One of the improvements you can expect to see in the latest OS release by both Microsoft and Apple is a noticeable increase in battery life. By some estimates, Windows 7 will boost battery life by 11% and Apple’s Snow Leopard by 10%. These are accomplished through, among other things, more efficient handling of idle CPU time and better management of...

It’s an ever-increasing mobile world, and with it comes all the tech stuff we need to get things done. Being mobile means your tech will run off a battery or two. However there are certain items when you should care and other times when you don’t have to. Point-And-Shoot Digital Cameras Should you care? Yes. I won’t buy a point-and-shoot...

It’s my opinion that everyone should own a laptop. Two years ago I couldn’t say this because the price point wasn’t low enough. But with the netbooks quickly becoming the new norm of laptops, I can say now that yes, you should own one. And if you needed a reason why, here are 10 good ones. 1. Better resale value. PCs hold little resale value...

If posed the question as to what you think the worst possible thing could happen to a PC is, your answer would probably be, "when the hard drive dies". Wrong. The worst possible thing that can happen is fire. This is when something in your computer overheats, catches fire and starts melting the "guts" (motherboard, chips, etc.). Fire is the...

A big buzzword in any industry to do with electronics right now is “green”. Green, green, green. What does it mean, old bean? [/end corny rhyming here.] It means anything that is less destructive to Mother Earth. However there’s two parts to this. The first part is that the whatever-it-is must be less destructive now and less destructive as...

Throughout the history of laptops, one thing that basically hasn’t changed all that much is the battery. It is the power source that makes your portable computer portable. The vast majority of laptops use Lithium Ion (abbreviated Li-ion) batteries. Before that was nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) and before that Nickel Cadmium (NiCd or NiCad). For those...

It was only a matter of time, but Intel has brought out the big guns and now has quad-core available for laptops. Five of them, to be exact. Surprisingly, it won’t be that expensive. According to the article linked above, you can score an Acer Aspire laptop with an 18.4-inch screen (that’s frappin’ huge for a laptop) for $1,799. Not bad...

Laptops traditionally command a high price tag than desktops and their resale value is undisputed. You may have entertained the idea of buying a used laptop. Personally I recommend against doing this as new ones are easily under $500 these days. However, if you’re insistent on going used, here are a few tips. Go Dell I champion Dell products routinely and...

While this subject has already been discussed on PCMech.com, I saw a recent article which completely breaks down laptops. Before saying anything more, I want to make sure this post doesn’t turn into a ‘hatefest’ for either machine. This tip is intended for those who may be wanting to purchase a new laptop and are looking for objective...

I’ve written in the past about how easy it is to steal a laptop. While common sense still remains the best defense, a tool which may appeal to those which are extra cautious is Laptop Alarm. This free to try program’s functionality is very simple, from their web site: Laptop Alarm emits a loud alarm when: The power cable is unplugged The mouse is...

Compared to regular PCs, laptop upgrades are seriously simple to do. While you’d think the compact shape would make it more difficult to take apart and upgrade, this isn’t true. In this article I’ll give you the how-to on three simple upgrades for major components – and how/where to get the parts you need. [hidepost=1] Why...

You might not realize it, but losing a laptop is a very common problem. In fact, according to a story in July of this year, a study by the Ponemon Institute shows that up to 12,000 laptops are lost at airport security checkpoints EVERY WEEK. How do you say “holy S**tballs” in geek? But, there are solutions and, among them, is a free, open source...

If you usually build your own desktop PC, you may have toyed with the idea of building your own laptop? Unfortunately, laptop barebones are quite hard to get by, unless you put out an order for a few thousand from your favorite ODM. OCZ is looking to change this, by letting you customize – and build – your own 15-inch gaming laptop. Barebone Specs The base...

It really is, just take a look at this video. All it takes is you turning your head for 10 seconds to dig in your bag when you are in a coffee shop or some other wireless hot spot and *poof* your laptop can disappear. To make matters worse, if your laptop is stolen, any personal data is out of your control… which includes any browser saved user names and...

Even though I champion Dell as the best go-to company for most consumers wanting a computer from a well-established company, my single largest complaint about them is the constant shifting of model names; it confuses the crap out of people. Classic example: Inspiron. This should have never been made a desktop model name. Inspiron was known by everyone as...

We recently had a laptop battery go dead (well, it wouldn’t hold a charge for over 10 minutes) on us and needed a replacement. The laptop (a Dell), itself is about 3 year old but running like a champ (knock on wood). So we call up Dell and find out the battery will cost over $300 and wouldn’t ship for over a month… seriously. No thanks we said...

The current trend in laptop technologies is the sub-12-inch screen territory with super-light super-portable chassis. After the launch of the EeePC other companies started jumping on this. HP’s entry into the fray is the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC (see HP press release). Like its competitors, this unit is designed for the education market and is priced...

Many of you out there probably noticed that Google went black in an effort to raise people’s awareness about energy conservation. One of the absolute easiest ways in the world to use less electricity with a computer is with laptop use for three reasons:Laptops are by very nature designed to use less power. Obviously when you’re using a laptop on...