We are offering a special NEC Franchise Show Discovery Day on Friday 30^th September 10.00am – 4pm to give prospective PC PAL franchisees the opportunity to talk in detail about how our computer franchise model works and why it’s so successful. Attendees will see inside the working business model and be able to discuss their own situation with a number of key members of the PC PAL team. They allow us to get to know each other better to see if there is a fit of values and goals – we only work with people we like and trust.

The new PC PAL HQ is just a stone’s throw away from the NEC, in fact you could probably walk there in 5 or 10 minutes! So if you fancy a break from the show, and some complementary refreshments (maybe a cake or two!) then please come and join us! Alternatively, you can park with us FREE and go on to the show later on!

Top 5 reasons to come and see us!

1). Find out why computer repair & support is unquestionably one of the most growing and profitable markets available to us.

2). Hear real life case studies from existing Franchise Partners and find out how they are making market-beating returns.

3). Hear from, and speak directly with, the founder of the UK’s leading computer support &
 repair company to be accredited by the British Franchise Association.

4). Go on a unique ‘behind the scenes’ tour of some of the support and technical training resources and we’ll even share one or two of our trade secrets!

5). Speak to current PC PAL Franchise Partners about their experiences, challenges and successes.

If you would like to come please register your interest here and we will give you more details about where we are and where to park (and also to make sure we don’t run out of cake!)

However, in some other European countries the average speed people are getting is over 16Mbits; in Germany and in Holland they are getting over 23Mbits. Luckily Virgin Media have been rolling out 100Mbit around the UK since October 2010 with an expected completion of around the middle of 2012, so if you can get the 100Mbit service you can help bring up the average UK internet speed, especially with results like this:

Heres hoping that once the rollout has completed that the speeds will stay around the same levels!

Asia makes up 922 million with Europe the next closest at 476 million and North America at 272 million. North America may only have 272 million internet users but that is 78.3% of the population of North America, which is by far the highest percentage of total population.

So when you are on the internet and it suddenly slows down, check what time it is in North America or Asia, because it might not be all the people in this country slowing the internet

Statistics courtesy of www.internetworldstats.com.

“The Hargreaves Report was requested by David Cameron amid concerns that current legislation was outdated in the internet age.” BBC New Website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13429217

Also this report allows more freedom for creating parodies, remixes and other spin-off work and would allow YouTube clips such as Newport State of Mind new breathing space.

However, there is only 1 phone you can use at the moment and that has only just come out. Hopefully there will be some Android phones and here’s hoping the next iPhone will have the NFC contact less technology in.

So if you are lucky enough to have one of the Samsung Tocco Quick Taps then you can use it in Subway or Pret a Manger to start with. Don’t forget to get the App to allow you to top-up the phone upto a maximum of £100.

Things like printers and scanners being Wi-Fi make it easier to all use the same printer on different PCs or Apple Macs. HP are launching a mouse in the next month or two that uses Wi-Fi to connect, instead of using a Bluetooth dongle to take up precious USB ports on a laptop, plus it should work upto 30 feet from the computer so should be good for use with presentations.

Then there are some things which maybe don't need Wi-Fi such as your fridge/freezer, unless of course you need to be tweeting while getting a glass of milk from the fridge or checking your email while getting some ice lollies from the freezer for your kids. Now maybe if it was to order your groceries when you are running low on things like milk and cheese then that I could see being useful, but only if it checked the prices on somewhere like MySupermarket to find the cheapest prices!

I can see a lot more things being Wi-Fi enabled in the future to make life easier or maybe more complicated…

The virus which infected the customer's iMac was a program called MACSecurity (MACDefender and MACProtector are some other names it maybe called) which would run once the desktop had loaded and then look like it was scanning your Mac for virus's (even displaying names of real virus's) and finding them, then asking you to registar and pay $20-$30 to fix the alleged problems it found.

It probably works in the same way the Windows malware/spyware works, where they will take your money, maybe a lot more than the $20-$30 they say it will cost, but the program will not remove anything.

So if you have something come up like that on your Mac then don't click on 'register', give PC PAL a call instead. Find an engineer near you!

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/the-oatmeal-how-to-fix-computer,12618.html

Did any of your find that helpful…  NO… I didn’t think you would so I have taken the time to make my own guide.  See below:

Remember if you need help with your computer don’t stress yourself out by rumaging through the internet for answers.  Call the people who are Qualified, Experienced, Insured and Local to you…  Call PC PAL.

I for one am quite happy to see this, language is a vibrant and evolving animal.   Terms and smileys are a way to inform others how we feel in a written way.  It may seem childish at first and I’m sure there are people who will not like this one bit…

Read the full article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12893416

This year at The Gadget Show Live there were a lot of companies showing off their latest 3D products, almost all of which required you to wear glasses; only the Nintendo 3DS didn’t.

Wouldn’t have minded seeing some 3D TVs that dont need you to wear rechargable glasses. The other area that seemed to get some attention was mind controlled software to do various things, which seems to be just the begining in this area!

While walking round the Hall of Fame there were quite a few things I remember playing/using as a kid, me and a friend at school were some of the first pupils to use the BBC Micro/Master with LaserDisc player at our school.

The first computer with a graphical interface and not use text only interface, the Apple Macintosh, was on show still working 27 years later.

Another Apple the Apple II dating back from 1977 was also on display……

A couple of other things you might remember from the 70′s/80′s was the Binatone TV Master (An early type of games console) and a Speak & Spell (You could make them say some funny things).

We spent quite some time around the game section trying out some of the latest games in 3D, even managed to get on the leader board with a quick lap round Brands Hatch on Shift 2: Unleashed.

We even got to have our photo taken with Duke Nukem, got to play some Duke Nukem aswell, looking forward to Duke Nukem Forever in June.

One of the guys lay down (Richard) while we watched to see if the lady could levitate him….. actually he was having a back massage!

All in all, not as great as we were expecting but an entertaining day out, especially with the historical items!