Screensavers will kill your screens faster - turn them off

These days screensavers are nothing more than just unnecessary (yet attractive) "energy-wasters".

Let me explain my statement:

Screensavers were originally created/designed to protect CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - the big, old, tv-like screens) from a problem known as phosphor burn-in.  Phosphur burn-in caused any still image that was displayed for an extended period of time on those monitors to leave a permanent ghost image on the screen.

Modern LCD (Liquid Crystal Display - flat screens) do not have a phosphor burn-in problem and so there is no need to have the Screen Saver option enabled especially when you consider the fact that some screensavers use a lot of processor power and gives the video card unnecessary work hence just simply wasting precious electricity or battery power (if enabled on your laptop).

NB: Using screensavers on LCD screens WILL NOT cause them to last any longer than they were designed to.

Steps to turn off the screensaver on your PC (in Windows 7):

•   Right mouse click on the desktop

• Choose Personalize from the list (it's at the very bottom)
• In the bottom right corner you'll see the Screen Saver option, click on it

• In the new window, select (None) from the list under the Screen Saver section
• Click on OK and you're done
• Start saving energy

For more information check out this link: Screen burn-in

Apple, Android or Windows...the tablet battle

So maybe you want to get a new tablet and you're a bit confused as to what you should get with what's available NOW and what's COMING SOON.

Should you go for Android, IOS, Windows 8 or WebOS (smile) and then there are the names; Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, Transformer, Galaxy Tabs, Galaxy Note, Ipad, Ideapad, Touchpad...the list just seems to go on and on, so i'll try my best to help you out:

Here goes:

First things first; Identify the OS you'd prefer play (or work...lol) with:

1. IOS is extremely smooth and well optimized, there are tons of apps for just about any need on the planet (and beyond), there is no market fragmentation and there's the whole Apple ecosystem that caters for all your tech-appetites BUT you won't be able to customize it much more than how it comes out of the box, side-loading apps is not possible unless you jail-breaking the device and even then it may not be worth the effort.  It also means your only hardware option is the Ipad (1,2 or 3) which all comes without expandable storage capability.  UNLESS YOU DECIDE TO WAIT UNTIL OCTOBER...The Ipad Mini drops then...it might be worth the wait.
2. Android is the most exciting of the lot dues to the amount of custom ROMS available and the million and one things that can be tweaked and customized within that OS.  The apps collection is excellent as well, though not as plentiful as you'd find for IOS.  ICS (Ice Cream Sandwich) or Android 4.0 is great with Jelly Beans (Android 4.1) being as close to perfect as I think Android can get.  Android is really fun to use, but it is a fragmented operating system and with so many companies putting out hardware running Android it can get really confusing really fast, so my recommendation is to read the reviews before spending the money.  You can check out Engadget, Android Central or even Liliputing, they tend to have very good reviews.
3. Windows 8...tablet running this OS is not available as yet and then again I believe that the best experience would be on the Microsoft Surface which is not due out until October.  For persons who have experienced Windows Phone 7.5, Windows is like that with a bit of perfection splashed in...I AM WAITING FOR THE SURFACE...maybe you should too (wink).  Check out WpCentral or Engadget.
4. WebOS is dead!! (Did I say that?)...You're not going to get any new hardware running this operating system until the open source version is done being "baked" still I must say that my HP Touchpad was one of my best gadget purchases of all time.

When you have decided on the operating system you prefer, comment in the comment section and we will talk about the brand/company line you should consider.

Getting more from a single battery charge

There are very few tech-related things that are more annoying than having your portable device "die" on you when you need to use it simply because you had forgotten to charge it up before you left home, but what if you did forget to charge it up?  How can you get the most out of the remaining "juice" in your battery?

Here goes:

1. Keep the device's (laptop, smartphone, tablet etc.) screen/display at the lowest usable brightness level possible.  
2. Turn off wireless features such as WiFi and Bluetooth if you're not using them
3. On your smartphone you can also turn off the GPS receiver (if it has one)
4. If your battery is running low you may also want to avoid processor-intensive activities such as the playing of games, copying of discs and viewing of videos
5. On laptops you can also unplug any USB peripheral device that draws power from the USB port if that device is not being used
6. You should also consider putting your laptop in hibernate mode instead of sleep mode if the battery is low and you'll be needing to use the device intermittently.

SEE: http://www.jadabreo.blogspot.com/2012/08/best-battery-care-practices-for-laptop.html