Extended warranties extend the coverage against defects and problems that a computer may experience for a longer period of time. An accidental damage warranty can cover a computer repair in situations that the standard warranty may not, such as water damage or dropping a laptop on a floor. On the surface, these warranties could save you a lot of money if you need a repair, but are they worth it? Let us look at a few of the factors to consider.

Reliability

Computers tend to be more reliable today than they were even a few years ago. As manufacturing processes improve, the chance of a major failure is less likely.

Cost

When considering whether to purchase an extended warranty or accidental coverage, weigh the cost of the warranty with the likely cost of a major repair. Then consider the likelihood of the repair being necessary. Also consider the replacement cost for a new laptop. Laptops have become increasingly less expensive, often making it cheaper to purchase a new laptop with a new warranty than to pay for a costly repair.

Insurance Coverage

In some cases, home insurance may cover the cost of some computer problems, particularly those caused by lightning damage or other factors associated with your home. Check your policy to see what may already be covered.

Saving Alternatives

You may want to consider skipping an extended warranty, but to put the same amount of money in a savings account. If a repair becomes necessary, the money in the account may be enough to cover it. If a repair is never required, you can use the money to purchase your next computer, or keep it in the savings account for future repairs.

There is no quick and easy answer as to whether or not an extended warranty will be worth the money in every situation. There are many users who have saved a lot of money by utilizing an extended warranty, but also many who paid for one and never used it. Considering the factors listed above can help you to make an informed decision based on your own personal needs.

Pavilion Series

The Pavilion series of desktops and laptops was first introduced by HP in 1995. The series is designed mainly for home use, but is also popular with small office users and even some businesses. Some of the most popular laptops are the ENVY and the dm and dv series. Desktops include the Pavilion, Pavilion Slimline, and a touch-screen version called the HP Touchsmart PC.

Presario Series

The Presario series began with Compaq, and was initially a series of desktops introduced in 1993. It later expanded to notebooks as well. The series is geared toward home use, and focuses somewhat on compactness in design. Many of the newest models in the Presario line are all-in-one machines that include the computer and monitor in a single unit, taking up less desk space.

ProBook Series

The ProBook series focuses on business notebooks. The ProBook notebooks are designed to very affordably-priced, making them particularly appealing to smaller businesses with limited budgets. The notebooks often limit the feature set to only those necessary for business use.

EliteBook Series

The EliteBook series are considered premium business notebooks. The series offers a wide range of form factors, from 12.5 inch ultraportables up to 17.3 desktop replacement machines. The series even includes a Tablet PC. EliteBooks include faster processors and more robust features than the ProBook series, but also come at a higher price.

The UltraBook is only 13 mm thick and weighs less than 3 pounds, which is quite an amazing feat. It includes a 240 GB solid state drive, as one would expect, but there is also an option to configure the unit with a traditional 320 GB or 500 GB hard drive if more storage is needed. In this configuration, an embedded SSD is integrated into the motherboard, providing some of the performance boost and fast boot times without a full SSD. This is also essential for some of the machine’s sleep and resume functionality.

A low-power Intel i3 processor provides the processing power, and can be upgraded to an i5 or i7 processor if needed. The notebook includes HDMI, USB ports, and a 2-in-1 card reader, which is impressive considering its slim design. Battery life is impressive, at up to 7 hours, and the standby mode can stretch its battery life to up to 50 days when it is inactive. Utilizing the embedded SSD allows the notebook to resume from sleep in 2 seconds in most cases, and around 6 seconds if it has been inactive for a longer period.

Overall, the Acer Aspire S3 UltraBook is an impressive machine that will certainly appeal to buyers who want the thinnest and lightest design on the market. Its solid construction and great features make it a worthy contender in the ultra-thin category, but only time will tell if it can take market share away from the leaders.

Many of the features and specifications of the display are borrowed directly from the previous Cinema Display model. It features a high-resolution 27-inch display at a resolution of 2560×1440, and the screen uses the same In-Plane Switching technology that is said to improve the contrast over earlier technologies. The chassis and design elements are also mainly the same. It also includes a MagSafe power adapter that can power Macbook models without the need for a separate power adapter. This is quite a convenient feature for those who wish to come home and plug in a minimum of cables to get up and running.

The changes in the new model include the Thunderbolt cable, which is hard-wired into the back of the display. This cable not only carries the video signal from the computer to the display, but also transmits every other necessary signal. The USB, audio ports, Firewire ports, and ethernet port on the back of the display can all be carried to the computer through the single Thunderbolt port.

This convenience seems to be exactly what Apple had in mind when it adopted the Thunderbolt technology. The ability to plug all of your cables and devices into the display reduces the large number of connections that used to be necessary when using a laptop as a desktop. Users can now connect two simple cables to a Mac laptop and everything is ready to go. The premium price of the Thunderbolt Display will still be a barrier for some buyers, but the convenience factor may be something even more are willing to pay for.

Touchscreen devices have an onscreen keyboard out of necessity. While most users prefer a physical keyboard and the feedback it provides to the fingers, many also prefer the compact design of a device with no hardware keyboard. Thus, the onscreen keyboard is a compromise, as it gets the job done, but is generally considered inferior to a hardware keyboard.

IBM has recently filed a patent for a morphing touchscreen keyboard interface that would be used in touchscreen devices. This patent could shake up the way users currently use onscreen keyboards, and may actually make onscreen keyboards preferable to hardware keyboards for some users.

The new technology would implement an onscreen keyboard that adapts to a user’s typing style. For example, if the user wishes to type with a hand shape that is more like an ergonomic keyboard, the onscreen keyboard would reposition to compensate. If a user tends to hold a certain finger in a non-standard position, the onscreen keyboard would compensate for this as well.

The implications of this type of technology could be far-reaching when it comes to touchscreen devices. As touchscreen interfaces become more and more popular, onscreen keyboards could begin to adapt more to the human being than the human being must adapt to the keyboard. This could be the start of a future where devices learn each user’s intricacies and adapts and changes to make itself easier and more enjoyable to use.

SCSI

SCSI stands for Small Computer System Interface and used a parallel cable to attach both internal and external devices. One of the benefits of SCSI interfaces is that multiple devices could be chained together to a single port. Another benefit is that the interface includes features like error checking and hand shake signals between devices.

IDE

IDE stands for Integrated Drive Electronics and refers more to the standard than the cable type itself. The technology is also often referred to as ATA or PATA. ATA cables can only be up to 18 inches in length and are fairly large and flat, which makes them a poor choice for external devices, so the interface is mainly used for internal devices. The cable uses a combination of 40 or 80 wires in parallel.

SATA

SATA stands for Serial ATA and is an evolution of the original ATA (or IDE) interface. The SATA interface is faster in speed, at up to 3GB/s. Another major benefit of the interface is that the cables and connectors are much smaller, taking up less space inside a computer case and not restricting less air flow. There is an external version of SATA known as eSATA for connecting external hard drives and other devices.

Interface cables have improved quite a bit over the years, but the basic concept of input and output has remained mainly the same. New interfaces such as Thunderbolt have added even faster transfer speeds and taken some of the benefits from multiple technologies to make an improved connection.

Quality

Brands known for their quality include Mushkin, Crucial, Corsair, OCZ, Micron, and Kingston. They generally produce high-quality memory with fewer errors and better reliability. Sticking with these major brands will generally result in few problems.

Warranty and Returns

If a problem does arise, most of the major manufacturers are fairly quick to respond. Kingston and Crucial especially have made a name for themselves with their solid warranty policies and fast return and replacement procedures when a memory module fails.

Compatibility

With so many types, sizes, and configurations of memory modules on the market, it can be difficult to figure out what exactly is needed in your computer. Most manufacturers offer tools for determining compatibility, but Crucial has designed a particularly helpful tool that can detect your machine and help you find the most compatible memory with only a few clicks.

Price

There is generally only a small difference in price between the major manufacturers when it comes to similar memory modules, but Kingston and OCZ often position themselves at a lower price point than the competition. The performance of their memory modules is not always totally on par with more expensive options, but for a lower price, they provide most of the performance, which makes for better value, especially for bargain shoppers.

In summary, it is difficult to crown a clear winner in the race to be named the best memory manufacturer. Buyers who want the lowest price may want to consider Kingston or OCZ, while buyers who want reliability and a solid warranty might be drawn to Crucial. Truly, memory modules from any of the major manufacturers listed should provide solid performance and you can rest assured that the company stands behind their products.

DRAM

DRAM (dynamic random access memory) distinguished itself from earlier SRAM (static RAM) in that it used a transistor and capacitor to store its data, and it is the basis for most modern types of RAM.

SDRAM

SDRAM (synchronous DRAM) was one of the earliest types of RAM to come in separate sticks that could be replaced, as earlier memory types were part of the motherboard. The modules operated at 3.3 volts and used 168 pins to transfer data.

Rambus (RDRAM)

Rambus was a technology used by Intel from 1999 to 2003. It offered better performance than current solutions at the time due to the fact that the memory could read and write on the rise and fall of a clock cycle, effectively doubling its throughput. The technology never became widely mainstream and was replaced by other options.

DDR, DDR2, etc.

DDR SDRAM (double data rate synchronous dynamic RAM) is an improvement on the original SDRAM technology. The technology has the ability to read and write on the rise and fall of the clock cycle, similar to Rambus, and has continued to evolve to faster clock rates and better performance over many years. The original DDR standard was replaced by DDR2, DDR3, etc. but none of the standards are backward-compatible, making it impossible to use older memory in new computers.

Memory technologies have continued to improve and evolve since the dawn of computing, and there is no reason to think they will stop any time soon. As more and more computers move to solid-state drives instead of platter-based drives, the performance bottlenecks are improved, meaning faster and better-performing RAM may be needed again soon.

Price

One of the ways that AMD has usually had an edge over Intel is price. AMD chips tend to be less expensive than Intel chips, and AMD offers a broader line of budget-priced chips that are popular with manufacturers such as Dell when designing low-cost machines. Intel generally offers more performance for an equivalent price, but the overall low price of AMD processors makes them appealing for budget shoppers.

Speed

When the early battle between AMD and Intel began to heat up, the companies were competing for the fastest speeds, generally measured in megahertz. At that time, whichever manufacturer could boast the fastest speed in megahertz would sell more chips. This is less of a factor today as multiple cores and caches tend to affect the performance more than the rated speed of a processor.

Cores and Architecture

Most modern processors contain more than one core, and each core can run its own processes, acting like multiple processors in one. Both AMD and Intel offer multiple cores, but Intel’s new Sandy Bridge architecture and processors that can support up to 16 cores take the lead in innovation. AMD tends to be somewhat behind the innovations that Intel creates.

Summary

Overall, both AMD and Intel processors provide a solid computing experience. Buyers who wish to save money may opt for the lower price of AMD processors, but they will sacrifice some performance. Buyers who want the fastest performance and the newest technological innovations may opt for Intel, but they will pay a premium.

Interface

Android uses an interface very similar to the iPhone, with “widgets” making up the home screen instead of icons. Windows Phone 7, however, uses a fairly unique concept called “live tiles” that improves on both ideas somewhat. Both interfaces are fairly easy to use and you can customize many aspects of the home screen, unlike iOS devices.

Browsers

Both operating systems have excellent browsers, but Windows Phone 7 lacks support for Flash or HTML5, making it difficult to view or navigate around many websites. Although Android’s support of Flash can sometimes be problematic, it is available, and its HTML5 support is well-designed.

Multi-Tasking

One of the early gripes about the iPhone is that it did not support multi-tasking, that is, running multiple applications at once. Android’s multi-tasking support seems to have been a priority from the very beginning, and it is well-implemented. Windows Phone 7 is able to pause an application before switching, but it does not yet have true multi-tasking support. Android’s multi-tasking often comes at the cost of lower battery life, however.

Overall, both Android and Windows Phone 7 are excellent operating systems that offer most of the same features and functionality. Android’s open nature and head start make it a more mature operating system currently, but Windows Phone 7 is hot on its heels and making improvements all the time. If Flash and HTML5 support are important to you, you may wish to use Android, but both operating systems provide an enjoyable experience on your mobile device.