Remember the days where AOL Instant Messenger took over the Internet by storm? As those days have faded, and we have seen social networking giants such as Facebook take over the IM market in the past couple years, you would think that IM has become a thing of the past. But think again.

In this day and age with Instant Messaging, you have plenty of choices. Whether you want HD Video capabilities or a service that allows you to run multiple chat services at once, there is an IM client suited for you. This year has seen plenty of new messaging software all with unique capabilities, but most all with the ability to retrieve your social updates on Facebook and Twitter.

After rounding up the IM Clients that are out there, two have made the cut to be the best out there. An Independent software company called Digsby has shown itself to be not only a great IM program, but an even better way to manage your social networking and email notifications. Video and audio chat are also available, but the thing that puts Digsby above the rest is its acceptance of almost every single IM protocol out there. The other IM Software that has made the cut is Windows Live Messenger 2010. It’s easy user interface combined with its HD Video chatting capabilities makes it the best big name messaging software out there. Windows Live Messenger does also integrate with Facebook and Twitter and redefines what an IM client provides for their services. The only downside to it seems to be its lack of compatibility with other IM clients.

Do you prefer a certain IM service? Share your thoughts with us!

Why are you buying a video card?

The obvious number one reason why you are looking to buy another video card are simply because your old one is outdated or not working properly. But it is important to know what the specs mean, even if you are looking to buy a whole new computer. The most important question to ask when buying a video card is what do you want it to do? Do you do a lot of gaming on your PC? Watch movies? Launch a lot of applications? If your computer does not contain the necessary video card for your purposes, you will find that your computer will tend to get choppy and is not fun to use.

What does it mean?

Memory Bus—Think of memory as a highway. The Memory Bus can be viewed as how many lanes the highway has (essentially how much information can flow through at a time).

Memory Speed and Type—If Memory Bus is the width of the highway, then Memory Speed and Type determines how fast or slow the cars (data) can move on the highway.

Shaders— Shaders are able to perform the specific operations your computer tells it to do

Clock Speeds—Determines how fast the graphics card will perform. There is a happy medium between working too slow and underutilizing your system, or overworking and overheating your system.

TDP—Stands for Thermal Design Power, and represents the maximum amount of power that your cooling system is allowed to dissipate.

The key to buying a video card is to understand what you need it to do. If you need any more help with understanding or buying a video card, please take advantage of our resources such as our online community forum.

With the recent unprecedented demand and success with the iPhone 4 and the Tablet has pressured Microsoft to respond with something of their own. CEO Steve Ballmer has been under a bit of pressure to produce a tablet for awhile now, and has said last Saturday that “Job one Urgency” is to get their Tablet on the market as fast as possible, although no time tables or release dates have been made.

So we know that the Windows Based Tablet will be coming sooner than later, but does it have a chance at competing with the iPad? What features would it need for you to feel convinced to buy one? A couple options Windows 7 has is perhaps a bigger interface screen, a front web-cam for wireless video chat, more capabilities as far as memory and hard drive.

Needless to say, Microsoft has quite hill to climb to reach the heights of its top competitor, Apple, and in order to do so, they are going to need to offer users something that has never been offered before. Only time will tell.

We would love to hear from you, our community. What do you want to see in the Microsoft Tablet?

Monday seemed to be a groundbreaking day when it comes to owners rights to their Smartphones. The FCC has officially announced the legality of jailbreaking Smartphones, in particular the iPhone.

The Reason Behind the FCC Decision

In a statement, they said jailbreaking Smartphones is “innocuous at worst and beneficial at best.” Apple did not go without a fight on this issue, saying this practice is a form of copyright violation. The FCC disagreed though, saying that not only is this practice legitimate, but it enhanced the inter-operability of the phone.

Why Would I Jailbreak my iPhone?

Many owners will now choose to legally “unlock” their iPhone in order to run software applications that aren’t necessarily approved by Apple. It can also be unlocked so it can be used on other networks (one of the most popular being T-Mobile). Cell Phone companies such as Apple are still free to make “unlocking” the phone as difficult as they desire.

Know the Risks Involved

Although the legality of this issue is not in question anymore does not make jailbreaking risky. Apple does tell us in a statement,”Apple’s goal has always been to insure that our customers have a great experience with their iPhone and we know that jailbreaking can severely degrade the experience.” Now there is some truth to this, especially since Apple has also said,” It is also important to note that unauthorized modification of the iOS is a violation of the iPhone end-user license agreement. Because of this, Apple may deny service for an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch that has installed any unauthorized software.” Jailbreaking also opens up your phone to malicious attacks, because Apple works to provide a safe environment known as the App Store.

So no matter whether you are looking to jailbreak your phone to run third party software applications or not willing to take the risk of jailbreaking, this ruling has definitely changed the outlook of Smartphones as we know it.

Have you been to Google Images lately? You’ll be surprised what you find.

Google has just recently updated its Image Search to look and feel like that of Bing’s Image Search. It replaces an old-school layout with a more dense tile layout, instant scrolling which gets rid of the need for multiple pages and lets you scroll endlessly to new images. But one of the most impressive new updates is called the similar image tool. Essentially this makes it easier for you to find the specific image your looking for. For example, lets say you are looking for an image of a new car and you happen to click on a car that was red. Google Images search recognizes you are looking for a red car and adjusts its search for you.

Whether you think Google copied Bing’s Image search or not, these refinements are definitely an upgrade. If you haven’t checked it out, we encourage you try it out and let us know what you think!

Google Images

Want to read more? Check out Google’s Official Blog.