Electronic equipment always seems to break down at the worst possible times. If your laptop was to break down and you do not want to or can’t afford to wait to replace it, you will look around for a laptop that has all your requirements (both technological and financial).

Although you may think everything will be too expensive during a time when we are all trying to save as much as possible, but there are some great deals on laptops available. You can find some good deals for under £300 when you take a bit of time to search through your options.

Laptops are brilliant for people constantly on the go. Many use laptops as their primary business source, as they can use it when on the train and travelling to an important meeting or at home when work never seems to end. Students also find laptops much more of an attractive proposition to a PC, as you move from each year between student accommodations, it is a lot easier to carry around.

There are a range of laptops available and you can normally get Microsoft Office and some kind of virus protection as part of a deal when you purchase your laptop. You are certainly advised to purchase an anti-virus programme due to the number of viruses that appear on a regular occurrence. Technology is advancing rapidly and laptops are becoming extremely advanced.

Each one has its qualities but remember the more add-ons you require the higher the cost. Choose the programmes you are certain to need and don’t be lured in to the sales spiel you will almost certainly hear. Netbooks have now become very popular and are lighter than the average laptop and are easier to carry around, it is a fairly new concept although many experts point out that the idea was brought to light many years ago with the Psion 7, which was a touch sensitive laptop that weighed just over a kilogram. Since then Acer, Asus and many others have adapted the idea and now have a 7% of the computer market which is impressive considering they didn’t exist 18 months ago.

This shows the popularity of the netbook even if many find it hard to understand the perceived benefits. For the best prices and deals on laptops search online and compare the latest deals. Searching for a laptop is easy and whether you are looking for laptops or digital cameras you can find them online.

NETBOOK PRO????????

Bill Gates anticipated great things from the so-called “noughties” when he described it as the “Digital Decade” back in 2001.

“The innovations of this decade will be more than just a handful of new features,” he wrote. “They’ll transform the way the PC fits into our lives, and the way we think about computing.”

Was he right? It’s been ten years of rapid technological change; ten years of smaller, faster and cheaper.

The PDA died; you could cook an egg on the heat generated by a 3.8GHz Pentium 4 PC; small laptops spawned recession-friendly netbooks; and social networking exploded with MySpace, Facebook and Twitter.

PENTIUM 4: The Intel Pentium 4 was planned to scale up to 10GHz, but never made it past a 3.8GHz chip

At the beginning of the decade, Gates prophecised that we’d all be carrying Tablet PCs, accessing our information on the move, and that our shiny Windows XP-powered computers would be the entertainment and communication hubs of our digital homes.

Needless to say, not all of this has come true. But here are some selected highlights extracted from the TechRadar hive-mind – you can add your own in the comments section below. First up…

The rise of the super-laptop

Rewind to the year 2000 and laptops were chunky, sombre grey biz-machines with 14-inch displays, Intel Mobile Pentium III processors and (if you were lucky) a 20GB hard disk. But laptop manufacturers started to experiment.

On the one hand, they shoehorned full-fat Pentium 4’s into hulking ‘desktop replacement’ systems with 17-inch LCDs, rewritable CD/DVD combo drives and a battery life of less than an hour. On the other, we saw machines like the TR1MP, a dinky, mist-silvered Sony VAIO no bigger than a hardback book. It blazed a trail for countless netbooks to come.

In 2003, Intel’s Centrino platform not only introduced the efficient Pentium M processor, but gave the fledgeling Wi-Fi standard a much-needed boost by including 802.11b as standard.

As the years rolled by, manufacturers also started sneaking in other features: 802.11g and 802.11n, Bluetooth, TV tuners, built-in webcams, widescreen displays, LED-backlit displays, bigger hard disks, faster GPUs, novelty fingerprint recognition systems and more RAM.

More recently, single-core processors have quietly bowed out in favour of new multi-core architectures. Modern laptops are now thinner, lighter, cheaper, faster, longer-lasting and far more colourful than their predecessors.

The dawn of the netbook

If you ignore the pioneering PDA/laptop mashup that was the Psion 7 (2000), then the Asus Eee (launched in 2007) is widely considered as the first true ‘netbook’. Small and lightweight, the Eee stripped the traditional laptop down to its undies, jettisoning expensive technology like the hard disk, large LCD and Windows in favour of flash memory, a 7-inch display and Linux.

Less isn’t more in this case. It’s actually less. Nevertheless, netbooks remain in vogue. MSI, Acer, Dell, Sony and Advent have all jumped onto the bandwagon to ride it into 2010.

Format wars continue to rage

We love a good format war and the past ten years have been rife with technology showdowns – Mac vs PC; OS X vs XP/Vista/Windows 7; Blu-ray vs HD DVD; Intel vs AMD; Nvidia vs ATI (later AMD); EU vs Microsoft; IE vs Firefox (Firefox forced IE usage below 90 percent for the first time in 2004); Google vs Microsoft; Xbox 360 vs PlayStation 3.

FIREFOX: The browser’s popularity with users saw the market share of Internet Explorer dip below 90% in 2004

Mac vs. PC (again)

While Microsoft is now happily bathing in the glow of good Windows 7 reviews, the decade arguably belongs to a simpler operating system – Windows XP. Launched in 2001, XP replaced Windows 2000 and the forgettable Windows Me. It’s a testament to XP’s usability, flexibility and Service Pack-fuelled staying power that users stuck with it even when Microsoft rolled out the ‘wow starts now’ Windows Vista in 2007.

The noughties also saw the release of Apple’s OS X operating system. The public beta of OS X (codenamed Kodiak) was released in early 2000 and has grown impressively through incremental big cat upgrades – Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard.

OS X continues to be flexible, stable and easy on the eye. The versatility of the code also saw chunks of it used in the software for the iPod touch, iPhone and Apple TV.

And while we’re talking operating systems, a quick word about Linux… Ubuntu saw its first release in 2004 (aka Warty Warthog), with updates every six months that included the likes of Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger and Feisty Fawn

UBUNTU: The OS did much to strip away the geeky image associated with Linux. Heck, even my mum now uses it

Based on the Debian Linux distro, Ubuntu has arguably done more to make Linux acceptable to mainstream computer users than any other version of the open source OS. In short, Ubuntu has made Linux look cool.

Resource:  1. Understanding your Sony Battery Needs

2. Cheap SONY laptop batteries

I’ve just bought a Psion Netbook Pro a few days ago, and I have no idea what this even means

Je vends ce Psion NetBook Pro Teklogix sous Windows CE 4.20ProPlus NetEdition. Clavier AZERTY, excellent état. Utilisation professionelle sérieuse.

Indeed, when we first heard about the Eee PC it immediately drew comparisons to the burgeoning and frankly imperfect UMPC sector. However, as we learned more about the device, it generated more interesting comparisons to such yesteryear classics as the Psion Series 5 and the legendary netbook. Is the Eee PC the natural successor to such devices?

There are several models available, but the one we’re reviewing and which Asus considers the most desirable model is the Eee PC 4G 701. Aside from the processor, which is the same across the range, the 4G 701 features 512MB DDR2 RAM and a 4GB SSD (Solid State Drive). There’s also a 0.3-megapixel webcam and integrated microphone, with network connectivity provided by 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and 10/100 Ethernet. All models ship with a 7in 800 x 600 display, while this and the more expensive 8G 701, which ships with an 8GB SSD and 1GB DRR2 RAM, utilise a four-cell 5200mAh battery.

One of the first things that you notice when picking up the ASUS Eee PC 701 is the fact that it is so light. The Eee PC weighs in at only .89 kilograms, which translates to just around 2 pounds. The keyboard on the Eee PC is slightly crammed and smaller than most notebook keyboards due to the Eee PC’s smaller form factor. It very closely resembles the size of the keyboard used in the Dell Inspiron 710, which makes it ideal for emails, web surfing, or short papers, but could become a nuisance when writing for extended periods of time and for those that are used to full-sized notebook and desktop keyboards.

The screen is 7-inches diagonally with LED back lighting and has a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels.

The Eee PC might not have a glossy, high contrast display like most notebooks made in the last year, but the bright and even backlight helps make for an enjoyable reading experience. We even found the quality of the colors more than sufficient for viewing movies or You Tube videos.

We did experience a few problems with the Asus Eee PC 701 getting toasty during use – even the palm rest and touchpad felt warm to the touch after just 30 minutes of use. We also found the low-pitched whirring and grinding noise rather disquieting, and although it was no worse than a hard drive spinning up, it was obvious when sitting in a quiet room.

On the Eee PC’s left side panel, the notebook has two USB 2.0 ports, an audio and microphone port, a 10/100 Ethernet port, and a 56K phone modem port. The Eee PC is very thin as a United States half dollar coin.

The right side panel of the Eee PC 701 has two more USB 2.0 ports, a VGA output, and even a flash card reader. The notebook uses a 4 cell battery that gives it just around 3 hours of battery life when it is on the move. As you may have noticed, there are no optical drives included with the Eee PC, and there is no room to add any to the notebook itself, so any DVD burners will have to be installed externally through one of the Eee PC 701’s four USB 2.0 ports.

The Eee PC uses an Atheros AR5BXB63 wireless module for 802.11b/g wireless Internet access. Reception is quite good for a budget notebook. The Eee PC maintained a connection to my home router from anywhere inside my three-level home and from anywhere in my front or back yard. At the editorial offices for NotebookReview.com the Eee PC managed to stay connected to the office router even after I left the building and walked across the parking lot. The wireless connection only dropped to 75 percent signal strength after I walked more than 50 yards away from the building. Being able to travel a distance equivalent to half the length of a football field means you won’t have trouble browsing the web with the Eee PC.

It’s hard to fault the Eee PC, mainly because of its price. It can be difficult to use because of the cramped keyboard, but it’s better than similar-sized laptops like the Toshiba Libretto. If you’re in the market for a second PC, or looking for something you can take with you almost anywhere, the Eee PC is definitely worth buying.

Been using the series 7 myself for years, and love it to bits, but eventually I know it’ll die on me… And I can’t help noticing the Netbook Pro is available for about $150 on eBay. Same machine, but with Windows CE.

Anyone used one? How’s the battery life? Still get a good eight hours or so out of it? Can you transfer files via Bluetooth or USB, rather than the old serial cable? Any bugbears about it?
Yeah, trouble is, people on the whole don’t buy these any more; they haven’t been made for years. Or at least everything up to the 7
hasn’t; they may still be turning out Netbooks on a tiny scale. Live reviews on them are a bit scarce for that reason.

It’s a shame, because the whole series beat (and still beats) any Palm format PDA into the ground.

Psion netbook for sale

I’ve got an old Psion Netbook with Netgear 16bit ethernet card, and a 512mb CF card. in control panel i see an ethernet icon – & the 100 mb and data lights on the card flash when I plug it into a network connection.
but it doesn’t pick pick up a dhcp address (a pc in the same connection picks one up fine).

so im considering linux. i figure with the CF card (512mb) split into 3 partitions I can get it to work, but try as i might i can’t. I’ve been told that networking is easier to work in linux – and i have an idea of some troubleshooting tools in linux. I’ve read the FAQ’s but still it seems complex.
Can someone who has installed linux/networking on an OLD style psion netbook let me know
i) how to split up the 512k cf card (filesystems?)
ii) what files need to go on which partition
iii) how to fix networking with the netgear 16bit card.
or
i) what settings do i need in epoc for the card to work (so no linux)

i know linux is v customisable – but any help is welcome