E-Readers: Turning a Digital Page

While the purist may frown upon the idea of reading digital books, digital reading does have many advantages and e-book readers are now slowly gaining popularity.

Flipping through the pages, the smell of ink, the feel of the paper, the fonts, the style, layout, the colors, and the cover all add to the reading experience. However, these days instead of pouring over big tomes, you will find people peering over their e-book readers or smartphones. In the digital age, laying your hands on the latest bestseller will take a whole new meaning. It would mean simply downloading the book from Amazon or another digital distribution service, rather than going to the bookstore to get your copy. Digitized books have revolutionalised the way we read. However, this is not a recent phenomenon. The journey of digitized books or e-books began in 1971 with the launch of Project Gutenberg, which was an eff ort to digitize and archive cultural works. It’s the oldest digital library and has well over 34,000 titles available for free. The fi rst e-book reader was launched in 1998. The intelligent reading system, SoftBook, was developed by SoftBook Press Inc in the US. Even though the e-book readers have been around for a long time, they gained popularity only recently with the launch of Amazon’s Kindle. Prior to that, e-book readers were limited to a niche and did not gain much popularity mainly due to lack of content. Another factor that has fueled the popularity is the growing number of smartphones. These phones come equipped with PDF readers, which is also a popular format for e-books. This has resulted in an increase in the number books, newspapers, and magazines being adapted for e-book readers and smartphones. E-readers take reading to a whole new level by allowing you to customize font size, brightness, contrast, etc. for ease of reading. You can even look up meanings of words, search for text throughout the book, highlight text, add notes, and much more. Some e-readers also have a text to speech feature, which can be an added advantage. Additionally, most e-readers are Wi-Fi enabled so you can even browse the Internet, watch videos, and play music on them.

E-Ink or LCD Screen?

There are two categories of e-readers available in the market; one uses e-ink technology, while the other uses an LCD display. An e-reader that makes use of e-ink or electronic ink technology, which gives the impression of a real paper thanks to its 16-level grayscale. Also referred to as electronic paper display, it consumes far lesser power compared to an LCD display. Another advantage is the fact that it doesn't have a backlight and so it doesn't emit a glare. As a result, you can comfortably read outdoors even in bright sunlight. However, the fact that it does not have a backlight makes it a bit diffi cult to read in low light, but this can be resolved by using a clip-on light. The biggest disadvantage of e-ink is that it is only available in grayscale. This works fi ne for novels, but when it comes to newspapers, magazines or even books for children, it could spoil the fun. The makers of e-ink have launched its e-ink color screen Triton, but it remains to be seen how soon it will be adapted. On the other hand, devices like the Apple iPad or the Nook Color from Barnes & Noble use the LCD technology to provide a color display, but the LCD screen gives out a lot of glare. They use refl ective screens, almost turning the surface into a mirror and making it impossible to read outdoors. Available Content Internationally, almost all major newspapers and magazines are already available for e-readers on a subscription basis. Recently Richard Branson of the Virgin Group launched a fi rst-of-its-kind iPad-only magazine, Project. If reports are to be believed, media magnate Rupert Murdoch is also set to launch an iPad newspaper called The Daily. Further fueling this fi re is the announcement from search giant Google that it will

introduce Google Editions by year-end, which will allow users to buy e-books, store them online and then read them from any computing device with an Internet connection. Finding content for your e-reader shouldn’t be a problem. For Kindle, you can source content from Amazon’s extensive collection. You can easily order

e-books from around the world through Amazon’s Wishpernet. You can even read the e-books purchased from Amazon on your iPad with the help of the Kindle app. These e-readers support the PDF format so you can even directly upload PDF’s that you have downloaded online from various sources. From the Indian perspective, there is still a long way to go when it comes to local content in digital form. As of now, publications like Tehelka, Seminar, India Today, Business Today and newspapers like Indian Express, Hindustan Times, Mint, and The Financial Express are available for e-readers. Apart from that, Indian manufacturers who have launched e-readers have strategic tieups with major publishers and off er good discounts on newly published novels. Another major plus point is that they even support local Indian languages. Wink, one such Indian e-reader from EC Media, currently supports as many as fi ve local languages. “We plan to have 15 languages. As of now, Wink supports Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Marathi. Our content spans various subjects and genres and from all leading publishers, Indian as well as international. The content is being constantly updated by signing up with publishers, and we propose to add

about 5,000 books a quarter starting January 2011,” says Sirisha Voruganti, Vice President of Operations, EC Media International. On the other hand, the Pi e-reader from Infi beam came up with interesting features like self-publishing tools. Vishal Mehta, Founder and CEO of Infi beam. com says, “Infi beam.com has a selection of more than 5 lakh e-books from major publishers and authors, which can be read directly on our e-book reader Infi beam Pi. In addition, there is a selection of more than 1 crore e-books that can be read directly on Infi beam Pi for free since their copyrights have expired. Finally, we have our own digital publishing platform Indigi, where authors and publishers can provide digital versions of their books to be rights managed directly on any device, including Infi beam Pi, PCs and mobile phones. We have more than 2,000 authors and publishers in India who have submitted digital copies of their books, where physical versions are not available in any stores. These are exclusively available on Infi beam.com.”

Future of e-readers 

The trend of e-readers has been slow to catch on. People are slowly getting used to reading books and even newspapers online or on a smartphone, so buying a dedicated device for it isn’t too farfetched.

Bibliophiles may detest the idea e-readers as, for one, they don’t provide you with a sense of ownership. It’s not like owning an actual book, which you cherish and can go back to reading when you feel like. Still, e-readers are slowly gaining popularity, especially amongst the newer generation that is adept at handling gadgets. With parents agonizing over the fact that the younger generation shies away from reading books, an

e-reader can be the perfect solution. “The future looks good”, says Sirisha Voruganti, adding, “We believe e-reading will pickup. I see corporations, including IT companies, schools and colleges, as well as the hospitality and airline industries keen on this for e-reading and e-learning. Also, the publishing industry incurs huge costs in preserving older books. E-reading overcomes all this. In addition, it also has a very strong ‘go green’ message.” According to Infi beam’s Vishal Mehta, it’s a win-win situation for all. “For customers, e-books are very convenient as one can download and start reading the book, newspaper or magazine instantaneously. With the e-ink screen, which is available on Infi beam Pi, one can get a reading experience similar to paper. For publishers, it is a superb solution as books never go out of stock. E-books provide superior value for customers, authors, publishers and retailers, so it is here to stay.”

Our New Blog : PC Tricks Yard released

Hello Users , 

    This is Personal post to all Our Avid readers, that our New Blog "PC TRICKS YARD" is registered on Blog-spot.com and the blog is well Active now on WWW.. 

   
    Through this Blog you can find unpopular, But most useful computer(PC) Tricks ..
    This blog contains (presently) more than 5 useful Labels that are - Windows7, Vista, Xp, MS office, Applications etc ... And the Blog contains of 3 usefull pages of our own that are Quicks tips, Myths debugged, Extra file store etc..

Blog URL - http://pctricksyard.blogspot.com   Click here to visit the Blog

by

CYBER INFO SCRIPTER

             

Careers in mobile game development

Careers in mobile gamedevelopment

Not all professions require you to compromise on your passions. Work and play have become
synonymous in many professions, and quite literally so in the case of game development. We
dive into the world of mobile game development to see how viable it is as a career option.

The ‘Jobs’ page at Indiagames.com is always populated
with new vacancies for game developers

Mobile game development is still a relatively small field in India. There aren't too many mobile game development fi rms and very few institutions actually off er courses dedicated to mobile game development. It is quite possible that the few students who do take up this career are simply enthusiasts who would like to convert mobile gaming into an occupation. Sumeet Shrivastava, Center Academic Head, Arena Animation (Andheri, Mumbai) says, “Most students who are interested in gaming careers have very little or no knowledge of what it takes to make a career out of it. There are several layers to the gaming industry, which also requires programming knowledge. However, students do enter the gaming field as character designers, level designers, game environment modeling artists, etc.”

AN INCREASE IN POPULARITY

Smackall Games is a another Mobile Game Development portal

Figures suggest that there is an upsurge in the field of mobile game development. This is quite evident with the large number of gaming domains that have taken roots all over the world. With home platforms such as the PC, Xbox 360, Wii, PS3 and PS2, and handheld devices like DS, PSP, iPhone and Android-based devices, aspiring developers are spoilt for choice as far as picking a singular career is concerned. And the addition of new technologies like Kinect for Xbox 360 and PlayStation Move for PS3 give game developers opportunities to expand

their horizons. However, when it comes to mobile games specifically, the scope is comparatively narrower, but by no means negligible. “A NASSCOM report projects the gaming market in the world (from the demand perspective) to grow from $21 billion in 2008 to $53.6 billion by 2012. The Indian gaming industry is expected to grow from $167 million in 2008 to $830 million by 2012,” says Sumeet. “Nowadays gaming has found various outlets like Xbox, PlayStation, mobile phones, and even DTH media. It looks interesting and students feel that it is a fun career option. So students tend to get attracted to this field very easily.”

IS IT THE RIGHT DECISION?

Making the right decision about your career solely depends on the kind of education you have

received, the passion you have for the job, and the growth opportunities. The curriculum at Arena

Multimedia makes it possible for any undergraduate to take up the course with a mere 10+2 education requirement. The Center Academic head explains, “While any 10+2 student can opt for a course in game or art design, a good game designer should have a passion for games and an eye for detail. Students also need to have a good sense of concept and visualization, composition, aesthetics and timing, storytelling, and an interest in research and experimentation. Students must also have good taste in music, a sense of rhythm, and sound

knowledge of colors and lighting.” Developing games may not always be fun. It can be quite stressful when you are faced with deadlines and when you battle program bugs. Most institutes

that provide game development courses in  India do not require you to have any significant prior
knowledge of the field. Mumbai University, among other noted universities, provides Advanced Java as an optional subject in a few courses that they offer. This lays the foundation for mobile game development.

EDUCATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS?

There’s a fair amount of learning and practice that goes in before you can embark upon a career
in game development. Sumeet summarizes the curriculum offered at Arena Multimedia. “The
course off ered from Arena Animation not only gives students an overview of the development
of computer games from their inception to the present day, but also prepares them to be an active part of game development. Through seminars, workshops and practical sessions, students are taught to effectively use visual storytelling.” “The course will help students acquire knowledge about the fundamentals of games, history of games, design and composition, drawing, concept visualization, storytelling techniques, character and environmental modeling, lighting and texturing, rigging, animation, use of motion capture data, 3D effects, sound design, user interface design, level design, etc. The curriculum is structured in a way that a trained student can use his creative and technical skills effectively.”

Is the PC dead?

Is the PC dead?

It has served us for decades, but the end is now approaching for desktop computers. Sleek 

mobile devices could replace the old fossils.

It seems as if Thomas J Watson was right after all: Watson, Chairman of the Board of IBM till 1956, had made this legendary quote: "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." This forecast has been ridiculed for a long time, but as far as the personal computer is concerned, it will soon be a reality. There is growing evidence that the PC era is coming to an end. With small, powerful machines, new freedoms that users want, and new services that make computing omnipresent like oxygen, the digital world is transforming into something in which communication, data is readily accessible anywhere, anytime. Beginning of the end:
desktop computers are losing importance The classic PC that sits on a desk with a noisy fan is now too bulky for this new world—it’s too stationary and inflexible. The computer revolution might well be over; the concept itself has become outdated. It is now time for multifunctional mobile machines in the form of smartphones and ultra-slim media tablets that fit into the pockets of our jackets. They use computing power which is called on demand at any time and is always available like tap water. They form a new type of network that will possibly make the possession of today’s computers completely redundant. Considering that approximately 84 million PCs were sold worldwide in the first quarter of 2011, the view that the PC generation is over would seem far-fetched to some. But things change very quickly in the digital world. When IBM and the small company Microsoft signed a contract for developing an operating system for the planned IBM PC in November 1980, Bill Gates' secretary Miriam Lubow saw her young boss walking into the office in a three-piece suit one morning. Gates was usually dressed very casually; he occasionally had pizza crumbs on his t-shirt and his glasses were constantly blurred. Shortly after this, three men arrived in jeans and sneakers with thick briefcases. They said that they had come from IBM. The engineers had tried to adapt to the style of Gates—and Gates had done exactly the same. When they met in his office, they all began to laugh. But the smiles were soon wiped off the faces of the people at IBM. Given the sheer size of the company, what nobody could have imagined, happened. At the beginning of the nineties, IBM, which had practically pocketed the abbreviation PC as a brand name for its computer in the initial years, lost the market leadership to its competitor. Since the beginning of the new millennium, market research firms which closely follow the worldwide PC market, such as Gartner and IDC, have been seeing increasingly weak demand. The sales figures are declining; only notebooks and netbooks
have been doing well. People today need devices that are mobile, handy, and flexible thanks to a variety of available apps which can connect them to the Internet, allow them to have fun, and of course work at any time and any place. The trend is obvious, even if demand for low-cost conventional machines has been revived due to the financial crisis, the PC is dying.



Revolution: From heavy colossus to 
interconnected multimedia PC ...


The term “Personal Computer” was first used in October 1968 in the magazine Science, in an advertisement for a programmable calculator by Hewlett Packard, the HP 9100A. The device,
weighing 20 kg and costing US$ 4,900, had hardly anything in common with what was later referred to as the personal computer. It was soon clear that the PC revolution had nothing to do
with hardware. When the Apple computers came to the market, business people first thought
they were toys, but VisiCalc, the mother of all spreadsheet programs appeared in 1979 and changed the business world. Operating systems—first DOS, then Windows—in combination with a software suite for the office made Bill Gates the richest man in the world. The appeal of PCs was in the fact that everyone could now have a machine which could be transformed into an amazing number of devices with the help of software. At the beginning of the 90s, when the Internet found its way to the masses, the formerly islanded PCs got interconnected: and the PC, with a browser, was now something that led the people into a new world. iVolution: cell phones turn into computers At the same time, mobile telephony became suitable for mass consumption.
In the early and mid 90s, there were only a few hundred thousand cell phone users even in developed countries, but by the year 2000, millions more were coming on board. Now in the second decade of the 21st century and the rise of social media, it has turned out that we are no longer living in the information era but in a new communication era. These coexisting technological threads are best when bundled into one device: the smartphone. The flow of digital media is now in the process of turning into a part of our environment. We no longer want to remain in front of a desktop PC, we want to be completely digital. With stationary, heavy computers, this is not possible. Only post-PC technology will do. With the iPod (2001), iPhone (2007) and iPad (2010), Apple, the former pioneer of the personal computer, stepped out of its niche and became a trendsetter for digital entertainment and mobile Internet use. Apple showed
that operating a smartphone could be a pleasure, an important distinction from Microsoft, which was listlessly tinkering around with Windows Mobile. Steve Ballmer tried to fix the mess by simply defining tablets also as PCs. Apple, however, called these “post-PC devices”. Even until a few years ago, the PC was solid as a rock. But attacks had begun even in the eighties: viruses spread via floppy disks, long before the first Internet worms and malicious programs that spy on PCs or take control of them. Many consider the PC to be a digital counterpart of themselves, but the border between it and the network, ie the outside world, began to disappear— for better or for worse. Even while new viruses attempted to penetrate every defense, users were drawn to the Internet because of their curiosity. Scott McNealy, head of Sun Microsystems, once perkily declared that the classic PC was dead - "The network is the computer", he said. It was still too early in the nineties, but it’s actually happening today: the migration from the PC to the cloud, cloud computing, has begun. The PC loses its P. Large data centers comprising of thousands and thousands of interconnected, impersonal and easily substitutable computing resources,
are now increasingly available to the online community for use based on requirements.


 The future: miniaturization continues, 
  the interface falls behind


 If one looks into the future, something amazing appears to be emerging: hardware is disappearing, and only the functions remain. The always-and-everywhere network will ensure that you can always be online, and write, read, call, watch TV, listen to music, search, blog, all without having to carry around bulky equipment. With the miniaturization of components, a 20 kg PC can be reduced to such an extent that the technology moves inconspicuously in the background. Perhaps it will be integrated into the streetlights one day, and will be a part of a public infrastructure like today's increasingly common Wi-Fi hotspots. Instead of having to carry a notebook or a tablet around, one would then have the option to use instances of virtual screens, keyboards and other future ideas. There are already systems that project screen contents on any surface—clothes, palms, a park bench—and also cameras that detect where you are pointing and what gestures you are making. You use your hand instead of a mouse and just a small tinge of reflected light is enough to recognize
that something has to be done. The next step after post-PC technology is a completely new and intense feeling of ever-present, transparent communication. With a simple flick of the hand, whatever you need will be right there. What will remain then is only the recreation of an interface; the user interface of the device, which is the point at which doing anything a computer used to do, without a computer, will feel like a bit like magic.

HTC One X to hit UK on April 5

Fortunately those delay rumors turned out to be completely unfounded and the HTC One X is keeping nicely to its market availability schedule. O2 UK just confirmed though its Twitter account that it will be getting the next HTC flagship on April 5, which is mere three weeks away now.


We already knew the carrier was getting the smartphone, but now that we have a specific release date, it may be a good time to start saving. O2 refused to disclose the pricing of the smartphone, saying that it's too early for anything to be settled just yet, but some retailers have already spilled the beans on it.


The HTC One X will be available for free on a £36/month two-year contract or for £119.99 on the cheapest available, £26/month deal. An HTC MediaLink HD USB to HDMI adapter will be gifted to everyone, who pre-orders the smartphone.

Sadly, Pay as you go deals details aren't available just yet and we are suspecting those might not be available in the first weeks of the One X availability. We'll hope to find out more about that in the following days, so stay tuned.

Look for In Today’s Laptops

What to Look for
In Today’s Laptops

Before going shopping, you need to know which features come

standard these days, and which new technologies are worth the

money. Here’s what your next laptop should have.

Go online or walk into any store’s electronics section to find a laptop, and chances you will feel paralyzed at the sheer variety of laptops available. Most shoppers have a general idea of what their laptop should look like and what they want in terms of features, but are often intimidated by the sheer number and baffling complexities of the laptops available, which have grown to include terms such as netbooks and Ultrabooks, and small business (as opposed to enterprise) laptops. But don’t lose heart. This buying guide will point you in the right direction, whether you’re shopping for an ultraportable or something massive to replace your desktop, because your decision to buy what you thought was the perfectly configured laptop can suddenly be affected by unknown forces, such as a price changes. We’re here to help you get back into the right mindset, immediately spot the trends, and finally, bring home that perfect laptop for you.

Laptop Design is a Key Differentiator

Dell XPS 15z 

Sony VAIO VPC-Z214GX 

Plastic is still the most commonly used material in laptop frames, and while inexpensive, manufacturers have managed to turn them into art forms. The most common technique is a process called In-Mold Decoration (IMD)—a process made popular by HP, Toshiba, and Acer—in which decorative patterns are infused between plastic layers. This process has evolved into textures and etched imprints, where the patterns can be felt by running your fingers over them. In the end, though, plastics are often associated with cheap laptops. What you should be on the lookout for are designs that employ metal. The most common of those is aluminum, found in laptops such as the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch (Thunderbolt), Dell XPS 15z, and HP Envy 14 (Sandy Bridge. They have a more luxurious look and can be fashioned into a thinner chassis than plastic. In fact, a PC manufacturer would find it difficult to compete in this market without using this material in many of its laptops. Magnesium alloy is more commonly found in business laptops that place a strong emphasis on durability (check out our business laptop buying guide). Carbon fiber, which was used on the lid of the Sony VAIO VPC-Z214GX, is yet another attractive material, but is less used than aluminum and magnesium, as it is expensive to make.

Toshiba Portege R835- P50X 

 

Bigger Screen, Heavier Weight

Weight and screen size are directly correlated to one another. The cutoff point between a laptop that should stay permanently on your desk and one that can be a commuting companion is a 14-inch widescreen. There are exceptions, of course. The Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt) and Samsung RC512-S02 are two of the lightest 15-inch laptops—lighter, in fact, than some of the 14-inch ones in the market. A 13- or 14-inch widescreen means that you can still be productive without sacrificing portability. The Toshiba Portege R835- P50X and Sony VAIO VPC-SA2FGX/BI are prime examples of superb 13-inch laptops. Fourteen-inch models like the Asus U46EBAL5,

Asus U46EBAL5 

Alienware M17X 

Samsung QX411-W01, and HP Pavilion dm4-2070us offer a terrific blend offeatures and components, but they won’t weigh you down. Smaller than that, you’ll be venturing into netbook territory, which is an entirely different category of laptops. Get a screen larger than 14 inches and you’ll have to contend with deeper and wider dimensions, which your laptop bag may not have room for. Screen sizes that range between 16 and 18 inches are usually reserved for media centers, gaming rigs, and desktop replacements, such as the Acer Aspire AS8950G-9839 (18 inches) and Alienware M17X (Sandy Bridge) . These massive systems often have luxuries like high resolutions, hardcore gaming graphics, and a wealth of state of the art features.

What’s New in Laptop Technologies

Even the cheapest laptops come with many of the features you would find on a $2,000 laptop. Ample USB ports (3 to 4 minimum) are pretty standard nowadays. USB 3.0, which offers faster transfer speeds and greater connectivity bandwidths than USB 2.0, can already be found in laptop of all sizes. The port is usually colored in blue or

has the letters “SS” (Super Speed) labeled next to it. Apple, meanwhile, is touting its Thunderbolt technology, which carries transfer data rates that are even faster than USB 3.0. Look for a laptop with one of the USB ports doubling as an eSATA port, so you can expand storage capacity when the internal hard drive isn’t roomy enough. Most of the time, you won’t even use a port like eSATA since most laptops nowadays come with at least 500GB of storage (Netbooks are averaging 250GB-320GB). Upgrading to a 640GB-750GB hard drive won’t cost you an arm and a leg either, but do so only if you’re a video junkie or an aspiring video content creator. Most people don’t need all

that hard-drive space. Although VGA is still the most common way to present Powerpoint slides on a big screen, technologies like DisplayPort and HDMI are better equipped to stream high quality videos and audio. With the exception of netbooks and sub-$500 laptops, most laptops have an HDMI port or Display- Port. The Dell XPS 15z and Lenovo Thinkpad X1, for example, have both. Aside from 802.11 Wi-Fi, Mobile Broadband (3G), and Bluetooth, wireless technologies have grown to include two new ones. The first one is called WiMAX, a wireless broadband access technology that

provides performance throughputs similar to 802.11 Wi-Fi, except the coverage area

spans an entire city rather than one occupied by a house. These embedded chips can literally replace your current Internet package for less than you’re paying now. You can

Dell Latitude E6420 

Samsung RC512-S02 

 Apple MacBook Air 

HP Pavilion dv7-6163us 

find these chips in the Samsung RC512-S02, Dell Latitude E6420, and Lenovo ThinkPad X220. The other up-and-coming wireless technology is called Intel’s Wireless Display 2.0, or WiDi 2.0, for short, which is already in its second generation (the latest version supports 1080p video streams, protected content, and 5.1 surround sound). It’s very similar to a wireless version of HDMI, except there’s no dongle or piece hanging off of the USB port—the technology is built into the laptop. With WiDi 2.0, you can wirelessly connect your laptop to an HDTV, without the use of clunky VGA or HDMI cables. You do, however, need to purchase the Netgear Push2TV HD (PTV2000) receiver that has to be tethered to your HDTV. WiDi 2.0 is available in laptops like the Asus U56EBB L5, Toshiba R835-P50X, and Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990X. Unless you’re talking netbooks, a DVD burner is the de facto standard for internal optical drives. Blu-ray drives are coming down in prices, and you can find one in the Dell XPS 15, Samsung RC512-S02, and HP Pavilion dv7-6163us, for a reasonable price. Of course, the lack of an optical drive isn’t a deal breaker anymore, especially if you’re intent on minimizing weight. The Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) and Samsung Series 9, for instance, give you everything but the internal optical drive. A Webcam and a media card reader are already integral parts of any laptop or netbook, as video conferencing and digital photography are as common as surfing the Web. Once you check off all of these standard features, you can go on to look for ones that are specific to your individual needs.

Buying an Extended Warranty

Most laptops are backed by a complimentary 1-year parts and labor warranty. Asus and Costco sell laptops that come with standard two-year warranties. The standard warranty is a limited one, so it won’t cover accidents that stem from a spilled drink, a key that was scraped off by a finger nail, or a drop to a hard surface. Extended warranties are also available. Most laptop manufacturers also sell accidental coverage as a separate plan, on top of extended warranties that work on top of a standard one, so you might end up spending close to $300 for three years of comprehensive coverage. Apple offers a maximum 3-year extended warranty ($250), while most Windows-based laptop manufacturers will offer up to 4 years. Our rule of thumb is that if the warranty costs more than 15 percent of the laptop, you’re better off spending the money on backup drives or backup services that minimize downtime. Of course, you can’t put a price tag on peace of mind. There are instances when the logic board or the display— the most expensive pieces of a laptop— fail, and while rare, it can cost you half of what the laptop is worth. Faulty components usually break down during the first year; anything after that is probably your fault.

Weighing the Netbook Option

As the competition grows more fierce in the netbook category, these little laptops,

which were once considered mere Web -surfing and word-processing devices, are now being pegged as primary laptops for everyday tasks. Had you bought a netbook

a year ago, you would have been dealt a 10-inch widescreen, a small keyboard, and

a basic set of features. For less than $500 today, the HP Pavilion dm1z, Asus EeePC

1215N, and Lenovo ThinkPad X120e have screens that range between 11 and 12 inches, a full-size keyboard, and an HDMI port. Though smaller, the Toshiba mini NB 305- N600 and HP Mini 5103 have the best typing and navigating experience on a 10-inch platform. You’ll also find the Intel Atom platform, made up of the Atom processor, integrated graphics, and memory (usually 1GB) in many netbooks. The Intel Atom may not be the fastest processor, but it’s the most energy-efficient chip you can get on a netbook platform. The dual-core Atom, dubbed the Intel Atom N550 (1.5GHz), can

be found in a handful of netbooks, including the Asus EeePC 1015PEM , HP Mini 5103, and Acer Aspire One D260-1270. The fastest netbook processors, though not necessarily the most energy efficient, belong to AMD. The company has already made a strong impression in the netbook market, with its chips performing as well if not better than their Intel counterparts. Many of these netbooks will run fine on 1GB of memory, and many of them, especially the AMD-equipped ones, ship with 2GB to 4GB of memory. As for operating systems, netbooks are almost exclusively Windows 7, either Starter Edition or Home Premium (AMD netbooks ship with Home Premium). Netbook batteries start with 3-cell (30Wh) units, but many netbooks are now standardizing on 6-cell batteries. Our battery tests have shown that the smaller batteries will get you anywhere from 3-4 hours of battery life on a single charge, while the bigger ones range between 7-9 hours. If your activities include trips abroad and allday classes, consider looking for netbooks that ship with 6-cell options.

New Intel Technology Already Here

As for the rest of the laptop market, the most dominant processor chips come from Intel. For instance, you can choose one that maximizes performance or one that favors battery life. Or you can choose one that plays to both strengths: The Second Generation

(codenamed Sandy Bridge) Intel Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7s are currently the

most popular processor brands and have the benefits of both power and battery efficiency. If you desire all-day battery life, it’s best to go with a low-voltage or an Atom

processor, such as those found in the HP Pavilion dm3t and netbooks, respectively.

Intel also has quad-core Core i7s for laptops, which are ideal for performance

enthusiasts and avid gamers. AMD has its own multi-core processors as well (tripleor

quad-core), called the Phenoms. Most of these processors can be found in desktop

replacement, media centers, and gaming laptops. Unless you’re a part-time gamer or a CAD user, most students will find that integrated graphics is more than enough for graphics related tasks, even more so now with Intel’s Sandy Bridge technology (4 times graphics improvement over previous version). Highend graphics cards are terrific for 3D games, transcoding a 1080p video, or watching a Blu-ray movie, but like a fast processor, they also feast on the battery. Nvidia (Optimus) and Apple (Automatic Graphics Switching) have technologies that leverage two graphics chips—an integrated and a discrete version— and the switch is done seamlessly, depending on what application the laptop is running. You can find switchable graphics technologies in laptops like the Dell XPS 15z and Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch (Thunderbolt). AMD has its own switching graphics technology, too, although the switch is done manually, in software.

Battery Life

A big battery can be your biggest ally on a travel-hectic day. Many laptops, including netbooks, are sold with multiple battery options. Apple laptops, on the other hand,

have non-removable batteries, but they’re bigger than the average ones. In this case,

figure out where battery life ranks in the grand scheme of things. For instance,  mainstream laptops come with a 6-cell battery option, which lasts between 5 to 7 hours on a single charge, while ultraportables and business laptops tend to have multiple battery options that, when used in tandem, can easily surpass the 10-hour mark. It’s always a good idea to look into additional batteries, especially if you spend more time on the road than you do in the office or at home. You should also look at the battery’s capacity, which is usually measured in Watt-hours. Two batteries claiming to be 6-cells can have different capacities. A big battery is accompanied by some heft, but the weight gain is worth it if it means you can leave the system unplugged from dawn ’til dusk.