UT spends 18L on laptops, councillors don't use

these
TNN,Mar 12, 2011, 03.06am IST
CHANDIGARH: High-end laptops given to MC councillors are proving to be white elephants as
a majority of the councillors are not using the machines. The proposal to put agenda and other
information online was scuttled by councillors at the last meeting. There have been allegations
that most of the councillors don't even know the basics of computers. The civic authority had
issued laptops to all councillors at a cost of Rs 18 lakh following the UT administrator's
approval.

Councillors are of the view that the civic body should first issue internet connections to all
councillors; only then would they be able to use the laptops. Congress councillorChandermukhi
Sharma had recently expressed that with the civic body having given laptops to all municipal
councillors, agenda copies and other documents related to the general house meeting should
directly come to them on their machines. He said this exercise is required because it would help
MC save stationery. BJP councillor Ram Lal had, on the other hand, said besides the matter
being put on net, councillors should get agenda copies

When asked about it, BJP councillor Ram Lal said, 'I am using the machines and getting
complaints of public on it, but the number of complaints is very low. Most of the councillors
don't have an internet connection. Therefore, initially, both the systems should prevail. The
agenda has more than 200 pages. Thus, it is very difficult to go through the entire agenda on the
internet.'

Another BJP councillorSunita said, 'We are not using the laptops right now and at present, they
are not useful for us.' Criticizing the idea of putting agenda on the net, Congress councillor H C
Kalyan said, 'We are not using the laptops, because we don't have the internet connections.
Without a net connection, there is no use of laptops.' Another Congress Kuldeep Singh said,
'There is no use of laptops without an internet connection.' Tnn

Lords pick iPad over "old fashioned" laptops

 Gallery
By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 17 Mar 2011 at 17:33

The House of Lords will allow iPads and other tablets in official proceedings - but not laptops,
over fears typing would be distracting.

The Lords approved a one-year trial of "electronic handheld devices" to access documents
related to official business, but preserved a ban on laptops.

The trial will only let devices be used to read documents, not to search the web for more
information.

Baroness Harris said an iPad would be more "proper" than noisy laptops. "The point about an
iPad is that it is silent; there are no clicking noises. It is quite small and can be held easily in one
hand," she claimed.

Asked whether netbooks would be allowed, Committee chairman Lord Brabazon admitting he
wasn't sure he knew what a netbook was, and the Lords eventually decided the rules came down
to "whether they click or not" when being used.

The point about an iPad is that it is silent; there are no clicking noises

The chairman stressed that the frequent use of the iPad in the report was not due to any
favouritism of the Apple device. "I use the expression 'iPad' in the same way that one uses the
expressions 'Hoover' or 'fridge'," he noted.

Admitted Apple fan Baroness Harris added that laptops were "old fashioned", but said the Lords'
current lack of technology was worse.

"Our devolved Parliaments and Assemblies use laptops, although they are old-fashioned now,"
she said. "While watching them use that technology, I felt that we were very disadvantaged."

Not conducive to good debate?

While the motion was passed, a few Lords shared concerns tablets would distract peers. "I must
confess that I do not Google, Twitter, tweet or blog, nor do I have any particular desire to do any
of those things, but it seems to me that to have handheld devices in the Chamber is not conducive
to good debate and intelligent participation in it," argued Lord Cormack.

He raised concerns it would be impossible to enforce rules around web access. "Therefore,
anybody sitting in this Chamber with a handheld device could do anything from Googling facts
to getting in touch with his bookmaker."

We hear some speeches made in this noble House where perhaps playing Scrabble on our
devices would be a better alternative

Lord Deben countered: "We hear some speeches made in this noble House where perhaps
playing Scrabble on our devices would be a better alternative."

Others were worried Lords would appear to those watching on television to not be paying
attention while fiddling with gadgets. "At least it would prove that those noble Lords were awake
and not asleep," answered Lord Brabazon. "It would look no worse than that."

Baroness Harris said she would still make her speeches from paper. "I am a bit old-fashioned and
the thought of standing up and referring to notes on my iPad is not very encouraging," she added.
"I am old-fashioned enough to say that I will still be using paper, as many of your Lordships do
in any case."

Lord Deben disagreed: "Perhaps I may suggest also that making a virtue of being out of date is
really not helpful for this House."

While arguing in favour of better use of technology, Lord Lucas summed the whole debate up
nicely, saying: "I am grateful to my noble friends for making me feel, for the first time in a
while, that I am a member of the younger generation."

Angara wants laptops, SIM registered

February 28, 2011, 8:03pm
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate science and technology committee wraps up this week
with a report of a measure seeking to arrest the rising crime rate attributed to the use of laptops
and unregistered SIM cards.

The measure is expected to be the subject of formal debate on the Senate floor next week.

Sen. Edgardo J. Angara said domestic and international crimes related to the use of the
unregistered lap tops and cell phones with unregistered pre-paid SIM cards are rising.

He said he sponsored last year a bill on cyber crimes but this was deferred because the Senate
adjourned two days after his sponsorship speech. “At the House of Representatives, it was
passed. The bill is advanced and it is no longer a virgin territory,’’ he said.

“In Singapore, it is mandatory to register your laptop as well as you buy SIM card . . ..nakalista
(it is listed),’’ he said. (Mario B. Casayuran)

Apple laptops being the Best Choice

Posted on March 4, 2011 by Shannon Hilson
With the improvement and progress in technology, people’s demands seem to change to a great
extent too. When a person is aware that there are highly advanced gadgets available in the
market, it becomes difficult to like or settle for anything lower than the set standard. For
instance, even though desktop computers were known as an invention that changed the lives of
many, with the shift in trends towards laptops, they have become more liked and preferred by
people all over. The reason behind this is the immense comfort that one receives at the hands of
technological advancements, which makes one desire only that which is the most up-to-date.

As laptops started taking its charge over the market and in people’s heart, each computer related
company started working hard to get in touch with the latest developments and manufacture
products which would serve people’s needs. The company “Apple” is the most associated with
computers, as they have been working in the field for such a long time.

Their first laptop got released in the year 1989, which was called “Macintosh Portable”. Later
they came up with more inventions such as the MacBook Pro. These are considered to be the
most efficient ones of Apple’s products as they have an advanced Intel Pro chip and other
features such as a hard disk of 250 GB. Some other amazing qualities include a remote control,
which one hardly ever associates with a laptop. With the help of a remote, you can operate the
machine while being at a distance from it. For instance if you are sitting quite far from the laptop
while watching a movie, you will not have to get up each time you want to skip a scene or turn
up the volume.

Apple has always aimed high and been successful at trying their hands on the up-to-date
technology. One gets to see the difference clearly by examining their notebooks.

Apple effectively draws a line from other competitors and confirms their ability by coming up
with products which adequately fulfill the needs and requirements of the consumers. Some of its
models and series which have made people fall head over heels in love with them include the
following:

PowerBook and iBook are two latest Apple models which are liked by people to a great extent.
They are extremely attractive to look at, as they have a sleek design and a soft, glossy surface.
Their corners are not edgy like most laptops, but have smooth curves which make them so much
fun to be handled. They also come with aluminum casings and colors such as white or silver.

Some of the newest features like stereo speakers, Bluetooth, high powered and durable batteries
and WiFi are also present in Apple laptops.

You must have experienced a situation in which you found really difficult to type in the dark,
because you could not see your laptop’s keyboard. Apple laptops take enough care to resolve all
the little issues that one may face, just to provide an experience of complete comfort and ease to
their customers. These laptops have a unique lighting system which helps in lighting up the
keyboard when in dark. The light sensors detect darkness, and enable the keyboard to light up
automatically.

Check out Mezzi’s line of aluminum briefcases and other metal cases, including Apple laptop
cases and other laptop case models. Great prices on quality cases.
Lenovo's ThinkPad X220 is an Excellent
Lightweight Laptop

At the All Things Digital conference last June, I had a chance to question Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer about when Windows laptops would be able to compete with the iPad when it comes to
battery life. He said to stay tuned. I have stayed tuned but haven't heard much from Microsoft
about battery life. However, I did just get my hands on a new Windows 7 notebook PC from
Lenovo, which claims to actually outlast the iPad's rated 10 hours of battery life.
The ThinkPad X220, which will be available in April as both a standard notebook PC and as a
convertible PC/tablet, boasts an amazing 24 hours of battery life with an add-on external battery
pack that attaches to the bottom of the unit. Even without the external battery, Lenovo says the
laptop can get an impressive 15 hours on its internal 9-cell battery. There are caveats to those
claims -- your actual time will vary and will probably be less.
I didn't do any formal battery testing but I did use it for several hours with no sign of the battery
dying. My sense is that the iPad's battery will still outlast the Lenovo's if you don't add the
external battery or take advantage of every conceivable battery saving tip. But the fact that it
comes close is impressive considering that the Lenovo is a fast, full-fledged PC with a spinning
hard drive.

The unit Lenovo sent me to test had one of Intel's new Sandy Bridge processors running at 2.7
GHz, which Lenovo says is 20 percent faster than previous generations with twice the graphics
performance. It comes standard with 4 gigabytes of RAM (expandable to 8) and a 320 GB hard
drive. The company hasn't announced pricing, but I believe it will start at about $900.

The new machine has a gorgeous 12.5 inch high-definition display that looked great when
running websites and playing movies, and you can actually hear the speakers, which is not the
case with some other lightweight machines. One of my pet peeves about some laptops are
speakers that aren't loud enough to hear without headphones.

Lenovo has also improved the microphone to reduce background noise when using it as a phone
or for Web conferencing, and to pick up sounds from across the room when using it as a speaker
phone.

The unit I'm testing is sitting right next to the 11-inch MacBook Air that I purchased just a few
weeks ago. If I hadn't bought the MacBook, I would be seriously tempted to buy the Lenovo.
True, it's eight ounces heavier and the standard model has an old fashioned hard drive instead of
a solid state drive that uses flash memory instead of a spinning disc, but it's still quite portable
and the extra screen real estate is welcome, as is the more spacious hard drive. For those willing
to pay extra for a flash drive, Lenovo will offer it as an option. Like the MacBook Air, it wakes
up from sleep very quickly, which was one of Apple's major selling points when it announced
the Air.

I also love Lenovo's excellent keyboard and pointing devices. Lenovo, which bought IBM's PC
division in 2004, has maintained IBM's tradition of great PC keyboards, even on its ultraportable
models. Like the MacBook Air, the keyboard has the same spacing as a desktop keyboard. But
unlike the Air, the keys themselves have a lot of "travel" or motion, which provides more
positive feedback and helps me type with fewer errors. Lenovo is one of the few PC makers to
offer users a choice between a pointing stick, which sticks up between the G, H and B keys to let
you move the cursor with one finger, and a button-less trackpad.
My Lenovo test machine arrived a few days before Apple started selling its new iPad 2, which is
about one-third of an inch thick and weighs only 1.33 pounds. Of course, there's no direct way to
truly compare a notebook PC with a tablet -- they're different animals. Still, there are people who
are now using iPads and other tablets instead of laptops and there are those, including Apple
CEO Steve Jobs, who talk about the "post-PC era," implying that tablet PCs will take over a big
slice of the portable computing market.

Ironically, the biggest challenger to that premise is Apple, whose 11-inch MacBook Air is only a
pound heavier than the iPad 2. And even though the Lenovo is more than twice the weight of the
iPad 2, it's still light enough to carry around all day.

Lenovo will ship a convertible version of the X220 with a touch screen in addition to the
keyboard, but it will actually be heavier than the keyboard-only model I tested. Somehow, I
think that's a bit of a non-starter for most people. If you want a tablet, buy an iPad or one of the
Android tablets that will be coming out this year.

While the difference between tablets and laptops will start to blur over time, for the moment at
least, there is a big market for little laptops, especially for people who do a lot of writing and
need a good keyboard and those who need to be able to run Windows or Mac OS X. That may
change. But until it does, I'm a big fan of lighter laptops with longer battery life.

Edifier Sound To Go, Elegant All-in-one Micro USB

Speaker for Laptops
February 24th, 2011
Ads by Google

Dell XPS™ 14 Laptops

4GB RAM, HD Display & JBL Speakers. With Intel®
Core™ i7 @ Rs.51,900.

It seems that unless you are willing to spend a veritable fortune for your laptop (and
you can forget about ultra portable models all together) the quality of sound that
emanates from your typical laptop's stock speakers... stinks! This is why there always
has and probably always be a need for aftermarket speaker systems. This of course
brings its own host of problems as most "desktop" speaker solutions are bulky, require
their own power source and are about as portable as a large brick! This is Edifier and
many other companies have releasedlaptop speakers. Laptop centric speakers
basically come in two main groups "clip on" which literally clip on the laptop (an
example of this would be the Logitech Z305) and "sound bars" which are small long
speakers which best resemble a bar and sit in front of the laptop. A great example of
the sound bar style speaker setup is the aptly named Sound To Go. In either case
they are USB powered device which are meant to be portable as well as potent.
The Edifier Sound To Go combines Edifier's extensive knowledge of all things sound
related with the ascetics that are hard to beat! Best of all these 2 x 1W - 30x70mm -
speakers not only blow most laptop's speakers out of the water they are also damn
portable as they are only 261 x 36 x 44 mm and are robust enough to be thrown into a
laptop case thanks to their metal housing (though they do include a cloth travel pouch
to make transit even more secure)! Also on the positive side they not only can use the
USB port as sound input (as well as the power input) the Edifier Sound To Go has a
3.5mm auxiliary in port allowing you to use them with more than just your laptop
(such as plugging in your iPod Touch). When you add great engineering, with great
looks and great portability the results usually is a winner; however when you add in
an asking price of only about $55 the end result is awfully darn tempting. Sadly where
they don't attach to your laptop per say they are not quiet as portable as some other
designs, and there SPL of only 80dBA is on the low side; meaning that while they are a
good, reasonably priced option they will not be right for everyone.

The top 10 most popular laptop brands

 Apple is currently the most talked about laptop brand on the internet with more social
media ‘likes’ than any other.

Apple's 2011 Macbook Pro is one of the fastest laptops money can buy

By Hunter Skipworth 11:26PM GMT 16 Mar 2011

Comments
Apple’s design and reliability has led to the companies’ laptops receiving far more positive feedback
than any other manufacturer on the internet. More value for money Windows alternatives do follow,
with LG and Sony experiencing plenty of talk online. Somewhat surprisingly traditional mobile
computing staples like Samsung and Acer don’t even make the top 10.
It is unlikely we will see any competition managing to topple Apple from the satisfaction throne; their
laptop price tags mean you get what you pay for. Sony’s expensive Vaio series computers ensure
that they remain very much the ‘Mac of Windows’ and as such should see them hovering around the
top three for plenty of time to come too.
The midfielders like Hewlett Packard and Asus both have varied laptops across different price
ranges. Those who buy into one of their support structures with a cheaper laptop tend to gain the
same help that a more expensive option would get, hence the more positive social media
discussion.
The speed at which rumours and complaints spread across social media spheres mean that these
statistics are constantly changing. It only takes one bad product or equally something great to send
a company up or down the list.
RELATED ARTICLES
• Best buys: Laptops
16 Mar 2011
Rank Brand Love % Msgs

1 Apple 64.78 25,827

2 LG 71.81 1,724

3 Sony 52.34 2,432

4 Panasonic 78.00 150

5 Asus 62.50 168

6 HCL 56.76 37

7 Hewlett Packard 52.38 21

8 Packard Bell 20.00 5

9 Medion 0 8

10 Fujitsu 28.57 42

Avg Laptop Brands 59.04 34,818

Statistics from Amplicate, an online opinion collating service with more than 73 million public
opinions from Twitter, Facebook and Amplicate itself. This ranking includes topics people are
currently talking about on social networks. The calculation is based on the total number of positive
and negative opinions within a 3 months period, taking into account the volume of opinions in a
particular category using the Bayesian Average method. More detailed information
on http://amplicate.com