Kevin’s Stories and Columns

With the introduction of the Blu-Ray format a couple of years ago, consumers have been given the choice of whether they want to continue to watch regular DVDs, or pay the extra money for the better picture and sound that Blu-Ray offers.

The most desired phone on the market is the iPhone, even though it’s one of the most expensive. It started off as a toy for geeks, but with improvements, and third party applications now available, it is growing in popularity, and for good reason, it’s actually easy to use.

Smart phones are changing the cell phone market with their abundance of features and intuitive designs. They are handheld computers, and are designed for more than just making a phone call.

Since this is my last column for this school year, it makes perfect sense to me that I share some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned over the last year that have made the hours per day I spent on computers much easier, and I hope they do the same for you.

In the past couple of weeks, Facebook released their new Terms of Service, which many users and websites protested it, because of the way it reads. It appeared to say anything you post to Facebook becomes their property, forever. Within days, Facebook reverted to its old terms, instead opting to invite users to have a say in a revised Terms of Service.

As more people use computers on a daily basis, some are beginning to truly use the internet to their advantage, and not just for email, Facebook, or checking the latest news. Some users are using modern websites to backup their data, syncronize files between computers, and even replace desktop programs with web-based applications that they can access from anywhere.

Hate it or love it, Windows Vista is here to stay.

From the day it hit the shelves, Windows Vista has had a bad reputation, and for good reason. For the longest time, it didn’t work with a lot of hardware and software. I switched back to XP when some of my hardware wouldn’t work with Vista. Its release proved what consumers are willing to put up with in terms of software.

Have you backed up your files lately? If not, you risk losing them forever.

No one should rely on any one storage device for their data. Always keep your files in multiple locations, including usb thumbdrives, CD or DVD, external hard drives, and other mediums.

Students are using USB thumbdrives to carry a lot of their work between school and home, but those handy devices might accidentally carry a virus that could infect another computer if the user isn’t careful.

With more people, especially the younger crowd, turning to the internet for most of their education and information needs, some may wonder if choosing to listen online is hurting local radio.

It seems local stations providing online audio streams isn’t hurting local listenership at all, in fact, it’s helped boost it to unprecedented levels.