Category Archives: Gaming Laptops
Notebook As A Tool Of Time Management
Notebook As A Tool Of Time Management
Notebooks have emerged as a bare essential for the business executives who carry their work along with themselves. Notebooks which are also known as laptops can facilitate the work process thereby saving substantial and valuable time. In short, it is used as tool of time management.
Owning a notebook is a dream of many, but since it is very expensive nobody buys it unless it is indispensable to them. However, some people having shoe-string budget look for a good notebook. They are the ones who need detailed and comprehensive information on notebooks and laptops before they settle for one.
Basically, buying a notebook or laptop largely depends upon the personal choice, specific requirement and social status of a person. Besides, different manufacturers are introducing notebooks of different look with a wide-range of features. However, some notebooks are launched in the market to cater to a particular segment of buyers keeping in mind of their specific needs. Accordingly, these laptops differ in flavor, class and quality.
Let`s take a look at the various types of notebooks that are available in the market today. Keeping various factors in consideration the notebooks can be broadly divided into four major categories, such as:
Budget laptops – Typically, these laptops cost around US$ 1000 to $ 1200.
Mid-range laptops – Notebooks of this category can be found with a price-tag of about US00 to 00.
Ultra-portable laptops – These light-weight laptops ranges from US00 to 00.
Laptops for the people with a class apart. With all the standard and advanced features in these notebooks, they cost above US00.
Performance test of laptops:
Notebooks can be tested on the basis of certain benchmarks such as Multimedia content creation 2003 and Business Winston 2002. These tests determine the performance ability of different notebooks with regard to regular productivity applications and multimedia content application.
Similarly, 3D Mark05 and 3D Mark06 are used as standards to measure the gaming and graphic potential of different notebooks.
Likewise, PC Mark05 is taken as a yardstick to test various components of notebooks such as hard-disk general usage, multithreading, web-page rendering, file decryption and 3D pixel shader.
Moreover, the battery back-up and wireless connectivity can be tested using Battery Mark02 and QCheck as the benchmark.
Finally, Vista Compatibility Check can be undertaken to test if the notebooks have Vista-readiness. Under this test, the performance of the laptops is assessed on the basis of Vista drivers and Vista upgradeability.
Features:
When it comes to features, the list seems endless. Some expensive notebooks have the most advanced features such as built-in webcams, fingerprint readers, TPM and so on. So far as the features go, they can be divided into five different categories, such as:
Physical – Screen size and weight of the notebook
Connectivity – Bluetooth version 1/2, infrared, MMC reader, S-Video, DVI port, FireWire. The number and type of USB ports and PCMCIA slots.
Components – Type of optical drives, whether the notebook has a DVD combo, a CD-RW or a multi-recorder DVD-RW. The hard-drive capacity and any additional component such as wireless optical mouse or an MMC adapter.
Software – Software have always been an essential part of the package. These include recovery CDs, driver CDs, OSes, etc.
Protection – All types of protection available in a notebook, be it a finger-print reader, BIOS level HDD protection, touch-pad lock, TPM, or even rescue option available at the time of boot up.
Pricing and Warranty:
All notebooks ranging from 00 to 00 offer warranty of 1 year and some laptops have the option of additional extendable warranty.
So, the above discussed comprehensive analysis and performance tests will definitely help those who are planning to buy a laptop.
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Apple Powerbook – Is It Better Than The Other Laptops?
Apple Powerbook – Is It Better Than The Other Laptops?
There has been a long standing debate as to whether Mac laptops are better than PCs. Owners of Mac laptops say yes. Many owners of other brands hate Mac laptops and vehemently say no. Let’s compare the Apple powerbook to other brands based on a set of features.
Processors:
Powerbooks are now capable of using the same Intel processors as other laptops, so processor speed isn’t really an issue anymore.
Operating system:
This is probably the area with the most intense debates. The Mac OS X utilized in powerbooks uses a Unix platform to drive it’s system. Many programmers believe that this gives the powerbook an edge as it is a superior system, since it can handle a large number of applications running at once.
Software:
It’s true that much of the software being created is geared more towards PCs than powerbooks. In terms of productivity tools, powerbooks come with a complete set of software that is comparable to the typical Windows software. You can get web browsers, email tools and even antivirus software. However, if you plan on using Mac laptops for gaming, you may run into some problems. Many of the popular games just aren’t compatible with the powerbook. Even the graphics software, for which Mac laptops were famous, are now compatible with PCs.
Customization:
This may just be the area where PCs win outright. Just take a look at Dell. While you can customize your powerbook, up to a point, it’s nowhere near what companies like Dell and HP are offering.
Security:
Anyone would be a bit skeptical about an operating system which prompts you to download and install security updates to fix bugs on a regular basis. Windows isn’t the most secure system, as evidenced by the tens of thousand of viruses that attack it. The powerbook does have a more secure system, but there are viruses out there that attack Mac laptops, just nowhere as many.
Cost:
You only need to take a look at various company websites to know that powerbooks are more expensive than PCs. The powerbook operating system itself is cheaper so it may be an option if you’re building a system yourself.
So what’s the bottom line? Mac laptops ruled the roost, as it were, for many years. While the OS X operating system is still superior, PCs have come a long way in catching up. Unless you really have a strong preference, you might be better off getting a PC with a good antivirus program.
Freecell Master Of The Universe
Freecell Master Of The Universe
In the days before laptops, video games for me pretty much reached the apex in the Space Invaders/Asteroids era, and I never played them at home. I played them in bars, where it was a good way a) to kill time and b) avoid being stinking drunk by only 9:30pm. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop, especially if one of them is constantly wrapped around a twelve-ounce Budweiser.
Of course, once one outgrows the bar scene which I plan to do any day now many of the things associated with it begin to lose their luster as well. I can’t shoot pool nearly as well as I used to, not that I was any sort of Mosconi Fats to begin with, but that is not the point.
But I am totally lost in today’s laptop gaming world. Nor do I own an X-Box, Playstation, or Wii (which looks to me like a misspelled abbreviation of World War II). I know nothing of controllers, game pads, or joysticks.
When I first got started on laptops, Tetris was all the rage. I tried it a few times, but soon lost interest. Then along came Solitaire. Vegas Solitaire. Vegas 3-Card Solitaire!
I was hooked. My co-workers and I set up marathon games on the single laptop in our workspace, going for days without rebooting. Woe unto him who wiped out our steadily increasing winnings. We didn’t care if it wasn’t real money. It was the thrill of the thing.
Then the world changed. I bought my first personal laptop. I landed a new job where, for the most part, I was working alone. The camaraderie that made marathon games of Vegas 3-Card Solitaire so enjoyable was no longer there. My gaming days, it seems, were finally at an end.
Then somebody showed me how to play Freecell.
I became a man obsessed. At first, the object was to win. Every loss was personal, every victory a reason for celebration. My winning percentage climbed into the 70-80 percent range, then into the 90s.
But it wasn’t enough. Winning was no longer the only thing. I wanted to win PRETTY. It became an OC thing, and I ain’t talking Orange County. The idea was to line up all my cards on my laptop screen in neat little rows, Kings on top, deuces on bottom, side by side, until clicking that last little card preferably the 48th releasing the aces and sending the whole deck skittering to the top as I basked in the beauty of it all :Freecell Master of The Universe.