What would modern life be like without a laptop?

Laptop

If you force yourself to think back even a handful of years you might be forgiven for not being able to remember a time when laptops were not everywhere. The evolution of laptops and mobile computing in general has been quite a staggering thing to behold, as technology has become cheaper and miniaturisation of components has meant that the average business laptop for example is now less than half the size it was even five years ago. Where not so long ago most people would have sat waiting for a flight to depart or just having a coffee and a sit down in a café accompanied by that day’s newspaper or a good book, today’s it’s more common to see them sat there tapping away on their laptop or surfing the Internet using the venue’s 802.11b Wifi Internet capability. Internet evolution has meant that there is now simply so much of everyday life which takes place online, from major lifestyle aspects like banking, paying bills and ordering the groceries to simple time-saving practices like sourcing the nearest and cheapest plumber or finding a specialist to come round and tune your piano. The Internet continues to be an incredibly empowering tool for the majority of people, and as such it is worth having a decent home laptop to let you benefit from the time and effort-saving world of the web. Wireless connectivity can be used in the home as well as in offices, cafés and other public places, so laptops have become vital parts of most people’s lives.

Satellite L350-20F

Smaller and cheaper than ever

The portable computer and the mobile phone are arguably the two hardware technologies which have advanced the fastest in recent times, give or take the MP3 player or iPod. As chips and other components have become mass-produced goods rather than exclusive technological curiosities, so the price of the average laptop has been able to come down in price. Monitors, wireless cards, keyboards – they have all become much cheaper to produced and have contributed to laptops being affordable to just about anyone these days. Indeed the only thing with a keyboard which remains something of an exclusive good is a piano! This technological advancement has led to a new generation of portable computers characterised by the satellite laptop, a lightweight, slimline, high specification computer which is simplicity itself to carry around in a shoulder bag or rucksack. This type of portable computer offers the user unparalleled levels of processing power and memory space on the hard drive in a machine which carries a surprisingly low retail price and weighs less than 2 kilogrammes. Also increasingly popular among forward-thinking tech users is the netbook, a tiny device around the size and weight of an average paperback book (hence the name). Netbooks are designed specifically to be browsing and email devices rather than work laptops, and they typically come with an 8 gigabyte hard drive and a simple operating system such as Ubuntu, also specifically designed with mobile computing in mind. This kind of laptop is not really intended for storing masses of information or media on but is perfect for carrying around.

Toshiba NB200 Series

The phasing out of the desktop

For a long time the only computer that most people would have at home would be the traditional desktop personal computer, complete with its bulky CPU tower which had to be stored beneath a desk and its large monitor which sat atop the desk or table. The rise in popularity of the laptop has reduced desktop machine usage outside of the company or office work environment, with many people now only using them for storage and backup of files. More and more people are installing wireless connectivity within their own home to allow them to use their laptops all around the house or out in the garden in the fine weather. One small access point connected to the ADSL via the phone line allows the user roaming all around their home, something which once tried becomes incredibly habit-forming. Families have benefited by being able to let the kids surf the Internet where they can see them as well as allowing the children to play on a gaming laptop where the parent can keep an eye on the type of game their little one is playing. This extends to downloading movies and music too, as the user can be listening to music streamed over the web while in the kitchen or watching downloaded movies from the comfort of the sofa. The growth of the laptop as a mainstream consumer device has also prompted manufacturers to provide extensive post-sales consultation and advice plus great levels of laptop support to address any concerns or queries that a new user has.

Toshiba Qosmio G50-115

Multimedia where you want it

‘Multimedia’ is something of a new expression for a lot of people, but if you think about it, it is quite a simple catch-all term. Multimedia refers to all the various digital entertainment forms which are now possible on a laptop computer, the machine basically being a transmission device for music, TV and movies and an editing tool for digital photographs and home movies. The advantage then of course is that the user can immediately upload photos and movies to the Internet from their computer or transfer music and movies onto a portable handheld device like an iPod or PSP. Increasing numbers of websites make entering into the multimedia world ever easier, with places like iTunes for digital audio and MP3 files or Flickr for digital photo gallery hosting fast becoming among the web’s most used sites. More and more people are finding that once they try editing a home movie on their laptop they fast become hooked and are uploading their content to YouTube and sharing it with family and friends in no time. It is a piece of cake to do as the user simply hooks their digital camcorder up to their portable computer, downloads the footage and then uses a simple piece of software to edit their movie. Home entertainment has evolved and laptops are right at the heart of this change – if you haven’t converted all your home hard copy photos to digital and uploaded them to a shared online gallery yet, what’s stopping you?

Pocket DV Camera