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Universal serial bus flash drives and external drives work like CDs and DVDs. They are also convenient to use – but not all motherboards support bootable USB devices. Modern computers can boot from hard drives, disc drives, network drives and USB drives, but PCs created before the development of USB drives don’t support booting from USB. To discover whether you computer can load from a bootable USB drive, check the settings in the basic input/output system to see which boot devices the PC supports....

Secure digital, or SD, cards are a type of Flash memory format intended for use in digital cameras, cellphones and countless other portable electronic devices. Also compatible with your home computer, SD cards are designed to be an efficient and portable method of saving, copying and transferring data between devices. If you want to test an SD card to make sure it’s functioning properly, you can do so using your Microsoft Windows PC....

The iPod may be most commonly thought of as a personal music playing device, but it is possible to use it for much more than that. With a few clicks of your mouse, you can stop carrying around a separate flash drive and transfer its files to your iPod instead. On non-touchscreen iPods, the process of unlocking this capability is a simple and painless one that can be quickly accomplished, even by those who are not particularly computer-savvy....

The Kindle for iPad/iPhone application lets users download and read any Kindle book directly on an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch device. The application also uses wireless syncing technology to recall the last page you read so you can keep your place in a book across all platforms. Download the Kindle for iPad/iPhone application from the Apple App Store to download all your Kindle books to an Apple device. As of March 2011, the application is free....

When you buy music from iTunes, Apple ensures that you have access to your purchases from any device at any time via iCloud. Music that you ripped yourself is another story. Apple doesn’t offer the option to put your own songs on iCloud. However, you can transfer them to your computer using the iTunes app and your iPad’s USB cable. Any song files that are recognized by iTunes will be recognized by the iPad, including MP3s and CD rips....

Translation programs and books are a fantastic way to bridge language gaps and a great resource for people across the globe. Many ways exist to translate words or text, but Web-based translation programs are highly accessible and often free. Google offers a simple yet robust translation program capable of translations in 57 languages and includes a specialized “Language Detector,” so you don’t even need to enter the language from which you are translating....

Saving money on television repairs has become a far more obtainable goal, thanks to the wealth of self-help information made available to consumers over the Internet. A large number of common television problems, including those with a Samsung 32-inch TV, can be addressed through the use of self-help troubleshooting. A number of audio and video problems faced can be rectified by looking at the television’s connectivity and setup with with respect to external devices such as a DVD player....

Oscilloscopes are used to measure real-time response of circuit parameters such as voltage, current, frequency, wavelength and power variations with time. They come in analog and digital formats. Usually not very portable, unlike laptops, the idea of using the laptop as oscilloscope is novel and exciting. A few innovative companies have reduced the essentials of a digital oscilloscope to a very portable format that can be interfaced via USB cable to a laptop....

Silent mode prevents your Samsung slider from ringing when you get an incoming call or text. To turn silent mode off or on, slide open the phone while it is on, and hold down the “#” key. When the slash disappears from the speaker icon on the screen, silent mode is off. You can also turn off silent mode or switch to vibrate mode through your phone’s sound settings. Writer Bio

Temporarily Disable Notifications with “Do Not Disturb” If you are only needing the notifications turned off temporarily – for example, the hour it will take you to finish studying – you can simply change your status setting to “Do Not Disturb.” With this status, your contacts will see you online and can still send instant messages or call you, but you will only be alerted with a visual pop-up. All sound notifications are disabled....

Digital converter boxes allow television users to view a digital television signal on their older, analog-only televisions. Most converter boxes come with a remote control, allowing users to turn on the converter box from a distance. However, if you do not have a remote control, you can still manually turn on the device.

With televisions that connect easily to computers, receivers capable of streaming music over Wi-Fi and other high-tech gadgets becoming more commonplace, more users are looking for ways to streamline how their devices are controlled. If you are tired of keeping up with multiple remotes for all your gear, you can use your laptop as a universal remote, not only for your devices and but for controlling home automation gadgets as well....

Posting on Facebook and Twitter can be done via your iPhone. To do this, you typically have to visit and post your message separately on each site. With the help of an app that can combine your Facebook and Twitter accounts, however, you only have to post once to reach both websites at the same time. Several apps exist, each having slight differences. Choosing the right app depends on which social medium you prefer for sharing messages....

While Windows XP is still one of Microsoft’s most popular operating systems, sometimes people will want to remove it to make room for a different OS. When this happens, there are essentially two options for the computer owner. If the version of Windows XP is an upgrade from a previous version of Windows like Windows 95 or 98, then it is a simple matter to just uninstall Windows XP and revert to the older operating system....

T-Mobile has many account features available online, but when the account is locked you can no longer access them. If you pay your bill online, this can mean your payment might be late. It is important to unlock your T-Mobile account after T-Mobile notifies you that it is locked, so you can see your usage, change any settings and pay for your service. Writer Bio

The internal firmware of a Blu-Ray player refers to the digital data structures that facilitate its internal operations. Firmware allows for the reading of different types of data on disks by the player, the customization of display options, the internal clock and many other processes that frequently go unnoticed. Updating the firmware on a Magnavox Blu-Ray player is disk-driven; you must download data and burn it onto a digital storage device, then allow the Blu-Ray player to read it....

If you’ve got Microsoft Word 2002 installed on your computer, you don’t have to go to any specific websites and download and install files if you want to update your software. Because Word (and the entire Office productivity suite) is a Microsoft application, you can update everything all at once by using the Windows Update feature that is built into all versions of the Windows operating system. You just need to have a working Internet connection....

A computer’s system BIOS, or basic input/output system, is firmware that allows a motherboard to boot, test basic system devices to ensure that they are working properly and prepare the system for booting up the operating system stored on the computer’s hard drive. The basic black or blue text screens that appear when a computer is first turned on are part of the BIOS utility. Updating a computer’s BIOS can help ensure that it boots up and runs as efficiently as possible....

Graphic designers, photographers and artists often use Photoshop Document (PSD) files to manage their images. The PSD file format is generated from Adobe Photoshop. PSD files are large, uncompressed files that can be edited without major distortion. Backing up PSD files to multiple locations saves designers from having to recreate their work. You’ll need an account with a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server to upload your files for storage. Warnings Writer Bio

Bose is a leader in speaker technology, due in part to their proprietary speaker design that amplifies sound through the speaker chamber, much like a flute amplifies a small breath of air into a vibrant timbre. While current Bose speaker stations, such as the SoundDock II or SoundDock for iPod have built-in iPod and iPhone docks, you may connect your iPhone to any Bose speaker system that has an auxiliary input function to listen to your favorite music in vibrant clarity....