CZA-10011B - Polaroid POGO Digital Instant Mini Printer, Battery/Mains Portable, Bluetooth/USB - see Details

The Intel Atom is a small, inexpensive, energy-efficient microprocessor that is found in the majority of netbooks shipping today. Designed by Intel Corp. from the grounds-up and to be introduced into a wider range of computing environments, Atom and its derivatives will power many of the low-power computers to be sold in 2009, and beyond. This TekSpek explains what Atom is, and how it's changing the market.

Intel’s been on a mission of late. That mission revolves around grouping and standardising key technologies under various banners that are designed to ensure hardware compatibility and consumer ease of use. We’ll take a closer look at three such technologies that fall under the headings of Centrino, Viiv, and vPro, respectively.

You've probably read the USB Tekspek, and perhaps your intrigue, or product interest, has lead you to look up Firewire as well. The two are similar in some respects, particularly some of the products that use the two technologies. However, Firewire has its differences, which means it has both benefits and drawback when compared to USB. This Tekspek will look at Firewire and also look at it with respect to USB.

Stating basics, every personal computer that's currently sold requires some form of CPU, motherboard, memory, storage, and graphics that output to a display. These components are common to both desktop and laptop computers.

A motherboard’s main job is to act as a conduit between the various hardware elements that make up a PC. It needs to be able to link the desired CPU(s), system memory, graphics card, hard drive(s), and add-in cards and enable them to work in harmony.

If you've used a computer for any duration of time you'll have come across the terms “kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte” and so on. Then there's “kilobit, megabit and gigabit” to add a bit of confusion and to top it all off you've maybe heard or read terms like “gibibyte” on occasion.

In computing terms, system buses are used to connect various components to the motherboard’s core logic and, often, to each other. Modern PCs run with a multitude of high-speed buses ranging from the interconnects between, say, the chipset and the CPU, graphics card, memory, and peripherals.

You’d be right to think that it’s possible to carry out basic video editing on any modern PC running Windows XP - straight out of the box. XP includes the Windows Movie Maker video-editing program and, although it lacks frills, it does what it does quite well.

For many people reading this TekSpek, opening up a desktop PC and upgrading it, or even building one from scratch, isn’t that big a deal. If you know what goes where, it’s not all that hard. However, there seems to be some form of stigma surrounding laptops when it comes to upgrading them. There need not be, though.

Laptop sales are booming, with industry analysts predicting that up to 70-million units will be shipped in 2006. The figure’s seto to rise by over 15% in the next 3 years, so laptops are seriously big business.

When looking to upgrade your PC, RAM is one of the first places to look. More RAM reduces the amount the page file is used, speeding up programs and allowing you to run more applications simultaneously

What makes a PC tick? Is it the processor, graphics card, RAM, or a plethora of other peripherals. It’s all those and more, but none would be much use without a means of connecting said components in an efficient manner. That’s where your humble motherboard comes in. Its job is to ensure that all devices can communicate correctly, and the beating heart of any motherboard is the chipset it’s based upon.

Home networking let’s you do great things that aren’t possible with standalone PCs. Printers can be shared between PC, so there’s no need to buy one for each machine.

WiFi is a wonderful thing. You can take your laptop anywhere in your house and access the Internet, or access your network from the garden. However, it does introduce the grim possibility of somebody else doing exactly the same, without you ever knowing. This guide seeks to make you aware of various security terms and ideas associated with wireless networking and what you should consider when setting up a wireless network.

This TekSpek explains the essentials required to run a 64-bit operating system and native 64-bit applications on a modern 64-bit capable PC system.