Laptops

My ‘Hardcore Gaming’ Test: VAIO S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’

In this article, I test out my ‘Gaming Mode’ scenario – that is just what it sounds like: I set everything to maximum and crank up some game time! One of the big claims of the new VAIO S-series laptop is that not only does it deliver great performance in a svelte package, but combined with the sheet battery can deliver up to 15 hours of usage between charges. That requires certain settings, and while I definitely plan to put it to the test very soon, I have also had the opportunity to test the VAIO S-series in other usage…

Reviews

My ‘Normal Usage’ Test: VAIO S-Series ‘Unplugged for a Day’

In this article, I test out my ‘Normal Usage’ scenario – that is just what it sounds like: a basic setup that doesn’t push heavy gaming but allows me to go about my day without feeling I am sacrificing anything. The graphics are set to ‘Stamina’ (integrated), and the power plan to ‘balanced.’ One of the big claims of the new VAIO S-series laptop is that not only does it deliver great performance in a svelte package, but combined with the sheet battery, it can deliver up to 15 hours of usage between charges. That requires certain settings, and while…

Reviews

Notebook PC Review: Hewlett Packard ProBook 4430s Laptop

Last year I reviewed the Hewlett-Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w Mobile Workstation, and earlier this year I looked at the svelte but ultra-powerful Elitebook 2540p. These represented a fairly typical pair of powerful business notebooks – with the prices to go along with the features! But imagine if HP decided to cram many of their business features into a mid-price laptop that would satisfy corporate IT, the comptroller and end-users alike? Based on my experience, they could call that the HP ProBook 4430s. Let’s look in more detail! The Hype: Equipped to get the job done • Optimized for Genuine Windows®…

News

Unboxing and Hands-On: VAIO S-Series ‘Charged and Ready’ Program

I have owned Sony products that I bought myself for more than 30 years, starting with the original Walkman, and consisting of audio/video (cassette, CD, and DVD), televisions (tube and flat panel), computers, gaming systems, and more. My wife bought a cute VAIO last year with a 13.3″ screen, a Core i5 processor, and a really nice pink finish. The point is – in spite of how much I beat up Sony for a variety of reasons, I am a loyal customer for one huge reason – they make great stuff. So when I had the opportunity to evaluate their…

Reviews

Mac Accessory Review: Magic Connector for Apple’s Trackpad and Bluetooth Keyboard

Elana and I are both using our MacBook Air’s as our primary computers and could not be happier. (She has an 11″ and I have a 13″.) Both of us have Rain Design’s mStand and love the simple, elegant way it raises the laptop up so that the screen is at perfect eye-level. And we both use a Bluetooth keyboard and pointing device. Elana uses Apple’s MagicMouse, and I use a Magic Trackpad. That’s where the issue comes in. Having the trackpad and keyboard separate from one another doesn’t work all too well at times. If I move the keyboard…

Gear Bits

OS X Lion Turns Your Laptop Into the Best Desktop Ever

9to5Mac had an interesting post earlier today regarding a seemingly minor change in the upcoming OS X Lion release. As they explain, Among other subtle changes, in Lion when you shut your MacBook’s screen while connected to an external monitor, the machine no longer goes to sleep but instead switches immediately to external monitor-only view while staying active. To flesh it out a bit, when I have my 13″ MBA connected to an external monitor, mouse and keyboard and I close the lid the external monitor goes blank and the MBA goes into sleep mode. If I want to use…

Gear Bits

Mobile Computing as It Was Meant to Be

I can think of far worse work stations than this! Take one gorgeous spring day, an 11″ MacBook Air and Rain Design’s awesome laptop stand and you get one rather nice place to work. Elana has never raved about a computer as much as she does her 11″ MBA and being able to edit a business proposal for someone while looking out at the lake is pretty darn nice! I think THIS is what mobile computing was made for! 🙂 And speaking of mobile computing… Posted from my RIM Playbook!

Gear Bits

The Cruel March of Technology

I tend to keep my Mac laptops for two ‘generations’, which allows me to extract maximum value from them in terms of return on investment before trading them in or selling them. At that point there is still solid performance and decent value remaining. When the iPad 2 launch was approaching, I decided to look at the possibility of trading in my 2008 Macbook Pro. Lately I have used Gazelle, as they give a reasonable value and their process is so quick and painless that it is worth taking a little bit less because of the time savings. But as…

Reviews

System 76 Gazelle Professional Ubuntu Laptop Review

Even though I work in a technology field, not often do I get a chance to look at brand new technology right after it comes out. It is even rarer that companies choose to ship laptops with only Linux on them. Companies like Zareason and System 76 are making it easier and easier to get a system that runs Linux 100 percent with every single piece of the hardware working from day one. When System 76 offered to send a loaner of their brand new Gazelle Professional based on Intel’s new Sandy Bridge chipset, well I jumped at the chance!…

Reviews

Hewlett Packard Elitebook 2540p Laptop Review

Last year I reviewed the Hewlett Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w Mobile Workstation, declaring it one that I would love to be able to keep and use in my daily life, and as the best business laptop I’d ever used. Well, move over 8440w – because I have a new favorite, the svelte but ultra-powerful Elitebook 2540p! The Hype: Stay connected and productive on the go—without getting weighed down. Starting at just 3.38 lb, the durable HP EliteBook 2540p is HP’s smallest and lightest EliteBook, designed for maximum portability and uncompromised performance. Ultra-portable: • Compact, lightweight design with a 12.1-inch diagonal…

Reviews

Intel’s AppUp Reviewed: So Many Apps, So Little Time; Intel’s Here to Help

These days it is all about the apps. There are apps for iOS. There are apps for Android. There are apps for Windows Phone 7. Now there are apps for Macs, and thanks to Intel, there are apps for netbooks … and a great new way to find what’s out there. Intel’s AppUp is “Your source for netbook apps”. It is a great resource for anyone who has a netbook, and it is worth checking out even if you don’t. AppUp is a free download for Windows XP, Windows 7 and Moblin that lets you find, download and update all…

Gear Bits, Reviews

Checking out the ASUS Eee PC 1008P Seashell Karim Rashid Collection Netbook

I was selected to be one of a group of bloggers who’ll get the use of an ASUS Eee PC 1008 netbook for a year. This isn’t quite the typical netbook though, as this is a “Seashell Karim Rashid Edition” … and before you ask, no — I had never heard of Karim Rashid until I saw his name attached to this netbook. With that said, this is easily one of the most intriguing case designs I’ve ever seen. The entire surface of the netbook is covered in Karim Rashid’s soft-touch “Techno-chic Digi-wave design”, and instead of being the type…

Reviews

MeeGo 1.1 Review

It’s been a little while since Intel and Nokia came together to merge Moblin and Maemo together to create the MeeGo project. Moblin started out as a project by Intel and the Linux Foundation to produce a Linux-based OS, interface and application stack for mobile internet devices. In February of 2009, they merged with the Maemo project that was used by Nokia in the Nseries tablets like the N770, N800, N810 and the N900 smartphone. Intel was nice enough to send me a Lenovo S10-3t convertible netbook with MeeGo preloaded so I could get a look at the state of MeeGo in version 1.1….

Events, News

Gear Diary Live at CES- The Lenovo U1: A Year Later It Looks Better than Ever

Dino and I spent some time this afternoon at the Lenovo display. We had the opportunity to look at all of the new computers that will be offered by Lenovo this year. Trust us, there are a ton of them and we will have a look at many over the next few days. Right now, however, we wanted to take a few minutes to look a little more closely at their most unusual and innovative product–the Lenovo U1. This is both a tablet and a notebook computer. We saw a version of this computer last year when we were here…

Events, News

Lenovo Reveals the New IdeaPad U1 with LePad Slate

We’ve been hearing about the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 since CES 2010. Well Lenovo is finally ready to reveal and demo the IdeaPad U1 with LePad slate at CES 2011 at the Venetian. The U1 is a ultramobile laptop uses a slate running Android 2.2, called LePad as it’s screen. Specs for the tablet include a Snapdragon processor and the laptop portion will be a 1.3 GHz CULV Core i5 chip with 2 Gig of Ram running the 64 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium. It will be available first in China in the first quarter of 2011 with no…

News

Gear Diary 2010 Gear of the Year and Predictions for 2011

The past year has seen interesting developments in the gear we all use: the term iOS replaced iPhone OS as the OS that started on iPhone was also on the new iPad when it took the world and Gear Diary writers by storm, Android phones blossomed and became real competitors to the iPhone, and the iPad got its first real competition in the Samsung Galaxy Tab just a few months before 2010 drew to a close. While there’s much more that happened in the past year, I thought let’s ask the following questions of the Gear Diary Team. 1. What was your…

Editorials

As 2010 Comes to an End We Ask: Was it a Good Year in Tech? And We Answer… Nope

As 2010 comes to an end we ask… Was it a good year in tech? And we answer… Nope Nope??? Nope! It was a great year in tech. That’s right. 2010 finally saw some of the key things we have been hoping for come to fruition. iPad Baby!! First and foremost 2010 gave us the iPad. The iPad wasn’t significant just because of what it did for Apple but because it finally showed that a tablet form factor can and will work… And be loved by consumers… if it is done right. Think about it for a minute–the iPad is…

Reviews

AUTUM Straight Jacket Review: An Insanely Simple Leather MacBook Air Sleeve

Dan mentioned a little while ago that AUTUM was releasing Straight Jackets for the new MacBook Airs and the iPad, which he soon followed with a review of their iPad Straight Jacket. Because Dan and I are now the owners of new MacBook Airs, we have been sent a couple of AUTUM’s MacBook Air Straight Jackets to review as well; I was sent the 11″ version, and Dan has Both the 11″ and the 13″. The picture above shows all three; the 13″ is on the bottom, the 11″ is in the middle, and the iPad is sitting on top….

Reviews

Hewlett Packard Mini 5103 NetBook PC Review

I recently reviewed the Hewlett Packard (HP) Elitebook 8440w and loved it, so when I had the chance to look at the recently released HP Mini 5103 my thought was: ‘take the 8440w and shrink it to netbook dimensions and you have the PERFECT business netbook’! At first glance that seems to be exactly what they did, but of course, I needed to put it through the day-to-day paces of my work life to see how it did. And since I have an unhealthy obsession with trying to shoehorn ‘big PC’ games onto netbooks, naturally I had to see how…

Reviews

ZaReason Terra HD Netbook Linux Netbook Review

It’s been a couple of years since I reviewed a laptop from ZaReason, the UltraLap SR. Now I’m reviewing something a bit smaller — the ZaReason Terra HD. ZaReason is a different type computer company; every single computer they sell runs Linux, and they only ship Linux (or no operating system at all) on all of their machines. They care about this to the point where they even include a screwdriver in the box of every machine they sell. That is because any system you buy is your system, and they feel that you have every right to look at what makes…

Editorials

Eenie Meenie Miny Moe… MacBook Airs but Which Way to Go?

When Apple announced the new MacBook air this past Wednesday I knew immediately that I would be ordering one. The question was – which one? Dan- Let me go back a few years. I have always wanted a thin and light computer that allowed me to do everything but was simple to lug around. When my arthritic wrists became increasingly painful the need for a light notebook grew significantly. As a result I ordered the first MacBook Air as soon as it was available. In fact, mine came in the very first day the computers were hitting the United States….

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