Home & Small Office Computer Guide

It seems that a growing shortage of major laptop components could impact on some laptop manufacturers over the coming months. Everything from screens to hard drives have been in short supply for some time.

You can read the full story here

If you believe the hype Vista is definitely the best thing since sliced bread. It will do everything but tie your shoelaces in the morning and if you’re not running Vista your missing out on one of life’s major experiences and yada yada yada …

The fact is that at the grassroots level Vista is still a dog. Many individuals and businesses both large and small are still finding that key pieces of software will not run on Vista. Fortunately several large computer manufacturers … and plenty of local ones too … are aware of the problems and Windows XP is still available if you ask for it.

You’ll find more information about it here

Anything that will rid the back of my office desk of the rat’s nest of cables and wires that come with having two computers set up there is always going to grab my attention. So more talk of wireless USB connections certainly got me interested.

Talk of wireless USB has been around for some time - it was first written about in 2004 and in January this year I suggested that it was closer than many people thought and as far back as January 2006 Belkin had released a cable free USB hub but despite that nothing much has happened with wireless USB until now.

Last week things began to change as Belkin announced the release of another wireless USB hub and Lenovo announced a notebook with wireless USB as an option.

More manufacturers are expected to announce wireless USB products in the coming weeks so perhaps we’re about to see wireless USB really begin to take off.

You can read more about it here 

I really hope that you’re not one of those people who opens email attachements - no matter how innocent they may appear - without first running them through a virus scanner.

Even if the email is addressed to you personally and comes to you at work you should take precautions because the attachement you open could compromise your computer and every other computer that’s networked to it. This story shows how nasty the situation is becoming.

If you happen to spend a lot of time on eBay - searching for computer bargains of course - then here’s the eBay Toolbar.

Check it out … it looks like it can save you time for other things … like searching for other bargains on eBay.

Hitachi shipped it’s first 1 terabyte hard drive several months ago and now Cnet is reporting that Seagate’s first 1 terabyte capacity hard drive will be available in the next month or so.

Seagate’s hard drive comes with a 5 year warranty and both Seagate and Hitachi have priced their units at $US399.

So scientific tests have shown that there are more germs and bacteria on computer keyboards and mice than there are on toilet seats but is there a solution?

Would you believe that there’s a keyboard and mouse that’s dishwasher safe?

Well there is and you can find them at Seal Shield.

The manufacturers, Via Technologies Inc. claim that this is the world’s smallest full featured x86motherboard. It’s designed for ultra compact embedded PCs, systems and appliances.

The mother board is designed to be used with Via Technologies C7 processor. These processors aren’t as powerful as Intel or AMD products but then the C& processors don’t use as much power.

A pocket sized PC running XP is said to last for around 5 hours on just one battery charge.

You can read more about the motherboard and the computer that it’s fitted to here

Are you thinking of increasing the amount of memory in your computer?

Well now might be the time to stop thinking about it and actually do it because experts suggest that the price for memory is near rock bottom and the only way left is up.

You can read the story here

… it all depends

When Windows Vista appeareed one of it’s selling points - aimed at those who use laptops - was that it would extend battery life. To some extent that has been the case and if you run Vista in it’s very basic form you can get better battery life than if you were running Windows XP.

However, if you have the hardware in your laptop to run Vista’s Aero Glass interface - you know, the one the brochures all show you and that looks so wonderful - then expect to drain your laptop’s battery rather quickly. The problem is so bad that several laptop producers have come up with their own power management settings rather than relying on those built into Vista.

You can find more about the story here.