Chris Nickson is a journalist who's written extensively about music and related fields. He's the author of more than 30 books, most recently The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to World Music and Solid Air: The Life of John Martyn. His work is published in a number of magazines on a regular basis. After many years living in Seattle, he recently return to England to live.
Buying Tech & Gadgets in a Recession
In November of 2008, Circuit City, just a few years earlier one of the top dogs in the entire retail landscape, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and closed 155… →
PC Upgrades: Get More for Less
In December of 2005, the housing boom that began a decade earlier continued its crazy uphill ride, seemingly oblivious to a variety of red flags appearing across the country. By… →
Home Printer Buyer’s Guide
In the world of printers, the old axiom "you get what you pay for" is especially appropriate. Sure, you can scoot on down to the local Mega Mart and grab… →
Best Home and Photo Printers
Shopping for a new printer? Here, we explore a dozen of today's best bets for the home-based user, taking into account key considerations such as price (you'll find nothing here… →
The Future of Television and HDTV
Jim Carey's character believed he lived within it in 1996′s dark comedy The Cable Guy, and really did live within it in 1998′s The Truman Show. Peter Finch as Howard… →
10 Fun Things to Do With Photos
If you're like most digital camera owners, your photos are copied over to a PC's hard drive and forgotten about — save, maybe, for the odd one you print out,… →
10 Best Ways to Convert Photos, Records, Videos and Tapes
It’s a digital world, but most of us are still holding on to a lot of analog media. There are the vinyl records we couldn’t bear to part with; the… →
Car and Auto Technology
In the beginning there was AM radio, and it was good. Imagine – a car with a radio! But what worked so splendidly way back in the 1930s wasn't quite… →
The Future of PCs and Home Computing
Back in 2005, noted British Telecommunication "Futurologist" Ian Pearson hypothesized that computing power would be so great, and our ability to tap into it so advanced, that by 2050 we… →
Amazon Kindle 2: Does it Violate Author’s Rights?
Amazon's next-gen Kindle 2 eBook reader, introduced earlier this week, is due to go on sale on February 24. However, publishing industry insiders already anticipate an impending controversy over its… →
Home Automation Made Simple
Look up the definition of “hype” and you’ll find the phrase “home automation” listed as a usage example. So many manufacturers have made so many promises to create the ideal… →
10 Best MP3 and Portable Media Players
Full disclosure: Any roundup of MP3 or portable media players that claims to be a definitive “best of” collection isn't a roundup you should be reading. The truth is that… →
The History of Social Networking
Introduction Long before it became the commercialized mass information and entertainment juggernaut it is today, long before it was accessible to the general public, and certainly many years before Al… →
Technology Dictionary: Common Terms Defined
Listen to two tech-savvy people chat away and your head will spin: It’s all gigahertz this and megapixel that. Thankfully for those who can’t tell the difference between Blu-ray and… →
Digital Photography Tips: Improving Picture Quality
One of the advantages of digital cameras over traditional film-based models is units’ sheer simplicity. Today, taking pictures is a simple “point and shoot” process – plus, you can see… →
Follow @DigitalTrends