The answer to this particular question was actually a well fought battle. Apple fan boys, needless to say swear by the faster and smarter iPhone 4S. At first glance, we would be inclined to agree. Siri makes it a lot easier to tilt the balance in the favor of the iPhone 4S ; but then Samsung et. al have pulled up their socks and are offering some extremely stiff competition.

As even the most passionate of Apple’s fans shall agree ; it was never about the hardware. If it were just that then Nokia was already doing a decent enough job. What tilted the balance so wonderfully in Apple’s favor was the amazing user interface that the iOS had. Competitors were struggling for a long time after the release of the iPhone to put up any definite fight. It took Google and its Android OS to hold the lines. Fortunately, Samsung recognised the writing on the wall early and immediately adopted Android as the OS for their smart phones. Consequently, cell phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S2 (some would say this is the only real competition) , the Motorola Droid Bionic and the HTC Titan. PCWorld makes a great comparison of the specifications of these phones.

What it all boils down to is if you are enough of an Apple fan to still consider the iPhone 4S after the Galaxy S2 clearly winning in most areas. Actually, my love for Siri (she is truly amazing) is nullified by the larger screen of the Galaxy S2. It boils down to a personal choice, provided of course that you understand the S2 beats the iPhone in speed, screen real estate as well as talk time. The other competitors don’t have a chance. Its between these two that you must select for this Christmas. Still confused? Head on to deals.org.uk and see what makes more sense. They have some fantastic online mobile phone deals to choose from. Let your pocket make the decision for you.

With developments in technology coming thick and fast, the demand for IT Support is becoming much greater than before. Gone are the days where a technician needed to be at his desk to help administer remote support with the latest development coming from Control-M Self-Service Mobile App for the apple iPad and iPhones.

The application was designed to increase the responsiveness, productivity and efficiency of IT Support staff that were rarely found at their desks when they were needed. Allowing technicians to utilise an iPhone or iPad gives them the option of working on the premises or administer support via the cloud. Essentially the software is like and remote support software that allows the technician to view and access the desktop of a client, just modified to allow for a mobile environment and utilisation of cloud technology.

The application is free in the iTunes store and is a life saver for an IT Support technician, saving them time and headaches. With evolving technology, the amount of tasks that can be conducted remotely is growing and BMC is at the forefront of development for these advancements.

While there are a range of other applications l like logmein and Jump Desktop to name a few, the Control-M Self-Service Mobile App is gathering a large following with companies like Foxtel and the Ascena Retail Group Utilising this technology.

With the holiday season on the anvil, long road trips are something that most families have to look forward to. What used to be something you looked forward to while single has suddenly become something that you detest – all thanks to the Are we there yet? question. If only kids had something like an online bingo site to keep them hooked for the duration of the trip. It would certainly take the pain out of road trips and perhaps even make them enjoyable.

Turns out, there is. While it is nothing like online bingo, its certainly as much fun and informative too. Its called Car Bingo, and while there are instructables out there which teach you just how to get started, we prefer the Dora’s colorful car bingo option. Its a lot easier (as simple as print and go). While you drive, your kids need to spot the item, point it out to you and then circle them on the chart. Once they get five items (or all of them if you have a particularly smart child) you could then reward them. Besides being fun, they even teach new words and items to children. Definitely worth a dekko!

Solid State Drives (SSD) have been around for a decent amount of time but failed to make any major dent in the market. There are two reasons to this. Partly, traditional hard disk drives though antiquated in terms of technology as compared to a SSD still do the job remarkably well and usually last the life of a laptop. My trusty old Dell has been with me since 2005 and its HDD is still going strong. So unless the difference in performance really matters to you (for most consumers it is economics rather then performance) ; SSDs could never really be preferred. Especially when SSDs loose out majorly when it comes to prices.

However a SSD does make a huge difference in terms of data life as well as performance. Its not for no reason that Apple went the SSD route when they unveiled the Apple Air Laptop.

So it would be a no-brainer if you had to choose for a hard disk for your laptops or computers provided costs were not a concern. Seagate has attempted to give us the best of both worlds. The Seagate Momentus XT combines a regular magnetic disk with a small, super-fast solid-state drive (SSD). The smart hard drive only copies the most important / frequently used data on the SSD so it boosts performance. Data that is not required daily or even weekly (when was the last time you listened to that Elvis song that you know you have saved somewhere on the hard drive?) is put on the magnetic disk.

The resulting hard drive boosts the computers speed to almost as good as a full SSD and significantly faster then a traditional hard disk. So if you find your old laptop running out of breath too frequently for comfort, think of the Momentus XT that sells for $249 which includes 750 GB of storage and 8 GB of SSD.

Meant for the ultimate geek , the hard drive desk clock has been made from the ripped innards of a long dead hard disk drive. Perhaps in the days to come when solid state drives are the norm, this one could help you to pass on your geeky wisdom to your grandchild as what data storage used to be.

Available on Etsy for $40 , no two clocks re the same since each hard drive is disassembled, painted and fitted with a timepiece and custom stand. Each unique stand is cut out of recycled motherboards, modems, video cards and other various electronic components.

Components are colored in different arities including Black, White, Gray, Dark Blue, Blue, Dark Red, Red, Orange, Neon Orange, Yellow, Neon Yellow, Purple, Dark Green, Green, Neon Green and Copper. The seller even allows you to make special requests while ordering.

Etsy

Everyone loved Al Pacino in the movie, but a re-release albeit on Blu-Ray would not elicit the required response from the press. The PR folks who handled the release though, obviously knew what they were doing. They decided on throwing in bulletproof Flash Drives for a few lucky winners who order a copy of the movie.

Scarface arrives on Blu-Ray today (5th September) on three discs in a steelbook edition and allows those who order a copy to win a 32 GB flash drive from I want one of those which is guaranteed to withstand bullets thanks to a double layer of metal casing as well as water, fire and innumerable drops.

Interested? Order your copy now.

Do remember to fill up the form on this site – Hey you Guys.

Hey U Guys

The battle over smallest , lightest and packed with the most features will obviously continue till the humankind gets wiped out of existence. Sony has managed to secure bragging rights to the Worlds lightest e-reader, the PRS T-1. Its a mere 168 grams in weight and only 9 mm thick. The display will be a glare free (promises Sony) 600 * 800 resolution and will have about 2 GB of internal storage with ability to go upto 32 gigs with help of a Micro SD card slot.

With Wi-Fi, Reader gives you the additional freedom to buy, borrow or get eBooks for free wherever there’s a wireless connection available.

From the latest releases to popular titles and classics, it’s easy to browse and download titles in seconds from a huge range of compatible bookstores and other web sites. You will also be able to purchase and download eBooks and periodicals via Wi-Fi from the rapidly-expanding catalogue available at the Reader Store2. What’s more, Reader Wi-Fi is the worlds’ first3 eReader that will allow you to borrow eBooks wirelessly from public libraries thanks to simple, seamless access on the device4 via an on-screen ‘Public Library’ icon. Touch the screen to choose a book. Swipe a finger to turn the page, or zoom in and out by pinching your fingers together or apart. Tap on a word and hold to find its meaning from two built-in English language dictionaries. Words can also be translated to and from English using ten built-in translation dictionaries. You can even write notes on the page or highlight text with a finger or the supplied stylus – just like a real book.

Whats even better is that at any point of time, the reader could ask for the meaning of a word from an online dictionary or read more about the topic from Wikipedia immediately. Almost makes me say it, the future is here, the future is now. The Pottermore tie-up that Sony managed to achieve is definitely going to help sales too – especially where pester power comes into play. After all we have had Pottermore accounts go for obscene amounts of money just recently.

Reader Wi-Fi (model: PRS-T1) by Sony is available in Europe from October 2011, depending on country.

1 The world’s lightest eBook Reader with diagonal screen size of 15.2 cm (6”) as of 31st August 2011.

2 Reader Store will soon be available in Europe, coming first to the UK, Germany and Austria in 2011.

3 World’s first according to Sony research as of 31st August 2011.

4 Requires valid library card. Device feature – available only in UK, US, and Canada.

5 Unencrypted ePub and PDF files.

6 Availability of Reader Wi-Fi Pottermore special edition varies by country.

Standard Hard Drives can only hold data for a couple of decades – and that too under optimum conditions. These glass drives would also have an enormous capacity for data storage. Upto 50 gigabytes of data could be written onto a glass like surface which would merely be the size of a cell phone screen.

While we still hope that SSDs get more affordable, the glass drives sound like a long way off. For those of you who are suffering from Hard Drive problems of older disks such as a Maxtor hard drive failure, the best option is to ring experts who can salvage data and then invest in a SSD. If SSDs are too expensive, then these new hybrids are a great bet too.

Edit – The system does use a laser for reading. But we are still worried that these drives could shatter. Unless the glass is really rigid and shock proof.

UPI

the Millenniata M-Disc is a 4.7 GB DVD with a data layer made out of stone-like metals and metalloids. Its a simple concept. Create a data surface that is so tough that it simply cannot be harmed / hurt accidentally. The surface is in fact so hard that in order to write on to the surface, a laser that is 5 times more powerful then the standard laser inside a DVD burner is required. Fortunately reading the disc is a lot simpler and any standard DVD reader is capable of the task.

Guess the ancient Egyptians had it right all along. While papyrus is fine for day to day records ; when you wish to save something for posterity then stone is the way to go. Either that or Glass.

The US DoD decided to take Milleniatta up on their word. What they found was amazing. 25 different discs, including the M-Disc, were exposed to 85C (185F) temperatures, 85% humidity, and bright, full-spectrum light for 24 hours. Where every other archival-quality recordable DVD failed the test with thousands of read errors and complete loss of data, the M-Disc passed with full data integrity and just a handful of errors. Millenniata even goes on to say that the stone layer of its DVDs should retain data for over 10,000 years — but the polycarbonate coating is only good for 1,000 years.

So if you have an older hard drive such as Maxtor (now Seagate) which has some precious data that you must save forever , then the Millenniata M-Disc is a fabulous idea. If the Maxtor has already given up its ghost then the guys at Maxtor Data Recovery are really good at their jobs.

Extreme Tech

The SafetyNet service covers one recovery attempt on your GoFlex Turbo performance drive within a two-year period. Seagate’s Data Recovery Specialists will determine whether remote or in-lab service is the best way to recover the data.

If you however own a older Seagate drive – not covered by the Safetynet data recovery services and are suffering from Seagate hard drive failure ; then try your luck with the Data Recovery Hospital. These guys are really good at this thing.