Ascent Computers

The upgrade essential

Windows 8 is here.
Get ready with Backup Plus.


Windows 8 is the most exciting OS update in years. But before you upgrade, it's critical to make sure you first back up your data and have an immediate protection plan in place. The newly updated Backup Plus makes both simple.

Windows 8 price

Microsoft is offering Windows 8 upgrades priced at just $39.99USD/£24.99 for anyone using an existing product. The offer will be open until January 31 and after that the OS will cost a higher price.

Twitter launches interactive map to track candidates' tweets

Twitter launched an interactive map to shine a spotlight on which of the presidential candidates' tweets gain the most traction in different areas of the country.

As election day nears, President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, are tweeting about a wide variety of issues - job creation, women's health and foreign policy. A big question, though, is what tweets, and what topics, are catching people's attention.

Twitter is offering voters, and the campaigns, a look at what issues are the most important to voters with a new interactive map.

"Prominent issues in this year's campaign range from Pell Grants for students to Medicare for the elderly, from coal production to clean energy," wrote Miguel Rios, a member of Twitter's analytics team. "Of course, the salience of these issues varies greatly by state.... We've built a visualization that illustrates people's reaction to and engagement by state to Tweets from and .