David Parish asked:


Laptops were originally designed as niche products to meet special computing needs. These mini desktops distinctively targeted business leaders who are highly on the go. By using laptops, managers can take their job with them and can easily store important data they require for their transactions.

Laptop computers have become very powerful devices that have the ability to perform complicated computing tasks. It is for this reason that laptop computers are now used by almost everybody. A good number of professionals now use laptops to accomplish their job and even students are permitted by the school authorities to make use of laptops.

Looking Into the History of Laptops

NASA used the first laptop for its space missions. The first generation laptops were big portable computers and powered by a mere 340 kilobyte memory. Since these early laptops have folding display screen and portable, historians considered these early laptops as the ancestors of all modern laptops.

As the production of chip technology became sophisticated, laptop computers have become smaller. In 1981 the first book-like laptop computer was created. It includes a small folding screen, an internal modem, and floppy drive. The early generations of laptops also have computer programs installed on their system.

Development and research on computer technology accelerated in the mid 1980s. There was a need for laptops for business and individual use. Since then, laptop computers have become smaller, lighter, thinner and very powerful.

These days, you can put a typical laptop in a small brown envelope. Its weight can also be compared to standard textbook. Most laptops also have mini-hard drives that can store gigabytes of data. Processors of modern laptops have become faster and usually operate with 1 to 5 GB of RAM.

Specialized Aspects of Advanced Laptops

Practically all the standard features of a desktop are available in laptops. Laptops now have fully operating removable gadgets such as DVD / CD ROM drives and burners. They also have hubs for small gadgets such as flash drives, card readers, and mobile telephony devices.

Almost all types of wired and wireless networking devices can be supported by laptops. They have ports available for modem, a network hub, WiFi connection, and satellite connection. These features are extremely useful for professionals, gamers, internetworking, and personal computing.

While videographers and journalists can also use their laptop computer to instantly edit the videos they have captured so they can easily broadcast news through the Internet. This shows the effectiveness of the laptop computer in the quick dissemination of information.

Recent Laptop Innovations

IT companies began to make Netbooks and subnotebooks in view of the fact that high-end laptop computer is too expensive for the general public. These are laptops that can be used for general mobile computing even with limited functions.

By using a Netbook, you can browse Web sites, check email, and carry out tasks online. Though the Netbook have minimum hard disk space they have enough memory speed for convenient web browsing. The Netbook can also be used for online games.

Laptop computer has opened the way for highly mobile computing. With the advancements in computer technology, you will see recent models of laptops with amazing functions.

Christophe Catesson asked:


Since 2005, the sales of laptops have displaced those of desktop PCs in the United States.

Due a constant drop in price rapid technical improvements and the swift evolution and extension of the WAN technology, notebooks are destined to replace desktops in most areas both professionally and at home.

Laptops will account for more than half of the worldwide PC shipments by 2011, according to a new report by IDC.

According to the Gartner Group, worldwide some 257.1 million PCs will ship this year, and 60 percent of them will be desktops. PC growth for 2007 should be around 7% while laptops will grow by 18.6% and will continue to maintain a double digit growth at least until 2010. Desktop sales are still strong in the EMEA and Latin America with about 60% of all shipments.

In more mature markets notebooks have taken over and continue to grow at a much faster pace. This would hardly shocking news.

Notebooks take up much less space than desktops, they’re portable, and given their relatively low cost compared to a few years ago, you can just buy a new one when you decide you want to upgrade.

Specific reasons of the evolution from desktop to laptop:

- Price: While laptops are still more expensive than desktops for the same power/capacity, the gap is constantly narrowing. In 2000 you could expect to pay almost double for a laptop comparable to average desktop priced around $1,000. In 2007, you can expect a $300 to $500 difference depending on brands.

- Power: The same applies here. Even in the early 2000s, any heavy database user or serious gamer would not hesitate one second in between a desktop or a laptop. While there is still an advantage for desktop, this barrier has come down drastically; in fact many IT departments have migrated to laptops and only the most serious queries are run on servers. The same applies to gamers where only the most demanding games need to be run on the most advanced desktop. For the average user using office and going online the desktop have no specific advantages

- WiFi/Portability: The explosion of wifi spots is a decisive factor that explains the migration to laptops. Years ago, laptops where generally used because you could take them with you when traveling, nowadays in many areas you can work while traveling (airports, trains, restaurants, coffee shops…) are among the location where you can actually go online at a very comfortable speed. You can even use such tool as Skype with a wireless laptop and have video conference anywhere you have WiFi access.

In addition, laptops are continually getting lighter and screen sizes bigger. Most new laptops come with 17 inch screens and weigh under 7 pounds. Those with 15 inch monitors generally weigh under 5 pounds. You can buy them new starting below $400…

The desktop will not go away anytime soon, they will slowly evolve in a different market demand such as Media PC environment (TV tuner, DVR, radio, music) for the home or used as back up device for your laptop. Chances are that when it is time to replace your DVD player you will may buy a PC and you will also get use to download TV shows on your computer and watch them on your TV.

What’s next for laptops?

- On one hand they will continue to improve in the traditional “way” catching up with the desktops in term of power and capacity and slowly replacing desktop for most needs.

- Another aspect is the extra portability evolution already underway with mini laptops, palmtops, tablet PCs and touch screen laptops. Combining extreme portability and WiFi, these mini laptops will replace gradually paper and pads, order sheets, notebooks and others… As you write or type any information on your mini laptop (orders, notes, drawings, questionnaires….) you have the ability to immediately save, sync or communicate the results.

Tony Galloway asked:


Las Vegas Based Technology Company Revolutionizes Mobile Computing with Lilliputian Laptop

 By Rodney Marvel

Author, e-media Direct

 Mobile computing will never be the same with the advent of Seamless Wi-Fi’s S-Gen UMPC, or Ultra Mobile Personal Computer.  In an era when computer manufacturers are developing smaller PC solutions to meet the nomadic nature of today’s consumers, the S-Gen stands out as one of the most robust, yet smallest, micro PC’s available on the market. It has already made appearances on the Montel Williams Show and at numerous shows in Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C.

 Ultra mobile is a bit of an understatement.  The S-Gen weighs a mere 16 ounces and measures in with a length of 6.5 inches, a width of 3.8 inches, and a depth of 1.25 inches.  Despite its diminutive size, this “pocket” PC comes complete with a near full size keyboard, TFT touch screen display, and 20 GB hard drive.  Of course, it also has all of the bells and whistles of other mobile products, such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular wireless technology.  Maybe surprising to some would be the fact that the S-Gen also features an integrated GPS system with internal antennae.

Of course, being able to map your location and see your destination is only useful if you have enough battery power to get you through to the end of your trip.  Fear not, the Seamless Wi-Fi S-Gen has a battery life in excess of 8 hours.  That is roughly 4 times longer than traditional laptop battery life and double the endurance of higher capacity notebook batteries.  When you consider just how many functions the S-Gen is capable of, you will realize that you need every bit of those 8 hours.  The S-Gen is essentially a tri-band cell phone, MP3 player, GPS navigation system, and mobile computer all wrapped up into one very portable package.

The S-Gen is so power-packed that it has been featured in PC Magazine, Laptop Magazine, The Mercury News, and The New York Post.  Let’s not forget the S-Gen’s reviews on DL.TV, Geekzone, and ZDNet just to name a few.  All of this positive publicity can only strengthen Seamless Wi-Fi’s sales numbers when the S-Gen officially launches on July 1, 2008.  The estimated retail price is $1,195, a very reasonable value when you consider the four or five devices that this unit will replace when you purchase it.

 Recently, at the “Money Show” in Las Vegas, Nevada, Seamless Wi-Fi demonstrated the many features of the S-Gen to businessmen from all over the world.  One of the demonstrations that seemed to surprise some was the ability to take a SIM card from any wireless phone, pop it into the S-Gen and immediately begin making calls.  The company received a lot of interest while at the show and is very optimistic about the sales potential of this one-of-a-kind product.

Seamless Wi-Fi, Inc. (SMWF), a development stage company, is an Internet company that is developing cutting edge technologies to create and provide new and innovative products and services for both businesses and consumers.  The company is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, has three operating subsidiaries, and engages in the development and marketing of Internet communications products and services in the United States.  The company provides wireless Internet access service known as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) in Wi-Fi hot pots. It also develops software program that provides Wi-Fi users with Seamless-Secure Internet browsing, which encrypts the user’s Wi-Fi signal.

 Seamless Wi-Fi recently announced the impending launch of a big brother to the S-Gen, the S-NBK-1 mini-notebook.  The S-NBK-1, which is available now, contains a 10.2” TFT screen, 1.6 GHZ processor, 512 MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, and Windows® XP operating system.  The company has already launched the S-NBK-1 with a MSRP in the mid $500′s, which they feel is very competitively priced for the growing mini-notebook market.

 Albert R. Reda, President and CEO for Seamless Wi-Fi, Inc., has been with the company since November 1988. Mr. Reda received his Bachelor of Science degree from California State University, Long Beach, with a major in engineering. Mr. Reda is an officer and director of two other public companies, DCM Enterprises, Inc. and Global Debit Cash Card, Inc. For further information: info@slwf.com or 775.588.2499.

 Rodney Marvel is currently the Director of Operations for e-media Direct (www.e-mediadirect.com), a full-service investor relations firm located in Winter Park, FL. He has five years of experience in the marketing and financial industries.  He has worked with close to 100 publicly-traded companies on a multitude of projects, including website designs, press releases, and marketing campaigns. You can contact him at: rmarvel@e-mediadirect.com or 866.284.2835.

 

DISCLAIMER: This article written by e-media Direct, with the expressed permission of its client (SMWF), and the information and research contained herein do not represent a recommendation of investment advice to buy or sell stocks or any financial instrument nor is it intended as an endorsement of any security or investment. Neither e-media direct (including the author) can assess, verify, or guarantee the suitability of any particular investment to any personal situation and the reader of this article bears complete responsibility for its own investment research and should seek the advice of a qualified investment professional prior to making any investment decisions. This article and any sponsoring websites are provided solely for informational purposes, and they do not constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any securities. All opinions expressed and information and data provided herein are subject to change without notice. e-media Direct and their respective officers, directors, employees and/or associated entities, including the author, may have positions in and may from time to time make purchases or sales of the securities discussed or mentioned in this article. e-media Direct, Inc. has been compensated by a third party consultant ten thousand dollars in cash. In exchange for this compensation, SMWF will receive investor relations services, this written article and promotion of this article on e-media Direct websites, other non-e-media Direct sponsoring websites and various media forums.

Alan Jacobson asked:


Mini notes are notebooks and laptops that are half the size of traditional machines, but incredibly powerful and ultra-portable. They are exploding in popularity in four markets:

- Rural areas around the globe that are cut off from new sources of information such as updated textbooks and up-to-the-minute news turn to these devices to solve these problems.

- Many poor areas have both the above problem and also the problem of families not being able to afford a full fledged computer.

- Consumers in the U.S., Japan, and elsewhere often have computing needs that are much less than what a large and expensive computer delivers. Groups such as children, stay at home parents, and senior citizens may want something easy, cheap portable, and light. Mini notes are perfect.

- Many families in wealthier countries are finding that they need almost one computer to every family member. However, to save space and money, and for maximum convenience, they buy one or two large models and the rest are mini-laptops or mini-notebooks.

What has happened over the past few years to truly make mini laptops and mini notebooks so popular is that manufacturers no longer have to strip down a lot of the functionality of a larger model to get to a price and size that attracts the consumer. In fact, most of the current mini notes have the functionality of the fully powerful notebooks and laptops of just a few years ago. They have a screen much larger than a mobile phone or PDA, though slightly smaller than a full sized laptop.

The target price for 2010 many manufacturers have for mini notes is below $100. They also hope to bring their weight below a pound (they are currently only about a pound and a half). Whether a consumer wants to access e-mail, watch video, listen to MP3s, browse the internet, take pictures and video, or learn from a virtual textbook, mini notes are already revolutionary even before they take these exciting future steps.

For the more technologically minded, here is a brief synopsis of the features of the technology involved with mini notebooks and mini laptops:

- Built-in Devices: Wireless LAN antenna, Bluetooth antenna

- Dimensions (average): Width 6-7 in, Depth 5- 6 in, Height 1-1.4 in, Weight 1.5-1.75 lbs

- Processor: Intel A110 / 800 MHz

- Operating Systems: Varied, but include Windows products such as Vista

- Software: Many possibilities including standard Office products, photo and video editing, financial, etc.

- Cache Memory: Installed Size usually around 512 KB

- RAM: Installed Size .5-1 GB

- Hard Drive: 20-60 GB

Mini notes, mini-laptops, and mini-notebooks will continue to evolve, but don’t wait. Very powerful, ultra-portable, and inexpensive models are already available from major manufacturers.

Ascisco Pecunia asked:


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With the rest of the notebook industry rushing to grab a piece of the netbook market share, Samsung has responded by producing the Samsung NC10 netbook. Like many netbooks in the market, the NC10 is 10.2 inches wide and has all the basic netbook necessities such as a 1.3 mp camera, 802.11 b/g WiFi and runs on Microsoft Windows XP Home. It is powered by a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM and has a 160GB hard drive.

The Samsung NC10 has no frills minimalist design and it comes in white or blue. It has a matte exterior and is adorned with a reflective Samsung logo. It simple design and rounded corners gives it a more professional design compared to other Asus and MSI netbooks. Weighing at just 2.8 pounds, it is also lighter than most of the other netbooks in the market (which usually weigh more than 3 pounds).

The keyboard on the Samsung NC10 is 93% of the size of regular keyboards. The positioning of the keys are very comfortable, with a full size shift key below the enter button on the right. The great layouts of the keys take little time to get used to (unlike some other netbook models).

Most of the new netbooks in the market today have a glossy display screen, which greatly reduces its visibility under bright conditions. The screen on the Samsung model is matte, maintaining good visibility even under bright sunlight. Although it has the standard 1024 x 600 pixel screen, the images are crisp and vibrant.

The powerful Samsung NC10 resembles more of a laptop than a netbook in terms of functionality. Due to the extra features found in this model, it cost a little more than the average netbook. From the raving reviews received by this netbook, I would say the price is well worth it!

bloom media asked:


Laptop notebooks are more than a fad. They’re nearly as popular as blackberries and iPods and pull in a close second behind the traditional PCs. More often than not, convenience is the motive for having and using a laptop.

Businesses utilize laptop notebooks as a matter of daily life on the road. Laptops have the capabilities of the formerly more powerful PCs that adorn the desks of business men and women by the millions. With the right software and hi-speed connectivity you can pull up your desktop right off your PC and do business as if you were in the office. Laptop notebooks enable people to accomplish a lot of work at home and more importantly, while on the road traveling from place to place. Formerly dead time in the motel can now be turned into useful hours of virtual meetings, emails and production.

Students are extremely blessed with the availability of affordable electronic notebooks. Very few collegians would be caught on campus without a laptop. School assignments, calendars, email contacts and a host of other functions are maintained while attending classes and the free minutes in between. It’s as common to see opened laptops on the tables in the classrooms now as it used to be to see a pen in hand and a pad of paper. Manufacturers like Dell have zeroed in on the college student as a market by producing a myriad of colored laptop covers and even mini-laptops. The smaller versions are literally smaller than a pad of paper and can be purchased, especially in student computer buying programs, for less than a third of the regular-sized laptop.

Laptops are finding their way into the hands of folks from all walks of life that no longer want to be tied to a desktop. Every function that a desktop can perform can be duplicated by the right laptop and the expectation now is to be able to get up and go. Homemakers would rather spend the afternoon in the park with their children while they’re doing some online shopping, teachers thoroughly enjoy a few free moments to grade essays while in the coffee shop, and salesmen would rather check their incoming messages over lunch than back at the office.

Police officers are now using laptops in record numbers. They’re usually on the high end technologically and can handle and store enormous amounts of data. These are mounted in the cruisers for instant access to bureau of motor vehicle records and criminal histories. The normal emailing and data searches can be made as well.

Laptop notebooks are far more affordable than they were a decade ago. For less than a thousand dollars a highly efficient notebook can be brought into service with incredible amounts of memory and hi-speed connectivity. Most laptops can be purchased for under $700 or $800 and will be all of the computer you’ll ever need.

Any computer is time sensitive at this point. Whenever new programming and software is developed, it eventually begins to outstrip the laptop’s, or any computer’s, inherent capabilities. Many experts believe that a PC or a laptop life expectancy, as far as being able to keep abreast of the ever-improving technology, is about five to six years. After that, it’s time to upgrade to the next wave of the future.

hulal asked:


Gateway E-475M laptop is the true example of mainstream laptop featured with all those facility important for great performance while browsing, downloading, entertaining and all other computing. This is based on Genuine Microsoft Windows XP professional operating system and it is powered with Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 processor having the processing speed of 2.2 GHz. This mainstream laptop is implemented with 15.4 inch display facilitated with WXGA TFT Active Matrix technology. With the help of this display you can enjoy the crisper quality of videos. It is also having the six cell lithium ion battery which can provide a better kind of backup while traveling.

Aside from that it also includes the Chassis W/integrated Integrated Intel GMA x3100 Graphics and Intel 635 GM chipset. Its external ports availabilities are four USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (firewire) and S-video (TV-out). Option of 2 x Series SATA hard drive of 80 GB is available in this laptop. From the networking and connectivity side this laptop contains all important facilities such as Integrated Intel 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter as network and Integrated Intel 3945 802.11 a/b/g wireless network.

It also includes the 24x/10x/24x CD-RW/ 8x DVD Combo Drive as Optical drive that can allows users to enjoy their music and movies with great quality and it can also 3D games. To offer more excitement and enjoyment to users it contains integrated sound and stereo speakers, headphones that deliver superb quality of sound. And it is loaded with Adobe Acrobat Reader 7.0 which is its standard software.

This laptop is really a best destination for those users who want to enjoy extreme level of laptop computing performance. There are many other great laptops in India are also available which provide the best kind of performance & multi task solutions such as HP pavilion DV 5 series, HP HDX and other latest laptop from HP notebooks India. And if you don’t such high performance laptop then mini laptop in India also available in Indian market which are best for net surfing and basic computing.

Titus Hoskins asked:


Recently, in the world of laptops, there seems to be a major push to replace traditional Hard Disk Drives HDDs with the newer and speedier Solid State Drives SSDs. This issue presents a challenging question for future laptop buyers and especially for those considering buying a gaming laptop.

Which data storage system should you go with?

Now, SSDs or Solid State Drives are not new, they have been around since the 70′s but were mainly used in niche applications in the past. Only recently have computer makers been utilizing SSDs for their machines, especially in laptops. Will these flash drives replace one of the last hold-outs of movable parts in data storage – the hard disk drive?

What is a Hard Drive?

Most computer users are familiar with Hard Disk Drives since they are presently found in most computers and laptops. An HHD stores data on rotating magnetic platters which have different speeds, that’s why you often see 5400 rpm abd 7200 rpm associated with Hard Drives. Data is written to and read from these platters by a block of read/write heads, which are controlled by a micro-controller.

Since your information can be stored in different parts on a Hard Drive, the time needed to get and retrieve data can significantly vary. Keep in mind, these devices are movable mechanical parts so they are prone to all the problems associated with moving parts and can sometimes fail, i.e. crash. Most of us have been there, done that!

What is a Solid State Drive?

Now SSD is an entirely different creature from a Hard Disk Drive. Solid State Drives uses a flash memory chip managed by a micro-controller to store its data. The major thing to remember, SSD usually have slow write times but have very quick read times. Since most users read rather than write information, SSDs can be much faster than HDDs.

In addition, SSDs have no moving components so they are more durable and much quieter than traditional HHDs. Plus, you can use less power consumption and there are less problems with vibrations interfering with ongoing operations.

What you have probably already guessed by now, SSDs are perfectly suited for laptops and smaller devices such as netbooks. The growing popularity of these very handy portable machines has pushed SSDs to the forefront of computer technology. Our need for speed has always been insatiable, but so too, has our need to make things smaller and sleeker.

SSDs are better suited for these devices and all major laptop makers such as Dell, Apple, HP, Levono… have all lately begun to deliver laptops with SSDs. Toshiba, which is one of the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturers, has also started producing laptops with SSDs. They also invented NAND flash memory, these chips are commonly used in different memory cards such as SmartMedia and CompactFlash. Again, the major advantages being the faster access times, lighter weight, less power consumption, more resistant to impact and much more durability.

Another trend where we see SSDs taking hold is in the netbook market. This is a relatively new trend since the netbook was only launched by Asustek in the fall 2007 with its first Eee PC. Other laptop makers such as Lenovo, MSI, HP, Dell… have all followed along and jumped on this very popular and growing sector of the laptop industry.

The Cost Of SSDs Are Higher

One of the major obstacles to using SSDs has to be cost. SSDs are more expensive than HHDs but prices will eventually fall as production costs decreases. However, for now there is a marked different and many laptop buyers will go with the cheaper HHDs.

Another related issue is the amount of memory SSDs can support. Because of the cost, many of the present day SSDs have comparably low storage amounts in order to keep the overall cost of a device down. However, we are now seeing larger SSDs which support 64 GB, 128 GB and 512 GB of memory. We even have one SSD drive which can store 1 TB (Terabyte) of data produced by PureSilicon.

Another thing to consider, with SSDs you don’t need cache since system caches are usually made to solve hard drive performance problems. This can be a way to save money on future devices since cache is expensive.

The Future of SSDs

The real future of SSDs have to be realized in the growing popularity of ultra-portable devices like netbooks, mini-laptops and the like. The SSD is perfectly suited for these kinds of portable devices and as consumer demand grows stronger, the future of SSDs looks very promising indeed.

Another market for SSDs has to be in gaming laptops, which are ideally suited because gamers use their machines mainly to read rather than write data. Plus, gaming laptops and gamers want the best possible performance at whatever cost; they don’t mind spending the big bucks if they can get top performances in return.

Major gaming specialists such as Alienware, do offer the option of SSDs in many of their laptops and even in some desktop machines. Other gaming laptop makers are following in the same direction. As with any technology there is a lag time before the old is replaced with the new. The traditional hard drives will be around for quite some time yet, but its days may just be numbered.

For the laptop buyer, which type of drive you finally choose will mainly depend on the purpose of your new device. If you’re looking for a quiet, long lasting, speedy netbook that can take more than a few hard knocks, then you should be looking at a SSD equipped machine. If you want a traditional desktop computer or a desktop replacement laptop, then you can save money by going with an HDD equipped device, these have worked perfectly fine for years and will be around for some time in the future. Of course, if you’re into gaming laptops and want a state-of-the-art machine, then a Solid State Drive may be your best option, assuming money is no object.

Vish J asked:


is a Netbook

A Netbook (InterNET and noteBOOK) is a class of Laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet. Netbook is primarily designed for web-browsing and emailing. Netbooks are gaining grounds on their compact design, slimmer looks and sleeker appeal.

Netbook is a Notebook computer with a low-powered x86-compatible processor (compatible with PC standard software), small screen (no larger than 10 inches), small keyboard, equipped with wireless connectivity, lightweight (under three pounds) and generally with no optical disk drive. They sometimes have Solid State Drives (SSDs) instead of Hard Disk Drives, which are lower capacity but have no moving parts and should, in theory, increase battery life and speed. Netbooks can run either Linux or Windows XP.

Why a Netbook

The obvious question is why should anyone buy a device with a smaller screen, slower processor, no optical drive when  you can get a full-featured notebook?

When it comes to a portable computer, the things that matter to most are speed and convenience.A Netbook is more convenient because it is lighter, and it usually has a lightweight operating system. The processor itself isn’t as powerful, but there’s much less processing that needs to be done with Windows XP or Linux in order to be usable.

If we are just looking for a portable computer to take along with us while traveling, to check e-mail, chat on Skype, watch some Youtube videos, take some notes, then a Netbook is what we want. Where as if we’re going to do intensive image editing, multimedia authoring, gaming etc then a Notebook/Laptopi is more suited for our needs.

Don’t confuse these low cost Netbooks with some of the sub-compact full featured Notebooks that are also out there. Sony, Dell and others also offer small lightweight Notebooks that have all the features of a full size computer in a tiny package but at a hefty price of $1400 and up. Some of these have plenty of power and features and up to 9 hours of battery life. These are real computers that are just packed into really small cases.

How does it compares to a regular Notebook

Let’s see the differences between a typical Netbook and a regular Notebook. Features of Dell Mini 9  Netbook  are compared with a regular sized Dell Inspiron Notebook below:

Inspiron Mini 9

Proecessor: Intel Atom Processor N270

Screen: 8.9”

Weight: 5.9lbs.

Battery: 32WHr Battery (4 cell)

Processor speed: 1.6 GHz

Memory: 1GB DDR2, 8GB SSD Memory

OS: Windows XP Home

Options: Camera, Bluetooth

Cost: $299

Inspiron 1525

Processor: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200

Screen: 15.6” Wide Screen, Optional Hi-Res

Weight: 2.28 lbs.

Battery: 6-cell battery

Processor speed: 2 GHz

Memory: 4GB, Disk 320GB

OS: Windows Vista

Options: Camera, Bluetooth, ext Bat, More mem

Cost: $699

Pros compared to a regular Laptop:

- Excellent portability due to small size and light weight

- Good enough for basic computer tasks

- Relatively low cost

Cons compared to a regular Laptop:

- Small screen/lower resolution, small keyboard due to small size

- Limited processing power

- Hardware upgrades can be more challenging

- Due to lower processing capabilities, size and cost, advanced features are less adopted (FireWire, HDMI, etc…)

Which Netbook to buy?

It seems that Initially Netbook category was lead by Asus, Acer, but today computer giants Dell and HP jumped into the race.

According to the PcWorld.com the TOP 10 Netbooks are:

1. Asus EEE PC 1000HE

2. Acer Aspire ONE AOD150

3. Lenovo IdeaPad S10

4. Acer Aspire One (XP-Based)

5. Asus Eee PC 1000 XP

6. HP Mini 2140

7. Asus N10Jc

8. HP Mini 1000

9. Dell Inspiron Mini 9

10. MSI Wind U100

As with any purchase, you have to decide for yourself on what suits you best.

So go ahead explore the world of Netbooks and see if it’s a better choice compared to a Laptop. While the Laptop market is declining in this economy, interestingly the Netbook sales are predicted to be on the rise.

A couple of useful resources:

http://www.pcworld.com/article/154358/top_10_netbooks.html

http://tech.msn.com/products/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=18573429&imageindex=1

Read the original article and more blog posts about tech gadgets and shopping tips

Yung Trang asked:


A new generation of low cost, lightweight laptops is rapidly becoming a global sensation. For many people around the world, owning a personal computer has long been considered a luxury. In the last couple years, manufacturers of mini laptops (also referred to as mini notebooks or mini notes) have managed to strip down a lot of the bells and whistles that come automatically with standard laptops, to make a lite version that fits in more peoples’ hands…and pocketbooks. Unlike previous computer products that aimed at reducing size and cost, these mini machines have powerful processors, substantial memory and come with all the basic software, entertainment options and Internet most people need.

To entertain the possibility that each family member could have their own computer without a significant financial investment opens up a whole new world of opportunity for most of us. Children, stay at home parents, senior citizens and disabled family members can easily get plugged in to the larger world around them, and going wireless gets us all out into the world more. Similarly, many small businesses struggle to get by with old, unreliable computers that are stretched thin between employees. To be able to equip each employee with a powerful, affordable computer expands the business’ potential for growth tremendously. With a price range of $100-$500, mini laptops or notebooks make this a reality for them.

Distinguishing Features of Mini Laptops



1. Weighs about two pounds (compared to the standard laptop’s six pounds)

2. Typical cost is $100-$500 (compared to $800-$1500 for a standard laptop)

3. Screen is about 7-9 inches wide and backlit (compared to a standard laptop’s 15” display)

4. Available with Windows XP Pro or Vista, Ubuntu, Linux, MAC operating systems

5. Around 512 to 1 GB of memory and around 20 – 80 GB of storage space

6. Easily upgradable with memory cards and flash drives

7. Low on battery usage

8. Lean, mean and green – these smaller computers carry with them less impact on the environment

9. Software for the basic needs of most people (users can create documents, spreadsheets and presentations, read email, watch videos, listen to music, browse the web, take pictures, instant message, etc.)

10. Enabled for wireless and Bluetooth

Keep in Mind

· Keyboard size is smaller than a standard laptop

· Look for sturdy casing (usually hard plastic)

· Look for flexibility in upgrading

· Make sure needed software is available for specific models

Charities and governments worldwide are making great strides with donations of mini laptops. MIT’s One Laptop Per Child project and Intel’s Classmate PC programs are two examples of corporate charity endeavors with global impact.