Laptop article

7 Tips For Buying Cheap Laptop

7 Tips For Buying Cheap Laptop

by: Charles Wee

Laptops are gaining in popularity these days. Almost everyone is carrying one now either for work or entertainment. Laptops with the latest technology are introduced to the market everyday and these new laptops come with a huge price tag. However, that does not mean you cannot get a good and cheap laptop. I have put together a guide that may help you out in your hunt for a cheap and good laptop.

Buy cheap laptop with older technology

Rapid advance in technology makes it meaningless to buy the latest technology at a high price. When laptop with wireless capability first came to the market, a unit with this technology can cost up till US$2500. NOw after 2 years, you can get a relatively fast centrino laptop for less than US$1000

Buy used or refurbished laptop

The depreciation of a laptop value is so high, that after one year in the market, a laptop can easily lose half its value. So if you are looking for a cheap laptop, look for one which is close to one year old. Not all used laptop are in bad condition. You will be surprised to find that some used laptops are still in good condition because their owners are power users or gamers.

Buy laptop from power users or gamers

I like to buy electronic gadgets including laptops from hard core power users or gamers. Let me share with you why. Gamers or power users usually require the latest and most powerful technology to run their games or power hungry applications. They often will not settle for second best. They also have the tendency to chase after the latest technology. So after one year, they will be bored of what they have and will look to sell off their laptops so that they can buy a new one. Now if you are looking to buy cheap laptops with up to date technology and you happen to have friends who are gamers, do ask them if they are looking to sell off their laptops. Who knows, maybe you can buy a good and cheap laptop from them.

Scan through gaming forums and local gaming community

if you do not already have friends who like to play computer games, then scanning through gaming forums on the internet is another way to get good and cheap deals for used laptop. Internet makes it easy for you to do this. Go to google.com and start searching for gaming forums. Visit each and everyone and see if they have a Trading Section. You will definitely find many post from gamers looking to sell their gaming laptops.

Scan through local bulletin boards

Do scan through local bulletin boards near you for cheap deals on laptop.Especially if there are software companies around the area. Software companies do offer their used computers or laptops for sale when their software projects end. I personally had gotten a few good deals for my family and friends.

Look for cheap laptop with at least 512mb memory

This is especially important for used laptop. If the processor speed is slow, then having more memory can compensate for the lack in speed. In fact, The size of memory plays a big part in determining how fast a laptop runs an application. Just by increasing the memory size, you can see a huge difference in speed. A cheap laptop with at least 512mb memory can run most non graphic intensive application easily.

Get cheap laptop from reputable manufacturer

This is very important because if you are buying used laptop, then the chances of requiring servicing is higher than a new laptop. So if you buy from a reputable manufacturer, you will save alot of trouble and time if your laptop do require servicing.

About The Author

Charles Wee owns and operate http://www.CheapLaptopGuide.com, a website that provides free guide on sourcing and buying of cheap laptops, discount laptops and used laptops.He also owns http://www.Bloggerhaven.com which provides free blog hosting.

How To Mystery Shop Your Way to a Better Life

How To Mystery Shop Your Way to a Better Life

by: Janice Wee

You don't need much cash on hand to lead a good life. I'm not talking about credit cards. If you are a resident in U.S.A., you can enjoy expensive luxuries for free. You may not even need cash to pay for some of your daily necessities. Someone else might be willing to pay on your behalf.

For example, you can have your heating bills paid for, which would keep you warm. You can even own gorgeous designer handbags. You can dine at expensive restaurants for free and even get paid to live luxuriously.

How is that possible?

Let's start with the really cool part about eating at fine restaurants and getting paid for it. Mystery shopping lets you do just that. See http://www.independantlife.com/mystery-shopping.htm for details

Basically, the company wants to check on their sales staff or service staff. Obviously, the staff would recognize the big boss or top management people if they were to show up. The management wants to know whether the sales staff or service staff are doing their work properly.

In the case of a restaurant, the management wants to know if the waiters please the customers, if the chef cooks well even when the management is not looking. So they get mystery shoppers to do these spot checks.

That means, the fancy restaurant pays you to wine and dine there, like a regular customer. The restauraunt will pay for your meal. You then feedback to the management your experience. Imagine. Getting paid to be treated like royalty. Now that's living it up.

Besides restaurants, many service oriented companies hire mystery shoppers to keep their staff on their toes. Carpet cleaning companies could pay you to get your carpets cleaned. Pizza delivery companies pay you and give you free pizza. You get to live it up and get paid for it.

Besides mystery shopping, you can get a lot of your bills paid for by filling in surveys. These could be as simple as between 2 products, which do you prefer. Or what you like or don't like about a product. It could be your demographic information. The company may be trying to get in touch with the likes and dislikes of their customers, or potential customers and are willing to pay your bills or give you useful gifts in return for your participation in their surveys. The company might be trying to build a customer profile for their product, or simply trying to understand the market better. At the end of the day, you benefit with free stuff and better service or products as the company makes adjustments in line with the results of the surveys.

You can see some of the things they are giving away in return for your participation in their programs or surveys at http://www.cheapestsale.com/freebies.html . That page only shows you what is available to U.S. residents. I'm sure there are other free gift resources for residents in other countries as well.

That means you can get what you want at kmart or walmart by joining their programs and getting their gift cards. You can get $250 gift cards that can be used to by your groceries or your thanksgiving food. If you have a sweet tooth, you can get $100 worth of chocolate for free. Gas bills too high, there is even a program that lets you have free gas for a year. Fancy your own laptop? You can get yours for free too. Not from an unknown brand but the good laptop brands like IBM, Toshiba or Gateway. You can get a Tiffany bracelet, carry a Fendi bag, go for a vacation without paying a cent. While you are on vacation, you can take great photos with you new digital camera, listen to music on your new MP3 player and call home with your wireless phone, all of which you got for free.

Want to lose weight, go to the gym, with a free 1 year gym membership. Even your pet gets to eat for free with a year's supply of pet food.

So you see, you don't need much cash to live it up. If you spare the time to fill in some forms, you could basically live a good life... for free.

Another way you can stretch the dollar is to get what you need at discount prices. I like to go to warehouse sales or closeouts to get branded goods at below retail prices. Big sales may be crowded but if you can stand the crowds, they are well worth the trip. Some of the items could have been brought in specially for the sale to attract crowds. These would probably be the first items to sell out. You might want to go to the sale as early as possible to ensure you get the best deals before they run out.

You can also find lots of great stuff at below retail prices online. Why? For one thing, online stores do not have the high rental overheads that a real brick and mortar store would have to pay for. The savings could then be passed on to the customer in the form of discounts. Even some brick and mortar stores have web only discounts which are well worth a look at. By paying less than retail prices for your purchases, you can live it up even on a small income.

About The Author

Janice Wee is the webmaster of http://www.womanht.com/discounts/ with shopping discounts that let you stretch the dollar. That section features only the items that are sold at below retail prices.

How to Beat the System and Actually Get Free Gifts from Incentive Programs

How to Beat the System and Actually Get Free Gifts from Incentive Programs

by: Elijah Klay

We've all seen the flashing banners, annoying pop-up ads and junk emails with the too-good-to-be-true free gift offers, like ?Free iPod!? or ?Free Laptop? or ?Free Digital Camera.? Many of us simply think to ourselves, nothing is free; this is just a scam, right?

Not necessarily. The plain and simple fact is, many incentive programs actually do work, according to their Terms & Conditions. But who really wants to read all of that legal mumbo jumbo?

Well I'm here to tell you that I have read the fine print for many of these free gift incentive programs, and even completed a few. That's right. I have received a few free gifts from these programs, including a Sony Vaio Laptop, an Apple iPod, and several free gift cards.

This is quite fortunate for you. Since I have already been through some of these free gift incentive programs, I know what to expect, and how to avoid any hassles, and I've written this article to show you how.

Wait. So you are saying these programs are legit?

Yes. Most of them are anyway. As long as you complete all of the requirements for the free gift incentive program within the time period allowed you will receive a ?free gift.?

How can these companies afford to just give stuff away?

It's all pretty simple. Free gift incentive programs are created to drive prospective customers to ?sponsors? who then pay the incentive program for each lead sent. This money is then used to buy and ship your free gift.

For example, imagine a free gift incentive program offering a $50 Wal-Mart gift card. In order to receive this gift, you are required to complete 6 sponsor offers. If the guys running the incentive program receive $10 for each lead, then they have enough money for your gift and a few dollars profit as well.

So how can I make this easy?

As long as you are careful, receiving your free gift should only take a few hours of your time over the course of a month or so, depending on the program you choose and the free gift you want to receive.

It's best to plan to complete all of the requirements for the free gift incentive at once. Do not start one of these programs if you will not have time to spend on it. You will only have one shot at each incentive program.

**Pitfall Preventing** These free gift incentive programs usually have time restrictions, so complete all offers as quickly as possible. Some companies will give you up to 90 days from the time you complete all the offers to claim your free gift but others may only give you 90 days from the time you register. Quickly scan the Terms and Conditions to be sure you know the time restrictions.

The most important thing you can do during this process is to keep some simple documentation of what you are doing. Write down every piece of information that you send or receive along with the respective dates, including the date that you registered, and the websites and cancellation information for each of the offers you complete.

Most offers will probably involve some sort of subscription with a free trial period, after which you will be billed automatically. Be sure to cancel these before the trial period ends. Set schedule alarms, place reminder sticky notes around your house, whatever it takes, but DO NOT forget to cancel them.

You will definitely have to spend a few bucks here and there for shipping and spend some time filling out forms and making phone calls to cancel memberships, but the free gifts will almost always outweigh the cost to you.

The bottom line here is that these incentive programs DO work if you know how to complete them correctly. Hopefully these tips will be helpful for you in your next free gift incentive program. Best of luck!

About The Author

Elijah Klay is an Internet Marketing Associate for Family Marketing Inc. who has scoured the web to find the easiest free offers and incentives. To take advantage of tons of simple offers for great free stuff, check out http://www.PlanningFamily.com.

Do The World?s Poor Children Really Need A $100 Laptop?

Do The World?s Poor Children Really Need A $100 Laptop?

by: Alex Haakonsen

The chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab recently launched the $100 laptop to the world?s media. Is it necessary?

MIT rolled out a non-profit association, called One Laptop Per Child, to design, manufacture and distribute laptops that will be provided to various governments at cost price and issued to children by participating schools on a basis of one laptop per child. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based and so energy-efficient that hand cranking alone can generate sufficient power for operation.

The internet connectivity question is addressed in a few different ways, including the use of Wi-Fi, WiMax, 3G and satellites, as well as fibre, coaxial cable and plain old telephony. Competition, deregulation and the fact that the developing world is now the only new telecommunications market, will all perhaps contribute to wider reaching availability, greater bandwidth and, most importantly in these countries, lower connectivity costs.

The solution offered is a $100 laptop: a durable, versatile machine at a price the developing world can afford. The fact that this has been achieved is actually a remarkable achievement, the very notion of which until very recently was shunned by industry leaders as impossible.

The strongest argument in favour of this cheap laptop idea rests on the laurel that the greatest assets of a people are its children, and so the highest social priority is on the education of these children. Throughout disease, natural disasters, war and poverty, education features as the primary solution to the problem.

Most educators would argue that effective learning stems from a fundamental level of personal curiosity about a subject, and in a sense the ability to self-teach. The key point here is not so much what each child knows so far, it is rather the perspective that they can bring to bear on a problem. It is well known from case studies that network learning, augmented by technology, computers and Internet connectivity, bears heavy fruit in academic terms.

The economics of a $100 laptop base around the following: Around half the purchase price of a new laptop is taken up by the cost of sales, marketing, distribution, and of course the ever shameless profit-margin. By sidestepping the entire retail market and distributing directly to governments in the absence of profit-driven aims a huge chunk of the price per model is evaporated.

Physically the most expensive aspect would be the display. The use of an MIT technology called E-Ink that offers the potential to be as low as 10 cents per square inch and offer daylight readable clear resolution is promising. The processor, memory and power can be stripped down, as the functionality of the machine need not be so advanced beyond surfing, email and word processing all as open-source, slimmed down software that takes up little computing resources.

It?s now without doubt that the $100 laptop will happen. As to whether it?s a good idea? Everything about says yes, although the sociologists have yet to gather their argument on this one it seems.

About The Author

Alex Haakonsen is not only a technology nut with strong political feelings but, as an avid traveller, is a regular contributor and columnist for the hotel reservations website TravelBX.com. Visit the site for your next hotel room reservation, flight ticket, tailored holiday package and much more. >> www.travelbx.com

Data Backup - Prevention Is Better Than Cure

Data Backup - Prevention Is Better Than Cure

by: Justin Koh

Imagine that you have been working on a file for the entire day and there was a power surge that caused your computer to 'black out'. It would have been a frustrating experience for us as we had put in a lot of time and effort into it. I am sure that many of us would have experienced data loss in some form or another and have learnt to be wiser to backup our data to avoid any form of data loss.

Have you ever thought of a worst case scenario where a fire broke up and destroy your computer or where your laptop got stolen? Should that happen, the first thing that comes into your mind is the thousands of dollars that you spend on your computer or laptop and you would feel very upset about it. However, when you thought for a second moment, you started to realize that what is really valuable are the amount of data that you have built up over the years in it. Though hardware can always be replaced, even at no cost to you if you have insurance, but lost data is gone forever.

Lost data such as the thousands of mp3 and movies that you have downloaded from the Internet, thousands of digital photographs that are impossible to replace are lost in an instant. This form of data loss hits home especially hard when the laptop holds the lifeblood to your business. Imagine all your business contacts documents and contracts that you have painfully built up over the years would be vanished just like that. Your business would be wipe out overnight.

Do not wait for the worst to happen before you start to consider about data backup.

About The Author

Justin Koh is the original contributor of this article for http://www.backupcenter.info.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

info.support@gmail.com

Buying a Laptop That You Can Use As A Personal Assistant

Buying a Laptop That You Can Use As A Personal Assistant

by: Dakota Caudilla

Don?t be surprised but buying a laptop can be even harder than buying a desktop computer. In fact, buying a computer is very straightforward. Laptops, however, are very personal stuff because it?s something that you will carry around with you and sometimes act as more than just a computer for you to work on. They become a companion! That?s why finding and selecting the right laptop can be very tricky.

Hard core computer gamers or people who will use their laptops for designing or video production may need more help than just reading about buying laptops. For conventional laptop users, here?s something for you to digest.

The price for laptops varies drastically from brand to brand. Some laptops can cost $500 while some laptops can cost you $6,000. Some entry-level (meaning basic laptops) can be bought for between $600 and $900. If you grab a laptop off eBay or other rebate or dropshipping websites, you might get a mid-range laptop for far less than that.

Even for basic laptop users, the description and specifications for the laptop is very, very important. If you?re not sure, check around and ask your friends for advice on how to buy a good laptop for the lowest price possible. You should be getting a laptop that comes with AT LEAST 512 megabytes of memory. The size of the memory ensures that your laptop can run multiple programs smoothly. As for hard drive, invest in as big a hard drive for your laptop as you can afford. Another thing that you may have to look out before you invest in the laptop is to find out how many USB ports that the laptop has. Most laptops come with at least 2 USB ports, the more the better. If you use a camera or thumb drive (disk key), this is where you insert the cable ? the USB ports. You don?t want to have to remove the USB cable for your printer and mouse every time you try to save pictures from your camera to your laptop! Some laptops come with slots for camera memory cards, for instance, your compact flash cards.

If you?re keen on getting a Windows based laptop, the security of your laptop should be at the top of your priority lists. Windows SP2 XP should be ideal because it comes with antispam, antispyware, antipopups and antivirus programs. Some laptop retailers may offer you cheap or free programs that you can install into the laptop as a second layer protection to your laptop.

Other factors to take into account when shopping for laptops are the screen size, the life of the battery, the processor of the laptop, screen and keyboard, wi-fi networking, size and weight of the laptop.

About The Author

Dakota Caudilla, journalist, and website builder Dakota Caudilla lives in Texas. He is the owner and co-editor of http://www.laptop-source.net on which you will find a longer, more detailed version of this article.

How To Upgrade Your PC

How To Upgrade Your PC

by: Alex Fir

Before you upgrade your PC hardware it?s best to search all options and ask for advice. Only after this you can go and buy a new component. It?s also useful to check if you really need an upgrade.

Do not upgrade your very old PC because it would cost a lot of money. It?s cheaper to buy a new computer in such cases because they are easier to upgrade later.

Upgrading the hard drive:

The majority of people do not really need to upgrade their hard disk, unless they use it for playing a lot of music, movies, and games. A 20 GB hard drive is sufficient to keep new office and internet applications, and all your files and data.

A medium sized hard drive would be around 40 GB and the maximum would be around 60 ? 80 GB.

Before upgrading your hard disk it?s best to do a complete disk checkup including disk scan, defragmentation, etc. If you happen to be an average user and need more storage you can add an additional drive to the existing one. Before an upgrade, be sure to back up your files.

Upgrading the RAM:

RAM or Random Access Memory is the short-term memory of the PC. It keeps data that is being worked on now and may or may not be transferred to the hard drive that represents the long-term memory of the computer.

Current processors can perform an enormous number of operations per second. The hard drive, on the other hand, is significantly slower to handle so much information. This is where a high-speed RAM memory comes in. RAM needs a power supply to keep data. Once the power is turned off the data is lost.

Almost all PCs have 64 MB RAM and often 128 MB. If you want to run newer applications on your PC then you must upgrade to 128/256 MB RAM.

A lot of people who upgrade from 98 to Win 2000 discover that their computers lock up very often. This is because they don't have enough RAM.

CPU upgrade:

If you choose this upgrade, you will have faster execution of instructions but it leaves the RAM and hard drive capacity unchanged.

This sis the most cost effective upgrade and can increase the efficiency of your computer considerably. Seek a professional help before you take a decision.

Motherboard:

Upgrading motherboard is not such a good proposition unless you replace the CPU and the RAM as well to achieve greater performance levels. You upgrade the motherboard either because the current one doesn?t support a faster CPU or the CPU requires a different socket. It could be very expensive. Think about buying a new PC.

Ports:

Ports are sockets at the back of your computer where you plug in external devices. Older PCs work on ?parallel? ports. If you need to work a lot on peripherals such as digital cameras, digital camcorders, CD burners, and scanners then you need to upgrade to USB and Firewire ports if you are not using them already.

Both tend to be cheaper than the ?parallel? and SCSI devices they replace. Always make sure that there are no compatibility problems with other devices in your PC when you plan to upgrade any hardware on your machine.

About The Author

Alex Fir

If you are planning to buy laptop computer visit Laptop Computer Center for the latest news and information. http://www.laptopcomputerscenter.info/.

Compact Flash Card Backup: the Benefits

Compact Flash Card Backup: the Benefits

by: Filatov Mikhael

Backing up one's Compact Flash card has a number of benefits: storage, convenience and reliability.

Backup for storage

First of all, backing up one's Compact Flash card to a laptop is great for storing all kinds of data, stored on a card, like images, audio files and what not. Since Compact Flash card size is limited (to 4Gb for now), backing up one's card can be a convenient way of using a single card perpetually.

Backup for convenience

Secondly, backing up one's Compact Flash card can be a convenient way of copying data between laptops. Using such a small medium, which can fit in one's hand, to copy data between computers seems to be rather comfortable, as one does not have to connect the computers, or use another medium as an intermediate.

Backup for security

Thirdly, backing up one's Compact Flash card to a laptop can be a way to secure the data, stored on the card, in case a file gets deleted, damaged, or the card itself gets damaged or list. When coping data from a Compact Flash card to a laptop, the files will also be stored on a laptop and will be ready to replace the damaged or lost files.

As seem from above, Compact Flash card backup has a number of benefits. To reap the benefits, one can download Handy Backup and use it to backup one's Compact Flash card to a Windows laptop or any PC with the right adapter.

About The Author

Filatov Mikhael

Visit our site www.handybackup.net.

A Wonder Of The Modern Age

A Wonder Of The Modern Age

by: Mitchell Hampson

Are you sick of having no room on your computer table, if so here are a few tips that might help you on your way?

If you still own one of those HUGE CRT monitors maybe it?s now a good idea to purchase one of the new more modern looking TFT monitors, they are a fifth of the size of cumbersome CRT monitors and much more aesthetic looking in the process.

Prices for a good CRT monitor have dropped considerably over the last 12 months and a 17? monitor which I find big enough for most uses can be purchased for around $200.

Other great purchases which are now the much smaller are compact keyboards, even a smaller than normal mouse can be bought for only a few dollars and are often more preferred for the female pc user.

Also you could always turn to a laptop which would be much more portable and you could have it anywhere in the home, making wireless networking a great idea, if you have broadband.

Being wireless enabled is now very cost effective and now the best thing about it is how simple it all is to put together, most laptops already come with the WIFI card built in.

Also if you travel a lot a laptop computer is a very indispensable bit of kit, they are also very versatile and extremely lightweight the Apple G4 iBook probably being the lightest one around at the moment.

I suppose the only downside to a laptop compared to a desktop is that if you are really into gaming it maybe doesn?t quite cut the mustard like the laptop, Laptops usually share memory between the CPU(central processing unit) and the GPU(graphics processing unit), saving a lot of space and helping reduce power consumption.

Whichever way you look at it they all have there own pro?s and con?s and are still in my opinion a wonder of the modern age.

http://www.hampsononline.com

About The Author

Mitchell Hampson

I currently run a website offering computer information. Please check out http://www.hampsononline.com

Keeping Your Laptop Like New ? ALWAYS

Keeping Your Laptop Like New ? ALWAYS

by: Ismael D. Tabije

Laptops are expensive. Therefore you need to take real good care of it. And laptop maintenance is not a one time thing. It should be a regular exercise. To prevent your notebook's LCD from becoming smudged or dirty you should clean it regularly. We recommend spraying a diluted window cleaner onto a soft, non-abrasive cloth and then lightly wiping the screen with it. It might be simpler to just spray the detergent directly on the screen but it?s not recommended as the fluid can trickle down into the bezel at the screen's bottom which could in turn damage the computer's circuitry.

When it comes to getting rid of dust, dirt and food crumbs off the keyboard, a vacuum cleaner's brush attachment is ideal. There are handheld vacuum cleaners, specifically intended for PCs that can remove the dust and food from in between the gaps on the keyboard. But if you?re traveling, a vacuum cleaner would be quite cumbersome. In such cases, you can use a canned aerosol cleaner to spray a blast of air between keys. And in case you spill something on the keyboard, you should immediately switch off the laptop and place a towel over the keyboard, and turn it upside down to drain the fluid and prevent it from leaking into the computer's circuitry.

And if you happen to travel a lot, your laptop is only as good as its battery. Luckily, most laptops today use lithium ion batteries that aren't afflicted with the memory-loss problems of the older nickel-cadmium batteries. However, in time it?s inevitable that your notebook's battery will lose its ability to fully hold a charge. So, make sure that you replace the battery every 18 to 24 months. However, if you don?t use your laptop often then you might not need to change the battery so frequently. One way to make sure that your battery lasts as long as it can is to reduce your screen's backlighting. Also, configuring your power settings so that the display shuts off after inactive periods can significantly increase the life of a battery.

However, there?s more to the maintenance of a laptop than just making sure that the exterior is clean and neat. When using it, always remember to keep it in a cool environment. A laptop computer generates a lot of heat and too much heat can damage the internal circuitry. So always try and keep your laptop in a well-ventilated and cool environment. Also it?s important to ensure that the fan grills on the sides, back, or bottom of the machine are not blocked while it?s in use. Also, LCD displays are fragile devices that need special care. So as much as possible, avoid touching or playing with your LCD screen. And clean the screen only with the approved cleaning materials.

Another risk to your laptop is viruses. So make sure to get hold of an anti-virus program and keep it updated. Buying an anti-virus one-month and not updating it regularly makes the whole process useless. Your laptop could be exposed to hundreds and thousands of new viruses every month and if you don't update your virus definitions then some viruses will go undetected by the program. And to make the whole process less complicated, most anti-virus programs have automatic update methods, so that you don?t have to remember to do it manually.

And always use a firewall on your Internet or network - enabled laptop. Also block out all the unnecessary ports and close all loopholes to prevent a hacker or virus from entering your hard drive. And whatever you do, don't drop your laptop. And finally always keep it safe inside a carrying case, especially when moving it or traveling.

About The Author

The writer, Ismael D. Tabije, runs the website, www.bestlaptopnotebookdeal.com, where one can buy cheap laptop and notebook computers of top brands like Acer, Apple, Compaq, Dell, HP, IBM, Sony and Toshiba. The site also offers tips on buying laptops, ink cartridges, computer rentals, choosing PDAs, and care of your laptop batteries.