Here’s To a Tech Savvy New Year

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Now that the holiday rush is behind us, we can stop and take a breath. This is the time to enjoy all the tech toys we wished for and actually received! Some of this season's hottest gadgets were laptops, MP3 players, digital cameras, and LCD TVs. The cool thing about all these products is that they have the capability to sync up with other products. With all this technology, where do you start?

Even as a father of two, husband and full-time Geek Squad Agent, I know what it's like to have the coolest and newest gadgets but feel lost and overwhelmed. Whether you just received a new gadget or haven't learned to use an old one, it's helpful to understand the number of not-so-obvious uses that technology offers. With today's technological advances, many products can be used together to enhance the overall user experience. For example, did you know you can plug your mp3 player or USB thumb drive into that new Xbox 360 or PS3 and create your own video game soundtracks? Now, when my wife and I begin to use our new tech "toys," I always check to see if there is something more we can do with the product than what is printed on the box.

Below are some suggestions from the Geek Squad to help you get tech savvy for the New Year. I've picked some of the most popular gifts this season, as well as "toys" I tend to see a lot of as I make my post-holiday house calls.

Laptops:

• Data migration: Moving from one computer to a new one is not a simple matter of hooking up a cable from one machine to the next and pressing "GO" on your keyboard. With proper instruction, you can move e-mails, digital media, Internet Favorites, documents and more from that old desktop to a shiny new laptop.
• Data Backup: Backup tools are on the rise (both subscription-based and free). The good ones will back everything up automatically (in real-time), so you don't have to remember a thing.
• Wireless connectivity: Computer makers are making networking easier, with laptops that come wireless-ready out of the box (most laptops sold these days have WiFi built in, so you don't have to worry about plugging anything in), but integrating a new device into an existing wireless network may be a challenge.

Video game consoles:

• Streaming media from your PC to video game console: TiVos, XBOX 360s and many more are now accepting media streams from PCs! By setting up one of these devices you can stream all of your digital media -- including pictures, music and even video -- from the bedroom computer to the living room flat screen television.
• • Streaming media to a video game console or a media center extender can make it much easier to get the most from digital content. However, it's not always easy to do. Many people don't know how to make it work -- or even that such an option exists!

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