I’ve now had a few months to adjust to AAC and I’ve had no hiccups at all. I’ve compressed my entire collection to 96kbps (variable) AAC and can’t distinguish it between CD quality. Of course, you may not have the same experience as me and I heavily recommend that you do a bit of ABX testing before you commit to any compression.

I recommend anyone who listens to their music collection on devices that do support AAC, to convert their collection to AAC.

Instead of dragging every single image into each slide, go to Insert in the ribbon and click the Photo Album icon. There you can select the images you want, order them and decide how many you want on each slide. It will make a new presentation with all these new slides so you will have to copy the slides back into the original presentation if you want them there.

How Long Will You Have This Laptop?

Laptops are very difficult (or expensive) to upgrade for the average computer user so make sure the hardware will still be OK for the life of the laptop.

Do You Really Need A Powerful Graphics Card?

In most cases of school work, you’ll never need a graphics card. That said, if you may need one, get one.

Can You Risk Low Battery Life?

Using wall sockets when available is obvious but what about when you can’t access mains power? You’ll need to depend on your battery which needs to be fully charged and, where possible, have a lot of power.

Get A Mouse

Even if it’s just a cheap one. Using the trackpad everyday for two years can really be a pain and a time waster. Just getting a cheap mouse can save a little time and it may make it easier for you.

Is That Keyboard Comfortable?

Quietness is an issue but what’s more important is how comfortable you feel typing on it. If you can, try testing it out before you buy. You can always buy an external keyboard but it’s a lot bigger than a mouse and can be a hassle in itself.

Are You Getting The Best Deal?

Shop around and see what prices you can get.

Don’t Buy Unnecessary Hardware

If you’re able to customize your laptop (like on Dell), then begin customizing the cheapest model, only adding on hardware that you’ll need. You’ll save a lot of money this way.

Have You Got A Decent Bag?

It’s best not to advertise your laptop but you need a decent bag to carry it around. Try one with lots of padding — it’ll pay off on your back and maybe if you drop it.

Smart Playlists are dynamic playlists, you can use them to just select songs from a group of artists or from a whole decade or genre. Songs that match the rules are placed in the playlist. If you so choose, these playlists update as you work — any music that fits into the smart playlist will automatically go in there.

1. Create A New Smart Playlist

   Go to File > New Smart Playlist or press Ctrl+Alt+N. This will be different on a Mac.

2. “Play Count is 0″

   Using the first drop-down box, select Play Count. Make sure is and 0 follow in the drop-down and text box after it.

3. Avoid Podcasts

   If you want to avoid including podcasts, like I do, create a new rule by pressing the + button, right of the rule you just created. This time set the drop-down box to Podcast and the second to is false.

4. More Options

   If you only want a certain number of tracks in the playlist at any one time, you can use the option boxes under the rule list. It can be random or sequential.

5. Naming

   After hitting OK, you can rename it. I just called it Unplayed.

Check out more Smart Playlist ideas at Lifehacker.