Over the last few decades, the way that data is stored has evolved faster than just about any form of technology. What used to take large rooms to hold can now fit in one’s fingertips. The pace is increasing, particularly in just the last few years. A decade ago, it wasn’t uncommon to pay hundreds of dollars for data storage devices that now cost less than $10. Today’s data is served more quickly. It maintains its integrity for longer. It’s portable, cheap, and easy to access. The infographic below takes a look at some of the data storage options and the costs associated with them over the past several…

Small business owners know they need internet presence, but what many people don’t realize–often until it’s too late–is that there’s a big difference between a website and a web page. When many business owners think they’re getting a website, they’re actually getting a web page. Web pages are generally low cost or free, but they share space with other people. This means the options are limited, speeds can be slow, but it’s a good choice for a very small business. A “shared hosting account” is a great way to save money, but there are of course risks. There’s a reason people can get one of these accounts…

Hardcore gamers take their games seriously. Dedicated practitioners of the art of steampunk have no problem taking it too far. When you combine the two, the results can be amazing. That’s the case with the computer built below. On one hand, it’s a very strong gaming PC based upon the assumed specs. In other words, it’s not all for show – this puppy should be able to do some serious overclocking. On the other hand, the craftsmanship of the steampunking of the computer is profound. It took some serious time and effort to build this bad boy. Even the keyboard alone would have made our best steampunk keyboards…

Today, we operate in a computer world where speed is graded by megabytes and gigabytes per second in data transfer alone. That doesn’t even go into the amazing computational speeds. Nearly 60 years ago, such speeds could not be comprehended, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t have fast machines of their own. Take the 705 Data Processing System by IBM. It helped business maintain a large number of records, perform arithmetic of numbers as large as 1 million at a rate of over 400 calculations per second, and make “logical operations decisions” at 240,000 per minute. Not too shabby without a Pentium…

Today, you can buy a flash drive with enough memory to store more than a room full of floppy discs. We all know that memory compared to the days before flash drives was much more expensive per megabyte (remember when we used to store memory by the kilobyte?), but even as recently as a decade ago, memory using the same basic technology was so much more expensive. The little froggy above stores 4gb and costs around $7. Compare that to the ad below from a decade ago. At this rate a terabyte will be free a decade from now. Perhaps more importantly, will we have something better than a googly-eyed frog?  …

Some people keep their laptops for a long time. Others upgrade regularly because they think that their laptops are outdated or too slow. In either case, it’s important to know how to keep your laptop running at optimal performance levels so that the decision to get a new laptop is done at the right time rather than out of necessity. The tips below from Hack College are quick and easy, but act as an important reminder about the simple things we can do extend the existence and improve the performance of one of the most important gadgets in our lives. …

Clever. Tasty. Creepy. Hot Pop Factory has been able to make a name for itself by generating creative pieces of jewelry using 3D printers. Now, they’ve used a neat hack with Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system to scan a person’s head, print it out on a 3D printer, and put it on the top of a Pez dispenser. If you’ve ever wanted to distribute candy through a hole beneath a figure of your head on a stick, this is the way to do it. Check out the video of how they scan the heads through Kinect and some images of the finished results:  …

Three challenges that accompany many PCs are cooling, noise, and aesthetics. They need a cool place to operate if you want to run many programs, they get loud, and they look ugly. All of these problems are solved by the AquariusPC. There are three designs named after cool cities around the world – Miami, Bali, and Marrakech – though the only real difference we’ve seen is the color. Don’t let that minor design flaw bother you – the aesthetic might not match a city but it definitely makes a statement. Completely submerged in water, these computers seem to operate just fine and with both cooling and noise…

The original idea was a good one. With internet speeds improving and becoming more abundant, why carry around all of your data and the bulky hard drives necessary to maintain them? Why not store just about everything on the cloud and create machines that could be easily transported everywhere to do nearly everything that can be done by a desktop computer? That was what propelled Asus and other manufacturers to start the netbook revolution in 2007. Their Eee PC was a landmark development in the world of computing, bringing functionality and form to a compact computer that could fill most of our needs…

When Unbox Therapy decides that they want to build something, they go all out. That’s the case here as they have finally put together what they’re calling “The Ultimate Gaming PC”. Here are the specs: Intel 3770K CPU ASUS DirectCU II Top GTX 680 ASUS Xonar Phoebus Soundcard Corsair Obsidian 800D Chassis ASUS Maximus V Formula Windows 7 Ultimate Corsair Dominator Platinum RAM Corsair AX1200i Power Supply Corsair H100 Water Cooling ASUS VG278HE Monitors ASUS Blu-Ray Drive Corsair Neutron GTX SSD WD 3TG Green Drives Corsair Vengeance K90 Keyboard Corsair Vengeance M90 Mouse Check out the video…