Whether you have a laptop or desktop, switching to a solid state drive from a hard disk drive can be one of the best performance upgrades you can make. Your operating system should boot faster, and applications may open faster as well. Laptop users may experience improved battery life too.

Unfortunately, for many consumers, opening their computer for an upgrade can be a scary ordeal. If you have never done such a thing before, this is totally understandable. Luckily, SanDisk is aiming to make this easier for you. Today, the company announces its SSD Concierge Service, making an SSD upgrade far less scary.

Wireless routers are rather ubiquitous nowadays. Many homes and businesses have them installed, making connecting to the internet a fairly mindless affair. They have even dropped in price -- a solid router can be had for under $50, while some ISPs give them to users at no charge.

With that said, why the heck would Google expect people to pay $200 for a rather basic router? Today, the search giant announces OnHub -- a run-of-the-mill TP-Link router, without external antennas, for an insanely high price. Don't get me wrong, some routers are worthy of the money, but surely not the Amazon Echo design-inspired, OnHub.

Google Hangouts is my choice for a communication service, so even though I prefer Firefox, I've been using Chrome lately since it worked better with it. Shockingly, the service did not have a dedicated web page. Yeah, Google touts the open web and web apps for its Chromebooks, but Hangouts was sort of missing from the equation.

Guess what? Today, this changes. Yeah, Google officially launches a Hangouts webpage and it is pretty damn good. It is so good, in fact, that I uninstalled the Chrome browser today and went back to Firefox full time -- I had no good reason to stay on Google's web browser.

Whenever a new iPhone comes out, countless consumers face a serious issue -- contempt for their current iPhone. True, nothing is likely wrong with their existing Apple smartphone, but they have a burning desire for the newest model. First world problems, right? Sure, but it is hard to blame them -- Apple's phones are just so sexy and awesome.

Of course, achieving the latest iPhone every year can be quite the ordeal. Maybe you have to break a contract and pay fees, or maybe you have to sell your existing phone to afford it -- meeting someone on Craigslist can be scary. No worries, Sprint has your back. With its new iPhone Forever program, you can always have the latest and greatest Apple smartphone without worrying about money.

It can be quite the polarizing topic, but make no mistake -- streaming is both the present and future of listening to music. You can desperately cling to your shiny compact discs and backups of digital music downloads, but eventually, you will be no different than a person still using floppy disks. It's time to evolve with the rest of us.

Selecting a streaming music service can be an ordeal, as there are many quality offerings from which to choose. Spotify, Google Play Music All Access and Groove are all solid, but Apple Music, the newest of the bunch, is already the best. What it offers beyond its competitors, is superior discovery. Without a way to discover new music, you will end up never leaving your comfort zone. Apple's service helps you to expand your artistic horizons. Today, the company unveils three new advertisements to highlight this.

Whether or not you are a KDE desktop environment user, you should have an interest in the project. In other words, whether you prefer GNOME, Xfce or something else, KDE's success is good for the overall Linux community.

While Kubuntu is probably the most popular distro based on KDE, there are many others. One of the he most exciting such operating systems, KaOS, announces a new 2015.08 ISO that is available now. If you haven't tried the OS before, I suggest you give it a try -- you may come away impressed.

When Apple unveiled the first iPod, it was a game-changing moment. While not the first portable digital music player, it was the first to nail the interface and experience. Later models would feature the legendary click wheel and expand to photos and videos too.

With the release of the iPhone, however, the death of the traditional iPod was guaranteed, but it hung around longer than most expected. It was the iPod touch that was the obvious successor, as it not only played music, but ran iPhone apps too. Apple recently released the new 6th Generation iPod touch, and I've been testing it out. Is it the best iPod touch yet?

I'm a strong believer in using the right tool for a job. Yeah, you can probably drive a nail into a piece of wood with the handle of a screwdriver, but wouldn't you rather use a hammer? The same applies to technology in business. Many businesses should probably stick with Windows machines (coupled with Office 365), but others would be smart to choose a Mac or Chromebook instead -- it depends on needs.

Today, Dell announces the all-new touchscreen Chromebook 13. Designed for businesses the premium laptop can be configured with Intel Broadwell Core i5 processors and 8GB of RAM, making for a solid cloud-based workstation. The Chromebook for Work initiative is looking better every day.

Today was Samsung Unpacked in New York City, and I was there live. Hundreds of tech journalists made the pilgrimage to the Lincoln Center to learn about the company's newest smartphones.

Sadly, there was little magic in the building, as the devices were leaked well in advance. Ever see a movie trailer that gives too much of the movie away, and then you go to see the film, and you have already seen the best parts? Yeah it was like that. No surprises. Still, both the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+ seem to be wonderful new phones.

We are just about midway through August, meaning the school year is approaching. For many students, this spells the end to sleeping in, vegetating in front of the TV watching Maury, and staying out late with friends.

As you and your parents' anxiety builds in anticipation, you are all probably doing internet searches related to it. Well, Bing has been data-mining its search queries to find the top 5 most searched for Back-to-School topics, which you can read below. Number 5 is particularly shocking, don't you agree?

Technology can be cold and harsh -- circuit boards, processors, and programming languages. For some, there is beauty in the technology itself. For other people, the beauty is found in what is created using that technology.

Android is the most popular Linux-based operating system of all time -- a great choice for creative developers. It took the scary Linux world of command lines and elitist support communities and delivered something normal human beings could use. Today, Google launches AndroidExperiments.com -- a site dedicated to projects and experiments that utilize the mobile operating system. Consider it a museum of modern art, but for Android apps.

Charging your devices can be such a damn hassle. At the end of the day, you may need to charge your laptop, smartphone, tablet, smartwatch and lord knows what else. It can be a pain in the ass to find your chargers and run around your home looking for free outlets. If you are married or live with people, this becomes increasingly difficult and messy.

Today, Satechi announces a really cool power strip that can solve this dilemma. The unimaginatively named Aluminum Power Strip features four traditional AC outlets, but it has something extra that makes it infinitely better -- four USB ports!

So, you think you are a member of the PC Master Race, eh? You've built your gaming PC, bought a ton of games on Steam, and have a sweet keyboard and mouse. All done, right? Wait. You forgot to buy a mouse pad. No, I'm not kidding -- many gamers still use gaming-grade mouse pads as a way to get an edge.

Today, Logitech announces the G640 Large Cloth Gaming Mouse Pad. The large surface promises better tracking, while reserving a space on your desk to keep clear of Mountain Dew and Bawls empties. Will you upgrade to a mouse pad experience?

When it comes to laptops, there is one word that conjures visions of quality like no other -- ThinkPad. Yes, the branding made famous by IBM and carried on by subsequent owner Lenovo, is an indicator to consumers and businesses that a laptop is worthy of their dollars. While not every ThinkPad branded product has been a home run, buying one rarely results in disappointment.

Today, Lenovo unveils the latest laptops to carry the prestigious branding -- the ThinkPad P50 and P70. Both computers run Windows 10 and have impressive specifications. Are one of these notebooks in your future?

When the original Raspberry Pi was released, I knew I had to have one. While it was intended as an inexpensive computer on which students could learn coding, the Linux and tinkering community drooled at the diminutive machine's potential for other things. It proved to be a fun open source toy.

The official follow-up device, the Raspberry Pi 2, is much more powerful than the original, while retaining the same low price. This increased horsepower apparently caught the eye of Microsoft, as the company announced that Windows 10 would be released for it. Well, today is finally the day -- Windows 10 IoT Core is officially available for both the Raspberry Pi 2 and less-popular MinnowBoard Max.