New Hippo Techie: Choosing a cheap tablet

Every week, it seems, there’s a different 7-inch tablet on sale for under $100 at one discount store or another. Sometimes it’s a bottom-tier brand name like Coby or Pandigital; sometimes a Polaroid mixes in; and sometimes there’s no brand name anywhere — in the advertisement, on the box, or on the tablet itself.

With even an older iPad 2 starting at $399 and e-reader tablets hovering around $200, these cheapos can be tempting. In some cases you can manage a bargain, but you have to be wary. A list of good and bad tablets wouldn’t do much good in the quickly-changing marketplace, so here’s a guide for what to look for.

New Hippo Techie: Stay in sync

I’m an hour from my house. I have to be back approximately where I am in three hours, so there’s no point in going home and returning later. Fortunately I made a plan beforehand: I found a nearby restaurant with free Wi-Fi — okay, it’s a McDonald’s — in which I can write my weekly column on an otherwise crazy busy weekend.

Only I seem to have forgotten my laptop.

Read the full article at The Hippo.

New Hippo Techie: No ads for you

Ads are part of the deal whenever we get something for free, whether it’s a television show, an article on the Web, a downloaded app, or even this very paper. Even things we pay for — cable TV, daily newspapers — use advertising to defray the costs that subscribers could never hope to cover.

But what exactly is the deal?

Read the rest of this week’s column at The Hippo.

I really do want your thoughts on this topic. Comment here or tweet @CitizenjaQ.

New Hippo Techie: Get used to Chrome

As soon as I decided to cover browser market share this week, my brain interrupted me. “Dude,” it said, “you just wrote about browser competition. Get over it.”

So I checked, and sure enough, I had written about the four browsers installed on my computer — in 2009. Also known as three years ago, two jobs ago, and before my dog was born. Things tend to change in the tech world in that amount of time. And yes, they have.

Read the full article at The Hippo.

New Hippo Techie – More electronics recycling

A few weeks ago, I answered a reader question about getting rid of old electronics responsibly. Little did I know the flood of additional suggestions that would generate.

Turns out, in addition to city dumps and big box stores, there are a ton of local places to take old computers, monitors, phones, and other gadgets — especially this weekend.

This one is of interest mainly to local (southern New Hampshire) readers, but it never hurts to check with your municipality to see where and when you can safely dispose of your old computers and electronics. Read the full column at The Hippo. (For reference, here’s the previous column on computer disposal.)