How Summer Effects Technology: Heat Damage

Summer is a very hot month of the year for a lot of people (especially if you live in Florida, like myself). Unfortunately, technology and heat don't get along. Much like a vehicle, excessive heat can damage parts and cause technology to fail.



One of the main causes of heat damage to technology in the summer is forgetfulness (Even I'm guilty of this one).You'll be going somewhere, and when you park your car under the gleaming sun to go to class or work for a few hours you forget your iPod, Laptop, or even your Smartphone in your car. What kind of effects can this have?

Firstly, battery damage. If your battery is still alright when you get back, you may notice that your battery life has gotten significantly worse. For a smartphone or android device in which you can replace the battery, this may not be such a big deal. For an iPod or iPhone, however, the battery is built in. You're stuck with what you've got. Laptop batteries can be costly, as well.

Another big issue: it can cause is heat cracking. This issue is specific to touch screen devices. Essentially, there will be clearly noticeable cracks along screen, which don't make it quite all the way down to the actual screen, but cosmetically look terrible on the device.

Lastly, and the most troublesome problem, damage to the internal components. If your device was on while you weren't around and the heat gets to it, there's a high possibility it could have damaged some of the internal components. Apple and Android have recently come out with heat sensors in their newer devices that shut down the functioning parts of the device which the heat could severely hurt when this happens (This does NOT protect the battery, just the internal components hopefully), but otherwise, functioning processors and other modules could fry under the extreme heat. If the device is off, make sure you leave it off until it has cooled either by bringing it to a cool enviornment, or running the A/C and waiting a good 30 minutes or so while it cools off.

Overheating devices that are running in a house can cause chip creep which may cause your computer's RAM or Processor to come unseated. If you're not sure of what those terms mean, RAM is memory the computer needs to function. Without RAM, your computer won't boot up; same with the Processor. the processor is what processes all the information on your computer, and tells it where to go. In layman's terms, it does the loading. When these things come unseated, there is not a connection to the motherboard, which acts like a set of highways for data to travel along from one place to another. Without a way to communicate between these two extremely important components, the computer cannot function. Always make sure the room the computer is operating in is not too hot, especially if you're going to be doing any system heavy work, PC gaming, or if you plan to leave your computer running for a long period of time. A good amount of cooling in the computer itsself is always a good way to ensure it does well with battling high tempuratures as well.

So, make sure you don't forget your devices in your vehicle, and have fun this summer season!

-Written by Preston M.

Android Tablet Review - Acer Iconia Tab a500 & Motorola Xoom

As Android tablets have grown in popularity, I've had my chance to toy around with some of them, and now even own one! Having been an IOS user beforehand, getting the chance to use one was something I had looked forward to for a long time. From what I understood, Android Operating Systems were pretty much like the Linux of touch screen devices; they encouraged open source, and were much easier to modify/work with. Since using an Android tablet, that has proven to be very much the case from what I've seen.

I originally began typing this article from an Acer Iconia Tab a500.The first thing about this tablet that struck me as great about it was the fact that the keyboard typed so smoothly (which I've found differs among different devices. Some work beautifully with the keyboard, and some do not; which is mostly determined by the hardware in the tablet). The Iconia Tab comes with 16GB of internal storage, which is pretty good considering apps, and the files you'd most likely store on it; but for that point when you run out of space on it (which will likely happen eventually), it has a slot where you can add a Micro SD card, which can get you up to an additional 32GB. As far as space goes for this, it's great. If for some reason that is not enough however, there is a USB port on the right and side of the tablet that allows you to connect flash drives, and some external HDD's. Memory is clearly not an issue with this tablet.

Another nifty feature it has that most others don't is an HDMI out port, which allows you to connect your display to the television. You can simply plug it in, switch your TV to the proper input, and watch movies from Netflix straight to the television, or even play a touch screen game using the tablet as the controller, and the TV as the screen! On the very bottom of the tablet is a plug where you can connect it to a separate dock that is sold by Acer. Outside of these main features, there is a USB micro port you can use to connect it to your computer, a standard headphone jack, and a switch that allows you to toggle screen rotation. It also comes with two built-in cameras, one front facing webcam style, and one on the back for shooting videos.

As forememtioned, the tablet is snappy and rarely will you notice any lag, thanks to it's 1GHz Dual Core Processor and NVidia Graphics. One of the few things I've found the tablet somewhat present a very slight lag with was with Live Wallpapers. Outside of that, this tablet handles pretty much everything quite well. It's great all around for both media, and creativity/schoolwork, as well as gaming and social networking.

The main downside so far to the Iconia a500 is that it (so far) is not upgradable to Android 4.0 (aka "Ice Cream Sandwich") which was released in January of 2012, but it definitely holds it's own without it.

Now, moving along to the Motorola Xoom.

The Motorola Xoom is basically the gaming rig of tablets. The UI is extremely responsive; even with a Live Wallpaper going. The Xoom WiFi edition comes with up to 32GB of internal memory (and room for expansion with a microSD card). Unlike the Iconia Tab, the Xoom does not feature a USB port, but it does have an HDMI Output as well.

The Motorola Xoom comes with Android 3.1, but is upgradable to 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). The nice thing about the Xoom, aside from it's massive amounting of storage, is the hardware inside it that allows you to game on it flawlessly. It runs so smoothly with virtually any app, and almost no delay when opening/running/switching between them.



The Iconia Tab a500 is due to recieve the Android 4.0 Update in April of 2012, so for those who are worried about getting one due to not having the new OS running on it; fear not!

For those of you wondering what is the difference between Android 3.2 and 4.0, or what the Android OS even is, I will be making another article at a later date of the two android Operating Systems and their features, so stay tuned! (More on the Xoom in that article as well, as a good number of the features I want to discuss deal directly with Ice Cream Sandwich.)

-Preston

How To Avoid Mal-ware On Your Android Phone

Most who own an Android phone may have recently seen in the news that new malware is appearing, targeting Android users. Google's App market for Android phones allows for developers to publish their newly designed android apps without having to be reviewed first, [unlike Apple's app store]. This has opened a lot of windows for developers, as well as a new one for hackers.

A new scare recently came up known as the "DroidDream" Trojan. Certain Apps were pirated, copied, and then re-constructed with malicious code within them, then put back on the Android market with similar names to the originals. If a user installed one of these apps mistakenly, once installed, the code would take over the user's phone, basically turning it into a paperweight [or staying hidden in some cases instead], while allowing the developer of the app to access all of the information on it, and take full control.

Google has since restored the effected phones to working order, and patched them to be immune if exposed to the Trojan once more. Also, Google removed the apps from the app store. This should serve Android users as a reminder that things like this can happen if you're not careful. Similar threats are quite possible in the future.

Here are some simple tips you can use to make sure you do not fall prey to malicious apps!

1) Check the name of the developer

If you're not sure, a surefire way to find out if the developer you're downloading from is legitimate or not is to check their name. If they have a name like "Iam21090402" or "grwowl2010" for example, there's a good chance the app you're looking at could be malware.

2) Check the description and screenshots

Another way to know whether or not the developer is trusted is to check the screenshots, and description. In the recent string of malware that was put on the store, the screenshots were simply pictures of the logo used for the app, instead of an actual screenshot of the interface of the app. Also, if the description doesn't look legitimate, or is non-existent, you will want to double-check on the app's credibility.

3) Research it

If you're not sure if the app is safe, and have tried both of the previous steps, another measure you can take is to look it up online, by searching it on Google, or otherwise on the internet using your computer. Read some user reviews, and see what people had to say about it.



4) Download latest Android OS updates as soon as you know them to be available


Patches, and OS updates are extremely important, as aside from fixing glitches and issues, they also address security vulnerabilities. Having the latest Android OS is a good way to make sure you're up to speed and protected from all of the latest malware app threats.

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When installing an app, the user has to choose to install it before it will install. This goes for all apps, and therefore for the malware to get onto your phone, you will have to allow it's installation by mistake. That's why these steps will definitely come in handy when trying to determine what is safe, and what isn't on the app store.

Also, if you're uncertain of the integrity of an app, feel free to contact us on twitter, by tweeting @CompsultInc with the name of the app, or via direct message, and we will gladly look into it for you!