Using Calling Cards to Call Abroad

If you are disappointed in what cell phone plans have to offer, then you should consider using calling cards instead! One of the best features calling cards have is the fact that you don’t need to pay a monthly fee. You practically choose how much you pay and when you pay. Usually, a cell phone calling card has at $20 on it. However, you can choose to get more dollars on it, to get more minutes to chat from it. Depending on what plan you choose for the calling card, you will have personalized benefits, to fit your daily phone call routine.
If you live in the United States and you have to make phone calls to Argentina either from a cell phone or from a landline, then you can always choose online calling cards. They will enable you to make phone calls to any Argentinean phone number for affordable prices. Depending on how much you want to talk on the phone, you can choose different plans. If you simply want to check on someone in Argentina, you won’t have to get plans that will charge you by three or five minutes, but cheap plans that charge you by the minute. Of course, the rounding depends on what company provides the calling cards and the calling card itself. It may also depend on the city you’re calling and also if you’re calling to a cellphone. Call Plus from PhoneCardsCentral will charge 1.9 cents to call a landline in Cordoba and the same calling card will charge 10.4 cents to call a cell phone. You simply need to select the card and the amount of dollars you want to have on it and order it online. You will receive the pin code in an e-mail and you will be able to use it either on a house phone or on a cell phone.
Start taking advantage of the really good offers that include online calling cards. You pay whenever you want and talk how much you want, keeping in touch with people abroad.

All to Get Laptop Accessories

When you have a laptop, you will surely realize soon that if you want to take it anywhere outside of the house, you will need some laptop accessories. Mainly what you will need is either a sleeve or a case for your laptop to protect it from being damaged in a variety of ways. There are various materials that these things can be made of which are good to know about.

10 Reasons For Buying Dell Batteries

Where would you be without your computer? If you are like most people, your computer is a part of your life and being without it is a nightmare. For laptop owners, it is important to have a reliable battery with a health meter so you know when to recharge it. If you are someone who is always on the go, you would benefit from a supplemental battery. Fortunately Dell makes high quality primary and supplemental batteries that you can rely on to keep your computer from dying on you. The following article gives ten reasons why you should buy Dell Batteries.

Calling Cards - Call All Over the World Freely

There was a time when an individual living abroad was not able to communicate with his loved ones due to high call rates.

Then various networking companies came up with international calling cards as the solution to this problem so that a person can make international calls without thinking of the bills। There are many networking companies that provide the customer with these type of cards. More information about these phone cards can be gained from various sites. These plans help in reducing the phone bills and help you to save your hard earned money and can be stay connected to his loved ones.

Pilot program gives ninth-graders laptops

Alan Youngblood

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A small laptop shows a Web page that is part of a Lake Weir High School English class project at the Candler school on Thursday. Student Brittany Moyer is shown in the background. The laptops are part of mobile computing labs in the pilot program

Cheap Ways to Upgrade Your Laptop

My laptop is starting to get a little long in the tooth. But while sometime soon I’ll need to buy a replacement, in the meantime, with a few dollars and some relatively inexpensive and easy-to-install upgrades, I’ve managed to keep the old machine humming along.
Here are some cheap ways to put off the day you’ll need to buy a new laptop.
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Refurbished Laptop Parts

While new laptops are quite expensive, most refurbished laptop computers usually cost very less, and often less than $500. In most cases, they are as good as new and recently, most refurbished laptops come with warranties, just like a new product. A refurbished laptop can satisfy your basic computing needs, such as word processing, Internet and e-mail, creating spreadsheets, playing CDs, and more.

Dell's $2,000 Adamo laptop spotted

ADAMO MAY MEAN 'let's fall in love' in Latin, but getting to lay our hands all over Dell's new luxury laptop at SXSW last week, we discovered it was more a case of passing fancy.
The Dell Adamo is apparently the world's most anorexic laptop to date, weighing in at just 1.81 kg (4.0 lb), with a 13.4-inch, high definition, edge-to-edge 16:9 glass display all cased in a gleaming aluminum chassis. But when you wipe the drool from your mouth and pop the hood... well, it's a little disappointing.

Dell’s top secret cellphone? A netbook

It’s a mixed up crazy world. Just as we digest news that Nokia wants to release a laptop, Michael Dell says his company could give away netbooks with built-in 3G, pocketing a slice of the data plan.

Rumours had Dell on the verge of announcing a smartphone.

Laptops with built-in 3G chips are nothing new. HP, Toshiba and Lenovo have been selling them in New Zealand for a while on selected models.

But up until now, built-in cellular broadband has been restricted to a small number of high-end notebooks, providing wealthier laptop owners with a more convenient internet connectivity option than jamming in a dongle, piggy-backing on a 3G phone.

Dell wants to extend built-in cellular smarts to the mass market, fast-growing netbook category. Models in the class, which includes Dell’s Inspiron Mini 9 (pictured), sell for between $NZ700 and $NZ900, and are little larger than a videocassette (kids, ask your parents).

Speaking after Dell’s disappointing results on Friday, chief executive Michael Dell said 3G services were a growth opportunity, and that his eponymous company was in talks with several carriers. He told the conference call: “We have been particularly focused on 3G and agreements with carriers embedding 3G and using our own sales engines as well to sell 3G netbooks.”

With PC sales slowing, and computers of all kinds selling for less than ever before, Mr Dell wants to start making some money from Dell’s sizeable installed base (the company is the world’s second largest PC seller after HP).

An expanding services division is one way. Grabbing a slice of recurring 3G revenue is another.

Under Mr Dell’s plan, a Dell netbook would be sold for next to nothing or even given away, providing the customer signed a long-term contract with a partner telco like Vodafone or Telecom. It’s a model that’s familiar enough in the cellphone world.

If a user signs onto, say, an $80 a month, three-year data plan, then $2400 could be coming through the door; more for those months when the owner goes a little video crazy.

But whose door? Dell will have to cut some sharp revenue-sharing deals with telcos.

The problem is, however, that netbooks are heavily commoditised. Dell will not have the bargaining power of, say, Apple, backed by the iPhone’s unique brand cachet.

Linux is OK
Mr Dell also defended Linux against a recent Microsoft comments that the OS is less stable on netbooks.
Dell sells around one third of its Inspiron 9 netbooks with Linux, and around two-thirds with Windows. Mr Dell said return rates were similar for both.

Profit halved
Certainly, Dell could do with striking out in a new direction.

Although it stayed in the black for its quarter ended January 30, Dell’s net profit dropped 48% to $US351 million from the year-ago period, while revenue was down 16% to $US13.4 billion.

The lower net profit included one-time charges totalling $US277 million related to a revamp of manufacturing systems, and stock compensation charges.

Buoyed by an alliance with EMC, Dell’s storage business was the star, with sales growing 7% to $692 million.

Desktop PC sales fell 27% year-on-year to tally $US3.5 billion for the quarter; notebook sales fell 17% to $US4 billion, and servier business was down 16% to $US1.3 billion. All regions shared the pain.

Article source: http://www.nbr.co.nz

Stop thief! Software lets stolen laptops yell for help

By JESSICA MINTZ, AP Technology Writer


SEATTLE (AP) — Stolen laptop? Now you can tell those thieves exactly what you think of them.

Front Door Software Corp.'s Retriever program displays your contact information as your computer boots up. There's even space for a plea to a Good Samaritan — "$50 for my safe return," maybe.



In most cases, that's enough to help an honest person return the machine, said Carrie Hafeman, chief executive of the five-person company based in Evergreen, Colo.

But in the darkest scenarios, Retriever takes off the kid gloves.

You can log on to a Web site and check a box indicating the computer is missing. Now during start-up, a big yellow and red banner appears on the screen, boldly declaring the laptop lost or stolen. This message is set to reappear every 30 seconds, no matter how many times the thief closes the window.

You can remotely switch on a second password prompt if you fear the thief has also stolen your regular Windows, Macintosh or Linux login.

Behind the scenes, Retriever uses built-in Wi-Fi to sniff out nearby networks, then suss out what Internet service providers power them. With that information in hand, Hafeman said, you can file a police report and get help locating the criminal.

While waiting for law enforcement to come through, you can even let off steam by sending new messages to the nagging "Stolen Computer!" screen.

"You are being tracked. I am right at your door" was one, Hafeman said, adding that she could not bring herself to say others that came to mind. Customers have also tried to induce fear or guilt by switching their contact info to "Secret Service" and "Catholic church."

The latest version of Retriever, which costs $29.95 for three years of use, is even more aggressive.

Now, when the "stolen" screen pops up, the laptop cries for help. Use a canned message ("Help, this laptop is reported lost or stolen. If you are not my owner, please report me now.") or record your own.

"You can say, 'Get your hands off me, you S.O.B.'" Hafeman said.

Article Source: www.keprtv.com

Sony recalls PC batteries

SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO - Sony Corp said five PC makers including Hewlett-Packard Co and Toshiba Corp will recall 100,000 computer battery packs made by the Japanese electronics maker due to a fire hazard.

Sony said the recall is expected to have limited impact on its earnings, and its shares outperformed a falling Tokyo stock market on Friday.

The recall is a fraction of a much bigger recall of 9.6 million Sony PC batteries in 2006, which cost the company around 35.5 billion yen ($360 million).

The U.S. government issued on Thursday a recall of 35,000 Sony batteries and the Tokyo-based company said it would recall a further 65,000 batteries worldwide.

PC makers have reported 40 cases of overheating, including four cases where users suffered minor burns, and 21 cases of minor damage from fires and overheating, a Sony spokeswoman said.

The recall affects around 74,000 notebook PCs sold by HP and 14,400 from Toshiba.

The faulty batteries are also used in laptop PCs from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd, Sony said.

Sony blamed the faulty batteries on factory changes dating back up to four years, which it believes may have affected the quality of some battery cells.

Other incidents of overheating may have involved a problem with raw materials, the company said.

Sony recalled last month 438,000 of its Vaio laptops due to concerns about overheating batteries.

Article source: http://www.canada.com

Retailer to ship laptops with Intel's Core i7 chips

In an unlikely union of technologies, PC retailer Eurocom has said it will ship laptops powered by Intel's Core i7 processor, which the chip maker has dubbed the "fastest processor on this planet."

The Eurocom D900F Phantom i7 will include Intel's Nehalem-based quad-core Core i7 chips, which are typically put in servers and high-end gaming desktops. The laptops will ship on May 1, according to the Canadian PC retailer's Web site.

The laptop's Core i7 920, 940 and 965 processors will run at speeds from 2.66GHz to 3.2GHz and include 8MB of L2 cache. Intel launched the Core i7 chips in November and since then the chip has been praised for its speedy performance.

Calling it the "world's first notebook with i7 processor," Eurocom is targeting the laptop workstation as a desktop workstation replacement. It will include the X58 chipset and an Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) to boost graphics performance.

It will have a 17-inch screen and support up to 1.5TB of storage, 8GB of DDR3 memory and 1GB of graphics memory. It will also include wireless 802.11a/b/g/n technology and a webcam. It will ship with either the Windows Vista or Linux OS.

The laptop will weigh a whopping 11.9 pounds (5.4 kilograms), and it will come with a 12-cell battery. Pricing was not immediately available, though users can expect to dig deep into their wallets considering the use of new technologies in the laptop.

If Eurocom indeed ships the laptop, it could be the fastest Intel-based x86 laptop on the planet. Core i7 chips are built on the Nehalem microarchitecture, which includes the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) technology. QPI integrates a memory controller and provides a faster pipe for the CPU to communicate with system components like a graphics card and other chips.

Each core will be able to execute two software threads simultaneously, so a laptop with four processor cores could simultaneously run eight threads for quicker application performance.

Nehalem chips are a significant upgrade over Intel's Core 2 chips, which are currently used in desktops and laptops. The new chips cut bottlenecks of Intel's earlier Core microarchitecture to improve system speed and performance-per-watt.

Though Core i7 isn't targeted at laptops, Intel intends to scale down the Nehalem architecture for other chips that will go in mainstream desktops and laptops. Intel will also integrate graphics capabilities in the CPU down the line, which should bring more power-efficiency to laptops. However, gamers might need a separate graphics card for better graphics performance.

Intel has said it will release laptop-specific Nehalem chips in the second half of this year.

Many companies including Lenovo and Dell offer laptop workstations. Last month Lenovo launched the ThinkPad W700DS mobile workstation that has two LCD screens.

Article source: www.nytimes.com

Prepaid Calling Card - Affordable and Accessible Way of Communicating

A prepaid card makes communication with relatives and friends who live far away possible. Despite the introduction of wide online tools used for communication such as Skype, Yahoo Messenger or Dial Ring, the prepaid calling card is still here to stay.

True that these online tools provide more options and added access to users, but the prepaid card gives you the assurance that you can communicate with someone even though he or she does not have a computer unit. Majority of people these days own a mobile phone, and this device makes it more dependable and easier to contact than the typical online tools.

Calling overseas proves to be very expensive be it done using a mobile or a landline phone. This gets most people think twice about placing that call, especially the damage which it may cause on your pocket. International calls result in expensive bills of course.

There is an option however should you still want to hear a common voice to you from someone far away. This is when a prepaid calling card comes in. It allows you to make communication possible at a very affordable price. This in effect makes you save money while staying connected to your loved ones.

There are numerous companies which offer a prepaid calling card. You can easily use your internet connection to look at possible vendors. The type of prepaid calling card that you choose would of course very much depend on your budget and the specific features which you are looking for.

A prepaid calling card directory is even available online. With this type of service, you may get more information about companies who sell these cards. Extra information which you may well gather here too is features, prices and add-ons which come with the prepaid calling card. You may avail of existing offers and promos which these companies offer along with the purchase of the card. All of these things are very helpful in deciding which card to pick.

As for any purchase, it is important for you to read details regarding these cards so you may get your money's worth and to ensure that your expectations are met. We often fall into lazy habits of skipping information and later on resenting it once we are told so by after inquiring. Any investment for you money requires careful consideration of course.

Once you start your search, you may very well find out that there is a lot of competition going around these companies to offer prepaid calling cards. You end up feeling that this makes selection difficult for us. On the contrary, this is actually something beneficial to us consumers. This ensures that we get more chances of getting the best service as any company would go that extra mile just to get more customers. This assures that we have more options to choose from.

Article source: http://ezinearticles.com

Apple Reinvents the Laptop Battery for its MacBook

The most frustrating issue with portable computing devices, such as laptops, is the poor battery run time and overall short battery life. This is the reason why many laptop owners keep additional battery packs with them while on the move. They can also be seen hunting for a new battery pack when their old battery crashes after just a few recharges. In response to such issues, Apple has come up with a new technology that, it claims, not only enhances the battery run time, but also offers a huge increase in the number of recharges.

The company has developed a new non-removable battery for laptops that offers 8 hours of juice to run the device on a single charge, even when the display size is 17 inches and some power hungry goodies such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned on. Apple has installed the new mighty battery in its Apple MacBook Pro 17. According to the company, the new battery has got 40 percent more capacity than the legacy batteries and can be recharged 1000 times (3 times more than the current standard).

How Apple made this possible is simple. The company is now using lithium polymers to make the new batteries that offer many advantages over conventional batteries. Besides this, the company has also introduced the concept of ‘Adaptive Charging’ that incredible improves the battery life. Instead of charging the battery at a constant rate the adaptive charging charge the battery after calculating how much recharge each individual cell needs. This directly prevents premature death of the battery.

Source: www.mobile-computing-news.co.uk

IBM computer will have power of 2 million laptops

SAN FRANCISCO: Seven months after IBM delivered the world's fastest supercomputer, it has announced an even speedier one with the computing power of 2 million laptops.

IBM said on Tuesday it is developing the technology for its new Sequoia computer, with delivery scheduled in 2011 to the Department of Energy for use at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Sequoia will chug along at 20 petaflops per second and is one order of magnitude quicker than its predecessor. The earlier machine, delivered in June to the Energy Department, broke the 1 petaflop barrier.

Peta is a term for quadrillion and FLOP stands for floating point operations per second.

Sequoia, and a smaller computer called Dawn, are being built in Rochester, Minnesota, for use in simulating nuclear tests. IBM says they can also be used for complex tasks like weather forecasting or oil exploration.

IBM says Sequoia will be highly energy-efficient for the job it does but even so will occupy 96 refigerator-sized racks in an area the size of a big house -- 3,422 square feet.

Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com

Laptop's Hard Drives- Speed Also Matters

Buying a laptop? Want to upgrade your old one with a new hard drive? Besides hard drive's space size for storing your applications, documents, music, movies and other data, you should also pay attention to its speed performance. If you want fast access to stored data on your laptop's hard disk, you should purchase hard disk with SATA interface, higher rotational speed and larger buffer cache size.
Buy Laptop with SATA Drive
Serial ATA (SATA) hard drives use less power, so they save your laptop's battery. But, they also enchase your laptop's speed performance. Most hard drives usually support ATA/66 (66 MB/sec), Ultra ATA/100 (100 MB/sec), or SATA (150 MB/sec) interfaces. The numbers refer to the maximum burst rate at which the drive can pass data to the system (66, 100, or 150 megabytes per second). SATA transmit data in a serially (in a single stream) as opposed to PATA or Parallel ATA which is commonly referred to as an IDE hard drive.
Check the Hard Drive Rotational Speed
Don't forget to check the hard drive rotational speed!
The hard drive rotational speed tells you how fast the drive spins its disks in revolutions per minute (rpm). A higher rpm means higher drive performance. A 7,200 rpm hard drive is faster than a 5,400 rpm or 4,200 rpm and gives better performance.
Larger Buffer Cache Size - Better Performance
Buffer Cache Size is a temporary data storage area used to enhance drive performance. When the computer requests data from the hard disk if that data is in the cache, there is a performance boost directly related to the speed of the cache. Larger buffer cache size usually results in better hard drive performance. Buffer cache size on the most of laptop's hard drives is usually 2 MB, 4 MB or 8 MB.

Article source: ezinearticles.com

Laptop Keyboard Repair

Laptops have become an integral part of our lives. However, the sad fact remains that all the laptops available in the market are not standardized. Each manufacturer has different sizes of laptops to offer and sometimes the size of the parts differ. This fact is not a problem, at least not until the laptop starts needing repairs or replacement parts. Since one laptop is quite different from the other, it is very difficult to repair them in the first place, or in case of a replacement, find a part for the specific type of laptop. Even a simple thing like a laptop keyboard, is different for different makes and models of laptops on the market.

The main problem that arises due to rigorous usage of laptop keyboards is of damaged keys. Sometimes, the port that connects the keyboard to the laptop inside also gets damaged. If the damage is of the connecting cable inside the laptop, there is not much repair work required. Repair is surely possible if there is a problem with some of the keys.

Every key in any keyboard has a spring like arrangement that allows the key to press the sensor below and show the typed words on the screen. Most of the problems with keyboards and their keys occur when it refuses to press the sensor below and the typed alphabet will not show on the screen. This can be rectified easily and does not need the help of a repair person. One can find an online guide and find out how to take the key out of its main body. Once you do that, you can see for your self what's wrong with the keyboard. If you find that it is damaged below, you can try and fix it on your own or if you are unable to do so, you can go in for a new key to put in its place. This is where the problem starts. It is not easy to find as small a spare part as a few damaged keys. However, the possibility of finding them increases in a used laptop store. Laptops that are damaged that they cannot be repaired are disassembled and their parts sold separately in the market. You are sure to find your keys there.

If a keyboard is damaged beyond repair then one has to go in for the replacement of the keyboard which proves to be quite expensive. Another option is to use a new external keyboard with a USB or PS2 port and can use that keyboard for laptop computers.

Source: ezinearticles.com

Dell Laptop Hard Drive Diagnostics

Most Dell laptop and desktop computers will come with a handy utility already built into them for performing at least some form of basic diagnostics when you need to do a little bit of preliminary troubleshooting. This article will show you how to test the hard drive which is installed in your Dell laptop or desktop computer.

Some symptoms which should make you suspect that your hard drive is either going bad or has gone bad to some extent include:

No POST - your laptop or desktop computer just hangs and does nothing when you turn it on. It may sit with the lights on, but do nothing more. It may come on for a couple of seconds and then shut itself back off.

Errors - instead of seeing the Windows splash screen after your laptop completes it's POST you get an error which may mention that there is no boot device, or that maybe there is no mountable volume on the drive.

Sluggish Performance - Often when a hard drive is failing you will be able to have some form of a heads up about this unfortunate fact by witnessing a noticeable decline in your systems performance when you are actually in the laptop's OS (Operating System).

Windows Warning - Microsoft Windows does have the ability to actually warn you through a message which will pop up on your screen letting you know that you should save, then backup all important data immediately because a hard drive failure is imminent. Now, it is not necessarily a good idea to wait until this message is displayed because often times a hard drive will go completely bad, unusable, without this warning message ever showing up on your display screen at all.

On your Dell laptop or desktop computer you will likely find a handy utility which will run a quick test on your hard drive for you. This test is very reliable, at least for determining if your hard drive has actually gone bad.

The way you can access this test is as follows:
Power on your Dell computer, you will see the Dell splash screen, then very briefly you will see a message referring to F2 and F12 in the upper right hand corner of your laptop or desktop screen. The trick is to press the F12 key on your keyboard right when you see the message about F2 and F12 show up in the upper right hand corner of your screen.

This will bring up a BIOS boot menu and you will simply choose the one which refers to the hard drive diagnostics. Different Dell laptop or desktop models will offer different choices based on the hard drive being IDE or SATA. Once you have selected your drive the testing will begin. After around two to five minutes or so, depending on the size of your hard drive, you will see the results of the test. The results will either be a PASS, or a fail error code. The thing to remember with the Dell hard drive diagnostics is that a return error code 7 means that your hard drive does indeed need to be replaced. Backup any important data which you may have on your laptop or desktop computer and replace your hard drive.

Learn alternative ways to run Dell hard drive diagnostics already built into your Dell computer.

Toby Barns is a computer and networking consultant with over ten years experience as an independent representative of many major computer manufactures and retailers. Toby has worked in tech support call centers, led teams of advanced technicians in the computer manufacturing industry, done consulting for retail computer outlets, and as a field representative for many major computer warranty service providers.

Source: http://ezinearticles.com

AMD to lose notebook share for lack of netbooks

THERE MAY BE some debate about whether netbooks are an important growth opportunity for chipmakers, or if they’re taking a significant bite out of laptop sales, but the fact is that Intel has its Atom processor up and running, while AMD has yet to come up with a netbook chip of its own.

The fact AMD doesn’t have a netbook processor in the pipeline could be problematic for the firm. Its share of the global notebook market might well be in for a drop from the current 12-13 per cent to below 10 per cent share in 2009.

After all, entry level notebook PCs are not exactly the same thing as netbooks, and even if AMD does come out with its Yukon (Huron processor and RS690 chipset) and Congo (Conesus processor and RS780M chipset) platforms next year, both will target the entry-level and mid-range notebook segments rather than the cheap and cheerful netbook market that is seeing such a boom of late.

The problem for AMD now, however, is that the cost of developing all new netbook targeted parts will be costly and it will have a tough, if not impossible, time trying to compete with Chipzilla’s already super selling Atom.

After Yukon is launched in the first quarter of 2009 and Congo is launched in the second half of the year, AMD says it will follow up with its Nile series in 2010 and Ontario, with a dual-core Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) based on the Bobcat core, in 2011.

All well and good, but it still looks like little netbooks will continue packing Intel inside for a while to come.

Source: www.theinquirer.net

U.S. agents can seize travelers' laptops: report

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. federal agents have been given new powers to seize travelers' laptops and other electronic devices at the border and hold them for unspecified periods the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Under recently disclosed Department of Homeland Security policies, such seizures may be carried out without suspicion of wrongdoing, the newspaper said, quoting policies issued on July 16 by two DHS agencies.

Agents are empowered to share the contents of seized computers with other agencies and private entities for data decryption and other reasons, the newspaper said.

DHS officials said the policies applied to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens, and were needed to prevent terrorism.

The measures have long been in place but were only disclosed in July, under pressure from civil liberties and business travel groups acting on reports that increasing numbers of international travelers had had their laptops, cellphones and other digital devices removed and examined.

The policies cover hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes -- as well as books, pamphlets and other written materials, the report said.

The policies require federal agents to take measures to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material. They stipulate that any copies of the data must be destroyed when a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information.

Source: www.sciam.com