Get the most for your old gadgets...

Selling old electronics doesn't need to be a hassle if your end game is making the most cash.

The bad news first: if you want the absolute best price possible, shop around and compare deals. Don't rely on one source, because a better deal may be waiting around the corner.

The good news? With a few tips, that sweet cash return can help subsidise your new devices.

Before you start

• Make it appealing: Find the original box and chargers if you still have them, do a factory reset and wipe all your personal data so the gadget looks like it's fresh out of the box. Physically clean devices like cameras and PCs so they look as good as new.
• Trade-in: As long as your device is in good working order, trading rather than selling directly can lead to bigger discounts, especially if you end up with gift cards that can offset the cost of a new device
• Time it right: When a new iPhone is launched, the market is flooded with older generation models. Work out release cycles for the product you're selling and try and time it so you are ahead of the curve, not swimming in the deluge. If in doubt, sell it sooner rather than later.
• Research what it's worth: Do a little online detective work before selling to determine how much you can get. On eBay, look for completed listings to get an idea of market price. Go to eBay Advanced Search and tick "Completed listings".
• Check the warranty: Potential buyers will want to know if the device is still covered under a warranty in case something goes wrong.
• Beware of scams: If a deal seems too good to be true, it might be. Keep a record of your transaction and read up on seller protection if using a direct sale method.

Sell direct

CNET

One of the ways to ensure you get the best return from your old gear is to sell direct to an individual. There are many sites and services you can turn to, like eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon Marketplace.

When creating a listing, make sure to include details about the condition of the item. Spend time taking photos of the actual item you're selling with close-ups of areas that might have received wear and tear. For example; the home button on smartphones, the trackpad on laptops, or the shutter button on digital cameras.

Also, make sure to keep an eye out for any seller, transaction or shipping fees that might reduce the final amount in your pocket. In Australia and the UK, Gumtree is an online classifieds site that does not charge seller fees on most items, including electronics.

To bypass the big players altogether, selling through your social network on sites like Facebook can net big returns without any extra fees.

Comparison sites

These sites can help give you an idea of how much your item is worth on the second-hand market, comparing prices based on device type and carrier where applicable.

Some popular sites that cover the United States include USell, Sell My Cell Phones, BuyMyTronics and Glyde.

Screenshot by Lexy Savvides/CNET

In Australia, Mobile Monster and Boomerang Buyback offer a similar service for mobile devices and general electronics respectively.

In the UK, some high street retailers like Carphone Warehouse will buy back gadgets, otherwise the aptly-titled Cash In Your Gadgets provides quotes before you sell.

Swappa will buy "gently used" devices from smartphones and tablets to watches, but the best past is that it covers the US, UK, Canadian and European markets.

CNET's Jessica Dolcourt also has a great guide: Six tips to know before selling your phone for cash.

I do not condone piracy, so stop calling me to ask what happened to Pirate Bay!

With The Pirate Bay still down for the count, sad pirates can take solace in the fact that there are actually plenty of other great torrent sites out there. Below we’ve listed four popular alternatives that TorrentFreak earlier this year listed as the most used in the world after The Pirate Bay.  So stop calling me and turn to an alternative.  The four best are listed below.

RELATED: Why one of The Pirate Bay’s cofounders hopes the site stays dead

 KickassTorrents

After The Pirate Bay, KickassTorrents is easily the second-most popular torrent site in the world. Founded in 2009, the site apparently faces ISP blockades in countries such as the U.K. and Italy, although here in the U.S. it’s loading for us just fine.

Torrentz

Torrentz is cool because it’s a very simple search engine that does a good job of scouting around for torrents on other websites even as it hosts no pirated material of its own. So even if your favorite torrent site gets taken down by the copyright cops, Torrentz can find what you’re looking for at another location.

Extra Torrent

This is another up-and-coming site that had its original domain name suspended last year thanks to its notoriety as an online den of ill repute. Now safely available at ExtraTorrent.cc, the site features a huge library of torrents for you to browse to your heart’s content.

YTS.RE

This is a relative newcomer to the torrent scene, although as you can see it doesn’t lack some of today’s most popular movie downloads on the Internet. YTS.RE has noticed that there are several fake copycat sites that have popped up in the wake of The Pirate Bay’s collapse and it says you should only trust the domains yts.re and yts.wf.

Microsoft fixes a bad windows update this week

One of this week's Patch Tuesday updates for Windows 7 has been withdrawn after some users discovered that it blocked installation of software containing digital signatures, including first- and third-party software, and even other Windows updates.

The problem update is called KB3004394. The purpose of this update was to change how Windows updates its collection of root certificates used to authenticate SSL and TLS connections. Without the update, Windows is meant to poll for certificate updates once a week. With the update, this frequency is increased to once a day.

Unfortunately, this apparently simple change has had severe consequences for some users of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, with users reporting that Windows Update, drivers from both Nvidia and AMD, and some third-party software including Virtual Box are all unable to install correctly. The error code 0x8004FF91 seems to be a common finding.

Microsoft has issued a second update to remove the bad update from affected machines and has withdrawn the original update for Windows 7. However, the company continues to offer, and recommend, the patch for Windows 8, 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and 2012 R2.

This withdrawn update is the latest of several updates that Redmond has pulled this year. The certificate update isn't the only patch from this Tuesday that was withdrawn; an Exchange 2013 update was also withdrawn temporarily after problems were discovered by end users. The Exchange patch has now been updated and reissued. It's unclear how widespread the certificate problem—or any of the previous problems that have caused patches to be reissued—really is, but there's nonetheless a growing sense among many Windows users that patches are less reliable, and more frequently withdrawn, than they used to be. This concern is compounded by Microsoft's decision to lay off many dedicated software testers earlier in the year.

With Windows Update so important to keeping Windows users secure, a loss of confidence would be very bad news. But if this kind of problem continues, that seems like an inevitable outcome. While IT departments might be able to test updates in a lab before deploying them, providing some protection against faulty fixes, home users have no such luxury. Users have to have confidence that installing an update won't break their machine. Broken, withdrawn updates shake that confidence.

Yes, it even happens to me...somebody hacked the email.

It happens to anyone, even a tech person.  I get a little email telling me that there have been strange activity in my email account.  (First step, do not log in from the link that was sent you.  Go to the address bar and go to your email web page and log in.)   So I log into my email account (hotmail in this case).  They have a neat feature under security that will tell you when you logged in and where in the world you were when you did.  So after seeing that "I" logged in in New York and Atlanta, I knew it was time to follow my own advice and use two factor authentication.  For you Yahoo accounts, it just means that if you log in on a new computer, you will have to enter a code sent to your mobile phone.  You can designate a trusted computer (the one you always use), if you or anyone tries to log on with any other device, you have to enter the code sent to your phone.  For GMail and hotmail, they allow you to use Google Authenticator, which provides a secure code on your phone that you have to enter if your account is attempted to be entered with a non-trusted computer.  Best way to secure your email account.  I wish I would have listened to myself earlier.

Some signs you may have malware

I receive countless calls and text messages from customers who think they have a “virus.” The problems they describe—Blue Screens of Death, no audio,  grinding sounds inside the PC—can be attributed to virtually anything but malware.

Real malware is generally designed not to be noticed. The people who write these programs don’t want you to clean them off of your computer. But if you know what to look for, you can recognize a symptom that might be caused by malware.

Sometimes it’s obvious. Ransomware, such as CoinVault, announces itself clearly. But then, ransomware is basically an extortion racket. It can’t make you pay the ransom if it doesn’t tell you that it has your data.

But the symptoms for other types of malware are less obvious. Here are some common ones:

Suddenly poor performance. If your PC is running slower than it used to, or it seems to be running an awful lot of stuff in the background, malware could be the cause.

Standard maintenance programs don’t work. Malware will often protect itself by disabling programs that might help you identify and remove it. So if programs like Windows Update, Task Manager, your antivirus program, Regedit, System Restore, or Msconfig fail to work, you have reason to be suspicious. I should mention that some of these programs—especially Windows Update—can regularly fail without help from outside bad guys—although if it’s one of several programs that fail, malware is likely.

New, unwanted toolbars that won’t go away. All sorts of programs might install a new toolbar into your browser, and usually, it’s no more than a temporary annoyance. But if you can’t turn off the toolbar, or you do turn it off and it soon reappears, there’s something more sinister at work.

Your home and search pages change. This is very much like the toolbar problem. If these pages change to something you don’t want, and you change them back, but your change doesn’t last, something is running that you have to stop.

Countless Pop Ups informing you that your computer is infected.  Ironically, it really is, it's just that the pop up is the malware that is the problem. 

So what do you do if these signs suggest you have an infection?

First, assume that your antivirus program has been compromised. So scan with something else. Try either the ESET Online Scanner or Trend Micro’s HouseCall, neither of which requires installation.

I also suggest you do the scanning in Safe Mode with Networking. That way, the malware is less likely to interfere.  I think this may call for an article on how to deal with malware!....hmmm

OnePlus will let you buy their phone for the holidays

OnePlus has a radical new holiday sales strategy: They're letting you actually buy a OnePlus One.

Yes, the company's ditching its wonky invite system as a Christmas treat for anybody that hasn't been able to land one yet—though the offer comes with the obligatory “while supplies last” disclaimer, suggesting that said wonky invite system will return soon.

Not to encourage any impulse buys here, but given that there are probably some of you out there that have been eyeing this phone but haven’t scored an invite, this could be the time to pull the trigger.

Two models are available: a 16GB Silk White model for $299, and a 64GB Sandstone Black version for $349.