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NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

The Future of Desktop PCs (and How They Can Have One)
Posted in Notebook PC | January 16, 2010 8am

Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show, I took part in the annual Build Your Own PC for Charity Race. It was a good time for a good cause, and the fact that I finished assembling my computer long after the winner did reminded me that it's been eons since I spent much time looking at the insides of a desktop computer. 
Then it dawned on me that I don't really look at the outside of desktops much, either. Every PC I use on a regular basis is a laptop...which is a perfectly normal state of affairs these days. For many of us, it's desktop PCs that are the secondary, optional machines. And as mobile computers get better and better, desktops will only feel more more secondary and optional.
It's entirely possible that the desktop market will wither away over the next few years, until nearly every PC is a laptop. But it doesn't have to happen. Herewith, a few ideas on how PC manufacturers can build desktop systems that are part of personal technology's exciting future--not archaic leftovers from its past.
1. Keep the new-and-improved form factors coming. Manufacturers have been trying to build a living-room PC with mass appeal for years, and haven't succeeded yet, They should keep trying. We also need more kitchen PCs and innovative gaming rigs and boxes designed for small businesses.   2. Add more style. Today's notebooks are available in an amazing array of colors, textures, and trims, with looks ranging from classically conservative to fashion forward. There's something for everyone. Desktops aimed at gamers certainly show some pizazz, but there are lots of run-of-the-mill desktops that are...run of the mill. If PC manufacturers sprung the designers who are responsible for their laptops on their desktop lines, things would get more interesting really quickly.
3. Improve input. The average desktop computer comes with a keyboard and mouse that are blah at best. And some are downright flimsy and unappealing. Why not tempt PC buyers to opt for a desktop with sturdier, comfier, more innovative input devices--ones that would be impossible to build into a notebook? If QWERTY keyboards start to vanish from mobile computers, there'd be all the more reason to make them a key feature of desktop systems.
4. Increase screen appeal. With laptops, trying to cram multiple screens into one computer is an inherently Quixotic idea. But a desktop can sport two, three, or more high-resolution displays--and with the price of monitors these days, a multi-screen PC doesn't have to be a luxury item. PC manufacturers could build some really interesting machines if they designed them from the ground up to accommodate as many pixels as possible.
5. Make always-on connectivity a major selling point. Notebooks, pretty much by definition, spend much of their time turned off. Desktops, on the other hand, can stay on and online continuously. So there's no reason why they can't start to take on server-like capabilities. How about turning them into media hubs that let get to all our music and video from any Internet-connected device?
6. Keep them quiet, cool, and efficient. I've owned desktops that sounded like they had jet engines inside, and which did horrible things to my electricity bill. But all the advanced power-related technologies going into today's mobile computers can help make desktops more pleasant to own and use, too. And as desktops show up in the living room and kitchen, it's particularly important that they not be noisy, power-sucking monsters.
I last bought a desktop PC three years ago. My guess is that I'll never buy another one--but it would be kind of neat if one came along that was just plain irresistable.   Are you still a desktop fan? Why or why not? And if you've stopped buying desktops, what could PC manufacturers do to get you intrigued again?

NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

Six New Year's Resolutions for the PC Industry
Posted in Notebook PC | December 26, 2009 9pm

It's nearly 2010, which means that many of us are making quiet promises to ourselves about goals for the next year. I've got a few of my own, but the only one that has anything to do with technology is one I seem to make every year: to keep better backups of photos and other digital files that I just don't wanna lose under any circumstances.
I do, however, have a bunch of tech-related resolutions. They're helpful suggestions for how the computer industry can improve itself in the year to come. Yes, these ideas are fundamentally selfish--they all involve PC manufacturers doing things that would make me a happier PC user. But any company that followed this self-improvement plan would make superior machines, and I bet it would find itself selling more of them.
So here you go, PC makers: Just make these resolutions and keep them, and we'll all have a more cheerful, productive 2010.
1. "We'll make battery-life claims make sense." I've owned so many laptops over the past fifteen years that I've lost track. Not one of them has delivered anything like the battery power claimed by the manufacturer. I've become cynical and irritable, assuming that the figures promised in advertising will bear no resemblance whatsoever to my real-world experience. I admit that I may put batteries through more of a stress test than the typical user -- I'm online more or less continuously, for example. But I'd still like to see the entire industry agree on a new power benchmark that's consistent and realistic. If anything, it should push batteries to their limits rather than assume the ideally power-efficient situation which current battery-life figures seem to shoot for. Wouldn't it be cool if your real-world experience nearly always exceeded the vendor's claim?
2. "We won't junk our computers up with unwantedware." Too many PCs are bulging at the seams with items I don't want -- not just adware and demoware, but utilities for tasks such as networking which deliver no discernible benefit. (Oftentimes, they're more complicated and less reliable than Windows' standard tools.) And too many virgin Start Menus, desktops, and System Trays are already cluttered to the point of absurdity. Windows 7 sets an excellent example by being the least pushy, cluttered version of Windows in many years; I'd love to see every PC maker take a cue from Microsoft, and leave Windows 7 in something very close to its original, unspoiled state.
3. "We'll make touchpads just as expansive as we possibly can." Big touchpads have always better better than small touchpads, but with multi-touch input in vogue -- and supported by Windows 7 -- there's more reason than ever to give them plentiful real estate. (The more fingers you use, the more room you need.) I'm in favor of touchpads that start just below the space bar and continue on until there's almost nowhere left to go -- which is one reason why the new designs that incorporate the touchpad buttons into the touchpad itself are a major plus.
4. "We will make spill-resistant keyboards standard." I'm speaking here as someone who's sloshed his diet root beer in the direction of his laptop once too often, but I can't think of a more practical feature than the drainage systems that route spilled liquids away from the delicate electronics that sit right beneath a laptop's keyboard. Wouldn't everybody involved be far better off if every notebook sported this still-unusual technology -- both the people who accidentally pour wet stuff into their keyboards, and the PC manufacturers who have to go through the hassle of repairing the damage? (Here, incidentally, is a WePC dream design from a community member who wants a really waterproof computer.)
5. "We'll make illuminated keyboards standard, too." I spend most of my computing time with two laptops -- one of which has a keyboard that lights up in dim environments, and one of which doesn't. I swear that I think more clearly, work more quickly, and generally get more done with  less headaches with the first one -- simply because I never have to squint at the keyboard to see what I'm doing, even if I'm cranking away on an airplane or elsewhere with lousy lighting.
6. "We will err on the side of too much screen resolution." The industry has trained PC buyers to fixate on display size, in the form of diagonal inches. But I'll take more pixels over more physical area every time. It's a boon for everything from Web surfing (it reduces the need for endless scrolling) to photo editing (you can see more of your image at once). Higher-than-average resolutions are especially helpful on netbooks, many of which lack enough vertical pixels to properly display some popular applications. (This WePC community member would appear to agree with me.)
I could go on -- but I'd rather hear your new year's resolutions for the computer industry. Please sound off in the comments.
Happy new year, everybody!

NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

Five Things I'd Like to See at CES (But Probably Won't!)
Posted in Notebook PC | December 12, 2009 8am

The Consumer Electronics Show, held each January in Las Vegas, is as exhausting as it is expansive. The jam-packed exhibit space and private meeting rooms that pack the Convention Center, half the Strip, and beyond all add up to an imperfect-but-still-invaluable snapshot of the year ahead in tech, from TVs to PCs to mobile gizmos. That's especially true given that companies tend to show off some products that don't end up shipping until nearly a year later.
So as crazy as the show can be, I wouldn't miss it. And I'm already speculating on the products that'll be on display at CES 2010--from the ones that'll unquestionably show up to ones I'd love to see, but don't expect to encounter.
Herewith, five of the latter:
1. Truly killer tablets. The whole industry is abuzz about touchscreen computers that resemble oversized smartphones. We'll unquestionably see at least a few in Vegas. But the idea remains nascent, and many questions remain unanswered, ranging from what operating system a tablet should run to just how it should compensate for the lack of a keyboard. I expect the CES tablets to feel like rough drafts--interesting ones, maybe, but rough drafts nonetheless.
2. Smartbooks that are...smart. The next big thing in low-cost laptops beyond the netbook is supposed to be the smartbook--a category that has some overlap with tablets, although many smartbooks will have clamshell cases and keyboards. They'll be even cheaper and smaller than netbooks, and even more dependent on a good Net connection. I don't think the world is ready yet for computing devices that are utterly useless sans Internet. But I'll reserve judgement until I see what CES has to offer.
3. Exciting desktops. Laptops may have started out as an offshoot of the personal computer, but today they are the dominant form of PC. Desktops are still everywhere, and are still enormously useful for all sorts of applications. But they're stuck in a rut, as if nobody's interested enough to pour creativity into new designs. I'd love to be surprised by a CES desktop or two that's at least as inventive as the tablets and smartbooks we'll see.
4. The one Internet TV box everyone wants. There are an array of gadgets for pumping TV from the Internet onto a TV set, as well as TVs that do the job without requiring a box. Some of them aren't bad, but none have come anywhere near changing the way that America watches television. I expect more announcements at the show, and hope that someone will figure out a design that's so powerful, easy, cost-effective, and entertaining that it's just plain irresistible. Bonus points if it involves content I can also watch on my PC and my phone.
5. Affordable, capacious Solid-State Disks. I get tempted by the speed and reliability of SSDs every time I buy a new PC--until I do the math and remember how small the capacities remain. (I bought my most recent notebook, with 500GB of traditional hard-disk space, for less than a 256GB SSD costs all by itself.) Solid-storage is going to make sense at some point, and I don't think we'll need to wait much longer. But I'm more hopeful for CES 2011 than for CES 2010.
I don't mean to sound too pessimistic. One of the best CES experiences of all is when you're dazzled by something you didn't expect to see. And if at least a couple of the products on my wish list turn out to be present and accounted for in Vegas, I'll feel like I hit a jackpot.
So where would you like to see PCs, consumer electronics, and gadgets go in 2010?
More CES musings on WePC.com: The Best of CES's Past CULV: A Better Atom Alternative? CES 2010: My Expectations The CES Guessing Game

NOTEBOOK PC PC : DISCUSSION

A Smart Skeptic's Guide to PC Deals on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Beyond
Posted in Notebook PC | November 24, 2009 9pm

Black Friday: It's a strange, ominous moniker for the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year Its online equivalent, Cyber Monday--the first Monday after Black Friday, and a big deal for online shopping--is oddly named too. After all, when was the last time you heard anyone call the Internet "Cyber" anything?
As usual, a heck of a lot of people are going to buy new PCs on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. Maybe even more folks than usual, since the recent arrival of Windows 7 makes this a good time to consider picking up a new laptop or desktop. But while these two weirdly-named, endlessly-hyped shopping extravaganzas can be great times to buy computers, they're not without their risks. Even more than usual, it makes sense to be a smart, skeptical consumer.
So herewith, seven tips to help put you in the right frame of mind before you head to the mall or pop open your browser. This is the PC-shopping advice I give to friends and relatives--and as you'll see, most of it has very little to do with bits, bytes, megahertz, or refresh rates.
1. Don't go into a shopping frenzy. I try to be the precise opposite of the stereotypical Black Friday bargain hunter--the one who shows up at two in the morning and practically breaks down the store's front door as part of a shopping-cart stampede. When you're making big-ticket purchases--which is what computers are, even at a discount--it's best to be cool, collected, and willing to keep shopping rather than buy in haste.
2. Be wary of "once-in-a-lifetime" deals. Yes, it's true that many sellers will offer computers at eye-popping price to draw shoppers in. But the really cheap PCs are usually low-end models--maybe even downright bare-bones ones by current standards. So check the specs carefully. A somewhat costlier, better equipped machine may well be the best bargain for you. Especially if it comes with a more generous warranty (see tip #6).
3. If baited, don't switch. Just like car dealers, PC merchants may draw you in with a deal that looks spectacular--but which is available in such limited supply that it's sold out by the time you get anywhere near a salesperson. Said salesperson may helpfully recommend that you buy a different PC that's still in stock. If so, get over your disappointment quickly and think carefully--you don't want to buy any computer unless it truly meets your needs, and the price is right. (Tip: Never buy any computer from any seller until you've researched what it costs elsewhere.)
4. Do the math. The only price that really matters is the bottom-line price: The one that includes shipping, tax, and any other other charges above and beyond the the cost of the PC itself. Some online stores with tempting prices make up the difference with excessive shipping charges--and a few even stick you with a separate insurance fee, or try to charge you extra for accessories which should be included. Shopping engines such as PriceGrabber, Shopping.com, and Wize can help you figure out what you'll really pay.
5. When it comes to merchants, be picky. Sellers you've had good experiences with in the past are preferable to unknown ones, and reputable companies always provide better deals than sleazy ones, even if their prices are a bit higher. So if you're thinking of plunking down money with a PC purveyor you're not familiar with, ask friends for testimonials first, or check out customer reviews at the shopping engines I just mentioned. If the news isn't good, steer clear.
6. Don't forget return policies and warranties. What happens if you don't love your new PC? Check out return periods, restocking fees, and other gotchas before you buy, just in case. (There are still sellers with 30-day return policies and no restocking fees, but they're a vanishing breed.) Ask about service policies, too: You want a PC with a minimum of a one-year warranty. If a PC comes with fringe benefits such as a three-year warranty and/or on-site service in the first place, you don't need to get dragged into the gnarly question of whether it's worth buying an extended policy.
7. It you can wait, why not? The deals that await patient shoppers immediately after the holidays can be at least as spectacular as anything to be had on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Just as important, the miracle of Moore's Law ensures that the deals on computers only get better--radically better--over time. Which is why my most basic PC shopping advice is always the same: Wait as long as you can--but no longer. (Translation: The time to buy is when your old computer can't keep up with your current needs, or lacks features you can't easily add via upgrades.)
Got any other buying advice? Share it in the comments. And happy PC shopping to you. May the next machine you buy turn out to be the best one you've ever owned...