HP Compaq Business Notebook 2510p
One of the easy to carry notebook computers made by HP is the HP Compaq Business Notebook 2510p. This 12.1 inch screen sized notebook computer runs on a 1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage U7600 combined with an internal RAM of 2GB of 533MHz DDR2 giving you best performance especially when multitasking. It includes an 80GB HDD at 4200rpm for more storage capacity where you can store all your files, either work-related, music, or images.
Packaged running with a Windows Vista Business operating system, the HP Compaq Business Notebook 2510p measures 11.1 x 8.4 x 1.2 inches in dimension (LWH) and weighs approximately 4.4 pounds. It has an excellent touch pad but is said to be bulkier than other ultraportable notebook computers but cost as much.
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?
The MockBook from Sony?
Sony has just issued a press release for their latest N-10 series VAIO notebooks, and guess what. It looks just like Apple’s MacBooks. Or at least that’s what MacDailyNews thinks (and we know how the Mac cult is just so passionate about Apple). Indeed, at a first glance, you would notice some elemenets, umm, borrowed, from the MacBook. Do particularly check out the chicklet keyboard and the latch-less design (which has also been adopted by several models from other manufacturers, such as the Compaq V3000).
First of all, yes, we did a genuine “Grade A” double-take when we first saw the press release images. Right down to the chiclet keyboard, no less! When companies do this, it really draws attention to their lack of original ideas and their inability to innovate. See Microsoft’s Windows Vista, for example: It’s Windows XP dressed up to fool the general public that it’s “just like Apple’s Mac OS X.” Now poor Sony with this OS-limited, can’t-run-Mac OS X-but-obviously-wishes-it-could, knock-off spawn of a MacBook Pro and a MacBook.
I haven’t personally owned any VAIO laptops, but judging from what I’ve seen from VAIOs and other Sony products, I think Sony values its designs highly. And they’re not likely to just rip off design elements from yet-another-company-with-cool-designs. Perhaps gadget designs do really take cues from what’s succesful and usable. Remember that once, laptop hinges were not on the laptop chassis’ edge, but closer to the middle, with some part of the lid extending to the back of laptops? Well, we rarely–if ever–see this design anymore. And remember that the iBook once started the trend of trick hinges–the ones mounted on the back of the chassis instead of on the top. I really liked this design, because it lowered the screen’s profile, making it, for instance, easier to see what’s behind the laptop, which is great when doing presentations on a podium, or when in a boardroom (or cafe table) meeting. Even my other non-Apple laptop (the Compaq V2000) has this feature.
Sure, at first glance, the N-10 looks like a MacBook. But look a little longer, and the similarities start to fade away.
Sony vs. Apple
Do take note I’m not putting down the MacBook. I’m actually a MacHead, myself. But I think the ripoff accusation may just be too much.
Check out Apple MacBooks and Sony VAIOs here.
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!
Advertising on Laptop Lids
Sacha Chua seems to like the way her laptop sticker grabs attention in public.
Want to meet interesting but don’t want to have to make the first move? Use the back of your laptop to get people to talk to you.
Stickers are a great way to do that. My laptop reads “The geek shall inherit the earth.” I can’t count the smiles, chuckles, and conversations I’ve gotten out of it–and all I have to do is open my laptop!
She’s even tempted to rent out space for advertising! And this seems like a good idea to earn extra revenues, if you frequently use your laptop in public. It’s much like the way Chris Pirillo rented out his chest for ad space. Stowe Boyd, who rented out rights to his T-shirt messages seems to welcome the idea, too.
There’s actually a business plan in there somewhere. People register with the company, get sent a new sticker every month that covers the lid, and take pictures to show they’ve put in on at the start and that its still there at the end of the month, and they get sent a small check. Fun!
It’s like renting out ad space on buses, taxis and even airplanes, only on a smaller scale.
Hey, if someone will sponsor my coffee, snacks, WiFi connection and fare/gas every day just to get me to spend a few hours at Starbucks or Seattle’s Best, I would be all right with slapping some stickers on my V2000. I’ll be able to get some work done, get my daily caffeine fix, satisfy my sweet tooth, and probably earn some extra dough.
Compaq V3000Z Review
Here’s another review of the Compaq Presario V3000 from notebookreview.com. This time, it’s particularly for the V3000Z, with “Z” denoting that it’s an AMD-powered machine.
Compaq is quite fond of using AMD chips on their laptops, and they’re one of the manufacturers I know who carry this with pride.
The v3000Z is a very attractively designed notebook. It looks conservative but still it manages to provide some glamour. It is well built and offers good performance and battery life. The performance of the Turion TL 52 is in the same range as the Core Duo T2300. It might be faster in some areas and slower in others. It also has a price advantage, the v3000Z is priced lower than its Intel based twin the v3000T. I would definitely recommend this laptop to anyone looking to buy a 14″ laptop with decent graphics.
At any rate, I’ve checked out a V3000 myself just this afternoon, and I can say Compaq made some improvements in design and build quality over the V2000. My only gripe is that the touchpad is too smooth, which I think isn’t too comfortable to use. It also lacks a PCMCIA/Cardbus slot. Most people probably won’t miss that, but those who need HSPDA or EV-DO cards for cellular- or 3G-based connectivity would have problems.
HP Compaq Presario V3000 Reviews
I just saw an ad for the Compaq Presario V3000, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. My latest gadget, the V2000 has apparently been replaced by an even cooler-looking model (well, I got a good deal, so no regrets on my part). I’ve been checking out the latest over at the HP website, but the V3000 didn’t particularly appeal to me before (it was released more than a couple of months back). However, when I saw larger pictures, I thought the V3000 is a thing of beauty.
I get comments that my V2000 is teh sexy, but my hat’s off to HP Compaq for improving on the design with this upgrade. Even the laptop’s finish seems so sensual.
Click for larger images.
Some reviews below.
Like its bigger brother, the dv2000, the v3000 is an extremely stylish notebook. HP has adopted an “in-mould” lamination technique (commonly found in luxury car interiors) to craft subtle pinstripe patterns into the chassis, which ensures greater protection from scratching and wear. From our limited time previewing the notebook we can confirm that the v3000 both looks and feels impressive.
At $999 (after a $50 rebate), our Presario V3000 test unit came with a solid set of specs for the price; essentially, you’re getting a Core Duo configuration for the price of an otherwise similar Pentium M configuration from this time last year. Specs on our test system included a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo T2400 processor, integrated Intel graphics, 512MB of DDR2 SDRAM, and a 60GB, 5,400rpm hard drive. The Presario V3000 turned in a very respectable performance in CNET Labs’ benchmark tests, running right with the similarly configured Core Duo laptops we’ve tested during the past few months; it can easily handle word processing, e-mail, and even considerably more-demanding tasks, though without a dedicated graphics card, we can’t recommend it for serious gaming. It lasted just short of 4.5 hours in our battery-drain test, which is quite good for a laptop of its size and at its price point.
This laptop probably won’t win in any benchmark comparisons, and isn’t likely to suit you if you’re into serious gaming. But the V3000 it’s up to par with performance expectations, and that’s a pretty good deal for a sub-$1,000 model with drop-dead gorgeous looks.
My Laptop History
I have been interested in the developments of laptops for as long as I can remember, but my real passion for them started when my mother’s work gave her a company laptop. This was only around ten years ago now, which honestly shows how young I am. It was not a very good laptop, but I got to play with it and I really enjoyed it. It was too heavy to be all that portable in my opinion, but the idea of portability. Moving computer power from place to place. Being able to use a computer in a park. The battery life on her laptop was dismal as well, so taking it to the park was no a reality either, but again, the idea of it was amazing.
Before my current laptop, I have only ever owned one other laptop, and it was not something you could just carry around from place to place, as its screen was broken, and the laptop was in Chinese. It was a Pentium II around three hundred megahertz, slower than many of today’s smartphones. It was running Windows 95. The screen was busted, but I could hook it up to a 15 inch CRT monitor that I had sitting around, and this was my first laptop. I enjoyed toying with it, and seeing how long the battery could last. I tinkered with it, to see what made it tick, and ultimately destroyed the thing as I pulled it apart.
The next laptop I got some experience with was my cousin’s machine. A Compaq from about two years ago now. A pretty nice machine. I got all excited about it, when I started playing with Netstumber. This was my first real wireless internet experience. We were at a gas station, and I remembered that we did not let my family know we were making a two hour drive to come visit them, a day earlier than they thought we would, so I noticed an open access point, opened my e-mail and sent them all an e-mail before my cousin was finished filling up the gas for the car.
Finally, I was able to get my own laptop. I had wanted one for a while, but I never had the funds, and when I bought my machine, I still did not have any money, but it became a need for the blogging that I do. I had a very short list of companies I would trust with my money, and since it was before the whole Intel processor in Apple computers thing, I got myself a nice Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPad T43. I am very happy with this machine, though there are still some bugs to be worked out with its power saving mode and whatnot. It’s performance beats the pants off any other laptop I have ever tried, and I can say without a doubt, other than the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo machines that are out there now, this one is one of the best.
While my laptop history is much shorter than most, I have watched on the sidelines as the industry went from being only for the elite business person, to weighing ten pounds for not much performance, to being able to fulfill just about any need or niche. I am excited to see how things progress from here, as we see everything from small 7 inch screen, almost palm sized, laptops to 20 inch screen multimedia machines that you can barely call portable.
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.
HP Compaq nc6400 Review
Laptop Magazine takes a look at a business machine from HP, the HP Compaq nc6400.
For the indecisive among us, the nc6400 offers both a pointing stick with dedicated buttons and a trackpad below the notebook’s spacious, full-sized keyboard, proving that it is possible to please everyone. Above the keyboard sits a series of buttons devoted to HP’s Info Center, wireless on/off, presentation settings (which allow for quick display adjustments), and three volume buttons.
The keyboard and display are surrounded by rubber bumpers to prevent the display from getting tattooed by the keys over an extended period. The area below the keyboard is coated with HP’s in-mold lamination, making the surface highly resistant to the rubbing and scratches caused by prolonged use.
In the end the nc6400 grabs itself a rating of 4 out of 5, which is pretty good. The only things listed on the negative side of the board for this 14.1 inch business machine is that there is no HSDPA option yet, and the graphics take a toll on battery life.
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