Laptops Arena

Ever been out hunting for laptops? If I think a little about it, a TV show called "laptop hunters" would be pretty interesting, especially since there are soooo many choices out there. Anyway, until that happens, we have the "Laptop Hunter" Microsoft ad...

OK, so...what do you think about it? Is it me, or it simply sucks? What's your choice - it sucks, it's major suckage, or it's simply a disaster? No, I don't hate Microsoft, I simply hate stupid advertising. Why stupid? Let's see...
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1. The ad should advertise Windows Vista, but it doesn't.
2. Last time, it was about HP, now it's about Sony. As far as I know, Microsoft didn't buy any of them, at least not yet...
3. Considering that we have a teenager grabbing a Windows laptop here, I wonder "how many 2 days" it will take until that one gets fully loaded with viruses. No word about threats, obviously.
4. At last, the kid says "I'm a PC," while his mother "I'm not," although he also added "and I'm eleven," but anyway...that's a pretty silly ending for such a bad ad.
5. They got a Blu-Ray Sony Vaio with 16.4-inch screen for the kid to do his homework. Damn, it's a crisis, a $600 desktop computer would have been enough. You could also add a $400 Linux-based netbook to the equation, and you have the right tools for the kid to do his homework and get mobile. Ta-taa!

Should I add more? Oh, yeah, you gotta see this - the target audience of the ad is this class of users - "there is no sense going for mac especially if u are buying a desktop pc, if u just want office work like documents etc, u can go for free ubuntu, if u wanna play games on pc, go for windows 7. mac is totally useless." That's "iddoomthr," some YouTube user...

Still looking to find the best Linux for your laptop? Well, a few hours ago, I got a really interesting email. Because I am not crazy about living in the shadows, I will share it with you. If everyone would be like me, this would be a much better world, don't you agree? OK, let's see what do we have here...

"The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu
Netbook Remix 9.04. This is the first release of UNR to be fully
integrated into the Ubuntu family, fully up to date with the latest
applications and hardware support."

So...wasn't Ubuntu ready for netbooks just yet? Is seems the answer is negative, if they decided a "Netbook Remix" was needed. Great, but...what's new, after all?
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"Ubuntu 9.04 Netbook Remix Edition brings a new easy to use interface
that is designed to be used on the smaller screens of netbook devices."

A-haaa! Got it, but what about the features and fully compatible netbooks? Even from the moment I saw the subject of the email I was sure the Eee PC was going to be on the list, but it seems there's more than just that(including a funny mistake, written down as "Asus Aspire One," haha!). The models "known to work well," apart from the Asus Eee PC 900/1000 and the Acer Aspire One are the Samsung NC10 and the Dell Mini 9.

At last, you should know that the beta release of Ubuntu
Netbook Remix 9.04 comes with a built-for-purpose interface, bringing your favorite apps just one click away, and the faster boot times will help you get started faster than before.

For additional info and downloads, feel free to check the official Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 Beta page.

If you're one of those looking to get the best Linux for laptops, then you're in for a tough fight, believe me! Why so? Well, I stumbled upon a lot of people having problems with Windows on their laptops, and there are only a few Windows versions, while Linux...

...just for the record, I will mention that there are over 50 distros worthy of your attention, but if we think about niche ones, we end up with a much higher number. Come on, think about "Christian Edition" or the distros heavily localized, starting with language, and going as far as using software developed in a certain area!

OK, now...best Linux for laptops? There's no such a thing! Really, I could easily escape by saying Ubuntu is the best Linux for laptops, and most people would be happy, but what if you have an older laptop?
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My personal advice is to try ZenWalk, Xubuntu and Slax. These are all using the XFCE window manager, and they work like a charm on computers with 256MB of memory. Even if you have 128MB of memory you could run them pretty well, although I doubt that laptops so old are still being used on a regular basis by too many people...

Now, when it comes to new laptops, the most frequent problem when trying to find a Linux distro for them is hardware support. Advices? Start with Ubuntu, openSuse, and Fedora, and if you simply can't make your exotic devices work properly, try checking out the official forums for the one you're using. Other suggestions for recent laptops would be Mandriva, and Google.

No, there's no "Google Linux" available yet, but you must use Google while looking to find best Linux for laptops, because there's only "best Linux for your laptop," and finding it requires a lot of trial-error runs.

That's all, folks! I know this may not be really helpful, but it's enough to make you open your eyes. If you want to/can open them or not, that's up to you. Good luck!

I don't know about you, but most touch screens I've crossed my path with so far weren't extremely sensitive. In fact, I managed to draw the conclusion that some of them simply didn't care about me, if I can put it this way. Well, I guess some touch screens could easily be used as "kick screens," but not for too long, anyway. The good news is that Mitsubishi managed to come up with something I would really like to experience one-on-one: the 3D touch screen!

While 3D motion tracking isn't such big news, doing it by using a single panel, that surely is! Just think about the fact that you have a 3D touch screen, and no extra cameras, sensors, or another "trick."

Even more, Mitsubishi's 3D touch screen seems to have a very high level of precision, being able to measure the distance to your finger in steps of about .08mm, up to a distance of 20mm, also guessing its approach speed. Considering its short range, Mitsubishi says this tech will be most useful for mobile devices, but I would also think about having such a 3D touch screen in netbooks.
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Taking it all a few steps further, I think even full-fledged laptops could take advantage of a 3D touch screen. Could you imagine such a thing like virtual sculptures, where you're actually molding air with the help of such a 3D touch screen? :)

We have the MacBook family, and we also have the iPod Touch multimedia player. All these come from Apple, of course, but this doesn't mean the Touch Book should also belong to Apple. I know, I know - for Apple, innovation is the game, but for Always Innovating, innovation is the name, before anything else, but if we look at the Touch Book, I can't say these guys aren't a few steps ahead of the crowd, either!

The best part of it all is that Always Innovating's product is simply great in theory - "Combines Netbook and Touchscreen Tablet; Provides Three Times the Battery Life at Under Two Pounds." 10 to 15 hours battery life? Come on, that's almost as long as my MP3 player! How did they manage to achieve this?
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Well, we're talking about a device powered by an ARM processor from Texas Instruments, and according to its creator, "You can use it as a netbook computer, a hand-held game device, or a video player. You can even reverse the keyboard to prop it up on a table in an inverted 'V'. Finally, because it is magnetic, you can remove the keyboard and put the tablet on the fridge to serve as a kitchen computer or digital frame."

The price looks great, with only $299 for the base model, and early orders can already be placed at http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/store/.