. Overheating is bad for both battery capacity and battery life, so if your iPhone gets a little toasty when you charge it in its case, take it out of the case in future before you charge it.

Bluetooth

You might not know that Bluetooth consumes power even when it's not being used. If you're not using a Bluetooth device, make sure Bluetooth is turned off, or if you do use one, turn it off once you've finished. Just go to 'Settings' > 'General' > 'Bluetooth' and use the On/Off switch if necessary to turn off Bluetooth.

Wifi

Just as Bluetooth consumes power even when you're not using it, so does Wi-Fi, so turn it off when you're not using it. This time go to 'Settings' > 'General' > 'Network' > 'Wi-Fi' and use the On/Off switch if necessary to turn off Wi-Fi.

Screen Brightness

Activating the Auto-Brightness function allows your iPhone to adjust its screen brightness based on ambient lighting conditions. This can be easier on your battery than cranking it up and leaving it set to a bright setting. To activate this feature, go to 'Settings' > 'Brightness' and use the 'Auto-Brightness' On/Off switch if necessary to turn it on.

EQ

Our last tip concerns listing to music. Having EQ (equalizer) on when you listen to music can make it sound better, but it uses more processing power and hence reduces battery life, therefore turning off the equalizer will help your battery last longer. If you've added EQ to tracks in iTunes via the Track Info window and you want to retain the EQ from iTunes, set the EQ on your iPhone to flat. Since you're not turning off EQ, your battery life will be slightly worse, however your songs will sound just the way you expect them to sound. To turn off EQ go to 'Settings' > 'iPod' > 'EQ'.

According to sources at Apple, a properly maintained iPhone battery can retain up to 80% of its original capacity after a full 500 charge / discharge cycles.

COOKIES - What Are They?

Cookies not the kind that Mom makes :D but the computer type, what are they and where do they come from. Well let's give you a quick and easy explanation of what they are, where they came from and how to get rid of them.

Cookies are a very small text file placed on your hard drive by a Web Page server. It is essentially your identification card, and cannot be executed as code or deliver viruses - good news. They are uniquely yours and can only be read by the server that gave it to you.They are used to store your information that you furnished on one of your visits to that Web Page.

Cookies Can Save You Time

If you personalize pages, or register for products or services, a cookie helps to remember who you are. Next time you return, they know to show you the information you requested. Or, when you register for another product or service, all you need to do is type in your e-mail address and a password. We then fill in any questions you've already answered. Of course, if you never register or leave personal information, then the server only knows that someone with your cookie has returned to the Web site. You are in charge of deciding whether we know anything about you. But the more you tell us about yourself, the more we can help you find information or products you want.

How to clear (delete) those cookies fast and easy

1. Close all WebPages

2. Go to Start on your PC

3. Go to Control Panel

4. Go to Internet Options (Windows XP - Network and Internet Options)

5. Click the General

6. Select Temporary Internet Files Delete Cookies and Delete Files Click OK

If you do frequent work on your computer. It is a good idea to clean out the cookies daily.

Digital Cameras: How Many Pixels Do I Need?

With the bewildering number of digital cameras on the market, it's increasing difficult to know where to start for your first purchase. One of the major determining factors of the price of a digital camera is the number of pixels. Nowadays, even 5.0 megapixel cameras are affordable, even for casual snapshots.

But is bigger always better?

Higher megapixel cameras do have some drawback. The first, and most obvious, is price. A basic 5.0 megapixel camera currently runs between $200 and $300. A 1.2 megapixel camera can be had for less than $50. Storage for those large pictures will also cost you more. A 32 MByte memory card will hold around a hundred 1.2 megapixel pictures. This drops right down to around 60 pictures for 2.0 megapixels and to around 40 pictures for a 3.0 megapixel model. One other consideration, not often mentioned, is that a higher megapixel camera has to do more work to compress and store images, leading to longer waits between picture shots and viewing.

Before you rush off and spend $300 for a camera, consider what you will be doing with the pictures. Are you viewing them just on your computer? Sending them as email attachments? Printing them on an existing inkjet printer? Having them professionally printed?

The larger the number of pixels, the larger the file size. An important consideration if you are emailing them as attachments. The following chart shows sample file sizes, typical resolution and maximum print size for different pixel counts stored as high-quality JPEG files:

Pixels - - - File Size - - - Resolution - - - Print Size

1.2 - - - - - 480k - - - - - 1152 x 864 - - - - - 4 x 6 inches

2.0 - - - - - 980k - - - - - 1600 x 1200 - - - - 5 x 7 inches

3.0 - - - - - 1.2M - - - - - 2048 x 1536 - - - - 10 x 8 inches

5.0 - - - - - 2.3M - - - - - 2592 x 1944 - - - - 11 x 14 inches

Most computers will only display the 2.0 megapixel image (at most) without scrolling, so you may find yourself resizing all your pictures - or not using the maximum resolution of your camera - if you have a 5.0 megapixel camera.

Only ever print pictures at 5 x 7, or only view them on a computer? Then a 2 megapixel may be enough for now. The prices will be lower next year if you want to upgrade later.

Obviously, the higher pixel cameras do have some advantages, especially when it comes to cropping and editing - and you know the salesman will want to sell you the best camera in the store - but I hope this information will help in making an informed decision.

How To Forget About Spam Once And For All

You will laugh next time you see an unknown email message in your Inbox. This knowledge will help you understand more what spammers and phishers look like.

First suggestion to decrease spam

The best way to decrease or totally eliminate spam from your Inbox is to use a Gmail account. I tested a lot of accounts, such as yahoo mail, msn hotmail, adpost, Outlook express and mailup.

I noticed that Gmail is very good to filter spam, and even though I receive spam all of it ends automatically in the Spam Folder. I do not use any anti spam software. Although I receive even more than hundred emails a day the spam software is useless if you have a Gmail account. You can get it for free from the google website.

If you are receiving spam from the same people over and over again you can report them. If you use Gmail, you can contact the Google Team. You can also create a filter that will automatically delete all messages sent from a specific email address.

Common reasons you receive spam

1. You receive spam because people see your email address. That does not mean you have to keep it Top Secret. It means you must use your email carefully. If possible don't write it down in message boards, forums, groups or classified ads.

Treat your email address as if it is the key of an important door. Do not share it with everyone, or give it freely away to other people whom you do not yet know. Spammers find these email addresses online, anywhere. Then they start sending you messages or even sell your email to other spammers.

I have more than one Gmail account and you can too. If you have many contacts or do business you can just use one account for sending emails and another for something else.

2. Subscriptions to newsletters, ezines or any other subscription may be dangerous. Do not submit your Name and Email to all the subscription boxes you find online.

Some are so interesting that attract a lot of people, maybe cause they are giving away something for free. There are hundreds and thousands of newsletters, and usually they all give some freebie to attract new subscribers.

Use caution, and only subscribe to newsletters and ezines that you are really interested in, not just to receive the freebie. If you just need the freebie a good idea is to create a new Gmail account and name it myfrebbies. Then use that account just for getting freebies.

If the site is looking badly designed, or even some other things that are repelling you, then don't subscribe. The badly designed sites do not have good newsletters neither and they might sell your email or send you spam.

Most dangerous type of spam

Phishing is the most dangerous type of scam. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details. These people are simple called Phishers not Spammers.

Phishers send messages trying to make you believe they are huge companies like paypal, ebay, stormpay, HSBC and many others.

You can read the title of your email messages and simple understand they are fake.

Further more these may contain adware or spyware. You should just delete them. Never click the links.

Those sites are fake, and just by clicking on a single fake link from your email message that can harm your PC with spyware or adware.

Ebay, paypal or any other worldwide known company will always email you saying:
Dear your full name or Dear name

Phishers most often do not even say Dear or Hello, or say just Hello Friend. They don't know your real name most often.

Links inside emails can be verified to see if they are fake or real. If you open a message and you think it is phishing place your mouse button without clicking over the URL. It's important not to click. Then simple look at the bottom of your browser.

Are the links the same? Probably not, cause they are fake. Delete message.

You should treat spam as if they are really harmful cause they indeed are. Take care of your email address, cause it is the key to your privacy. The Internet can be very dangerous if you allow it to be. This advice helps makes your online activity safer. Everyone has common sense, and it is important to make use of it when you are on the Internet. If it looks to good to be true, than it is.

Driver Backup - Easily Backup Your Windows Drivers

I was asked by a lot of people how to back up Windows drivers manually. Some people do the backup in case the drivers are damaged by virus or deleted by accident. Some people want to reinstall their systems without reinstalling them again, so they want to back up before reinstallation.

In fact, it is quite important to do backup, especially when your installation CD is lost and drivers are damaged. Now I will tell you guys how to do this by hand. It is very easy, if you follow the steps below:

1. Right Click My Computer and Choose Properties. System Properties Window will pop up.
2. Click Hardware tab. Then click on Device Manager. Device Manager will pop up and you will see a list of your computer device.
3. Open the device whose driver you want to back up. Normally you can see one or all components of the device under the device category. You need to find out all the drivers for the components.
4. Right click a component and choose Properties. The Properties window will pop up.
5. Click on Driver tab and then click Drivers Details. A new window will pop up and shows all the driver files.
6. Find a pen and write down all the files and their paths.
7. Repeat 4 to 6 until you complete all the components under a device. Do not miss a single file!
8. Create a folder and copy all the files which you have found to it.

The process may be a little different between Windows XP and Windows Vista. You need to repeat 3 to 7 to make driver backup for all the device. Please keep in mind that you need to collect all the files in the list. If you miss a single one, the backup drivers will be useless. So don't neglect any file!

When you do the backup manually by this way, you will find it could be very time wasting. It will take you a long time to complete all the work and it can be very risky if you forget a single file.

Improve Your Hard Drive's Speed & Performance

If you're like most computer users, you notice that the responsiveness of your hard drives begins to wane the longer you use it. If you're looking for tips and tricks to optimize your hard drive's performance, this is the article for you. We'll discuss three quick and easy steps you can take to improve the speed and responsiveness of your drive. By the end of this article you'll have a few things you can try to get your harddrive to run like it did in the first month.

Step One - Free Up Space on Your Hard Drive
Is your hard drive maxed out? Do you have a lot of files that are taking up space but are not being used? An overfull harddrive is one of the primary reasons hard drives start to slow down. If your harddrive is running at more than 75% of capacity, it's time to remove some files. Invest in a backup drive and move some of the files that you don't need regularly. Photos often take up a huge portion of a hard disk drive so that is a good place to look when you are trying to identify files to move.

Step Two - Uninstall Programs You No Longer Use
Uninstall any applications that you haven't used in a long time. Go to Add/Remove Software and go through the list of applications. Are there any that you haven't used in over 6 months and are unlikely to use? Before you uninstall them make sure you have the original disks or a backup of the installation files so you can re-install it again later should you need it. Games in particular can take up a great deal of space.

Step Three - Defragment your Hard Drive
Once you've freed up room on your hard drive, it's time to defragment. Computers store files in little pieces all over your hdd. After a period of time, your harddrive space is divided up into little pieces called fragments. A defragmenter helps move all the free space to one area of the hard disk drive, thereby improving the speed and performance. Windows has a built in disk defragmenter but there are more powerful and faster programs available for purchase online.

Conclusion
By deleting or moving files you don't use often, removing unused applications and defragmenting your hard drive, you can increase the performance of your hard drive. By following the information in this article you should be able to substantially improve responsiveness of your hard drive.