HP Mini 1000 Reviewed

HP has just released a new Mini PC. With the market already flooded with Mini PC’s it is very hard to make yours stand out from the rest of the crowd. The new Mini 1000 has a lot to offer though. It has made a lot of improvements since its last mini PC that hit back in the spring time. Here is a quick list of the specs the new Mini 1000 has to offer.
Spec Sheet:
Model: HP Mini 1000
Starting Cost: $399 (Recommended Config: $525)
Operating System: XP SP3
CPU: Intel Atom Processor 1.6Ghz
Display: 8.9” or 10.2” (1024 x 600)
RAM: 512MB or 1GB DDR2
Hard Drive: 8GB or 16GB Solid State Drive or 60GB 4200RPM PATA HD
Battery: 3 Cell Lithium (Battery Life 3 Hours )
Weight: 2.4 Pounds

The new HP Mini 1000 was a huge improvement over their last mini notebook. It comes packed with a sleek black look with a swirl design that does not show up fingerprints. It also comes with a very spacious keyboard and the notebook is light enough that carrying it will never become a hassle. HP also was able to finally upgrade to the new Intel Atom processor and the notebook also supports an amazingly large Wi-Fi range. There is a few cons we have to point out though. The 3 cell battery was a disappointment, but HP has given word that they will be upgrading the battery to 6 cell around January next year. Also the boot time and transfer rates a fairly slow with the 60GB hard drive because the hard drive runs at a slow 4200RPMs. Overall the HP Mini 1000 was a good Mini Notebook and at a reasonable price of around $400-$500 you really feel that your getting your moneys worth.

Laptop Backpacks

With mobility being a top priority in today's fast-paced world, many laptop users are making the transition to laptop backpacks instead of traditional satchels are bags.

Laptop backpacks are extremely popular due to their casual look and design, and is an easy way to carry around your laptop and electronic gear in a hands-free manner. Many laptop backpacks also come with a laptop sleeve which increases the security and safety of your laptop should you ever drop the bag. Many designs come with added compartments for other electronics such as CD/MP3 players, chargers, phones, cables, ect and often times can hold more than one laptop with ease.

If you are looking for an easy and hands-free way of transporting your laptop and other electronics, consider a laptop backpack. There are also several wheeled convertible options which will allow you to roll a fully loaded backpack should you become tired of having all that equipment strapped to your back.

Asus Releases Eee PC 1000h

Asus's latest compact discount notebook incorporates everything from previous models with many notable improvements. It is slightly larger than its predecessors, which makes it easier and more comfortable to use. This model features a 10-inch screen with a native resolution of 1024x600, a necessary improvement on the 901's 8.9-inch. Also, the keyboard is much larger, almost as big as generic notebooks, which is intended to be more comfortable than the previous models. It weighs in at only 3.6lbs, a bit heavier than the ultra-lightweight 900 but still light relative to standard notebooks.

The Eee PC 1000h features the smallest transistors in the world. The 45nm transistor technology is designed to reduce power usage and heat output without sacrificing performance. Battery life ranges from 3.2-7 hours. The processor runs at a native frequency of 1.6GHz, and built-in power management can increase it to 1.7GHz. It comes with 1GB of DDR2 RAM (supports up to 2GB) and a 80 or 160GB hard drive. The Eee PC 1000h is powerful enough to utilize the high speed Wi-Fi 802.11n that is standard for this model.

The Eee's name comes from its slogan: "easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play," thus the 1000h is designed to be as easy as possible. It comes with Windows XP Home and Microsoft Works. It has a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and bluetooth, and the software is already setup and ready to use. For security, the 1000h comes with anti-virus software and 10GB of file-encrypted storage. The Eee PC 1000h comes with a one-year limited warranty. This
notebook is designed for someone with a budget and basic needs, and is priced at a very reasonable $649.

New MacBook Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Air Released By Apple

It looks like the rumors were true that Apple will be releasing a whole new line of laptops. We know they are true becasue that time is upon us. The first thing you might notice when looking at their new line of laptops is.. well they look almost exactly the same. Most of the changes are under the hood, but one thing that has changed is Apples new laptops are all formed from a single block of aluminum. The new aluminum body is lighter and stronger than the previous body and frame. Also a new GPU has been integrated into all the new laptops. The new GPU is the 9400M and Apple promises that the new GPU is 5 times faster than its last Intel integrated graphics chipset. Here is a full list of specs for each laptop.

MacBook Pro Specs
Starting Price- $1,999
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
15.4” LED-blacklit display
2 GB 1066MHZ DDR3 RAM
9400M Integrated / 9600M GT Dedicated 256MB
250GB HHD



MacBook Air Specs
Starting Price - $1,799
13.3” LED-backlit display
9400M Integrated Graphics
2GB 1006 MHz DDR3 RAM
120GB Sata Hard Drive
1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo



MacBook Specs
Starting Price - $1,299
13.3” LED-backlit display
2GB 1066MHz DDR3 RAM
9400M Integrated Graphics
160GB Hard Drive
2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo

Laptop Gaming Video cards

Today gaming on a laptop has become possible at a reasonable price due to increase in gaming itself and the fact that prices have significantly dropped on laptop parts as laptops become more popular and mainstream. Today most mainstream laptops come with enough RAM and a good enough CPU to handle just about any game you throw at it, but the real issue when it comes to gaming on a laptop comes with what Video Card is inside your laptop. A Video Card is really only important when it comes to gaming, it is what makes all your games look truly beautiful and run at a crisp clean pace with no hiccups. Today though there is such a large amount of Video Cards out there that it is really hard to figure out what to expect when you buy a laptop with a certain video card. Well in this post here I hope I can at the very least give you a broad idea of what to expect out of your gaming laptop when it comes to performance in terms of playable games and frame rates.

For starters when looking at a gaming laptop make you are going to have to expect a few things. First is increase in price and size. A gaming laptop will normally weigh upwards of 11+ pounds and costs usually at least $1000. If you do not feel like spending a thousand dollars on a laptop all I can say for you is buy a desktop instead because they are just so much cheaper than laptops, but you will obviously not see the same portability as a laptop. Ok another thing to make sure to look for when buying a gaming laptop is make sure the laptop has 2-4GB of RAM, 2.0Ghz and up processor and preferably a 17” screen so you do not feel cramped when playing. The last rule is the most important and must be obeyed if you are going to game on a laptop and that is make sure it has a dedicated graphics card. If the graphics card is not listed on the spec sheet then more than likely it is crap and not worth buying, also if you see integrated or Xpress it is not a dedicated graphics card. If your computer does not have a dedicated graphics card it means that your graphics card is built into the motherboard and it is junk and you will not be able to play any new games at all on your computer.

Ok now that we have that cleared up lets look at graphics cards. Before I start if you are looking at a computer and you know the name of the Graphic Card, but do not know much about it then I highly recommend that you look at this mobile graphics benchmark chart. The chart will tell you where your card places against every other mobile graphic card and will also put it into a broad category so you can get a good idea of what game quality to expect. Of course if you want the best laptop out there to play games on then you have to go with the alienware laptops. Alienware makes there laptops specifically for gaming and they are extremely good at what they were built for. The costs of an alienware laptop usually averages around $1500-$4000. Now most people do not have that type of money to spend on a laptop. Most people buy usually a dell, hp, gateway, or Apple laptop. Most of these brands use the same video cards over and over again so it is usually pretty easy to find some good specs on the video card in the laptop you are looking at. The two most widely used video cards that I have sound is the 8400M GS and the 8600M GT. The fact is the 8400M GS is junk I would not recommend buying the card for any games at all, but the 8600M GT is a different story. Expect to be able to play games like Company of Heroes, Fear, and Supreme Commander fluently on High Details with this card. Do not expect miracles out of this card though, you will not be able to play heavy graphics oriented games on max settings and will probably end up settling somewhere around medium settings. If you are looking for a better alternative to the 8600M GT then I would recommend any of the 8700 and 8800 series any of the 9700 series and 9800 series. The main thing you want to remember doing when looking for a gaming laptop is when you find a laptop you like make sure to find multiple opinions on the laptop and also multiple opinions on the video card. Hope this article helps you choose the right laptop for you, if you are still having some problems feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you with an answer.

HP DV5T Reviewed

HP has decided to step up there game in the laptop market by offering a new line of laptops this summer. Out of the new line of laptops though, the HP dv5t is the one for me. The dv5t combines the best of both worlds by offering a reasonable price and top quality performance. The dv5t starts out at the cheap price of only $749.99, but depending on what parts you want you can see the price start to hover around $1000 pretty quickly. Right now the barebones kit is just about as good as its going to get at this point in time.

Here is a quick spec sheet:


• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz)
• 15.4" diagonal WXGA HD BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Of course I would never recommend going with a factory spec computer, well because that would be just too easy, but really you should think about upgrading the spec list to your own needs. A good case for this computer would be if you want to play video games on your laptop. This laptop is the best video game laptop I have seen all year for the price. With just a couple of upgrades you can get your HP dv5t running high end games like crisis. To play video games on your HP dv5t I would recommend upgrading to the 9600m GT Video Card ($150), P8400 (2.26 GHz) processor ($50), and maybe even go with the upgraded 1680 x 1050 Display ($125). The upgrades might seem expensive, but if you look at the alternatives such as Alienware or XPS laptops you will see that you are saving a lot of money.

This laptop is by far the most versatile laptop I have seen. You can also convert the HP dv5t to be a great movie player. The dv5t supports a Blu-Ray player upgrade option for only $200 and make sure to upgrade the screen to 1680 x 1050 to really enjoy the quality of blu-ray. Also if you are thinking of upgrading your Hard Drive because of the size of the blu-ray movies I would recommend just buying 500GB external Hard Drive so that you save money, get more space, and keep your computer clean of bloat ware.

After looking into the HP dv5t I can say to you without a doubt that I would recommend this laptop to anyone who is looking for an affordable laptop, gaming laptop, and even a movie player laptop.

Wi-Fi Cards

Many businesses and restaurants have Wi-Fi spots for people to bring in their laptops to get on the internet. This attracts more people to do business with them. Now it is even more easy and cost effective with Verizon AirLink. This allows you to get on the internet wherever you have signal with your cell phone.

Verizon AirLink does not require anything for you to get on the internet besides having signal with your cell phone. You could be at your house, work, or even out walking and be on the internet. Verizon AirLink is a lot like having a Wi-Fi card.

Verizon is not the only provider for wireless internet cards. Others include sprint, cingular, dell, and desktop.

Some prices for wireless cards for your laptop are:
- Verizon Wireless 5720 Built-in Mobile Broadband (CDMA EV-DO Rev A)- $149.99
- IBM THINKPAD T61 R61 X61 Verizon EVDO WWAN Card 42T0929- $149.99
- Verizon Wireless PC5740 Aircard (Sprint PCS)- $69.99
- Verizon Novatel V620 EV-DO PC Card wireless- $154.99
- Verizon Wireless Express Card - KPC680- $24.99