How It Works: Wireless Charging

If there’s one bit of informational technology in the mobile world today, it is wireless charging. Just as the world got a hang of using micro USB to charge everything and anything (naturally excluding Apple), the next best thing came along. That thing is wireless charging, and I’ve a few things to say about it over the next few days. But first… what is wireless charging?

Frankly, I find wireless charging is far better than using micro USB. It might seem that the difference between plugging a cable on your desk into your smartphone and removing it as you leave has the same level of frustration as placing a smartphone on a charging station and picking it up as you leave is minimal; but the difference in comfort, speed, and usability is like night and day.

Wireless charging works on the principle of electromagnetic induction. Coils of wire in the base station (the charging plate) create a magnetic field as the current passes through. This field can induce an electrical current in an adjacent coil of wire without actually touching it. If this wire is part of a battery charging circuit, then you have wireless charging.

It’s not as efficient as a direct cable connection between the batter and  - wireless charing is around 60%-70% efficient and it is still recommend that booting a device from cold is done through a wired connection. But for day-to-day use, just lining up the coils and letting electromagnetism do the rest is the simple value proposition at the heart of wireless charging.

It’s worth noting that the lithium-ion chemistry used in smartphone batteries happily copes with having short bursts of energy to charge them up – which is exactly what wireless charging can provide as you lift your smartphone up from the charging pad and replace it throughout the day.Thanks to Nokia’s choice to go with Qi charging when it designed its first Windows Phone range, the Wireless Power Consortium has a notable lead in the handset market. It counts Verizon,  HTC, and the Motorola-manufactured Nexus 6 team, amongst others, as partners in the consortium. This has given Qi a huge lead in wireless charging for smartphones over Power Matters (which counts AT&T as a partner).

From portable Bluetooth speakers and smartwatches, to a range of Android and Windows Phone powered smartphones and tablets, wireless charging is now part of my checklist of ‘things to have on a new device’. It’s not yet at the deal-breaker status, but if I have the choice of two equally capable products, the one with Qi charing is going to be the one that wins out.

Why? Because it simply is magical. Just put your hardware down and when you need it, pick it up and it’s fully charged. If you want to know what to look for that says ‘cutting edge’, then look for Qi.

System Restore does not Work

System Restore is a component or feature of Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. In Windows Vista, Shadow technology is used to create restore points. If a computer becomes unstable while downloading games or a software due to a virus attack or any other reason, this feature can resolve the problem by taking the computer back to a prior check point. In case of a system failure, it provides you an opportunity to roll back the registry keys and system files to a previous check point. It performs a vital function of saving snapshots or restore points of your system settings and files. It creates restore points on its own, if there's a significant change in the file or application structure. Problems can arise if System Restore does not work.

Reasons

At times, this feature does not work in Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows 7 because of insufficient hard disk space. At least 200 MB of free hard disk space is required for it to function properly. This space is required for storing the data gathered for the restore points. If the disk space is less, this feature will be disabled. Once the space required for the data is available, it will start saving and creating the restore points until this space is full.

When all the space gets used up, it starts overwriting, starting with the most recent data. Another reason why this feature might not work could be a virus attack. Sometimes, restore points get corrupted due to computer viruses or an anti-virus software. So, make sure that you are using an effective anti-virus program.

How to Solve this Problem

This feature gets disabled either due to a lack of disk space or due to registry changes made by certain viruses. In case, this feature doesn't work when you boot normally, you can try to restore your computer in safe mode. To boot in Safe Mode, tap the F8 button while your PC is booting up. Once you select the option that allows you to start your computer in Safe Mode, check if this feature is working. At times, this feature might not work in safe mode also.
Under such circumstances, the best option would be to use the System Restore disk. If you have this disk in your optical drive when your computer boots, the computer must boot to the restore disk, and not to your hard drive. You will need to make some adjustments in the BIOS (Basic Input/Output Settings) so that your computer boots from the restore disk. This will lead you to System Restore disk menu. Follow the instructions to use this feature. In case this feature is not working in Windows XP, you can boot your system from your Windows XP CD. To boot from the CD drive, make adjustments to BIOS. Put the XP CD in the drive and restart your computer. Once your computer boots up, you need to look for 'Automated System Recovery' at the screen. A scan will start and this program will find the required files from your XP CD. You will have to reboot your computer. After the reconfiguration of the system files, this feature should start working again.
If this feature doesn't work, do a disk cleanup, check the antivirus software, or follow the aforementioned instructions to solve the problem.
Read more at Buzzle: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/system-restore-does-not-work.html

'Dislike' button coming to Facebook

Windows 10 review

Windows 10 is an entirely new version of the veteran Windows operating system – a version that is make-or-break for Microsoft.

It was released on July 29 in seven versions, which I'll tell you a lot more about below, as well as give you tech radar's complete verdict on all aspects of the new operating system (OS).

Even though Windows 8.1 did improve things, there's no escaping that, with Windows 8, Microsoft was hugely complacent, buoyed by the success of Windows 7. It drastically misunderstood its users with a fundamentally changed user interface which didn't make any logical sense and was hard to learn. It failed us. It failed itself.

Thankfully, 2015 Microsoft is pretty different from 2012 Microsoft. The key management of the corporation has changed. It has woken up to the fact that people can choose other operating systems. It's keen on making stuff for OS X, Linux, iOS and Android. As you'll hear, it's allowing apps from other platforms to be easily ported to Windows, too.

By Terry Myerson / Executive Vice President, Windows and Devices Group

What is cloud computing?

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