Warranties: Peace Of Mind Or Throwing Of Money?

February 8th, 2010 Mini Laptop Reviews Posted in Technology and Gadgets | No Comments »

Face it, when something you depend on fails you it can be extremely frustrating. Have you had the experience of putting your key into your car only to find yourself unable to turn over the engine? Have you ever tried to surf the web only to find you have no working internet connection? Have you ever wanted to mow your lawn and discovered that no matter how many times you pulled the cord, you could not start your mower? It is amazing how dependent most people are on the conveniences of modern day electronics. When one or more of them is unavailable it can be a significant interruption. Sometimes the solution is quick and painless. A reconnection to the internet could be as simple as plugging in an unplugged router. Getting iPod repair or iPhone repair is usually a cost effective and fast service. Tending to a broken washer,dryer, or refrigerator is often on the complicated side. A faulty transmission is not only a pain, but a financial burden as well. As much as people depend on modern technology there can be a lot of hassle if it fails. Chances are everyone has experienced a technology or equipment failure at one point or another but predicting which mechanism or when is an impossibility. One way to head off a potentially costly fix is to invest in a maintenance warranty or service agreement, but is this always a good idea?

Experts are occasionally torn when it comes to the purchase of maintenance agreements and warranties. Consumers tend be be divided on their benefits too. There are a number of buyers who would never dream of purchasing a new washer and dryer without the inclusion of a maintenance and service agreement. On the other hand, there are some folks who would never consider such a thing a necessity, but rather a complete waste of money. One thing to think about when considering adding a service or maintenance option to your purchase package is what are the upfront costs versus the long term costs? Specifically, is the initial cost involved in the purchase of a warranty prohibitive to your budget or is it an investment that will ultimately save you money over the life of the item?

Another consideration with regard to warranties and maintenance agreements is whether or not the coverage will prove useful or will it cover parts or services which you will most likely never need to utilize? Does the warranty only provide limited coverage or is it a comprehensive plan? Does it cover things which you could most likely fix on your own? A limited coverage warranty can be a bit of a gamble but may just be worth it, depending on the item in question. If at all possible, read any product reviews prior to your purchase to get an idea of potential troublesome areas.

A final consideration in whether to purchase a warranty is the amount of time you plan to own the item. Are you the type of consumer who is continually upgrading your technology or do you keep an item until it is completely worn out or is obsolete? Keeping this in mind will help you evaluate whether you are a consumer who will benefit from maintenance and service warranties.

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Netbook shipments jumped 79% in 2009

February 6th, 2010 Mini Laptop Reviews Posted in Business, Mini Laptop News | No Comments »

Shipments for netbooks really took off last year with an impressive 79% jump from 2008 according to Strategy Analytics.  The top players were the usual suspects, Asus, Acer, HP and Dell.

The fact these devices are nice  and affordable compliments to full fledged desktops made it appealing to many consumers.  I think there is a good size market of  people who  would like something very portable but something slightly larger than a smartphone making it easier to read and type on.  2010 should also see a nice increase now that netbooks are being installed with Windows 7. The perception being that the Win 7 netbooks will be able to keep up with future software compatability and technology.

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Cnet ranks 25 Best Games for Netbooks

February 5th, 2010 Mini Laptop Reviews Posted in Gaming, Mini Laptop News | No Comments »

The netbook maybe underpowered for some high powered, graphic intense games but it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun with it. Actually netbooks can be quite capable of playing some of the most popular games around.

CNET just recently updated their list of the twenty five best games for netbooks.

To use it on your own netbook, it should be running Windows 7 or Windows XP with a 1 gig of RAM and an intel processor.

Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000

The list includes:

  1. Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
  2. Arcanum
  3. Aliens versus Predator Classic 2000
  4. Half-Life
  5. Crash The Castle
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Understanding the iPad

February 4th, 2010 Mini Laptop Reviews Posted in Mini Laptop News | 1 Comment »

Here’s some links explaining about the iPad and its potential to be a game change.

Daniel Eran Dilger’s Roughlydrafted is a pro-Apple site that picks apart negative rants about Apple  from tech pundits. He’s putting up a series called “Ten Myth’s of Apple’s iPad.”  It’s quite good and to the point.

Basically, though, one must not think of an iPad as a PC with a touch screen, but something different.  The negative reaction to the iPad is the result of people’s thinking that it should act like a classic PC running a familiar mouse driven operating system.

But the comment below from Infoworld pretty spot on:

bbahner
28-Jan-10 3:06pm
Just like the iPod was a dud when it came out (just a hard drive based mp3 player- nothing to see here) or how the iPhone was doomed when it came out (my Simbian/Blackberry/WinMob phone has all of these features – why would I want one??) The iPad is not about features. You can’t do anything new that is impossible on a laptop or iPhone. It’s about the experience of using it. Most people don’t need a computer – they need email. They need a spreadsheet. They need to watch a movie. Why do they need to know how to install software or how to find the file they saved using the Windows Explorer – they don’t. Those things just get in their way. Also it’s not a sized-up iphone – can I create a real spreadsheet or presentation on my iPhone? The iphone UI doesn’t support those things – it had to be completely rethought from scratch. The iPad is offering a brand new large scale completely touch based UI that can be used for doing real work. Nobody else has done this yet. That by itself is hugely ambitious. Then on top of it, here is a sweet piece of hardware, and a bunch of rewritten apps that use the new UI. It is really great what they have pulled off. Most people don’t understand the scope of what Apple has done here. This iPad IS a revolution, but like most things Apple, nobody will realize it until a year from now when they have sold 10 million of them.

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Should you wait for the iPad or HP Slate or just get a Netbook?

February 3rd, 2010 Mini Laptop Reviews Posted in Mini Laptop Reviews, Tablet PC, iPhone / iPod Touch | No Comments »

It’s been almost a week since Apple announced the iPad. Since that time, thousands of bloggers and forum posters put their two cents and exclaimed why the iPad will suck or why it will be the start of a new revolution for portable computing.

One of the big questions is should you get an iPad instead of a netbook?

The answer is, it depends on what you plan to do with it.

If you were planning to get a netbook and plan to use it like a regular windows laptop, the iPad will probably not suit your needs.:

  • The iPad will not have USB ports, or a physical keyboard out of the box; you will have to purchase them separately.
  • You can’t run any of the apps that you currently run on your home pc or laptop, instead, you will have to get a whole new set of apps to run on it.
  • Adobe Flash is not supported for the iPad so all those free flash games and flash based websites will not work.

 

Apple’s approach to the iPad is different than HP’s approach to their upcoming Slate. The iPad appears to be iPod Touch/eBook reader on steroids, with the ability to not only surf the net, read books and play games but create presentations, crunch numbers, and other things that the iPod Touch or eBook readers are not able to well or cannot do at all.

The HP slate, on the other hand, appears to be a touch screen version of Windows 7. This would appeal to those who are quite comfortable with Windows and would want it as an extension of their PC or laptop, or maybe make it their primary pc device.   As for the netbook?  It is what it is: an inexpensive and compact version of a full fledged laptop, nothing more. For under $300, you can a pretty decent netbook running Windows XP or Windows 7 starter. You can easily carry it to your favorite hang out spot and do some quick email check, perhaps get some work done using your favorite office application, maybe play a game that runs on flash or do all three at the same time. If  you drop it and it breaks, just get a new one. It’s cheap and you don’t have to wait two months for the iPad or six months for the HP Slate.

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