Thunderbolt is an often under appreciated connector. It originally started out as an optical connector called LightPeak developed by Intel but morphed into the Thunderbolt standard with the input from Apple, the company that primarily uses the interface. There are a few other PCs that offer it but generally only for those that consumers build themselves. The connector has offered some nice features and now Intel has announced the third version of the connector and it is a huge improvement but also likely going to cause confusion as well. So what exactly is changing and how might it impact computers in the coming years? Continue reading
Create Your Own Let’s Play Videos With the HD PVR Rocket
One of the biggest channels for YouTube videos seems to be the Let’s Play videos. These are essentially just recordings of people playing various video games with commentary. They may be recorded to show speed runs through specific game levels, walk-thru’s for tricks and tips to get through difficult games or just simple play through that people can see if they like a game or listen to the commentary by the player. If you every wondered how they managed to record such videos without using the new Twitch broadcasting features in the new consoles, they likely use a personal video recording device. These are small boxes that connect between the console and the TV through HDMI cables that they record the raw video files so they can be uploaded. One of the most popular units is the Hauppuage HD PVR Rocket. Continue reading
What Makes a Bad Free To Play Game
For the most part, consumers can get a lot of benefit from Free To Play games. After all, you can essentially play them for free as long as you have the discipline and patience to not spend any money on them. I have played a huge number of PC and mobile games yet spent probably no more than $50 on the games over a period of several years. This includes such titles as World of Tanks, Planetside 2, Lord of the Rings Online, Angry Birds Go!, Marvel Puzzle Quest, Plants vs. Zombies 2, and Puzzles and Dragons. The problem is that there are many pitfalls to the various Free To Play games that either make them dangerous for people to play or just flat out frustrating that they are not fun or just bad. Continue reading
How Free To Play Games Make Money
Obviously it takes time and money for a developer to create a game. Offering that game for free to players is certainly not going to recoup the cost of developing the game. This is why for years and years, games had a purchase price. Free To Play games break this mold by removing the cost to the player but obviously not entirely otherwise the games would not get developed in the first place. Instead, most games rely on a number of tried and true methods for convincing players to provide them money. This article looks at the many different methods that developers use to try and coax some money from the players who are not required to pay a single cent to play a Free To Play game. Continue reading
Are Tablets The Future of Board Games?
Catan Board Game and Catan HD on iPad
Getting together with family or a group of friends to play some games is a great way to socialize and have some fun, unless you may be playing a game like Illuminati. It also helps to stimulate ones mind in the strategy of winning. With the increasing reliance on digital technology and people constantly trying to stay connected, finding the time to play a board game might be difficult and buying new games to try out can be quite costly. As tablets become more popular especially for entertainment, many popular board games are now being converted to digital applications. This is opening up a whole new realm of playing games that for many can actually be better than playing those physical games.
So will your next board game end up being a digital one rather than a physical one? Lets look at some of the ways that digital board games may be better than the traditional way…
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The Good and Bad of Subscription Software
While free to play has been gaining in popularity when it comes to computer games, more and more software companies have been switching away from a pay for product model to a subscription model. Why on earth would they turn to this model rather than having just a standard paid user license? In some cases, the move to a subscription model makes a lot of sense while in others it makes no sense at all. So how does a consumer know whether some software they want for their computer is worth paying a monthly or annual fee for versus just outright buying a copy of it? Continue reading
Five Reasons Why You Need A Camera Instead Of A Smartphone
Sometimes the smartphone is not the camera you want to use …
Lets face it, the camera market is struggling because most of the phones that people are buying come equipped with pretty decent cameras. They offer high enough megapixels that they can be used for more than just posting pictures to the web and actually have some decent quality. But even though that smartphone camera will work just fine for the majority of the pictures you take, there are still instances when the pictures just don’t live up to what they could be or it is just too impractical to use. Find out five instances where you will probably be better off using a dedicated camera rather than your phone …
How to Fix Home Wi-Fi Problems eBook Now Available
Have you ever had issue trying to get one of your many wireless devices to connect to your internet connection through the Wi-Fi router? Pretty much every person has a problem getting connected at some point or another. Even the best networks will fail from time to time but some people have more problems then others. My latest eBook is now available and offers advice on how to go about fixing many of the most common Wi-Fi connection issues that you might have in your home. End those headaches about how part of your house you just can’t seem to use your devices in or why that one device won’t connect but all your others will. is available from Amazon right now for just $0.99! If you are an Amazon Prime member or subscriber to Kindle Unlimited, you can also borrow the book for free.
Be sure to check out my other ebooks available from amazon as well. is now just $2.99 and is also $0.99.
[ via Amazon]
Adaptive Refresh Rates: G-SYNC and FreeSync
Gamers often talk about the frame rates that they get out of a game with their video card. This tells how many frames per second that the video game and software can generate. In order to display them, they have to be drawn upon the monitor. The process of moving those rendered frames from the video card to the display introduces a whole new set of problems, one that many gamers are familiar with. Both NVIDIA and AMD have release new technologies to try and provide a smoother and faster display but how do they improve this and is this consumers should actually use? Continue reading
Using Public DNS to Improve Network Connectivity
Most people probably do not know how critical the DNS or domain name services are to the internet. The service essentially translates all web site addresses into the IP address so your computer can connect with it. If your computer or device is unable to translate the machine’s name into the IP address, it will be unable to access the site. The speed and reliability of your network connection is heavily reliant upon these services. Typically, you use the DNS server of your internet service such as through a cable company like Comcast or telecom like Verizon. While they generally work, you might actually be able to improve your network connection by setting up your network or PC to use a public DNS server. Continue reading