Best laptop bags equipped with solar energy generators

Shaheen Akhtar:
VoltaicSolar bag
The Solar Laptop Bags are a very useful thing as they can trap solar energy and then convert this energy into a renewable power source which can be used to power our gadgets. The solar laptop bag features an integrated solar panel, which collect the sunlight. The solar energy is converted into electrical energy and stored in an internal dell xps m1330 battery. If you want to charge your devices, you can do that by plugging in your device to the dell xps m1210 ac adapter battery pack. The solar laptop bags have lots of other pockets as well, which you can use to store your other stuffs.
1 Voltaic 'Generator' Solar Bag
Voltaic is one of the most popular solar bags making company and the company released its solar laptop bag in 2008. The key feature of this bag is that it can charge a laptop as well. The solar panel used in this bag can generate up to 14.7 watts of power. Recycled soda bottles (PET) are used to make this bag which is equipped with a protective frame.(dell inspiron 1464 ac adapter)
2 Solar Laptop Bags With Power Bank
The fold size of this solar bag is 460mm x 370mm x110mm. It is pretty light at 1600g. Its solar panel can generate 4 watts of power. The bag is made up of 1680 D polyester. The bag is available in white and black colors. You can use this bag to charge your mobiles, ipods and similar small gadgets.(dell inspiron 1525 battery)
3 Solar laptop bags-STC004
The bag is designed by a Chinese company. This solar bag can be used to charge cell phones, digital equipment, game players and laptops. The charging time of batteries used in the bag depends on the capacity of the batteries fitted in the bag. The solar panel fitted in this bag is waterproof and it has the ability to absorb solar energy on cloudy day as well.(hp pavilion dv6000 ac adapter)
4 Foldable Solar Laptop Bag (PETC-S20)
The solar panel of this bag can generate 20 watts of power. It has an efficiency of around 15 to 17 percent, which is quite high. The fold size of this bag is 760*420*5mm. The bag weighs 0.85kg. The solar panel is PET laminated and the fabric is made up of PVC.
5 Solar Lap top computer bagThe fabric of this bag is made of nylon. Its solar panel can generate 1Wof power. The bag has Li-ion storage dell vostro 1400 battery and is made available only in black color. The bag is designed by a Chinese company. The bag can be used to gadgets like mobiles, iPods etc.
6. Solar Laptop Bag MZ978006
The dimensions of this bag are 47 x 38 x 14 cm. 1680D polyester materials are used in this bag, which is fitted with solar energy charge backpack. The bag can be used to charge laptop, mobile phone, digital camera, etc. The solar panel of this bag can generate 7.5 watts of power.(hp omnibook 430 ac adapter)
7 Solar Laptop/Notebook Charger Bags (PETC-S18)
This bag can be used to charge laptops and other electrical gadgets. The solar panel of this bag has the ability to generate 18 watts of power. The bag weighs 0.9 kg and it is available in several colors. The solar panel is PET laminated and fabric is made up of waterproof PVC.
8 Solar laptop bags - SB019
This solar-powered laptop bag is manufactured by a Chinese company. The solar panels of this bag can generate 1.5 watts of power. The power case used in this bag is movable. The bag has a Li-ion hp pavilion n5261 ac adapter battery pack. It weighs 0.9 kg.
9 Solar Laptop Case - 4.2W / 8800mAh
This laptop bag can be used to recharge laptops, digital cameras, cell phones etc. The bag has 8800mAh built in sony vgp-bps13 battery. The bag can generate 4.2 watts of power. The dimensions of the bag are 60cm x 50cm x 58cm. It weighs 2.2kg.
10 iipower fashion solar laptop bag
This solar laptop bag is designed and manufactured by a company based in Guangdong, China. The bag is available in several colors. The solar panels of this bag generate enough power which can be used to charge mobiles, digital cameras, iPods etc.

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next blog: Dell XPS M1530 Battery

Dell XPS M1530 Battery

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next blog: The 4 Biggest Tablet Blunders Besides HP Touchpad

The 4 Biggest Tablet Blunders Besides HP Touchpad

HP's TouchPad is just the latest casualty in the tablet business. Here are four others that came before it.

When the HP TouchPad went on a $99 fire sale late last week, selling an estimated 350,000 units within a few hours, some members of the media speculated that the tablet's price could have been an issue. That argument was a bit silly since HP had already incurred an estimated bill of materials well above $200 per unit. A high per-unit cost and serious lack of sales combined to eventually lead the company to seek a means of simply getting rid of all its produced units before having to call 1-800-GOT-JUNK. If you were offered a genuine Armani suit for $99, you may very likely buy it, even if you didn't need it. Why? Because you'd know you were getting it a rock-bottom price. The same reasoning applies to the $99 TouchPad. (Though it could be argued which would actually see more use - the suit or the TouchPad?)(Dell inspiron 6000 battery)

The recent high sales numbers alone are unlikely to change HP's mind about the TouchPad's eventual fate. The fact those sales numbers only came during an apparent fire sale does not mean that the TouchPad was simply a good tablet at the wrong price. What it does mean, however, is that it was an ill-conceived product missing critical features that could have made it a big success at its original price. One such critical feature is platform support, which by itself qualifies the TouchPad as one of the five biggest tablet blunders in my mind. Here are four other product ideas that suffered from buyer neglect and eventually ended up in the black hole of computer history.(sony vaio pcg-505 series dc adapter)

Palm Foleo (2007)


The Palm Foleo had all the genes to make it a success, including the vision of Jeff Hawkins, the inventor of the Palm Pilot PDA. It was essentially the original idea for the netbook, but it was announced at a time when end-users had no idea why they might need a netbook. With some imagination, it carried some aspects found in the Blackberry Playbook as well, as it was meant to be a companion for Palm's Treo smartphones. However, when it was announced in 2007, the Foleo was a device no one could really explain. It was Palm’s idea to sell you a $500 device that would extend your smartphone to a compact, notebook-sized device featuring a keyboard and 10" screen.(dell latitude e4200 ac adapter)

The Foleo looked like a small laptop computer, but it didn’t act like one. Its functionality and usage were much closer to that of a smartphone, only you couldn’t actually use it to make any calls. As an extension for your Treo smartphone, you could have used the Foleo's keyboard and the 10” screen to view presentations or create documents instead of using your (smaller) Treo. The Foleo did have built-in Wi-Fi, so you could have also browsed the web. That is, if there were a hotspot available. (Hotspots were not nearly as common in 2007 as they are today.) The biggest problem was that you could not have used the smart phone as a modem, and the Foleo lacked a built-in cellular chip of its own. That killed the entire possibility of using it as an ultra-mobile device for business trips.(dell inspiron 1525 battery)

Palm pulled the plug on the Foleo days before the first devices would have shipped.

UMPC (2006)

The UMPC was supposed to be the device that would reshape mobile computing by placing an Internet-connected computer in your pocket. Whether in the subway or climbing Mount Everest, the Internet was always at arm's length. Well, that was the idea put forth by Microsoft's marketing department. Unfortunately, they forgot to ask UMPC engineers (especially Intel's engineers) whether that was even possible. It was not.(dell inspiron 1420 battery)

The UMPC ended up as an underpowered, heavy, expensive and clumsy computer no one outside the markets of vertical industries and field engineers really wanted. (Even some of those engineers are now replacing UMPCs with modern tablets.) They had funny keyboards, heavy hard drives, a rather useless version of Windows XP (a multimedia-only "AVS mode" ), and price tags which ranged from $1000 on the lower end (such as the Samsung Q1) to more than $2000 at the high-end (the OQO Model 01 or 01+ from [now defunct] OQO). The UMPC came to epitomize the classic example of marketing ignoring reality. While you can still buy UMPCs today, this segment is now irrelevant.(dell inspiron 1464 ac adapter)

3Com Audrey (2001)

I have a secret love affair with Audrey. It was the first tablet I ever used (Apple's Newton/MessagePad and early PDAs aside). I still believe it was an idea that was somehow misguided by the dotcom boom and the (all too common at the time) belief that anything bearing an AOL label would sell for at least $500.

Audrey was a retro-designed, kitchen-white 5-inch tablet with an antenna (no wireless Internet access, though) that came accompanied by a small, matching kitchen-white wireless keyboard. With no dell inspiron 1464 ac adapter battery, it required a wired power adapter, so it wasn't operationally portable. Portability (and flexibility) further suffered because it also required a phone line to establish a 56 Kbps dial-up Internet connection.

The Audrey was sold for only seven months, reportedly selling fewer than 500 units in the U.S. My antique-looking personal Audrey still looks appropriate when sitting next to my Kerbango Internet radio. (Kerbango was the first company to produce Internet radios not requiring a separate computer. Kerbango was acquired by 3Com in 2000, and later shut down.)(dell latitude e4200 ac adapter)

Be Webpad (2000)

Listing the Be Webpad as a failure is somewhat cruel as it was the only original tablet released during the dotcom boom that got everything right. (Right as far as technologies available at the time are concerned.) However, it missed the big opportunity Apple took advantage of with the iPad. How much more of a blunder can it be?(dell inspiron 1420 battery)

Personally, I believe that Apple considered failed webpads when creating the iPad by looking into the past at products that worked, and those that didn't. The Be pad may have be one particular product Apple examined very carefully. (Interestingly, Be's CEO at the time, Jean-Louis Gassee, was a former Apple executive.) The Be Webpad was lightweight, had Wi-Fi built-in, a compaq presario v3000 ac adapter battery, as well as a TFT touchscreen and even BeIA (Be Inc.'s multimedia operating system that was streamlined for use on Internet appliances). Unfortunately, Be had no financial backing and only months to find someone who would license BeIA in order to get the Be Webpad out into the market. Sony was their only customer, who did license BeIA for its eVilla Internet appliance. Sadly, eVilla Internet appliances never shipped in significant numbers.

If there is a predecessor of the modern tablet, then it surely is the Be Webpad.

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next blog: MicroGen taps into 'jiggle power' to fuel batteries for the future

MicroGen taps into 'jiggle power' to fuel batteries for the future

Robert Andosca, the founder, president, and CTO of MicroGen Systems holds a wafer of chips to be manufactured into micro electro mechanical systems that can harvest electrical energy from vibrations transmitted from the object they are attached to. MicroGen uses the facilities of the Cornell Nano Scale Science and Technology Facility, such as the $1 million silicon etcher in the background, to remove silicon freeing a cantilevered section of a piezoelectric coated molybdenum metal layer that then vibrates and harvests energy. / SIMON WHEELER / STAFF PHOTOS

ITHACA -- As your car's wheels roll and the appliances in your house hum, they create tiny vibrations that can be tapped to charge a new generation of Dell xps m1530 ac adapter battery being developed in Ithaca.

Look for these high-tech power cells to begin replacing traditional Dell vostro 1400 battery later this year. The new Sony vgp-bps2 battery will power sensors that will soon be required in cars to monitor tire pressure. Keeping tires properly inflated will improve gas mileage and reduce hazards from driving on under-inflated tires.

Batteries (dell inspiron 1545 battery) will also power sensors used to check bridge safety and temperature changes.
MicroGen Systems of Ithaca specializes in harnessing energy on a micro scale from naturally occurring vibrations for use in building, automotive, military and industrial applications. It is designed to replace traditional Dell latitude pp01l battery for the growing wireless sensor network market, which has traditionally relied on limited Dell inspiron 1501 ac adapter battery power to communicate data to remote radio transceivers.
"We are a power plant in an extremely small package," said Michael Perrotta, MicroGen Systems chief financial officer.
Founded in 2007 by Robert Andosca, the small start-up uses MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems) technology — tiny chips found in laptop computers, cell phones and other wireless devices — to power wireless sensor networks through vibrations in the environment.(Dell inspiron 1525 ac adapter)
The company is at the forefront of using MEMS technology in the energy harvesting field, said Perrotta, who has helped launch start-ups on the east and west coasts.
MicroGen Systems moved to Ithaca in 2008 to develop the prototypes at Cornell University's Nano Scale Science and Technology Facility (CNF). There, Andosca, his partner Junru Wu and their team assemble the hardware made up of microscopic moving parts etched into a silicon wafer.(TOSHIBA pa3285u-1brs battery)
The MicroGen BOLT Power Chip generator is one centimeter in diameter, Perrotta said.
Because it's wireless, it can be placed anywhere and is capable of producing vibration frequencies between 50 and 120 hertz, enough to charge sensor nodes within a sensor network for up to 20 years, the company estimates. The power chips come in different frequencies and are also designed to power non-electronic devices.
Applications for the device include powering wireless sensors that monitor the structural integrity of a bridge, replacing the need to change and dispose of traditional HP omnibook xe2 battery, a costly environmental and financial endeavor, said Perrotta.
Instead, the sensor network is powered by the rumbling of traffic for a continuous charge. Other uses include monitoring tire or airbag pressure, the temperature inside a freight container or the gravitational force of a military helicopter.(HP pavilion g60 battery)
Andosca began working on the technology some 20 years ago while at the University of Vermont, which gave him seed money to start the company. Andosca has relied on grants and received support from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The device is expected to hit the market later this year.
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next blog: Top computers: reviews and specifications

Top computers: reviews and specifications

Sony Vaio Z series

At 16mm thin, this laptop offers seven hours of HP Pavilion dv1200 ac Adapter battery life and significantly more computing power than even the most hardcore user is typically going to need. It crams a top-of-the-range Intel i7 processor into its tiny body, and can offer up to 512gb of solid-state memory. That means almost instant start-up.

Other features include fingerprint recognition, ultrafast data transfer via ‘Light Peak’ and a special dock that adds a DVD drive and can run up to four monitors from the machine (because you can, rather than because you’d need to). (Nikon d2x Battery)

It is tight-fisted of Sony to charge an extra £15 for backlighting on the keyboard, and getting this to really perform means a lot of optional extras. But the Z series is as good portable PCs currently get.

Specifications:
Using VPCZ21V9E model:
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2620M 2.70GHz (with Turbo Boost up to 3.40GHz)
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1333Mhz SDRAM
Drive: 256GB SSD Flash memory
Screen: 33.2cm (13.1”) 1600x900px with wide (16:9) aspect ratio
Dimensions: approx. 210 x 16.65 x 330mm
Weight: approx. 1.18kg (with standard internal Canon Bp-511 Battery)
Price: from £1,434 (i5 processor)

Macbook Air
At a starting price of £849, you get an impressive computer for your money – the new 11” MacBook Air is a netbook in form factor but a full-powered laptop in reality.
It zipped through whatever task I threw at it. It runs multiple applications on multiple desktops without slowing and flicks between them in an instant.
It doesn’t have a separate graphics card so it’s not a machine for the latest games but that isn’t really what you’d buy an 11” computer for. The SSD is one of the reasons for the computer’s blazing speed, and the accompanying thunderbolt port makes for ultra-fast data transfer. Panasonic Lumix Dmc-fz3 Battery life may be a disappointing five hours, but the new MacBook Air is compact, weighs only slightly more than a kilo, and yet it still has a full-sized, backlit keyboard and is packed with power. It could easily be your only computer.
Specifications:
CANON NB-2LH battery life Up to 5 hours
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive Available seperately
Dimensions H0.3/1.7 x W30 x D19.2cm
Hard drive 64GB of flash storage
Processor Intel Core i5 1.6GHz
RAM 2GB
Screen size 11.6"
Weight 1.08kg
From £849

Best of the rest:
Samsung SF310
With a 6.5 hour FUJITSU E350 DC Adapter battery life and a quick charge time of 2-3 hours, this laptop is geared towards those constantly moving around. It’s stylish, with a gentle curving line rather than the usual flat keyboard unit. Although it’s not the most powerful available, the SF310 is well worth considering if you want something more individual than the average PC.
Specifications:
CPU type Core i5-460M
Optical drive DVD writer
Screen size 13.3 in.
Weight 2060 g
Size (WxHxD) 331x33x236 mm
From £549
Sony Vaio VPC-F21Z1E 3D Laptop
Do you really need a 3D laptop? The answer is almost certainly no. But this 3D Vaio is a decent machine if entertainment is vital to you. More likely, it’s a top desktop-replacement model that also offers huge power all round and a decent gimmick. Indeed, if you’re spending this much money on a laptop, as with a television, it seems sensible to get a 3D model.
Specifications:
3D Ready
Olympus Sp-310 Battery life 3 hours
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive Blu-ray Disc Drive with DVD SuperMulti
Dimensions H34-45.4 x W398.3 x D271.3mm
Hard drive 640GB
Processor Intel Core i7 2630QM 2.00Ghz with Turbo Boost up to 2.90
RAM 8GB
Screen size 16"
Weight 3.2kg
From £1,799
HP Envy 17-2101EA
Powerful, with an Intel i7 processor, this 17” Envy model also sounds excellent thanks to the audio by Beats. That means it’s likely to do everything you need it to, all on an ultrawide screen. With disappointing, 3.5 hour Sony Np-bg1 Battery life, this is not, however, a machine for road warriors.
Specifications:
KENWOOD PB34 battery life Up to 3.5 hours
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive CD/DVD±R/RW Double Layer with LightScribe labelling
Dimensions H3.87 x W41.6 x D27.5cm
Graphics card - video RAM 1GB
Hard drive 750GB
Processor Intel Quad Core i7 2630QM 2GHz with 2.90GHz Turbo Boost
RAM 6GB
Screen size 17.3"
From £1,199
Samsung Series 9
Samsung’s Series 9 is not as powerful as the Vaio Z Series, but it’s not as expensive and it’s arguably slightly nicer to look at. With an i5 processor, the recently upgraded Series 9 is adequate for most people’s needs. Perhaps not as light as most users expect, but you will struggle to find a better combination of performance and looks anywhere on the market.
Specifications:
Jvc Gr-d240 Battery life Up to 7 hours
CD/DVD/Blu-ray Drive No
Dimensions H16.3 x W328 x D227mm
Hard drive 128GB (solid state)
Processor Intel Core i5 1.4GHz
RAM 4GB
Screen size 13.3"
Weight 1.31kg
From £1,099
Dell XPs 15z
If you want a laptop that looks like a MacBook Pro but runs Windows (effortlessly), this model’s for you. It looks almost as good as Apple’s most powerful laptops, and is a whisker thicker but a lot cheaper.
Specifications:
CPU type Core i7-2620M
Optical drive DVD writer
Screen size 15.6 in.
Weight 2510 g
Estimated Acer Aspire 5715z Battery life 8 hours
Size (WxHxD) 385x25x260 mm
From £900
Google Chromebook
Google’s first ‘Chromebook’ brings a whole new meaning to ‘netbook’ because literally all it runs is Google’s Chrome operating system, which is basically just the Chrome web browser. It has a limited amount of use if you’re not always online, ubt if everything you do, from docs to email to calendars, is all web-based, and you really value an eight-hour plus Canon Digital Ixus 400 Battery life, then the Chromebook is a top device. It’s also a taste of the future, although by then such devices will be thinner, lighter and cheaper, as well as better looking.
Specifications:
Samsung Series 5 model
CPU manufacturer Intel Atom N570
Available colours Silver, White
Screen size 12.1 in.
Weight 1500 g
Estimated Acer Aspire 1410 Battery life 8.5 hours
£350

Best all-in-one:
iMac
All-in-one computers pack everything you need into a single unit: screen, processor, hard disk are crammed into one elegant package, and they don’t come much more elegant than Apple’s current generation of iMacs.
These machines pack in quad-core processors and ‘Thunderbolt’ the ultra-fast interface that lets you transfer data faster than most users will ever need to. That means video or photo editing can take place without the tortuous waits that people have become used to on most machines. (ACER Ferrari 3400 Adapter)
Starting at £999, the iMac is as much a style statement as it is a computer. With the launch of Apple’s iCloud and increasing numbers of people with iPhones and iPads, older arguments about Mac v PC are evaporating. As the web becomes more important, it’s little wonder that Steve Jobs’ company is now the biggest in the world.
That’s not to say the iMac is perfect: cheaper models are available. But with its immaculate screen and wealth of upgrade options, it’s better than it has ever been.
Specifications:
Hard drive 500GB
Monitor 21.5 inch widescreen LED-backlit display
Processor 2.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5
RAM 4GB
From £999
Or try…
Sony Vaio VPC-J21M1E/B
Sony’s all-in-one does not have the power of the iMac, but it’s more than good enough for the vast majority of purposes. If you’re short on space and want a PC that can double up as a TV and entertainment centre, it’s a viable option. The real selling point, however, is its giant and responsive touchscreen. (Panasonic Nv-gs15eb Battery)
Specifications:
Processor Intel Core i3 2310M 2.10GHz
RAM 4GB
Hard drive 500GB
From £799
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next blog: Patently Obvious: Pitiful Patent System Has to Go

Patently Obvious: Pitiful Patent System Has to Go

At the risk of stating the obvious, I’ll say this right up front: The patent system in both Europe and the United States is the biggest threat to innovation in the world today. Rather than competing with each other on price and features, the biggest tech companies want to fight it out in court where some Luddite judge—rather than the market—can decide who wins and loses. By claiming that another company has violated some  vague patent, one vendor can use the legal system to either block rival products from the market or demand hefty kickbacks (a.k.a. licensing fees) from their makers. (hp pavilion tx1000 battery)
This long-simmering problem reached a boiling point yesterday when a German court ordered Samsung to pull the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from all European shelves immediately, based on Apple’s claim that the Korean electronics giant was violating its design patents. If you take a look at the design patent in question, it looks like it could apply to just about any tablet on the market today and many that existed in past—even before the iPad came out in 2010.(Dell latitude d430 ac adapter)
My fellow journalists are understandably outraged at the German court’s decision. “Tablets and its smaller sibling smartphone are devices that are similar no matter who makes them,” writes ZDNet’s James Kendrick. “The function of these devices leaves little room to make the appearance of them distinctive, and that’s why this injunction is insane.”
“How can Apple patent an entire product category?” asks Nicole  Scott in a column on Netbook News. “At any moment Apple could decide that any tablet is too much competition and file a suit!” (FUJITSU stylistic st5010 battery )
The problem here isn’t Apple, which managed to block the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and is also pursuing similar injunctions against Samsung in the U.S. and against Motorola for the Xoom, among other competitors. It’s a broken system that allows the paper-pushing patsies at U.S. and European patent offices to arbitrarily hand out industry-crushing weapons to whomever draws the best line drawing and hands it in first.(Acer aspire 3000 battery)
So many patents cover ideas that any monkey could write up if locked in a room with a typewriter for a weekend. In 1999, some technophobic tool in the government approved Amazon’s application to patent the concept of one-click ordering. As a result, competitors such as Barnes & Noble had to add superfluous clicks to their shopping systems, and others such as Apple’s iTunes Store had to pay licensing fees just to use the idea of clicking a single time to buy something.(Dell xps m1530 ac adapter)
It’s a good thing that nobody at McDonald’s patented the idea of single request ordering in restaurants or else you’d have to say “I want fries with that. Yes, I’m sure I really want fries with that” when filling up at Burger King.
Another patent licenses simply the idea of an online backup system. What will you dream up next, captain obvious? And how much power will the lame-brained lackeys at the patent office grant you?
It’s bad enough that big-time industry players such as Apple, Google, and Microsoft stifle their competitors, but there are now a host of “patent troll” companies who don’t make or invent anything, but hold large portfolios of broad patents and use them as licenses to sue or collect licensing fees. (COMPAQ presario cq60-100 ac adapter)When it comes to protection rackets, La Cosa Nostra could learn a thing or two from companies such as Lodsys, which is now demanding licensing fees from app developers, claiming that it owns a patent on in-app shopping.
Unfortunately, it’s not the Samsungs of the world who are most hurt by putrid patents. It’s you. Large companies have the resources to fight these battles out in court, to use the threat of enforcing their own ridiculous patents as leverage in a cold war with other vendors, or to pay licensing fees such as the one HTC gives to Microsoft for every Android phone it sells.(TOSHIBA satellite 330 ac adapter)
Ultimately, you bear the burden of these lawsuits, patent acquisitions, and protection kickbacks in the form of higher device prices. Even worse, you lose your freedom of choice as smaller players are forced out of the market and larger players are discouraged from innovating. If you’re an entrepreneur that has dreams about building  a better mousetrap on your own, forget about it. Someone else has probably already patented the idea of “mousetraps that are better than previous ones.”
If you’re a software developer, a hardware engineer, or even a mailroom worker who might be employed by a technology company, the patent system could cost you a job as companies spend more money on lawyers and less on producing new products. Do we really need fewer job opportunities in this economy?(dell inspiron 1545 battery)
A consortium led by Apple, RIM, and Microsoft just spent $4.5 billion to acquire Nortel’s patents. That’s enough money to pay 45,000 people a $100,000 salary for a year (not counting benefits or taxes). That’s enough developers and engineers to advance these companies’ core products by light years. Apple could shoot up to the equivalent of the iPad 6, Microsoft could fast forward  to Windows Phone 10, and RIM could finally release a phone that’s only a few months, rather than years behind the competition.  Instead, they’ll use the money to stockpile IP for patent wars they should never have to fight.(HP omnibook 6000 ac adapter)
This week, entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban strongly suggested that the U.S. eliminate software and business process patents. He writes:
If you create a new process, use it. The benefit is from creating the idea and using it in a business to your advantage. Afraid that some big company might steal the idea ? That is life. When you run with the elephants there are the quick and the dead. That is a challenge every small company faces. A process patent is not going to make your business successful. The successful execution of business processes will.(Dell vostro 1400 battery)
I wish the world would listen to Cuban, but sadly the very people who agree with him are arming themselves with even more patents. Last week, Google’s David Drummond wrote a blog post, criticizing the patent bubble and competitors for trying to “strangle” Android with licensing fees, but then promising “to reduce the anti-competitive threats against Android by strengthening our own patent portfolio.”
You really can’t blame Google for arming itself when there’s no sheriff in town to protect its interests. But barring a massive change in patent laws in both the U.S. and Europe, you’ll continue to fund the armory.
Online Editorial Director Avram Piltch oversees the production and infrastructure of LAPTOP’s web site. With a reputation as the staff’s biggest geek, he has also helped develop a number of LAPTOP’s custom tests, including the LAPTOP Battery Test. Catch the Geek’s Geekcolumn here every week or follow Avram on twitter.
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next blog: Ergo-Tilt Laptop Stand Review

Ergo-Tilt Laptop Stand Review

I recently reviewed a laptop cooling stand, and Herb Ostroff, the CEO of Ergo-Tilt, contacted Julie to ask if we’d put his Ergo-Tilt laptop stand through the same tests.  We agreed, and Herb quickly shipped out a couple of stands to me.  The Ergo-Tilt stands are designed to keep your back, neck, and wrists relaxed by lifting your laptop up to improve the typing and viewing angles and to allow ventilation under the laptop to help keep it cool.  Let’s see how it performed.  (Hp Compaq Business Notebook nc6400 Battery)

Ergo-Tilt is a Canadian company, but they ship internationally.  To make things easy on us here in the US, they even have a US page with prices shown in American dollars.  They are a socially responsible company.  Ergo-Tilt stands are assembled in workshops for challenged individuals.  They are all plastic with no metals, so the stands are easily recyclable.  Even their packaging is made from recycled materials.(IBM FRU 92P1157 Adapter)

The Ergo-Tilt is a one-size-fits-all-laptops product.  I measured it at about 13.6” X 12.10” X 0.75” when closed.  I couldn’t fit it on my digital kitchen scale very easily, but the website says the stand weighs 8.9 oz.  There’s a hinge at the back that opens to raise the back end of the stand to about 3 inches.

It is currently available in black, yellow, lime, and pink, although they also show a couple other colors in pictures on their website.  I requested a yellow stand.  I was surprised when I received both a yellow and a pink stand.  The Ergo-Tilt URL is molded into the raised lip. (APPLE MacBook Pro 17 inch MB166*/A Battery) There is a large paper label on the surface of the stand area and a small one centered on the raised lip area.  The labels have the Ergo-Tilt logo and URL on them.  The stands can be branded for any reseller by replacing these stickers with another logo.

The front of the stand has a raised lip to prevent the laptop from sliding off the stand.  At first, I thought both the yellow and pink stands were exactly the same, but I quickly realized that the pink stand had a raised tab at each end of the raised lip.  Info from Herb said they had recently added the tabs to their molds to prevent laptops with very rounded fronts from slipping over the raised lip.(NEC LAVIE L LL750/4D SERIES Adapter)

My MacBook Pro worked well on the yellow stand without the retaining tabs.  Of course, I tried out both stands with my laptop.  I was a little afraid that the retaining tabs would dig into my wrists and make using the stand uncomfortable, but that wasn’t the case.  The front of my laptop is tall enough that the tabs were below the level of the laptop’s wrist rest area.(Dell Lite-On PA-1131-02D Adapter)

Click to enlarge

I already mentioned that the Ergo-Tilt is one-size-fits-all-laptops.  Because I have a 13” MacBook Pro, you can see that the stand is bigger than the laptop.  It’s not very much wider, but it is about 2.25” deeper than needed for my laptop.  That means the stand takes up much more real estate on my tiny laptop table than it should to fit my laptop.(Canon Eos-300d Battery)

The angle/height of the Ergo-Tilt stand isn’t adjustable.  You unfold the leg at the back into a single position.   I’ve mentioned my tiny laptop table (too?) many times.  Not only is the tabletop small, but the stand is very low, too.  Normal desks are usually about 29” tall, but my stand is only about 24” tall.  Even being 5-foot-nothing, I find this table a bit low, so I was hoping the stand would make using the computer more comfortable.  It does raise the screen enough that I don’t slouch as much to view the screen, so my back and neck feel a bit more comfortable. (Acer Aspire 7730 Battery) The stand, when sitting on the very low table, isn’t as comfortable for my wrists as I’d like, though.  My wrists are too flexed, with the hands angled back toward my arms, when I’m using the very low table.  However, I do plan to replace this table with a standard desk, so I decided I should also try the Ergo-Tilt on something with a standard height.  My kitchen table is about the same height as a desk, so I tried the stand on it.  With the higher table, I found the angle much more comfortable.  My arm/wrist/hand was almost a straight line as I typed.  Since having your wrists bent in weird angles while typing is the root cause of wrist pain and damage, having my wrists straight should help.  Of course, I did mention that I’m only 5’ tall, so taller people using a standard desk may have the same problem I have on my low table.(Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W115 Charger)

I was a little concerned by the way the hinge flexes when pressure is applied to the laptop area.  I don’t think there’s any way that the weight of any laptop I’ve seen would cause the hinge to flex too far and break, though.  However, the Ergo-Tilt is covered by a 5-year warranty, so you’ll probably be covered if you do have a problem with the hinge.

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The Ergo-Tilt stand is designed to fold up fairly flat so you can carry it in your laptop bag.  I carry my laptop in the Cocoon Kips Bay bag for the 13” MacBook Pro, and the Ergo-Tilt is far too big to fit in my bag.

You’ll notice that the Ergo-Tilt is vented.  Like many laptop stands, the Ergo-Tilt says it will help keep your laptop cooler.  The stand doesn’t have any fans that require power from your laptop Hp Compaq Business Notebook 6735s Battery .  It is a passive cooler that simply allows airflow under the laptop, and the vents are designed to allow the cooling air to reach the bottom of the laptop itself.

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I put the cooling claims to the test using the same method I used before.  I used the MagicanPaster app from the Mac App store to measure the CPU, SAMSUNG P1000 Charger battery, and disk temperatures to quantify the cooling function of the stand.   I used the MagicanPaster app to see the internal temperatures of my laptop as I used it in normal conditions.  I don’t use my laptop under carefully controlled testing facility conditions.  I do use it in an air-conditioned room.  I do a lot of surfing, photo editing, word-processing, emailing, and the like on my laptop.  I am not a gamer.  I started out with the laptop just sitting flat on my laptop table.  I never took a temperature reading immediately after waking up the laptop.  I would wait until I had been using the laptop for more than an hour before I took a temperature.  After a few days of collecting temperatures with no stand, I placed the laptop on the yellow Ergo-Tilt stand and collected temperatures during use just as described for the no-stand period.  You can see from the data (above, click for a larger view) that there is no clear evidence that the stand cools the laptop during use.(Jvc Bn-vf714 Battery)

Click to enlarge

I also ran a flash test to see how the stand cooled while my laptop was being used at heavier load than normal.  There were no golf games I could use like in my earlier test, so I used the Flash Stress Test at the Munsie Games website.  (Hp Pavilion dv8235nr Battery )The stress test exercises your computer by displaying a lot of images on your screen in a 30-second burst.  I started by testing with no stand.  I took a starting temperature reading, then I ran the test two times, immediately back-to-back, then re-checked the temperatures using MagicanPaster.  I waited about 30 minutes (with the laptop in sleep mode) while the laptop cooled down, put it on the Ergo-Tilt stand, took a starting temperature, then ran the flash stress test just as before.  Again, I don’t see any strong evidence that the stand keeps the laptop running cooler.(Acer Aspire 7730 Battery )

I found the Ergo-Tilt laptop stand elevated my laptop screen to a good viewing angle and kept my wrists at a comfortable, straight angle when I used it on a standard-height table.  I didn’t find any cooling benefits, but you might find it more effective if you laptop tends to run hotter than mine does normally or if your laptop has cooling vents on its bottom.  You should be able to fold up and take the Ergo-Stand along with you in your laptop bag, so you can type comfortably where ever you are.

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