Last minute gift ideas

Christmas is just days away, but there is still time to get some great last-minute gifts.

Try a new iwireless MegaTalk phone from Doty Computers for the teen-ager in your life. They can talk as much as they want with the unlimited airtime. Our least expensive option will get you a Nokia 2610 phone, 7 days of unlimited talk time and $5 of PowerSupplize (for sending text and downloading ringtones) for only $54, including taxes. OR get her a magenta Motorola RAZR with the same package for less than $119 including taxes. We've also got a selection of Sony Ericsson Walman phones, the cell phone with the built-in MP3 player. All phones are also available in monthly-billed packages.

We've also got great stocking stuffer items like 4GB thumb drives, SD cards for cameras and cell phones, snap-on protective covers for phones including Spiderman, WWE, Elvis and Pink Ribbon covers. For the traveler in your life, we have universal laptop chargers, power converters for foreign travel and power inverters that allow you to plug normal 110 cords into your AC adapter in your car or boat.

Still need to get your holiday greetings out?
We can also print and design your year-end holiday newsletters at a fraction of the cost the other guys charge. We can also take your family photos and snapshots and turn them into wonderfully-creative photo greeting cards anytime of the year. Stop by either our Oskaloosa or Knoxville locations to see samples of what we can do.

Need to upgrade your computer to use your new gifts? 
If Grandma got over zealous with the technological gifts and bought you something you can't use on your current computer system, we can help upgrade you to a system that can use it. We've got lots of memory and video cards in stock to bump you up so you can play that new game. We also have a number of different adapters and extension cables that you might need. We keep things like hard drives and DVD drives in stock, so you can get upgraded quickly. Plus our Kingston SDRAM and SODIMM laptop memory has lifetime warranty.

Beware of the $199 Wal-Mart PC

Yesterday, Wal-Mart released some of its holiday electronics specials, including a $199 Everex computer system. While the price may be enticing, remember the adage "You get what you pay for" still holds true in many instances.

This $199 computer comes with Google OS instead of Windows. Google OS is a Linux-based operating system. While there are lots of open source programs on the market (many if not most of which are free) to run on Linux, the average Joe User is not going to understand how to program a lot of these. I already see Mom and Dad Wellinentioned buying one of these cheap PCs for the kids for Christmas, along with a host of games and educational programs for the family to enjoy with it, only to find out that the computer won't play the games because they are Windows based. Not to mention the kids disappointement if Mom and Dad try to put it on dial-up Internet, because while it does have a modem installed gOS does not support it.

The processor is also neither an Intel nor an AMD; it's a VIA. VIA technologies is who bought out Cyrix years ago, probably one of the crappiest computer processors ever built, in my humble opinion.

Rest assured, while the price may be right at the counter, there will be plenty of upgrades and maintenance needed down the road. I would hate to see the disappointment on a child's face when they realize they can't really use their computer for any of the games their friends play. Kind of like when a technologically-challenged family member bought his 11-year-old daughter an iPod for Christmas a couple years ago not realizing that she would need a computer to download the music to go on it (a computer which he didn't own). The child was dejected all day because she had this great present that would be the envy of all her friends and couldn't use it.

Now, this same computer will be available with Windows Vista Basic for an additional $99, BUT the machine only has 512 MB RAM which is just barely enough for Vista Basic and it is likely to crawl once you put any additional software on it.

My advice to anyone purchasing high-tech electronics, do your homework before you buy and do not let the price tag be the main force behind your decision to buy. Remember that spending a little extra time and a few extra dollars up front could save you money and a whole lot of heartache in the end.

Daylight Saving Time Ends

Don't forget, Daylight Saving Time ends tonight (technically tomorrow morning at 2 a.m.). Set your clocks back.

Wow, I hadn't realized I'd neglected the blog for so long.

It has been a busy, busy summer and fall. Business has never been better at Doty Computers. We are trying to fill a few retail positions here to get to full staff. After getting back from a vacation to Texas this summer (to visit our kids and newest grandbaby), we went to work furiously interviewing people. It's been a difficult task finding people who actually fit in well with us. We don't just want any Joe Blow to sell whatever they can sell. We'd like people that have enough sense to learn the product to actually help people. I don't want my staff to be another Best Buy employee who tells the customer whatever they want to hear to make a sale.

In the meantime, we've been working on adding several new features as well. We hired another computer technician and are getting back into the onsite repair business. We've had several customers tell us they wished we came on site again, so we've listened.

As a result, we now have business service contracts available to give businesses who contract for so-many hours of service a break on the hourly rate and a discount on hardware purchases, too. Our technicians will perform both preventive and emergency maintenance on computers, providing businesses with an IT staff without the costs of hiring a full team themselves.

If you own or manage a business in the southeastern/south central Iowa region and interested in having IT services for your business, give us a call today. We'll send a technician out for a free site evaluation and discuss how we can help you better maintain your computers and company data.

Vista betas expire this month

Pre-release versions of Windows Vista expire May 31st. If you are running a pre-release version of Vista (Beta 2, RC1 or RC2), you'll begin to see notifications of the upcoming expiration around May 18th, according to Microsoft.

Microsoft does suggest migrating to the final version of Vista before the May 31st expiration to avoid any disruption in service. Those who participated in Microsoft's Customer Preview Program had a pre-release version of Vista Ultimate installed. To install the final version of Windows Vista, you can purchase the desired Windows Vista Upgrade.

In all but one instance, you will need to do a clean install of Windows, so back up any data you need. If you have Windows Vista RC1 installed on your computer and you buy the Windows Vista Ultimate Upgrade version, you can do an "in-place" upgrade, which does not wipe all of your programs. It is still recommended that you back up your data before upgrading either way.

After May 31st, people who continue to use the pre-release versions of Vista will be limited to 2-hour sessions. After two hours, the PC will reboot without warning, giving you no opportunity to save your data. Microsoft says the opportunity to log in for these 2-hour sessions will be for a limited time, but gives no specific time frame for the cut-off.

Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business and Ultimate, full and upgrade versions, are available from Doty Computers.