This post was written by Maureen Jones
On PCMag.com, Erik Rhey shares certain tips to extend the life of your laptop battery. Rhey says that apart from the usual tips that most of us know, there are few more tips that can help you get more minutes per charge.
- Turn off ports. Disabling unused ports and components, such as VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, USB, and yes, your wireless, too. You can do this through the Device Manager or by configuring a separate hardware profile (see next step).
- Create Power-Saving Hardware Profiles. Configure your laptop for the various scenarios in which you use it (on a plane, at the coffee shop, at the office, and so on). You can do this through the Hardware Profiles menu by right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Preferences or by using a freeware utility such as SparkleXP (for Windows XP users).
- Configure your display to turn off when not in use. This is different from just using a screensaver, because in many cases a screensaver still requires the display’s backlight to be on. You can set the interval to turn the display off in Windows’ Power Options—found in the Control Panel.
Read the full article here
Hewlett Packard has listed a budget business laptop called the HP 550 on its product site. The HP 550 laptop has inexpensive Core 2 Duos and Celerons as its processors, apart from an Intel GMA X3100 graphics, an option between a combo optical drive or DVD burner, a 15.4-inch diagonal WXGA Brightview display and a maximum of 4GB of RAM and 250GB of hard drive storage. Apart from these components, the HP 550 also features an 802.11 Wi-Fi, an Ethernet LAN and a built-in 56K modem.
PC security products currently comprise a minor line in Greater China’s supply market for computer peripherals and related products. Makers expect market growth to be driven by the bullish laptop market and the growing need for security, particularly for notebook PCs that are easily stolen. A growing number of suppliers in mainland China expect the increase in laptop supply worldwide will translate into rising production of different peripheral products, including PC security products.
In PCWorld, Christopher Null said that replacing an old, slow processor in your laptop with new one can result in an exceptional boost in speed. Before upgrading, make sure that your laptop does not have non-replaceable, soldered-in CPUs and the new CPU is compatible with your portable. Be sure to consult your laptop’s service manual before attempting to open up your machine. Also, make sure to guard your hardware against possible electrostatic discharge by wearing an antistatic wrist strap whenever you handle any internal components.
Hewlett-Packard, a leading global IT company has recently announced the launch of its two, 12-inch EliteBooks for business travelers. The company launched its pint-sized business laptops - the EliteBook 2530p and the convertible tablet EliteBook 2730p and also a refreshed HP Compaq 2710p at Intel’s Developers Forum (IDF) 2008. Nowadays, frequent business travelers are also known as elitists, hence the name Elitebook is derived. Despite a miniature size frame and weighing at roughly 3.2 pounds, the model 2530p features anodized aluminum—the new business looks for the EliteBooks. HP also incorporated a 12-inch LED widescreen for its 2530p, new Centrino 2 processors, built-in DVD burner, which can be removed only to be replaced by a second 1.8-inch hard drive. As the primary drive is concerned, the 2530p has enough room for either1.8 inch or a 2.5-inch hard drive.