Yes, the Zune has been condemned to underdog status when compared to the iPod in recent years, but with that in mind, let us remember an old adage: “No pain, no gain” – because the saying certainly applies here. Not only has the Zune grown to mimic the iPod’s high degree of aesthetic appeal, but it matches Apple’s price, too, at less than $200. And to boot, the Zune features a throng of add-ons that – take this, Apple – the iPod doesn’t.

In a land where the hipster population is ever-growing, design is at the forefront of purchasing decisions – and the Zune is sure to allure the bucks. Its body is of galactic anodized aluminum with aluminum curves around its rear, bestowing a space-age appeal that design-freaks will go gaga over. The 3.3-inch player dons a responsive touchscreen and there are only three hardware buttons – Power/Hold, Home, and a Playback or Volume control.

The interface may take a little getting used to as the Zune has taken a bit of a risk in this department – but the learning curve isn’t too intense. You’ll see an over-sized Main Menu, album covers lingering on the backdrop and a tertiary “Quickplay” menu which you can consider the “junk drawer” of this player, jammed with all the things you access most frequently.

What makes the Zune so mesmerizing is that it is all about media playback and entertainment. Whether your fancy be tunes, videos, photos, radio or the Web, the Zune delivers – as well as podcasts, e-books, apps and more. The device is like an MP3 player on steroids – it supports MP3, AAC, WMA, WMA LossLess formats and more.

The hot-spot on the Zune, however, is what happens when it comes to focusing on a specific tune or artist. Select “Grateful Dead” for instance, and not only will you be provided with a complete run-down of the band’s prolific album collection, but you can click on tabs for bio information – and for hippies still mourning over Jerry: the Zune will steer you towards related bands you can still shake your tie-dyed tails to.

With an awesome screen, mega media capabilities, super-cool features that you won’t find on an iPod, and an industrial, hip design, the Zune HD takes the cake.

For your new music player, head to CPS for an extended warranty today.

The HP Omni 220 Quad is a good choice for an all-in-one. It’s power-packed, sports a pretty small screen at 21.5 inches – and although it’s got some flaws, it’s overall functioning makes it easy to overlook its quirks.

The HP Omni 220 Quad sports and intel Core i7-2600S processor, 6GB of RAM, Wi-Fi connectivity, and Beats Audio technology. In short, this machine is a speed-racer and in WorldBench tests actually scored highest out of any other all-on-one on the market today. However, caveat gamers: this is not the machine for you. In trial game runs, the system squeaked out 47.8 fps and displays a scant resolution of 1024 X 768 pixels.

Modest and minimal, the 220 Quad is neither flashy nor unattractive – it just is. The 21.5-inch display has a native resolution of 1680 X 1080 pixels, and the monitor sits on an unadorned L-shaped base. It is not a touchscreen, as many new all-in-ones are these days – so if your fingers have grown accustomed to tapping and swiping, this isn’t the machine for you. Viewing angles are a little gloomy, too, so you’ll need to go face-to-face with the Quad if you want to see it best (on the contrary though, its matte screen suffers little glare).

Standard specs on this system include four USB 2.0 ports, gigabit Ethernet port, headphone and micrpphone jacks on one side, as well as two additional USB 3.0 ports and headphone and microphone jacks on the opposite side. There is also a Blu-ray disc player .
All-in-all, the Omni 220 Quad boasts super fast processing with the trade-off of a less than perfect display – and its low cost may be the perk to win you over.

You’ll find an adequate collection of extended warranties for this all-in-one desktop system and for many other electronics at CPS.

At 7 inches wide, 3 inches tall, this awesome gaming device is surprisingly lightweight – and most importantly, ultra-durable due to its reinforced plastic chassis that is highly resistant to bending. The gaming gadget sports a 5-inch OLED touch screen display which boasts bold, brilliant color, even in sunlight, so you can get your game on whether at the beach or in the comfort of your own dimly-lit man-cave. For kluztier players who prefer munching and gaming at the same time: you’ll be glad to know this mac-daddy of game consoles is viewable from multiple angles, and its gloss-finished screen doesn’t smudge easily.

The only con to the Vita is in the storage department. Unfortunately, in order to create sufficient space, you’ll need to purchase a Vita memory card along with it – which can be pretty expensive. But the super-real, colorful, and fast gaming experience that the Vita offers may just cancel out the extra work and cost required for upping its storage capacity.

The Vita’s performance specs will leave contenders in the dust, for sure. It flaunts a quad-core PowerVR Series 5XT SGX543MP4+ graphics processor making for an ultra-real gaming experience even when playing the most graphic- and speed-demanding of games like Super Stardust Delta and the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Its battery is a real champ, too: the Vita will deliver up to about five hours of playtime – including watching movies and listening to music at the device’s maximum brightness and volume settings.

For those who need to up their gaming experience from what they’re currently getting out of a smartphone or tablet, consider the PlayStation Vita. It’s big, bold, beautiful and not as costly as you would think – if you’re willing to go the extra mile when it comes to equipping the device with ample storage space, this portable gaming console will definitely win you over.

You can find a PlayStation warranty for extending the life of your game-gadget at CPS!

1. Make sure that automatic-updating has been enabled. The simplest way to keep your browser performing at top-notch speed and fluidity is to always be using the latest version of the browser.

2. Disable cookies. Nowadays, pretty much every site you log into – whether it be GrubHub, PayPal, or your online dating site (don’t worry, we won’t tell) – chances are you find entering passwords over and over again quite annoying. For automatic password entries, cookies are great. However, tracking cookies, which are the ones that follow you around from site to site to gather marketing information, are not so great. To speed up your browser, try disabling these third-party cookies – you can do so without getting rid of the handy ones.

3. Use Lazarus to save form data. How crummy is it when you’ve spent hours composing an important message, only to have you browser suddenly crash, rendering the message lost in cyberspace forever? (Answer: very.) Avoid this catastrophe with Lazarus – a program that automatically saves your data so that you can retrieve it back after an unexpected crash.

4. Shield your machine from unsafe links. The days of hesitantly clicking on a shady link and praying it doesn’t screw up your system are over. With Web of Trust (WOT), a colored dot traffic-light red, orange or green) will pop up next to each link you are viewing, alerting you of its security level and whether or not it’s OK to go.

There are tons of tips and tricks for enhancing your web-browsing experience – the above is just a handful. Search online for others – you’ll be surprised how many there really are.

You can also make the most of your surf-time with an extended warranty for your laptop, desktop, tablet, phone or whatever your device-of-choice may be for tinkering in cyber town.

User base is an important factor when it comes to social networking – after all, the more users, the more opportunities to get your gossip on. You may be surprised to know that Google +, not Facebook, was the first media network to reach 25 million users – and it did so within its first month. It took Facebook about three years to hit that number – however since then, FB has grown like weeds in the cracks of the social sidewalk – to an outrageous 750 million users!

When it comes to privacy, Facebook has been snowed over with concerns for what seems like years – and Google +’s privacy options remain, to this day, a great deal more forceful. Unlike FB, Google + allows users to customize who can view individual posts. Although Facebook seems always to be tweaking its settings to protect user confidentiality, Google + is many points ahead in the privacy part of the arena.

Besides broadcasting dating disasters and posting pics of Junior’s first haircut, people are using social utilities for playtime. Currently, more than 50% of Facebookers play games – and that’s probably because the service boasts a library of about a bazillion titles. Google +, on the other hand, comes nowhere close to this size of a collection with only about 20 games.

Video chat is a lesser-known love amongst social networkers, nevertheless, both services offer it. Google + takes the cake, however, as its “Hangout” feature allows up to 10 people to chat at the same time. Meanwhile, Facebook allows for only one-on-one chatting capability.

So far, Facebook holds the reigns with a higher user base and a larger game library while Google + boasts stronger privacy and superior chat functions. The deal breaker: mobile apps. While Google +’s mobile app for iPhone and Android phones offers all of the fundamentals via its Huddle feature (a group-chat tool comparable to the vintage AOL chat platform), Facebook comes back stronger with its Mobile Messenger app – a tool that not only offers advanced functionality but can be used across a whole slew of devices.

No matter what social network you’re buzzing around, the device you use to check the daily skinny needs to be protected. Whether it’s an iPhone warranty or coverage for your Droid or laptop, you can find an exceptional service plan at CPS.

Now Android users can have access to the world’s tiniest computer from pretty much all of their devices – including tablets, laptops, TVs, game consoles, and more. In the past, we have gotten used to PC functionality being restricted to the size of a screen…but Cotton Candy makes this limitation a thing of the past.

Just what are the specs on this tiny PC with a powerful punch? Well, it weighs about 21 grams, features an ARM Cortex A9 (1.2 GHz) CPU, and ARM Mali 400 MP (Quad-core) GPU. It also supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1, and it accesses data via a secure FXI Web portal. It also features a microSD slot that provides a storage capacity of up to 64GB.

The best part about Cotton Candy is, it’s ready to go – consumers can now pre-order it because it’s about to go on sale. The micro-computer will come with a USB and HDMI 1.3 connector to link to virtually any of your gadgets’ screens – and it can play HD video and display multiple image formats. And that’s not all… Cotton Candy even allows you to use a wireless keyboard or mouse with it.

Cotton Candy is more than sweet – it’s the beginning of a revolution in the land of tiny tech toys. Prepare for yours now by purchasing one of CPS’ extended warranties for it – as well as for all of the devices you will be connecting it to.

Spring Design modeled part of its dual-personality-ed reader after the smartphone by incorporating the Google Android Operating System and a color touchscreen on the bottom third of the Alex – but without the Apps. Alex is fashionably ahead of its brother and sister-e-readers, as it is thinner (0.4-0.5”), longer (8.9”)and not as wide (4.7 – 4.9”) – and consider this device the Kate Moss of the e-reader world, weighing in at a waifish 11 ounces.

Alex’s features include a USB charging and data-transfer, a 2.5 mm headphone jack, 2 top-quality speakers, and a microSD slot with storage capacity or 32GB (2GB of which is pre-installed). Accessories include an AC-to-USB power adapter, a USB cable, headphones which users have touted as being exceptionally cozy, as well as a protective neoprene sleeve for sporting this e-reader even on the busiest subway train without the worry of scratching it up.

Now onto Alex’s performance: consider it at the level of a first-generation Android phone. Startup time lags a little, scrolling through menus proves a bit stop-and-go-ish, as the screen tends to stutter, and the touchscreen keyboard requires users to wait a split-second for each key to register after being tapped. Nevertheless, Spring Design has created an ambidextrous, stylish gadget that is sure to seduce a slew of e-readers/web surfers – and adequately priced, Alex makes for a pretty fine device.