Washington  - Anyone who buys technology knows that the equipment will be soon obsolete and - superseded by something newer, faster or with more features. You can somewhat slow down the pace of obsolescence by purchasing new equipment shortly after new products are introduced. Different types of technology tend to be introduced at different times of the year. New iPods tend to come out in September, while digital cameras are often introduced in February and October. New computer chips tend to come out in the autumn, while price reductions on older chips often occur in February or March.

Hamburg  - DVD writers boasting high speeds sound good, but their error rates are high, also too.

A total of 48 different recordable DVD blanks were recently put to the test by Computer Bild magazine. The Hamburg-based magazine determined that burn speed has a major impact on quality. Quality is excellent when burning at four to eight times the standard burn speed. At a 16x tempo, however, the error rate climbs quickly.

Hamburg  - Search engines specializing in flight prices seem to be the way to go to when looking for affordable flights, according to Germany's Computer Bild magazine.

The search engines yielded the best deals in online travel agencies, the report added. The magazine tested several ticket search engines and online travel agents on 30 different routes.

First place went to search engine Swoodoo, which found the best price in 13 instances. Second place went to checkflix. de, followed by kelkoo.

Gelsenkirchen, Germany  - Computer users and homeowners have plenty in common as they themselves usually want to decide who is allowed into their domain. Some house owners keep a watch dog for this purpose.

In terms of computers, that function is handled by anti-virus software which keeps a watchful eye on the system and looks out for ill-intentioned intruders. A more effective approach is to keep unwelcome guests from getting onto your property or hard drive in the first place. That's where firewalls come into play.

Barcelona  - Microsoft used the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, to unveil the latest generation of Windows Mobile, its operating system for cell phones. Version 6.5 can be expected for Smartphones before the end of 2009, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced.

The company claims that the OS will provide convenient mobile surfing through improved representation of pages. A newly redesigned Start screen is also intended to provide simpler access to frequently used functions like email, telephone, and music.

Berlin  - Laptops have made leaps and bounds in speed and memory capacity in recent years, threatening the desktop PC's dominance. As an additional blow to the PC's supremacy, they might also prove to be more energy efficient.

Laptops use about 70 per cent less energy than PCs, said Dena, the German Energy Agency, mainly because notebook manufacturers have had to emphasize energy efficiency in the name of boosting battery lifetimes.