Archive for the ‘Computers’ Category:
How to select the right computer keyboard for your needs and budget
Of all the components of your computer system, your computer keyboard is the piece that most frequently needs replacement. When you go shopping for a new keyboard, it’s best to go to a large office supply which carries computers and components. You’ll find that there’s perhaps a dozen or more to choose from, with prices ranging from as little as $10 to $150 or more. So how do you determine which computer keyboard meets your needs as well as your budget? What’s the difference between the cheap basic unit versus the pricey keyboard? Here we provide some guidelines on choosing a keyboard which suits your purpose – and wallet.
If you don’t spend a lot of time at your computer and don’t have a medical condition such as Carpal Tunnel syndrome, which makes the ergonomic keyboard a necessity for comfort’s sake, that cheap $10 computer keyboard may be your best bet. I’ve bought several of these cheap keyboards over a period of years and found that they generally perform well for at least a year. The only drawback (as with any keyboard) is that when they give up the ghost, it’s without warning. However, at that price, it’s easy enough to buy two, with the second as a backup. That strategy gives you uninterrupted service, so you’re not caught at midnight in the middle of typing an important, time sensitive document with a dead keyboard.
Now, let’s take a look at the pricier computer keyboards, with all the bells and whistles you could imagine, with sleek designs, lighted keyboards and faux stainless steel detailing. Are they worth the price? Perhaps.
If the intended user is a youngster, the cheap unit is probably the way to go. A spilled soda or a bit of peanut butter, finding it’s way on to the keyboard, does nothing to add to the life of this component, so the fancy and expensive keyboard will be just as dead as the cheap model, but not so easily replaced.
On the other hand, if you’re a pro who gives that computer keyboard a heavy, daily workout, the pricey unit may be worth the investment. Some of the features may allow you to work faster and provide more efficient use. It’s also likely that the more expensive model is of sturdier construction and will undoubtedly last longer than the $10 model. However, you’ve got to understand that some of the additional features are purely cosmetic, while other features are essentially unnecessary to your needs.
Before you make your selection, check the ‘features card’ which is displayed above each model to see what each unit has that another, cheaper unit does not. Some of the descriptions may entail a long list of features, many of which you don’t even understand. When you’ve narrowed your choices, ask a sales person to explain the benefits of those features. Don’t let the sales person talk you into purchasing an expensive computer keyboard with ‘features’ you really don’t need.
In any case, if you should decide that expensive computer keyboard is what you need, it’s always a good idea to buy one of those $10 models as an emergency backup, so you don’t find yourself in that midnight panic, not knowing how you’re going to finish that presentation or essay due at 9:00am! Let your common sense prevail!
 | US $3,400.00 End Date: Friday Mar-26-2010 12:49:50 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $3,400.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,777.55 End Date: Thursday Apr-01-2010 19:08:44 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,777.55 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,195.00 End Date: Tuesday Mar-16-2010 13:03:41 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,195.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,195.00 End Date: Tuesday Mar-16-2010 15:41:26 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,195.00 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
Tags: computer keyboard
How to find the best laptop buy for you
Now that the holidays are over, it’s an excellent time to go shopping for that new laptop. Most retailers didn’t enjoy a booming sales season, so now is when you’re apt to find the best prices. The problem for most of us is being able to discern just what we need, in terms of memory, disc space, features and the built-in applications we’ll actually use. Now, there’s also a tendency for manufacturers to include trial versions of some of the most used applications, such as malware, virus and spyware protection, as well as the big-name word processors – which incidentally carry a hefty price tag which you must pay after the trial period expires. (Unless you pay, the software becomes basically read-only.) If you’re not yourself a geek and worse, don’t know one, how are you to determine which machine constitutes the best laptop buy? Here we’ve got some guidance to help you get the best value for your purchase.
First, you’ll want to get online and do a little comparison shopping between websites. Most online electronic shops show the most expensive and feature packed units on page one of the results. However, they also usually have a ’sort’ button, somewhere at the top right hand section of the page, which gives you a number of choices in the way you’d like your list sorted. For example, by price, high-to-low or low-to-high, by manufacturer and so on. You may find your best laptop buy on page one – then again, the super deal, at the perfect price and with just the applications you’re looking for, may be way back on page 5. Start saving the web pages (in a separate directory on your hard disk), which look like the qualifying best laptop buys, in terms of price and features. This way, you can go through each and compare descriptions and prices at your leisure.
When you do start reviewing these pages, make notes of features you’re not familiar with, or aren’t even sure you’d use. List the manufacturer, price and model number, along with the descriptor you’re puzzling over. You may find that you end up with several potential best laptop buys – once you’ve defined exactly what those strange features in your notes mean!
Take your list to one of the big local electronic stores and ask to speak to a staff person who can answer your questions on a few different laptops. This approach gives you an advantage, in that the sales person is going to skip the hard sell, assuming you know what you’re talking about, as well as perceiving the whiff of a sale coming his or her way. Go from machine to machine and get all your questions answered. If a particular salesperson can’t answer your questions, ask for someone who can.
If the online shop which stocks your final choice of the best laptop buy offers free shipping at a certain price ceiling, then you’ll want to ask the local shop if they can match the online shop’s price. You can be assured they’ll certainly try!
Once you clearly understand all of the features on your question list and have decided which manufacturer and model best meets your needs, you’re ready to buy. Your best laptop buy is the one with the features you’ll need and the best price.
 | US $700.00 (1 Bid) End Date: Thursday Mar-11-2010 21:54:43 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
 | US $375.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Friday Mar-12-2010 8:16:39 PST Buy It Now for only: US $425.00 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $369.99 End Date: Monday Mar-15-2010 20:36:06 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $369.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $106.95 End Date: Thursday Apr-08-2010 17:00:41 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $106.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
The New Snow Leopard Macintosh OS
When you pick a television, a kitchen appliance or anything, you buy it, you expect to use it for a good long time and that is all. If a while from now there is a better model of television by a competing brand, you buy that instead the next time around. When you buy an operating system though, you commit to a concept. And you choose to commit more money to buying compatible software and to buying all the future iterations of it too. Every time there is a new version of the Macintosh OS or the Windows OS out, you can be sure that pretty soon, the software you need to use will need the features of the new OS and you will be forced to upgrade.
So making new versions is good business for the company that makes the OS; it’s just that with an OS, they can’t just change the cosmetic shape of the product as they would in a kitchen appliance or a car ;to pretend to you that they have a new model. They have to give you actual new features. Now who has enough ideas to improve productivity with a bunch of new meaningful features once every couple of years – that’s a tall order for even for the creative folks behind the Macintosh OS ? What they do instead is to put out a new OS with a bunch of poorly thought-out features that are complicated to use, and that slow things down. A prime case in point is Windows Vista.
This has been a good year for those who lament this way of life with all software and OS design. Both Microsoft and Apple realized this year that “streamlined and well- organized” were the qualities to go for, over “long feature list and complicated”. On Windows 7 in October and the new Macintosh OS Snow Leopard in the middle of this year, the focus has not been on having a lot of new features to sell: it has been on streamlining what was already there. Windows 7 has tried to organize and polish up Windows Vista properly, and Apple has done the same for its Leopard OS, calling the results Snow Leopard.
The two most surprising qualities about Snow Leopard are the facts that they really streamlined it . It takes 6 GB less of hard disk space than Leopard, and Snow Leopard costs only $29. It looks like they streamlined everything. The smaller physical size of the new Snow Leopard Macintosh OS has a lot of pluses. It installs 45% faster, and starts up and shuts down about 1 1/2 times as fast, it latches on to WiFi faster too. Of course it isn’t like there are no new features at all; there are a few.
Some of the new features on the Snow Leopard Macintosh OS include a native video editing application that obviates the need for QuickTime Pro, a video chat ability that so compresses videos they make it even through a ordinary DSL line and intelligent PDF creation. Why would Apple sell it for a mere $29? Perhaps this is something they have learned from their time selling apps on the iPhone app store. When an app costs five dollars, only a hundred people will buy it. When it costs one dollar, about a thousand times as many people will buy it with no thought at all. That is more profit for everyone.
 | US $1,205.00 (8 Bids) End Date: Friday Mar-12-2010 7:57:42 PST Bid now | Add to watch list |
 | US $1,149.99 End Date: Wednesday Mar-31-2010 22:18:47 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $1,149.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $349.95 End Date: Saturday Apr-03-2010 15:04:27 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $349.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
 | US $347.99 End Date: Saturday Apr-03-2010 15:13:39 PDT Buy It Now for only: US $347.99 Buy it now | Add to watch list |
