GeekwithEnvy

Upgrade

Windows XP Users, It’s Time To Move On

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Windows XP has stood the test of time quite well and has remained one of the most popular versions of Windows for over a decade. Many personal users and businesses are still using Windows XP right now, but that needs to change, and soon.

Why? Microsoft will be killing ALL support for XP on April 8th 2014. How does that affect you? The main reason is security or lack thereof. If Microsoft isn’t providing routine security patches to the operating system then it can quickly become vulnerable to attack. There’s no doubt that once the deadline passes, Windows XP will likely become a breeding ground for malicious code like viruses and spyware since XP will basically have a target on it’s back for not having official support. For this reason alone it’s worth it to upgrade to Windows 7 or 8.1 and unfortunately for some users that may mean buying a new PC.

Of course there are other reasons to upgrade as well including driver support, live technical support from Microsoft, newer applications that won’t run on XP, website compatibility,  and not to mention the fact that a newer PC running Windows 7 or 8 will likely be many times faster. Although Windows 8 got off to a rocky start because of criticism over it’s user interface design, it’s probably one of Microsoft’s fastest versions of Windows.

So don’t wait till after the deadline to make your changes, start the upgrade now or at least put together a game plan, especially if you’re a business.

How to Upgrade Your Mac

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Apple’s latest line up of computers are extremely thin and compact, it’s amazing how much can fit in such a small form factor. All of this makes for an amazing design but it also has a downside.

To those of us who are more inclined to tinker with our machines, it can appear as if there’s almost no way to upgrade Apple’s latest and greatest. There is good news however. If you want to add some RAM or your own SSD to your Mac, then there’s probably a way to do it. You can even get step-by-step instructional videos on how to do it along with all the tools you will need.

All of this can be found at OWC (Other World Computing). OWC offers all kinds of options for upgrading your Mac, they sell the hardware and tools you will need to get the job done and all of it is reasonably priced so you can save some cash by doing it all yourself.

The upgrade projects can vary in skill level quite a bit, some of them are quite simple while others will require you to be pretty confident about tearing down your Mac. It’s safe to say that most of these upgrades are for the bold but if you’re not up to doing it yourself then in some cases OWC can do it for you.

All of their installation videos are available on their site but you can also view them on their YouTube channel. OWC also offers repair services for your iPad along with a ton of accessories and additional software.

 

 

If You Plan on Upgrading to Windows 8, You Should Do it Soon

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f you’re planning on making the upgrade to Windows 8 or if you have been on-the-fence about it, you should consider making your move soon. Windows 8 Pro (upgrade) is currently priced at $40 and that’s not going to last forever. After January 31st Windows 8 Pro will set you back $200, pretty big price jump huh? I thought the $40 upgrade was a brilliant idea and hoped it would last much longer. Windows users are already having a tough time in making the decision to upgrade, but with such a low price in place, it makes that decision a little easier.

So if you want to jump in and go with Windows 8, you should probably just go with the Pro version for $40. You can upgrade by heading to Microsoft’s upgrade site.

Windows XP Usage Starting to Drop

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Ever since it’s release Windows XP has dominated the PC landscape and when Windows Vista came around, XP users wouldn’t budge. If you ask most XP users why they haven’t upgraded you’ll get a variety of answers but most will likely point toward XP’s solid track record as a stable well performing operating system that works on older and newer hardware with ease. It really is that simple, it works well, and it works well on most of the hardware out there.

Another point to take into consideration here is that most of the people who have tried to upgrade from XP did so while Windows Vista was around and this left a bad taste in their mouths. With what I would call one of Microsoft’s worst operating system releases, I can understand why you would return to your old friend XP, which even on it’s worst day was better than Vista.

However, with the web becoming more media rich, and with more and more people trying to edit videos and photos taken with their favorite mobile devices, the need for better hardware beckons us. Our 512mb of RAM and our old processors, (yes,people are still using these) just aren’t cutting it and PC users are going out and buying new hardware with Windows 7 pre-installed.  Once consumers get a chance to try Windows 7, most are surprised at how nice the operating system is and how well it works with your new hardware.  Windows 7 has been patched, re-patched and optimized over the years to a point to where it just works and that is exactly what XP users wanted the last time they tried to upgrade.

Let’s not forget forget that consumers are not the only important factor when considering operating systems, there are vendors too. Vendors now have more faith in moving on as well. Take Adobe for example, they have indicated that the next release of Photoshop will not support Windows XP. If we look at some statistics, Wikimedia indicates that 38.58% of OS usage belongs to Windows 7 while XP holds out around 21.75%. Windows Vista holds on to a slim 6.98%.

What turns out to be kind of strange and well, a bit of a problem for Microsoft, is that these users are just now starting to catch on to Windows 7 when Windows 8 is about to make it’s big debut and not just any debut, this is going to be a huge change for Microsoft. We will just have to wait and see what develops and I think it will be interesting to see if people can connect with Windows 8’s primarily touch-based interface.

The Nvidia Tegra 3

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Nvidia Tegra 3 Chip
Nvidia Tegra 3 Chip

The Tegra 3 is one powerful little chip, featuring four cores plus a fifth “power saver” core to create what Nvidia is calling Super 4-PLUS-1™ which provides power when needed by enabling and disabling cores based on workload. The chip is made to deliver console quality gaming and superior HD video.
If your not familiar with this chip, this is the work horse behind the new Google Nexus 7.

The big thing I personally see with this chip when going through all of its specs are the all the power saving features and efforts to improve overall responsiveness. Mobile devices like the Nexus 7 have been noted for smooth performance, Nvidia attributes the smooth feel to its DirectTouch™ architecture that is designed to improve touch responsiveness by handing a portion of the touch processing onto the Tegra 3 processor.

The overall feel of the device has long been a deciding factor for me when choosing mobile devices. It really takes alot away from the experience even when there is a small amount of lag when navigating.

The Tegra 3 is also inside many other devices including the Acer Iconia Tab A510, Asus Transformer Pad TF300 and the Toshiba Excite 10 Tablet.