bruceb news

Dell has added the Latitude 13 to its business notebook lineup, with a design that is identical in virtually every respect to the Vostro V13 introduced in December. The “Latitude” brand name is used by Dell to indicate that the notebook includes features for management by large companies. Here’s the description of the added features distinguishing the Latitude 13 from the Vostro V13:

The Latitude 13 adds features such as remote manageability and  desktop virtualization through certification from Citrix and VMware to deliver a full PC experience to users in non-standard computing environments such as

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Once my wife saw my Dell Vostro V13, it didn’t take long before we had two Vostro V13s.

The Vostro V13 is an ultrathin notebook with a 13” 1366×768 nonglare screen and a full-size keyboard. It’s two-thirds of an inch tall with the lid closed and weighs just 3.5 pounds. The aluminum body oozes style and elegance, with curved edges and a polished exterior that is surprisingly solid for such a light machine. It has the same appeal as some very expensive ultrathin laptops, the Dell Adamo and Sony Vaio Z, but sells for far […] continued

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Let me show you some of the ultrathin notebooks that have caught my eye. There are more on the market and new ones are appearing every week, so this isn’t an endorsement, just an idea of what’s out there.

There are a few Dell models that look svelte and sleek. Click here to go to the Dell Small Business web site, then let your mouse hover over “Laptops & Netbooks.” You’ll be able to pick the specific models I mention from the menu that drops down.

Start with the Dell Studio 14z. It’s relatively inexpensive; it’s thin […] continued

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The variety of notebooks is overwhelming and new models are appearing daily. The market is starting to look like this:

• Netbooks with 10”-11” screens, powered by Intel’s weak Atom processor, with 1-2Gb of RAM, running the stripped-down Windows 7 Basic. You’ll likely get one from the cell phone carriers, who will practically give them away as long as you sign up for a two-year data plan. They’re smaller than you think – perfect for Internet browsing and checking the mail, but definitely not what you want as your only computer. The next generation will be better, with

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It is harder than ever to generalize about computer specifications. You have to consider whether you want something special – a touchscreen; a space-saving case or all-in-one computer; stylish colors; or something else that takes you to something different than a black box on the floor.

With that in mind, let’s generalize.

Windows 7 and Vista have almost identical hardware requirements. Much of my advice has been unchanged for the last three years.

• PROCESSOR  Get Intel Core 2 Duo processors or better, not a low end Celeron or an older “Pentium Dual Core” processor. If you want to

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Have you noticed how the Thanksgiving shopping experience has changed in the last few years?

Until recently, merchants tried to build excitement by keeping the Friday sale prices secret until the Thursday ads appeared in the newspaper. An online cottage industry grew up around early leaks of the sale information, causing WalMart and Target and the other giants to get terribly excited and issue dire threats of lawsuits against anyone daring to publicize their sales. That never really made much sense, actually.

Meanwhile, as online commerce took off, the online retailers tried to create “Cyber Monday” out […] continued

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There are an overwhelming number of new computers on the market! It will be impossible to stay up to date on the brands and models – and almost impossible to get hands-on experience with more than a small fraction of what’s out there.

Click through to this article and take a look at some (but not all) of the new computers introduced by manufacturers on the day that Windows 7 was launched.

Random example – the first one on the list: Sony’s Vaio L is an all-in-one with a 24” touchscreen. You’re looking at the whole thing! […] continued

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There’s good news about shopping for a new desktop or notebook computer running Windows 7: they’re all good enough.

It’s such a relief! One of the important reasons that Vista got a bad reputation was its poor performance on underpowered systems. Consumers demanded cheap computers and manufacturers pushed out too many computers that could not run Vista well. What’s worse, it was done with Microsoft’s blessing in what stands out in my mind as one of the worst decisions in Microsoft’s history.

Three years later, prices have come down and specs have gone up on cheap […] continued

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It seems appropriate to say something nice about online shopping, after last week’s rant about Buy.com.

I buy everything from Amazon.com. That’s why I have the Amazon search box at the top of the bruceb favorites page – because I use it constantly.

At some level you probably know that Amazon sells more than books, but you might want to try looking there for almost anything that crosses your mind. For the last couple of years, I’ve bought every computer device and peripheral from Amazon. I bought furniture a couple of months ago. I just bought […] continued

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This is a cautionary tale to make you careful online shoppers. It strikes close to home for me because it involves Buy.com, a favorite of mine at one time, but the scam is also used on Orbitz, Fandango and other sites.

When Buy.com opened its online doors in the late 90s, I thought it was a great resource for computer peripherals and software. Its prices were low and shipping was very fast. Several times I placed an order in the late afternoon and received it the next morning.

As the years passed, I couldn’t help but notice that the web […] continued

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