A hi-tech guide to saving money

splash cash on luxury gadgets can often be seen as a luxury, especially during an economic crisis - but we can save money by improving our existing technology rather than investing in new equipment brand?

For example, there are only a limited amount you can do with a laptop. You can replace the hard drive and maybe upgrade the RAM. The first will give you more storage space and the afternoon can make the machine a little faster.

The rest is difficult - you can not really upgrade the graphics card as it is welded and reach the processor is very difficult.

An easier way to update your laptop without any problems is to add an external drive or even an external numeric keypad.

Experience of fear

Paul Trotter, director of PC Advisor, said: "Upgrading your laptop can be a pretty scary the first time you do.

"You can first of all void the warranty, but it is likely that if this is a slower, your system warranty has expired.

"If you are replacing something like RAM you need to make sure the Ram is correct otherwise your laptop will not recognize it.

"Fortunately, there are some websites that can do the trick for you - Crucial.com has a memory advisor, like Kingston.

"If you open the laptop can speed things up a bit looking at the software installed, eliminating programs that do not use via PC and cleaning tools.

Sony cuts Playstation price

Sony has cut the price of its PS3 game console to 299 Euros and £ 249 in gamescom in Cologne, Germany.

We have presented a slimmer version of PlayStation, which will replace the existing model.

The price is still substantially higher than rival Microsoft's Xbox system.

Expanding availability of local currency reports-AdsenseAdsense

Adsense been working to enable local currency reporting in more countries, and are happy to announce that this feature is now available for publishers located in Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Georgia, Gibraltar, and Norway. As a reminder, switching to these new reports means that all earnings generated from advertisers paying in other currencies will be converted to your local currency each day. If you receive payments in your local currency, there won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month, but you can still update your payment method and currency at any time.

If you're located in one of these countries, we recommend that you first download and save copies of your past reports in U.S. dollars for your records. Once you're ready to switch to local currency reports, sign in to your account and look for the green prompt in the upper right hand corner of your Reports Overview page. Click on the link, and you'll then be asked to agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. If you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.