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When choosing between smart phones on the market, your first question may be, "What is a Blackberry?" A Blackberry is a mobile e-mail device with many other features. Not only can you talk on this device, you can browse the Internet among other things. The first Blackberry smart phone was introduced in 2002 and Research in Motion, the company responsible for this device, has made a number of improvements since then. No matter where you go, you will be connected with others.

When answering the question, "What is a Blackberry?", you should first talk about the e-mail features offered. This is what Blackberry is known for. The push e-mail capabilities of the phone allow you to receive messages even when you are out of range of coverage. The messages will appear when you get back into an area with service. Wi-Fi connectivity gives you an even wider area of service which makes this a very popular device for those on the go.

If someone asks you, "What is a Blackberry?" tell them about what makes this device so special. Not only does it have such features as an address book, calendar, to do list and alarm clock, you can also browse the Internet whenever you are connected. The browser is capable of viewing a variety of formats and newer models support Javascript. Corporate users can have secure access to intranet sites when out on the road. It's no wonder many businesses are choosing this particular device.

There is much more that can be discussed when answering the question, "What is a Blackberry?" Not only can you play videos and pictures on this type of device, it is also a portable media player. Speakers are built in or you can choose to use headphones to listen to music anytime and anywhere. This means you can carry fewer electronics while on the go. The Bluetooth feature allows you to type wirelessly and ThinPrint will allow you to print to any Bluetooth-enabled printer.

This by no means covers all that you can say when answering the question, "What is a Blackberry?" With many apps to choose from and every messaging option available, you could go on all day. This is completely ignoring the fact that a Blackberry is set up for social networking sites also. The list just goes on and on.

The Web 2.0 refers to the second growth phase of the Internet. Web 2.0 marks the shift away from the passive visits to websites in the original Web 1.0, to give-and-take dialogue where everyone is a possible creator of content in Web 2.0.

Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly Media and a promoter of open source technology and free software, is the person most associated with the term Web 2.0. After the 2004 O'Reilly Media Conference was entitled Web 2.0, adoption of the term began to become widespread among common Internet users. Darcy DiNucci first used the term "Web 2.0" in an article in 1999, but the term lay dormant until the 2004 O'Reilly Media Conference. Common in technological progression, the numbering sequence 1.0, 2.0, and so forth indicates the level of evolution from the first concept of a product.

Web 2.0 is marked by the social interaction and production of content by all users of the Internet. Whereas Web 1.0 segregated users into creators and viewers, Web 2.0 fosters collaboration between everyone. Prominent examples of the Web 2.0 in action include Wikipedia, Facebook and Myspace, and blogging services. Web 2.0 destinations encourage people to produce content themselves, instead of relying on a small number of creators to serve the entire Internet. This allows even small stories from across the world to be told to an international audience.

However, the Web 2.0 harbors a dark side. The focus upon user-generated content has led to malicious content propagating across the Internet at a rapid pace not seen in Web 1.0. Dasient, an Internet security company, reported that a new web page is infected with some form of malware every 1.3 seconds. The flood of new content from each user of the Internet has provided ample camouflage for malware and viruses. Web 2.0 also inundates users with content, allowing potential content of interest to be missed or ignored. The sheer amounts of content make accurate personalized search and classification extremely difficult.

As the Internet progresses from Web 1.0 into Web 2.0 completely, each individual user of the Internet will be able to share their own unique life. Their content might include photos, sounds, or words. The combined interactivity and collaboration promises to facilitate the sharing of ideas and information instantaneously. The hope of Web 2.0 is that the masses of humanity can be harnessed to provide new opportunities by involving each person.

The Internet has evolved over the years into a place filled with dynamic, fresh content. Whether personal or for a business, most sites now incorporate a blog to meet this new standard. A blog, or web log, is like a journal that is open to the public. Individuals and businesses can use this as a way to give updates and share news, as well as a forum for exchanging ideas with others.

The concept of blogging was born along with the Internet in the form of site directories and link collections. In 1992, Tim Berners-Lee started the first directory of new websites at CERN. 1993 saw the launch of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications’ “What’s New” site list. About six months later, Links from the Underground was started by Justin Hall, who then began keeping a public online journal in 1996. Free personal blogging tools began to appear in 1998, though the term “weblog” was first coined in 1995 and brought into popular use in 1997.

Early weblogs were no more than public diaries where people shared their thoughts, feelings, and daily activities. Open Diary, a journal site launched in 1998, was popular among teenagers, as they could openly post and comment on each other’s entries. The more dynamic LiveJournal appeared in 1999, further fueling the online journal trend.

Since then, blogs have evolved into a web-wide phenomenon. While the online journal still exists as teens and young adults continue to publicly share their personal dramas, the blog has become a more serious concept. Businesses and individuals now use blogging as a way to share important information. Opinion pieces on everything from technology to politics appear in personal weblogs daily. Even newspapers use this tool to bring fresh content and new stories to their readers before the next print edition hits newsstands.

The most useful aspect of a blog is that it’s an easy way to maintain a dynamic website. Instead of having to update a specific page of the site, re-write copy, or work up a new design, site owners can launch a weblog instead. Each new post draws attention, keeping search engines interested. This gives businesses a simple way to draw new customers, and brings new readers to individual opinion sites.

Sources:

http://www.blockstar.com/blog/blog_timeline.html

http://www.blogherald.com/2005/03/06/a-short-history-of-blogging/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_blogging

Ethernet is a form of cable that is used to connect computers to a network. It is designed to allow large streams of data to pass from a server to one or more workstations throughout a home or an office. You can find Ethernet cables anywhere computer accessories are sold. Standard Ethernet cables allow 10 megabits of data per second to be transferred between computers that are on the same network. There are high speed Ethernet cables that will allow as much as 100 megabits of data per second to be transferred for companies that need that sort of speed. Developed by Xerox in the 1970s, Ethernet has become the standard way to connect computers throughout a network.

When a computer is hooked up to the network through an Ethernet cable, it will have access to everything that is allowed to be seen remotely from the server. Ethernet cables allow internet connections to be shared by two or more computers from the same modem, which makes it less expensive to create several internet connections in a home or office environment. It is possible to create several Ethernet connection ports from a single wall socket by using an Ethernet adapter that has several ports attached.

The way Ethernet stations communicate is by sending packets of information from one station to another. Each station has its own unique address on the network. The computer that is connected to the Ethernet station is equipped with a special chip that will recognize the address that each packet of information was sent to. If the address on the information is not the same as the address for the station that is connected to the computer, the computer will not accept the information. Many recent computers are being designed with Ethernet capability built directly into the motherboards, which eliminates the need for the special networking chips that were required previously.

The most important part of Ethernet technology is its ability to switch or route information in the proper direction. When you have several computers using the same internet connection, the Ethernet creates a priority chain for the information. Programs that use larger amounts of bandwidth will receive top priority, while those that use less will operate at a different frequency. The switches that are built into an Ethernet system keep track of each computer on the network and how much bandwidth each computer uses on a regular basis.

When it comes to OEM, there are actually two or more ways to describe this term. It can be baffling trying to read up on all the data folks have written about these abbreviations.

OEM stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer. A lot of companies purchase products from the original manufacturers and resell the items to consumers. The mark remains on each manufactured good so that people will know what brand it is and who made it.

Examples of products that have Original Equipment Manufacturer marks on them are automotive parts. When automobile manufacturers put cars together, the initial owner of the cars placing its mark onto the parts, so people will know the parts are original ones from the manufacturer.

This term can be confusing. For example, if a specific business wants to buy items from another company so that it can use those products with its identifiable goods, the Original Equipment Manufacturer would then be reflected as the buyer’s brand name instead of the one that originally made the parts or software. There are times when you will see OEM engraved into products from a company that did not actually make them.

When a company buys products from the primary manufacturer and resells them, showing its brand name instead, the company is a reseller. Sometimes, a business is considered a “value-added reseller” when it purchases and resells items that were not its original products.

When OEMs sell their products to other companies, there are financial benefits for those companies. These businesses are able to have lower costs for nearly all operations. Primary makers of goods use a system called “economies of scale”. These accounting methods help the companies to cut down on manufacturing costs and selling costs, as they are able to sell bulk amounts of products to other companies and the long run aspect of the businesses makes out better.

By buying products from the initial maker of them, businesses (resellers) do not have to have their own industrial unit, so it cuts down on the costs for those companies as well, as they do not have to produce goods or pay for operating a plant.

Businesses that re-brand products that will bear their own brand names, or the OEM label, will also provide the actual warranty, customer support, licensing and registration of the items to their consumers.

Data recovery is a generic term used to describe the retrieval of information stored on damaged digital mediums. In most cases, the term data recovery replies to data stored on mechanical hard drives, but it is also possible to recover data from CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray discs, memory cards, and even USB thumb drives. It is also important to note that there are two different styles of data recovery techniques: physical and software.

Physical data recovery techniques require replacing and/or repairing damaged components of a storage system. For example, if the motor on a hard drive were to wear out, it is still possible to recover data from the individual platters by carefully transplanting them into a new hard drive or by replacing the motor. If the head of the hard drive were to have scratched one or more of the platters, it may be possible to try to physically repair the damaged portions of the individual platter(s). The same is generally true of data recovery techniques for other mediums as well. If the medium is damaged, it may be repairable. If the supporting hardware is damaged, it may be possible to replace or transplant hardware and access the data. It is worth noting that hardware based data recovery techniques may also be called data rescue , hard drive rescues, hard drive recoveries, or similar terms.

Software can also be used in a data recovery process. In most cases, files that are deleted or recycled are not actually removed from the storage medium. Instead, the data is no longer protected from being overwritten by new files. It is possible to recover this data in its entirety in almost all cases just so long as no other files have been written to the same physical areas. Some of the more advanced data recovery software can even help restore data from recently formatted hard drives unless the hard drive or other storage medium was zeroed out.

Zeroing out a storage medium is often referred to as secure erasing, and is difficult to circumvent. There are some very high-level and expensive data recovery techniques that can help recover data from zeroed out drives, but the techniques are not necessarily the most reliable or cost effective. In fact, only larger corporations and government entities tend to invest resources in this form of data recovery, though there are a few exceptions to this rule.

Internet marketing takes advantage of the unique ability of the internet to reach a wide audience for products or services that are for sale. It is basically the process of advertising something over the internet. The techniques for internet marketing have changed as the internet has shifted over the last few decades, but the basic tools are still the same. Internet marketing firms utilize banners, images, links, articles, and search engine optimization to drive traffic to their sales sites in the hopes that some of the people who visit the site will purchase one of the items that is being advertised.

One of the businesses that uses internet marketing quite a bit is called online affiliates. These are websites that provide marketing for a company in return for a commission when items that are being advertised are sold. There are thousands of affiliate marketers who create web sites and work to drive traffic to those sales sites. Affiliate internet marketing allows people who are talented at online advertising to make money through commissions without ever purchasing a product to sell. The product's manufacturer receives a great deal of internet marketing for his or her product, while the affiliate marketer receives payment every time a product is sold.

There are many internet marketing strategies in use today. Some marketing firms utilize newsletter e-mail services to advertise their products. Others focus on creating sites that will draw high rankings on search engines. The idea is that if a potential customer is looking for a certain kind of product or service through a search engine, the customer will already be interested in the products on the marketing page that they are led to through search engine results. The placement of banner advertisements on pages that draw a large amount of internet traffic is another popular internet marketing technique.

Internet marketing strategies have begun to find ways to take advantage of the large number of web consumers who spend time on social networking sites. Internet marketing has to be done a little differently on these sites to draw the best results. Internet marketing firms are creating social networking pages and interacting with other social networking consumers to advertise their products through a friendly, word-of-mouth sort of way.

No matter what technique is being used, internet marketing is a business that is growing exponentially. People are becoming more comfortable with shopping online. Internet marketing tries to help people find the products they need and purchase them on the internet.

CAD is an acronym for Computer Aided Drafting or Design. It generally refers to the software that is used to create three dimensional designs for engineering, architecture and a host of other industries. CAD software differs from more artistic rendering programs because it strives for mathematical accuracy and real world application.

The earliest CAD programs were very limited due to the low specifications of computers at the time and were mostly used to input two dimensional blueprints into the system to attain a wireframe three dimensional model.

In the modern implementation of CAD software, much more can be done. Complete engineering and building specifications can be recorded inside of the program. Some high end CAD programs even have the ability to apply real world physics to the designs to test whether they are feasible under different conditions.

CAD programs also allow the user to render accurate three dimensional visualizations of the structure they are working on. This allows clients to see what the architect is thinking and make aesthetic decisions that can be instantly applied and then decided upon.

Modern CAD programs are also capable of integrating themselves into industrial manufacturing systems. The designs created by a draftsman with the software can be loaded into special machines that can produce two dimensional or three dimensional pieces from specified materials. The aerospace and automotive industries rely heavily on these methods to test new shapes and designs.

There are even special three dimensional ‘printers’ which can take a CAD schematic and actually create a three dimensional object from lightweight plastic.

CAD software is even employed by special effects filmmakers to recreate buildings and cities in exacting detail.

The power of modern computers combined with the reduced cost of basic CAD software has made it possible for almost anyone to use it for design purposes. For this reason, trades such as jewelry design, packaging design, and even advertising are relying heavily on CAD programs to help move their processes along smoothly and quickly.

As computers grow more powerful, so too do the features of the CAD programs that are available. The future of CAD may see programs which can not only accurately test the strength of certain designs and apply realistic gravity and wind, but may also be able to make suggestions on how to improve a design or even create an original design itself from a simple set of specifications.

Bandwidth includes the measurement of the number of information that's transferred in a specific time interval, typically in sec/bits. Bandwidth is the purpose why Internet users might experience files or videos to download quicker from a single website and the same files to take a long time to download from other websites. Bandwidth additionally decides how quick a website can take to load. We will take a view at why bandwidth is vital to the user of the Internet and more vitally, to the owner of a website.

To know bandwidth, we initially must picture how the Internet performs. The Internet includes a system of global interconnecting computer networks that consists of a million users, including individuals, local businesses, international businesses and academic facilities. The Internets network is connected through a group of wires and optical networking technologies and cables. Bandwidth is referred to the amount of wires that connect servers to networks. Files are then transferred directly from the servers via the network of fibers at different speeds. A speed at which information is transferred will depend on the quality and grade of wires. The higher the quality or grade, the quicker the speed.

Internet users will wish to have the ability to get to files, downloads, and websites rapidly. It's therefore vital that you possess access to the Internet at high speeds. Bandwidth is a single factor which can affect the speed that the computer links into the Internet. For instance, your providers of Internet service might limit or restrict the bandwidth in the Internet connection particularly in peak hours or if they've utilized their limitations for that month. Consequently, the bandwidth that is limited might affect the rate at which an individual could access the Internet.

Additionally, bandwidth plays a vital role for owners of websites while building their websites and picking Web hosting services. Within society these days, we reside in a world where everyone wants everything right now, where it is a fact that individuals wish for their data and immediate answers. Because of this purpose, owners of websites must be sure their websites have access to a higher bandwidth speed in order to satisfy a visitor of their sites and to additionally account for the times when they might possess lots of visitors to their sites at the same time.

What is ADSL?

Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, or ADSL for short, is a form of digital data communications technology using the same copper telephone lines conventional voice-band modems do but with much greater bandwidth and faster data transmission. ADSL makes this possible by transmitting over frequencies other than those used by voice telephone calls. A low-cost ADSL ADSL “modem” is connected to a user’s existing telephone line with a separate Ethernet cable connected to their computer (or in the case of a wireless modem, no cables are used). Users can use both ADSL Internet services and voice calls concurrently through use of a DSL filter/splitter. In this case the filter/splitter is connected to the user’s telephone wall jack and both ADSL modem and telephone are connected to it via separate jacks.

ADSL is ideal for range of Internet activities like email, web browsing, chatting, gaming, and overall casual surfing. ADSL speeds typically vary anywhere on average from 256 kilobytes-per-second (Kbps) up to 10 megabytes per second (Mbps) on the down-link, with the up-link being but a fraction of this. It is for this very reason why ADSL is “asymmetric”, as most users do not require the same uplink throughput as they do on the down-link hence the bandwidth asymmetry. As an example, a request for a YouTube video may only require a few bytes to be sent to the hosting web server, whereas the requested video could very well require dozens of megabytes to be downloaded to the user’s PC.

ADSL-based Internet access is fairly economical, but typically requires a one- or two-year contract for service (actual terms depend on the local service provider). As an incentive, ADSL providers tend to give away an ADSL modem to customers free of charge. ADSL is faster than dial-up, can work anywhere a standard phone line exists (as opposed to cable modem which requires a co-axial line connected to a cable television company), and doesn’t suffer from high latency that wireless and satellite networks do.

One of the biggest drawbacks to ADSL is that its over speed and performance depend on the user’s proximity to the provider’s hub and/or central office. The closer one is, the faster the connection will be. The ideal range for ADSL use is within a two mile radius. People living several kilometers away many not even be eligible for the service.

Broadband is a type of cable or channel that allows more information to be transmitted at one time. It works by providing more frequencies, which allows information to be transmitted all at once instead of in a linear fashion. It is called broadband because it provides a wider range of frequencies on a single band, which makes it seem broader or wider. Broadband signals are ideal for transmitting video and audio files that are traditionally large and can take a long time to move from one server to another. Broadband signals are transmitted through special telephone lines that are configured to manage the multiple frequency messages in a broadband format.

Most people are familiar with broadband as a type of internet service. Businesses have been using broadband internet connections for several years, but the broadband signal has begun to move into residential homes as well. People can order broadband connections from cable companies, phone companies, and cellular companies. Broadband signals make high definition digital television easier to watch because the extreme amount of data that needs to be passed through the line to the television is more compressed and travels faster. Home computers also benefit from the use of broadband signals because of the high speed that broadband brings to internet downloads.

Before broadband was widely available, home consumers were relying on dial-up modems that only allowed up to 56 mp of data to be streamed at the most. That rate did made it very difficult to download video and audio from the internet. With the wide availability of broadband, the internet became much more accessible to people who wanted to enjoy it from home. Broadband signals made it possible for people to watch full length feature films on their computers without having to wait for hours for the movies to download. Video sharing sites have become incredibly popular thanks to advances in video compression and the widespread availability of broadband signals.

Recent advances in broadband technology have begun to make broadband signals available to people who lived in rural areas outside of the regular service areas of broadband companies. Many broadband service providers have begun to transmit broadband signals through satellites. The service allows people in every area of the United States to purchase high speed internet connections through a wireless connection. Broadband will probably continue to change and become more available as technology continues to advance.

HTML, which is short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the code that programmers and web designers use to tell an internet browser what to display on a web page. HTML was one of the first programming languages designed to create web content. It is also one of the simplest forms of content building for the internet. Since the original HTML was created in the early 1980s, there have been several modifications to the code structure that have made it possible for web designers to create more dynamic websites that are loosely based on the HTML structure.

HTML was created when the internet was in its infancy. Prior to HTML, programmers and computer specialists used programming commands to communicate through the internet. Everything was text-based, which meant that there were no graphic interfaces. When the mouse was invented, computer developers realized that there could be a more user-friendly way for people to navigate through these bulletin board based websites. HTML was developed to take advantage of the power of the mouse to click on items that are highlighted by the code. Links, images, and media files became easy to post on internet sites using simple lines of HTML coding.

Most websites today operate using HTML 2.0, which is an updated version of the original HTML. It is a more intuitive coding system that allows website developers to skip some of the steps that they had to use when they worked with the original form of HTML. Coding with HTML can be very tedious because it requires strict attention to detail. If a line of code does not have the proper dash or letter, the entire website will display incorrectly. HTML includes opening and closing commands, which means that website developers have to remember to tell a command to close once they have put it into the code. Most coding errors involve commands that do not have the proper closing tags.

The days of writing HTML code by hand are long gone. Software as easily available as Microsoft Word include powerful HTML coding templates that anyone can use to create a website. Web developers use specific tools that will create the code for them as they add or remove items from their web templates. It is useful to be able to read and write HTML, however, because the web design software is still not as precise as HTML coding. There are times when it is helpful to be able to alter the HTML coding to get the proper placement of objects on a web page.

HDTV stands for High-Definition Television, a class of TV that is identified by its resolution. To be considered high definition, a television must be at least 720p. Most modern TVs are high definition, ranging from 40 inches or below up to about 60 inches for a high-end consumer model, even more with projection technologies. Concept TVs have been demonstrated going up to 150”, but none that big have ever been released and sold on a mass scale to consumers. Let’s look a bit closer at resolution and how it is measured in order to better understand HDTV.

Television images are made up of thousands of little dots called pixels. (Technically, a pixel is the intersection of two lines, but it is much easier to think of them as lines of dots that make up a grid.) These are measured by the number of horizontal lines of resolution. A 720p television has 720 horizontal lines of resolution, and 1280 vertical lines. Older TVs had a 4:3 screen ratio, but HDTV has a 16:9 screen ratio, meaning that if it has 720 horizontal lines of resolution, then multiply that number by 16 and divide by 9, and you get 1280, the number of vertical lines of resolution. 720p is the smaller of the common HDTV sizes, the bigger and more common size is 1080p (that’s a 1080 by 1920 screen resolution).

You will also notice a letter after the resolution number. That letter is either “P” or “I,” and it tells whether or not the screen is interlaced. If the screen is interlaced (ends with an “I”), then it only refreshes half of the screen each frame. Though it is an almost unnoticeable difference, you are effectively only getting half of the vertical resolution, so you want to get a TV that has a “P” after it.

There are two main types of HDTVs, plasma and LCD. Plasma TVs show smoother frame transitions and look glossier but they are very reflective, and are not good for rooms with lots of windows / sunlight, so most people opt for an LCD TV, which is still a very good TV.

Remember when you are looking for your next TV that you want at least 720p to get HD, and that ideally you want to get 1080p to get the highest resolution possible.

Podcasts have swept the world within a couple of short years, slowly becoming one of the many common types of media. Plainly put, it is the act of adding MP3 files onto the Internet, where individuals online could download and locate them even with only their browser. Individuals may believe a podcast involves just a plain audio file, yet a podcast could simply stand on its own as types of communication, and it really goes above the confines of plain audio. The term is additionally provided to clips for videos which discover their way onto the Web for public usage; the terminlogy is becoming more prominent, yet it was once only a reference to its format of audio. It was made up after the iPod, Apple's MP3 player, yet it came to be a very generic terminology and could mean all MP3s or video files which could be located within the Internet.

The huge quantity of channels available which provide a podcast on their website is really amazing. Education courses online utilize podcasts in their studies, magazines utilize them for added columns, and businesses are using this newer technology within interviews and added Web content.

A podcast provides the ability to subscribe to it, while others have developed their own radio show by regularly podcasting. Podcasters are individuals who conduct such programs. A Podcast has additionally seamlessly made its way into the marketing world, most notably being blended onto websites as small videos for the purpose of advertising. Do you know those small videos that feature a face or an individual while you are searching the Web? Then, welcome to the world of podcasting advertisement.

Major channels of news broadcasting have started utilizing podcasts to decorate their websites and add content. Politicians utilize podcasts to plug their views on their candidacy sites; this type of operation has inspired campaigns to hire individuals to act like political roadies, following an opponent from one place to another hoping they'll catch a mishap with a camcorder. The incident is then uploaded onto the Internet within a few minutes, spreading like viruses to different websites and blogs.

Email invention brought inevitable change within our society, bringing in the dawn of the information era. This brave new world has been turned on its ear again with the podcast, introducing individuals to the age where social networking has become a way of life.

Bluetooth is an open technology standard utilizing wireless capabilities to securely transmit and receive data over a limited range. Bluetooth and Bluetooth products are currently managed by the non-profit Bluetooth Special Interest Group.

Ericsson, a Swedish data services and telecommunications company, first conceived the Bluetooth standard in 1994. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group was founded in September of 1998 to promote the standard and encourage the development of qualified devices. At the same time, the Bluetooth standard was introduced to the public. The name Bluetooth, originally a code name for the design project, stems from Harald I. A Danish king, Harald I unified a number of warring Scandinavian factions into a single kingdom. Bluetooth is designed to do the same with devices, allowing a multitude of commercial products to communicate in a common language. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group took symbols from Harald I's name to form their trademark logo.

The Bluetooth standard utilizes frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology to transmit data across radio frequencies. Essentially, data is carved up into small pieces before being sent to the destination and reassembled. Bluetooth is wireless, inexpensive to include in a device, and completely automated. These advantages make it ideal for small, portable devices where power consumption and size may be a key design factor. Bluetooth is particularly popular among mobile phones, portable computing devices, and audio players. A single Bluetooth transmitter can connect up to eight devices. Bluetooth signals avoid interference with similar radio frequency products (such as garage door openers and baby monitors) by only producing a weak signal of roughly one milliwatt in strength.

As of 2009, Bluetooth Core Specification 3.0 + HS (high speed) has been implemented by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group. Specification 3.0 will reduce latency and increase reliability through unicast connection-less data. An emphasis on power control is intended to avoid dropouts, which had been a common complaint for previous Bluetooth standards. Testing has been standardized and automated for Specification 3.0, which will allow manufacturers to produce new Bluetooth-capable products more quickly.

With the constellation of devices now constructed with Bluetooth capabilities, Bluetooth is expected to continue its steady growth as the dominant short range data transmission standard. Currently, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group estimates that more than nineteen million products containing Bluetooth are shipped each week around the globe. Eight new commercial products carrying Bluetooth are approved by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group every day.

Identity theft is the fraudulent use of someones identity. The term began to be used in 1964, though it is actually a misnomer. Identity cloning, fraud or impersonation are all more accurate depictions of the actual crime.

Identity theft is a broad category of crimes. The non-profit Identity Theft Center further breaks Identity theft into five subgroups: commercial identity theft, criminal identity theft, identity cloning, financial identity theft, medical identity theft. Each of the five types differs from the others in the use to which the fraudulent identity is put. However, they are all crimes and adversely effect the victims who's identity has been compromised.

Commercial and financial identity thefts are quite similar, the only real difference between them is the nature of the information being used. With commercial, the victim's business identity is compromised and used to obtain credit, resources or services. Financial is identical except that it is the personal identity of the victim that is compromised. Both cause significant disruption and headache as the victim may be held liable for the criminals financial transactions.

Criminal Identity theft is perhaps the most stressful for the victim. The criminal fraudulently presents the victims name instead of their own, generally with supporting documents that they have illegally acquired. With the supporting evidence it can be difficult for law enforcement personnel to detect. The consequences for the victim can be quite distressing as the first clue may be a court summons or even a visit from the police at their place of work or residence. Even after the matter is resolved, it may be months or years until the various criminal databases are correctly updated.

Identity cloning is just that. The perpetrator uses the victims identity as a mask to conceal their own in every life. It is most often used by illegal immigrants, people hiding for creditors or other individuals who have a strong desire to conceal their own identity. With the proper documentation, forged or otherwise the perpetrator can go undetected for years.

Medical identity theft is quite narrowly focused on the use of another's identity to receive medical treatment or medication. Quite often it is done by criminals to gain access to controlled drugs. Perhaps the greatest danger is erroneous entries being made to the victims medic record. If not found and resolved, medical identity theft can be life-threatening as it can lead to mistakes in treatment or diagnosis due to the false information.

Do you love going to movie theatres where the picture is clear and the sound shakes the walls? Do you wish that you could watch movies in your own home with the same experience? Now you can thanks to the next-generation optical disc known as Blu-ray.

The Blu-ray Disc Association, including leading companies like Apple Computer Inc., Sony Corporation, Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros. Entertainment and Twentieth Century Fox, developed the Blu-ray. This type of disc offers viewers a high-definition experience. The picture is sharper and the colors are more vivid than they are on a standard DVD. Blu-ray has five times better detail than DVDs. The sound with Blu-rays is also high-definition. You can watch movies in your home with wall shaking sound and picture clarity that you enjoy in theatres.

One reason the picture and sound quality are better with Blu-ray discs is they can hold five times more data than DVDs. This means more storage space for high-definition picture and sound along with more special features. There is more room for bloopers, deleted scenes and commentary than on a standard DVD. With this next-generation optical disc, you can also bring up the menu without stopping the movie. While watching the movie, you can even bring up the director to hear him explain the difficulty of shooting the scene you are watching.

Blu-ray discs are able to hold more data because a blue-violet laser is used to write and read the data. Standard DVDs use a red laser. The blue-violet laser, unlike the red laser, has a shorter wavelength. This means that the laser can be focused with better precision so more data can be saved in a smaller space. A single-layer Blu-ray disc can hold 25GB while a dual-layer can hold up to 50GB. A single-layer DVD, on the other hand, can only hold 4.7GB and a dual-layer holds 8.5GB.

The next-generation discs are also scratch and fingerprint resistant. Each disc is hard-coated to prevent scratches and protect stored data. Blu-ray players can read both Blu-rays and standard DVDs, but you will be able to tell a difference between the two. With Blu-ray, the explosions in movies are brighter and louder, landscape shots are clearer and brighter, the music is more powerful and you feel like you are part of the movie. Watching movies at home with your own popcorn just got better.

A few years ago, the term 3G conjured up visions of some future technology that would allow those of us with cell phones to view web pages without having to wait several minutes. It seemed amazing but impossible.

Now, 3G is here and is now an option on most mobile devices. It's good. It's fast. But what exactly is it?

Simply put, 3G means "third generation." It's the third generation of wireless technologies and has been in existence for most of the past decade, but it has taken a while for telecommunications companies to upgrade their technology to support the protocol. Each wave promises new enhancements, new features, and with 3G, it's no exception. You get faster speeds for downloading information from the Internet, and faster speeds mean better support for audio and video. For example, with 2G technology, it would take about 8 minutes to download a 3-minute mp3 song. With 3G, the time is only 15 seconds.

Video streaming is supported, which means Internet TV and videoconferencing is a possibility, especially if the user is solitary. You can send and receive faxes, and open email with large attachments. Geolocation is also supported, so you can find nearby businesses or get personalized information such as weather and traffic based on your location.

3G is similar to WiFi – the kind of Internet connection you can get at your local coffee shop – but it is portable. You get fast speeds when stationery, but with 3G you take the connection with you. Although speeds aren't as fast when you are moving, it still allows for a longer range than regular WiFi technology. Speeds for 3G range from 144KB/sec to 2MB/sec.

Finally, 3G offers more security than its predecessors. The technology allows the device to authenticate the network to prevent any rogue networks to connect. However, some serious vulnerabilities have been found in the encryption.

Thanks to 3G, you can finally get acceptable speeds on your mobile device. It's a huge improvement over the glacial speeds of 1G and 2G. But don't get too comfortable. 4G is already making inroads, and the speeds will make 3G look like dial-up. Get ready to fly.

Laser is an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, which means light is amplified before it is released as synchronized waves of electromagnetic energy that form of a tightly-focused beam of light. Lasers and their precursor the maser are based on theories of stimulated and spontaneous emission of electromagnetic radiation first proposed by Albert Einstein in 1917.

From the 1930s to the 1950s, various scientists attempted to develop functional laser and microwave maser devices. Until the first laser was developed in 1960, the competition, urgency, and pressure to reach the goal was comparable to a multi-national space-race. In the Soviet Union, Nobel-winning physicists Aleksandr Prokhorov and Nikolay Basov were rushing to develop laser and maser devices. In the U.S., Bell Laboratory employees Charles Townes and Arthur Schawlow were favorites to win the laser race through ample funding from the Bell Telephone Company. Columbia University graduate, and physicist for Technical Research Group Gordon Gould was also hot on their trail. Almost simultaneously, Prokhorov, the Townes and Shawlow team, and Gould hit upon the same solution, which they scrambled to patent. For the next three decades, Gould (the first to coin the term laser) contested the patent rights of Bell, Hughes Research, and several other companies.

To produce a focused beam that is capable of traveling great distances, atoms and electrons must be manipulated to produce consistent wavelengths with identical frequencies, phases, and alignment. Einstein proposed in his theory of stimulated emission that atoms could induce identical atoms to release energy in the form of light. Scientifically, heat, light, and electricity are forms of energy. In lasers, atoms are charged by an intense flash of light that stimulates electrons and pushes atoms from ground-state to levels of excitation. Eventually, these excited atoms must return to the relaxed ground-state. To do so, they release their excess energy in the form of photons. When one atom releases a photon or a unit of light, it triggers a chain-reaction where nearby atoms also release their photons. To produce the concentrated laser beam, light is amplified by mirrors that reflect wavelengths through a gain medium, such as ruby crystal impregnated with chromium or reactive gases, before the beam is emitted through a semi-mirrored aperture.

Today, the smallest diode lasers are used in CD players, DVD players, laser printers, and hand-held laser pointers. Lasers with varying frequencies have also been used for welding, precision cutting, high-tech electronics, medical and cosmetic procedures as well as missile and defense systems.

Digital TV is something many of us use every day, and yet few of us understand the difference between digital and analogue TV. In 2009, the United States transitioned permanently from analogue to digital TV. A handful of other countries have done this and others plan to follow. During this transition, you may have heard things about how digital TV used less spectrum, or how it’s not fuzzy, but you may not completely understand why or how these things happen. Let’s take a closer look at what digital TV is and how it differs from analogue TV.

It is easy to think of the different types of TV like the different types of pictures. Think of having a physical print of a picture as analogue TV, and having a picture on your computer as digital TV. The digital copy is perfect in that it can be infinitely copied without losing quality, and it does not degrade over time. When you get a digital TV signal over-the-air, you get it in exactly the same quality it was at when it left the station. High-definition signals can even be transmitted over the air without losing quality. If you have a print of a photo, then it might be perfect quality at first. But it is susceptible to damage, and if it is copied the copy is usually lower quality. Analogue TV is like this – it is possible to get the same quality signal as is transmitted, but if you live far away from the broadcast tower, you may get a slightly degraded signal. Also, it is more susceptible to degradation and interference.

These differences are caused by the different types of signals. Analogue TV uses a waveform signal – it broadcasts a signal over a large range of spectrum, and sometimes the wave gets a bit messed up. Digital TV broadcasts signal as packets – small groups of 1s and 0s. Because the signal can only be a 1 or a 0, it is much harder to be interfered with. Also, it uses a smaller range of radio spectrum.

Of course, most people do not use over-the-air signals as I have talked about, but instead have their TVs wired to cable boxes (or satellite receivers). The cables you use to connect your TV to these sources have the same issues – they can be analogue or digital (though almost everything now is digital), but usually an analogue signal does not have as many interference problems when it is run through a cable.