Anyone who loves gadgets or new electronics has been burned before. You shell out your hard-earned cash for the “latest and greatest” widget and rush home, only to find that it doesn’t perform as promised or hold up for more than 6 months before it stops working. In an age of smart phones, universal remotes, netbooks, HD video cameras, etc. this can be an expensive and frustrating occurrence. Luckily, this digital age also provides us with the internet and the ability to research before we head out to the big-box, retail electronics store. The trick then becomes weeding through the information and determining if the article/site is an advertisement or an honest review of the product in question.
Over the last few weeks, I have written several articles on my switch from DirecTV to a TiVo Premiere setup. Yesterday, I received a series of questions from one of my readers (thanks Dave) and thought that the answers to his questions would make a great article. This way, everyone would benefit from the responses and maybe begin asking some questions of their own. His questions and my responses are outlined below.
If you have read any of our articles before, you know we have just beat the “PCs are like cars” analogy to death. It works for so many of the topics that we cover, but this is NOT one of them. Eventually, we all cave in and decide that it is time for a new computer. Since most computer retailers don’t offer a trade in for that old PC, you find yourself staring at that old PC and wondering what to do with it. Before you decide to toss it out on the curb, you should realize that the old clunker might still serve some purpose in your daily life.
