An external mouse and keyboard can work ergonomic wonders for a desk-bound laptop, but you’ll still be left looking down at the screen. If you’d like to avoid a stiff neck, one solution is a laptop stand, but while most simply angle the laptop just a little and leave it hogging valuable desk space, the Prop-Forward takes a different tack altogether.
If you’ve been hedging your bets when it comes to buying a low-cost laptop along the lines of the Asus Eee PC, you’ve been wise to keep your wallet closed for so long. Asus may have all but created the market for the ‘netbook’, but now other laptop manufacturers are jumping on the bandwagon and the latest is Acer with its Aspire One.
Half the point of owning an iPhone is the generous unlimited data package - a factor that's set to come into its own with the 3G version. But with it has come a warning, from the Times, about browsing the web while abroad.
TimesOnline points out that O2 will be charging nearly £3/MB for roaming within the EU and almost £6/MB for the rest of the world. In other words, a single minute of cat-falling-in-a-pond hilarity on YouTube could end up costing you up to £12 when you get back home.
Our advice: leave the phone set to the default "Data Roaming Off" setting when you venture abroad. The cat can wait.
The camera phone megapixel race has begun, and while Sony Ericsson may be winning with its 8.1MP C905, Motorola is closing the gap with this 5MP effort, the Motozine ZN5.
Sony Ericsson of course has the expertise of Sony to fall back on so Motorola, not yet renowned for its imaging prowess, has teamed up with Kodak to beef up the ZN5's credentials...
Back in November we were told that handsets sporting Google's Android OS would be popping up 'by the second half of 2008'. Well, June is here and nearly gone and still no Android phones to speak of - bar some early demonstration sets .
Now the Wall Street Journal reports that Android has indeed hit some unforeseen delays, pushing things back to the final quarter of the year - or possibly even into early 2009.
Networks seem to have run into problems customising Android for their own mobile Internet portals, while software developers are complaining that Google has been moving the goal posts with changes to Android while software is in mid development.
The WSJ quotes Google's director of mobile platforms, Andy Rubin, as saying: "This is where the pain happens... We are very, very close." Just how close remains to be seen.
Forget pico projectors, a company in India is promising to have the first mobile phones with holographic projectors ready within two years.
Infosys says the handsets will think nothing of beaming and screening 3D films, games and objects - and could even help accident investigators, teachers and doctors in their work.
It's all down to Fourier algorithms, which we won't pretend to understand, but a useful phrase to drop into conversation nevertheless.
Asus supplied us with a black Eee PC 901 with Windows XP a couple of days ago, which means we were finally able to finish our battery testing – the early Windows drivers on our first review model meant that our first batch of battery results were tentative.
The good news is that there’s a staggering increase in battery life once the Intel Atom processor’s power-saving features kick in. We’ve revised the original review accordingly, but you can read more about the final battery tests – and see some more images of the black Eee PC 901 – after the cut.
Toshiba's been busy knocking out not only the world's first laptop with a 128GB SSD, but also the first series of laptops with dedicated processors for upscaling DVDs to HD quality.
The 12.1in Portégé R500-S5007V is the model getting the 128GB SSD
makeover. Having all that solid state memory onboard does bump the
price up to $2,999 in the US, but that's still less than Apple charges
for the 64GB SSD version of its MacBook Air, which sells for $3,146 in
the States.
Toshiba also claims that, at 1.09kg, it's "the world’s lightest laptop
with a 128GB SSD and DVD SuperMulti drive." Given that it's just about
the only laptop with that combination you could also argue that it's
the heaviest, but you get the point.
It was aiming for five million but it looks like Firefox makers, Mozilla, smashed that on its Firefox 3 Download Day. While it awaits confirmation from Guinness, Mozilla is claiming it's set a new world record of 8.3 million downloads in just 24 hours.
And though the first 24 hours may be over, the downloads continue. The current total now stands at a whopping 13.7 million, with the UK contributing a healthy 0.5 million all by itself. That puts it ahead of France and Spain on 4.7 million apiece, but trailing Germany who not only made short work of Portugal (61,000) last night but have also downloaded Firefox a table-topping 1.1 million times.
Current world champions, though, are the US with 4 million downloads. Honourable mentions must also go to the 11 downloaders in Chad and the 29 in Turkmenistan. Bravo.
Huawei, dongle maker extraordinaire, has unveiled its latest HSDPA-hungry creation, the E180. As well as carrying out its usual modem duties, it also packs a MicroSD card reader, capable of supporting cards of up to 8GB in capacity - neatly doing away with the need for a separate memory stick for your files.
At a mere 10mm thick, with an "innovative swivelling USB conector", Huawei claims it's the world's thinnest HSDPA modem. It supports standard uplink speeds of up to 5.76Mbps and downloads up to a speedy 7.2Mbps. Apple fans will be pleased to know it's also Mac friendly.
With Huawei dominating the rebadge 3G dongle market, expect to see it wearing your network's logo when it goes on sale at the end of the month.
We’ve had cause to mention the Advent 4211 a few times in the last few weeks, but if you missed our previous coverage, here’s one-sent...
Read more...
Eee PC 1000
Although the Eee PC 901 is perfectly proportioned for a netbook, we can’t help but admit that even we find its compact keyboard a little too...
Read more...
Hands-on video of the Asus Eee PC 1000
Asus kindly dropped of yet another Eee PC earlier today – the Eee PC 1000-BK002. As we’ve already reported, this is a 10in screen netb...
Read more...
HTC Touch Diamond
It's a tough job overcoming the failings of Windows Mobile, but HTC has done a better job than most in recent times with its seriously sexy and po...
Read more...
Watch the HTC Touch Diamond in slow motion...
We've had the HTC Touch Diamond Windows Mobile 6.1 smartphone in the Mobile Computer office for just over a week now and I'll be posting a full revi...
Read more...
Creative Vado Pocket Video Cam
Clearly looking to cash in on the craze for the Flip in the US, Creative’s take on the pocket-size digital video camera is essentially a ca...
Read more...
MSI Wind U100
If you’ve been holding off buying a netbook until the dust has settled, the good news is that you can reach for your credit card now. The las...
Read more...
MSI Wind hands-on video and Aspire One/Eee PC 901 comparisons
With your appetite has been whetted by the Wind unboxing video, here comes the starter – a hands-on video of MSI’s new netbook. You can...
Read more...
See the MSI Wind being removed from its box!
The MSI Wind netbook arrived in the Mobile Computer office a short while ago and we’ve shot a couple of videos to tide you over until we pub...
Read more...
Apple Time Capsule
Spending time making something you hope you’ll never need is a pretty pointless activity, which is probably why so few people bother backing ...
Read more...
As explained in our review, a problem with the way in which some MSI Wind U100 retail units respond to a fully depleted battery means that they nee...
Read more...
How to recover lost photos from a digital camera memory card
Accidentally reformatting or deleting photos from a memory card full of digital snaps is one way to end a holiday on a low note, but it do...
Read more...
Optimise Firefox for the Asus Eee PC
Asus may have upped the screen resolution on the Eee PC 900, but 1024 x 600 can still be a little cramped for web browsing – and the 800 x...
Read more...
Create a mobile website in seconds with Wirenode
With web publishing now easier and cheaper than ever, virtually every company in existence has its own web site. Creating a mere website is...
Read more...
Connect to Xbox Live with a USB 3G modem
Judging by the number of emails we receive asking how to do it, lots of people are trying – and failing – to get their Xbox 360 games ...
Read more...
Use a Windows Mobile smartphone as a Wi-Fi router
Getting your laptop online via 3G is no big deal these days, thanks to the wide range of mobile broadband deals that are available. If you just wa...
Read more...
Sync your Firefox bookmarks with the iPhone
As much as we love the Apple iPhone, we’re the first to admit that its iTunes synchronisation options are pretty inadequate. The problem is th...
Read more...
Eject your laptop CD or DVD-ROM drive with a key-press using AutoHotKey
David Walliams (no, not him - we asked) writes:
I have an old Panasonic Toughbook and after years of good service, the CD eject bu...
Read more...
Protect your private laptop data with TrueCrypt
When news about a stolen or lost laptop containing confidential information hits the headlines, who doesn't wonder how the owners could so stupid as...
Read more...
How to copy and paste text on the Apple iPhone with iCopy
Apparently, copy and paste is the most requested missing feature on the iPhone (and not, as you might have thought, the ability to use it on other...
Read more...