As much as I like using touchscreen tablets, there are times when a keyboard simply makes life easier. And as much as I enjoy using mobile operating systems optimized for speed and convenient apps, there are times when they fall short. Is it possible to have it all — portability, a touchscreen, speed, apps, a keyboard, and a full OS?
As we look forward to new technology, sometimes it is instructive to look back to our favorites. I recently looked at the Iomega Zip Drive, but now I want to highlight one of my all-time favorite laptops: the HP Omnibook 300. This laptop was built by the calculator division rather than the PC division and remains one of the best.
We’ll be posting the news as it rolls in. While we do we want to know what YOU think! Do you like what you see coming from Cupertino this fall? Are you disappointed? Did Apple nail it or miss an opportunity? Do their prices make sense? We want to know what you think in the comments.
Here on Gear Diary we often review new products and, sometimes directly and at other times indirectly, we offer recommendations. This time out, I’m turning to all of you for guidance and input: which laptop I should use on a series of upcoming trips. Here’s background on where things currently stand and what kind of input I am seeking.
While I was unable to successfully ‘go all in’, my family absolutely loves the Samsung 11.6″ Chromebook. It is perfect for writing reports, doing email, Facebooking, and web research; it has been in constant daily use since I got it. Now Google has announced the next version of their budget laptop – the $279 HP Chromebook 11.
Over the last couple of years I have reviewed the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w and 2540p, declaring them each as a laptop that I would love to be able to keep and use in my daily life, and as the two of the best business laptops I’d ever used. Well, HP has taken everything that made the 2540p and made it better in the form of the Elitebook 2570p! Let’s take a look!
I vastly prefer lightweight computing options. If I am travelling, I grab my iPad and that’s it. For two years I reached for my original Chromebook almost exclusively when I needed a computer. It’s a mix of light-weight and simple design that makes me like my computers more streamlined. But get too streamlined, and you encounter compromises when it comes to photo editing, games, and anything else that needs a bit more power behind it. Power plus a lightweight design pretty much defines Ultrabooks, so I was very excited to get the opportunity to review the Toshiba Portege Z930 Ultrabook….
Judie and I were on the phone together while ordering our 15″ MacBook pro with Retina display laptops, so we could discuss the specific specs we wanted. At the end of the day we both went for the fastest processor (Core i7) and most RAM (16GB) we could get. Judie had just about convinced me to go for the largest amount of storage (768GB) despite the huge up-charge to move from 512GB, when we realized that the storage upgrade would delay the laptops for weeks. We both settled for 512GB laptops, and we have been quite happy with the machines….
Chromebooks have been a bit of a mixed bag for many people. Some users love the idea of a lightweight, browser-focused operating system, and others feel like a computer that just runs browser apps is a waste of money. When Chromebooks occupied the $199-$300 space, they fit a niche as a lightweight “secondary machine”. Yesterday Google branched out in a shocking new direction, announcing the touchscreen, high-resolution, Chromebook Pixel. A touchscreen Chromebook is big news all by itself, but the price is really generating buzz. At $1,299 for the WiFi model, is Google overestimating the appeal of ChromeOS? The Gear…
I am off to CES in just a few short days, and had originally planned to bring my long-in-the-tooth-but-still-going-strong Chromebook as a laptop solution. Then Gear Diary was invited to review the Toshiba Portege Z930 Ultrabook. The result? I will be blogging with a great deal more power and features during the show! We’ll have a full review soon, but I wanted to make sure to share my first impressions, and not just the “OH WOW” I had when I pulled it out of the box! Let’s start with the hardware. This thing is beautiful. It’s not metal like a Macbook Air, but a brushed metallic looking plastic. It…
As 2012 comes to an end I thought I might take a quick look at a couple of specific gadgets that surprised and delighted me over the past year. So here a quick list of my personal “Best Gear Surprises of 2012”. MacBook Pro with Retina Display The biggest change in my gear this past year came in the form of the MacBook Pro with Retina Display. I loved using and carrying my MacBook Air but the pull of a retina display-equipped laptop was too much. I bit. So did Judie. In fact, there was a bit of back and…
It’s been widely reported over the web that Acer and Asus are pulling out of the netbook market as of today effectively ending the netbook as a viable platform. It says a great deal when Asus, who practically invented the netbook, has said they are done. I write not to bury the netbook but to praise it for what it was: a great and cheap way to get things done on the web. I remember the very first netbook, the Asus EeePC 701. It wasn’t the most powerful thing out there. It had a 900 MHz Celeron, 7 inch screen…
If you use a MacBook and either an iMac or a ThunderBolt Display, Just Mobile’s AluRack will help you keep things neat and tidy while letting you be more productive than ever. We recently looked at the company’s AluBase. It holds your MacBook in a vertical position on your desk and lets you connect it to your big, beautiful iMac or display whenever you want your notebook to work as a desktop. If, however, you don’t want to take up the extra desk space with the AluBase and MacBook, then the AluRack is exactly what you have been looking for. Let’s…
I’m at the Windows Phone 8 launch event this morning in San Francisco, waiting in the lobby of the Bill Graham Civic Center with roughly 150 other members of the media. There are probably fewer in attendance than originally intended, due to Hurricane Sandy’s grip on the Eastern states, but the mood here is upbeat and we are looking forward to seeing how Microsoft will (hopefully) wow us this morning. I’ll have more soon, we still have 15 minutes before the doors open … And we’re in and seated. Joe Belfiore is on the stage, welcoming us and saying that…
Viruses, trojans and spyware. These are the perennial pests of modern computing and the bane of system administrators and IT personnel everywhere, not to mention the end users themselves! When I first heard about USB flash drives being used to infect PCs a few years back, I wondered: if a USB device can infect a system, can a USB device protect a system? Apparently some engineers at AhnLab wondered the same thing too, because AhnLab has released the industry’s first Personal Security Device for PCs, the V3 Click Home Desktop Edition unit than runs from a PC’s USB port. This…
Last week I offered a first look and video of the Libratone Zipp. The airplay speaker fuses European aesthetics with Cupertinian technology. The round speaker works fine at home, but it also runs on battery power so you can take it on the go. Libratone, who already offered two different speakers designed for home use has now made a speaker that is ready to, as they put it, “Leave the House”. From Libratone: Share your music anywhere, anytime! Libratone Zipp is an easy-to-use, wireless sound system wrapped in changeable Italian wool. Stream your favourite tunes with PlayDirect™ and AirPlay technology, directly…
Anyone who knows me expects to see me sporting my backpack gear bag hanging on my right shoulder. I carry tons of tech in that bag whether I need it on a daily basis or not. The backbone of that backpack has been my 13″ MacBook Pro. The laptop was my dream computer, and it was basically an extension of myself. Making movies, editing photos, and writing posts; all flowed from my laptop like a master magician wowing a captivated crowd. In fact, that MacBook even made trips with me to the farm and hunting. That magic came to a…
You know what they say about free advice… you get what you pay for. And, if you read the site regularly, you know hoe much both Judie and I love and rely upon our iPads. And you likely also know that Mike considers the iPad his “80% computer” while Carly goes as high as it being her 90% computer. That being the case you might be surprised that I find Cult of Macs post entitles Why You Should Buy An iPad Instead Of A MacBook For College [Back To School] to be lousy advice and simply wrong. The author’s points…
If you read the site you know how much I like, use and rely upon voice recognition. I use Siri on my iPhone more for voice recognition than for the actual “power” of Siri. I use global voice recognition on my iPad ALL THE TIME. And on my Mac I use Dragon Dictation and Dragon Express all the time. With Mountain Lion Apple is bringing global voice recognition to the Mac. Sure, it has some of the same limitation as iOS voice recognition in that is requires a data connection and there is a limitation on how long you can…
When it comes to protecting our various devices, there are a few companies upon which we tend to rely. Of course there is the old standby Zagg, there is our newsletter underwriter Bodyguardz and there is Wrapsol. We reviewed various offerings from each company and have, for the most part, been impressed by all of them. Which you choose to use has a great deal to do with price, the application process, and the specific offerings for each device. We have upcoming reviews of two skins from Bodyguardz, but in this review we will look at Wrapsol’s Protection Bundle for…
While together this past weekend the editors took some time out to talk tech. We’ll share the conversation/s over the next few days. Each of us brought a tablet, a notebook and at least one smartphone along with us. Two used the tablet almost exclusively while the others traded off between them fairly evenly. In this first one we talk about when and how we choose to use one or the other. Has your tablet become a primary productivity tool for you? Let us know in the comments.