General Articles

Confused On Buying A Gaming Laptop? 3 Cheap Gaming Notebooks For You

Gaming laptop is what game lovers are looking for. We know gamers are found of devices like Sony PlayStation and portable gaming consoles. What happens when mobile gaming meets computer, it results in the birth of gaming notebooks. It not only allows you to play your favorite games but also do your professional work. This is the advantage you get with a gaming notebook.

Many people think that such systems are incapable of running high-end games. It is not true because many of the notebooks that are specially designed for gaming come with high-end hardware specifications that not only lets you to enjoy new 3D games but also the games that are going to released in the near future.

HP Envy 14-111ONR

HP Envy is one of the top notch laptops produced by HP. The best thing about this system it not only looks appealing but it also priced well. The features of this system will truly make you purchase this system. The Intel core i5-460M CPU gives a speed of 2.53 GHz. The system comes with 2 x 2 GB (4GB) of DDR3 RAM and you can add up to 8 GB of RAM on this system. Windows 7 Home Premium comes pre-installed on 14.5 inch high definition LED display. What makes this notebook gaming friendly is the ATI Mobility Radeon graphics card that comes with 1GB video memory.

Samsung RF510-501

Samsung has always been known for producing aesthetically beautiful notebooks. The Samsung RF510-501 is one good looking laptop that runs on 2.4 GHz Intel Core i5-450M. The Nvidia GeForce video card comes with 1 GB of video memory. The smooth performance can be felt because of the 4GB DDR3 RAM. All these makes it a very good notebook for playing HD games and multimedia files.

MacBook Pro

MacBook may not be known for gaming but the all new MacBook Pro is powerful enough for enjoy games on it. The 15 inch display screen along with Nvidia GeForce GT graphics card (256MB of video memory), it stands out to be a gaming friendly notebook. The 4GB DDR RAM helps in providing better performance. The system runs on Intel Core i5-460 processor that gives a speed of 2.8 GHz. Other features of this amazing looking gaming laptop include 2 megapixel camera, wifi connectivity, and long battery life.…

The Most Important PlayStation 3 Yellow Light Repair Tips

In this article you are going to learn the most important PlayStation 3 yellow light repair tips that will help you to get rid of the yellow light of death error on your PS3. This frustrating error affects a reasonably large number of PS3 consoles, but it can be difficult to find the right advice to help you fix it. Keep reading to learn what you need to do in order to repair your PlayStation and get back to gaming again- without the yellow light error getting in the way.

• Sony will repair your PS3 for you and get rid of the YLOD error. All you have to do is call them up, give some details, and then follow their instructions to send your console away. The downsides to doing this is that you will have to wait for more than a month to get your PS3 returned, and if you don’t have a warranty (or your warranty has expired) it will cost you $150 to get the yellow light of death fixed.

• Sometimes you can fix errors on the PlayStation 3 simply by turning your PS3 off, leaving it switched off for around 30 minutes, then restarting it. Try this to fix the YLOD on your PS3. A lot of problems on most electronic devices can be fixed by a simple reboot.

• Remove the HDD (hard drive) from your console, and then carefully re-install it. A lot of problems are caused on the PS3 platform by a loose hard drive connection, so doing this will ensure that the connection is stable. Ensure that you don’t accidentally damage anything in the process. If you can get your hands on a spare hard drive then try installing this as well. In the worst case scenario there is data corruption on your hard drive, so you will have to swap to another one anyway.

• Check that all cables and leads are correctly attached to your PS3. Disconnect everything, then reconnect them all one by one.

• Consider investing in a PlayStation 3 repair guide that uses video instructions to show you how to repair the yellow light problem, as well as any other errors which can affect your PS3. One of these will cost you around $30-$40 USD, and will save you a large amount of fuss and difficulty in the long run, not to mention save you the even larger cost of having Sony repair your PS3.…

Social Media Sites Compared

Now that Goggle+ has been added to the pile of social media sites, I think it’s time to re-evaluate each of these sites. As time is limited, I’ll focus on the main one’s. At time of publishing, here’s how each site stacks up user wise according to Wikipedia:

Facebook user base is 640,000,000+;

Twitter user base is 175,000,000;

Google+ user base is 20,000,000

Picture yourself standing on a mountain, okay now yell something about your favourite hobby….

If you are using Facebook – chances are your 200+ acquaintances will hear it. Depending on the hobby, most people won’t care to hear about it. If you do this often enough, you risk being blocked from your “friend’s” feed.

If you are using Twitter – chances are anyone who cares to hear it will hear it – including people you don’t know. If you use hash tags (#), people following your topic will see it as well. Many people publishing on Twitter already lead public lives. They are celebrities, politicians and reporters. If you don’t usually live in a fish bowl, this lack of privacy can be a problem – you can change your settings so that you can control who sees your posts.

If you are using Google+ – chances are that you may choose to share this with a circle of friends who also share the love of this hobby as well. Because there’s no way to opt in to see your posts on a favourite hobby, people must rely on you knowing that you share an interest with them. From what I have read, many people who are using Google+ so far as computer geeks (like me) – so perhaps a good subject to start on.

Google+ is still very new, but I feel that appeals to people who are looking for more privacy. Unfortunately, being late to the party may lead to Google+ dying off eventually. This is Google’s third kick at the can (read Wave and Buzz), so they have had their share of failure’s in the social media game. People are so used to publishing everything to everyone on Facebook and Twitter that the very concept of publishing only to people who might be interested in hearing what you have to say confuses people a little. To me, this way of communication actually makes the most sense in the real world – so why not use this same thinking online (let’s face it, your grandmother probably doesn’t need to see that picture of you at the bar last night and your fishing buddy might not need to know about your work party). Google+ is still in a limited field trial at the moment, so they still have some kinks to work out and hopefully some new features to add. I for one hope they are successful. If you want an invite to Google+, please visit my website and send me an email.…

Fix PlayStation 3 Yellow Light of Death – How to Get Rid of the Yellow Light of Death

Is your PlayStation 3 messing up and pissing you off? Does it keep shutting down in the middle of a game? Is Your PS3 suffering from the yellow light of death? Would you like to know what you can do to fix play station 3 yellow light of death, without having to fork over the required $150 Sony demands and six or so weeks of living without your PS3? Are you interested in getting your play station up and running within the hour?

Then it is important for you to know that there are different ways to do this. This is mostly because when you fix PlayStation 3 yellow light of death, you are fixing a general hardware failure. Here are a few things you can do to get it up and running right away:

1. Get Rid of the Heat

Playing PlayStation 3 causes heat for the components. When it gets too hot, the system will shut down just to protect its fragile components from melting. Therefore, the vry first step is get it cooled down. Don’t force it at all. Just leave it to cool for about an hour or two after which it should come back on. Other things you might want to do to prevent a recurrence is putting your system in an open space where the draft of air will cause the vents to cool.

2. Get a Cooling Device

A laptop cooling device will often do the magic. These help PCs stay cool and therefore prevent system crashes. Use this if you don’t have an air cooling vent at all. Also, you can get a fan -one that goes with gaming devices- to help cool the parts that get hot quickly.

3. Tilt the PS3 Upwards

The third way you to fix PlayStation 3 yellow light of death is by turning the fan upwards. This way, the hot air gets sucked upwards, thus cooling the system in the process.…

Gaming Laptops – Perfect For Playing High Resolution Games

Gone are the days when a laptop was just a simple computer meant for daily jobs such as emailing, writing documents and passing some free time while on the move. Today laptop makers have realized the huge demand that exists for high end gaming laptops that deliver super fast performance and have really good battery backups. Today there are different types of laptops that have been custom made according to their usages. There are some for home use, other for business purposes and many more for gaming. And the gaming sector in particular is growing by leaps and bounds today.

These gaming laptops are meant for super fast performance in terms of game play, graphics and overall processing speeds. They are meant to cater to the high needs of gamers from across the world today in terms of performance and pleasure. Many of them today have high definition performance capabilities that have revolutionized the way one looks at computers and gaming laptops in particular.

The only downside of these beauties is the fact that they are not only much more bulky and heavier in terms of weight but they are also really expensive and not everyone can afford to own one of them. You can get a standard home or business use laptop for around 200 to 250 dollars while any gaming laptops available today will cost upwards of 450 dollars and the prices can even be as high as a 1,000 dollars for a really high end system.

The minimum processor speeds of gaming laptops are 2.5 GHz along with a minimum RAM memory of around 2GB to 5GB. Most of the professional gaming laptops have a Hard Disk Capacity of at least 500GB to 1Tb or Terra-bite. Most of them have a dual core or a quad core processor that makes them perform really fast and accurately. Also, the Graphic Processing Units (GPU’s) or graphic cards as they are popularly known are the heart of any system. Most gaming machines usually come with a 1 gig graphic card or more.

But once you buy any of these gaming laptops, you never have to worry about performance again. These machines will deliver whatever you require from them and even more. Most of these laptops come with specialized gaming keyboards and other interfaces for inputs. But usually gamers prefer to have their own specialized gaming keyboards and mice that have been exclusively designed for the sole purpose of gaming.…

Some Knowledge For People Curious About Gaming PCs

Sooner or later, if you have been playing your favorite shooter game on your desktop computer, you are going to realize that your computer does not support your gaming experience properly. If your game is freezing up or the sound quality is horrible, then you should consider moving your playing to a gaming PC. Gaming PCs are built towards the specific needs of every game to make sure that they have the ultimate gaming experience, complete with the intense graphics. If you don’t know much about what makes a PC different from the usual, check out the information below.

The inside of a PC is very intricate. If you look inside you will find hardware that is the best that you can possibly find. Gaming PCs usually utilize the most high quality technology available. Upon further inspection of the gaming computer, you will see that it has plenty of ports located everywhere for any gamers that may need to plug in gaming peripherals. Often times, gamers will build their gaming computer custom to ensure they get everything they need out of the computer.

You need to have a vast amount of memory on your gaming PC. As in, gigabytes upon gigabytes of storage space available. This will ensure that you don’t have a game that runs too slowly during your game play. However, just as important as memory is, the gaming computer must also have a fast processor. A super fast processor will prevent your computer from freezing up while you are playing. Everyone knows that the game becomes less fun and more frustrating when your computer is constantly freezing on you, so gamers try to prevent this as much as possible.

If you like games that are intense on graphics and sound, then you need to have the best graphics cards as well as the best sound cards installed into your computer. A gaming computer has this. These computers have the top of the line in all hardware, and graphics and sound cards are a necessity to avoid choppy graphics and a poor sound experience during your game.

If you decide to go browsing for a gaming PC, be aware that these computers look a lot different than the computers that you are used to seeing. Gaming computers have decorative casing and lights to make them more noticeable in comparison to other computers. Sometimes you will even see clear casing that showcases what is held inside of the gaming PC itself. A gaming PC’s design is meant to capture your attention, at any rate.

If you’re wondering why gamers sometimes custom build their computers and other gamers do not, then there’s a reason for this too. It depends on the gamers preferences, of course. For the gamers that know exactly what they want and have the funds to build their own dream computer, they do it. Other people who are beginners in gaming often buy pre-built computers and rebuild them or …

Branding a Large Chain With Social Media

Every major corporation with a strong brand name needs to be using social media to help increase that brand name, and to stay in touch with the new digital age of consumers. Failure to communicate with your new consumers in a way that they prefer to be communicated with will be a mistake. The new generation of X’ers, and those that come after them have never known life without a cell phone, and the next generation will never have know a life without an iPhone or a smart phone that was fully interactive, and constantly connected to the Internet.

Any Corporation that believes they can skip social media and still promote their brand name is clearly missing the boat. Any company or corporation that sells to the consumer must realize that the baby boomers are getting older, and the same methods that were used to keep a company’s brand name in their minds will not work in the future. The era of social media is here, and it is time to adjust and adapt, or let the brand name die.

As a former franchisor, we were one of the first companies to embrace the Internet, and it paid off big time for our company. We got our rather not so well known brand name in front of 10s of millions of people. This helped our franchisees catapult themselves into new markets, and maintain strong customer bases, increasing them every day. Although I am retired now, I see the incredible opportunity of social media for franchisors, if they dare to take it. As one recent a top franchise consultant stated in a recent article;

“First of all you need to recognize that the goal for your franchise system is to make new friends ie. Customers, and to keep them for life. In the social media world this requires the same skills used in your personal life to make and keep friends.”

And personally, I couldn’t agree more with that statement, she is definitely correct. Therefore, franchising companies need to understand this, and we think they are social media strategies. Perhaps, contacting a franchise consultant that understands social media, and how to leverage all of your franchisees, their families, and their friends to help spread the word and strengthen the brand name. I hope you will please consider all this.…

The Power of a Conversation

Remember conversations? They were those things we did in the dim and distance past before email, Facebook and Twitter, Blackberries, iPhones and the rest. You know, those days when you could sit in a room together and talk, face to face, without something buzzing, rattling or beeping.

It’s conversations we used to have with customers, when they’d come into your shop and you’d ask them how they were. They’d give you chapter and verse including a few nuggets of valuable insight and the next time they came in you’d have those ‘4 candles’ for them (as a backup for the fork-handles).

As the power of large brands got bigger, and ATL and DM communications became more mass market and all encompassing, this art of conversation was lost. It became a one way street, “Buy this you know you want to!” The message repeated over and over again until we did. And if that didn’t work, try another ad. Not quite the two way conversation we really value as consumers, customers and indeed human beings.

For all the new fangled technology involved and the lexicon of new terms we pre-spectrum generation are still getting to grips with – RT, pokes, #, @ (the list goes on). Arguably the biggest advantage of social media such as Facebook and Twitter is the ability to reclaim the conversation with customers.

The number of touchpoints opened up by these digital avenues is staggering, but what they all do is spark dialogue. The kind of two-way conversations that can bring so much value to any business, asking customers for their input into new services, testing new/existing services or even developing new products. All this is possible once you open dialogue with customers.

Of course, it isn’t always the best idea to act on every word, suggestion or demand, but for every rant or useless idea you will get a valuable piece of advice, experience or gold nugget. But the important part is the conversation.

Social media is a great way for any business to reclaim the conversation. Not just with your clients, but potential customers as well as suppliers, mentors or your network of advisers. Integrated with traditional marketing, digital marketing and social media adds the kind of dimensions that may have been lacking for a while.

Getting customer responses (sometimes in real time) to your traditional marketing is a fantastic way of measuring and testing your campaigns and thereby massively increasing the effectiveness of them.

Of course we should all learn these lessons in our daily life and turn the laptop/iPhone/BlackBerry off and converse.

But then again if we stop now we’ll never evolve that third eye and extra thumb that will make modern life so much easier.…

Facebook Places – Should Everybody Know Your Business?

Yes, it appears Facebook has once again set off the privacy alarms. It only seems like yesterday when shared post after post liked from my news feed took me to instructions on how to change my privacy settings to remove my voice mail number from public Facebook Places barely out off the launch pad, the backlash hit me like the heat from a blast furnace.

If you aren’t aware of this latest alleged attempt for Facebook to reveal everything but your underwear size, Facebook Places is similar to the Foursquare, Loopt, and Gowalla concepts – acting as a GPS agent, Places tracks where you are in the world and posts it to your profile. Gone down the street to Starbuck’s? Facebook is there. Off to see a movie? It’s on your Facebook.

What’s more, unless you change your privacy settings, your FB friends can tag you on Places. So, let’s say you *cough* called in sick to work so you could catch the Vans Warped Tour three towns over. If a friend spots you and tags you, it’s out there. We all know, too, what happens on Facebook could get you fired.

Now, as a businessperson using social media to promote your work and products, you have to ask yourself of what value is something like Facebook Places to you. Opponents of the tool cite security risks; many pointed to the defunct Please Rob Me site as an example of how even Tweeting your activities without a locator device could land you in trouble, so why let Facebook compound problems? If you have a personal Facebook account and a page to promote your company, does Facebook Places add something of value to your social media strategy?

It can, provided your business is a physical location that other Facebook users frequent, and are willing to mark in Places. One way to encourage promotion via this tool would be to offer incentives to anybody who marks your business in their profiles. Half off their dinner order at your restaurant, or 10% off their purchase or other discount on your services.

Whether or not you should use Facebook Places is up to you. Physical store owners, naturally, would be expected to be at work. If you do not feel comfortable with Facebook tracking your every move, don’t feel as though opting out will hurt your business. Yet, for those who choose to use it, keep the offers open, because word of mouth never hurts, no matter where the words are posted.…

On the Bandwagon Or Not? Social Media When It’s Not Necessarily the Right Thing

With all of the changes happening the social media landscape and everyone trying hard to find how they fit within this landscape, have you started to wonder when enough is enough?

I love the connecting aspect of social media, I love the idea that I can connect with people I otherwise would never have the opportunity to connect but as the major players (yes, I talking about you Facebook!) make their adjustments to function in new ways and of course to make money, I’m beginning to wonder when this idea of social media might just make some abrupt turn.

No I don’t think it’s going to go away, in the fast moving internet world I can’t see that happening. A�How many stories have you heard where Twitter has helped someone in someway, but do you think that maybe it just might be trying to right itself and figure out how theA�phenomenonA�fits within the global landscape?

What does this mean for you the average business owner trying to figure it all out? A�This I can say for sure, one thing has never changed. A�Remain focused on who your audience is and learn how they like to communicate and then join them. A�If your audience doesn’t use Facebook, don’t feel you need to have a Facebook Page. A�If your audience are huge Twitter fans and are always busy updating the world in 140 characters or less, then by all means connect with them. A�Maybe they like to spend their time reading eBooks, then get out there and write some eBooks to share with them (make it a combination of free and paid). A�Or maybe, just maybe they like to connect face to face, if so get out of your chair find the networking groups that they hangout at and get out there.

What I’m trying to share here, is that just because huge right now doesn’t mean it’s something you need to do. A�You should know your audience best and because of that you should know how to connect with them best. A�Remember you are in business for them, so make sure you’re making your audience and community happy.…