Can you imagine life without your laptop?

The Laptop – Don't leave home without yours!

Think back just a few short years – can you actually remember a time when laptops were not the ubiquitous devices that they are today? Time waits for no man but the evolution of laptops has been fast and startling even for technology circles. Gone are the days where the average person sat waiting for a train or aeroplane to depart and read a book or a newspaper, today they sit tapping away on their laptop, keeping in touch with the world and abreast of events. There is just now so much of modern living which relies on the average person being online, be it work or leisure, and the phenomenon of 'always on' has helped drive this. ‘Always on’ was a technology industry ideal several years ago, the perfect ultimate goal where technology users could be online anywhere and whenever they wanted to be, and it is now pretty close to being a reality. The average user can generally now get online anywhere they want, meaning that many people have two devices, a portable PC they carry around with them and a home laptop which they use as a backup device for storing music, movies, photographs and the like. ‘Always on’ has been driven largely by the rapid progress made by wireless Internet connectivity, and WiFi ‘hotspots’ are now common all over the place, from airports to railway stations to cafés to bookshops. A frequent sight is now a user sat sipping a coffee in a bookstore tapping away on their tiny netbook computer.

Toshiba NB100 - Cheap Netbook Computer

Where smaller equals bigger

Netbooks are just one of the modern generation of laptops which have benefited from the rapid advance of technology and the cheapening of the production costs of the components required to make them work, such as silicon chips and mother boards. A laptop is now an incredibly fast and efficient device which is so much faster than its predecessors of even a couple of years ago as to be unimaginable. Speed is one area where laptops have advanced dramatically, but this increase in processing rates is married to much greater storage and memory capacity as well as increasingly smaller-designed machines, meaning that the portable online experience is enhanced beyond all recognition. For example, a satellite laptop to day offers the user incredible processing and operating power in a device which weighs less than a couple of kilos – something pretty much unthinkable even a few years ago. Netbooks have become one of the most popular laptop devices for using as a simple and basic Internet browsing machine, since they give the user a straightforward and uncomplicated operating system from which to surf the web and send emails. These machines are even more portable than the satellite laptops are, since they weight in at around a kilo and are about the size of a paperback novel, hence then name. This increased memory and processing speed has led to people investing in a specialist gaming laptop which lets them enjoy all the benefits of online multiplayer gaming in a portable device.

Toshiba - Satellite Pro P100-216

So I should throw my desktop PC away?

Not necessarily as you can always use more storage as backup for your files, but the average desktop computer does these days look like something of a dinosaur compared with its sleek, slimline and lightweight laptop counterparts. The ongoing popularity of WiFi technology means than many people now utilise their home desktop PC simply as a server from which to run their own wireless network within their own home via a wireless router or access point. This offers them and their family increased convenience within the confines of the family home, as family members are able to use their laptops anywhere in the house or even out in the garden on a sunny day. What could be nicer? Home wireless networks mean that Dad is able to use his business laptop in his study or office while the kids can be gaming or downloading music and movies in their own bedrooms. One of the great things about the growth of laptop computers as consumer devices is that the manufacturers realised that to support the growth of this technology within a whole new user base, they would need to provide extensive post-sales consultation and advice plus great levels of laptop support. As such any question which the user might have can be quickly and simply answered via a visit to the manufacturer’s website and a quick call to one of their team of expert engineers waiting at the end of a telephone line or email address.

Toshiba Tecra M9L-12T

The true multimedia experience

Multimedia might be a relatively new term to many people, but its definition is really quite straightforward and simple. Multimedia encompasses all of your digital entertainment needs and requirements, and a laptop computer can operate as the conduit for delivering all of these various media into the person’s home or down their headphones wherever they happen to be using their portable PC. What this means in reality is that you can use laptops as the delivery mechanism for online TV watching, for DVD viewing, for downloading, managing and listening to music and also for downloading, editing and managing digital photograph collections. More and more websites are springing up which make multimedia operations ever easier for the user, places like iTunes for digital music or Flickr for digital photo gallery hosting are encouraging a whole new generation of users to quickly and easily manage their digital lives and to share them online with friends and family via social networking sites. Home movies can be downloaded and edited by plugging a digital camcorder into the portable PC, and simple to use software allows any average user to turn themselves into a budding Spielberg. Production companies are fast realising that the laptop is the device of choice for the average user now, so they are catching up and improving their online delivery of programmes and movies to allow the user to watch them where they like and when they like. The evolution of media is here and laptops are the device of choice for the savvy consumer.

Ultra-compact camcorder from Toshiba


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