Wireless 802.11AC Exists, But Don’t Buy It (Yet). Here’s Why…

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Arguably, the only thing that’s really changed in wireless router technology since October 2009 (when Wireless N finally left draft status and was published) is the introduction of 802.11ac. 802.11ac is, simply put, high-throughput on the 5GHz band. And yes, it is backwards-compatible to the N 2.4 GHz band if need be. Official publication of [...]

Should You Buy That On-Site Warranty For Your New Laptop?

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I think it’s safe to say that, for the most part, laptops are built the best they’ve ever been. I mean, I was quite surprised at how well my Dell Inspiron mini 10v laptop refurb was made when I bought it back in 2009. In fact, I still own it. So if the big laptop [...]

How Many Monitors Do You Use On Your Primary Computer? [Reader Poll]

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By now, it is pretty much a proven fact that multiple monitors increases productivity. And, honestly, with the pricing of monitors never being so low, there is really no good reason not to have more than one. The question for today is: How Many Monitors do you use? Here’s the poll for you to answer, [...]

How To Secure Your WiFi Network Against a Reaver Attack

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Most people these days seem to be making the jump to WiFi, and it’s not terribly difficult to see why. Mobile hardware has never been so popular as it is now, and the choice between a confusing jumble of wires as opposed to a wireless alternative seems obvious. The problem is that WiFi suffers from [...]

How Many Internet Connected Devices Do You Own? [Talk Back]

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It really is amazing sometimes just how connected we are to the Internet. It used to be that going online was a bit of a novelty. We’d buy a computer just so we could go online, and internet connectivity was something that we looked at as special. Remember those AOL discs? Today, many of us [...]

A High-Tech Option For Looking After Your Elderly Family Members Living At Home

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Millions of elderly Americans live independently at home, however in many cases, there is a younger family member worried about it. They don’t want to lose the independence of living at home, yet the younger generation is worried that something could go wrong and they couldn’t do anything about it. I’m somewhat familiar with this, because this [...]

Apple Sells 5% of PCs, But Makes 45% Of The Money

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Apple haters love to point out that Macs are only used by a very small minority of personal computer users. And that it will always be that way. And you know what? They’re right. But, who cares when you’re making all the money?! At least that’s how the people inside Apple are looking at it, [...]

The Definitive Guide to iPads vs. Android Tablets

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I’m sure many of you still remember the rather absurd lawsuit that Apple brought to bear against Samsung. Apparently, they were concerned that the consumer was having trouble discerning the difference between a drawn-out patent battle where Apple claimed that Samsung ripped off a whole host of features from its market-leading iPad, up to and [...]

How To Run Dual Monitors Off A MacBook Pro (Without Thunderbolt)

OK, so here’s the rub… Apple gave the Macbook Pro a single DisplayPort. That allows you to power an external monitor – obviously. And, if you want to power more than one monitor from it (which the laptop has the horsepower to do), you’ve got to pony up for two big Thunderbolt monitors from Apple. [...]

How To Install Memory And An SSD Drive Into A Macbook Pro [VIDEO]

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I recently took it upon myself to beef up my 2011 Macbook Pro. This laptop originally came with 4 GB of memory and a 500GB hard drive. And it served me perfectly fine for awhile. After awhile, however, I started to become more aware of the speed. My usual activity with the laptop was perfectly [...]

How To Multi-Boot Your Raspberry Pi

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There’s a lot of stuff you can do with the Raspberry Pi – a fully-functional computer the size of a credit card that costs only $25. However, multi-booting isn’t really one of them. With the way the system is designed, you can only boot a single operating system per SD card, which can get more [...]

Official Announcement: PCMech Rebrands as MacMech

You should all be doing this.

Here is a snippet from the official press release, then I will offer my commentary below… Tampa, FL, April 1, 2013 – Tampa based technology blog, PCMech.com, is announcing today that it will be re-branded as MacMech. PCMech.com began in 1997, making it one of the oldest technology blogs on the Internet. Started as a [...]

Is a Chromebook Pixel Actually Worth Buying?

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When Google first released the Chromebook, it was heralded as the next evolution of personal computing. Many hoped that it would signify a revolution, that it would lead into a new era in the world of technology. Turns out that didn’t happen. Almost two years later and the Chromebook is more or less forgotten. It [...]

The Best Practices Guide to Buying Used Electronics

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I’ve always been a rather frugal fellow.  It’s not that money is terribly tight,  it’s just that I’d prefer to keep my cash as close to my chest as possible. I’m that guy who’s going to troll thrift stores regardless of how much income he’s pulling in, the fellow who’s always on the lookout for [...]

How Much Energy Does It Take To Power The Cloud? [Infographic]

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As most of you have probably heard by now, the New York Time’s piece on data centers wasn’t exactly accurate. And more than a little intellectually dishonest, to boot. In spite of that, it did raise one very, very good point.. There is no such thing as the cloud. There is no such thing as [...]

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