Computers And Technology
What is a Netbook – A Short and Easy to Understand Definition
September 21, 2011 | 
Author Netbooks are a fairly new category of portable devices that emerged only a couple of years ago. All started in late 2007, when Asus launched their highly compact and portable gadget called the EEE CP 700. And things moved quickly from there on for this segment.
But, even if now netbooks make for 1/5 of the sales of every laptop on the market, many of us still don’t know exactly what a netbook really is that’s why I’m going to detail more about this subject in this article.
It’s actually hard to say exactly what is a netbook. The term was first used by Intel to name devices powered by the Intel ATOM low consumption CPU line in early 2008. But soon enough it became used to name all the sub-netbooks on the market.
So, for most people, a netbook is just a smaller version of a laptop but that’s not entirely true. Cause there are a couple of criteria a device should meet in order to be called a netbook, and you can find these criteria below:
a netbook is a compact device: these gadgets have 7 to 11 inch screens, are compact, have a low profile footprint and are quite light weighted (between 2 to 3.5 pounds). Thus, they can be easily carried around when needed a netbook should have a good battery life: these sub-laptops should provide an autonomy of at least 4-5 hours. These days, the most performant in this domain can offer you up to 10 hours and above of battery life, and that contributes a lot to their portability a netbook should be powerful enough to run basic every day applications. That means you can run an OS, a multimedia player, a web-browser or a text editing software, but not necessary a game or some kind of video/photo editing program. netbooks should have good connectivity, with Wireless Wi-fi being a must and things like Bluetooth or 3G welcomed add-ons. a netbook should be cheap. last but not least, netbooks have to have an affordable price tag, something between 200 to 500 bucks.
Of course, there are exceptions to these rules, like fashion netbooks that cost around $600-700 or ultra portable and small devices or even devices with a poorer battery. They can be included in the netbooks category if wanted but i for one consider all the above musts when speaking of netbooks.
Thus, in conclusion, here’s what a netbook really is: a light and compact portable mini-laptop that can easily run every day applications and provides very good battery autonomy, all with a very good price tag.
By: Mike Aurel Andrew
Posted in Computers And Technology | 
Tags: Autonomy, Battery Life, Compact Device, Cpu Line, Editing Software, Eee, Footprint, Gadget, Inch Screens, Low Profile, Multimedia Player, Netbook, Netbooks, New Category, Photo Editing Program, Portability, Price Tag, True Cause, Video Photo, Wi Fi | 
No Comments »
Top 5 Multifunction Printers in the Market for Home Office Use
Multifunction printers have been talked about to a great extent in the last couple of years. So what’s the hype all about or rather why are they so great? The very fact that they have printer, copier and scanner all enclosed in the same unit offers a powerful combination of functionality and compactness. These especially are great for small businesses or home-based offices that cannot afford to buy separate printers, copiers and scanners for their daily requirements.
The top 5 in the market
When it comes to multifunction printers for home offices, one needs to look at several aspects – the first being the cost – though of course cost isn’t the only driver. Here we look at the top 5 picks in the best multifunctional printers and also state why they’re so good.
1. Brother MFC- 7820N Printer
This one’s a winner all the way. All of Brother’s multifunctional printers come with easy installation and set up. However, what sets this one apart from its siblings are compactness, high speed and affordability. It has sharp and crisp laser quality printing, has a scanning resolution of around 1200×1200 dpi. It has good quality fax as well. The layout and design is one of the most note-worthy aspects of this multifunction printer. The feeder in the printer is especially designed for even envelop printing, which makes this even more versatile. With an average speed of 20 ppm and a surprisingly quick warm-up speed of 10 seconds, this printer is much better when it comes to its other counterparts.
2. Canon Pixma MP600
Canon Pixma MP600 has a high quality print output, with sharp and crisp text and photos. With a mono speed of 30 ppm and color of 24 ppm and a color resolution of 9600×2400 dpi, it provides high quality color prints. However it lacks a film scanner or an automatic document feeder.
3. HP Officejet 9120 multifunction printer
This multifunction printer is great for an office workgroup for a home based business. It has an Ethernet print server and good multitasking ability with scanning, copying and fax abilities inbuilt. With a relatively good mono speed of 25 ppm and color of 22 ppm, and two sided copying, this printer suffices for home office use.
4. Samsung SCX 4200
This one’s a laser multifunction printer and has a 600×600 dpi resolution, a mono speed of 18 ppm. Being a laser printer, it is much better than the ink cartridges. It provides good quality prints and a reasonably good speed. All in all, the Samsung SCX 4200 multifunction printer comes at an affordable price which makes it good for home office use.
5. Epson AcuLaser CX11NF
This one’s a color laser multifunction printer and hence isn’t really great at printing color photos. However its good for text and graphics in general. The Epson AcuLaser CX11NF multifunction printer has an average speed of 18 ppm for text and 4 ppm for graphics (which can be quite slow). The tray input capacity is just 180 pages.
By: James Kara Murat
Low Cost Netbook Review – HP Mini 2140 – A Great Market Value For Sale
HP is really putting a lot of effort to be the no 1 low cost net book provider. Thanks to the currently booming net book market. At the recent CES in Las Vegas, HP unveiled their latest addition to the great net book arena.
Yes. HP announced that their latest HP Mini 2140 model will be made available very soon. Keeping true with their previous model, HP Mini 2133, the new 2140 is built on the same material as the 2133. That means the 2140 will also be built on a solid magnesium alloy chassis, as with the older 2133.
Cool. None of the flimsy plastic stuff. Personally, I like it better this way. With netbooks being small in size, they are more prone to physical abuse. This is especially true if you carry them around with you in your daily travels. As such, a more sturdy and strong build material is always a welcome improvement.
The only downside to the strong and sturdy build is its’ weight. It surely weights a lot more than the other net books built on them flimsy plastic material. The 2140 unit weighs about 3.0 pounds with full accessories. That makes it the heaviest netbook around. Oh well, you can’t win them all, I guess.
The HP Mini 2140 also sports probably the largest keyboard in the low cost net book range. At 92% of a standard keyboard, you would surely be able to adapt quickly to the keyboard. It even has a full sized right shift key located right below the enter key. Nothing awkward about the keyboard.
The keys are also protected with HP Durakeys. HP DuraKeys? Its a clear coating that protects the finish and printed characters on the keys. The keyboard will be look new even after years of heavy typing.
I do, however, have a beef with the mouse pad, though. Somehow, having the mouse buttons on either sides of the mouse pad really doesn’t jive with me. I would have liked it better if they had decided to put the mouse buttons at the bottom as with a normal mouse pad.
I’ve always been somewhat frustrated that these net books can only display to a max resolution if 1024×600. To those who like to have more pixels in their display, the HP Mini 2140 unit has got two display modes – 1024×576 and 1366×768. Odd resolutions? Yes. They are a bit odd. I think HP decided to make the display fit in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Why? To conform to HDTV standard perhaps?
Following are the hardware specifications for the HP Mini 2140:
CPU: Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.60 GHz, 512 KB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
Chipset: Mobile Intel? 945GSE Express
Memory: 1 GB 800 MHz DDR2 SDRAM (Max 2GB)
Hard Drive: 160GB 5400/7200 rpm SATA; 80GB Solid State Drive
Display: 10.1-inch diagonal HP Illumi-Lite LED SD; 10.1-inch diagonal Illumi-Lite LED HD
Graphics: Mobile Intel GMA950
Integrated Camera: VGA Camera
Ports: 2 USB 2.0; 1 mic in; 1 headphone/line-out; 1 VGA out; 1 RJ-45
Slots: 1 Express Card/54; 1 secure digital
Audio: High Definition Audio, stereo speakers
Networking: Marvell Ethernet Integrated Controller (10/100/1000)
Wireless: Broadcom 802.11a/b/g/draft-n; Broadcom 802.11b/g; HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth 2.0 Wireless Technology
Battery: 3-cell (28 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion; 6-cell (55 WHr) high capacity Lithium-Ion.
What else? That’s basically the gist of it. I’d say the main benefit of getting this new HP Mini 2140 would be the better screen resolution. No matter how odd the display resolution is, 1366×768 is certainly a lot better than just 1024×600 which is like the de facto standard for netbook screen resolution.
Nothing much separate the current netbooks from one another. For the most part, they are all created almost equal since they are mostly built on the same Intel Atom chipsets. This new HP?Mini 2140 tries to differentiate itself from the rest by the means of the display resolution. So, if you want something different, this HP 2140 unit is certainly worth looking at.
By: Hadee Roslan