When Go Go Hamsters first raised their little, furry heads they were predicted to be a best selling toy for Christmas 2009. The Toy Retail Association has now confirmed this. So, what’s this latest craze all about? The manufactureres are selling them as “…sweet loveable and playful interactive pets that make an ideal substitute to the real live pets”. Cool, no feeding, no crap!

These interactive pet hamsters can run around the room and they make noises when they are cuddled, they even make different noises as they move about their go go hamster houses. Hmm, Monty Pythons musical mice?

As you’d expect, the Go Go hamsters have even been given cute names such as Chunk, Mr Squiggles, Num Nums…I’ll stop before you start vomiting. They’ve even got their own Funhouse and the manufacturers have a range of other play sets that can be added keeping the little ones amused for hours at a time!

Ok, I’m being a bit too sarcastic. These toys are aimed at the younger generation rather than grizzled, old men like me. Anyhow, if you’ve interested in getting more info and pricing (they are a very low cost stocking filler option…hint, hint) follow this link to Go Go Hamster prices now

Popularity: 72% [?]

Relatively new computer devices emerging in late 2007, early 2008, netbooks are storming markets with attractive pricing, competing with their laptop and notebook forefathers. Used mainly to surf the web and perform small computer functions, consumers now have the option to have a dulled down laptop that will meet their computing needs at a fraction of the cost.

Netbooks are designed to utilize the Internet for the majority of computing necessities such as word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, storage, and other various applications. Netbooks do not come with powerful features, as the majority of models have a hard drives that rarely exceed 250 GB, which is fairly new to netbook lines, as it used to be 160 GB. It is also common to find netbooks with 8 GB to 32 GB solid state hard drives that are smaller, faster, and more shock-resistant as they in the form of a series of small chips unlike their disk shaped counterparts.

In addition to small storage space, netbooks are also known for their low processing speeds and are usually equipped with low amounts of memory. As these computing marvels are not designed to run much more than an internet browser, 1 GB of memory has become the industry standard for netbooks, while some even run 512 MB. Processing speeds are currently hovering around 1.6 GHz.

Netbooks are also known to not come with an optical drive, but will have a USB port for an external hard drive, USB drive, or even an external optical drive. With a screen size ranging between 7″ to 10″, it is not only difficult to incorporate an optical drive, but also defeats the “portal to the internet” philosophy.

At the beginning of their development, manufacturers of netbooks tried to keep features and specifications at the minimum to keep pricing low, as not to deter laptop and notebooks sales; the profit margin for more expensive laptops and notebooks yields more than low cost netbooks. This concept was later altered when netbooks began to impact the mobile computing market, lowering the sales of laptops and notebooks. Now companies are beginning to invest more into their netbook product lines with such high consumer demand.

Computer product companies such as Intel and Microsoft have adapted products to fulfil the demand of netbooks. Intel offer their Atom processor line in netbooks that is very small, uses little energy, and has about half the power of its Celeron cousin. Microsoft has offered Windows XP for netbooks at very low cost compared to desktops and laptops, and has even claimed that 96% of netbooks currently run the operating system. Linux has also gathered a sliver of the netbook operating system pie, however only claim to run on less than 10% of netbooks.

Priced, on average, around $300, netbooks are not only revolutionizing the computer industry, but are also allowing consumers who never owned a computer to be able to afford one. Netbooks offer a gateway to online computing, reducing the purchase cost with dulled features compared to laptop alternatives.

Popularity: 56% [?]

With the next generation of console gaming, there is also a new generation in desktop gaming, and with it a myriad of new hardware and technology that these new games require. An older PC will have almost no chance of running the newest and most resplendent of PC games, so it may be time to upgrade your old gaming desktop or purchase a new one if yours is more than a few years old.

Your choice of motherboard in your computer will be a very important one indeed! It determines which brands of processors you can use, what sorts of memory and video cards you can employ, how many USB ports you have, and a variety of other minute factors. It is important that you research the motherboard you choose well, and ensure that it will be compatible with the hardware you want to use with it.

The newest games on the market are extremely memory intensive and can really cause your gaming desktop to struggle to run them with anything less than two gigabytes onboard. You should really consider triple channel RAM, and perhaps as much as four gigabytes or more to ensure optimal performance.

If you want to experience your games in the resplendent detail that the designers intended, then you will need a powerhouse of a video card to handle the lush character models and painstaking attention to detail in the scenery. An older AGP video card is simply not going to suffice. You will need to go with a PCI-Express model that takes advantage of the latest in graphics processing technology. They can run several times faster than AGP models, and have enough onboard memory to run any game out on the market.

Your other hardware is actually limited by the power of your CPU. They may be ‘able’ to run at impossibly fast speeds, but the CPU has to interpret and transmit their data to other parts of your system, and this really controls the speed of your computer and your games. It would be smart to invest in the best processor that you can fit in your budget to maximize the performance of your gaming desktop and its upgradability.

If you want to gain a little extra performance out of your processor and video card without forking over too much extra cash, you should consider overclocking your hardware. This runs them a little faster than what the manufacturer sets them at, but does increase the risk of the hardware burning out. If you are determined to overclock your hardware, the best investment you can make, and an inexpensive one at that, is a top of the line cooling system for your computer. This will keep your CPU and video card temperatures lower and help to prevent them from getting fried.

What would a gaming desktop be without an ergonomic keyboard, and fancy mouse, and a variety of other devices, like a microphone to talk to your friends or teammates online? Most peripherals of this nature are independent of the other hardware in your machine, and you only need a few free USB ports to run some truly unique gadgets that will make your gaming experience personalized and unique.

Popularity: 50% [?]

Twitter Fun On Your iPhone

The iPhone is an incredibly exciting tool that allows people to stay connected using all kinds of fun applications.Popular uses for the iPhone include email and text messaging, in addition to simply calling your friends and family.Staying connected on the move can be a lot more enjoyable when you use the new social networking sites accessible with the iPhone.

There are hundreds of social networking sites, but Twitter is one of the best choices when it comes to using your mobile phone.

Twitter allows you to stay connected with friends and family without a bunch of complicated steps.When you get an iPhone you have the opportunity to use Twitter in the most effective way possible.Twitter can be used easily by employing the text messaging service on your iPhone.

This is a very convenient way to keep updates about what you’re doing to all of your friends and family, and all it takes is typing a short message through your SMS screen and sending it to a specific number. It is very easy to set this up on your iPhone, once you set up your Twitter profile, you only have to add your phone number to it and you’ll be able to send and receive 140 character messages that will also appear on your Twitter page instantly.

Since the iPhone has a web browser you an also enjoy using Twitter on their excellent mobile website. When you have an iPhone, you are probably going to be on the internet more than you could possibly imagine.Whether you are in a waiting room, sitting in class or on a bus, you will be checking your e-mail and other popular sites.

Your Twitter account will keep you updating it at all hours of the day and night.You can access a special website that allows you to update and read Twitter in the most effective format for the iPhone.

The best part of using the iPhone is the fact that it streamlines all forms of communication, whether it be through text messaginger with checking your e-mail, The iPhone is the world’s most effective and enjoyable communication tool.

Now, visit this website for more information on: twitter automation

Popularity: 34% [?]

spam detection is usually performed once at the level of the email provider thanks to the pre-installed filters, and secondly it can be enabled by the installation of an additional spam blocker. Spam detection has become a necessity because the number of unsolicited mail messages is on the rise. Although punishable by law, spamming continues to be a common practice for lots of businesses that hide on the world wide web market and fool naive Internet users. Spam prevention and spam detection remain the only ways to limit the impact of spam for the moment.

Spam prevention is pretty basic: do not disclose your email address easily. This means that you must not enter the email address on web pages that require registration; better get a secondary address and use that for the purpose. Do not respond to unknown senders, and most important do not forward messages such as jokes, warnings and other kinds of messages that allow for the accumulation of large numbers of email addresses. Spam detection on the other hand can be performed on the personal computer or on the server, and in both cases it requires the installation of some software blocking tools.

Filters and blockers perform spam detection. First of all, filters separate legitimate messages from possible spam. Blockers on the other hand perform spam detection and cleaning without allowing the access to the personal computer. When the anti-spam software is installed on the server, things are even better because the viewing of the emails with a spam potential is possible without their being transferred in the computer memory. Spam detection can thus be achieved on the basis of the sender’s ID, the keywords specific to spamming and several other criteria integrated in the technology.

Just as the spam detection tool means constantly improve, so do the spammers’ strategies to fool blockers and filters and get into people’s mail box. Up to now, there is no total protection against spam. Who knows whether things will ever change and more anti-spam measures will be possible? If kept at this level, spam raises few problems, on condition that you don’t open mails from strangers that somehow manage to pass the most advanced anti-spam tool.

Popularity: 34% [?]

DS and DSi: Head to Head for Christmas

With Christmas fast approaching it’s probably time to stop thinking about the presents that you’re going to buy for your kids. The Nintendo DS handheld games console has been one of the best Sellers for the past couple of years and it’s no wonder as this console he’s the ideal choice four games players at home or on the move.

When it comes to choosing the colour of the DS kids can be incredibly picky. One of the best-selling colours in this range of handheld consoles is the pink Nintendo DS mainly because it’s a firm favourite with girls. But the DS’s doesn’t just stop or playing games it’s also a fantastic learning tool; just take a look at some of the offerings such as Nintendo’s Brain Training or Sodoku but, two B fair, the main reason people by this handheld is for the pure entertainment factor. There are a huge selection of games available, ranging from playing games right through two to player shoot ‘em ups where players connect their DS’s consoles via a cable that allows them to play head to head.

More recently, we’ve seen the release of the Nintendo DSi; a major upgrade to the existing DS console. The DSi features a range of new editions including a web cam, built in the audio player, the Nintendos shop (by games and features online) and a whole host of other goodies that makes this a worthy successor to the DS.

Now there’s no denying that the DSi is is he more than capable replacement for the existing DS that many kids (and adults) still want to get their hands on the tried and tested DS’s. Why? It’s mainly because of the relatively low price combined with a huge range of games that are available for the DS. Also, the DS’s is probably the best known of Nintendos handheld consoles hence its huge popularity.

Let me just give you an idea of exactly how popular the DS is: since the launch of this Nintendo handheld console it has sold over 107,000,000 units around the world-a pretty impressive figure no matter how you look at it. In fact, this figure he’s more than the combined sales of the Wii, PS and XBox. The Nintendo DSi, since its launch, has sold around 6.7 million units.

Now we have an idea of exactly how popular the DS’s is which one do you think centre will be dropping into your stocking this year? We know it’s not one of our normal tech type posts but, as gaming fans, we’re always on the lookout for your views.

Popularity: 51% [?]