Tag: laptop computers

Many questions need to be raised by knowledgeable parents about school-based IT programs

Parents often face a question when their child starts secondary school concernimg the technology that is being used as part of their education. This is more so with laptop computers that well be used at home to complete homework assignments and at school to take notes and do research.

Increasingly schools are supplying the families with the appropriate technology, typically with government and private-sector assistance. These computers may be supplied at a heavily-subsidised price so there isn’t much effect on the parent’s hip pocket.

But schools see this technology as part of their realm of control in your student’s life in a way that they see what the student does at home or away from school activities as bearing on the school’s name. This may be more so with privately-funded and similar schools where the school places a strong emphasis on their name and reputation.

These questions are worth raising during information nights or parent-teacher meetings that you will be engaging in during your child’s enrolment.

Is the technology sold or leased to your family by the school?

If you are acquiring the technology through the school, it is worth enquiring whether you are buying the computer so that you own the computer or whether you are leasing it or renting it on an annual basis where the school or school district has legal ownership over the equipment. This may include situations where you may borrow the computer for the duration of your child’s enrolment or for certain years but you may have to pay a bond on the equipment.

This can help with further issues regarding whether you can retain the computer to be used for the younger children or as a utility computer. On the other hand, it can also affect issues regarding maintaining the system and what happens in case of loss, theft or damage.

As well, it is worth finding out whether a technology-buyout program does exist where parents or students can purchase leased or rented computer equipment that they currently use from the school. This is important for equipment supplied to senior high-school students because most of the school-supplied technology programs require that the senior students relinquish their computers once they graduate from their senior years.

Such a buyout option can benefit both the school and student in different ways. The student benefits by being able to keep the computer as a personal computer through the years between their high-school graduation and their entry to tertiary or trade studies. The school also benefits because they aren’t keeping rapidly-depreciating assets on their books but can turn them over for cash which can be used to buy newer technology.

Who provides support in case of equipment failure or accident

Ask the school whether they have a maintenance programme for the school-supplied equipment. This includes what kind of minimum turnaround time exists if the equipment needs to be serviced. As well, does the maintenance programme cover for accidental equipment damage because students can easily end up being accident prone.

It may also include whether you have to pay to replace failed or damaged parts and whom you buy the replacement parts from.

Insurance coverage for theft and damage

To the same extent, it may be worth looking at your home-contents insurance policy to find out whether they provide coverage for equipment that is damaged or stolen while away from your home, including overseas. This may be of importance when your children go on the many field trips and school camps that will be part of their education; or when they engage in social activities with their friends.

Exchange-student programs

Your school may participate in an exchange-student program where one or more local students travel to another area, typically another country while the school hosts and teaches the students from one or more other areas. This is typically to encourage awareness of different cultures and increase knowledge of different languages.

Such programs typically will include overseas travel and having the participants stay in private households that are part of the participating school’s community. There are questions that will be raised if you end up hosting an exchange student or your child becomes an exchange student themselves.

If the school facilitates this program whether by itself or with a third party, you may have to find out where you or the school stands if the equipment belonging to your child who is overseas or the student you are billeting was stolen or damaged.

Similarly, your child or the student you are hosting may need assistance with connecting to different networks such as the host’s home network in the case of your child or your home network in the case of the guest student.

For that matter, it may be a good idea for schools, student-exchange agencies and students participating in exchange-student programs to read an article I wrote on this site about testing Skype across separate networks to make sure it works properly. This is because the videocall functionality in these programs can be used as a way for an exchange student to keep in contact with home and show what the “other” culture is about.

Can I configure the system myself?

An issue that is also being raised regarding school-supplied technology is whether you can configure the system yourself or perform remedial repairs on the system.

This may be to get the laptop to work with your home network, or to install any drivers to get it to work with the network-capable printers in your home. As well, you need to be sure that the school-supplied computer can gain access to other network resources and the Internet in a similar manner to other devices that exist on the home network.

Similarly, there is the issue of keeping the operating system and applications on these computers updated and patched to avoid these computers and the rest of your home network’s computers being the target for malware. Here, the kids’ computers could be updated with the latest patches whether they are at school or at home.

Different operating platforms

This issue of configuring the school-supplied laptop yourself also extends to coping with different computer platforms and operating systems. For example, you may find that the school supplies your kids a MacBook Pro as part of one of Apple’s education-technology programmes that the school is benefiting from, while you are more comfortable with the Windows-based computer you use at home. Similarly, the school may have all the computers running Windows 10 but you are pushing the barrel with Windows 7 on the work-home laptop that you normally use.

Here, you may be able to find out whether you can learn about the computing platform and operating system your school uses and how to configure it to work with your home network and peripherals.

How does the school handle a “bring-your-own” computer?

Another situation that is appealing to parents is the ability to buy their kid’s computer from a third-party retailer and have that as the computer thay use for school. This is typically due to the ability to purchase the system at a cost-effective price through a “back-to-school” special run by a major retailer or online and some governments may provide a benefit to families to assist with purchasing this education-related technology.

This concept is being facilitated also by the fact that the “bring your own device” concept is in full swing at workplaces and newer operating systems and software allows for a level of manageability in these situations.

Minimum standards for this computer

You should find out what the minimum standards are for a computer you supply yourself. The standards for the hardware should be based on the kind of CPU the computer must have, the amount of RAM and storage space the computer has, and the graphics subsystem and display resolution that the computer has to have. This also includes the minimum standard for the Wi-Fi interface for schools that implement a Wi-Fi network.

As for the software, you need to find out the minimum version and edition of the operating system along with the application software you need to have installed.  You may find that application vendors may supply a “student edition” of their software which is licensed for personal and education use only and some of these programs may be licensed for a small number of computers that are in the same household.

Use of a school-supplied disk image?

Some schools may require the use of a disk image that is managed by the school themselves in order to assure better control of the computer on the school premises. Here, you may find out whether you need to install this image and if you can get away with a dual-boot setup where you have a “home” operating environment and a “school” operating environment.

The better solution would be a USB stick or optical disk full of any courseware that is necessary for the curriculum, including any software that is required for the studies. The Internet use at the school environment can be controlled using the network hardware that runs the school’s network.

Can the system be maintained by the school’s IT staff?

It may also be worth inquiring whether the school’s IT staff are willing to provide maintenance and support for equipment that is brought to school on a BYO basis. Here, it may be about rectifying a system failure that occurs on that day or adding support for student-accessible peripherals that the school owns such as printers or sensor devices used as part of science experiments.

Computer-education courses for adults

In a lot of households where one or both parents aren’t computer-literate is that one or more of the teenage children end up providing assistance to the parents when it comes to personal-computing issues. This is typically due to the children learning many concepts regarding personal-computing through their school years.

It may also be worth finding out if your child’s school runs adult-focused courses about computer education. This may be of importance for those of you who haven’t had much education-based or workplace-based exposure to personal computing and will be of importance for people who do work that is primarily blue-collar.

Typically, the mode of delivery for these short courses would be evening classes taught by one of the school’s computing-science teachers. The school will usually charge for the courses and the students’ parents may pay a cheaper fee due to the fact that their child is attending that school.

Here, the courses should teach the essentials about knowing your way around your computer such as file management; along with safe computing practices. This should also include learning about keeping your computer system in top order like backups and keeping your software up-to-date. As well, such courses should highlight making effective use of the Internet and its online resources in a safe manner.

Some of the courses may offer tuition in other computing platforms like the Macintosh platform which may benefit adults who are used to, say, Windows learning about the other platforms and would come in handy if the school works on that different platform.

Conclusion

Once you ask the right questions from your child’s school’s staff, you can end up being an active participant in your child’s IT-focused education without fearing as though the school “owns you”.

Article

Dell XPS 13 review: The best Windows laptop just got better | The Verge (Product Review)

My Comments

Dell XPS 13 negligable-bezel Ultrabook

There are times where a product is identified as being able to “tick the desirable boxes” for a product of its class. Here, it has the right combination of build quality and functionality and the manufacturer performs incremental changes to that product when they evolve the model without destroying what it’s about.

One example that showed up in the mid 1980s were the mid-tier VHS video recorders that Panasonic offered to the PAL / SECAM (Europe, Australia, etc) markets through that era. The cost-effective front-loading video recorders “ticked the boxes” for essential “home-video-recorder” functionality such as an infra-red remote control which controlled the machine’s tape transport and changed the channels on the unit’s tuner. This function effectively “modernised” older and cheaper television sets instantly because you were able to change channels with the video recorder’s remote. For Australia, it also meant added UHF TV reception to the older TVs that could only pick up VHF TV channels through the use of a mechanical “click-click-click” rotary tuner. Their trick-play functionality had just the picture-search as well as a still-frame when in pause. But these machines still did the job for reliability and durability through their era, whether it came to playing many rented video movies, recording TV content or adding remote control to older TVs.

Another example that occurred in the mid-1990s, was a series of Sony hi-fi MiniDisc decks including the MDS-JE520. These provided functionality that exposed MiniDisc as a cost-effective record / edit / play format for community radio, drama groups, churches and allied user groups. These users benefited from the ability to edit their recordings in a non-linear method and label them as they see fit with the label text appearing on the machine’s display. But one function that appealed to this user base was the “auto-pause” function that stopped the deck at the end of a track while cuing up the next track. This gave these MiniDisc decks “playout” abilities where pre-recorded content can be played out on demand without it “running on” to the next item.

Dell XPS 13 – when it first came about

But what these devices have is the ability for a manufacturer to provide essential functionality along with the desired performance and reliability at a price that is affordable for most people in the market for this kind of equipment. As well, the manufacturers were able to refresh the products with newer technology without losing sight of the original goal for that model and its positioning.

Dell has underscored these values with their XPS 13 range of 13.3” “portable-typewriter” laptop computers of the kind that would suit someone who does a lot of travelling or makes use of a café as a second office. I have reviewed a Dell XPS 13 Ultrabook when Dell first started this range of computers. These Ultrabooks were positioned not as “Yoga-style” 2-in-1s that can become a tablet but more as a traditional notebook computer. Nor were they intended to look like an Apple Macbook. Rather they were about the core functionality and the build quality they offered.

Each time Dell refreshed the XPS 13, they provided the technical improvements that were to really benefit the user experience rather than add unnecessary features. This included a very narrow bezel which allows for a smaller 13” notebook while touch-enabled variants were equipped with an Intel i7 processor. Of coures, the baseline models had the Intel i5 processor, 8Gb RAM and 256Gb solid-state drive which means that you have some room to grow while you have a highly-performing laptop thrifty on battery consumption.

What this is all about is to make a product that combines the right mix of features and specifications, the right build quality and be priced right for the users and keep it that way whenever the model is refreshed. Then the manufacturer could be on a winner.

Intel Skylake could offer improved performance for budget and family laptops

Intel has used the newer Skylake processor technology as a way to get more out of affordable notebook computers while supporting the high-end of the market.

Intel Skylake technology will allow budget computers to benefit from a performance improvement compared to their predecessors and mainstream 15” family laptops will benefit from this improvement whether they run the H-series i3 or i5 processors. The i5 processors in this series will offer four-core processing which was something that was previously reserved for the premium i7 processors. This will include the use of improved integrated graphics with an example being the Intel HD530 integrated graphics yielding what is equivalent to entry-level discrete graphics. But the let-down here with this graphics chipset is that it is power-hungry which may not be of concern with the so-called “family” laptop computer which will typically be plugged in to AC power while at home.

Ultrabooks that work well for writing up notes on that long flight

The U-Series processors, which come in the Pentium, i3, i5 and i7 variants will be pitched at low-profile machines like 2-in-1s and Ultrabooks. These won’t support a “turbo-boost” performance enhancement and are optimised for long battery runtime. The cheaper processors like the Pentium may have an appeal towards “essential tasks” secondary computers like Ultrabooks that are simply used as “portable typewriters” to type up notes and other material during a flight or small 2-in-1s simply purchased for use as on-the-road “email and Facebook” computers.

A graphics expansion module that could option up budget and mainstream laptops

Another feature that I would also admire is the implementation of Thunderbolt 3 over USB 3.1 Type-C. The main benefit that I would like to see would be to allow a budget, ultraportable or mainstream computer to come with integrated graphics yet support discrete graphics when paired with a graphics expansion module. This can be a small box that houses the graphics processor or a card cage that houses one or two regular graphics cards and these devices could also house other extra options like an optical drive, USB 3.1 hub or sound module.

This will please, for example, parents who are buying a senior-high-school student their first laptop. They may not know if the student is going to end up dabbling with advanced graphics in their work, study or leisure activities and don’t need to specify discrete graphics if this isn’t the case. But the student could purchase discrete graphics as an add-on if they are thinking of advanced computer gaming as a recreational activity.

What the Intel Skylake processors could open up is the arrival of highly-capable computers that are at a price everyone can afford.

Make hay while the sun shines when you purchase your next laptop now

Intel has just premiered their new Skylake desktop and mobile CPU range which is leading to increased performance even for battery-operated devices. It also has led to newer connectivity options like USB 3.1 Type-C and Intel Thunderbolt connections to improve how you connect these computers to external devices. As well, most of these computers will come pre-delivered with Windows 10 as their operating system.

This is leading to computer manufacturers refreshing their computer lineups with equipment based on these new technologies and their will be an impetus on the manufacturers, distributors and retailers to clear out just-superseded equipment based on prior technologies. For example in Australia, JB Hi-FI is offering 15% off the ticketed price for most of the laptops on sale at most of their stores

If you are considering a computer purchase whether to upgrade existing equipment, or as an additional unit like a travel laptop or a secondary computer used in the kitchen, it may be a good time to check the specials out. For some of you, it may be a chance to move off the iPad as your only computing device and move towards a “grown up” computer system.

But here are some points worth considering:

• If you are buying Windows-based equipment, the computer may come pre-delivered with Windows 8.1 but you can upgrade this operating system to Windows 10 for free. This is another saving for you when you want to be sure you are running the latest operating system for your Windows-based computer.
• If you are upgrading your main computer, make sure you buy the system with as much RAM and storage as you can afford. As well, look for discrete graphics and powerful processors if you are using it frequently for graphics, games and multimedia.
• You may get by with the Intel Atom, Celeron or Pentium processors and 2Gb RAM for your secondary laptop that is primarily for Web browsing, email and word-processing. These will probably limit you to up to 2 or 3 windows or browser tabs open at at time. The Core M, i3 and i5 processors and 4Gb RAM may allow you to be a bit more productive with these machines.
• Solid-state may be the way to go for your ultraportable but you could eek out more storage through the use of a USB 3.0 external hard disk which you could bargain in to the purchase. This drive can earn its keep with large photo or video collections that you may be downloading from your camera or camcorder.
• You may also be in a position to use the savings to purchase a newer printer or home-network equipment which you could also bargain in to the deal.

If you express doubts about a purchase, please don’t hesitate to contact me using the Contact Form on this site.

Article

VAIO computers to return to the US to woo high-end customers | CNET News

My Comments

The Sony VAIO Fit 13a – VAIO is returning to the USA independently from Sony

Regular readers will have seen the product reviews of some of Sony’s VAIO laptop computers. These were positioned by Sony at the premium end of the market and had specifications and features that were considered “out of he ordinary” as far as Windows-based computers were concerned. An example of this was a Sony VAIO Pro 13 laptop that had a display resolution that was better than the Apple MacBook Air that was issued at the time the VAIO was marketed and various reviews said that this computer could earn its keep as a photographer’s field computer. Similarly, I had seen a DJ in action use a Sony VAIO laptop computer rather than an Apple MacBook as a playout device.

As the bottom was falling out of the “regular-computer” market thanks to the cheaper mobile-platform tablets, Windows 8 and other issues in 2014, Sony sold off their VAIO computer division to an independent investment fund. This fund continued to sell a smaller product range of computers under the VAIO brand which used to be a “sub-brand” of Sony’s for this product class. This range, which was sold in Japan only, was tightly focused around a few premium ultraportable computers. People after this brand tended to “grey-import” the computers from Japan whether online or as part of a foray in to that country.

Sony VAIO Fit 15e

Now VAIO have released these computers in to the US market through an online storefront and the Microsoft Stores in that country. Here, they are selling high-end portable computers that are focused around the “made in Japan” ideal which is similar to the way that some parts of Western Europe like Scandinavia or the Germanic countries (West Germany, Austria or Switzerland) were seen through the 1960s to the 1980s when it came to consumer electronics and photographic equipment – a purveyor of finely-crafted premium equipment.

The first of these is a VAIO Z Canvas which is a 12.3”  2-in-1 with a wireless keyboard. The screen resolution is 2560×1704 and it uses an Intel Core i7 for horsepower and has up to 16Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD storage. This will be offered as a Signature Edition computer that comes out of the box with Microsoft Windows 10 and no bloatware on board. The expected price will be US$2199 which would make you think of it like purchasing a the computer equivalent of a B&O or Loewe TV.

Sony VAIO Tap 20 – an example of an “Adaptive All-In-One” computer

There are plans for VAIO to issue some more of these computers to the US market, more so in the form of traditional laptops (hear here, VAIO Fit 15e) and some desktops perhaps of the “gaming-rig” or “all-in-one” ilk. Personally, if VAIO were to have their fingers in the traditional “bricks-and-mortar” pie, I would recommend that they follow what Bose and B&O have done where they either run their own stores in upper-class neighbourhoods or work the “store within a store” method where they set up shop in premium department stores.

What it is showing is that computer brands are finding that working within certain profitable niches such as performance computers (mobile workstations or gaming-grade laptops) or premium computer ranges is considered a way to survive. This is similar to how a few American and European AV names focused on premium-grade photographic, audio and video equipment when Asian companies took on the mass-market for this class of equipment through the latter part of the 20th century

Who knows if VAIO will return to Europe, Australia or New Zealand?

Article

Powerful Silence: What You Can Expect From The World’s Thinnest Ultrabook | Gizmodo

From the horse’s mouth

ASUS

Zenbook UX305 Ultrabook

Product Page

Purchase direct from ASUS

My Comments

ASUS is raising the bar when it comes to designing ultraportable computers by offering the Zenbook UX305 which has been identified as the “World’s Thinnest Ultrabook”. This is because it comes in at a thickness of 12.3mm and a weight of 1.2kg.

This has been achieved through the ability to dispense with a fan for keeping the system cool during use thus also allowing for ultra-quiet operation. There is also the benefit that the system implements a 256Gb solid-state drive which also gives extra cause to the ultra-quiet operation.

But it is a 13” computer  which has been pitched not just as an auxiliary note-taking copy-creating laptop but an all-rounder thanks to implementation of the Intel Core M processor (5Y71). The Gizmodo review reckoned that it could be your only laptop but if you are thinking that way, I would head down the path which most “laptop-as-only-computer” users have gone. This is to run the computer with a larger external monitor, an external keyboard and mouse along with an external USB hard disk for data storage for your primary office setup.

The Zenbook has 4Gb RAM along with the 256Gb solid-state drive which would be up to snuff for a laptop. As well, it uses 802.11ac Wi-FI networking and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity along with having 3 USB ports and a micro HDMI display connection. The screen does support Full HD resolution but doesn’t support touchscreen functionality. ASUS is still hanging on with Bang & Olufsen for their audio-related design and tuning needs even though HP have signed up this Danish hi-fi name for the same needs and this laptop uses the B&O icePower power-amplification technology for a powerful amplifier that takes less space and can run cool.

A good question is whether the ASUS Zenbook UX305 could serve as a work-home laptop, a laptop that you use in the main office but also frequently use in your favourite “second-office” café or bar or as the only computer you need. This is more so as ASUS was selling the machine through their store for AUD$1399 and is becoming more so as the ultraportable laptop computer with the traditional clamshell form factor is facing stiff competition from the “2-in1” convertible and detachable computers that also serve as tablets.

Article

Lenovo’s proposed ThinkPad Retro is like stepping back into 1992 | PC World

From the horse’s mouth

Lenovo USA

Blog Post

My Comments

The Lenovo keeps the same look for the ThinkPad laptops

There is something about classic industrial design that never dies. This has been augmented by a lot of items like the Mini, the Fiat 500, the AGA cooker, the Wurlitzer 1015 juke box amongst other things. These examples have been evolved and reworked over longer times with newer technological improvements but have maintained their shape.

Now the IBM ThinkPad has entered this line of classic designs. Here, it was about the black housing, the blue ENTER key, the red thumbstick to move the pointer around and the 7-row keyboard. These computers became a statement for what is expected of the corporate laptop that carries through the business sense of an office in New York or Chicago..

This has been carried through even when IBM sold their personal-computing business to Lenovo as part of their computing-hardware-business divestment effort and has been shown as a way to convey the bloodline that is underscored by the ThinkPad name.

The AGA cooker always had conveyed that same homely feel always underscored with the dog in front of it

A very strong analogy that comes to my mind is the AGA cooker which for many decades kept a particular design but had  many technical improvements such as being able to use oil, gas or electricity as a fuel or work under timer control. There were still the two hotplates with the distinct insulated metal lids sitting on the black top and two or four ovens with the distinctly-shaped insulated doors, the chrome towel rail on the top front edge (with many tea-towels hanging on it) and the thermometer above the top oven door. The AGA stove still carried through the homely feel in the kitchen, consistently warm and comfortable and has often been associated with the British farm houses and cottages and the cosy lifestyle endemic to them.

One of the machines that was being celebrated and is being considered by Lenovo for a “One More Time” treatment is the highly-portable IBM ThinkPad 700c which was issued in 1992. I use the expression “One More Time” to allude to what Wurlitzer had done with the 1015 jukebox. The original design could only make 10 78-rpm records for play through its valve amplifier. But Wurlitzer issued a newer machine with the same arch shape and decorations as the original unit, but was able to have 50 45-rpm records available to play via a solid-state amplifier and used microprocessor technology to fetch the records to be played. This newer model was called the 1015 “One More Time” to reference the preservation of the same industrial design but having newer improvemts.

The IBM ThinkPad 700c had a “cigar-box” look with the black housing, the red thumbstick and the distinct keyboard layout. But it had a 4:3 display that had a resolution low by today’s standards along with the processor power, memory and storage that was okay to 1992 standards for a secondary machine. It also had a 3.5” floppy-disk drive as its removeable storage. Here, they would revise this computer with a 16:9 widescreen display with Full-HD resolution at least, a few USB 3.0 ports as the main connectivity option, current-spec horsepower like Intel Core M or i-Series processors, 4Gb RAM and 128Gb SSD secondary storage at least, and more to suit today’s expectations.

What I like of this idea put up in Lenovo’s blog is to revisit a classic design and look at how it can be made relevant to today’s requirements rather than tossing it away.