notebookhaven.com

To get a computer that works well for you, follow these five easy steps:
1. Find out what you want the computer to do.
2. Find the software to get the job.
3. Match hardware to software.
4. Good store service and support.
5. Buy the computer.

Two things stand out here more than others. The first - often surprising for most people - is to find the software before hardware (step 2). Because it is software that is the work done. Despite all the flash and glory of cutting-edge hardwares, software is more important. The second point is to Step 4: good service and support. More important than finding a low price or deal is to find people who will give you help when you need it and fix the stupid thing in case it breaks. That makes sense, but it’s crazy how people often forget.

The best computer, you can buy is the one who does what you need to do. To find this computer, you must ignore all sales pressure, which is more focused on brand-name computer buying. This is completely false, and a person must be intensively re-educated when he buys computers depending on their brands.
You do not buy a computer for hardware alone. Low price is not the reason whatsoever. Instead, the reason you want a computer is to perform certain tasks, to have the computer work for you, or to help you do something. When you approach the purchase in this spirit, you end up getting the best possible computer - not a brand.

Once upon a time, your classmates just knew that you were a computer geek when you transported your micro-computer to your dorm room. Today, they know that you are a geek if you do not have a laptop. (In fact, laptops are cool; desktops are ancient artifacts on university campuses.)
Laptops let you wear a full-powered computer anywhere on campus. You can finish your work in your dorm as easily as you can in the library or elsewhere.
Most colleges and universities offer a laptop requirements sheet that tells you what kind of equipment that you should look for when buying a laptop to school.

Laptops is often quite expensive. They are also takes money to maintain. They can be easily stolen. While battery life often never lived up to the specifications. It is difficult to get work done on an airplane or a coffee, either because people look over your shoulder or ask questions on the laptop. Ack!

Thanks to their light weight, long battery life and more and more computing power, a laptop computer ideal for just about anyone. If you do not have a laptop today, you will one day.

Obviously Adam Osborne was right: Computers need to be portable! The question should really be: Why buy a desktop computer that’s stuck in one spot all the time?
Naturally, a desktop computer is more powerful, expandable, and cheaper than a laptop. But you can’t take it with you! Well, you could, but by hauling all that desktop stuff around you’d really look like a dork. On the other hand, it’s impossible to look like a dork with a laptop. Imagine yourself sitting in that trendy coffee shop, sipping some overpriced caffeinated beverage while pouring over your e-mail and chatting on a cell phone — that’s hip! That’s so five-minutes-from-now!
Seriously, you want a laptop for one of the following reasons:

• As your main computer Why dither over saving money with a desktop when you really want the portability of a laptop? A desktop computer cannot pretend to be a laptop, but a laptop can certainly fake being a desktop: You can use a full-sized keyboard and monitor with your laptop. You can also connect any number of popular desktop peripherals such as a printer, scanner, external hard drive, and so on. But, unlike a desktop system, you’re free to disconnect the laptop and take it with you whenever you want.
• As a space-saving computer system Unlike desktops, you don’t have to build a shrine to your laptop computer — that is, you don’t need a computer desk. If space is tight in your house, apartment, or dorm room, keep the laptop on the shelf or in a drawer. Then set it up on the kitchen table or coffee table when you’re ready to work. Forget about the constant mess and clutter that orbits the typical desktop computer station. Viva Adam Osborne!
• As a second computer Why buy a second desktop computer when you can get a laptop and enjoy not only the presence of a second computer but the ability to make that computer system portable? Further, you can network the two computers together, allowing them to share the Internet connection, printers, as well as data and files. But you still have the luxury of having one system that’s portable.
• As your on-the-road computer Laptops let you take your work on the road. After a few moments of synch, you’re off and running to anywhere you like (though being in direct, bright sunlight can make it difficult to see the laptop screen).

When you return from your “road warrior” trip, you perform another synch, and both computers are all caught up for the day.

• Laptops let you escape the confines of your office and do work anywhere you like for a few hours. For a few hours. Or if there is power at your location, you can plug in and work all day.
• The laptop lets you take your work with you when you travel. It lets you experience the reality of using a computer on an airplane (which isn’t as sexy as it sounds).

Human laps aren’t getting any smaller. Human eyes can only comfortably read text that’s so big. But most importantly, human fingers have trouble with keyboards that are too tiny. Because of these limitations, the laptop of the future will probably remain the about same size as a laptop of today. (Even though scientists could make the keyboard and screen smaller, the human form wouldn’t appreciate it.)
Technology will continue to make laptop hardware smaller, more energy efficient, and better able to handle the portable environment. But one area that needs vast improvement is battery technology. The battery of the future will be the fuel cell, which is like a miniature power plant directly connected to your laptop PC. Fuel cell technology promises power that lasts for weeks instead of hours, which will prove a boon to portable gizmos of every kind — but only when it’s perfected. Presently, scientists are predicting that the first usable fuel cells will be available by the end of the decade, or around 2009. Until then, we’ll have to slug it out with rechargeable batteries and power packs.

As technology careened headlong into the 1990s, it became apparent that users were desperate for three things from their laptop computers:

• Light weight
• Long battery life
• Full hardware compatibility with desktop systems

Over time, all of these were achieved — but at a price. Today, the Holy Grail of a lightweight, PC compatible laptop that boasts a long battery life isn’t elusive, it’s just expensive:

• Weight. Depending on how much you want to pay, your laptop can be anywhere from 1?2-inch thick to just under an inch thick and weigh in at between 2 to 6 pounds, such as the IBM Thinkpad. The weight and size also depend on the features you want in your laptop, with more features adding more weight.
• Battery Life. While the batteries themselves haven’t improved much in the past several years, thanks to power management hardware and software, modern laptops can extend battery life from the once-standard two hours to about three or four hours.
• Hardware compatibility. Since the late 1990s, all laptops come with color screens just like desktop systems. They also sport CD-ROM or DVD drives, though floppy drives are seldom found in a modern laptop (and then usually as an external device). Laptops also feature modems, networking, and expansion options. Special laptop microprocessors and other hardware have been developed over the years, keeping the laptop hardware small and energy efficient.

The UltraLite marked the line between what was then called a laptop to what is today called a notebook. While manufacturers had perverted the term laptop to include heavy, bulky portables that were anything but lap-friendly (such as the bowling ball-heavy Compaq III), the UltraLite raised the bar and created the notebook category.
Any laptop that weighs under 6 pounds and is less than an inch thick is technically a notebook. Some even lighter units earned the moniker sub-notebook.
But keep in mind that all these terms are for marketing purposes; today, all of these computers, regardless of weight, size, or what the brochure says, are called laptops.

Just because the marketing department labeled the computer a “laptop” didn’t mean that it was sleek and lightweight. For a while there, it seemed like anyone could get away with calling a portable PC a laptop, despite the computer weighing up to 20 pounds — which is enough to crush any lap, not to mention kneecaps.
In the fall of 1989, NEC showed that it could think outside of the laptop box when it introduced the UltraLite laptop. It featured a fullsized screen and keyboard, but no disk drives or other moving parts! The UltraLite used battery-backed up memory to serve as a silicon disk. The silicon disk stored 1 or 2MB of data — which was plenty back in those days. The UltraLite featured a modem, but it could also talk with a desktop computer via its serial port and a special cable. Included with the UltraLite was software that would let it easily exchange files and programs with any desktop PC.
The weight? Yes, the UltraLite lived up to its name and weighed in at just under 5 pounds — a feather compared to the obese laptops of the day. And the battery lasted a whopping two hours, thanks to the UltraLite’s lack of moving parts.

When computer companies specify the weight of their laptops, I’m certain that they do it under ideal conditions, possibly at the North Pole or some other location where the earth’s gravity field is at its weakest. The weight advertised is, like they say, “for comparison purposes only.” Commonly left out of the laptop’s weight is what’s known as the power brick. This is the AC adapter used to connect the laptop to a wall socket. When the laptop isn’t running off of batteries, you need the power brick to supply the thing with juice. This means that the power brick is a required accessory — something you have to tote with you if you plan on taking the laptop on an extended trip.
In the old days, what they didn’t tell you in the advertisements was that the power brick often weighed half as much as the laptop itself! Either that, or the power brick was more bulky than the laptop, as seen nearby with the Dell 320LT’s obnoxiously big power brick (and heavy 30-minute batteries). Lugging around such items is not very convenient. Things are better today.