Notebook Design That’s Just right
Andrew Fishkin at Low End Mac comes up with his criteria for choosing a notebook, or for manufacturers, how to design a notebook just right. His guide is kind of reminiscent of my own “perfect laptop” guide I came up with last April, but Andrew chose to focus on two things: the keyboard and the display.
Laptops are, after all, built for productivity while on the road. And one is at his peak when the keyboard feels just right, and the screen looks just right.
First and foremost for me is the keyboard. Think about it: You carry a laptop for a number of reasons, but unless you view and enter text, most of those reasons could handled with a cheaper and more convenient device. Be it watching movies or playing games, laptops, while adapted to such tasks, were not designed for them from the beginning.
Andrew includes examples of keyboard ranging from the cheap, to the good, to premium, to best, with the ones that use sturdy bases and scissor-spring mechanisms for guiding each key. IBM (now Lenovo) Thinkpads are great in this regard. higher-end Apple notebook keyboards are likewise great.
Next is the screen. It’s a choice between heft and portability. Choose a small screen, and your laptop will be portable at the expense of readability. Larger screens are for multimedia and graphics work–you have to sacrifice portability though, especially when you’re going 17-inches and higher.
In the end, a laptop is still a personal choice. It’s up to you, the end-user, how you intend to use the laptop, and whether the design of a particular brand and model fits your needs.
So the next time you go laptop shopping, do yourself a favor and focus on the keyboard and the screen. Look at the materials and assembly. You’ll not only be more productive, but get a lot more enjoyment from a laptop that satisfies your own subjective standards.
I agree that you should consider build quality and usability of the user interface (screen, pointing device, keyboard) as your primary considerations. After all, it’s your productivity we’re talking about!
Living With My ThinkPad: Part Three
Another installment of living with my ThinkPad is here. It has been over two weeks since the last time I brought up what it is like having a laptop in tow. This time I have some new stories as I have been using my laptop as my primary system for over a month, and let me tell you. The differences between using a laptop and a desktop as your only computer are very noticeable, at least with a laptop like mine.
The first thing I notice is the screen real estate. If I were to buy another laptop, I would try to get a machine that could handle a resolution closer to that of my desktop’s 1600×1200, rather than the tiny 1024×768 that my ThinkPad has. Running at this resolution is not bad for web browsing and whatnot, but it can be a little annoying when dealing with graphics, web design, or trying to do more than one thing at a time.
Another noticeable difference is how much processor speed my laptop will give me. When I am plugged in, it is not too bad, but I noticed in the power settings it was set as adaptive for both when plugged in and when unplugged. I quickly changed this to be maximum when plugged in, as I did not see the reason, other than heat dissipation to have it lower than full speed when I was using the laptop as a workstation.
One thing that constantly annoyed me when using the ThinkPad’s keyboard from day to day was the touch pad and the ThinkPad “nub”. Both of which move the mouse and can be distracting. The touch pad even more so because if you accidentally rest your hands and it taps, you can find yourself writing where the cursor was, rather than at the end of the article. I almost posted a few articles that were ruined in this way before realizing my mistake in re-reading them.
I wish that when an external USB mouse was plugged in that these two devices would ask me if I’d like them disabled, and then automatically re-enabling when I unplugged the mouse. I know it’s a small detail, but when trying to work fast to type as much as possible on a subject, having the touch pad create such mistakes can be more than just a little frustrating.
I have been enjoying my laptop more lately though, and I have been really happy to have it as part of my life. Once setting up my desktop computer, having my laptop has meant that the desktop is basically mine. My wife to be, Sabine, only goes on the main computer now when she wants to check out what I have downloaded. Otherwise, she is on the laptop to check her e-mail or do on-line banking. This makes it easier for me to keep my work open, and allow things to move from day to day, and she does the same on the notebook.
Also, I have recently needed my laptop to work while on a trip, and with an A/C adapter plugged into the port of the car, I was able to stay at one hundred percent battery while writing during the whole trip. Having a laptop can really change work as well as entertainment.
I still need to get more RAM for this machine though. Maybe I will make that an early Christmas present to myself.
Residual Oil Remover For Cleaning Your Laptop
New laptops come in squeaky-clean packages, with spotless keyboards, dustless LCD screens and smooth trackpad. After years of use, however, you would notice your keyboard getting shadows from all even small food particles wedged in between the rough finish. The LCD screen and trackpad might even be oily because of contact with your fingers. While some laptops retail their like-new surfaces through years of use (like my old ThinkPad and my PowerBook Pismo, which are black), most non-black laptops show signs of use after just a few months.
What’s a laptop user to do, then? There are several cleaners out there. Some are water-based. Some are alcohol-based. I’ve tried alcohol, but it can sometimes be abrasive. Glass cleaners can work, too, when diluted. Heck even vinegar solution would do well with sticky trackpads (it’s acidic, after all). Try your local photo hobbyist shop. Maybe they have oil-removing lens cleaners that can help.
iBooks and PowerBooks seem to develop a “shadow” of the keyboard on the LCD over time, which won’t come off with window cleaners such as Windex. With my iBook, it was bad enough that using the thing in direct sunlight was sometimes difficult.
…
On a whim, I recently tried a lens cleaner called ROR (Residual Oil Remover) that I picked up from my local camera store - and it took the shadow off completely. My guess is the shadow is really just finger oils from the keyboard or something. - LowEndMac
ROR removes oil residue on a microscopic level, yet is not abrasive to glass or other surfaces. Better give it a try. I’ll probably try it myself when I get the chance to visit a local photo shop (or perhaps order online).
Until now, lens cleaners have been for the most part, simply silicone, alcohol or glycerin based products. Instead of removing the embedded pollution from the pores and surface of a lens, they coated it, thereby defeating the original intention.
ROR has redefined the science of lens care by utilizing a formula of natural ingredients that finally removes the counterproductive, ineradicable microscopic oil residues from the surface and pores of glass and plastic.
Living With My ThinkPad: Part Two
A comment from David on the first post of the Living with my ThinkPad series mentioned that I should upgrade my RAM on my ThinkPad and that I could load OS X onto my machine.
I jumped around online looking for the specifications of the RAM I would need, and my first stop was Kingston.com which has a great RAM search tool. I selected IBM and then found my machine. It said that I have one slot open which I could put upwards of one 1024MB DDR2-533 Module per slot. The prices listed at Kingston.com for the one gigabyte stick were from PC Connection, Kingston Technology, and Buy.com with Buy.com having the lowest price at $159.93 USD. I live in Canada though, so that makes things a little different and a little more difficult.
Browsing over to the site where I buy a fair bit of my technology, NCIX.com, I found that they had a variety of RAM sticks that say DDR2-533. I needed to make sure I limited it to SODIMM, which is the shorter stick that laptops take and I found I still had many choices.
Corsair brand at $139.15 CDN, Mushkin for $150.65 CDN, and an OCZ branded one gigabyte stick for $141.31.
No matter how I looked at it, getting my machine a new one gigabyte stick was out of my price range. So maybe grabbing a half-gigabyte would be better for me at this point. I could get Corsair Value RAM for only $73.78.
Dealing with RAM is one of those decisions, especially for a laptop that you have to really research and think hard about, as some sticks won’t work in some laptops, and there are so many different brands, types and all the different speeds.
I have not placed my order yet, as I am not fully confident that I have the right stick of RAM for my ThinkPad, and rather than making a mistake, I am going to go with David’s advice and join the ThinkPad forum, and ask them what types of RAM they have had success with in their T43’s.
Living With My ThinkPad will hopefully be an ongoing series where I talk about my problems, and enjoyment in having my laptop, which happens to be an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43 with a 1.7GHz processor, 512MB Ram, 40GB hard drive, and an ATI X300 video card.
Living With My ThinkPad: Part One
I disconnect my laptop from its adapter and put it in its IBM branded black leather bag. I am getting ready to go show a client the work I have done thus far on a website for them. My ThinkPad beeps as it goes into a standby mode. I put the bag over my shoulder, and get ready to go out.
Before I bought my Lenovo sold machine, I was all excited. The IBM name meant corporate, durability, and made me feel as though I was deserving of a little more respect than those that had gone with a lesser brand name machine. After I bought the laptop, I figured that I had made the best choice possible. There were rumors that Apple was going to release an Intel powered machine, but I assumed that it would be hardware locked to only running OS X, and while I loved the polish of Apple’s operating system, I was not ready to detach myself from the Windows world just yet.
Getting to my appointment, I opened up my laptop and slowly waited for it to come to life. I tapped the touchpad, waiting for it to spring to life any second, so I could show the work I had done. The laptop eventually rose from its slumber and showed me that I needed to log in. I swiped my finger on the fingerprint reader, and the machine went to the default Windows screen saver. My face cringed at my nearly two thousand dollar machine doing the oddest of things. I moved my finger along the touchpad, and the machine asked me again to log in. I swiped my finger again on the fingerprint reader, and it said that it could not recognize my finger. I sighed and tried again.
On receiving my laptop from Lenovo, I opened it like a child does knowing they are getting the exact present they wanted for Christmas, wrapping, and air filled bags flew left and right as I uncovered my black matte machine. I had wanted a laptop for a long while, and even more since I started blogging, but the excitement quickly died down as I realized it was just another laptop.
Sure there were some cool features, like the fingerprint reader, great Wi-Fi connectivity, and a light attached to the top of the screen, allowing me to illuminate the keyboard for work in the dark.
Getting the laptop working, I finally showed off what I had done on the website. My client seemed impressed by the work I had completed, but I only felt embarrassed by my laptop’s performance. I was having a bit of MacBook envy, as my half a gigabyte of RAM filled up, and my machine lagged. Thanks Microsoft for creating such a wonderful operating system.
I can’t say that I dislike my ThinkPad, but I wish it was a little more powerful, in both CPU abilities, and battery life. I don’t mind Windows, but I would love to be given the choice of using any or all operating systems currently on the market.
Living With My ThinkPad will hopefully be an ongoing series where I talk about my problems, and enjoyment in having my laptop, which happens to be an IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad T43 with a 1.7GHz processor, 512MB Ram, 40GB hard drive, and an ATI X300 video card.
Almost Half of all Computers Purchased were Macs
While that subject line might seem misleading, it is the truth for Princeton, where upwards of 45% of all computers purchased were Apple computers.
In 2003, when this year’s seniors arrived on campus, just 15 percent of them chose Macs. The next year, a quarter of incoming freshmen did, and the year after that, 38 percent. These statistics aren’t comprehensive, because some students choose not to buy their computers through OIT. Nonetheless, the upward trend is real. Macs are where it’s at.
Again, I feel that if I had known that Apple was going to shift into Intel CPU’s so quickly and Bootcamp was going to come out, I might have waited on getting this ThinkPad, and gone the Apple route. So it is not surprising to me that the popularity of Apple machines are up. What does surprise me is how fast it went from 15% to 45%. In less than three years they almost have half of Princeton students running around with the Apple symbol. I doubt any other single laptop producer can say that about Princeton.
Source: Daily Princetonian
Lenovo and Fujitsu Join Battery Recall Program
Lenovo, maker of ThinkPad branded laptops, and Fujitsu have joined the battery recall that has been making the rounds of tech news of late. The same problem has been cited–possible defects in the manufacturing of Lithium Ion cells made by Sony. While Fujitsu has not cited any problems affecting its laptops, it has decided to participate in Sony’s voluntary recall program.
Lenovo
Lenovo’s Battery Recall Program site cites the following models purchased between February 2005 and September 2006 as affected by the recall:
- ThinkPad R51e, R52, R60, R60e
- ThinkPad T43, T43p, T60, T60p
- ThinkPad X60, X60s
Also, users who purchased additional battery packs during the same period for the following laptops may be affected.
- ThinkPad R50, R50e, R50p, R51
- ThinkPad T40, T40p, T41, T41p, T42, T42p
If you own a Lenovo or ThinkPad laptop, you should check your battery serial number, and if the starting characters matches any of these, you should confirm with your dealer or with Lenovo if you are eligible for a replacement:
ASM P/N | FRU P/N
92P1072 | 92P1073
92P1088 | 92P1089
92P1142 | 92P1141
92P1170 | 92P1169, 93P5028
92P1174 | 92P1173, 93P5030
Lenovo even provides a downloadable application that will automatically check your battery (direct link here). Alternatively, you can remove the battery itself and check the serial number against the ones listed above. You can then input your serial number into the form provided on the Lenovo battery recall page for instructions on how you can get a replacement.
If you are affected, Lenovo suggests using your laptop solely on AC/DC power until the time you receive your replacement.
Fujitsu
Meanwhile, Fujitsu advises users of the following laptop models to await further news of how to have their battery packs replaced.
Laptops sold in Japan
- FMV-BIBLO LOOX P70R, P70S
- FMV-BIBLO LOOX T50M, T50R, T50RN, T50S, T50SN
- FMV-BIBLO LOOX T70M, T70M/T, T70MN, T70R, T70R/T, T70RN, T70S, T70S/V, T70SN
- FMV-P8210
Laptops sold outside Japan
- LIFEBOOK P1510, P1510D, P7120, P7120D
- LIFEBOOK S7020, S7020D, S7025, S7025D
- LIFEBOOK C1320, C1320D
Living with my ThinkPad T43
I have had my laptop for a while now, and it has been mostly a positive experience. I had many reasons behind my choice to get a Lenovo/IBM machine, but now I am wondering if I should have just waited to see what Apple did (they released an Intel series of machines that can run both OS X and Windows).
Some things I am noticing about my ThinkPad T43 are worth mentioning though, so if you are considering purchasing one, you will know all of the pitfalls I have noticed.
The first thing I have noticed is that its battery life still seems too short, while that is very subjective, since it gets around three and half hours per battery, getting me seven hours for the two batteries I received. I still hope to see a real all day laptop sometime soon, but it seems like every time there is an increase in battery technology, they increase the size of the screen on the machine or something.
Another thing I notice is that the fan noise gets a bit high sometimes when the computer needs to cool down. The fan, hard drive, and optical drive make a fair bit of noise. The cooling fan leads me to the next point of contention with my laptop, it gets hot. I don’t mean like battery exploding hot. Thankfully neither of my batteries are part of the exploding battery recall. But it still gets to the point where I don’t want to put my laptop on my lap.
Also, when playing wide screen movies, you can really notice a while bar near the bottom of the screen, you don’t notice these brightness inconsistencies when doing other tasks, but it can be a bit distracting sometimes.
Lastly, the speakers are a disappointment. I sometimes wonder why laptop makers even put speakers on the machines when they are really so useless in all but the quietest of areas. Sometimes the optical drive is louder than the highest volume setting. This can be very frustrating.
Despite all the negatives of owning my ThinkPad T43, I still recommend it. It is fast, easy to use, and for the most part, very reliable. I can’t say I would not trade it in for the world, but I can say that most laptops don’t even come close.
Proper Touchpad Use
How do you use your touchpad? do you glide and click using the same hand? Do you use your thumb to click, or your forefinger? Or maybe you glide with the right hand and then click with the left forefinger?
When you buy HP or Compaq laptops, a small sticker on the chassis will prominently greet you, asking you to visit their site on ergonomics and proper computer use. In the case of my Compaq V2000, it says go visit http://compaq.com/ergo.
Here’s what the Compaq guide says about touchpad use.
The illustration just says just make sure you’re relaxed. The illustration, though, shows the user gliding with the right forefinger and clicking with the left forefinger. I found this a comfortable position when using my Compaq V2000, which had small, rubbery clickers.
But with my Mac, I just use the same hand for gliding and clicking (forefinger for gliding, thumb for clicking), since the mac had a very large, curved clicker (only one, of course). With my old Thinkpad, I found the trackpoint quite comfortable to use, with just the proper distance for the forefinger and thumb.
I found it comfortable either way. However, It’s certainly more efficient to use only one hand (so the other would be free for other stuff, say, reaching for my cofffee mug).
What about you? What are your touchpad habits?
Bringing Out the Inner MacHead in Me
I used to use the office eMac back when I was working the corporate grind. While my main computers were a Linux box and a Windows-based ThinkPad (several, actually), I would often prefer to work on the eMac–which is shared among designers–either by transferring to its location or accessing my OS X desktop remotely via VNC. I just love the clean OS X interface which I found really intuitive.
To sum it up, it just works. I’ve been working with PCs all my life and I pretty much know the ins and outs of Windows (having explored even the obscurest of versions, including NT 3.51 and also NT 4 Server), and it was always quite a cluttered and complicated affair. I can say that simplicity is one virtue of the Mac OS X, and even my three-year old daughter can navigate her way around the Mac’s UI.
So when I quit the corporate world and turned to freelancing and problogging, I had to be content with the equipment that I could buy with my own money. No more office-provided computers and broadband (along with free-flowing coffee and unlimited access to programming and design books). Most of all, no more Mac. These days, my work equipment usually consist of my laptop and the home PC desktop, which I have since relegated to gaming, and which my wife uses as her main computer.
Enter the Resurrected PowerBook
This was the case until recently, that is, when I got my hands on an old but working PowerBook G3 “Pismo.” If you ask me how much I got it for, you’d be surprised–it was practically free. It was actually just gathering dust in some laptop storage room corner when its original owner offered me a great deal (no money changed hands). To make the long story short, my Compaq V2000 just got itself a big brother to play (and work) with.
The specs are not really impressive. The Pismo has a 500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, a 20 GB hard drive, a 14-inch 1024×768 display and 256MB of RAM, which I bumped up to 512 with a spare 100MHz SDRAM stick I had lying around at home. Battery life was originally 5 hours, but being old, this powerbook could only give me about 1.5 hours before dying (or sleeping, actually).
What’s so Great About It?
The Pismo is the last G3-based portable that Apple has official OS X Tiger support for. It also seems to be a favorite among the folks at LowEndMac (serious MacHeads, if you ask me), because of its expandability (two expansion bays!), style (black is teh cool!), and durability (sturdier than ding- and dent-prone TiBooks). You could even upgrade the Pismo to a 550 MHz PowerPC G4! And battery life could be extended to 10 hours if you load up both bays with battery packs.
Also, the Pismo was among the first PowerBooks that offered wireless Internet thru an optional internal AirPort card. But let’s face it, the AirPort was–and still is–expensive and it’s slow, being limited to WiFi B (as opposed to the AirPort Extreme, which is essentially WiFi G). Luckily, these days you can get all sorts of PC Card or even USB WLAN adaptors from third-party providers, as long as there is an available OS X driver for their chipset. For instance, I used an MSI cardbus adaptor (~$30) running on a RALink RT2500 chipset, and it works perfectly with Tiger along with the driver I downloaded. Heck, even the cheapo ZyDAS-based USB WLAN adaptor I got as spare for my desktop a while back (bought for less than 20 bucks) works. I read Broadcom-based chips work outright, as they’re compatible with the Mac’s AirPort drivers. Macs are not as isolated as I used to think.
Hey, the Pismo even got much exposure on TV, being the laptop that Carrie Bradshaw, Sarah Jessica Parker’s character on HBO’s Sex and the City often used. (Okay, I’m a guy but I kind of liked the show, especially because my wife was fond of it.)
The Pismo is a classic and can still be a workhorse, particularly for people like me who are more into documents, writing, Web surfing and some image manipulation, rather than gaming, design and other things that require higher-end processing. Right now, I have OS X 10.4.7 installed (the latest version of Tiger) and it’s still pretty zippy. It’s not as fast as my 1.5 GHz Celeron-M V2000, but come to think of it, I’m somehow more productive when I work on the Mac.
Changes in the Workflow
I can say it’s all about the workflow and computing preferences. With my Windows laptop, there’s the temptation to install and use each and every popular application made available online, hence the tendency to clutter my desktop. There are also the MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role-playing games, to the uninitiated), which, even if great for reviewing and writing about, do take time to play.
And of course, with the V2000’s wide screen, I tend to keep too many windows open and in clear view, and these tend to distract me. I’ve grown fond of those widget-type gadgets that give me all sorts of information at a press of a button. Not that OS X doesn’t have Dashboard, but Google Gadgets’ presentation is really such that I get to see all the information in one single display, particularly with the widescreen.
So as I would say again and again, productivity may not always be directly proportional to how fast your machine is. It’s more about how you use your equipment, and how organized you can get. I could list hundreds of reasons why people who love the Mac tend to be loyal. There are a lot of advantages, and they might be simple and subtle, ranging from better security, to a more robust operating system under the hood (it’s UNIX!).
I just turned into a MacHead!
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