1. Overview
Before we look at the laptops most suitable for college students, we should understand what makes a good student laptop. Typically, a student would want a laptop that’s lightweight and comfortable enough to lug to and from their various classes. In addition, the laptop has to have great battery life and performance. And price is sometimes a concern, so the above features need to be packed into an affordable package.

After considering the types of laptops suitable for college students, I’ve decided to split them into three categories: budget, thin and light and ultraportable. So let’s take a look at them now …

2. Budget Laptops
For a college student who is short on cash, a budget laptop is a good buy. Some of the best budget laptops include those from Dell, Toshiba and HP. I personally find the Toshiba Satellite A215-S4747 to be a great budget laptop. You get an AMD based dual core CPU, which perfroms very well with most applications. You also get a huge 200GB hard drive and a large number of peripheral ports.

There’s also a nice Sony VGN-NR160E/S model that is (surprisingly) within the budget category. Out of the box, this machine gives you the Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 processor, 1 GB of RAM and a large 160GB hard drive - that’s a lot of computing power at budget price.

3. Thin and Light Laptops
If you prefer a more powerful laptop and don’t mind a little bit of weight, then try going for a thin and light laptop. Some of the models I can think of include those from Lenovo, HP and Sony.

The Sony VAIO VGN-FZ280E is a pretty good choice for a thin and light notebook. This system comes with a Bluray compatible writer that can also burn CDs and DVDs. You also get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and a very large 250GB hard drive.

Another model I’d consider is the HP Pavilion dv6675us. You will get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 4GB RAM and 250GB of hard drive space. The 4GB of RAM is a great feature which will come in handy if you’re a student of finance or science and need to run intensive computational applications.

4. Ultraportable Laptops
If the size and weight of the laptop is of high importance to you, then go for an ultraportable laptop. These laptops give very good computing performance in a very small, compact package.

In this category, I think the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 is a great choice for students. It is slightly pricey (but not outrageously so) but it is one of the best performing laptops around. It weighs only about 3 pounds and is hence an extremely portable piece of hardware. You also get an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU, 2GB RAM and an ample 100GB hard drive. You don’t get a built-in DVD writer though - that unit is external to the laptop.

Another good choice is the Toshiba Portege R500-S5001X. It weights 2.4 pounds and is less than an inch thick. This is one of the thinnest and lightest notebooks you will find in the market. It’s also very reasonably priced.

Conclusion
Well! I hope this article has shown you the various types of laptops which are suitable for college students. Regardless of your needs and budget, make sure that you do proper research before shelling out any cash. Until next time, best of luck and happy shopping!

Gary Hendricks runs a website about laptops. Visit his website at Best-Laptop-Guide.com to learn more about selecting the best laptops and accessories to suit your needs.

Imagine being Tom Cruise in Minority Report, sifting through volumes of data with the flick of your fingers on a huge virtual screen to arrive at the precise information that could save the world? Quintura’s “see and find” visual search engine is a first significant step in that right direction.

You first encounter a bunch of tags (which they call “cloud”) akin to a visual map when you start the search process. Each comes with a sub-list of keywords and phrases, to help broaden or narrow down your search as the case may be! The right hand side (like all right brains) behaves in a conventional search engine way, displaying lists of search results. The further you delve into the cloud, the search engine adds the selected words to the query to narrow down and refine your search results. The search process is also aided by ‘Auto-refine results’ and ‘Coverage’ options.

Despite the clutch of web 2.0 companies, Quintura has no trouble standing out.

“Quintura is the first search engine that helps visually find web pages, images, and video content. The new search experience is based on See & Find™ concept where users can see and refine their searches within an interactive tag cloud and instantly find relevant information.” Read More

Does it live up to it? For example, typing in the term “California” generates a map with words like department, find, home, hotel, United States, etc. Click on hotel and you get more keywords associated with both “california” and “hotel.” One can add or remove words from the cloud to make the query more specific. On a lark, I double-clicked the visual map to add “song” to my query. Success!

Easy visual navigation and Intuition are two themes that jump out about the search process. We see the semantic relationships of words on the visual map, for example the size of a word shows its significance in relation to the query, Is this the end of my relationship with the “Next Page” buttons of Google and Yahoo ? What if I don’t have to retype various combinations of the same set of keywords to try and get my relevant results displayed on first couple of pages ? As you salivate at that possibility, why not ‘ Save it ‘ your search and ‘ Share it ‘ with a friend (Who wants to hang out at my cloud nine ?! )

We are not just members of the club, we want to be the President
For Extra Credit, we downloaded the more robust version 1.5 of Quintura Search. Quick to download and it easily installed on our PC, this is when you are really welcomed to the full potential of the engine. Now we are in the advanced search mode. We loved these additions:

* Choose search engine of our choice

* Scope** feature to virtually drill into a topic of choice by adding and removing query words at each level to set further directions of searching

* Functional Toolbar to Undo, Redo, Stop, Start, Update results and Save search

* Simple Visual map Context Menu to add, remove, exclude, edit query words

* Results Filter (*editor’s choice award winner* ) to display new links since last search, create Favorite links, Exclude selective links, Hide sites, Delete old links not relevant to modified scope

* Lucid help sections

So did other users from the sound of it!

“Instead of a jungle of Web sites you have to ferret through in order to find what you’re look ting for, it would be so much easier if you had a “map” where you could narrow down your search without having to click through dozens of pages of results!” Read more.

If men are from Mars and women from Venus, then kids are definitely from another dimension!

So thank Team Quintura, who are convinced that men, women and kids not only process information differently, but search for it differently as well! Quintura for kids, is a colorful, cartoony treat, sure to be highly appealing to kids. Plus, the site only has kid related material, so nothing taboo is going to come their way. On the cards is Quintura for women.

Quintura has raised monies through Mangrove Capital Partners of Luxembourg, an early-stage investor in Skype, ABRT Venture Fund and the partners of OpenView Venture Partners of Boston.

Though Google and Yahoo! are considered competition, serious rivals include Clusty.com, which has tied up with Wikipedia, to provide a search and info model. It all points to just one thing, it’s never quiet on the search engine front!

Quizzing Quintura - our chat with them

As with most online companies, your company is pretty cool. Where did it come from?
The technology of Quintura is based on over a decade of the founders’ innovative research and development in the area of neural network and artificial intelligence. Quintura is privately held and has US offices in Alexandria, Virginia and Research & Development operations in the Moscow region of Russia.

What is the advantage of searches based on tags versus Boolean strings?
Visualization that is the main feature used in Quintura, becomes the center of the user experience, replacing antiquated listings and Boolean strings. Searches based on Boolean strings provide users with too many results, if your query is rather loose or, conversely, too few if your query parameters are too tight. With the tags, Quintura visual map shows the context of your query, those words and word combinations that are most closely connected with your search query. Quintura allows you to change your query at any step by clicking a tag and drill as deep as you need.

Your user interface has a great & unique layout, where did the idea come from?
Having in mind the idea of making web search easier and more intuitive we wanted to create a user- friendly interface. Quintura tag cloud ensures faster and easier results with fewer mouse clicks.

Will Quintura ever consider offering pay-per click advertising?
Quintura continues to distribute MIVA’s Pay-Per-Click and Pay-Per-Call Ads on our downloadable version, giving users the choice of either clicking or calling through to relevant information. We are also planning to introduce search ads into our online services.

How does Quintura ability to index images & video differ from Google’s ability?
Again, it is currently powered by Yahoo!XML. However, we give our users additional benefit by allowing manipulating their query context and rearranging the list of found images or videos according with their needs.

Is there RSS feeds available with Quintura?
No, Quintura doesn’t provide its users with RSS feeds. We plan to add this feature in the near future.

Carl Williams

Marketing Director

Odinjobs

770-783-1401

http://www.odinjobs.com/blogs/page/thatsinteresting

Nowadays, mobile phones are not just for having a chat. Last couple of years has witnessed the ushering of the smartphones era. A smartphone is not just a mobile but a device having advanced information access features, such as Web access, e-mail exchanging, voice recognition, etc in addition to providing a complete personal organiser.

HTC has gained a strong foothold in the smartphone market. HTC is not only manufacturing trendy smartphones but is also selling them under its own brand name.

HTC TyTN (with the code name is HTC Hermes) smartphone is gaining popularity among the ‘connoisseurs’ of high-tech mobile phones. TyTN (pronounced as ‘Titan’) is available in black and silver colours.

One of the features that this smartphone boasts of is the smartly-concealed QWERTY keyboard that you need to just slide out for using the phone as a messaging device. The keys are easy to use for typing and they really make typing a pleasurable experience. You can use your two thumbs or forefingers for typing.

So, you can send important messages or edit some crucial business documents even when you are walking!
The keys in HTC TyTN are rectangular in shape and are packed tightly together. There are 39 keys in the keyboard arranged in four rows, each row having ten keys each. The spacebar is located in the bottom row and occupies two positions. There are two soft keys to control menus from the keyboard. The locks present in the keyboard help to keep the keyboard firmly shut or fully extended. This ensures easy typing.

TyTN offers attractive connectivity features. It supports triband UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) that offer the benefit of global roaming, i.e you can stay connected to your office colleagues and closed ones wherever you are. This smartphone also supports 3G capabilities that facilitate simultaneous transfer of voice data (telephone calls) and non-voice data (information download, e-mail exchange and instant messaging. HTC TyTN also has support for Wi-Fi, quad-band GSM and GPRS/EDGE wireless communication technologies.

So, the next time you go for a business tour, leave behind the bulky laptops at home and communicate in a sleek and smart way with the TyTN smartphone.

Adrian is a renowned business writer who has years of experience in writing technical reviews, product descriptions and product feature analysis of technical gadgets and gizmos.

He has won appreciation especially for enlightening people about the latest communication gizmos…the Smartphones and PDAs.

Buying a laptop is very much like buying a new car. It is something that laptop users look forward to, but hate at the same time. For one thing, manufacturers are consistently updating their machines to keep up with competitors and to make what their customers tell them are needed improvements. Unfortunately, what seems like a good idea to one person may be a turn-off to another.

There are many popular laptop manufacturers in the market right now; Dell, Lenovo, Hewlett Packard (HP), Acer, Compaq, Gateway, Sony, Toshiba and Alienware are among the most commonly available. Each manufacturer listed above offers several different models of laptops, some offer complete families of machines sorted by the intended purpose.

If you are looking for a high-end business laptop that offers a small-form case with a high-speed processor and large capacity hard drive, you are certain to find a model from each manufacturer that will meet your requirements. However, if you are looking for a portable media center or a laptop that will be used for significant gaming you are likely to find your options significantly reduced.

Here are some questions that you should ask yourself when you are determining which laptop is the best option for you:

Are you loyal to a specific manufacturer, and if so what has your experience been with that company in the past?

What software applications will you need to run on your laptop, and what are the system requirements of those packages?

Is size/weight a significant consideration for you?

Do you do intensive layout work which might entail a need for a specific size screen or even a widescreen?

What type of warranty would you like to have with your laptop?

Will you use a docking station, or will you be moving your laptop to different locations on a frequent basis?

How long do you intent to keep your laptop? If the answer is two or more years, then you will want to look at those options with the fastest available processors and the highest possible amount of memory.

How much data will be stored on the laptop, and what type of files are they? This makes a difference if you intend to keep your entire digital music collection on your hard drive, or to store entire movies. Also, if you are planning to have 120GB worth of data files, you will not want to buy a laptop that has an 80GB hard drive.

Do you do a lot of graphics work, or do you play graphically intensive video games (such as World of Warcraft) that will require a high end video card with excellent resolution? There is a price premium associated with this type of video card, so if you do not need it you may want to opt for a lower-end card to reduce costs.

How much money are you willing to spend?

If you have looked at the questions above, you probably have a very good idea of what you actually need in a laptop. The next thing that you should do is to check Consumer Reports or another consumer review publication which will give you insight into the performance of each model.

Talk to representatives from several retailers or manufacturers with your list of questions handy. This will allow you to get quotes on similar quality machines from several different sources.

Price Comparison on the Major Laptop Brands

Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Nec, IBM, Hp/Compaq, Gateway, Fujitsu, Acer and Dell

Toshiba:
Satellite - $800-$1,500
Tecra - $1,200 - $2,000
Qosmio - $2,500-$3,000

Sony:
Vaio: $1,500-$2,500

NEC:
Versa - $800-$1,200

IBM / Lenovo:
ThinkPad - $1,500-$3,000

Hp / Compaq:
HP Pavilion - $1,100-$1,400
Compaq Presario - $600-$1,000

Gateway:
Gateway Notebook - $700-$1,400

Fujitsu:
Lifebook - $1,100-$1,400

Acer:
Aspire - $800-$1,600
TravelMate - $1,600-$1,800

Laptop Repair / Data Recovery

You’ve decided to buy a laptop, but don’t really know how to go about it.

I get asked time and again how to buy a laptop. Sometimes it’s for a student, other times for an adult who just wants the freedom to roam around the house while computing.

So I have come up with a short procedure to follow that will act as a guide to get the right product for the right purpose.

Step 1: Determine who is going to use it. Not just the individual, but is this person - old or young (need reading glasses yet)? Computer literate or illiterate (PC or MAC)? A person who takes care of his hardware or someone careless?

Once I had a client who was blind and looking for a laptop. At the time, Toshiba had the best name in the business. We called a techy type guy who worked for an association for the blind who was also sight impaired.

His comment to us was that blind people can be a bit harder on things, for obvious reasons, and that Toshiba laptops don’t hold up quite as well to being banged around. He recommended some other brands instead.

Experience has also shown me that college students who don’t have to buy their own laptop have a distinct tendency to be harder on things also. Make sure they have a well padded case and use it.

The answers derived in Step 1 will trickle down to the rest of the 5 steps, as you will see.

Step 2: How long does this person need it for? Is it a student going to college and you, the parent, want it to last for the entire 4 year program (hopefully they’ll finish in 4 years!)?. If so, you want enough performance and warranty to last that long.

On the other hand, maybe you are buying for someone with plenty of money who likes the latest and greatest. (Is there a doctor in the house?) In that case, put money into power and toys, not lengthy warranty.

If it’s for an election worker, the laptop is probably not needed for more than a year or so, two at the most. Configure it accordingly.

Step 3: Determine the ergonomics. This is about the only use I have for big box stores. Wander the aisles and try out the different pointing devices and keyboards. Decide if you want widescreen or standard aspect ratio (standard is getting harder to find).

Do you like the glossy screen or will glare be a big problem where you are likely to use it most? Maybe you prefer matte finish. Glossy looks a little sharper for movies and Windows Vista Aero interface, and to see if someone is sneaking up behind you. But if you have an office with lots of windows or flourescent lights, matte may be better for you.

If you will be using the laptop outside a lot, you may want to try out some laptops - from friends or coworkers - in that environment. It’s no fun if you can’t read the screen.

Size and Weight. Does it need to be compact or light? Some very nice units weigh in at under 4 pounds yet have a large enough keyboard and screen to be quite usable.

A typical high powered laptop will run around 6.5 pounds. But a laptop with a behemoth 17″ screen tips the scale at almost 10 pounds!

Step 4: What kind of support will you need for it? Are you the type that just isn’t comfortable talking to support staff in India, and would rather walk up to a counter with a live (even if disinterested) human being?

Or are you self sufficient enough to handle simple things on your own, maybe even get out a screwdriver and start prying the keyboard off if directed to?

Buy a laptop from a vendor who will give the kind of support that you require.

Step 5: Do you have budget constraints? If so, you may want to reference my article on “How to Buy a Laptop - 7 Areas to Cut Costs”. Otherwise, you can skip right to my Laptop Buying Guide and see exactly what kind of system I recommend for the best price/performance purchase.

Do your research when buying a laptop. Do everything you can to help insure that you will be happy with it.

But, just in case, check out the return policy if you find that you really didn’t get what you expected.

Roger DeReu has been working with PC’s, as a programmer, IT specialist and independent consultant, since 1984. He currently consults primarily with small and medium sized businesses in the Midwest. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional and Small Business Specialist. The FreeComputerConsultant was originally created to be a free resource for the employees of his clients to have access to his knowledge for benefit of their home PC’s.

Roger’s daily computer blog can be found at http://FreeComputerConsultant.WordPress.com

Sign up for his free weekly e-zine, Tip-Of-The-Week, at http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/e-zine.html

Bluetooth technology was created in order to allow ordinary technology users to enjoy the benefits of low bandwidth wireless connections. Bluetooth is a low power, short-range technology that allows wireless networking. It is able to do this by using radio waves to send and receive data at up to 720 kilobits per second.

Bluetooth Specs

The specifications for Bluetooth devices allows for different classes of radio transmission ranges. These ranges can reach up to about 300 feet by boosting the radio power. This technology isn’t limited to line of sight as the waves it utilizes are directional waves, which are capable of transmitting through various obstructions.

Industry Standard

Bluetooth is quickly becoming the standard as far as wireless communication is concerned. The real beauty of Bluetooth is the fact that it goes far beyond the most commonly recognized uses and connects all manner of devices. Not only cell phones, but also computers, digital cameras, PDAs, laptops, and any number of other digital devices. The specifications for Bluetooth are defined as a radio system that has a ’stack’ of protocols, layers, and profiles. The highest layer is the actual application with lower layer being the radio.

Wireless technology such as that offered by Bluetooth is in a position to completely revolutionize our ability to be connected and share information by allowing us to go wireless and eliminating the need for strings.

Bluetooth eliminates the need for cables and wires while providing connectivity on a level we’ve never experienced before. This low cost solution links computers, cell phones, and any manner of other Bluetooth enabled devices quickly and easily.

Bluetooth is also a sturdy link, which will allow you to go about business as usual rather than worry that a connection is going to be impaired because of its wireless nature. Bluetooth has shown none of the ordinary weaknesses of other wireless devices to interference and constant interruption by other devices operating on the same frequencies.

Another benefit to Bluetooth is that it operates at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, which allows it to be license free and widely available throughout the world. No matter where you are, it is quite likely that your Bluetooth device will work.

Security is another matter that is often weak with electronic devices, particularly those with wireless connections. Bluetooth offers advanced mechanisms to ensure your security and that of your information. It is very difficult for your data to be compromised or your conversations heard with Bluetooth.

Another great feature of Bluetooth is its ability to optimize its power consumption. The radio feature is very power friendly and the device itself only consumes a minimal amount of power that it ‘borrows’ from a cell phone.

How will Bluetooth change your world? Find out more info on bluetooth accessories, bluetooth USB adapter and bluetooth accessories

We live mobile lifestyles. If we are not made already and dont live in a rural farm house, chances are that we will be telecommuting an average 30-45 minutes per day. Our schedules are tight and we are expected to stay connected with colleagues, clients, customers and family.

Email is the most commonly used mode of written communication. We write emails to our colleagues, clients, customers, bosses, juniors, family and friends. We use email to upload pictures to our blogs, update our online calendars, send ourselves reminders and most importantly, calm down an angry client while we find a fix for her problem.

It used to be that being away from the cubicle or home office meant we are out of touch with our email. But that is not the case any more. There are a number of email clients for the mobile device that allow you to send and receive email. Many of the high-end devices are expensive, or carrier driven email clients only cater to corporate requirements. If we can not afford a BlackBerry-esque solution, we need to find a consumer edition which supports most of the common desktop clients like Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and POP3 / IMAP4 accounts.

Today we are going to look into what features should we be looking at and what applications are out there in the market. Most of all we would want it to be as free as possible.

Research Criteria

1- Supports all popular email accounts like Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, POP3 and IMAP4
2- Multiple number of accounts on the same phone
3- Attachment handling
4- Speed and ease of operation
5- Push Email or SMS Alert on arrival of email
6- News & RSS feeds
7- Number of phones supported
8- Cost

Research Results

1- Flurry Mail
2- Consilient Push (beta)
3- Tricast Mail (Standard)

All three of the above mentioned clients offer good service. Sign up and download is relatively easy, although the process can be made easier.

Thus far, Flurry Mail seems to be the best solution because of its extra features like ability to search news and email on the phone, integration with MySpace and importing contacts.

Consilient Push is still in beta phase but its features like customization of email signature and locking down of the client in case of loss or theft make it worthwhile.

Tricast Mail (Standard) is a very good client and by far the fastest solution. One has to signup with alwayssend (a free web based client) in order to download a free moblie client. It allows the user to setup other clients but can only receive email from them. Only Alwayssend emails can be sent from the devices itself.

The user interface is also the best of the lot and allows for rich text email, advanced folder management and context-sensitive, auto hide menu system.

A PRO version of the Tricast Mail is available from their site which adds Push Email, Attachment Viewing, and Email Streaming as features.

Blue tooth is initially conceived by Ericsson. The five founding members of the Bluetooth SIG are Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba. On December 1, 1999, the founding members announced that 3COM, Lucent, Microsoft, and Motorola have joined the founders to form the Promoter Group with the founding companies. To date, more than 1,200 companies have signed on. Bluetooth is a standard for a small, cheap radio chip to be plugged into computers, printers, mobile phones, etc.

Blue thooth is a cable-replacement technology. It uses radio frequencies in the 2.45 GHz range to transmit information over short distances of generally 33 feet (10 meters) or less. By embedding a Bluetooth chip and receiver into products, cables that would normally carry the signal can be eliminated.

A Bluetooth chip is designed to replace cables by taking the information normally carried by the cable, and transmitting it at a special frequency to a receiver Bluetooth chip, which will then give the information received to the computer, phone whatever.

Bluetooth definitions

- Piconet: Devices connected in an ad hoc fashion that is, not requiring predefinition and planning, as with a standard network. Two to eight devices can be networked into a piconet. It is a peer network that is, once connected each device has equal access to the others. However, one device is defined as master, and the others as slaves.

- Scatternet: Several piconets may form a larger scatternet, with each piconet maintaining independence.

- Master unit: The master in a piconet whose clock and hopping sequence synchronizes the other devices.

- Slave unit: Devices in a piconet that are not the master.

- MAC address: Three bit address that distinguishes each unit in a piconet.

- Parked units: Piconet devices that are synchronized but don’t have MAC addresses.

- Sniff and hold mode: Power-saving mode of a piconet device.

Overview of Bluetooth characteristics

These are the features of the Bluetooth technology:

1. It separates the frequency band into hops. This spread spectrum is used to hop from one channel to another, which adds a strong layer of security.

2. Up to eight devices can be networked in a piconet.

3. Signals can be transmitted through walls and briefcases, thus eliminating the need for line-of-sight.

4. Devices do not need to be pointed at each other, as signals are omni-directional.

5. Both synchronous and asynchronous applications are supported, making it easy to implement on a variety of devices and for a variety of services, such as voice and Internet.

6. Governments worldwide regulate it, so it is possible to utilize the same standard wherever one travels.

How could Bluetooth be used?

Well, it’s very much up to our imagination. But the ambition is set high, indeed; practically all computerized equipment normally found in a modern office (and home) which do not use a synchronous communications protocol could be adapted for use with Bluetooth.

Check this list:
Phones and pagers, Modems, LAN access devices, Headsets, Notebook computers,
Desktop and handheld computers, Printers, Fax machines, Keyboards, Joysticks etc

Virtually any digital device can be part of the Bluetooth system. Bluetooth radio technology can also provide a universal bridge to existing data networks, a peripheral interface, and a mechanism to form small ad hoc groupings of connected devices, away from fixed network infrastructures. The dynamic connectivity-nature of Bluetooth makes it possible for this system to replace USB, and it is an improvement on Plug-and-Play-systems, where the operating system has to be rebooted for the installation to take effect.

Basic Bluetooth functions

The Bluetooth technology is quite complex. This is not so surprising, considering the task it has to handle. It is mainly based on the IEEE 802.11 standard, briefly described at right. Of the 2 network modes described, Bluetooth uses the ad-hoc mode. This means that each station must observe “netiqette” and give all other units fair access to the wireless media.

The IEEE 802.11 communications standard defines the protocol for two types of networks; Ad-hoc and client/server.

You have decided to buy a nice laptop by using my laptop buying guide (link below), but you can’t quite justify or maybe afford spending that much money on it.

Is there some way to cut the cost a little bit, without sacrificing too much?

Yes. You make compromises. But at this point, only you can decide where you are willing to skimp.

The $2000 laptop that most of my clients end up buying is tailored to last 3 - 4 years, with contented computing along the way. Ok, maybe we’ll have to reload Windows at the 2 year point to regain that new computer performance, but at least it can be done.

Here are 7 areas to consider for paring the cost of that new laptop:

1. Overall brand quality. Not a good idea in my book to skimp too much here. Witness my previous blog posts about the Sony VAIO. Others on the web have had similar recommendations to avoid that one. But still there might be a way to get a good brand without paying top dollar. The web provides tools to find the deals.
2. Processor. I normally pick the fastest processor on the price/performance curve that sits right where cost starts increasing faster than performance gain. You can cheat a little here and hopefully still get 3 years from the hardware. Just don’t count on upgrading the processor later - no matter what any salesman tells you.
3. RAM. This isn’t a bad place to save some money, because you can easily upgrade later. Just don’t go through the manufacturer; companies like DELL can really sock it to you on upgrades. Choose someplace like Crucial.com instead.
   Tip: Depending on price structure, getting, say 512MB in 1 DIMM now lets you add 1 more 512MB DIMM later for a total of 1GB and still make use of the 512 that came with it. If you buy 512 via 2 DIMMs, you will have to remove 1 or both DIMMs later to add more, thus throwing away value (maybe you can eBay it for a couple bucks).
4. Screen. Older eyes might prefer the lower resolution of a less expensive screen. Most laptops have 1 or maybe 2 native resolutions that actually look good. These are fairly high resolutions that many over 40, especially women, find difficult to read. Dell’s WSXGA is as good of screen as WSXGA+ or WUXGA, just lower resolution. Compare before you buy!
5. Hard Drive. Go smaller if you like, but don’t go slower. 7200rpm or faster (faster not available as of this writing) is all you want to consider. End of discussion, don’t listen to anyone else.
6. Video card. For strictly business usage on Windows XP, you can save a little here. If you are doing a lot of graphics work, watching movies, or expect to use Windows Vista with the Aero interface, I wouldn’t advise skimping here.
7. Warranty. This is your call. See my post on CompleteCare. Repairs are expensive; do you ordinarily self-insure? Computer hardware has a nasty habit of dying within 30 days of warranty expiration - call it Murphy’s Law if you like.

Operating system is possibly an 8th point to consider for reducing cost. Don’t pay extra for Windows Vista Ultimate if you aren’t going to need the features, and don’t skimp down to Vista Basic and then wonder why you don’t have the cool Aero interface. Again, compare before you buy.

Oh, and here’s the link to my laptop buying guide that I mentioned above. Click here.

The buying guide is already tuned pretty well for cost versus performance, so take the guide and the 7 cost paring tips, then see if you can come up with the perfect fit for you and your budget.

The choice is yours. Just do yourself a favor and choose wisely! I hope the resources I have given you here will help.

Roger DeReu has been working with PC’s, as a programmer, IT specialist and independent consultant, since 1984. He currently consults primarily with small and medium sized businesses in the Midwest. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional and Small Business Specialist. The FreeComputerConsultant website was originally created to be a free resource for the employees of his clients to have access to his knowledge for benefit of their home PC’s.

Roger’s daily computer blog can be found at http://FreeComputerConsultant.WordPress.com

Sign up for his free weekly e-zine, Tip-Of-The-Week, at http://www.freecomputerconsultant.com/e-zine.html

The iPod is the fastest selling music player, selling over 100,000,000 iPods in the last 5 years! In fact just in the last 3 months of 2006 Apple sold 21 million iPod players. So it is no real surprise that 48% Apple’s $7.1 billion in revenue is comprised of iPod sales. Wow quite an accomplishment! There is downside to this and that is the 100 million people who bought an iPod will at one point or another need to have their iPod battery replaced.

The good news about replacing your iPod battery is that iPod battery replacements can be done relatively easily and costs right around $10. iPod battery replacements kits come with tools and you can find your iPod’s battery online or at retailer’s like Batteryship.

However since so many people have purchased an iPod and since the demand for iPod batteries is quite high it is my curiosity to take a quick peek inside the iPod battery to find out what inside makes it work!

All iPod Batteries will ultimately fail, stop working, and cease to operate, and or otherwise end their useful life. It is the nature of the ipod battery’s design. iPod battery’s are designed to power iPods for a specific amount of time and are also designed with a certain number of battery charge cycles before the battery will not hold enough charge to power your iPod.

But let’s take a step back for just a moment and look at how iPod batteries work and why? First of all iPod batteries are in effect a device that converts chemical energy into electrical energy. iPod batteries have two electrodes, an anode and a cathode and running in between the two nodes runs an electrical current caused primarily from a voltage differential between the anode and cathode. The voltage runs through a chemical called an electrolyte (which can be either liquid or solid).

The most common cause of battery failure is not really a battery failure but normal internal battery wear or use. This is technically classified as declining capacity, increasing internal resistance, elevated self-discharge, and or premature voltage cut-off on discharge. Of these normal battery wear and tear factors the most common is declining capacity caused by the creation, transfer, and eventual reduction of chemical energy into electrical energy.

The chemical used to create electrical energy is lithium polymer. Lithium polymer is used as a battery anode material in dry cells and storage batteries. In fact the energy of some lithium-based cells can be five times greater than an equivalent-sized lead-acid cell and three times greater than alkaline batteries. Lithium cells often have a starting voltage of 3.0 V. This means that batteries can be lighter in weight, have lower per-use costs, and have higher and more stable voltage profiles. Some specific benefits of the lithium polymer chemical includes:

• Lithium polymer chemistry uses a plastic-like electrolyte film that does not conduct electricity but allows ion exchange - electrically charged atoms or groups of atoms.
• The dry polymer design offers simplifications with respect to fabrication, ruggedness, safety and thin-profile geometry.
• Cell thickness measures as little as one millimeter (0.039 inches).
• Can be formed and shaped in any way imagined.
• Lithium polymer offers a safer design - it is more resistant to overcharge; and is less prone to electrolyte leakage.

In addition to the iPod battery’s cell chemistry there are other specific hardware components that makeup the iPod battery and that together, working in concert with the battery cell that allow the iPod battery to push electrical current to your iPod. These specialized hardware components include:

• the iPod battery connector
• the iPod battery fuse
• the iPod battery charge and discharge FETs
• the iPod battery cell pack
• the iPod battery sense resistor
• the iPod battery primary and secondary protection ICs
• the iPod battery fuel-gauge IC
• the iPod battery thermistor
• the iPod battery pc board

© Dan Hagopian
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included with link. Dan Hagopian of http://www.batteryship.com is a known electronics author that specializes in portable power gadgets. His work can be found on the BatteryShip blog at http://www.batteryeducation.com He frequently writes about pda batteries, ipod batteries, general battery technology for our mobile world, new fuel cell technology and interesting power related inventions. For further information please visit http://www.batteryship.com where you can also find PDA battery replacement kits, smartphone batteries, twoway radio batteries, barcode scanner batteries, camera batteries, and camcorder batteries.