power

For the third time in a row, Verizon Wireless has been dubbed the wireless provider with the best customer service, according to marketing researchers, J.D. Power and Associates.

Its semi-annual report, "2012 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Full-Service Performance Study -- Volume 2 and 2012 U.S. Wireless Customer Care Non-Contract Performance Study," gave the Big Red an overall score of 771 in customer care performance.

Sprint came in second with 764, while AT&T and T-Mobile scored 756 and 722 points, respectively.

As for non-contract networks, Virgin Mobile, which also came in first in the … Read more

One of the new features in OS X Mountain Lion is the PowerNap energy-saving option that allows newer MacBook Pro and MacBook Air systems to continue to use network and backup services when in sleep mode. However, even after installing the OS X Mountain Lion upgrade, qualified systems may not be able to use the PowerNap feature.

When activated in the system's Energy Saver system preferences, PowerNap will perform hourly checks for new e-mail and updates to Contacts, Calendars, Reminders, Notes, iCloud documents, and Photo Stream. It will also maintain a connection for Apple's Find My Mac service. … Read more

Trusted Power Search by Moose-Tech Software is a free Web search tool that promises faster, more efficient searches. The application is able to deliver on this by limiting the number of sites that it searches to a predetermined list that is defined by the user.

The application presents a simple, easy-to-understand toolbar interface. There is a Help tab to guide the user in how to use the application. You can set your preferences as to which sites you want to use, Google, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Yahoo, and how many searches are displayed. There is also a parent-friendly Safety mode … Read more

Microsoft is aiming Office 2013 at touch-screen devices as well as PCs. So the company is starting to pull out the stops to convince tablet users that the new Office is just right for them.

In a blog post yesterday, Clint Covington, a lead program manager for Microsoft's User Experience team, explained how touch works in the new suite. Products such as OneNote and Lync have been redesigned from the ground up to fully support touch. The other applications in Office have been "touch-enabled," which means they support certain touch features but remain true to their roots … Read more

We're back from San Diego Comic-Con 2012 with a wrap-up show of everything we saw at the show. This being our first year, it quickly became obvious that we missed the first rule of Comic-Con: leave your civilian clothes at home!… Read more

A computer's sleep process is helpful in a couple of ways. First, it reduces the power consumption of the computer, saving you a few pretty pennies in the long run. Second, it can prevent pieces of your desktop from getting forever burned into your monitor.

When your computer does not enter sleep mode like it's supposed to, it can become rather annoying. Really, who likes a glaring (literally) distraction while watching a movie or having a bright light on in the room when you're trying to sleep. Oh right, nobody. If your computer won't acknowledge its … Read more

Into history-based real-time strategy games and possibly dressing the part while playing them? Then you'll surely appreciate this week's giveaway prize, an ancient helmet (well, an ancient plastic helmet anyway) -- signed by the Age of Empires Online development team, no less.

Age of Empires Online, the latest installment in the Age of Empires series published by Microsoft Studios, lets you start your own Greek civilization and expand it from a village to an empire while playing with friends online.

The game came out last year and got a big update a few weeks ago when developer Gas … Read more

So, how difficult is it to make a low-power-consumption monitor? Well, if this list is any indication, not very. However, among the lowest of low-power-consumption monitors, there's usually one common factor: Twisted Nematic (TN) panels.

Any company can make a low-power-consumption TN-based monitor, though, so a list consisting of only TN monitors would be pretty boring. What would be slightly less boring is a list consisting of In-Plane Switching (IPS) monitors that draw relatively small amounts of power to function. That is a list to get somewhat more excited about. So, I've decided to make that list.

To be clear, the difference you'd pay per year running these things -- using our formula -- is small in the grand scheme of things.

Still, I thought it would be interesting to see just how low IPS monitors can go.… Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Jeff, unimpressed with last night's Macy's Fireworks display, left his own message in the sky.

- San Diego fireworks fail ends as quickly as it starts.

- Dear Interns: Think twice before tweet-talking your coworkers.

- Men are from Reddit, women are from Pinterest.

Bathroom break video: Anaheim from Daniel shows us how to output 404 shirts using an mPower garment printer!… Read more