Do you get your game on via PC or console? Which is better? Which has better performance? This has long been argued by many gamers from different backgrounds. This Tech Tip will attempt to address both sides and determine which one is the best of the best!

Consoles

Today, gaming on a console brings many of us older gamers back to our roots. People (myself included) who grew up with the good ‘ol 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis and Atari 2600 will remember the simplicity and endless hours of fun with those gaming machines. Speaking of simplicity, this is a console’s greatest strength when it comes to its function. No fussy installations, hardware configurations and possible incompatibilities are involved. You just plug the cables into your television, plug the console’s power adapter in, insert the game and voila! Instant fun right in your living room.

Another blessing of console systems is the pricing. As of this writing, a Sony Playstation 3 runs for about $300, a Microsoft Xbox 360 systems and the Nintendo Wii start at $199 which is relatively cheaper than a gaming computer. In addition, the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PSP provide a way to take the console fun on the go. Console gaming offers instant action at a relatively affordable price.

PC Gaming

At the other corner, we have the classic pc computer platform which many would argue has just as good, if not better benefits as its console counterparts. First, a computer can do everything a console can do but can also be used to check email, download music, write papers, do research, conduct business, and edit photos and much more. Hence, its utility is plenty for a consumer. Second, with the rapid spread of technology, a computer can be continuously upgraded with new hardware to accommodate new technologies and new games that take advantage of next-generation graphical eye candy (ahem, DirectX 11). In, addition, PC gamers have the option to overclock their computers in order to squeeze extra power from their systems; some also overclock and refrain from buying newer and more expensive hardware until prices come down in their favor. Regardless, the PC platform offers a wide range of utility and flexibility for the gamer.

Why Console over PC

Let’s face it, if you’re hosting a party, it would certainly increase your nerd stock to set up 4-5 computers in your living room for a fun and casual gaming atmosphere. Let’s not forget that most average people either don’t know or aren’t comfortable using a computer keyboard and mouse to play a video game. In addition, you have the Microsoft Kinect and Nintendo Wii systems that add a new level of interaction between the users and the gaming system. Thus, the console platform has something for everyone.

You also have the simplicity of a standard gaming platform. For example, the Microsoft Xbox 360 has the same setup and the same type of games as it did when it debuted in 2005. Therefore, there are no headaches and issues about compatibility on games and accessories.

Regarding games, the consoles excel at several genres which include (but not limited to) sports games, educational games and racing games. Even though Madden 2011 is available for PC, most sports fans would rather play it on an Xbox 360/PS3 because of the easier gamepad. Other games like Guitar Hero and Gran Turismo 5 would arguably be preferred on console systems. Furthermore, fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe are more socially preferred as everyone is usually huddled around a big-screen television.

Why PC over Console

What do the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Nintendo Wii all have in common? If you crack open their cases, you’ll find a CPU, video card, sound card, hard drive, RAM, network adapter, optical drive and motherboard. Whoa? That’s the exact same thing one would find inside a computer. From a technical perspective, it is true that all consoles are computers since they share the same hardware. However, the biggest issue with consoles is their obsolescence. The hardware inside the Xbox 360 is from 2005 and the hardware inside the Sony PS3 is from 2007. Graphically, their performance is subpar relative to a current-generation gaming PC with 2010-11 hardware. For example, Activision’s newly-released game, Call of Duty Black Ops was a cross-platform release. In other words, it came out for PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 and Nintendo DS all together. However, if you examine the PC hardware requirements for the game, you’ll notice it requires Direct X 9. This graphics platform was released in 2002-2003; Meaning that the game was graphically “dumbed down” so the console platforms could support it. Also, PC gamers have the flexibility of graphically tweaking the game settings for optimal visual performance. For example, if you look closely at a television running Halo 3, you’ll see lots of “jaggies” or lines/edges with jagged textures which is a painful eyesore among PC gamers.

Console gamers also mock that PC gamers are uber-nerdy when they all get together and have LAN parties. That is, several PC gamers bring over their computers and set up a local area network (LAN) at someone’s home and play video games. So what do you call 8 people split between 2 connected Xbox 360s and 2 big-screen TVs playing Halo 3? It’s really the same thing except PC gamers each have their own monitors and don’t have to squint at a corner of the TV.

So Which is Better?

Ultimately, it really comes down to preference. Neither PC nor console is superior but rather the choice comes down to what the gamer prefers. Are you the type of person who just wants to jump in, not worry about settings and wants to just enjoy the action? Or do you like playing in the living room in front of a big-screen TV with a simple gamepad?

Are you the type of person who enjoys long-hours of the MMORPG genre such as World of Warcraft? Do you fancy opening up your computer case and enjoy tinkering with BIOS settings, replacing parts and think FPS (first-person shooter) games are meant to be played via keyboard and mouse?

Regardless of your preference, just keep in mind several factors. First, know how much you want (and can afford) to spend before making a significant financial investment. Second, make sure the gaming platform you choose is aligned with your gaming interests and preference. Third, since technology moves so rapidly, keep the future in mind and consider changes/trends that might affect your future gaming purchases.

Remember, if you’re having trouble getting past a certain level, throw it into God mode and game on!

Tablet devices are bursting back onto the scene and stand to be on the most-wanted gadget list for many geeks in the near future. Rallied by the success of Apple’s iPad, manufacturers are charging back into the tablet form factor, offering both familiar and innovative ways for us to interact with our machines. In this TechTip, we’re talkin’ tablets!

What Makes a Tablet?

A tablet, more properly known as a tablet personal computer, is a medium-sized portable personal computer where a pen or touchscreen is used as the primary interface, as opposed to a keyboard and mouse. Some tablet PCs have a hardware keyboard attached while others feature touch-based interfaces and accomplish the task of character input with on-screen keyboard emulation or hand-writing recognition. Tablets are intended to be portable and mobile so they can be used in places where notebook and desktop PCs are impractical. To be portable, tablets are usually built with a wireless connection to provide local network access or an Internet connection. To stay portable, tablets require an internal battery and to make the most of their power source, are made with components that consume very little power compared to their bigger, more powerful brothers. Since power consumption is scaled back to maximize battery life, tablets often do not provide as much functionality as a notebook or desktop, but with their larger screen sizes, tablet PCs accomplish many tasks that handheld PCs cannot.

Back? What do you mean, “back?”

Tablets were first intended to be used to replace notepads or clipboards, so hand-writing recognition or sketching capability were key features. A few early ancestors of today’s tablets were introduced in the 1980s that offered hand-writing recognition, but things didn’t really take off until the early 1990s, when a company called the GO corporation announced PenPoint OS, the first operating system designed specifically for pen computers. Not to be outdone, Microsoft and Apple began to develop pen computing solutions of their own. This in turn, brought about IBM’s first ThinkPad, the 700T. A few other companies took their crack at tablets, but these products failed to sell well because of technological limitations of the time, causing the market to fade into nothing by 1995. Microsoft attempted to resurrect the tablet by creating their own Tablet PC specification, a pen computer prototype that would run a modified version of Windows XP, called the Tablet PC Edition. This brought pen computing back to life, but it only kept it on the fringe. Since it was a modified version of a desktop operating system, it wasn’t particularly well-suited to pen or touch interfaces.

The Perfect Tech-Storm

Tablets of today are almost a different kind of device entirely, and while they share similarities with their predecessors, they’ve evolved from a few different market conditions. The first condition, and I think the most important one, was the evolution of cheap cellphones into smartphones that became tiny computers all by themselves, complete with their own mobile operating systems. They became the hot new market in the tech industry. From there, smartphones began to integrate finger-based interfaces for touchscreens as the cost per inch of these screens, as well as the cost and size of flash memory,  was gradually reduced.  But even with all these pieces, nobody was in a hurry to pour money into a market that was littered with failures.

We have our notebook computers,  but they are still too cumbersome to use all the time, and we have our smartphones, but the screens are too small to use for extended periods of time. This left room for improvement, something that’s perfect for a short flight or keeping on the couch next to you for when you need to know where you’ve seen that character actor before. Enter the cheap netbook!  A netbook is a smaller notebook, usually with a 10-inch screen, a keyboard & touchpad, and a WiFi connection. They make use of low-power CPUs that are sufficient for most Internet-related activities. Most every PC manufacturer took notice that these little machines were flying out of their inventory in the past couple years. Unfortunately, most netbooks were made to run on light versions of Windows that provided a poor experience while suffering from poor performance with Adobe Flash.

The Modern Tablet

Today’s tablets are built with capacitive touchscreens and 3G of WiFi connections, but they also feature operating systems that were designed for mobile hardware, something most of their predecessors lacked. It’s no secret that the best in class tablet at the moment is the Apple iPad as many manufacturers have begun to copy its design, but it’s still not quite perfect. It was released back in April of 2010 and it’s beginning to show its age as a first generation device, plus, the rest of the industry is trying to catch up. But never fear, rumors are already swirling about what new features and improvements will be found in the “iPad 2”.

Everybody back in the water!

With the iPad’s success, due to its refined design and user experience, in what was a virtually uncontested market, it’s a race for everyone else to try and carve their piece of the pie. The iPad’s high price point along with its hardware and software restrictions leave more than enough room for innovation and competition. At CES 2011, it was obvious that manufacturers are aiming to do just that. This year’s mobile tablet offerings are going to include faster dual-core ARM processors, 3G or even 4G network connections with data plans, and will be thin and light while sporting high resolution screens. Google’s next Android OS firmware update, codenamed Honeycomb and expected to be released in Februrary, is going to be optimized for tablets, which will give software developers and manufacturers a great opportunity to get back into the tablet game. Last year, the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) purchased Palm, Inc., the makers of the Palm Pilot, after Palm announced they were developing a new mobile operating system called webOS. If that doesn’t make it clear that tablets are the new trend, Microsoft announced at CES 2011 that Windows 8 will run on ARM CPUs. Tablets are definitely on the way back, and this time, with the full force of the industry behind them!

Most modern computers take advantage of the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) hard drive interface. There are plenty of reasons why this is so, and most administrators know that IDE is no longer considered a standard for hard drives. What many administrators do not know, however, is that for maximum compatibility, most PCs are set up to use the older IDE interface. Because of this, when you install Microsoft Windows on a machine it may recognize only the BIOS IDE setting and enable IDE-only at the registry level. This can, in some cases, decrease the performance of the PC.

Fortunately, there is a way around this that isn’t all that difficult, and it will not require you to reinstall Windows.

This blog post is also available in PDF format in a TechRepublic download.

First I want to make the usual disclaimer: You will be editing your registry and possibly changing your BIOS’s settings. As there is always a risk when making changes to either of these, please make sure you know what you are doing before you attempt this and make sure you have a solid backup of your system (just in case). With that said, let’s dig in.

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Edit the registry

Open up the Registry Editor by clicking Start | Run in Windows XP or by typing “regedit” in the Desktop search box in Windows Vista and 7, and then type or click regedit to open up the registry editor. When the registry editor is open, navigate to this key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\msahci

Once there (Figure A), you will see the Start key, which is the key you need to edit.

Figure A

Before you start modifying your registry, you might want to make a backup copy of that registry — just in case.

Right-click the Start key and select Modify. When you do this, another new window will open (Figure B). This new window contains all the data for the Start key. What you want to edit is the Value Data. Most likely your Value will be set to “3.” You want to change that to “0″ (no quotes).

Figure B

Make sure you change nothing but the Value Data.

Once you have made that change, click OK. You can now close the Registry Editor.

Reboot and BIOS

The next step is to reboot your machine and then enter into the BIOS. Since every BIOS is different, all I will say is that you need to enable the AHCI setting in your BIOS. When this is complete, allow your machine to reboot and hopefully you will enjoy a boost in performance. I say “hopefully” because not every machine will see a marked improvement.

What about RAID?

If your machine happens to use RAID, you need to repeat the same steps with only minor changes. During the Registry Editor phase, you want to look for either:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStorV

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or

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\iaStor

Once you have located either of the above, make the same change you did for the Start key and reboot your machine. You will still need to make the change in the BIOS as well, before the change will actually work.

Final thoughts

Hopefully you will find this gives your machine a performance boost. If the gains are minimal (or nonexistent), then no harm no foul. If you are unsure if any gains were made, put your machine through a test that pushes disk I/O to the limits and see if the performance has improved.

Hardware prices have dropped considerably over the last decade, but it’s irresponsible not to care for the hardware installed on machines. This is especially true for hard drives. Hard drives are precious commodities that hold the data employees use to do their jobs, so they should be given the best of care. Inevitably, those drives will die. But you can take steps to prevent a premature hard disk death. Let’s examine 10 such steps to care for the health of your drives.

Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: Run chkdsk

Hard disks are eventually going to contain errors. These errors can come in the shape of physical problems, software issues, partition table issues, and more. The Windows chkdsk program will attempt to handle any problems, such as bad sectors, lost clusters, cross-linked files, and/or directory errors. These errors can quickly lead to an unbootable drive, which will lead to downtime for the end user. The best way I have found to take advantage of chkdsk is to have it run at next boot with the command chkdsk X: /f where X is the drive you want to check. This command will inform you the disk is locked and will ask you if you want to run chkdsk the next time the system restarts. Select Y to allow this action.

2: Add a monitor

Plenty of applications out there will monitor the health of your drives. These monitors offer a host of features that run the gamut. In my opinion, one of the best choices is the Acronis Drive Monitor, a free tool that will monitor everything from hard drive temperature to percentage of free space (and everything in between). ADM can be set up to send out email alerts if something is amiss on the drive being monitored. Getting these alerts is a simple way to remain proactive in the fight against drive failure.

3: Separate OS install from user data

With the Linux operating system, I almost always separate the user’s home directories (~/) from the OS installation onto different drives. Doing this ensures the drive the OS is installed upon will enjoy less reading/writing because so much of the I/O will happen on the user’s home drive. Doing this will easily extend the life of the drive the OS is installed on, as well as allow you to transfer the user data easily should an OS drive fail.

4: Be careful about the surrounding environment

Although this seems like it should go without saying, it often doesn’t. On a daily basis, I see PCs stuck in tiny cabinets with zero circulation. Obviously, those machines always run hot, thus shortening the lifespan of the internal components. Instead of shoving those machines into tight, unventilated spaces, give them plenty of breathing room. If you must cram a machine into a tight space, at least give it ventilation and even add a fan to pull out that stale, warm air generated by the PC. There’s a reason why so much time and money have gone into PC cooling and why we have things like liquid cooling and powerful cooling systems for data centers.

5: Watch out for static

Here’s another issue that should go without saying. Static electricity is the enemy of computer components. When you handle them, make sure you ground yourself first. This is especially true in the winter months or in areas of drier air. If you seem to get shocked every time you touch something, that’s a good sign that you must use extra caution when handling those drives. This also goes for where you set those drives down. I have actually witnessed users placing drives on stereo speakers, TVs, and other appliances/devices that can give off an electromagnetic wave. Granted, most of these appliances have magnets that are not strong enough to erase a drive. But it’s a chance no one should take.

6: Defragment that drive

A fragmented drive is a drive being pushed to work harder than it should. All hard drives should be used in their most efficient states to avoid excess wear and tear. This includes defragmenting. To be on the safe side, set your PC(s) to automatically defrag on a weekly basis. This works to extend the life of your drive by keeping the file structure more compact, so the read heads are not moving as much or as often.

7: Go with a solid state drive

viagra hearing loss class=”entry” align=”justify”>Solid state drives are, for all intents and purposes, just large flash drives, so they have no moving parts. Without moving parts, the life of the drive (as a whole) is naturally going to be longer than it would if the drive included read heads, platters, and bearings. Although these drives will cost more up front, they will save you money in the long run by offering a longer lifespan. That means less likelihood of drive failure, which will cause downtime as data is recovered and transferred.

8: Take advantage of power save

On nearly every OS, you can configure your hard drive to spin down after a given time. In some older iterations of operating systems, drives would spin 24/7 — which would drastically reduce the lifespan of a drive. By default, Windows 7 uses the Balanced Power Savings plan, which will turn off the hard drive after 20 minutes of inactivity. Even if you change that by a few minutes, you are adding life to your hard drive. Just make sure you don’t shrink that number to the point where your drive is going to sleep frequently throughout the day. If you are prone to take five- to 10-minute breaks often, consider lowering that time to no less than 15 minutes. When the drive goes to sleep, the drive is not spinning. When the drive is not spinning, entropy is not working on that drive as quickly.

9: Tighten those screws

Loose mounting screws (which secure the hard drive to the PC chassis) can cause excessive vibrations. Those vibrations can damage to the platters of a standard hard disk. If you hear vibrations coming from within your PC, open it and make sure the screws securing the drive to the mounting platform are tight. If they aren’t, tighten them. Keeping your hardware nice and tight will help extend the life of that hardware.

10: Back up

Eventually, that drive will fail. No matter how careful you are, no matter how many steps you take to prevent failure, the drive will, in the end, die a painful death. If you have solid backups, at least the transition from one drive to another will be painless. And by using a backup solution such as Acronis Universal Restore, you can transfer a machine image from one piece of hardware to another piece of hardware with very little issue.

Happy Holidays everyone! It’s that time of the year again, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Tech Tuesday, Digital Wednesday and USB Thursday (Kidding!) In this tech tip, we’ll be covering a broad range of next-generation toys and categories, so keep an eye out for what products might be interesting to that favorite geek in your life!

Notebook Computers

Let’s dive right into this category with Apple™’s notebook refresh, the updated Macbook lineup. First, you have two new flavors of the Macbook Air while also announcing its newest version of OS X called Lion (v 10.7). In addition to being able to choose between 11.6” and 13.3”, it now has 2 USB ports, updated graphics chipsets and has up to 30 days of standby time.

Cheap Netbooks also continue to advance more in features. Intel has released their next-generation of Atom processors which feature both Hyper-Threading and Dual-core technology so it’s like your netbook has 4 processors that Windows will recognize which will do wonders for multitasking. The new Acer™ Aspire One AOD-255-134 features the new Atom N550 CPU which is a dual-core processor and has HyperThreading. Some netbooks like the HP® Mini 5103 have faster DDR3 memory for lightning-fast program accessing which helps Windows perform tasks quicker. In addition, the 5103 has 2GB RAM pre-installed so your netbook won’t be bogged down by any resource deficiencies.

If you’re a PC gamer or just needs high performance on the go, Alienware™’s new M11x is a solution that can accommodate your CPU-intensive needs in a portable package. Starting at $599, it packs a Core i-series CPU, 1GB nVidia® 335m graphics, up to 8 GB DDR3 RAM, an 11.6” LCD and either a 256GB SSD hard drive or 640GB SATA II hard drive.

DESKTOP PCs

While notebook sales have continued to outsell their bulkier counterparts, desktop computers remain a vital staple in our technology-driven society. One trend that has sprung from notebook design is to consolidate parts all into a complete all-in-one package. An example of this is Apple™’s iMac computer. Refreshed with Intel’s new Core i-series processors, your selection between 21.5 to 27” screen displays, configurable RAM and hard drive storage starting at 4G and 500GB, respectively and can connect to Apple™’s new multi-touch trackpad.

PC peeps looking for a bargain can score a deal with HP®’s Pavilion P6604Y. It features an AMD Athlon II dual-core processor, 6GB RAM, 1 terabyte hard drive, 15-in-1 card reader and AMD’s vision technology. This computer is perfect for multitasking between programs and has ample space for your music, movies and work/school files.

Gaming fanatics on a budget will appreciate Velocity Micro’s Vector Holiday Edition for its bang-for-the-buck ratio. Powered by an Intel Core i5 760 (3.62 Ghz overclocked), this rig also has 4GB 1333 Mhz RAM, 768 MB nVidia® GTX 460 GPU, 1 terabyte hard drive and even a blu-ray optical drive. These configurable specifications start at $849 which makes this gaming desktop an absolute must-have!

CELL PHONES

When it comes to cell phones, we can’t deny the iPhone 4 a top mention. Regardless of all the speculation issues about reception and its antenna, it’s still a solid phone that provides great interaction and great communication. In the Sprint corner, they have the evolutionary HTC® Evo 4G. It’s the first phone to support Sprint’s next-generation 4G Wi-Max network and packs a 4.3” LCD screen, can be enabled as a Wi-Fi hotspot (up to 8 devices) and has Google’s latest flavor of Android OS 2.2.

AT&T™ has also stepped up their infrastructure game by rolling out their own Mi-Fi service. Called the AT&T™ Mobile Hotspot, it supports HSPA on AT&T™’s network, even supports up to 32GB Secure Digital High Capacity cards and is perfect if you need to communicate to your friends, family and co-workers but have no standard Wi-Fi hotspot. In addition, Verizon Wireless has also rolled out their $15 data plan for customers who are looking to make the leap into the data plan craze but are looking for a cheaper bargain.

For all you Palm lovers, HP® is releasing their unlocked GSM Palm Pre 2 which has a host of features such as a bright 3.1” LCD screen, intuitive email customization and search file system, supports web OS 2.0 for a better website viewing experience and has both a slide-out keyboard and multi-touch support.

And let’s not forget good ‘ol Microsoft® who just rolled out their much-hyped Windows 7 mobile phone. Coming in several flavors (HTC® Surround, HTC HD7™, Samsung™ Focus, LG Quantum) for AT&T™, the HTC HD7™ features a powerful 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, 576MB RAM, a 4.3” LCD screen and intuitive interfaces for organizing music, videos, pictures and even has Office Mobile and Outlook Mobile so you can keep your busy life in order.

TABLET PC

It’s been a fierce year for the tablet market. Apple™ set a huge technological ripple in motion withtheir coveted iPAD, which is still selling strong. Because of this, competitors have been scrambling to catch up to Apple™’s success in time for the holiday season. First up, we have the viagra dosing color=”#669900″>Samsung™ Galaxy Tab. Not only does it have the latest Android OS 2.2 by Google, it has dual cameras so you can take pictures and share them with your family and can see each other on video chat. At 7”, it supports Sprint’s 3G mobile; is a little bit smaller than the iPAD but is just as capable.

Originally thought to be canceled during the iPAD’s debut, HP® has confirmed its finalized production of its long-rumored Slate tablet PC. Aimed at business professionals, it starts at $799 and features similar iPAD functions such as multi-touch support, dual cameras for picture-taking and video conferencing and weighs 1.5 pounds. It includes Windows 7 Professional (32-bit), an Intel Atom Z540 (supports HyperThreading for better multitasking) CPU, an 8.9” WSVGA (1024 x 600 resolution), 1 USB port, 1 secure digital card reader and 5+ hours of battery life.

Dell has also jumped in the tablet PCmarket with their just-released Streak. Powered by the Android OS, it’s a 5” toy that’s part cell phone, part tablet PC but has loads of usefulness. More portable than the 9.7” iPAD and has just as much utility, this Dell has dual cameras, e-reader support, Bluetooth 2.0 and Google Maps.

If you’re looking for a simple media player and web browser in a tablet-ish package but don’t need the extra glitz, Archos’ 7 home tablet might just be your cup of tea. At $199, it supports 802.11n Wi-Fi access, is powered by the Android OS and can play high-definition videos and can even read (up to) 32GB micro secure digital cards.

CONSOLE GAMING

Already surpassing entertainment release records, Call of Duty Black Ops™ is sure to be on your holiday shopping list regardless of the format of choice. Set during Vietnam and Cold War in the 1960s, Black Ops’s gameplay has rivaled (and some say surpassed) the likes of Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor and Ghost Recon.

Following the footsteps of the Nintendo Wii, Microsoft® Xbox 360 has also released their much-anticipated Kinect system which has similar functions to the Wii but doesn’t require a physical controller. The Kinect sensor will automatically recognize your body, voice and physical movements so you can even play online against friends without having to wear a headset.

For all you Playstation 3 fans out there, Sony™ has released their coveted Gran Turismo 5 racing game which is sure to add hours of racing ride customization to your gaming events! Featuring over 1,000 vehicles (Skyline GT-R Yeah!) and improved graphics, Gran Turismo 5 even has authentic (and fictional) road courses including rally and NASCAR raceways.

E-READERS

Let’s start this section off with the most influential e-reader, Apple™’s much-talked about iPAD. Part media player, part e-reader, all tablet PC, this $499 media machine can keep you busy reading e-books, listening to music, watching videos, playing video games and even web browsing. However, let’s not forget the solid players like the Amazon Kindle. The most updated generation features Wi-Fi so you can find and download e-books at a nearby hotspot, has 50% better contrast for easier viewing and is 17% lighter.

Sony™ also has their Reader Pocket Edition at $149.99 which features E-Ink technology for enhanced e-book viewing. It also supports multiple formats such as Adobe PDF, Microsoft® Word and you can download from bestsellers and check out books from public libraries on ePub.

Barnes and Noble also has their Nook e-reader which has over 2 million titles to choose from. Having 2GB storage space, the Nook can store up to 1500 e-books, has a 10-day battery life and even has standard Wi-Fi connectivity.

HDTV – BLU-RAY – 3D TECHNOLOGY

As the battle rages on about media content delivery, many people are still divided between how they want to get their video entertainment. Some still enjoy shelling out $12 for a movie ticket ($14-15 for 3-D) while others prefer Netflix and some even fancy on-demand videos from their local television service provider. Panasonic™ has stepped up to the plate by releasing their new 103-inch plasma HDTV called the TH-P103MT2. In addition, their 58-inch 3D television, the TC-P58VT25 increases contrast ratio by stabilizing and lowering the electrical predischarge of cells that causes gray image saturation. Samsung™ also has their PNC-7000 series that offers 3D performance at a reasonable price.

GPS

As the smartphone craze continues to flourish and many people find it more and more convenient to use Google Maps on their smartphone when looking for a specific point of interest while driving. However, the particular downside to this function is that it tends to eat up the cell phone’s battery during usage. That being said, dedicated GPS units continue its own evolution of being thinner, lighter and have features such as Bluetooth installed. For example, the Garmin Nuvi 3790T™ has voice command, Bluetooth calling, free traffic data updates and even has a micro-USB sync cable for PC connection.

For you GPS newbies, TomTom has their budget-friendly Ease GPS unit which has a 3.5” screen, 3 hour battery and text-to-speech guidance for better navigation assistance. In addition, you get micro-USB sync capability for future map update downloads.

Webcams

While webcams have been around for a while, the trend now is to jump on the high-definition bandwagon. Thus, Microsoft®’s Lifecam HD-5000 offers 720p HD performance at 30 frames per second. You also get 16:9 widescreen support, autofocus and has TrueColor technology which automatically controls exposure for optima brightness and video color. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative for keeping in touch with friends and family, you can opt for the Logitech C510 HD webcam. It offers 720p video, 2 megapixel snapshots and 360-degree panning and a built-in microphone.

Flip Camcorders

If you’re not looking for a fancy-pants full-features camcorder, you Flip offers their flip-style ready-to-go camcorders. Their Flip Ultra HD™ shoots at 720p at 30 frames per second, runs on rechargeable AA batteries, has a 2-inch LCD screen and records up to 8 hours of video. Kodak® also has their Zi8 pocket camcorder that is one of the first to support 1080p video, 5 megapixel still shots, has a 2.5” LCD, support up to 32GB secure digital memory cards and even has electronic image stabilization.

Digital Cameras

Samsung™’s NX100 is one unique camera because it combines elements of a portable point-and-shoot camera and its larger SLR cousins. Its features include 14.6 megapixel quality, 720p video quality and even interchangeable lens all in a compact package. Meanwhile, Panasonic™’s Lumix DMC-GF1 offers similar interchangeable lens, 12 megapixels, a 3-inch LCD screen, and image optical stabilization all in a neat classic chassis. Sony® also has their Cybershot DSC-W80 which optimized for extreme portability. It packs a 7 megapixel sensor, a “home menu system” that is similar to the Sony PSP™’s and image stabilization which helps reduce blur during picture-taking.

Whether you’re shopping for that tech geek in your life or looking for an upgrade this holiday season, there’s no shortage of good deals on the newest tech toys. Just remember to weigh the pros, cons and cost of these technology products before you pull the trigger in order to avoid getting stuck at the (pick your favorite retailer) long line at the customer service center.