Microsoft claims that you can expect eight hours from one charge of the Surface’s battery, but as we all know, that depends a lot on its usage. These optimization tips might not give you a full eight hours of heavy-duty usage, but they’ll certainly help you get the best possible charge out of your tablet.

1. Charge it up.

I know this may seem dumb to mention, but I don’t know how many friends I have who frequently forget to charge their devices. Make a routine of charging your Surface (i.e, every morning or every evening) and you’ll develop a good charging habit.

2. Dim your screen brightness.

The Surface’s screen brightness makes your display crystal clear, but it also helps kill your battery charge. Set your brightness to a low, but still comfortable setting and you’ll see the power last longer.

3. Kill your Wi-fi.

If you are somewhere that does not have wi-fi or if you don’t need internet access, put your Surface in airplane mode or cut off the wireless connection. This little tip alone can buy you some minutes if you are coming close to a battery-induced shut-down.

4. Run your apps sparingly.

One of the best features of Windows 8 is the ability to have apps AND traditional Windows programs. Apps are cool, but too many of them running in the background will drain your battery.

5. Put your Surface to sleep.

One of the advantages of tablet devices is that they are portable enough to go with you anywhere. But often, it’s easy to forget to power them off when you are running to meet with a client after a short break in Starbucks. Always take a second to put the Surface in Sleep mode or power it off. Your battery life will thank you.

What tips have you found to boost the battery life of your Microsoft Surface? Leave a comment with your suggestions.

Before rushing out to buy Apple’s latest and greatest, take a few minutes to see how it compares to the rest of the tablet pack.

Bottom line on the iPad Mini from Hongkiat:

With many other ‘mini’ tablets in the market, the iPad Mini would be the first iOS ‘mini’ tablet. It’s powered by the Apple A5 dual-core processors, the same processors that powered the iPhone 4S and iPad 2.

Essentially the mini version of an iPad, it boasts a resolution of 1024×768 on a 7.9-inch display, and weights in at 0.68 lbs. Other features include LTE network, FaceTime HD front side camera and 5MP iSight back camera, Lightning connector, and 10-hour battery life.

Hongkiat has done a great job comparing the iPad mini to its iPad predecessor, the Nexus 7, Amazon Kindle Fire HD, ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity, ASUS Padfone 2, Surface RT, and Surface Pro Version. Be sure to read the rest of the review before preordering your new tablet.

From NASA:

Researchers from the Electric and Magnetic Field Instrument Suite and Integrated Science (EMFISIS) team at the University of Iowa have released a new recording of an intriguing and well-known phenomenon known as “chorus,” made on Sept. 5, 2012. The Waves tri-axial search coil magnetometer and receiver of EMFISIS captured several notable peak radio wave events in the magnetosphere that surrounds the Earth. The radio waves, which are at frequencies that are audible to the human ear, are emitted by the energetic particles in the Earth’s magnetosphere.

“People have known about chorus for decades,” says EMFISIS principal investigator Craig Kletzing, of the University of Iowa. “Radio receivers are used to pick it up, and it sounds a lot like birds chirping. It was often more easily picked up in the mornings, which along with the chirping sound is why it’s sometimes referred to as ‘dawn chorus.’”

Listen in for yourself.

(photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video)

Cloud computing is one of the top buzzwords of the year, but how many people really understand what it means? A recent study says that when it comes to the concept of the cloud, many people are clueless:

In August, Wakefield Research surveyed 1,000 adults, most of whom were Millennials–presumably one of most tech-savvy generations. Sixty-eight percent of respondents believe that the cloud offers some economic benefit, such as helping consumers spend less and boosting engagement between customers and businesses.

But the rest of the survey responses suggest they don’t even understand the buzzword: Twenty-two percent admitted to lying (mostly in the workplace) about knowing what the cloud was and over half of those surveyed (51%) believe that stormy weather interferes with the cloud. Nearly 95% of the respondents said they don’t use the cloud, but most of them do–and quite often.

The cloud powers a large portion of what we do daily online, such as social media, Netflix, online banking, and much more. So even though you might not understand it, you are actually using it.

(Article source: Oops: Most Americans Say ‘The Cloud’ Refers to Weather; image source: mansikka)

1. Blackberry Mobile Conferencing makes conference scheduling and calling a breeze.

Once you’ve installed the free BlackBerry® Mobile Conferencing app on your BlackBerry smartphone, you’ll appreciate how it helps make joining conference calls easier than ever. It includes powerful features that make scheduling conference calls simple, and intelligence that can discover conference information and dial you in automatically so you don’t have to.

2. Evernote gives you the ability to organize all of your lists, tasks and voice notes, and sync to the Web and your desktop.

Evernote turns your BlackBerry® into an extension of your brain. This award winning app lets you remember and recall anything that happens in your life. From notes to ideas to snapshots to recordings, put it all into Evernote and watch as everything instantly synchronizes from your BlackBerry® to the Web to your Mac or Windows desktop.

3. MyFax allows you to send and receive faxes on the go.

Compose and send faxes from your BlackBerry®! Enter the recipient’s name and fax number, or look it up in your Contact Book. Use your default cover page setting, or select a new cover page on the fly. Type fax pages right on your BlackBerry®, or attach a document from your BlackBerry®’s file store.

4. EZBillMaker With Credit Card Processing creates invoices and more and allows you to take credit card payments.

EzBillMaker turns your BlackBerry® into a bill-making machine that saves you time and helps you make more money. It lets you create and send professionally formatted documents to any fax or email address.

5. My Sales Opportunity keeps track of prospective customers and keep notes.

My Sales Opportunities application was developed for you, sales person who wants to overachieve sales goals and close as many as possible of new sales opportunities.

Old school and new technology have merged and it’s now possible to use notebook paper AND your smartphone to take notes. I have to admit, when I heard about Evernote & Moleskine’s new partnership, I thought it was a prototype pipe dream. But no, this is the real deal:

The Evernote Smart Notebook comes in two page styles: ruled and squared. For each, we designed a special dotted paper pattern on the pages that was optimized for new features in Evernote.

Evernote for iPhone and iPad got an update today (version 4.4) that includes the new Page Camera functionality, which is designed for photos of physical pages and documents. To use the Page Camera, launch the camera inside of Evernote, then tap on the new Page Camera icon at the top of the screen. Hold your camera above the page and center the image inside the rectangle. Snap a photo, then move on to the next page. Using your flash ensures that you’ll get the highest quality image. Tap on the page numbers to review the images you’ve taken. Tap the checkmark when you’re done.

While there are plenty of tablets and e-book readers available (hint, Kindle & iPad), Family Christian is hoping to tap specifically into the religious demographic.

The full-color, touch edifi e-reader features a USB 2.0 port, a Micro SD slot, HDMI output, 27 Bible translations, Safe-Search Wi-Fi web browsing, and much more.

What about you? Would you purchase an edifi, instead of a Kindle or iPad?

iMockups, By Endloop Systems Inc.

Created exclusively for the iPad, iMockups combines a beautiful interface with intuitive functionality, taking full advantage of the breakthrough touchscreen device. iMockups is simple to use but make no mistake, it’s a serious app for creative professionals.

iDraw, By Indeeo, Inc.

Layers, Text, Images, Multi-color Gradients, RGB color picker, Brushes, Bezier Pen Tool, customizable Canvas Styles, Grid Snapping, Masking, PDF export, and much more!

Portfolio for iPad, By Britton Mobile Development

Lock the interface with a PIN when you’re done and it’s safe for any client meeting without the worry of exposing the management interface underneath.

iFontMaker, By Eiji Nishidai

You can email the typography or convert it into a TTF file available in all applications such as Adobe® CreativeSuite™, Microsoft® Office™ for Mac and Windows, and also in your web site as a web font!

But if that is not enough to convince you, here are four more reasons why you should be using Google Apps.

1. Google backs up your data on their servers, so emails are saved securely remotely.

2. Content syncs on multiple devices, including Blackberry, Android, iPhone, and Windows Mobile devices, so you can check your email anywhere on your mobile phone.

3. Google Apps has a familiar Gmail-like design interface, so if you have a personal Gmail account, you won’t have to worry about a learning curve or training time.

4. Google Apps is free for personal, small business, and small ministry use. If you need more than 10 custom users, the prices are competitive and economical.

Need help getting started with Google Apps? Contact DuoParadigms today for information about our Getting Started with Google Apps package!

Have you ever wondered how much you will spend in electricity costs if you own an iPad?

According to a recent study, it has been discovered that the little must-have devices from Apple are actually quite energy efficient.

Consumers who fully charge their iPad tablet every other day can expect to pay $1.36 for the electricity needed annually to power the device, based on an assessment by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).

The analysis shows that each model of the iPad consumes less than 12 kWh of elelctricity over the course of a year, based on a full charge every other day. By comparison, a plasma 42” television consumes 358 kWh of electricity a year. EPRI conducted the analysis in Knoxville, Tenn., at its power utilization laboratory. Costs may vary depending on what region that a consumer resides and the price of electricity in a particular location.

So there you go….your iPad will only cost you a little more than a value burger at McDonalds each year!

(photo credit: John.Karakatsanis)