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Hewlett-Packard, HP, was established in 1939, but didn’t trademark the name until 1954. HP equipment can be dated back to 1941. One of HP’s first clients was The Walt Disney Company. Disney purchased equipment to better the surround sound for the movie Fantasia. As Hewlett-Packard grew so did their products and their knowledge for technology. Today HP provides desktops, laptops, servers, printers, and cameras to name a few. They also sell switches, wireless access points, and WAN routers making them the 2nd largest networking company in the world.

This week we will be discussing HP laptops. Like most companies who sell laptops, HP’s range in price, size, and memory. For instance the cheapest HP laptop sells for $379.99 and the most expensive sells for $1699.99. The reason for the big price gap is again size, memory, and processor speeds. The smallest amount of memory (RAM) in 2010 HP models is 2GB. Some models can be upgraded to 4GB. The smallest laptop, not netbook, HP produces has a 13” screen, while the biggest screen is 18.4”. Hard drives in these laptops range from 250GB to 640GB. The processors range from single core 1.7GHz to duel core i5 2.23GHz. In layman’s terms, that’s fast in both performance and startup time.

In our product review Thursday, we will compare the HP G42t to some of its top competitors. Until next time, happy teching!

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This week we are going to be discussing Toshiba laptops. Toshiba has been around for a while. The company was founded in 1939 by merging two Japanese companies together. But it wasn’t until 1978 when the company was officially named Toshiba. Like Dell, Toshiba sells many technological devices such as, servers, desktops, laptops, netbooks, external hard drives, and home entertainment equipment. In recent years Toshiba has gained popularity by developing cutting edge devices. There laptops are no different. In fact, I am on my second Toshiba laptop.

Toshiba’s laptops range anywhere from 11.6” to 18.4”. Most laptops that are sold today have Windows 7 installed on them. Windows Vista can still be purchased. Like Dell, some netbooks or mini laptops can be purchased with Windows XP, but the supply is limited. Toshiba laptops start out at $429.99 and can reach prices well over $1000. Prices range because of the different ways you can customize your laptop. Some models allow you to upgrade your memory (RAM), while others may allow you to upgrade your hard drive. Also, like many manufactures, Toshiba gives you the options of installing software when purchasing direct such as MS Office 2007.

Over all, Toshiba has always been a leader in developing reliable laptops. Be sure to check our product review later in the week and see how one of Toshiba’s laptops compares to others. Until next time, happy teching!

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Over the past year I have been exploring various operating systems ranging from Windows XP to Linux. And I must say, I was surprised with my findings. I first started my exploration earlier this year when my Toshiba laptop of 4 years started giving me fits. When purchased brand new, the Toshiba had a Celeron processor, Windows XP Home, with 512 RAM and a 80 GB hard drive. Sounds out dated right? In 2006, upgraded the RAM to 1 GB (a $50-$60 addition) and installed Windows Vista Home. Everything was working perfectly at the time; until I installed Office 2007 Student/Home ed. I noticed Office 2007 took a long time to load on my laptop and would sometimes crash and turn my computer off.

My first mistake was installing Vista on a machine that wasn't stable enough for it. Vista claims it can run on 1 GB RAM, but I have yet to see it preform well in that type of environment. My second mistake was installing Office 2007 with a hard drive that was half way full. Both, Vista and Office 2007, require a lot of hard drive space to run. The laptop never had a virus. I did a good job of keeping it clean and free from the evil viruses that plague Windows computers. Plus, I was the only one to use the laptop. As you can imagine, it was an endless road of frustration. It was so bad that I bought a desktop and put the laptop in a closet.

After my wife and I got married in March, we took a leap of faith and moved to Oklahoma City, OK to finish our education. This is where most of my research and trial and error took place with operating systems. I wanted something "light" and easy to use. Unfortunately, Windows did not match my search criteria. Windows OS are easy to use, but by no means light. Plus, living on a student income, Windows was not in my budget. So, off to Google I went. One of the first things I noticed when started my research for reliable light weight operating systems, was the word Linux. I have heard of this OS before, but never researched it or any of that jazz. So as a curious techie guy, I started to dig a little deeper on this Linux. Come to find out it was very light and my computer's response time was quite fast. I guess you could describe Linux as the basics of a computer. The best part about Linux operating systems are they are FREE to download and to install. No licences, unlike Windows.

My Linux OS of choice and recommendation is Ubuntu. I installed Ubuntu on the laptop and it works great. But before I start praising it, I need to tell you some important details. Microsoft programs are not compatible with Linux. I will say that there are free open source programs that are like Microsoft, but not exact. For example, Office 2003 or 2007 will not run on Linux, but there is a program called OpenOffice.org that is as close as you can get to the Office programs. Also, Linux uses Firefox and Opera for Internet browsers instead of Internet Explorer. Overall, I like both Windows OS and Linux/Ubuntu. They both have their positives and negatives. Again, research before deciding on your OS and always look for reviews. And it never hurts to ask your computer guy about either of the operating systems.

Before the summer of 2008, a couple of computer companies came out with some odd looking laptops. These laptops aren't your parents laptop. They are smaller, lighter, and more mobile than ever before. They are simply called "Mini-Laptops." I know what your thinking, "I thought laptops were mini enough." I thought the same thing until I read about these new machines. Some of the well known companies include: HP, Acer, Asus, and Sylvania. When I first seen the mini's I thought it was a new children's toy, but then I saw the prices. These mini computers start out around $400. But you may be a bit surprised to find out what's inside of them. The processors are better, but the RAM and Hard Drives are a quite small in my opinion. Most of the RAM I have seen has been around 512MB - 1GB, but some can go to 2GB. And the Hard Drive size is not much better, 4GB - 8GB of flash memory. (Some of the newer models may have up to 80GB.) Also, Microsoft claims they have stopped selling XP to the public, but most the Windows based mini laptops have XP installed on them. (We all know Vista will not run properly on anything less than 2 GB of RAM. Some mini laptops have Linux.) It may sound like I hate these machines, but I don't. I am glad to see computer companies are making travel easier with smaller laptops. Now instead of carrying around a huge laptop bag, you can carry around a computer that's almost the same size as you hand ( size anywhere from 7 in. to 10 in.). Below is a list I have put together of some different mini laptops. Fell free to read about them, and let us know what you think