Desktop Computer Basics by Dave Stewart
When buying a computer it helps to know some basic information about components and processes. Hopefully these explanations will give you a better understanding of how a computer functions, and enable you to ask the salesman some productive questions. ... Hard Drive Hard drives allow the storage of data on the computer. ... Optical Drives Optical drives (DVD/CD readers and writers) are similar to standard CD or DVD players. ... Hard Drives utilise magnetism to read and write data. ... A hard disk uses rotating 'platters' or disks which are made up of millions of 'bits'.

Choosing a Portable MP3 Player: Part 1 by Jason Kohrs
MP3 players are everywhere! It seems that the number of makes and models in this market is growing daily, with features and capabilities intended to appeal to just about anyone shopping for one of these devices. MP3 players have been around much longer than the Apple iPod , but there is no... Hard drive-based units can provide much more space, and your typical Apple iPod and Creative Zen will use a hard drive in order to achieve their capacities of up to 40GB. ... Due to the basic capacity limitation of flash memory, hard drive based units are required by those who need to store thousands...

What Is an iPod? by Daniel Dwase
An iPod is a portable music media player designed and marketed by Apple Computer with a huge capacity, a rechargeable battery that lasts between eight to ten hours of playback and it’s currently the world's best-selling digital audio player. It uses a simple user interface designed around a... iTunes is a music software application that stores a comprehensive library of the user's music on their computer,and can play and rip music from a CD. ... The older iPods with FireWire ports can function as external hard drives without any additional iPod functionality in FireWire Disk Mode.

Playstation 3 and the Blu-Ray DVD Drive by Darren Lintern
The Playstation 3 console now comes equipped with the Blu-Ray DVD Drive. This is intended to aid the graphic and home entertainment options for the user. This is a new concept that most buyers are unlikely to be familiar with. However, Sony believes that once everyone starts using the new DVD... Further to this is the ability to download DVD's via the internet to the systems hard drive. ... It is being widely anticipated that the Blu-Ray DVD Drive will be very well received by the electronic buffs worldwide who are excited by the prospect of having a DVD drive that be able to play, record,...

Computer Hardware by Sardool Sikandar
Computer hardware means the physical part of a computer and it is totally different from computer software or computer programs and data that are used within hardware. The hardware of a computer is rarely changed as compared with software and data, which are readily shaped, modified or erased on... Some type of a removable media writer includes CD, CD-ROM Drive, CD Writer, DVD, DVD-ROM Drive, DVD Writer, DVD-RAM Drive, Floppy disk, Zip drive, USB Flash Drive, Tape drive - mainly for backup and long-term storage, Internal storage that keeps data inside the computer for later use.

How To Rip A CD by Nicola Tewhare
MP3 is a common way of storing music on the computer. It is widely used because it compresses the audio file to a small size so you can ultimately squash more files on the hard-drive. If you are any sort of music fan, you probably would have heard of this already and both possess a CD Ripper and... The reason MP3 has become popular is it's specific aspect of utilizing all the space you have available on your computers hard-drive.The average CD uses around 700mb of memory whereas the MP3 file uses close to 60mb of memory.

Data Storage Media – A Guide to Selecting Media For Storing and Backing Up Computer Data by David Haysom
Data, or information stored on your computer, can either be held on fixed disk drives inside the computer or on removable media such as CD's that can be inserted and removed. Removable media can be used to transfer files between computers or to backup the data already existing on fixed disk drives. ... The E-CD can be played on a CD player but to view additional material you need access to a multimedia-capable device, such as a CD-i player, DVD-ROM, or CD-ROM drive. ... Ideal for… Making music CD's Storing photos Storing permanent data Not so good for… Transferring files as...

Review of Rio MP3 Players by Bradley James
Below you will find some useful information and comments about a few of the most popular MP3 players by Rio, including the Nitrus, Carbon, Cali, and Forge. None of these MP3 players are perfect, but each offers a unique set of strengths and weaknesses that should be taken into consideration... Also, it seems that the player may not be able to play regular mp3 formats you may have on your pc hard drive. ... Price: $230 Rio Cali 128 MB Sport MP3 Player Manufacturers Description: Wrapped in grippy, protective rubber, the Cali 128 is built to play hard.

3.5" FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) is Dead! Long live the USB Drive! by Akhilesh Singh
Do you remember the last time you used the FDD drive of your computer, and for what? Chance is if you have used it then it would be for some emergency booting of the computer, or for recovery of your broken OS. Meaning you would have not used it for data transfer using this medium. ... Example includes: - USB Hard Disk Drives - Zip Drive with USB interface - digital camera acting as an USB drive for accessing the photographs directly on any computer - PDAs like Palm that already connect to the computer using USB acts as a USB drive for accessing the data stored in its memory and SD/MMC...

Will the Xbox 360 Have an Achilles Heel? by Jay Turner
The Xbox 360 is promising to be a phenomenal console. But despite all the bells and whistles and an improved game selection, it may still have an achilles heel that keeps it from grabbing new buyers from Playstation. Not only will the slick Xbox 360 design build on the grean and black of the... In answer to the dismay over the apparent lack of an included hard drive, it was recently announced at http://www.xbox-games.xbox-360-news.info that attachable hard drives will be available. ... The Xbox 360 controller, lacking those two buttons, means any Madden player will be limited.