Articles News & Reviews - eCoustics.com

The Sneakiest Kinds of Malware

Some malware attacks are so blatant you can’t miss the fact that you’ve been victimized. Ransomware programs lock out all access to your computer until you pay to have it unlocked....
How much RAM, or memory, do I need in my PC?

Typical RAM sticks. A big concern for computer buyers is how much memory they want to have in their next investment. This is understandable — the amount of RAM you have...
Fastest Mobile Networks 2013

AT&T and Verizon are battling it out to build nationwide, high-speed wireless networks to feed Americans’ millions of hungry smartphones and tablets, and Sprint and T-Mobile aren’t far behind. So, for...
Get Organized: How Start Becoming More Organized

“What do you want to know about getting organized?” That’s a question I ask my colleagues and friends every so often to get ideas for this column. The last time I...
Five Rules to Get the Best Price Online Every Time

It’s not easy to be an online shopper. ‘Best price’ pledges often fail to deliver, and it seems like every month there’s a new cutting-edge shopping app or highly promoted comparison...
iOS 7: What Was Jony Ive Thinking?

A lot of people are calling iOS 7 “beyond flat.” Wouldn’t that mean indented or something? I’ve been looking at the new mobile operating system, which to me seems to be...
A Guide to the “Kernel Security Check Failure” Blue Screen of Death Error

Error Name: KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE STOP Code: 0×000000139 All right, you’ve been hit with a relatively serious BSoD, called KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE. Sounds bad, right? Fortunately, we can help. This error sometimes appears on your...
Kickstarter Tech Project of the Week: SONTE

Project Name: SONTE: iPhone/iPad Android DIY WiFi Digital Shade Category: Design Goal: $200,000 Currently Funded: $100,800 Deadline for pledging: July 3, 2013 Now you see it, now you don’t. That’s the...
What To Do If Your MacBook Battery Won’t Charge

I suspect that Apple’s design team spent an absurd amount of time and money developing the way a MagSafe connector clicks into place when you plug in your MacBook Pro or...
The God of Squander Runs Yahoo

So Yahoo bought a few more companies for undisclosed sums of money and now I’m totally confused because one of them is sending business away from Yahoo. One of its acquisitions,...
Removing the AVG Toolbar and Undoing its Browser Changes

Recently, someone wrote in and told us that they had the AVG Toolbar installed on their web browser, don’t know how they got it, and couldn’t remove it. AVG, the company...
Sites to Find and Download Drivers

You might think you’re the driver when it comes to operating your PC. But when you’re dealing with the devices attached to your computer—peripherals like printers and scanners; inputs like keyboards...
How E-Cigarettes Could Provide a Model for All E-Waste

If e-cigarettes were previously overlooked by the tech community, they now have its undivided attention with the news that Silicon Valley heavyweights Sean Parker and Peter Thiel have invested in a...
The NSA Is Mining Our Data. So What?

Can someone explain to me this “top secret” that has been exposed by the carnival surrounding Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency (NSA), and PRISM? Maybe I’m jaded but the four...
How to Buy a Cell Phone

There’s no sense in denying it: For most of us, mobile phones are at the center of our universe. The typical feature set of these things is astounding. It’s your phone,...
A Guide to Physical PC Maintenance

To non-technicians, maintaining your PC may sound like an intimidating task. Nobody wants to accidentally damage their hardware or fumble around when they don’t know what they’re doing — but fortunately,...
The Best Camera Phones

Forget those years of grainy, washed-out photos from cell phone cameras. Today’s higher-end handsets snap pictures that rival many standalone point-and-shoots. Plus, your phone is always in your pocket or purse,...
How to Connect Your Samsung Galaxy S 4 to Your TV

The Galaxy S 4 is Samsung’s largest Galaxy S smartphone yet, with a whopping 5-inch 1080p HD display. It’s great for playing games, watching video, and browsing the Web. But sometimes...
Will the Start Button help people love using Windows 8?

Microsoft has confirmed that the Start Button (in addition to the Windows 8 Start Screen) will be returning to Windows 8, in the upcoming free update, Windows 8.1. Also called Blue,...
Five Useful Tips for Mountain Lion

Here are five miscellaneous useful tips for using Mountain Lion. We cover adding mail accounts, using the integrated Twitter, Vimeo and Flickr, using Game Center, using the Automator, and using Auto...