Following on from the claim by Dell that some models in its new Latitude range can be configured to provide a 19 hour on battery life, comes HP’s announcement that its new HP EliteBook 6930p can be configured to deliver “all-day computing”.  Well of course hardware vendors in the computing world are always making big claims for their products, but what is the real story behind these claims?

With the Dell Latitude you need to have opt for a 9 cell battery instead of the standard 6 cell battery and purchase a 12 cell slice. This slice is a separate “slice” of laptop that fits beneath the laptop effectively giving you over three times the normal battery capacity.  Well it is a similar story with the HP in that you have to purchase a 12 cell ultra-capacity battery.

The story is slightly different though in that HP are providing optional energy efficient components, rather than massive battery power, as part of the mix which have to be selected to meet the all day computing goal. The technologies include solid-state hard drives (SSD) and LED displays. The SSD drives can reduce energy requirements by around 7% (and are also significantly faster and much less likely to fail) while the LED displays will also increase battery life substantially. To get HP’s claimed performance you have to choose these optional components which will obviously have a significant upward impact on the final cost.

However both of these components I expect to see become much more common in laptops in the near future, so I am giving the kudos points to HP.  The new HP Elitebook will be available from next month, however the Dell Latitude E6400 is now available through PriceGrabber.

Last week after a fair amount of expectant hype Apple announced an updated iPod range with new versions across every model. The biggest changes where reserved for the new Nano which got a new shape, a whole range of colours and some neat new features courtesy of the accelerometer previously only seen in the iPhone and iPod Touch. The Nano is also now apparently much more eco-friendly with Apple claiming it is now “very recyclable”.

IPod Touch

The second generation iPod Touch was also announced and if you read this blog on a regular basis you will know I believe the iPhone and iPod Touch to be a computing platform and the closest we have come yet to reaching convergence of phone/computer/media player/games machine into one unit.  This release is more of an evolution rather than a revolution with some fairly minor updates. The iTouch is now thinner, has been given a built in speaker and boasts new separate volume control buttons on the side. The volume controls are an important addition as on the older version if an applications available on the App store didn’t provide a “soft” control you had no way to control the output volume.

WiFi and App Store

The thing that in my mind though that really makes this platform more attractive is the combination of best in class WiFi Internet access and the ever increasing offerings, from games to small business applications, that are available from the App Store.  Of course these are available on the old model as well, so there is probably nothing new that would require an upgrade from an old version. But the fact that new version is being sold cheaper then the old suggests that there will be some good reductions on the older models of the iPod Touch over the next month or so.

Well the big news in the computing world recently is that Google have announced a new web browser which is available as a beta download from their website.  Google’s surprise new web browser is called Google Chrome and is according to Google built from scratch to meet the demands of todays Internet.

Re use and open source

Actually built from scratch is not entirely accurate as it reuses a number of existing open source technologies, including Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox. In fact the new browser is also going to be open source,  but why a new browser? Well as Google’s blog explains:

We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.

So what are the new things that have resulted from this complete rethink?  Well probably the main thing is that it allows for a multi-threaded approach which will allows each tab to run as a separate process. This will mean it is more memory efficient, should make it more stable and limits any problem to a specific tab only and not the whole browser.  The same split by tab approach is applied to security as well.

So one big question is of course why a new browser? Why not just continue or build on its current support for Firefox? Well presumably Google will optimise their new browser to work well with Gmail and Google Docs and their other web based products and they felt that the rewrite was needed to deliver this.

Of course browsers mean computers so I thought I would finish this post by pointing out the Sony VAIO VGN-AR71M Notebook a featured laptop on PriceGrabber at present.

I know that it must seem like we have been having a bit of a Asus fest over the last few weeks on this blog but I do think think that Asus is one of the vendors who are doing interesting things at present. Today I have one more blog about Asus before we move on to something else for a while, I promise!

Asus Eee Box

Along with all their new releases of netbooks under the Eee brand Asus have also announced a mini desktop computer similar in concept to the Mac Mini but of course, like the Eee PC netbooks, for a cheaper price.  The product, to be called the Eee Box, offers similar capabilities to the newest of the netbook range and runs off Intel’s Atom processor. It has been designed with a small but interesting angled case that will eventually be available in various colours. The unit measures just 23 by 18 by 3 cm so it will fit on your desk quite nicely. An interesting twist is that Asus is selling the feature that you can attach it to, and therefore hide it on, the back of any LCD monitor with the supplied VESA mount.

Entertainment Hub?

Asus is suggesting the box can act as a entertainment hub, but I am not so sure, as to be complete for this role I would have expected a DVD player to be included. Yes you can stream content but I do think it is a major gap in this units capabilities.  The Eee Box is currently due to be launched in the UK in September and should retail for around £200.  The initial versions will only be running Windows XP but Linux versions are likely in the future and like the Mac mini you’ll have to provide your own keyboard, mouse and monitor.

In the meantime the black Windows version of the Eee PC 901 is the most popular computer product on Pricegrabber and the rest of the Eee family are not far behind!

Do you think that the Eee Box will be as successful as the Eee PC?

At their developers forum in San Francisco Intel released details of their new processor that will form the basis of their new products from next year onwards.  With the official name of Core i7 the chips will begin to appear in laptops, desktops and servers during 2009.  We have become fairly used the never ending performance increases implied by Moore’s law when talking about new processors, so what is new or different about the Core i7 processor?

Performance and energy efficiency

Intel are trying to both increase performance and reduce power consumption at the same time. This is a neat trick if it can be managed as usually there is a trade off between one or the other. Intel will increase performance through putting more multiple processing cores on a single chip while at the same time increasing the memory to processor performance by removing the FSB bottleneck (which is something AMD have done for a while). At the same time the processor will reduce energy requirements by having the ability to turn off any processing cores on the chip that are not actually being used.

In the meantime

Of course in the meantime the world continues to turn, so if you are looking for an new processor you could do worse than look at the popular and highly rated Intel Core 2 Duo Quad Q6600 Processor. As time goes on more applications exist to take advantage of the Quad and this processor would be ideal for someone that needs good multi-tasking performance.

Dell last week announced the release of a new range of its Latitude business range of laptop computers which we looked at in a previous post. One of the ways that Dell is seeking to differentiate its laptops from those of other vendors is through something called Dell Latitude ON. This feature allows access to e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and the Internet very quickly without actually booting into Windows Vista.

The idea

The idea is that a lot of the time, e-mail, the Internet and chat are all we want to do with our laptop, so if you have the ability to do that without having to wait minutes (although it is always seems like hours) for our laptop to boot up that would be a very compelling feature, especially if your on the move a lot. Also by using this feature you are using very little power potentially having a very positive effect on battery life.

How it works

I promised in the previous post that I would investigate how this is achieved. It would appear that the Latitudes that support this feature (not all do) will utilise a completely separate dedicated, Linux subsystem using  a low-power ARM processor and flash memory. This will run completely  independently from the laptop’s main CPU and storage. The custom Linux OS Enterprise will includes a Firefox-based browser and email, calendar, and contacts applications as well as MS Office and PDF viewers to view attachments.  As far as I understand on board data is not accessed locally so data has to be pulled from a central source via a wireless connection.

Dell appears to have got a head start on the other mainstream vendors although Asus have been playing with something similar for a while. These “instant on” operating systems seem like they could be really useful and is something that we may see grow in importance over the next few years. What do you think?

In the meantime the existing Dell Latitude range are presently available with some nice discounts, of which the Dell Latitude D630C is a nice example (follow the shop link to see the discounts).

Dell has this week announced the release of a new range of its Latitude business range of laptop computers. Nothing too strange about that you might think, vendors are always coming out with new releases of their products as technology advances and prices come down. But this is a little different if Dells claims are true, in that these systems are capable of 19 hours battery life!

Of course battery life claims by the laptop vendors always seem to be optimistic to say the least, but a 19 hour claim is huge. After further research I found that to reach this goal you will need to have opted for a 9 cell battery instead of the standard 6 cell battery and purchase what Dell calls a 12 cell slice. This slice is a separate “slice” of laptop that fits beneath the laptop effectively giving you over three times the normal battery capacity. Still if battery life is important to you this might be a nice solution for you.

Other things that Dell offer do not appear to be big steps over the competition but this is what you would expect in such a commodatised marketplace. However there are some nice touches with things like an ability to provide access to e-mail, calendar, attachments, contacts and the Internet without actually booting into Windows.  More on this in a later post. Other nice touches include LED-backlit displays, backlit keyboards, and USB ports that can charge cell phones and MP3 players even when the system is powered off.

All in all a competent new range of business laptops. What this means is in the short term though is that you can get some real nice deals on the existing models. The Dell Latitude D400 range is selling at about a 20% discount if you follow the links through from the PriceGrabber website.  The Dell Latitude D4300 is presently a good example of such a nice bargain.

There have been a number of recent reports in the UK press about a potentially huge number of unsafe chargers, for all sorts of consumer devices, presently available both online and on the high street. The concern is that these devices are prone to overheating potentially leading to fires or are badly wired leading to a risk of electrocution. Another concern is that they are often sold without standard UK plug fittings which means that they do not fit well in UK wall sockets or require a dodgy set up with some sort of adapter.

Buying safe chargers online

So what are some of the ways that you can mitigate the risk of buying a low quality and potential dangerous charger online?

• Firstly I think that where possible you should only buy a charger that comes with a standard UK 3 pin plug if you are go to plug it into the mains (obviously different if you are buying a car charger). This will at least ensure that they fit properly in the plug socket.
• Secondly buy your charger from a trusted manufacturer or retailer. Either from the original manufacturer of the device you want to use the charger with, or if that is not available a well known specialist manufacturer or retailer. The quality processes of these companies will be better and this will significantly reduce the risk. An example might be the Griffin Tech AC adapter/charger for the iPod.
• Thirdly be prepared to spend a little bit more money. We are only talking about something like a tenner here, you won’t miss it once it is spent and you don’t want to end up regretting making a cheap purchase.
• Lastly it is probably a good idea to also make sure you buy a good quality travel adapter for when traveling overseas.

Following these rules should help but you actually might find it is harder than you think! Anyway if ever find your charger appears to be getting much too hot, or it rattles when you shake it, indicating something is broken. Then throw it away and get another one, it is not worth the risk.

Have you any ideas on how to safely buy chargers online?

Are devices like this mouse above about to become extinct? There was an interesting article on the BBC Technology web pages yesterday reporting on how a Gartner analyst was forecasting the death of the computer mouse.  The gist of the analyst’s argument appears to be that, because of all the progress that has been made with new interfaces such as multi-touch and the innovations we are seeing from the gaming world, within 3 or 5 years we will have seen the mouse disappear.

Well I do agree that we are seeing a growth of new and successful ways of interacting with our computers, especially in gaming, the enormous success of the Nintendo Wii is testament to that.  But no one has used a mouse with a games console from the start, and I can’t yet see a 3D mouse being significantly more effective than a standard 2D mouse.  Multi-touch interfaces are now becoming more mainstream and readers of this blog will know that I am a fan of Apple’s touch interface.

Multi-touch makes sense on a consumer devices like a phone which has a flat surface, but on vertical computer screens it actually does not make too much sense. I do not want to be continuously lifting my arms to jab at a computer screen.  I believe that it is not the input devices alone that will have to change it is the computer as a whole that will need to evolve, including screens, input devices and the software.

So my feeling is that a computer mouse will be on yours and my desk for a long while yet.  The Logitech MX Revolution Cordless laser being my favourite at the moment.

What do you think? Is the computer mouse going to become extinct soon?

The big news from yesterday of course is the release by Apple of the next generation of the groundbreaking iPhone. So why should we be interested in the iPhone on a computing blog like Blogbytes? Well it is because of the growing importance of mobile computing and the convergence between the “normal” computing world and that of the mobile phone. The iPhone is a innovative computing platform that is leading this convergence and pulling all the established players with it. My feeling is that Apple do appear to have got it right this time around, answering the majority of criticisms of the initial version.

What’s new? 

So what is new? Well first off it is a 3G device which means that data download on mobile networks speeds will be significantly improved. The lack of 3G was probably the major criticism of the original model, after all how could you truly make use of all the innovative features of the platform if everything just crawled? Secondly there is built in GPS which will tie into the growing area of location services - providing information and services based on your actual location. Thirdly Apple is beginning to add features that will appeal to corporate users providing features that will provide syncing with Microsoft Exchange,  allowing it compete with the Blackberry.

The other major aspect which is new is the price. Apple announced that the new device will only cost $199 in the US and a similar price in all other countries. (UK prices are expected to be released tomorrow). This is a huge price drop compared to the original price and may leave early adopters feeling a little deflated. The new price appears to be a recognition by Apple that the price was the big blocker to a significant uptake by people who were interested in the device but didn’t actually go ahead and get one. There is likely also a recognition that the competition is only going to grow. All in all at this price the iPhone does seem to be a much more complete package with a price that is more sensible, moving it away from just being an expensive toy and broadening its appeal.

Now even with the new prices you still might find it a little out of reach. If you want access to the majority of the capabilities of the platform, but are perfectly happy with your six year old Nokia mobile phone then the iPod Touch is the way to go.

Do you think Apple have got things right this time?