Earlier this week folks from all of Microsoft’s consumer businesses – Windows, Office, Hardware, Xbox, etc. – were in NYC for our annual holiday preview event for consumer press and analysts where we show off our latest and greatest stuff, and give them a sneak peek at what’s coming this holiday season (read: a lot). The Windows Team is showing the power of Windows 7, Windows Live, and Games for Windows on some of our newest and most eye-popping PCs, and I wanted to give you the quick rundown of what we’re showing off and why I nominated it for the show floor.  This post is kind of long, so if you want you  download the show guide in one handy-dandy document.

Asus Eee PC Karim Rashid Edition
Specs: 10.1" LED Backlight WSVGA Screen (1024x600); 250GB HDD; Atom™ N450; 1GB RAM; WLAN 802.11b/g/n; BluetoothV2.1 + EDR; 1.3M Pixels Camera;
Price point: Starting at $492

Why I picked it: It looks cool. VERY cool. The texture on the case looks and feels great, and all of the ports (even the VGA port) are concealed to present an unbroken silhouette. For the record, we brought the hot pink one.

 

HP Mini 210 Vivienne Tam
Specs: Intel Atom N450; 2GB DDR2 RAM; 250GB HDD; 10.1" 1366 x 768 antiglare display; Signature Vivienne Tam design applied with HP Imprint Technology
Price point: Starting at $599

Why I picked it: Right now it’s my favorite netbook on the market. Stunning design, excellent build quality and a very impressive skin from StarDock. Check out my review.

 

Asus Eee PC Carbon Fiber
Specs: 10.1" LED Backlight WSVGA Screen (1024x600); 160 HDD; Intel® Atom™ N450; 1GB RAM; WLAN 802.11b/g/n; 1.3M Pixels Camera
Price point: Starting at $492

Why I picked it: Asus continues to impress me with their innovative cases. This one is textured to look like carbon fiber, but since its pure polycarbonate, the price stays low.

 

Gateway LT2108u
Specs: Intel Atom N450; 1GB DDR2 RAM; 10.1” WSVGA High Brightness LED-backlit Display; 160GB HDD
Price point: Starting at $299.99

Why I picked it: It’s light, has outstanding battery life, and costs under $300. And the red caseback and LED-backlit power button give it a bit of flair.

 

Acer Aspire Timeline 5810TZ
Specs: Intel Pentium SU4100; 4GB DDR3 RAM; 15.4” Display; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 MHD; HD Audio Support with Dolby Sound Room

Price point: Starting at $599

Why I picked it: I reviewed this PC a few weeks ago and liked it. 8 hours of battery, slim design, and full PC specs for under $600? What could possibly be wrong with that?

 

Asus U33jc – Bamboo Collection
Specs: Intel Core i7-640UM; 4GB DDR3 RAM; NVIDIA GeForce 310M; USB 3.0; case lid made from sustainable, mature Moso bamboo
Price point: Starting at $899

Why I picked it: Lots of interesting features in this one. Great battery life, one of the first appearances of USB 3.0 in a laptop, and a caseback made from natural, sustainable Moso bamboo that makes each PC totally unique. Fun fact: Moso bamboo can grow up to 2 feet in a single day!

 

HP Pavilion dm4
Specs: Intel Core i5 Processor; 320GB HDD; 14.0’ HD LED Brightview display; Full metal chassis (aluminum + magnesium) with laser etching; ATI Radeon Mobility discrete graphics
Price point: Starting at $729

Why I picked it: Read my review for the whole rundown, but the short version is that HP introduced a laptop with great punch, differentiated design, and comfortable ergonomics at a very reasonable price.

 

Sony VAIO L
Specs: 24" Multi Touch (1920 x 1080) Display; Blu-Ray, Intel Core2Duo, 4GB RAM
Price point: Starting at $1299

Why I picked it: 24” of 1080p multi-touch beauty. Outstanding for looking at photos, watching movies, or everyday stuff like browsing the web and checking email.

 

Dell Latitude Z
Specs: 16" HD (1600 x 900) Display; Wireless Docking and Inductive Charging; 128GB SSD, Intel ULV Processor
Price point: Starting at $1799

Why I picked it: It’s the first laptop ever to offer wireless inductive charging and wireless docking. And oh, that gorgeous display…

 

Samsung R480
Specs: Intel Core i3 330; 14” LED HD Display; 4GB RAM; Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500HD; Webcam; built-in Blu-Ray drive

Price point: Starting at $829.99

Why I picked it: Core i3 and Blu-Ray player for about $800? Yes please.

 

Sony Vaio X
Specs: 11.1” Display; less than 2 lbs.; 128GB SSD; optional 3G Mobile Broadband and GPS Navigation
Price point: Starting at $1299

Why I picked it: It’s the lightest laptop ever built. It’s so feather-light that when you pick it up, you want to turn it on just to be sure that its real.

 

HP Envy 15
Specs: 15.4” 1080p display; Intel Core i7; 6GB RAM; 500GB HDD; Beats by Dr. Dre audio; ATI Mobility Radeon 5830 graphics.
Price point: Starting at $1259

Why I picked it: I can’t get enough of HP’s premium envy line. 1080p display, Core i7, laser-etched case and Beats Audio by Dr. Dre make it one of the most elite notebooks in the world. We brought the special Beats Edition and the standard laser-etched model.

Toshiba Portege R705

Specs: 13” in screen, 4GB RAM, 500GB HD (opt 512GB SSD), optional Core i3, i5, & i7 processors, DVD SuperMulti Drive
Price Point:  Starting at $800

Why I picked it: It’s brand new, and it’s the world’s lightest 13” full-feature PC.

 

Alienware M11X
Specs: 11.1” display; Intel SU4100; 256GB SSD; 8GB RAM; Switchable Intel HD + NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M graphics; up to 8 hours of battery life
Price point: Starting at $799. As I configured it for the show, $1719.

Why I picked it: Never compromise between performance and portability ever again. Read my hands-on post for a full review.

 

Toshiba Qosmio x505
Specs: Intel® Core™ i7-720QM; 4GB DDR3 memory; 640GB hard drive + 64GB solid state drive; NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M discrete graphics (1GB GDDR5); Blu-ray Disc™ ROM and DVD burner; 802.11n & Bluetooth® wireless

Price point: Starting at $1199

Why I picked it: “Big Red” is one of the most powerful gaming rigs in the world. It’s comically big and mercilessly powerful.

 

Asus Republic of Gamers G51JX
Blurb: Affordable and powerful, this laptop is heavy on the action and light on the wallet
Specs: 15.6” display; Intel Core i7; NVIDIA GeForce GTS360M graphics.
Price point: Starting at $1259

Why I picked it: A full featured, high-end gaming rig for under $1300. Great design, great name, great specs, and a great price.

 

Dell Studio 15 (a.k.a. "The Muse")
Specs 15.4” 1080p display; Intel Corei7, 6GB RAM; ATI Radeon Mobility 5470 DirectX 11 graphics, 256GB SSD; Dell Design Studio custom case
Price point: Starting at $599. As configured $1900.

Why I picked it: My custom built Studio 15, The Muse, is a good representation of the sharp design and monster specs you can get in a Dell’s massively customizable Studio 15 line.

For more info on each PC, remember you can download the entire show guide. And as always, if you have a question about any of these you can leave a comment, hit me on Twitter, or Ask Ben Anything.

So long as your laptop doesn’t already have the maximum capacity fitted, then you should indeed be able to add more memory (also known as RAM). Adding more
RAM is one of the best ways to increase your laptop’s performance, although it is by no means a magic formula. Unlike a desktop PC, a laptop generally only has two memory slots, which can also limit your options. The first thing you need to determine is how much memory your laptop already has, which you can do by right-clicking on My Computer and choosing Properties. You will see a summary of your laptop’s hardware, including the amount of RAM fitted. Now you need to find out how much can be fitted and what type you need. A good all-in-one resource for this is the Crucial Memory Advisor tool, available online at www.crucial.com/uk. Simply enter the manufacturer, product type and model name of your laptop, and you will be given all the details you need. Crucial also offers a free downloadable application called the Crucial System Scanner tool. This small app scans your system, saving you the time of identifying your exact model, and then tells you how much RAM you have, as well as how much you can fit, and then directs you to a web page to buy RAM.


Source of Information : Windows IT Pro June 2010

SSDs, or Solid State Drives, offer a number of advantages over traditional hard drives. Laptop drives have always been slower than their desktop counterparts, and the hard drive can be one of the main bottlenecks in laptop performance. The main advantage of an SSD is one of speed, because the drives have no moving parts and are based on flash memory. Although the access speed of memory cards is not particularly quick, SSDs use optimised controller electronics to achieve high read and write speeds. A second advantage is that, again because there are no moving parts, SSDs are practically immune to knocks and bumps, making them particularly suitable for laptops. The disadvantages are that capacities are currently still pretty low, and they are very expensive.
That said, if you want to sacrifice capacity for speed then it’s certainly possible to. Unless you plan to reinstall Windows and all of your programs, you will need to back up all the data on your hard drive first. To do this, you will need a program such as DriveImage XML (www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm) to copy the entire partition to an empty, removable hard drive. A laptop’s hard drive is usually located behind a panel on the underside of the laptop chassis, so remove the panel and slide the existing drive out. Slide the SSD drive in, use your Windows install or recovery disk to get a basic setup running, then copy the partition back from the removable drive.


Source of Information : Windows IT Pro June 2010

Why bother attaching cables when you can just as easily print via your wireless network instead? If you have another computer in the house that is connected to the printer, then you can simply set the printer up as a shared device and it should show up on the network automatically. You can then use the network browser on your laptop to add the printer to your list of printers. However, if you don’t have another PC, then things are slightly more complicated. While many wireless routers may have a USB port on the back, many of them are designed for connecting portable hard drives, and not printers. Your router must explicitly support a printer connection in order for you to connect it. The good news is that manufacturers are recognising that more people want to print wirelessly, so this is becoming a standard feature on many new routers. If your router doesn’t have a printercompatible USB port, then you can buy an adapter, either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which plugs into your printer. Not all laptops have Bluetooth built in and the range is also limited to about 10m. However, companies such as Belkin (www.belkin.co.uk) offer both types of adapter.



Source of Information : Windows IT Pro June 2010

Archos releases compact Google-powered tablet

Adding to its existing range of compact tablet devices, Archos has announced the release of the Archos 7, a 7-inch device based around the Google Android operating system (OS) and designed for wireless internet and multimedia use at home or on the move. Weighing 350g and with a depth of just 12mm, it aims to provide comfortable mobility for the longest journeys, slipping easily into the smallest hand luggage With a claimed battery life of seven hours when playing video or a stunning 44 hours when playing music, there should be ample power to keep you entertained when you’re out and about and on long-haul journeys. The 7-inch screen features a resolution of 800 x 480 pixels and its touchscreen usability is designed to make it as easy as possible to control your music, movies and photos. With integrated Wi-Fi, you can also wirelessly browse the internet when in range of wireless hotspots. Driven by Google’s Android
OS, intuitive usability is promised, with full access to Android applications via the AppsLib online store. Available now, the Archos 7 is priced at £130 (inc. VAT).

MORE INFORMATION:
www.archos.com


Source of Information : What Laptop July 2010

Stylish iPad rival unveiled for intuitive web browsing

With the Apple iPad now on sale in the UK, Fusion Garage has announced its own slate device – the JooJoo internet tablet. Claiming to be the world’s largest capacitive touchscreen device, it looks fantastic and bears more than a passing resemblance to its fruit-themed rival. Taking its name from the West African word for an object with magical powers, the 12.1-inch tablet is designed solely for smooth wireless internet browsing. With a claimed nine-second boot time and full gesture-control interface, it aims to make web use as seamless as possible. Built around a stylish aluminium chassis, the screen’s full gesture-control functionality makes it easy to scroll web pages and swipe between screens. While browsing the internet, a fullsize keyboard appears onscreen whenever text-entry is needed and disappears after use. Making it easier to access your favourite websites, the home page provides a customisable range of button links to popular sites such as Facebook, Flickr and YouTube. Fusion Garage also plans to follow Apple’s lead, with an online store to provide access to multiple web apps.
Core components include an Intel Atom processor, 1024MB of memory and a 4GB Solid State Drive. Wireless connectivity is provided by 801.11g Wi-Fi and Fusion Garage has added a feature currently missing from the iPad – a built-in 1.3-megapixel webcam. As well as a claimed five-hour battery life when using the Wi-Fi connection, an ambient light sensor automatically controls screen brightness and an accelerometer controls screen orientation. The JooJoo tablet is available now for £375 (inc. VAT) and looks like it could be a genuinely viable iPad rival.

MORE INFORMATION:
www.thejoojoo.com

Source of Information : What Laptop July 2010