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Technology has become more and more crucial to people’s daily lifestyles however; buying gadgets can be expensive if you do not know what sites give you the best deals. In this post, I will list you the websites that give the best deals online which also happen to be the sites that I check whenever, I am in the market to buy a new gadget. I buy the majority of my gadgets by ordering them over then Internet because I can save a lot of money as long as I don’t need it right away. For example, I ordered a 16 Gigabyte SDHC memory card and it was only $30 from Newegg while if I went to a retail store with the same $30 I would only be able to buy a 4 GB memory card. I find it ridiculous that I get ¼ the capacity for the same price just because it is slightly more convenient.

It is for this reason that I recommend buying technology online because as long as you do not need it immediately, you can get an amazing deal and maybe get even more for less money! The following websites are the websites that I personally use when I want to buy a new gadget:

1.    Newegg
Newegg.com is usually my first stop because they usually have the best deals and they have a wide variety of products. In addition, they have great customer service and their deliveries usually arrive within three days! Newegg also has bargain deals and a recommendation engine that recommends products based on what you bought and what you looked at.
2.    Tiger Direct
Tiger Direct is usually my second choice and although the prices are not as affordable, they are still better than most retail stores. Tiger Direct has most of the same features that Newegg does and is a great option if Newegg does not have the product you want or you are looking to see if the price you found is the best option.
3.    Amazon
Amazon.com is one of the biggest online marketplaces and not only sells their own products but, also allows anyone to sell their own property. It has the same features but, because of the fees vendors usually need to increase the cost of products because they want to make a profit and cover their fees.

The process that I usually take is I look for the product on all three sites and then buy from the website that has the best price. I hope that everyone who read this article uses my suggestions and get better prices on the technology you want.

There are so many web browsers available but, there is on that is significantly better than all the rest. Mozilla Firefox is the greatest Web Browser currently available. Firefox has so many advantages over other browsers from it’s extendibility with the thousands of add-ons available to get the most out of Firefox, to it’s superior speed to other browsers, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Netscape and all other browsers are blown away!

First of all, Firefox is free and open source so if there are any problems, they can be fixed by anyone who knows how to code and can be submitted for approval to be released to all other users. In addition, users can type: about:config and tweak the internal settings of Firefox and optimize the browser. I would like to warn you all, that if you make a mistake with those settings it may make Firefox crash or just stop working so only make these modifications if you know what your doing. But, even without tweaking it, Firefox is still much faster than any other browser!

Another amazing part of Firefox is add-ons, which allows you to choose and install additional programs that extend the functionality of Firefox. This is my favorite part of using Firefox because I can integrate additional services into my browsing experience and makes using Firefox even better!

Similarly, Themes allow you to install different color schemes and icons schemes for Firefox and lets you make your browser your own! It makes you feel more at-home using a browser that has colors that you like.

With all these options and advantages it makes Firefox my sole web browser on all computers I use because of it’s flexibility.  Firefox allows the user utilize it to get what they want done.

Myspace, Facebook, Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, Flickr, Digg, Friendster, Youtube, and Twitter are just some of the many Social networks on the Internet open for membership. The problem is that because of the growth of social networking there are so many amazing services available online, and it makes it too difficult to keep all these services up-to-date. I, like many other people, have a habit of signing up for new social networks as soon as I can. Then, after a while, I can’t keep up with all my social profiles and certain accounts become dormant since I could not keep track of all the profiles.

Since the dawn of the Web 2.0 bubble, social networks spring up all over the Internet. Some are improvements of other services while others, are all new innovative services.  There is already such an excess of web services and it is hard to tell which is the best and even worse there are so many general-use social networks like Myspace and Facebook and it is very hard for users to connect with all their friends who use a variety of services. The inconvenience of having all these networks to keep up-to-date defeats any benefits of using the services in the first place. There also many single-purpose services like Flickr and Twitter, that do only one thing and in some cases they do that service extraordinarily well, like Flickr.     Meanwhile, there are many other services that are not that great and are not worth getting an account with.  The other problem, is that certain types of social networks like video networks are a dime a dozen, and many of them are just not as good as others.  But, even with all these services, they still each have their own separate account and cannot integrate with one-another for the most part. Facebook, has recently added applications that allows integration with other web services and allows you to merge accounts without actually merging them.

General-purpose networks like Facebook have the functions of many other services like, video, photos and chat. However, Facebook photo does not offer nearly as many features as Flickr as an example. I use many social networks, but, for my general purpose social profile, I use Facebook, because it simply has the best features and with Applications, it allows you to integrate you Facebook profile with many other social networks.

My recommendation to anyone who is considering creating a social network, is to only develop it if it is an original idea or if it has major advantages over existing services of a similar nature.  Even then, if the service already exists, it will be white noise to most people because they already have an account with that service.

I believe that for social networks to continue to thrive, they need to utilize more syndication of content, between networks and make APIs for developers to be able to make the best connection tools. I also think technologies like, OpenID that allow you to use one single login to access many services.

With as many people who use email as their primary communication tool, I think that delivered postal mail better known online as “Snail Mail” is no longer necessary. I cannot remember the last time that I sent a written letter, while I send at least 2 e-mails everyday! Even important mail like bills can now be paid online with a credit card! The Internet can be used to send both card and share pictures, which are, even more things that do not need to be sent by postal mail. Money can be transferred or gifted via Paypal or any other similar service. The other advantage of communicating over the internet is that messages are received instantly while, postal mail takes at least 2 days to be received.

One service that needs to continue is for physical packages because that cannot be done any other way currently.  But, that will have to continue still!

As I mentioned in my Best Sites to buy Tech article, I buy as much as I can online because the prices are so much more reasonable and as long as I can wait for it to be delivered it is a much better deal. The problem is, now that E-commerce has become so prevalent, less people buy from retail stores and buy more online and makes it much harder for retailers to stay in business. E-commerce offers almost anything you need and for lower prices because they do not need to pay rent to keep a physical store or pay people to operate the store.

In my opinion is that in order to keep people from buying most of their goods from the Internet and support retail stores, the stores need to reduce their profit and cut back so that they can stay competitive with the online retailers. The other change they need to make is to offer more options because online retailers offer hundreds of thumb drives and provide a wide range of pricing options. Meanwhile, retail stores might only have 3 to 5 options and a much more limited price range.

Retail stores that I think will survive are places like pharmacies that cannot operate online due to the risk of people fraudulently attempting to get pills. I also think that retail stores that are more experiences and not just walk-in and buy. The best example is the Apple store, which is a great environment to try out and buy products. I also think stores that have day-to-day necessities like food, clothing and shelter will remain open because people do not want to wait 3-5 days for a carton of milk. All-in-all retail stores need to make a major change in order for them to compete with online retailers.

Originally, I did not see why people would spend $25/year for Flickr Pro just to post pictures online. That was of course, before I began using Flickr originally as a Free user and discovered how powerful it was and how enjoyable and simple it was to share your pictures!

At first I decided I could try Flickr out at first and use a free account and see if it would be necessary for me to pay for the Pro account.  However, because I had a free account I was limited to only uploading 100 Megabytes each month and because of that I would have to stagger the pictures that I upload to get the best pictures online and hold off on the lower-quality images until the next month. I also could only make 3 sets, which group pictures from similar events or similar subject matter. This was not too much of a problem until I got my new Cannon Powershot 1100IS, which takes much higher resolution, pictures to significantly larger, file sizes. These two factors were huge in my decision to get Flickr Pro.  Sets were essential for me because I like to have everything organized and easy to find.  I thought about if for a long time but, then I realized it was totally worthwhile for me with as many pictures I take and would like to share with my friends and family.

For anyone who is considering getting Flickr Pro I recommend trying the Free account first and see if you want the extra features and if you do then go ahead and buy Flickr Pro.  For $25 /year you get unlimited picture storage which I think is an unbelievable value to you.  Flickr is great for casual photographers and if you are a more serious photographer, then you are probably better off with paying for Flickr Pro!

By utilizing internet-based services that I have mentioned in this blog, you as the consumer are able to get a major savings and in many cases, you are able to have access to even more features. Below is a chart of the services that can be replaced by web services. Internet Services can replace utilities in your home as well as computer applications and much more.

1. Phone- Skype
2. TV and Movies- Amazon Unbox
3. Cds- Amazon Mp3 Store
4. Microsoft Office- Google Docs

Wikipedia is a informative website that allows anyone to provide information on any topic making a web-based encyclopedia that is a collaboration of everyone’s knowledge. However, many educators and other skeptics do not believe that Wikipedia is a viable source of information and do not allow students to use it for research papers.

However, I believe that because the fact that anyone can post, edit and add information that wikipeida allows informationm to be fact check by anyone and edit it so that the most accurate information is posted. I believe it is ignorant for educators to not accept the new trend in information and not allowing students to utilize it. Personally, I use Wikipedia evertime I need information quick because it has alot of information on a wide variety of topics from a wide range of perspectives.

Every computer user has important data on their computer that they would be in trouble if they loose in the case of a hardware failure or software crash.  Every computer expert recommends that you should backup all your crucial data to an external device like a external hard drive, thumb drive or optical disk. However, what happens if there is a natural disaster or fire burning down your residence and making your backup totally useless. Plus, you would have to setup backing up even if you have a program, you would have to set it up yourself and pay for the media to put it on. This whole process is a total chore and still is not a perfect backup method.

However, if you sign up for a online backup service, you can set your computer to upload everything as files change and be sure that it is safe even if your residence is destroyed. The two services that I have used are Jungle Disk and Mozy.  Jungle Disk uses Amazon’s S3 service and charges a mere 15 cents per Gigabyte. However there are also some setup fees and uploading speeds also. Mozy on the other hand, has a free account that has 2 GB of free storage, and then an unlimited storage account for only $5/month per computer.  I decided that was the better service because as it backs up, it puts all the data online and secure from harm. The one disadvantage, is that with Jungle Disk you can upload from as many computers and mount the storage as a disk drive on your computer. However, Jungle Disk requires you to buy a backup application for an additional one time fee of $20, however there is a 30 day trial to start you off.

I have replaced localized backups with using Mozy’s unlimited service, and their included applications makes it so easy and I don’t even think about backing up my data but, I know it is safe!  I reccommend everyone using online backup because, the data is always safe and takes no thought or effort!

Anymore, I do not see the need for having office work done on paper or manually, since the dawn of new, more reliable technologies that can make office life simpler and much more productive. Paper can be damaged, lost, stolen and destroyed, while moving digitally, could prevent the problem of if the office burns down, the business goes with it!  Computers have been more utilized in recent years but I believe that in the future, offices will go completely digital and offices would be completely based on computers.

As an example, I will list the general things that offices need and list their digital replacements:

File Cabinets- Computer hard drives, Web Storage, Internal storage server

Paperless offices are great, despite the fear involved by some people who are computer-phobic might be worried but, as long as data is backed up frequently and off-soite all your data will be safe and much easier to access.

Phones- Skype/VOIP

Skype as I have mentioned before is a much more affordable replacement to landlines and could save offices lots of money and calls can be made anywhere in the world!

Messages/Memos- Email

As for internal company messages just move it all to email, Gmail has a great enterprise solution and could be a great replacement

This is just scratching the surface of the paperless office and although it may be scarry, it is worth it for new companies starting up, along with old companies as a system update for the best.