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Why it's a good idea to own a USB-to-SATA adapter The USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter the most indispensable tool in my PC repair kit. Just this weekend, it once again proved itself worthy of that title. In a nutshell, the adapter allows you to connect an internal hard drive to your PC-externally. What would an internal drive be doing outside your desktop or laptop? Funny you should ask. About a week ago, my media-center PC starting displaying this message during boot-up: "Hard drive failure imminent." And you know what? It was. In short order, the machine wouldn't boot at all. Long story short, I had to replace the drive, reinstall Windows, etc. But I wondered if I could salvage any/all of my recorded TV shows. To find out, I connected the old, non-booting drive (now "naked" outside the system) to a USB port via my adapter. Huzzah! The machine was able to read the drive and copy over the recordings. Except for the hassles (and expense) of actually replacing the drive, no harm done. There's another reason to keep one of these adapters on hand, and that's if you're planning to upgrade to a solid-state drive (SSD). Unless you buy a kit that comes with an adapter, you'll need one so you can image (i.e. clone) your existing drive to the new SSD. Then you'll remove the old drive, install the new one, and presto, you're back in business. (Much faster business: SSDs rock.) Unless you have a pretty old desktop or laptop, you can skip buying a USB-to-IDE/SATA adapter and just go for USB-to-SATA. At the same time, I recommend one that supports USB 3.0. You may not need it now, but it's a good bet your next PC will have USB 3.0 ports -- and that'll make for much faster copying between drives. Trust me: When the time comes that you need to upgrade or replace a hard drive, you'll be glad to have a USB-to-SATA adapter on hand. By-The Xpert Crew @ http://techvedic.com

Xbox owns your TV Voice commands will be a big part of interacting with the One. While we can assume youll still be able to navigate via your controller or Smart Glass app, Yusef Mehdi, Microsoft's senior vice president of interactive entertainment, demonstrated how to navigate the One using voice commands and gesture control with the updated Kinect sensor. Xbox One Users can instantly activate the One by uttering "Xbox On." The Xbox will be able to differentiate the user's voice and automatically remember where that particular user last left off in the dashboard. One of the most impressive features demonstrated Tuesday was Xbox One's Instant Switching, which moves between functions with little latency. Like the current Xbox Kinect, users can switch between functions with voice commands such as "Xbox go to music" and "Xbox go to game," but the One is able to do it with the ease of switching between television channels. One of the biggest additions is the introduction of live television streams into the Xbox experience. Users can instantly switch to live TV via a prompt of "Xbox Live TV." The One even features a TV Guide-like "Xbox One Guide," which shows what television is available right now alongside on-demand content. Additionally, users will be able to organize media content by "favorites" as well as by what content is currently trending in popularity. Borrowing a trick from Windows 8, the One's new Snap Mode will allow users to multitask between different apps and functions on the same screen. For example, if youre watching a live sporting event, you can prompt the One to access your updated fantasy league stats or search the Web for using Explorer-all in one screen. One will also offer Skype integration and allow users to video chat using the network directly through the Kinect sensor. In effect, Xbox will make any TV it is attached to a smart TV-smarter and more functional than almost any TV we've see

"iPhone 5 Called ""Gadget off the Year"" by Time Magazine, Apple's iPhone 5 (from $199 on 2-year AT&T, Sprint or Verizon plan) is a serious piece of hardware. Along with its powerful new A6 chip, iPhone 5 works on 4G/Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks for wireless speeds that rivals your home's broadband connection. iPhone 5 also has improved cameras: an eight-megapixel iSight rear-facing camera (3264 x 2448 pixels) and front-facing FaceTime camera with 720p HD quality for video calling. Samsung Galaxy S III The Samsung Galaxy S III (from $149 on 2-year plan with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon) is a true smartphone in every sense of the word -- and we're not even referring to its stunning 4.8-inch display, fast LTE speeds or versatile Android operating system. the Galaxy S III's front-facing camera knows when you're looking at the screen, so it'll give you the bright display you seek, but if your eyes look away it'll dim itself to preserve its battery. It also knows when you want to talk: if you're messaging with someone and want to call them, simply lift the smartphone to your ear and it'll dial for you. Nokia Lumia 920 As the flagship Windows Phone 8 device, Nokia's Lumia 920 (from $99.99 on 2-year AT&T plan), has a lot to offer, including a colorful Start screen with ""live tiles""; familiar Microsoft apps like Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote; and a People hub that aggregates all your contacts into one page per person (so you don't need to close, say Outlook, to see what that friend is up to on Facebook or Twitter). HTC Droid DNA and HTC One X+ A pair of Android-powered HTC devices are also worthy of ""best of 2012"" nods: the HTC Droid DNA ($149.99 on 2-year Verizon Wireless plan) and HTC One X+ ($199.99 on 2-year AT&T plan). Protected by Corning's uber-durable Gorilla Glass 2 technology, the Droid DNA's 5-inch 1080p HD screen was built for video, games, ebooks and web browsing. Integrated Beats Audio - an

The release of Microsoft's latest OS Windows 8 is coming with a new version of Internet Explorer. This version is Internet Explorer 10 which also has a built-in spell checker tool. This tool automatically checks and corrects spelling and grammar in webpages. But, many users want to disable this feature permanently. Go through the Techvedic's present tutorial.

Here is good news for Facebook lovers. If you are a Mozilla Firefox user and spend most of your time on Facebook then the latest Firefox version is coming with a new feature called "Social API" which is helpful in accessing social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc. As per this new feature, you can add social network buttons and sidebars in Firefox window so as to chat with your friends, checking messages, notifications, etc. get quick and easy.

If your Windows operating system notifies you about weak Wi-Fi signal then it means your connection is not up to the mark. In order to boost the signal for your wireless network (WLAN), try this tutorial.

Please make sure to follow these steps carefully as serious problems can happen if the Windows registry is modified incorrectly. We recommend you back up the registry before you modify it.

Sometimes being unaware of the USB virus-or malware-infection, you may put your computer security at stake. The AutoPlay feature of the Windows, executes the file or program stored on your device, without asking for permission, and that may bring havoc on the operating system as well as the confidential data stored on the machine. Thus, you need to disable the AutoPlay feature to deter such security breaching.

For Windows 7 and 8 users, this tutorial is suitable to add an external drive for large music collections.

Shopping is not an easy task. When it comes to buy a gadget for your work related needs, you need to be very specific and attentive. In this tutorial, we are highlighting business features among the different operating systems as well as the best specs for business which you should keep in mind while purchasing your smartphone.

After installing bunch of applications, the context menu gets cluttered. Thus, it is important to clean those applications.

If you were not happy with the Surface RT touchscreen response, then it's worth to spend some time here. Tweaking the registry settings, you can find a quick and easy way around.

Michael Bluejay's Saving Electricity site reveals that powering a desktop PC with a 17-inch LCD, 8 hours a day, 20 days a month costs about $35 a year. It also claims that computers and electronics consume nearly 10 percent (in some cases below) of the average energy bill. Hence, you should take considerable approach to reduce the PC's carbon footprint.

Sometimes a document created in MS Office Word can be a bit longer than you actually required. In that situation, make use of the "Shrink to Fit" option to reduce the length of your document by considerably shrinking the Font size.

This type of error stems up while opening any of the constituent Microsoft Office Starter applications.