Apple Initiates Macbook Pro Battery Recall Program
Watch out MacBook Pro users, as there is now a more or less full blown Battery Exchange Program for the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
So, got a MacBook Pro from between February through May of this year? Check your battery out, because if you’ve got a model A1175 cell with a 12-digit serial number that ends in U7SA, U7SB or U7SC, then sign up, get that replacement shipped out, and send your old one back. Because who knows what might happen if you don’t, right?
It is good to hear that it is not only Dell having battery problems, and maybe this will help wipe a little more of the snobby look off of the face of Apple fans.
Source: Engadget
Laptops vs. Subnotebooks vs. Handhelds
Taorist, a friend of mine who’s looking forward to a lucrative career in pro-blogging asked me for advice on a gadget he’s planning to purchase. He’s looking into buying either a Palm-based handheld computer or a laptop. Budget’s a bit tight, he says, and he would make do with what’s available. Now I might be biased, but I responded with a resounding “Get a laptop!” Not that I’m saying handhelds are not good or anything like that. It’s just that you can do much more with a laptop as opposed to a handheld, which has limited processing and application capabilities.
This is especially so, if your gadget would be considered your primary computing machine (I think Taorist writes from the office computer). In my case, I have a desktop, but I still consider my laptop my primary work machine, especially for writing articles and reading websites (particularly while on the go). The desktop’s for games (and my wife uses it for her work)!
My Experience with Handhelds
I have nothing against handhelds, but for my purposes, I would think they wouldn’t be as useful for me as a full-fledged computer would be. I’ve had my share of using handheld computers and PDAs in my life, and this includes devices that ran on the PalmOS platform, Windows CE, Windows Mobile, and even gadgets that ran on their own proprietary OSes. They were meant more to be productivity tools rather than computing machines, and even then, they had their drawbacks when serving the “personal information management” function. In simpler terms, my life was just so cluttered that even the PIM functions of these PDAs couldn’t do the trick in helping me organize.
ZeroShock Sleeves for Your Laptop
Some people are happy with keeping and carrying their laptops in the default shoulder-bags that ship with the computers. Personally, however, I’m not so satisfied with these bags that laptops come with. For one, they’re large and bulky. Secondly, while they are adequately padded, they do not always fit your laptop snugly, hence there is a tendency for damage when, say, the bag is dropped or bumped.
I prefer purchasing third-party carrying cases that offer better portability and protection, such as the Samsonite Inventure backpack I reviewed a bit earlier. Some would prefer keeping their laptops on thid-party bags that weren’t intended for laptops at all, such as in canvas shoulderbags and messenger bags.
For any preferred mode of transport or storage, laptop users can always get added protection by using shock-absorbing sleeves, such as the Shinza ZeroShock sleeve. The ZeroShock sleeve is constructed from high-resistance polyurethane, which is more commonly known to have “memory” as the material will dent after absorbing shocks and compression and will retain that shape for a few minutes before reverting to the original state.
High-resistance polyurethane does not yield to external pressure as easily as neoprene or regular polyurethane foam. By compressing slowly and expanding slowly, high-resistance polyurethane is particularly adept at absorbing impact energy. Due to high-resistance polyurethane’s impact-absorbing properties, it is most often used in medical devices, car seats, acoustic devices, fruit transport packaging, and aerospace development applications. Applying this technology to notebook cases results in an unparalleled shock-absorption/weight ratio. Translation? Better protection for your notebook with less weight to lug around.
Apparently, this type of construction works great at distributing stress across a larger surface area, primarily through the sleeve itself (and not the laptop stored inside), resulting to better laptop protection. It’s akin to the concept of body armor (made of Kevlar or other newer material) absorbing the impact of a bullet and preventing it from penetrating the armor and the body of the wearer itself.
The Shinza Zeroshock sells for approximately US$ 30 (depending on the size) online at shinza.com.
Undervolting Your Laptop’s CPU
Laptops are only as portable as the battery life they can give you. Most of today’s Pentium-M and Core Solo/Core Duo systems have grown efficient at handling power-related issues, and can usually run upwards of three hours on each charge (the standard is usually four hours). The basic principle behind this is that the Pentium-M based processors have enhanced SpeedStep, which means the computer can adjust the processor’s clock speed to match the processing requirements of the applications being run at any time. AMD’s Turion 64 mobile chips also have their equivalent, and even the lower-end Sempron chips can halve their clock speeds when the demand for processing power is low.
However, those who use other chips, such as the less expensive Celeron-M, do not enjoy the power efficiency features of enhanced SpeedStep (or Power Now! for AMD). Hence, while processing power is at par with their higher-end counterparts, it is the battery life that suffers.
Also, even users who have machines based on the Pentium-M might want to tweak their systmems to squeeze out a further few minutes or hours of battery life. Or the issue might even be related to heat dissipation (which is indicative of inefficiency and loss).
I ran across an article on NordicHardware.com that describes how to undervolt a laptop’s CPU. The theory is that CPUs can actually run at a lower voltage than standard, and underpowering one’s chip can ideally lead to less consumption usually without much adverse effect on performance.
If you perform the undervolting correctly, calmly and if you decrease the CPU voltage step by step I can only say this; you have nothing to lose! … This will lower the amount of heat the CPU emits. This will result in a cooler system. And heat is always a problem when it comes to laptops.
So you get a colder laptop, which is nice if you like to keep it in your lap. The second problem with laptops is the battery time. When you lower the voltage of the CPU, it will not consume as much current! This of course leads to a longer battery time. In the end the difference could be a whole lot and were talking ten (or so) minutes and not a few trifling seconds. Would you say no if you got more time in front of your laptop?
Looking at undervolting in a long-term, a cooler CPU should give the computer a longer lifetime. Of course, we can’t know this in advance but there is always a possibility that the computer lives on a few years longer.
I’m currently trying out throttling my machine’s CPU. I use a Celeron-M, so my computer doesn’t have enhanced speedstep, nor can it support changing the voltage (like with the AMD Turion). However, I’ve installed the RM Clock utility, which enables CPU throttling for real-time or on-demand performance. So far, the utility tells me it’s able to throttle down the CPU frequency to as low as 300MHz, incrementing upward whenever processor load increases. I have yet to see gains in terms of battery performance, though, and I will post on my observations after a few days of real-world testing.
I’m aware some laptop manufacturers have their proprietary power-saving utilities, like Asus’ Power4 Gear utility. Anyone care to share his/her experiences with such utilities that help (or at least try to) maximize battery life?
Toshiba Satellite P105-S921 Review
As soon as you see an Editor’s Choice badge on one of Laptop Magazine’s reviews, you know you are in for an interesting read. They migh hand it out to a fair number of machines, but you can always tell why the machine deserves it.
They say it’s always the quiet ones that are the most dangerous. This very able dual-core gaming and media rig looks like a librarian of a notebook, albeit with a 17-inch widescreen display, but it boasts powerful Nvidia graphics along with a host of bells and whistles. With a price that hovers around $2,000, what’s not to like?
In the end they gave the P105-S921 a four out of five, and the Editor’s Choice sticker.
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pro V2060 Review
A budget notebook from Fujitsu comes the Amilo Pro V2060, a 15 inch LCD display with some older, but still good technology. Pocket-lint reviews the machine, and gives the whole company a thumbs up.
When it comes to notebooks, Fujitsu Siemens is something of a success story. Four years ago you’d have been hard pushed to find anyone who actually owned one of their machines. Today, they are the fourth biggest supplier in Europe and when it comes to choosing a powerful machine at an affordable price you have to take them seriously.
The Amilo Pro is a good case in point, which comes with a budget price of £599 (inc. VAT) but doesn’t scrimp on the components or the build quality.
In the end they give the V2060 a seven out of ten thanks to its price and four hour battery life, though it comes three points short of perfect because of its aging specifications.
India Rejects $100 One Laptop Per Child Project
I personally did not expect every region of the world to think the OLPC project was a golden opportunity to bring computer technology and communication into areas that can’t afford them, but I never expected a country to outright reject the platform as India has done.
The Indian Ministry of Education has been quoted as saying that the laptop was “paedagogically suspect” and that “We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools.”
He also goes on to say: “We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this.”
With Nigeria ordering one million of the OLPC laptops, I think they might get a little annoyed both by not being considered “major” and because if no one comes in and buys up enough to make sure the project continues forward they might have to wait for another cheap technology solution. As it stands now, another 4 to 9 million units have to be ordered before they will be put into production.
Dell Inspiron E1505 Review
Laptop Magazine reviews another of Dell’s offerings in the E1505, a notebook that is attempting to be everything for everyone.
If you’re on the hunt for a notebook that offers multimedia functionality without the usual multimedia premium, the Dell E1505 may be just what you’re looking for. This notebook’s dual-layer DVD burner, playback controls, and Windows XP Media Center OS make it a highly attractive, feature-rich package for students or cash-strapped professionals.
In the end its good multitasking performance, no-boot media player, decent speakers and long battey life (with extended battery) helps the Dell E1505 earn a 4 out of five. If you are wondering what the downsides are, the E1505 lacks a PC Card slot, is a little heavy, and has poor graphics performance at its maximum resolution.
A Few Thoughts on Warranties
One of the things we laptop buyers are asked numerous times before we purchase our new machine is if we want an extended warranty. Most people will cringe at the mention of one, but honestly, for some situations it is better to get one, than not, and it really depends on the company.
I have worked for a computer store that was horrible at honoring any type of warranty, and always made the purchaser go through the original manufacturer, and I have worked at a company where they nearly bent over backwards to support their customers. I have also been a customer, and had to RMA my laptop to fix an issue I was having with it. All of these experiences have helped me understand more about warranties, and the serious consideration they deserve.
How do you find out if the warranty will be beneficial for you?
When looking at purchasing a laptop, ask your friends and family about experiences they have had, or if they know anyone with experiences with the company you are looking at purchasing a laptop from. You may be able to find people with warranty horror stories that will help you avoid certain companies.
There are also many websites that talk about products, and many mention their warranties. One of the ones I like is Epinions, as it allows a wide group to report on their experiences with companies and products.
If you are buying the latest in technology or the start of a brand new run of a laptop, you should make sure you warranty it, as many first run devices have flaws that later become very apparent, even the first round of Apple MacBook Pro’s had many flaws, and I am sure when the next generation of optical drives and computer processors come out, there will be a larger group with flaws that have not come up in testing that they will need to work out. This says a lot for products that are tried and tested, and thus are a generation older.
How long should you warranty your laptop for?
When you buy a laptop, you probably put it on credit. If so, you have a one year warranty through your credit card company for the electronic product you just bought. I am not sure how easy it is to use, or really what all it covers, but as far as I know, there is a warranty on your purchase.
Then there is the manufacturer’s warranty, be it 90 days to a year or two, it will cover much more, and provide you with a bit more safety. These warranties still don’t cover as many things as most consumers would like to believe, but most comapanies that sell laptops will allow you to RMA the machine if anything crops up in the first 30 days, so even if the problem is small, it may be worth your time to send it in.
Then there are extended warranties. Like I mentioned above, these can be especially useful for newer technology when it first comes out, as long term reliability has never been tested. If a product is three years old, it is usually easy to find out how often the device fails in those first three years, and use that to decide if the extended warranty options are worth your money. But if a product is less than a year old, you don’t really know what the long term problems might be, and are taking a big gamble if you don’t put some type of protection on your investment.
The consumer joke though always is that a device fails only after the warranty expires, but do you want the warranty, and thus the device, to fail after only a year of use?
What features should you look for in a good warranty?
Good warranties cover just about everything, even things that might be your own fault. They should also make it easy to use the warranty, on-site service, or free shipping labels to pick up the problem device.
There should also be a time limit on the repair of the item. You should not have to wait more than a month and a half to get your problem fixed, and if it is going to take them that long, then try to remind them that if customer satisfaction is important, they should look at getting you a temporary replacement or a new laptop of the same model or better.
The warranty should also stipulate how many times a machine needs to go in for the same problem before it is replaced. If you have to send in a machine four times to get the same strange problem fixed, they should be replacing your whole unit, not trying to repair it anymore, as they have proven, they don’t know what is wrong.
Warranties can be a little like trying to get through a mine field, but if you take the time to be informed you could save yourself a great deal of time, energy and money later on. After all, a notebook is not a small investment.
Cleaning Your Laptop’s Touchpad
One of the things I miss about using a ThinkPad is the TrackPoint. Yes, here I am again dwelling on those rubbery nubs that come standard with all ThinkPads (sadly, not with all the Lenovo-branded laptops, though, even if they’re practically made by the same company). However, since I’ve already replaced my trusty old ThinkPad with a Compaq V2000, I had to get used to using a touchpad. And guess what? I realized that touchpads aren’t as easy to maintain in terms of cleanliness compared to trackpoint nubs, especially for one who tends to have sweaty and sometimes oily fingers.
I can hear you saying “yuck,” but let’s face it, not all palms and fingertips are built the same and touchpads do tend to get dirty. Touchpads may be the de facto standard in laptop pointing devices, and many are more accustomed to them than rubber nubs. But because of the touchpad’s being essentially supposed to be a smooth surface for your fingers to glide on effortlessly, they tend to suffer from the following problems after some time.
- Sticky surfaces. This usually happens if you’re fond of eating while using your computer. Sometimes food residue or even beverages get to lodge themselves on your touchpad. Imagine spilling a few drops of coffee on your touchpad. That sure would be a sticky situation.
- Oily residue. Okay, this is icky, but many laptop users have sweaty and possibly oily palms and fingertips. It’s a fact of life. Let’s live with it.
Whatever these are, the imperfections on touchpad surfaces can lead to inefficient cursor control and even possible hardware damange. Sticky surfaces would mean slow and clumsy cursor movement. Oily residue on the touchpad surface would strip off the touchpad finish after some time, and this would eventually lead into a very slippery or sticky touchpad surface. At the very least your touchpad would no longer have a uniform texture.
Cleaning Your Touchpad
Yahoo Tech recommends using an alcohol solution or diluted window cleaning solution.
Carefully clean finger oils and dirt from your laptop’s touchpad with a damp cloth; you can also add a small amount - less than 50 percent of the solution - of isopropyl alcohol.
Vinegarbook.co.uk says use vinegar. Okay, I’m not for smelly laptops, but I guess the acid in vinegar does dissolve some dirt and grime. Just make sure you don’t use too much, as you might damage the touchpad membrane.
If you work with a laptop PC then you may well find that the finger touch control pad quickly becomes unresponsive, sticky or un-smooth. When the laptop is switched off, just dampen a kitchen towel with a little vinegar and wipe all around the control pad.
You can also use a simple lens-cleaning cloth both on the LCD and the touchpad. These are usually soft and non-abrasive and good for general laptop cleaning. For dust or debris wedged into the touchpad edges, you can try compressed air sprays.
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