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New Poll: Which Modern Video Game Console(s) do you Own?

Ryan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 22:55:21 +0000

It’s hard to believe, but this November the Xbox 360 will turn 4-years old, and the Wii and PS3 will turn 3-years old. These consoles mark what’s considered to be the seventh generation of video game consoles, and generally consoles are revamped every 4-7 years. That means in the next 1-4 years a new generation of consoles will likely begin to emerge.

This generation of consoles is pretty interesting each of them seem to focus on something different than the other two:

Xbox 360: This was the first one to market, and it heavily capitalized on online gameplay. In fact they did such a good job with it that they have actually been able to charge users for an Xbox Live account if they want to play online.
Playstation 3: Initially the PS3 was pretty expensive, but the price has dropped rather significantly over the last few years. Almost everyone I know who bought this did not pick it up solely because it was a video game system… the big focus here is that it also plays Blu-ray videos. Heck, most of the people I know don’t even use the PS3 to play games at all. They just bought it because it’s considered to be the best Blu-ray player available since it is also updateable. If Sony had lost the format war it would have really screwed over their console sales.
Nintendo Wii: This is more of a family/party console. This was actually the first 7th-gen console I had bought, and for most people the fun factor will start to wear off. Nintendo was smart and priced this below the competition initially which, in addition to their interactive controllers, really helped skyrocket sales. I attribute almost all of the Wii’s popularity to word-of-mouth… because this is the console people seem to talk about the most.

As of right now I own the Xbox 360 and the Wii, but I don’t really play the Wii anymore. I just find playing online with my friends a lot more enjoyable than what’s offered on the Wii.

So now the big question is what consoles do you own? We’ll follow up this poll asking which console you play the most, but right now I’m just curious which one(s) you actually have in your household. Go ahead and vote below, or in the sidebar where you can also track the poll’s progress.

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New Poll: What Brand of Printer is “the best”?

Ashley — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 23:37:52 +0000

Working in a school, a private school for that matter, I’ve come to realize that there are always going to be fundraisers. Schools need money, and fundraisers help them with this. I’m sure if you have kids, you dread when those fundraisers start because it usually means you’ll end up buying way too many candy bars, or oodles of wrapping paper, just so your child sells something. Or, you butter-up to your co-workers and hope they’ll help you out, but then of course, you’ll be expected to return the favor come the time their child is selling popcorn or Girl Scout cookies.

Anyhow, what does fundraising have to do with printer brands? At my school, one of the fundraisers they run is a printer cartridge collection. A company called Funding Factory gives the school money for certain qualifying cartridges (and cell phones). At the end of the school year, we sort through all of the cartridges, ship them off, and then receive money. The great thing about this is that it’s a no hassle way for parents to contribute. The bad? I’m the lucky one who gets to sort through all of the used cartridges to find the ones on the qualifying list. This is tedious, and a little messy, as you can imagine.

This past week I finally decided to sort through the collection, and from it, was able to see what I believe to be trends in printer brands. This leads us to our new poll:

New Poll: What brand of printer is “the best”?

What brand of printer is “the best”? Have you found a certain brand to be better than others over the years? Our personal preference is HP, and if the small sampling of cartridges my school collected means anything, it looks as though HP is the preferred brand as well.

Based upon the cartridges collected, let’s see if your preference matches what I found:

#1 – HP
#2 – Lexmark
#3 – Epson
#4 – Canon
#5 – Dell

You can vote below if you have Flash enabled, or vote in the sidebar of the site.

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New Poll: Are Smartphones too Smart?

Ryan — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 15:49:10 +0000

Over the last few years it seems as though the iPhone has really sparked a greater interest in smartphones, and has managed to show consumers what handheld devices are capable of doing. Of course they aren’t alone in the market with both Windows Mobile devices and Blackberries all competing to be the one you carry in your pocket.

Having all this power in your hand is a tremendous convenience, but I recently met a girl named Payal who wasn’t as eager to get one of these gadgets. Being the geek that I am I curiously asked what her reasoning was for not not wanting the iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter.

A lot of times when I ask the question of why someone doesn’t want a smartphone the response is typically that they don’t need it. Those types of people use the device for talking, and maybe some occasional text messaging, but other than that their phone stays tucked away in their pocket. Her response was something I hadn’t heard before. She explained how so many people are in love with their smartphones, but to her such a device would curb the spontaneity and enthusiasm that she wants from life.

How so you might ask? I wondered the same thing since I personally use the iPhone quite a bit for finding places I ordinarily wouldn’t have stumbled across. I will, for example, fire up the Yelp application and look for unique restaurants in the area I’m at. In her eyes that’s not the same kind of excitement. To her it’s more fun to walk around and grab a bite to eat at any place she comes across, and doesn’t want to rely on the reviews and thoughts of online strangers. In other words she wants to see the world through her own eyes, and not through someone else’s.

Another example she provided was exploring new places. She loves to drive around almost hoping to get lost, and find places she’s not been to before. With a smartphone she fears that having the capability to quickly get back on course (via a GPS) would discourage any of this from happening.

So I’d love to hear from all of you in regards to how you feel about smartphones. Why do/don’t you use one? I have to admit that the conversation I had with her has really made me ponder how I use my iPhone, and how much I actually rely on it. I’m sure that the next time I pull it out for leisure purposes I’ll think twice as to whether I actually need it, or whether I’m passing up what could be a fun experience.

With that being said we’ve got a new poll to accompany this topic! If you have Flash enabled you should be able to vote below, otherwise the poll will remain up for a few weeks in the sidebar of the site.

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New Poll: Have you downloaded the Windows 7 Beta?

Ashley — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:22:55 +0000

It’s definitely about time that we post a new poll. For our last poll, we asked you to tell us about your monitor(s). A monitor is one of those essential things that we as computer users couldn’t live without. We’ll get into the results of what kinds of monitors you guys are using, but first we’ll introduce our new poll.

With the Windows 7 Beta currently available for download, we thought we’d ask you whether or not you’ve downloaded it. Windows 7 is essentially Microsoft’s second shot at getting Vista right with performance improvements and new features. The beta has been available, unofficially since late December (08′) and officially since January (09′).

Before you vote, if you want to get your hands on the beta, remember to do it before February 10th. That’s when Microsoft will no longer make it available to the public.

Download Here

New Poll: Have you downloaded the Windows 7 Beta?

Options:

Yes, I’ve downloaded it but haven’t installed it
Yes, I’ve downloaded and installed it
No, I haven’t downloaded it yet, but need to
No I don’t intend to download it

You may vote below if you have Flash enabled, or vote in the side-bar to your right.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

In our previous poll where we asked you to tell us about your monitor, we found that:

The majority of you use an LCD Monitor
Most of you use only 1 monitor (compared to a dual monitor set-up)
The majority of you are using a monitor that’s 19 or 20 inches in size

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New Poll: Tell Us About Your Monitor(s)

Ashley — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:24:05 +0000

If you find yourself sitting in front of the computer for hours on end during a days time, a nice LCD monitor can really make a difference. Compared to conventional CRT monitors, flat screens are sharper, and thus a little easier on the eyes. Over the last several years, the prices have come down as well which means it doesn’t take long to save up for one.

A few weeks ago at work I was asked to order several LCD monitors to replace old CRT monitors. It was when I went to remove the old monitors that I was reminded of yet another benefit of the LCD monitors — size! CRT’s are simply heavy, and take up valuable space on a desk. I had several people tell me how nice it was to have so much more desk space available to them.

Because LCD’s take up less space, more people and businesses are inclined to set-up multiple monitors for one computer. When Ryan and I worked from home, we both had a multiple monitor set-up, just because it was nice to have the extra screen space.

New Poll: Tell Us About Your Monitor(s)

Today we want you to tell us about your monitor(s), and we’ll be polling you about three different things. They are:

Is your monitor an LCD or an old CRT?
What size is your monitor?
How many monitors do you have per computer?

Please choose all answers that apply. You may vote below if you have Flash enabled, or vote in the side-bar to your right.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

It looks like Google has some work ahead of them if they want people to use Google Chrome as their primary browser. In our last poll we asked what you thought of Google Chrome. According to our poll, 45% of you like Google’s first attempt at a browser, but haven’t made Google Chrome your primary browser. Another good chunk, 20% of you, haven’t even tried it!

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New Poll: What Do You Think of Google Chrome?

Ashley — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:12:46 +0000

Now that Google Chrome has been available for about two months, we thought we’d take the opportunity to poll CyberNet readers to see what they think of it. For those who may not yet know what Google Chrome is all about, it’s Google’s free web browser that launched into beta in early September. We originally asked what you thought of it a day after it launched and got mixed opinions. Now that you’ve had some more time to get yourselves familiar with it, we thought we’d revisit the question in the form of a poll.

New Poll – What do you think of Google Chrome?

I haven’t tried it
I like it but decided not to make it my primary browser
I love it and made it my primary browser
I’m undecided and need more time to determine if I will use it
I tried it but don’t like it

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

In our previous poll, we asked, “Do you use the default Firefox Theme?” The clear choice among the majority of CyberNet readers (58%) is the default Firefox theme. About 38% of you said that you used a custom Firefox theme while 8% of you (yes, just 8%), said you weren’t even using Firefox.

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New Poll: Do You Use the Default Firefox Theme?

Ashley — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 16:06:03 +0000

Calling all Firefox users! If you’re a Firefox user, we are wondering if you stick with the default theme or if you venture out and find a custom theme. There are hundreds of themes out there that appeal to users for various reasons whether it be the colors or something else. Despite this, many people still stick to the plain’ ole Firefox theme which we should add, isn’t all that bad for those who like to keep things simple.

New Poll: Do you use the default Firefox theme?

Yes, I use the default Firefox theme
No, I use a custom Firefox theme
I don’t use Firefox

Cast your vote below if you have Flash enabled or vote in the sidebar to the right.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

We had a great response for our previous poll where we asked how much your monthly cell-phone cost you. It looks like many of you try to keep your cell-phone costs to a minimum with 37% of you saying that your bill is under $50 each month. Next was 29% of you who said your bill ranged between $51-$100 per month. A good amount of you, 13% said you didn’t even have to worry about a cell phone bill!

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New Poll: How Much Is Your Monthly Cell Phone Bill?

Ashley — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:08:03 +0000

Today in the news I saw an article that caught my attention. The title read “Family gets $20,000 cell phone bill.” I thought to myself, how on earth could someone possibly rack up a $20,000 phone bill, but then once I saw the video that explained it, it was easy to understand. We’re dealing with cell phone companies here who don’t always have a great reputation when it comes to advertising plans and billing correctly, which explains a lot.

Here’s what happened, a man received his cell phone bill and said he almost fell over when he saw that he owed AT&T $19,370. He called customer service at AT&T only to have them tell him that it wasn’t a mistake, it was because of international usage, and he was to pay the bill. What happened was that his son took a laptop with him on a business trip up to Vancouver, British Columbia. With the laptop he brought an air card which gives users unlimited Internet usage at any time in any place.

Most of the charges were from international roaming rates, but the problem is that he was charged for roaming in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. He wasn’t even close to those Provinces! The man ended up calling a news station who picked it up and decided to call AT&T. Thankfully AT&T responded to them and reduced the bill down to nothing. While this is great for the man and his family, he wonders why AT&T never informed him when the bill got to the point of concern.

This leads us to our next poll. How much is your monthly cell phone bill? This could get a little tricky because people have multiple phones in their households, but that’s fine. Just let us know the dollar amount you spend on your cell phone bill each month whether it be for one phone or five phones.

New Poll: How much is your monthly cell phone bill?

$0-$50
$51-$100
$101-$150
$151-$200
$201-$300
$301-$400
$401-$500
$500+
I don’t have a cell phone bill

Cast your vote below if you have Flash enabled or vote in the sidebar.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

For our previous poll, we asked: How did you watch the Olympics? We found that the majority of you, 47% still used traditional TV to get your olympics fix. Coming in 2nd was 36% of you who didn’t even watch the Olympics followed by 12% who used online streaming television. We wonder, how will these numbers change for the Olympics in 2010? Will we see more people streaming the games online?

Source

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New Poll: How Did You Watch the Olympics?

Ashley — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:09:28 +0000

It’s been almost a week since the Summer Olympics in Beijing wrapped-up. This year more than ever, the Internet made a difference in how people kept-up with the games. In two years the Olympics will be back, in Vancouver, and it’ll definitely be interesting to see once again, the role that the Internet will play and how things will have changed between now and then.

For this weeks poll we’re taking a look at how you watched the Olympic games this year. Did the Internet play as large of a roll as we expect that it did?

New Poll: How did you watch the Olympics?

Traditional TV
Online streaming television
YouTube
BitTorrent Downloads
I didn’t watch the Olympics
Other

Cast your vote below if you have Flash enabled or vote in the sidebar.

Previous Poll Wrap-Up

In our previous poll, we asked, “when traveling, does taking digital photos keep you from buying souvenirs?”

The results? It looks like digital cameras save some of you some money! 50% of voters said that they buy less because their souvenirs are in the form of digital photos while 46% of you said no, you tended to buy just as many souvenirs as you always have.

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New Poll? When Traveling…

Ashley — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:28:52 +0000

Ryan and I got to talking about traveling recently and how we snap hundreds of pictures when we take trips thanks to digital cameras. Back when we used a 35mm camera, very few photos were taken simply because it was limiting, and sometimes a hassle to get them developed. Somehow or another we realized that we tend to buy less souvenirs when we travel now and instead just rely on all of the photos we we take for memories of our vacations.

New Poll:

When traveling, does taking digital photos keep you from buying souvenirs?

Yes, I buy less because my souvenirs are in the form of digital photos
No, I tend to buy just as many souvenirs as I always have
Other

Cast your vote below if you have Flash enabled or vote in the sidebar.

Previous Poll Wrap-up:

For our previous poll, we asked you, “Is your copy of Microsoft Office (for personal use) Legitimate?” What we found was interesting, to say the least. The difference between “Yes, I paid for a genuine copy” and “No, the version I use is pirated” was just three votes. 43% of you said you paid for Office while 42% of you said the version you had was pirated. A rather small 15% said that for them, it was mixed. They own multiple copies and some are genuine while others aren’t.

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