If you’re building a PC, chances are good that if you’re going to make a mistake, the selection you will make a mistake on is the case. Sure, you might like for it to look like a spaceship, but you might not be so keen on it sounding like one. Looks aren’t everything, and while colored LEDs, windowed panels, and LCD screens all look cool, at the end of the day all you should want in a case is the three C’s of cases: Cooling, Conditioning, and Convenience. How does Fractal Design’s Define R4 stack ...

Fractal Define R4 Unboxing & Review

With an increasing number of PC users no longer finding an optical drive necessary, it has become common to offload tasks normally given to writable CDs and DVDs to more flexible and portable devices like USB flash drives or SD cards. However, there is one operation that still almost universally relies on some form of optical storage: installing an operating system. With so many tools out there available to (attempt to) carry out the task of transloading OS installation files to portable media, how is one ...

Top Tools: Transferring an OS Installation DVD to USB

As you can probably imagine, I’ve had some experience with tablets as they’ve boomed over the last couple of years. But what might surprise you is that a tech guy like me has not ever personally owned a tablet of his own. If you ask me, a smartphone and a laptop completely cover the functionality a tablet offers. What’s the point of a tablet? And yet, despite wondering about the answer to this question, I’ve made the decision: I’m getting into the tablet universe. Why? (+) A Consuming Device ...

Why I’m Getting a Tablet (by an anti-tablet guy)

So you check in to the hotel after a long day of travel, find your room, unpack your bags, and kick back on the bed with your laptop to catch up on the interwebs. Only problem is…all you get is a blank white screen. What’s going on? How can you get past the issue to start browsing? Turns out the answers are simpler than you might think. Today’s tip is quite basic, but it can be handy in a multitude of situations. The Problem So before we can address the fix, we have to know what’s going wrong, ...

When WiFi won’t Work (Tip)

There’s no doubt about it in my mind: Windows 8’s new UI is pretty slick. However, as it only replaces the Start Menu of last generation (ok, the last several generations), it is still very much necessary to pay the familiar Windows desktop a visit on a daily basis. Now, while it may not be difficult to hit the Windows key on your keyboard, type the name of the app you want, and hit Enter, some might still prefer to have shortcuts on their Desktop or Taskbar leading to Metro/Modern UI Windows 8 apps. ...

Windows 8 App Shortcuts on Desktop Tutorial