MacBook is completely light weight which was recently unveiled by Apple Inc has gained momentum. MacBook system is promising to be thinner by 50 percentage and lighter in weight than MacBook Pro, as is approximately just 1 inch in thickness and just weighs between 6.8 and 5.4 pounds. This MacBook will be using the NAND flash memory instead of the traditional hard disk drive and as well comes along with a display of 12 inch. At this moment, only 15 inch MacBook use the displays that have LCD backlit. Price in retail for the MacBook can be estimated to be of $1000 and this falls between the cheapest of $1099 and the cost effective one available for $1999. It is expected that the sub size MacBook will be launched at the Macworld conference. Apple is famous for breaking the trend and come up with interesting flash based items or products that are very efficient, like the iPOD Nano and hence nobody would be surprised if the MacBook delivers more surprises than it is supposed to.
They are the present and the future of the HDTV market: LCD and plasma televisions share some features which are all focused on providing the best images ever and letting people experience with a sort of “real life” environment while they’re at home sitting on the couch watching television. Any difference between LCD and plasma is not that huge, since both provide the best resolutions and best image adaptation depending on the light and other factors.
Plasma display technology is based on pixels, which rely on gas substances to perform their duties and images on LCD displays become visible thanks to electricity which is spread through the liquid crystals. Making a choice between them can be even harder since pros and cons arise mainly from the little details and precautions each LCD and plasma requires, and these details may or may not determine the customer’s purchase of one HDTV type rather than the other. No matter how much the customer spends on their purchase, paying attention to the features of the television is very important.
Despite recent models which are less subjected to the “burn-in” phenomena or ghosting, plasma televisions are at a disadvantage in this case. This is especially true if their usage is connected to the immobility of certain images, which usually is peculiar to video game consoles. LCD displays can suffer from stuck or dead pixels; it is advisable to check the LCD for this problem within the store’s return period or be sure to review the manufacturer warranty policy.
The Plasma television has a unique advantage when it comes to contrast ratios and back levels and for energy savings and an absence of radiation the advantage goes to LCD. Generally LCD TVs are thinner when compared to Plasma and Plasma TVs have better viewing angles.
When it comes to the ease of installation, plasma televisions are quite heavy and a professional is often called for its installation. LCD in this case is lighter and their installation is a lot easier. The consumer may be able to take care of everything alone, without having to use a professional for the installation. There is not a huge difference of the product life span between the two television technologies. This is because both should be up to 60,000 hours, and as always, it also depends on the usage and from the care of the user.
The choice between plasma and LCD is not that easy. When going through the purchase, a good piece of advice is to compare several different models before making a choice.
If you are an IT guy who knows all about PCs, this article is not for you. This is for those people who find it hard to choose one computer over another while they are computer shopping. I will be focusing mainly on the configuration and I will keep the brands for a later article. Also, this is for PCs ONLY. I am not a Mac guy. Read my profile if you have any questions regarding my credentials.
This article will address both desktops and notebooks but the examples that are dealt in the article are mainly desktops. I am just going to scan the software surface and when I say software, I mean windows and not any other OS.
Whether you go to a store like best buy or an online store like Dell, you are bound to bump into something that looks like this :
SPECIFICATIONS
Operating System: Microsoft? Windows? XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Update Rollup 2) w/ XP Media Center Backup
Application Software: Microsoft? Office Small Business Edition 2003 (Basic + PowerPoint & Publisher) w/ Microsoft? Home Collection
Processor: Intel? Pentium? Extreme Edition 955 with Hyperthreading Technology (3.46GHz, 1066MHz FSB 2×2M cache)
Chipset: Intel? 975X Chipset with DDR2 Support
Memory: 2048MB PC5300 Dual-Channel DDR2 667MHz SDRAM (2-1024MB modules)
Hard Drive: 500GB Serial ATA II/300 7200RPM w/Raid 0 (2-250GB Hard Drives - Striping)
Floppy Drive: 9-in-1 media card reader
Optical Drive: 16x Double-Layer Multi-Format DVD Writer (DVD?/R?RW/CD-R/RW) and 16x/48x DVD-ROM drive
Extended Service Plan Including Limited Warranty: Desktop Value Plus Service Plan — 3 year parts/labor/on-site/3 year toll technical support
Case: 7-Bay Tower Case
Controller: Integrated Serial ATA Controller
Expansion Slots: (2) PCI Expansion Slots (Filled), (1) PCI-E x1 Expansion Slot (available). (1) PCI-E x16 Expansion Slot (available)
External Ports: (6) USB 2.0 (2 in front and 4 in back), (3) IEEE 1394 Firewire (2 in front and 1 in back), (1) Serial, (2) PS/2, (1) RJ-45 Integrated LAN, (1) VGA, (1) Microphone, front audio ports
Certification: Energy Star Compliant
Monitors: FPD2185W 21? Black Widescreen High-Definition LCD Analog/Digital Performance Flat Panel Display with 4 Powered USB Ports (Includes height-adjustable stand)
Video: NVIDIA? GeForce 6600 with 128MB, DVI, VGA & TV-Out
Keyboard and Mouse: Elite Multimedia Keyboard and Soft-touch USB Optical Wheel Mouse (no mouse pad included)
Speakers: 2-piece speaker solution
Internet Service Provider: Six months America Online? Internet access
Part Number: 1008697
Additional Software: Adobe? Acrobat Reader? 7.0 and Google Toolbar
Network: Integrated Intel? 10/100/1000 (Gigabit) Ethernet
Security Software: McAfee? Internet Security Suite with VirusScan, Personal Firewall Plus, SpamKiller & Privacy Service, 36-months
Desktop Technology: Intel? Viiv? Technology
PCI Multimedia Card 1: Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Sound Card
Standard Software: Napster Trial Subscription
ADDITIONAL TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
Processor:
Intel? Pentium? Extreme Edition 955 with Hyperthreading Technology (3.46GHz, 1066MHz FSB 2×2M cache)
Chipset :
Intel? 975X Chipset with DDR2 Support
ICH7DH w/ RAID 0,1,5 Support
XD (eXecute Disable) bit
EM64T (64-bit support) support
EIST (Intel? Speed Step) support
HT (HyperThreading) support
VT (Virtualization) support (Requires additional software support)
Dual Core support
400 watt, dual voltage power supply
16.5?(H) x 8.0?(W) x 17.5?(D)
38 lbs (without packaging) Varies with options
I/O Ports:
1 9-pin serial connector
1 15-hole VGA connector
1 RJ45 network connector
2 PS/2 (keyboard and mouse) 6-pin mini-DIN connectors
6 version 2.0 USB ports (4-front/2-rear)
3 6-pin IEEE 1394 ports (2 front/1 rear)
Audio-Five 1/8? mini-jacks for 7.1 surround sound
- Front left/right (green)
- Rear left/right (black)
- Surround left/right (blue)
- Center/sub (orange)
- Microphone (red)
S/PDIF (Sony/Philips Digital Interface)
Two front-panel 1/8? audio mini-jacks Audio
- Headphone (green)
- Microphone (red)
Thats a long confusing list which could drive most people insane. From that big list, 70% of the items are not extremely critical for computing needs. The items that matter the most are 1. processor 2. hard disk 3. RAM and 4. motherboard. Along with this there are many other smaller features that makes a perfect computer to possess. I will be briefly scanning them as well.
Processor
There are two major players in the market. Intel and AMD. Intel is widely known and highly popular while AMD’s base is growing constantly. I am not gonna delve into details of the processor technology, all I going to share is that Intel used the CISC technology and AMD used/uses RISC. But now, Intel is using RISC to do the CISC. So, in a way Intel has discarded their initial technology to follow the technology that AMD implemented. No more engineering stuff, sorry.
When you look for a processor, there are two major components that are crucial. The clock speed and the cache memory(L1 and L2). Try to choose a processor that has a higher clock speed. Higher the clock, faster the computer. Secondly the cache, its just like clock speed in speed and importance. Higher the cache, faster the computer. There is another feature that is becoming popular, the number of bits. A 64 bit computer can do the job faster than a 32 bit computer. A good analogy would be if you are building a house, 64 people would build it faster compared to 32 people. There is more data transfer between the computer and processor with a higher bit processor.
In the above example, - “Processor: Intel? Pentium? Extreme Edition 955 with Hyperthreading Technology (3.46GHz, 1066MHz FSB 2?2M cache)”. Its an intel processor, which is good. Hyper threading technology is a good one to have. 3.46GHz is fast, I will talk about the Frontside bus under the motherboard section. It has 2 caches that are 2MB each which is extremely fast. Just know that the caches will act as an intermediate memory. Let me give you another example. If you buy a computer with 6GHz and 1MB cache, it is the same as buying a 3GHz processor with 2MB cache. Intel Centrino has lower clock speed but a higher cache memory which makes up for the slower clock speed.
Comparing Intel and AMD, the performance is almost the same. For a regular consumer, it works the same way. But, AMD gets the bait as it is cheaper than Intel. How many intel ads have you seen in the past month? How many AMD ads? All the ad costs are piled upon their products and hence Intel is so much more expensive compared to AMD. There are reports that AMD is closing in on Intel.
Hard Disk
My first computer had 256MB hard disk and I was so excited when I got a 1.2GB hard disk. These days, we have broken all barriers and we are dealing with hundreds of GBs. It is a common knowledge that the higher the hard drive space, the better it is. I agree 100% on that. There is not much you could with the brand of the hard drive you could buy if you buying it in a store like best buy. But, if you happen to have a choice of choosing the hard disk, I would recommend Western Digital, Seagate and Maxtor. In my experience, I have found these three extremely trustworthy. It is important that we have a good hard drive as the data that we store is priceless. Hard disk is one thing that we shouldn’t compromise on if we had a choice. Even if a hard disk costs you $20 more, think all the data you would be storing in the future.
This is from my personal experience. Dell used other branded hard drives and we used to have so many cases of broken hard drives and people losing sleep over the lost data. Losing data is not a pretty picture. All these said, I am not saying that the hard drives that I recommended wouldn’t crash. The probability of these hard drives crashing is much smaller than the others.
I almost forgot to mention about the speed of the hard drive. It is good to have a faster hard drive. But, for daily operations, most of the process is stored in the RAM and processor cache; there is a bleak chance that you might be able to observe a slower hard drive with a faster one, unless you are a person who transfers a lot of data back and forth.
RAM
We have gone through many different kinds of RAMs in the past few years. If I go into the technologies, I could write another long article on it within no time. But I will just say that as in hard drive and processor, higher the RAM memory, faster the computer.
There are two variables in a RAM. The RAM size and the channel bandwidth. You would want to have both these on the higher end. Both are critical for the overall speed of your computer. The RAM size affects the amount of data that could be stored on a computer while the channel bandwidth is responsible for the rate of flow of data stored in the RAM and to the RAM.
There is not much to choose from in RAM brands. All the RAMs are equally good and bad. I wouldn’t press on a single brand for a RAM. I would just go for a cheaper one.
Motherboard
Apart from the processor, this is the most important part of a computer. This defines all the features that a computer might possess. There are awfully lot of things that a motherboard can integrate but I am going to scan the important ones.
First of all, a motherboard should have a higher FSB. It is the bandwidth with which the data can flow through. Higher the FSB, faster the computer.
A motherboard typically has USB ports, firewire, integrated video card, integrated sound card, integrated modem, and other different ports. It is good for a computer to have as many USB ports. Most accessories are USB driven. But this is not critical as you can always bank on purchasing a USB hub which could do the trick. A firewire port is not as widely used but its existance on your computer is important. A good video card enhances your windows GUI. Look for a video card that has a higher non shared memory. Usually, video cards that are integrated on the motherboard share the RAM memory. Also, make sure that your motherboard has an AGP slot which could give you the choice of adding your own video card instead of the one on the motherboard. A good soundcard would be a plus. I have no clue how many people still use a phone modem. I don’t. It isn’t something I would look for in a computer. But it doesn’t if there is one already sitting on my computer. PCI slots are important as well. Most motherboards have at least 3 PCI slots which should be good.
Windows is the most common OS you can get in a store. It comes in two different versions, home and professional. For any home user, home would be more than handy. Professional is for people who would like to use their computer for remote desktop and other networking features. If somebody tries to sell you a media center PC, say no. Not worth it. Many bugs. I am awaiting
I have tried to share some of the things that I felt are critical in choosing a computer. If you have any questions regarding choosing a computer, feel free to comment and I will get back to you…
Imagine having the ability to carry around a device the size of an ipod or pda that could project high-quality images larger than 2.5 inches. Well you won’t have to dream about it for much longer because Microvision has created a device that is able to do that and it will be able to directly hook up to your , mobile phones, portable media players, digital cameras, and other mobile devices.
“The battery-powered projector, code-named Show, is based on Microvision’s single micro-mirror laser scanning display technology and uses the company’s proprietary ultra-miniature PicoP display engine.”
Some cool features are the 2.5 hour battery life, widescreen, DVD-quality image (848 by 480) and a 12 inch to 100 inch projection capabilities. Oh, and did I mention it can fit into your pocket!!!
The never ending debate regarding ‘who holds the loyal and biggest customer base’ in the OS world, will never be truly answered as Apple launches Leopard and Windows Vista being almost launched simultaneously, the war seem to take interesting turn.
The Macintosh users are fiercely loyal to their OS maker and one would get tongue lashing replies in case they say a word against it. This is due to the fast paced growth of Apple in various sectors of music worlds, computer, and telecommunications. The business span and the organization’s degree of expertise is always a matter of debate but the again one cannot deny the superior loyalty of Mac customers. Leopard also faced initial problems after it was launched and the media covered it well but the users saw the media coverage as a threat to Apple’s credibility and brand image and was very skeptical about the same. Never known to have such a response rate from MS users, undoubtedly this reaction points out the winner.
The next generation of TV’s have finally arrived, but only in Japan. Sony has been working televisions that use the OLED technology which stands for, “organic light-emitting diode.” With this technology Sony has been able to produce televisions which are thinner and have a more vivid picture than existing LCD, Plasma and DLP.
The Sony OLED is 1/10 of an inch deep, which makes today’s current flat-screens seem gigantic at 6 inches deep. This means it will be heaps lighter and you’ll be able to hang this TV on your wall with a nail or sticky tac.
The TV is currently in Japan and is selling for about $1,750 for an 11-inch screen.
If you have an XBOX 360 you’ve probably already spent many nights crying over the fact that it doesn’t come with built-in wireless access like the Wii and Playstation 3. On top of that, if you wanted to have wireless access for the 360 you’re going to have to lay down about $100. So many of you have probably ended up running that 25 foot Ethernet cable through your house meandering this way and that through the many obstacles and into your Xbox 360.
Cry no more my friends because for as less as $30 you can make your own wireless access for your Xbox 360. All you need is:
1.Three Feet or more of Cat 5e Cable (Ethernet Cable)
2.Wireless Router
3.DD-WRT firmware
There are plenty of reasons behind the car advertisements we see on TV and may sound like pitches from personal computers.
With the help of computers and electronic players, automakers are hard working trying to replicate the comfort and entertainment centers in the vehicles which are experienced now only at your home. Daimler Chrysler’s initiative with its minivan started years ago where the marketers, designers, and engineers spent lot of time with the families of minivan. They hung out with these families riding and living with them to understand the lifestyle better. Daimler designers came up with cabins equipped with gadgets which will synchronize with car stereos. Also offered are choices of having a satellite TV, radio, video, gaming systems and digital music library. Today, most of the customers preferring for Country & Town minivan are choosing to equip the minivan with video and audio devices of worth four hundred and seventy dollars.
Dell have been known for providing a superior technology for an affordable price and now they are concentrating on tablet PCs.
Dell has focused all its expertise to enhance the touch technology used in the tablet PCs. Generally tablets use the technology of resistive touch and needs sufficient pressure to recognize the input, where as Dell uses capacitive touch which is more durable and accurate than the former one. Capacitive technology is designed to recognize finger touch and hence do not require pressure. The response time for this is far more than faster than other tablets available in the market. The tablet come handy with sufficient battery life, X1250 ATI Radeon integrated graphics, keyboard and optional base for optical media and docking as well as regular hard drive diskette. The tablet technology is likely to keep evolving and can evolve in the direction of multi-touch interface, similar to that used in the iPhone.
Songs amounting to three billion and more have been sold through the music store from iTunes since the year 2001 and more than 110 million iPods were sold globally.
Increase in capacity of the iPod ranges has helped Apple sustain the momentum and definitely has given a facelift. Apple also added a complete selection of new iPod shuffles in pastel color and as well introduced video playback, squatter iPod Nano and launched a mobile phone. Also the much hyped and long awaited iPhone did make it debut in the month of June. iPhone featured widescreen and touch screen device. Also iPhone offers a web browser that is sensational with an iPod integrated along with features that are nifty like Google Maps. iPhone can videos capture and send messages in picture and marks a shift that is fundamental for consumers and their experience from their phones and internet.