memory

Upgrading RAM? Save your old RAM and your packaging

Besides installing an SSD to replace a mechanical hard drive, RAM upgrades are one of the more significant and beneficial upgrades you can do for a PC system. When it comes to Apple's systems, however, RAM upgrades from Apple itself have been insanely expensive, so my recommendation has always been, unless the RAM is soldered to the motherboard (as it is with the MacBook Air and Retina MacBook Pro), to purchase only the base amount of RAM and then upgrade it yourself later on.

Such was the case with my most recent Mac, a 17-inch 2011 MacBook Pro that … Read more

Boost your PC's memory with Wise Memory Optimizer

When your PC is misbehaving wouldn't it be easier to press just one button instead of hitting Ctrl-Alt-Del to close programs? Wise Memory Optimizer will optimize your computer's memory on demand, as often as you like. You won't even have to close any programs.

This program's interface is very simple and neat. It graphs your system's memory on a pie chart so you know how much memory you're using and how much free memory you have. There is a large green button you need to click to optimize your memory usage. There are also … Read more

Apple reportedly bans 'memory' games from App Store

Apple is reportedly warning developers of iOS games with the word "memory" in the title that unless they change their app's name, it will be removed from the Apple Store.

The notices are being sent at the behest of Ravensburger, a German game maker that sells a popular series of board games under the brand "Memory" and claims to hold the trademark for the word "memory" in game titles in some 42 countries, according to a report in Gamasutra.

Darren Murtha, developer of the popular Preschool Memory Match, told Gamasutra he was too … Read more

Digital storage basics, Part 1: Internal storage vs. memory

Editors' note: This post is part 2 of an ongoing series that aims to explain digital storage in layman's terms, based on questions and inquires from readers. See part 2 and part 3.

It's not the locker room type of storage we're talking about here. Instead it's something much more important and often underrated: the place where information is stored.

When it comes to computer storage, judging from many questions friends and readers send me, there's quite a bit of confusion among general users as to what it actually is. And it's not your … Read more

Dear Apple, stop overcharging for extra iPad memory

First, an admission: I preordered an iPad Mini. But I wasn't happy about the price I was paying.

You see, I've been around iOS devices long enough to know that 16GB of storage space just doesn't cut it -- throw a couple of high-res games and an HD movie or two on the thing, and you're starting to hit the limit. That put me at $429 for the 32GB model. Tack on the extra dough for sales tax and suddenly I was over $450. And that doesn't include the $29 Apple wants for Lightning-to-30-pin adapter … Read more

The 404 1,145: Where we're on top of the world (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- New Captcha system uses empathy to distinguish humans from bots.

- Watch Pornhub to donate money to breast cancer research.

- Meet the man that invented the Escape key.… Read more

CFast 2.0 splits high-end flash card market

COLOGNE, Germany -- There's room for a higher-end flash card format that's faster and more capacious than SD Card, and for years, CompactFlash has occupied that market niche.

But CompactFlash is running out of steam, and finding a successor to CompactFlash just got a lot messier courtesy of a new standard that arrived this week at the Photokina trade show here.

Last year, Nikon and Sony carried the XQD format to market as the would-be CompactFlash successor, with Nikon's flagship D4 camera accepting the cards and Sony making the cards. But Canon and professional camera maker Phase … Read more

This mandala melds religion and technology

Italian artist Leonardo Ulian's mesmerizing piece "Technological mandala 02," doesn't look like the average sacred art commonly seen in Buddhism and Hinduism.

Ulian, based in London, created the mandala with hundreds of microchips, circuits, resistors, and other components found within everyday electronics.… Read more

iPhone 5 gets more, faster memory, says report

The iPhone 5 sports 1GB of system memory, twice the amount of the iPhone 4S, a chip review site claims.

And it's faster too, said Anandtech in a post on Saturday.

"Roughly 33 percent more peak memory bandwidth than the iPhone 4S, which can definitely help feed the faster [graphics processing unit] and drive the higher resolution display," Anandtech said.

So, how does Anandtech know this? Apple did not hide the markings (see image above) at the Wednesday event, which revealed a Samsung -- manufacturer of the A6 -- part number.

We'll know for sure that … Read more