Choosing the right laptop for my friend

                       Last week i was looking out for a laptop for my friend. I had been instructed to check out for a notebook that cost below 50,000/-. He suggested me to checkout for a Dell or Vaio. The brand name is nowadays a big factor for any product and first word like 'dell' or 'vaio' from consumer is nothing because of this brand effect. He was looking for a professional + entertainment box. So I started checking out a right one for him.

I just compared the dell and vaio for him and felt that a dell will solve his need. Vaio is little bit costlier than dell, also you feel a difference in  configurations of vaio and dell at the same price. Dell laptops provides better hardware configuration than the Sony laptops @ same price range. Eventhough competition is live in the market, dells are being sold out more for the average customer, you can feel this if you talk to sum guys in the retail shops in the Ernakulam city.  I thinkthis may be due to  two  reasons from my  viewpoint. Thefirst reason i felts is the decent mix of hardware configuration @ moderate price in dells laptop  Average customers prefers laptops at price ranging from 35,000/- to 50,000/-. And the dells Inspiron series is a nice option at this price range providing a minimum combination of Intel's core i3 processor | 3gb ram | 1 gb graphics| ~300 GB HDD.

The secondreason may be the brand name Dell have built up so far. They were in the main stream of the market for the past years by providing products having significant difference in performance and quality than the cheaper counterparts from lenovo, acer etc... The cheaper ones usually ends up early due to battery problems or heating problems etc. From my personal experience also, dell seems to be nice notebook due to its perfomnce, ergonomics, battery life and support with the main stream operatng systems like windows, ubuntu, fedora etc... But initially there were some problems with availability service / repair. But the opening up of  new service centers will cover this problem to a great extent.

My first decision was to checkout for the XPS15 on dell's website. Its cool and handy, Impressedat its pretty appearence, they have come up with an appealing architecture for  hinges of the XPS. It may cost near 50k, since the price given is 45000/- in the website. We have purchased an Inspiron for @silentlover143, 4 months ago via online. That made a profit around 4K than the direct purchase from the retail shops. You have to pay only delivery charges in extra which may cost below 2K, and got the product delivered to home withn 2 weeks. But on further query we found that online purchase takes more than one an half months in between order & delivery here in EKM. 

So we decided to hang on with the new Inspiron series, it's too got a similar hinge of XPS, painted black and offering two series of configuration. There is a difference of 5K rupees in between models with core i3 and core i5, having RAM and HDD of 3gb|320gb and 4gb|500gb respectively with ATI graphics card included. The 14 inch and 15 inch screen options also differs in a price of 3000/- in core i5 series and around 500/- in core i3 series.

Inspiron seems to be a coolest optionnear 45k price range with a desent configuration and pretty look. Since the new XPS may take further weeks to reach on the hand of retailers for direct sale, and also costlier due to addons like speakers from JBL, Nvidia's presence, etc... built on the same processor family and memory of Inspiron machines, I made my suggestionfor my friend to go on for an Inspiron instead of waiting more and wasting extra bucks for the XPS...

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How to install the Ubuntu netbook remix launcher in Ubuntu 10.04

                     Ubuntu netbook remix is a new and light version of the ubuntu linux with appearance customized for the netbooks to compete with the moblin. For gods sake it's also applicable in desktops and laptops too. This post is about my experiments with the ubuntu netbook remix. 

                     When i heard about the netbook remix edition first, i thought it was bit different than the usual ubuntu linux. So i began to download the netbook edition iso from the Ubuntu website. On installing it i found mear resemblance of it with the lucid lynx. When firstly booted the new and fresh desktop welcome me. See the pictures. The appearance was so good but the problem is that the netbook launcher which is installed over the gnome was taking a long time to respond. The mouse clicks are not correctly laid. The click will go somewhere else and felt it so cumbersome, but applications didn't felt any lagging after loading except the netbook launcher in the desktop. Thus the craze had got a tragedy end.

                     I turned back to my ubuntu 10.04 and began working with it for a while. After a day when looking over something in synaptic package manager the slow responding netbook launcher came to my mind again. I just search for the word netbook in the synaptic. There i found a lot of netbook related application suitable for ubuntu. Of the list i just selected netbook-launcher and started installing it. Everything gone right and loaded the launcher. Once again the launcher started lagging and hanging similar to the situation that i have faced while installed the Ubuntu netbook remix edition. Bad luck again, no way to continue due to this lagging. So i decided to stop my craze towards the netbook appearence by removing the just installed package. After completing the removal i look over the other netbook related packages in the synaptic once again. There i found a package with description 'a lite version of netbook launcher written in EFL' and found it already installed. Taken the terminal and typed in the command, it was there and loaded. To the great extend of amazing the lite version of the netbook launcher was responding very quickly and i felt the change when i hover the cursor over the launcher. The EFL launcher is nice and running in my laptop without any conflict with the compiz window manager. Those are the screen shots...

Installation

Take the synaptic package manager

System => administration => Synaptic Package manager

search for the package netbook-launcher-efl . Click on it and select the mark for installation. Click on the apply button to start downloading the package and installing it.

After installing, take the gnome-terminal and type in as follows

$ netbook-launcher-efl

Then the netbook launcher application will start in the next moment.

You can add this netbook launcher to load automatically everytime you boot. Take the startup application from System => Preferences => Startup Applications

Click on the add button and type in the textbox corresponding to the command as 

netbook-launcher-efl

Thats all... enjoy the Netbook remix in your box...

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Quick tip : Laptops

Tip 1: wifi/bluetooth switches in laptops

If you have partiular switch for wifi bluetooth in you laptop then put it always in the ON state physically. They are not so sturdy and are easily prone to complaint. So frequently using these switches will decrease its lifespan.

Better check out your Oparting systen services to enable/disable this services instead of always looking for the switches

Tip 2 :When you buy a laptop

When you are going to buy a laptop give the irst preference to Processor, Motherboard and display instead of looking for the features like good speakers, vibrant color pattern etc...This is because the first three constitutes the important and pricest component in the machine...

Tip 3 : Avoid drinking coffe (conditions apply !!!) 

Try to avoid using moist content near your laptop. It's always a problem to many of the electronic devices...(No restrictions for bear...)

Tip 4 : Using laptop

Avoid using laptop over smooth surfaces like bed cloth etc... This can close the air vents under the laptop preventing the hot air  to flow outside. The system will get heated up, then the fans increase their speed to compensate this speed by increasing the heat further more. Don't make your laptop angry ! ! !

Tip 5 : Use your brain mouse

Use a mouse instead of using a touchpad in your laptop. Coz, mouse is cheaper than a touchpad when you have to replace

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Things to care when you buy a laptop from Kerala

Probably laptop is a an avoidable tech think when you live in a todays professional technical life. The laptop market is making a noticable growth in a recent period.

The giants among the field are Sony, Apple etc.. Hp is also a good option at this range. U may get greatly appealing, light weight systems if you have enough money to pay  an amount for greater than 50k rupees.

Dell, Thoshiba makes the middle part of the laptop industry by providing computeras with reasonable configuration at nominal price range of 35k-45k. Lenovo was also there in this range till last year, but they are not a preferable option now if you are lookig to invest for a laptop in this range. U may get a professional system that compensates both multimedia experience as well as study purposes in this level.

But when it comes to the next layer you may get cheaper laptops  but with attractive configurations. But they try hard to compete with the quality of laptops that constitutes upper layers. Acer, Compaq falls in this category.

Let our discussion zoom into the middle layer. If you are looking to buy a laptop in kerala, contact as many shops as possible before messing up with head ache. Most of the brands have their own showrooms throughout Kerala. Please dont fall in illusions created  by the "offers" given by the shoppees. Probably they charge you for these offers.

In the middle level Dell is the favourite option for many of them. If you are going to buy a Dell, its better to avoid direct purchasing from some local shoppes here. You will get new dell at a price difference of 4,000 rupees if you select online purchase. Probably kerala people hesitate to perform an online money transfer becoz they are unware and unconvinced of the security of payement... 

So keep on with your manifestos... If you are not much courageous for a direct deal, make the deal with some direct vendors, they purchase the laptop online and transfer it to you. Visit the Dell's website for laptop models by clicking here. At the first they will give quotation for the model you have  specified, you can proceed by taking a DD payable to DELL INDIA (P) LTD at banglore. Transfer it to the online vendor along with your copy of DD and ID proof. They do the rest and you will get your brand new laptop at home (is it good enough???). The vendor will give warranty to you probably for one year with options of  extending it later.

Mozad Infoways is a good option if you are located near the Cochin city. (i have purchased). U get the system shipped (sorry!!!) from the dell factory at Sreeperumpathur. If you purchase the same from some local computer shoppees you may have to pay around 4k rupees additionally....

Similarly all the brands have direct dealors and vendors. Try to find out them to make the purchase without wasting money...

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