5 Reasons to Choose a Notebook Over a Computer Desktop

5 Reasons to Choose a Notebook Over a Computer Desktop

Many of us are so used to working on a computer desktop that when it comes time to purchase a new computer, we don’t consider other options. Today, computer notebooks – which were once called laptops – offer a number of advantages over a computer desktop. Here are just five reasons why you should take a second look at notebooks.

1. Mobility

You might be used to pulling up a chair to your computer, but it makes much more sense to pull your computer up to your chair. Laptops can certainly be used at your desk, but you also have the option of bringing them to the spot where you’re most comfortable. Maybe you’d like to surf the Web in the evening out in the living room or catch up on your favorite blogs before bedtime. Notebooks with wireless connectivity can travel with you throughout your home, so you can check your email or do your Internet shopping anywhere.

Of course, notebooks also make sense for those who are on the go. Students can take laptops to class and to the library, while businesspeople can take them along while traveling. With WiFi so widely available, it even makes sense to have a notebook while on vacation. With the right notebook, it’s easy to take photos with your digital camera, upload them, and email them to friends and family before you even get back home. Or you can use it to write a vacation blog and include those pictures from your digital camera.

2. Better Displays

The size and quality of computer notebook displays has improved so dramatically that there’s little difference between laptops and a computer desktop. For example, you can get Apple’s MacBook with a 13.3-inch LCD widescreen (1280 x 800 pixels), a 15.4-inch LCD widescreen (1440 x 900 pixels) or a 17-inch widescreen (1680 x 1050 pixels). Similarly, the Compaq Presario has a 15.4-inch display.

3. Lighter Weight

Just a few years ago, even the lightest notebook was a pain to lug around. Today, though, laptops are increasingly easy on the back. The MacBook is slightly over an inch thick and the Toshiba Portege weighs in at about four pounds. While that’s still heavy compared to come of the new ultralight convertibles (Fujitsu’s LifeBook U810 weighs only a pound and half), it’s a significant improvement over the old seven-pound laptops.

4. Better Computing and Battery Power

Historically, two drawbacks of notebooks were their limited RAM, limited space on the hard drive, and short battery life. Times have changed, though, and laptops now have as much power under the hood as their computer desktop cousins. The MacBook, for example, has 1GB of memory (configurable up to 4 GB) and a hard drive that’s configurable to 250GB. This means that your software will hum right along and you’ll be able to zip through programs as quickly and as easily as you do on your desktop. Likewise, batteries in today’s notebooks don’t heat up and don’t conk out.

5. More Features

In older laptops, the computer’s size and weight limited the number and types of features available. Today, with smaller processors and other components, there’s room to pack more features into notebooks. For example, the MacBook has a DVD player, built-in webcam, built-in wireless capability, two USB ports and a FireWire port, built-in microphone, and audio and digital input/output.

There are so many advantages to owning notebooks that, before you buy your next computer, it’s worth your while to take one for a spin.

Notebook or Desktop Computer — Which Should You Choose?

Notebook or Desktop Computer — Which Should You Choose?

On TV and in the movies, we see a lot of portable computers being used in homes and offices. Does that mean that’s the trend? Is that what you should get?

Portable computers cost more, so unless you really have the need for one, you get a lot more computer for your money with a regular desktop PC. The main thing is portability. If you need a portable computer, get a laptop. (“Laptop,” “portable,” and “notebook” all refer to the same thing, by the way). Otherwise, a desktop computer is a better buy, and better ergonomically.

The Price Difference

You might wonder why laptops cost more than desktop computers with comparable features and power. That is largely because it is more expensive to manufacture laptops and their parts. For portable computer components, factors such as compactness, the amount of heat they generate, their weight, and power consumption are more important than they are for desktops. Those factors add to their manufacturing costs.

Space Requirements

While laptops are certainly compact, a desktop computer with a flat panel monitor can take up almost as little space. While called a “desktop” computer, the computer itself is most often kept on the floor. That leaves just the monitor, keyboard and mouse on the desk, which is really very similar in footprint to a notebook computer.

A great way to further reduce the space taken up on the desktop computer is get a keyboard drawer to hold the keyboard and mouse. That way, they slide out of the way under the top of the desk when they aren’t needed.

Be Mindful of Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the science of designing and arranging things so that people can interact with them more comfortably and safely. The basic ergonomic principals for computer use tell us that, 1) the keyboard should be as close to your lap level as possible (assuming you touch-type), 2) the monitor should be about arm’s length in front of you, and 3) the top of the monitor should be at about your eye level. Try achieving that with a laptop computer! Two words: im-possible.

It is obvious then, that a desktop computer is much better ergonomically than a laptop is. For prolonged use, especially, you’re much better off with a desktop computer.

And Don’t Forget Usability

Another aspect of ergonomics is usability. Because of size constraints, laptops also are lower on the usability scale than desktop PCs are. For one thing, laptop keyboards lack the separate groupings of the different sets of keys with space between them. For another, there are fewer keys on a laptop’s keyboard, so some of them have to perform double duty. On a standard keyboard, you don’t have to deal with that.

Screen Resolution

Computer monitors — the bulky ones, anyway — can be set at different resolutions. In other words, you can change the fineness of the image on the screen. The range is typically 640×480 — that is 640 pixel across and 480 pixels up and down — to 800×600, 1024×768, or even higher. At 640×480, the icons and such appear quite large; at 1024×768, they are substantially smaller. The most common resolutions today for desktop computers are 800×600 and 1024×768.

Something They Don’t Tell You

Laptop displays, on the other hand, have a fixed, or native, resolution. You can change the setting, but then the images and text don’t look good. While people tend to think that bigger numbers are better, a higher screen resolution may not work as well for you. It may make everything too small to see comfortably.

Remember, the laptop’s screen is smaller that a desktop’s. While a typical desktop computer screen is 17″ or so a laptop’s is usually in the range of 12″ to 15.” That is a big difference. Make sure you can see everything clearly before choosing a high-resolution laptop.

# # #

How to choose and buy an iPod at good prices

How to choose and buy an iPod at good prices

ipod is a renowned brand of portable digital media player designed and marketed by Apple Computer. The ipod is currently the world’s best-selling digital audio player. The ipod family devices provide a simple user interface designed around a central scroll wheel, with the exception of the ipod shuffle.

The majority of ipod models store media on a built-in hard drive, while the smaller ipod shuffle and ipod nano use flash memory. An ipod, like most digital audio players, can serve as an external data storage device when connected to a computer. The discontinued versions of the ipod include two generations of the popular ipod mini and four generations of the full-sized ipod, all of which had monochrome screens except for the fourth-generation ipod with color screen, which was previously sold as ipod photo before it replaced the monochrome ipod in the top line. As of December 2005, the lineup consists of the fifth-generation ipod that can play videos, the ipod nano that has a color screen, and the ipod shuffle; all three iterations were released in 2005.

The bundled software used for uploading music, photos, and videos to the ipod is called iTunes. iTunes is a music jukebox application that stores a comprehensive library of the music on a user’s computer, as well as being able to play and rip it from a CD. The most recent incarnations of ipod and iTunes have video playing and organization features. Other forms of data can be added to ipod as if it were a normal data storage device.

ipod or ipods is the most frequently searched keyword online. There are numerous websites offering tons of valuable information on video ipod, ipod accessories, used ipods and cheap ipod. Some sites offer ipod blog, ipod reviews, ipod news and ipod articles.

These ipod blogs, reviews, articles, news and other information are very helpful to the potential ipod customers. The guys planning to buy ipod products are advised to go through these online sources and read ipod reviews before buying any ipod product.