Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Apple Laptop

Pink has always been a color associated with women. It is fair and delicate and many women choose pink before choosing any other color. There are many items that are available in to color pink, clothes, cars, and shoes, however the color pink has made a début in the world of electronics. Believe it or not, hot pink lap top computers are becoming an up and coming trend in today's market. Of the thousands of requests for hot pink laptop computers, many are from teenager girls. The hot pink apple laptop is becoming the most sought after laptop by women around the country.

Apple laptops have always had features that attract millions of people. Adding the color choices just seems like a natural progression. It is an added attraction that has its consumers lining up to buy one. However, there is a drawback; apple computer does not sell hot pink laptops, you must have it customized to your specifications. There are many companies that will customize your apple laptop and turn it into the hot pink color that you desire. If you do an Internet search for one of these companies, use the keywords 'aftermarket customization'.

The process of customizing your apple laptop is quite fascinating. After you have purchased your apple laptop, you choose the color and style that you want for customization. The technician will then disassemble your laptop to protect the delicate parts from being damaged and then he or she will paint it.

The process itself does not take very long, special paint is used that contains UV protection, and it is also treated to avoid scratches from everyday use. The parts are cleaned and treated with special protectants to avoid any type of damage.

When the paint is dried, the laptop is reassembled and tested to make sure it is working properly, and shipped to the client. All of this, including the purchase of an apple laptop, can be done at a very reasonable cost.

Laptop Stands

Are you sitting comfortably?

1. Screen too close
2. Screen not high enough (looking down)
3. Keyboard uncomfortable
4. Pointing device awkward

More and more people due to the cost of laptops coming down are now having problems with the way they work with them. This is due to the way that they are built with the screen, keyboard and pointing device all connected, great for portability but not good for the back, arms and eyes. Most people buy an external mouse which makes it more comfortable to use but not many people buy any other accessories such as an external keyboard or laptop stand. By getting an external keyboard you are then able to move the screen away from you making it easer on the eyes and with a laptop stand you can then bring your screen up to a great working height.

It is a paradox that people don't buy these accessories when they get there laptop, you wouldn't by a television with out a stand and just place it on the floor, would you?

It is amazing that with laptops being so common the work place of today that there is no legislation that is specific to the use of laptops in the working environment there are areas of health and safety regulations which can be applied to the use of VDU screens and also the use of keyboards.

During the next few years we will be getting more and more problems from people using laptops in the wrong posture, and we are just starting to see large companies asking questions about the health and safety aspects of using laptops for any length of time. The answer to these problems is not an expensive one for either large or small companies or individuals for as little as £70.00 including vat you can get a portable laptop stand with keyboard and mouse (wire less).

Considering all the press that there was a few years ago regarding RSI when companies where taken to court and made to pay massive amounts of money to some of their employees, it seem ridicules that this problem has not been highlight more in the press.

We are now find that some very large companies purchasing laptop stand and keyboards for there mobile work force and for the home workers where they can say that they have given there work force all the tools to get them into a comfortable position and keep them within H & S regulations.

So what is needed is for ALL laptop users to be aware and educated in the problems that laptops can give you with long term use especially for young where there back and necks are still developing.

Don't get me wrong the laptop is a fantastic tool used in the correct manor. this means using a laptop stand and separate keyboard which both need to be portable the same as the laptop.

Saturday, April 26, 2008

7 Mistakes to Avoid

Below numbering of the seven disastrous faults not to do while your hard disc is damaged.

1- Encase of fire harm don't try to clean, or to put in refrigerator or deep freezer on fire damaged media.

2- Encase of physical harm don't attempt to remove disc drive, don't shake, dismantle any hard disk or notebook that has been damaged, since wrong handling can do retrieval more serious or impractical.

3- After physical harm immediately switch off PC, never try to operate whatsoever visible damaged devices as additional operation may harm data irremediably.

4- Water harm case : Never ever try to make clean or dry out water damaged hard drive by opening it or disclosing it to heat (the high temperature of a hair drier for instance).

5- Once a user check messages such as "Operating System not found", "Corrupt Volume" or once he may merely be missing files and folders he had better at once shut down the computer. (Since the more durable a damaged hard disk is left working, the many more data that can be entirely dropped off).

6- Encase of mechanical harm if you pick up strange makes noise or grinding, don't carry a check disk software package (CHKDSK or some another software like that).

7- And at last if you're a newcomer, never set about to try the retrieval alone whenever you have some valuable data.

In this seven sort of case you'll have to get through narrowed down company, and that can/will cost you in all probability a good deal of money.

As a matter of fact the biggest erroneous belief to stave off is the absence of backup, I'll never say it sufficient, backup your files, backup your files... Backup...

Or get fix to confront a catastrophe.

Buying A New Laptop

Buying a new laptop is something that I would consider a fairly major purchase. To start with, I would like to state that I have actually worked for a retail company that purchases and sells everything that has to do with computers, and being a salesmen, I would like to contribute my knowledge to properly purchasing a new laptop. This especially applies to those who are buying a new laptop for the first time, or buying a computer for the first time.

Step 1 - Define your goal, and figure out your requirements

Hopefully that title does not scare you. Basically, the first question I ask someone, when they are purchasing a laptop is: What are you going to be using it for? Generally, responses are quite simple: I need it for work, or my daughter is going to school, or I am a gamer and want to play the latest and greatest games out there. This is when you should consider answering that question yourself. However, before you do that, there is one question that you must answer for yourself, and that is: Are you or someone that uses your laptop, ever going to play new 3D games on it?

If your answer is:

NO: If your answer is no, then you have narrowed your selection of laptops down by about 25% - 40% (Depending where you are buying them from). An important thing to keep in mind is that, if you are not playing games on it, you do not want a "dedicated graphics card" on the laptop, because you will never use it for what you are doing. The dedicated graphics card is a costly piece of material and it will not speed your laptop up for word processing, or the internet, or even your video editing.

YES: If you answered "yes" to the fact that you would play new 3D games, then you absolutely need a laptop that has a "dedicated graphics card" in it. When you talk to your sales representative make certain they know you will be playing games on it, and that the card itself has 128Mb of video ram, or more. Another point that you MUST watch out for, is that many laptops have an "on-board graphics card". Do not get stuck with an on-board graphics card, if you intend on having a gaming laptop. The quality of games will be considerably horrible, and you will wish you re-read this article. As of writing this article, the more expensive, and thus better cards are GeForce 7600 Go, or 8600 cards, or some of ATI's Radeon X1700 or better. You will have to discuss with your representative your budget, and how fast you want your games to run.

Now that you have figured out whether or not you will be gaming on your laptop, you must consider the other software you will be using, and what kind of processing power, and memory you will want on your laptop. To make things easy I would suggest reading the software requirements of the programs you will be running, to get an idea of what you will need to run that software.

Step 2 - Identifying your wants

This could almost be the final step, if not for some last minute notes. This step is very straightforward. You must decide for yourself how fast you want your machine to be. This is a critical step, because as soon as you purchase your laptop, you cannot change anything inside of it! The one exception is the memory, and that can always be upgraded. A general rule is, the more you pay, the more you get. Below, I will list in order of importance, the general components of the laptop that you are interested in:

1) CPU - This will determine how fast your machine launches programs and runs ( You will want at least a dual-core, unless you cannot afford it ). Look for Pentium Core2 chips, or AMD's X2 type chips. Ask your product rep for a range of processors, and more information or guidance if you need.

2) Memory (RAM) - This is where all your programs store their temporary information. So, like our brains, the larger the amount of ram, the more programs you can have running, or you can launch larger programs. *Note: If you skimp on this item, you will sacrifice alot of performace (1 Gigabyte is generally the minimum, 2 Gigabytes will be the recommended).

3) Hard drive - This part is where you store your files for the long term. Accounting books, and music files, are all stored on the hard drive. The larger it is, the more files you can cram into it. Performance of your laptop is not affected by the size of the drive, and generally not by the speed of the drive. Hard drives will range from 80 Gb - 200 Gb (Sometimes more).

Generally those are the three most important components you will need to look at in all the laptops. Now I wish to share with you some final notes.

3) Final notes, and considerations

a) If the laptop you are considering purchasing is going to be over $1200, I would greatly consider buying a "Total care warranty". This will run for 20% - 30% of the laptop price, but will cover any drops, wear, split liquids, etc. for 2-3 years. This is definitely worth considering, as I have seen many laptops with cracked screens, and to replace the screen, you are looking at $800 with labor and parts at least.

b) Brands do not matter a whole lot. Most, if not all laptops are manufactured by a global electronics company, that fills orders for many of the major brands you will see. So do not judge based on brand name, and do not judge based on looks. You will here many people tell you that "such and such a brand is no good" and some brands will be praised. To each their own, good luck shopping!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

Features for Enterprise Laptop Backup

For any enterprise, the definition and amount of "critical data" on laptops and desktops is increasing. This is fueled by increasing security concerns, user mobility and cross-geography office expansions (global expansions / decentralization). While the expectations have increased, the existing backup solutions haven't adapted well with these changes. They still continue to depend upon large computational resources and dedicated and trusted network/media for backups.

In short, the key requirements for an enterprise PC backup should be -

1. Simple, Fast, Scalable
2. Light weight and resource/power friendly
3. Secure and Internet friendly
4. WAN and bandwidth optimized
5. Support for incremental sync for large binary formats like Outlook PST
6. On-demand (remote) restore.

Features Explained -

1. Simple, Fast, Scalable
"Backing up your PC is one of those things, like eating right or changing your oil on time, that everybody knows they're supposed to do, but too few people actually carry off well..." Walter Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal

Today no one has time to schedule and monitor backups. This should be have maximum a client side five minute setup and should monitor/backup automatically and Fast.

2. Light weight and resource/power friendly
Laptops are replacing desktops in most of the enterprises, but the software still hasn't evolved.

Backups should be resource friendly and optimized low power consumption. Also, simple options like - "Don't backup when i am on battery" make a lot of difference.

3. WAN and Bandwidth optimized
Every company has a reasonably good percentage of mobile workforce. And usually this includes the top-tier management (CEO, and likes). With increasing laptop thefts and data risks, backups should be WAN/Internet ready.

The user should be able to choose a bandwidth (something like use 10% of my bandwidth) and the backup solution should just do the job, even over the weakest internet links. This also greatly helps in cross-office backups and backup consolidation efforts.

4. Secure and Internet friendly
Security is very important, specially when you are over WAN/VPN. Most of the backup solutions are Server triggered, making security policies for firewalls and monitoring very diffic ult (every one is afraid, when they see data flowing out of their network).

The backups should be client triggered, so that the server side firewalls just allow and monitor inbound traffic. Also,The solution should be able to securely setup encrypted/authenticated channels to backup. (SSL channels are best, when it comes to WAN/Internet)

5. Support for incremental sync for large binary formats like Outlook PST
With data increasing, and WAN coming into picture it is very important that the backups are incremental in nature and only the changed bits are copied back to the server.

6. On-demand (remote) restore.
Sending an email to admin to get the data back is surely complete NO, specially when the user may be off-site/traveling. The backup software should facilitate a smart (possibly browser) based remote and secure data restore.

So next time you choose a backup software for your personal or enterprise needs, make sure it has evolved to have the above mentioned features.

And remember - backup more, backup often.

TV Tuner For Laptop

There are 2 types of tv tuners for laptop computer, one is a hardware based solution and the other a software. Both will work just fine on laptops but they vary in terms of costs, number of channels offered and portability. These will be discussed in this article.

The first solution is to get an external PCTV card for your laptop. External PCTV cards come in the form of USB device. This tv tuner for laptop computer typically comes with its own proprietary software that enables you to stream hundreds of live television channels through wired broadband connection. A device like that costs a few hundred dollars and can be found at any major PC hardware stores.

The other tv tuner is a software known commonly as satellite tv software. This software when installed, gives you access to thousands of channels worldwide in different languages. It streams live satellite channels through internet and works on both wired and wireless broadband connections.

Both solutions only require a one-time cost which is for the purchase of hardware/software. However, it is interesting to note that a good satellite tv software will cost you no more than $50. Furthermore, it can offer more than 3000 channels on a standard package.

In terms of portability, majority of PCTV cards require a wired connection whereas wireless connections work just fine with satellite television software. That means you can be watching a football match or favorite tv serial in a cafe or anywhere in the world with a WIFI connection. Personally, satellite television software is, to me, a preferred tv tuner due to its portability.

Before you purchase a PCTV card or satellite television software, it is good to make sure they are supported by the operating system of your laptop. Windows Vista or Windows XP should be fine but if you are running Mac, it is good to check with the product merchant or read the FAQs before making a purchase.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Laptop For Students

A computer or laptop machine is now essential equipment for every student in his or studies. With the latest technology and easy reference that the Internet is providing any school works or papers, the rate on the need for a computer or laptop is now heightening. However, not all students can afford to buy their own computer or laptop as it is very expensive to buy one. So, most students are now aiming for the opportunity of securing a free laptop for their studies.

All levels of students would want to achieve free laptop opportunity. Students in colleges, high schools, and middle schools would always prefer to access the Internet for their school assignments. They believe that Internet is always the best source and most convenient source of any information as compared to the school library. It only proves that Internet technology is now becoming a vast necessity for every student on their school assignments. Students also believe that Internet is the biggest data of information where they can get every bit of information to be more advanced and sophisticated. Also, the students also loved researching for unlimited information to satisfy their curiosity and answers on a particular topic. There are some institutions, corporate houses and organization that give away free laptops to deserving students.

This idea does not literally means of supplying or providing freebees. It refers to the giving of free laptop to students in college or university whenever there is a need. The computers or laptops have been a basic necessity for all learning environments. Among the institutions that provide laptops include some corporate businesses, foundations and grants. However, the granting of machines for students still needs to pass certain criteria prior to granting. It iss is also part of some online promotional services that often give away some products that include computers or laptops just by participating their marketing campaigns.

The tremendous need for a computer or laptop machine by individuals especially the students only proves that there is an extreme need of technology. This is one big realization for more organizations to be generous and charitable enough in providing free laptop for students. These organizations should realize that their help is needed by students who cannot afford the utilization or owning of a computer or laptop machine.

About A Laptop Bag

To bring style and functionality in your computer tote bag, you have to personalize it. Notebook bags can have a sporty look in keeping pace with the modern trend. When you personalize a computer bag, you have your personality and attitude reflected on the bag.

Fashion and Function - You Can Have Both

A laptop bag not only serves the purpose of carrying your computer from home to office and back home, but it is also a striking example of durability merged with security as well as fashion. If you care to have a look, you will be surprised at the many PC bags that the markets have. Many designers keep designing wonderful looking portable computer bags for the excellent laptops that keep emerging.

The laptop bags can be easily slung over the shoulders and then you can carry the computer around you with comfort. These sturdy bags are usually designed for handling the vibration, shock and the even temperature variations. The bags are efficient in protecting the laptop from damage and rough weathers.

Today, the laptop bag is more than a medium for carrying laptops; it is a style statement and a fashion trend, which you can personalize. The bags are designed for carrying not only the laptop, but also accessories like office documents, water bottle, cell phone, stationery and also a pair of civvies. Therefore, the laptop case can be a great travel accompaniment for the business traveler as well as the leisure traveler.

In recent times, with the laptops getting slimmer, the bags have got trendier and fashionable too. You now have customized notebook bags in colors that you prefer and shapes of your choice. You can have personal computer bags going with your mood and attitude. You can also get computer bags that will be in colors to match your dress.

Therefore, you know how to use the bags as a fashion accessory. These useful and important items to hold notebooks need not look serious and grim. With it, you can always carry everything with a style.