Things have definitely improved in that time. There are some more options, and the interface has probably been cleaned up a little. But in the final analysis, it will be difficult for me to say that things have changed enough. I still felt constricted using Survey Monkey, and the plain HTML-based survey creation interface may have been even less appealing on account of just feeling old. I’m used to things like Gmail and Checkvist–clean, straightforward AJAX interfaces that work intuitively. I’m no longer accustomed to having to click through a series of buttons just to get what I want done.

To see what I mean, just take a look at some competing products such as ActiveCampaign Survey Software. You get a clean, modern, wysiwyg survey design interface, and you just drag your questions around to place them where you want them. The fact that this stuff costs the exact same price per month to use makes me think that Survey Monkey had better improve fast or it’ll lose popularity just as fast as it gained it.

Another thing you can’t do with Survey Monkey is create distinct “branches” in your survey, or lines of questioning that depend on previous answers. All the most modern survey designs require this, and by using it you can get much more specific information than is possible with simpler and more old-fashioned surveys. But that’s really all you can create with Survey Monkey’s web survey tool. They have finally baked in a little bit of basic survey logic, but their tool has a ways to go if it is going to catch up with the competition.

Registry defrag programs will not speed up access time to the computer. They legitimate ones will reduce the risk of errors down the road. They can also remove old or outdated entries. Almost every piece of software installed on a Windows computer will make changes to the Windows registry. When a computer owner uses the add/remove tool from the control panel, it usually removes these registry entries as well.

This process does not always happen cleanly, and many old entries stay in the registry long after they are no longer needed. These entries that no longer point to a program are usually harmless, unless the same entry was needed by another program for proper operation.

A registry defrag program will cause these slight errors to point to the program that now needs them in addition to reducing the size of this vital system file. A user who knows how the registry works inside and out may be able to do a registry defrag on his own, but this is a time-consuming process. An automatic scan eliminates the hours an advanced user would need to take in order to check the thousands of entries that get deposited in the registry. Even if you know what you are doing, changing a registry value is not a good idea. Change registry values on your own only if the other option is reinstalling the Windows operating system.

Running a registry defrag program is not always necessary, but it is a good idea to include this scan as part of regular system maintenance. Be very wary when downloading such programs and only get them from a trusted site.

The color pink has an interesting history and so do pink laptops.  The largest group that really wants a pink laptop are teenage girls.  So money becomes a issue but the color remains the same.  We have a list later on in this article dedicated to the top 10 reasons girls of all ages would want a pink computer.

Without no doubt pink is today’s “in” color for just about every female on the planet.  There are seemingly a whole lot of reasons why pink is such a sort after color inside this demographic group.  If you have ever taken an drawing class then you would seemingly already know that pink is produced by mixing the colors red with white.  It should be no surprise that the fascination related to the color pink did not have its establishment with the concoction of the notebook computer.  As a matter of fact you can follow the history of the color back to the middle of the 17th century.

Even if you could not get your hands on a laptop in pink that far back in history, you could bring together a cluster of flowers that were pink.  So the word pink was invented to illustrate the color of a distinct flower.  From there it took off to numerous tints of  pink that were developed from different combinations of different colors.

Are you curious about what all of this history has to do with pink laptop computers?  Well you have to travel back to the early 1940’s.  It was roughly at that moment that pink started to be associated with girls and it has stayed that way right up to the present day.  As a matter of fact pink is at this point the color that feminist groups use, breast cancer awareness groups use, and women make use of as a wide-ranging sign of their femaleness.

Why A Pink Laptop?

1.  Ladies of all ages crave attention and a pink laptop computer  will get them what they want
2.  A pink computer is not a black computer….enough said!
3.  Hello Kitty
4.  The color pink is like a silent nod to all the sisters that understand what men don’t
5.  All women think that they look pretty in pink
6.  Does pretty in pink translate to tacky in pink
7.  Some things just can’t be explained
8.  Because having a vase of fresh cut flowers in your car just isn’t quite enough
9.  Spreadsheets just look better on a pink computer
10.Because in the end Barbie beat the living daylights out of those Bratz girls

Who would have ever thought at the beginning of the computer revolution that it would all come down to color?  Maybe it is a sign that the technology has taken a back seat to fashion and style.  I’m not sure that is a positive development.

There are many types of computers that can be found with a pink computer skin.  After careful examination they are all machines that work well but look different.  But if you like to show off your womanly side then there is no better way of accomplishing that then by walking around dressed in pink and having a collection of pink laptops for every mood.

Primitive electronic faxing programs where a little bit cumbersome and hard to understand by your common fax user. These early versions of fax software didn’t have what was required to make the jump to digital faxing; thus, many people remained with the idea that it was better to “stick” to traditional technology. Many years have passed since these initial programs were developed, and nowadays we don’t only have programs, but also services, that add a whole new level in this industry.

With fax services you can enjoy similar features like a free email service such as Gtalk or Hotmail, but translated to the World of faxing. By the way, the jump between e-mail and e-fax is not so big, as sending a fax is very similar (that’s why you may hear this technology also called email faxing) and easy to do. Fax services also allow you to check your incoming faxes quite easily from any computer that has Internet access, via what is known as a “Web dashboard”, a place online where you login and can take a look at your account.

Prices of electronic faxing have also went down considerably. Services even give you a free electronic fax alternative, in which you can fully test the features thanks to a 30 day free trial. After your trial is finished you can find services that charge as little as $9 per month on the most basic plans, so you can get started right away thanks to the Internet fax number the bring you for free.

Not only did the 1980s herald the age of gigabyte hard drives, it was also the decade where it became clear that personal computers were going to be the wave of the future. Computers were starting to arrive in a large number of households and demand for smaller, less expensive drives suddenly increased. A number of new hard drive manufacturers formed to meet this new demand. Companies like Seagate and Maxtor released their first products in the early 80s.

Hard drive storage capacities started to take off once the industry had a healthy number of competitors. In 1980, Seagate sold its first hard drive which was a 5 MB drive that fit in a 5.25 inch form factor. A 10 MB version of the same drive went into the first IBM personal computers to contain internal hard drives. As a result, Seagate enjoyed considerable growth by supplying the hard drives for IBM’s PCs. Maxtor sold its first hard drive in 1983 20 years before it would be purchased by Seagate. Maxtor’s first products were innovative because they were the first drives where the spindle motor was not mounted externally to the platters.

In 1988, Prairie Tek introduced the 2.5 inch hard drive form factor. This would become the almost exclusive form factor for modern laptops. Before serial ATA came on the market, the IDE laptop hard drive category saw similar growth in drive capacity as the desktop category. 640 GB laptop drives can be readily purchased from a number of electronics retailers.

It is very obvious that hard drives are fragile things with all of these moving parts. It is okay for internal hard drives to have a relatively low tolerance for things like external vibration and sudden shocks because they spend most of their in a stationary position. However, mobile hard drives or laptop hard drives must be able to tolerate a wide range shakes, bumps, and shocks.

Manufacturers have devised a few ways of dealing with these external factors. For example, one common technique is to move the actuator arm away from the platters if the hard drive detects sudden acceleration or deceleration. In theory, this will prevent the access arm from crashing onto the surface of the platter and damaging the very thin magnetic coating. If the arm makes direct physical contact with the ferromagnetic surface, you could end up with permanent data loss. Another way manufacturers make hard drives more portable is to make the access arm stiffer. This also reduces the likelihood that the magnetic service will be damaged.

The French external drive manufacturer, LaCie, makes a line of very durable and stylish portable hard drives. The LaCie Rugged All-Terrain drives have a case made of scratch resistant aluminum. The aluminum shell is further protected by shocking serving rubber bumper. The aluminum case and rubber padding will protect the delicate hard drive from drops of about 3 feet if the drive is a non-operating mode. Its shock resistance will go down if the drive is operating. This line of drives comes in a wide range of capacities including 1TB hard drives.

Prior to the announcement, there has been plenty of speculation that the iPad would simply be a larger version of the iPhone. The truth is that while it’s similar to its relative, the iPad is a revolutionary device in multi-media gadget category.

First, let’s review some of the basic features and specifications of the iPad. It comes with a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS with multi-touch screen capabilities. The iPad uses the Apple A4 chip and runs on the same operating system as the iPhone. Battery life is up to 10 hours. There are over 140,000 total apps available, with a dozen new applications designed just for the iPad. The iPad is also Apple’s first device to use iBookstore. Weighing 1.5 pounds and being only half an inch thick, the iPad is light and compact.

In the US, the iPad is scheduled for release in Spring of 2010, and will be available at the Apple website, Apple stores, and authorized resellers. The Apple website also offers notification newsletters about iPad availability.

There are some important differences that need to be pointed out regarding availability and pricing. The Wi-Fi iPad will be released in March 2010 and will start at $499 for the 16GB version, $599 for 32GB, and $699 for 64GB. The iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G will be available in April 2010 and will start at $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB, and $829 for 64GB. For the 3G enabled iPad, users will have to pay additional monthly data plan fees with their service provider.

For a great selection of Apple iPad cases be sure and check out Accessories for iPad.

HTC is a company located in Taiwan, producing quality smartphones and PDAs. The company has not ceased getting more and more attraction during recent times with some fashionable products. Let me introduce you to some of the most outstanding HTC phones.

The HTC touch diamond 2 is a mobile phone that is built upon the windows mobile operating system and seek to walk in the path of its predecessor. The HTC touch diamond comes with a 3.2″ 65K-color WVGA display which will guarantee some positive user experience. The phone is also fitted with a 5 MP auto focus camera that will provide you with some quality pictures and also provide built in Wi-Fi. Really recommended if you are looking for a powerful smartphone.

Another interesting phone that you might consider is the HTC pure. Fitted with a with a 3.2″ resistive touchscreen featuring 65k colors this phone will provide you with a great user experience. This model also utilizes the windows mobile 6.5 professional OS thus ensuring you a wide access to software. Indeed the phone comes loaded with Pocket Office allowing you to handle all your documents needs. To make work more smoothly, the phone comes with Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity ensuring high speed internet access.

Third phone that you might take a look at is the HTC hero. To the contrary of the other models HTC hero uses Google operating system, Android. HTC has positioned this phone as a genuine competitor to the Iphone. The phone is fitted with a 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen displaying 65k colors. The phone also provides some great connectivity features such as Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g. Additionally the phone comes with a 5 megapixel autofocus camera with video recording feature to provide you with some entertainment features.

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A good example of this is with the cell phone culture in Japan.  Some of the features that are just becoming available in parts of the world with the iPhone have actually been available in Japan for a long time.  Features such as GPS, email, and bar code scanning have actually been on cell phones in Japan for years.

The interesting thing about these products is that it seems people are willing to forego some features if it means more portability and usability.  The perfect example of this is with Apple’s iPhone.  It is a very advanced product, but is definitely without some of the features people would say are necessary on a computer.  Despite this fact they are making a pretty strong bid at replacing computers considering how many features they come with and the rapid rate at which people want to develop applications.  As someone who has owned (and loved) an iPhone I can say that they are definitely not a computer, but the convenience is very hard to beat.

In fact, a growing trend in Japan are cell phone novels – novels that were written and are read on cell phones.  The books are delivered in pieces on the cell phone to allow the convenience of reading them by text message on a morning commute.  There are full online communities around these novels and publishers are even beginning to pay large sums of money for the best ones.  A measure of the success is that several bestsellers in Japan were originally cell phone novels.

So keep your eyes open for the future computers because they might not be what you would expect.  As time has passed the media has loved to show computers of the future as these incredibly complex gadgets with infinite features, but the reality is that their simplicity and convenience might be all that is necessary to take them into the next generation of computer.  In reality, we might be venturing into this new land of electronics as we speak.

Used laptops can be in really various stages of their lifetime. There are people who sell their 2 months old basically brand new dell or hp laptop for 2/3rd of the price because the manufacturer announced a new model and they feel the urge to buy that right away and they don’t care about money all that much. These are the notebooks you will be looking for mainly, but notice that these are fairly new computers, so the price, even if relatively low, may be high for what you’re willing to pay for a ‘used’ laptop.

Second type is renew or refurbished computers we’re looking for. These are tested and repaired by the company that makes them. It’s pretty safe to buy a refurbished laptop, usually there was one former owner and they didn’t like it for whatever reason, or simply returned it to warranty repair and got a replace unit. I’d keep an eye open for cracks, scratches though and look up the model on various forums and reviews before buying, but that’s just me being paranoid I suppose.

Third category where people get their ideas about used laptops. These are second hand computers from the owner directly. There are shady people out there trying to sell everything they can put their hands on; make sure you have checked every little tiny detail down to the state of hinges, looseness of keys and general assembly quality. Cracking or whistling noises while the laptop is operating are not normal, you shouldn’t give money for such a laptop.