Accessorize your Laptop - Part 1

Here are some nifty add-ons and accessories for your notebook. Some of these will help you be more productive, protect your precious investment when you travel and dress it up to match your personality.    
Backpack

A backpack is one of the first things you should be looking at, especially if you move around a lot with your notebook. There is a variety to choose from in different price ranges, so it's up to you how much you want to spend. I would say don't skimp on the quality of the bag and preferably go for a reputed company. Belkin, Targus, Built NY, HP, etc. are some of the reputed brands that offer good protection for everyday use. If you're the adventurous type or someone who travels a lot, then all-weather bags is what you should be looking for. 

Bluetooth mouse

No matter how well designed the trackpad on your notebook might be, it's still no replacement for a regular mouse. Bluetooth notebook mice are your best friend here, small, easy to carry and no messy wires. There are plenty available in the market from Logitech, Microsoft, Belkin, etc. and if you're looking for something cheaper then you have APC, iBall, Genius and Zebronics. Wireless notebook mice start from Rs.1000 upwards depending on the features and size.

The Logitech V470 is a great notebook mouse; compact and well built

Cooling pads

If you're still stuck with an old AMD chipset notebook, then there is a good chance of you having heating issues with it. This is where cooling pads come in. Belkin and CoolerMaster currently offer a good range but you can also get one from Antec, APC, iBall or Logitech. Priced anywhere between Rs.400 and Rs. 3,000, you can choose one depending on your requirement. Passive pads simply help you raise the notebook from the ground, so you get better circulation. Active pads have a built-in fan and are usually powered by USB. These blow fresh air directly into the bottom vents keeping the notebook cool.

The Coolermaster NotePal X2 R9-NBC-4WAK-GP is an affordable active cooling pad with cool blue LEDs

Skins

If you're bored of that dull grey color of your laptop, then this option might interest you. To pep up your notebook give it a new skin. Laptopskins is an Indian site that sells such skins. They also provide free shipping anywhere in India. Another such site is Skinzwork, which offers similar service. If you're a bit wary buying online then you should easily be able to find these in your local electronic stores as well. 

Notebook skins are a great way to express your personality and make your notebook unique

USB Hub

A USB Hub is always handy to have when you find yourself running short of ports. This Belkin Swivel hub is available for around 800 bucks. The best part about this one is that it can rotate 180 degrees, so it doesn't interfere with other ports. Of course cheaper alternatives are available for 200 bucks at your local computer dealer.

The Belkin Swivel USB Hub is the perfect tool that will 'twist' to fit any notebook perfectly

Wireless Data Card

You're not going to have Wi-Fi around you all the time and for those who are constantly on the move - like journalists, who need to get their story across as soon as possible - a wireless data-card can be your best friend. Today you have plenty of options to choose from, and lucky for you, we recently conducted an in-depth review on data cards currently available. This is the best way to get connected to the world wide web no matter where you are.

The Tata Photon plus is one of the best performers

Play Free Pacman Forever

Recently, the 30th anniversary of one of most beloved classic game PacMan was celebrated by Google's title doodle on its search page. It was not yet another doodle but a web-programming marvel. If a user clicked on the doodle, he/she could actually play the Pacman game. Isn't that just simply brilliant! Several Pacman lovers spent hours playing the game on the Google search homepage
Millions went crazy over the Google Search home page and finally the search giant decided to dedicate a page to Pacman. So now you can play Pacman game anytime online at this special page - http://www.google.com/pacman. Here's an interesting trick - If you click on the Insert Coin button then you can have second player to join you in the Pacman game. That is amazing, isn't it?
Be careful while playing this game online as you may get yourself hooked for hours. That Pacman dedicated web page is one of the best boredom killers on the Internet.

Nokia E5

The E5 is the first device announced for the Eseries portfolio after Nokia clarified its handset naming convention back in March. To understand the positioning of the E5, one simply needs to look at the letter and the accompanying digit. The E in Eseries comprises productivity and business devices, and the number 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10) means the cost of the E5 is best described as middling. But with an estimated retail price of 180 euros, the E5 could well go for next to nothing with a two-year plan from a telco operator.

Design

The look and feel of the E5 is completely different from the current E72. That's probably more good than bad since the E71 and E72 are barely distinguishable in terms of the hardware. We can imagine Nokia engineers trying to break away marginally in the design of the E5, but still stay true to its E71/E72 heritage.
The E5 weighs 126g with battery included, which is a mere 2g lighter than the E72. But in the hands, the predominant smooth matte plastic of the E5 gives it a gentler, even pebble-like and less sharp appearance. This is complemented with a convex wave contour at the back, which probably added to the girth of the phone. The biggest and probably only hint of metal you'll get on the E5 is the battery cover. If we could peg a numerical value to the look and feel of the E5, it would be in relation to its cost. The E5 is about half the price of the E72 when this was first announced last year, which means the quality, metallic feel of the E72 has also somewhat been halved.

There are also differences all around for the E5. The spacebar now spans the width of four letters on the keyboard compared with two on the E72. If you look further back, the keyboard on the E5 follows more closely to the configuration of the E71. Holding down the Sym, spacebar and Ctrl keys activates Bluetooth, torchlight and silent mode, respectively. Instead of four shortcut buttons for Home, Calendar, Contacts and Messaging on the E72, the E5 now has just two keys for Home and Messaging. The E5 doesn't have a front-facing camera since it doesn't support video calls and the primary 5-megapixel shooter at the back is now recessed, unlike the protruding module on the E72.
The E5 has a 2mm connector port for charging although the micro-USB port could also be used to juice the battery. The latter option would be more convenient for those who want to charge and synchronize their phone with the computer at the same time without running two cables out from the device.

Features

The E5 runs the same S60 3rd Edition software with Feature Pack 2 like the E72. However, there are a number of differences beyond that. The E5 has a lower 18-bit screen color depth (24-bit on the E72), shorter camera focus range from 50cm (10cm on the E72), and lacks an accelerometer sensor. In addition, it has twice the amount of RAM at 256MB and a larger F2.4 aperture (F2.8 on the E72), which hints of better camera performance in low-light conditions. The fixed focus camera on the E5 also has the Extended Depth of Field feature, which increases the distance of the depth-of-field, keeping more objects in focus.
The 1,200mAh battery, according to the specifications, has a rated talktime of 18.5 hours on GSM and standby of up to 29 days. These are pretty impressive figures to boot. The E5 will come with Ovi Maps and free drive/walk navigation.
We're not too keen on the Home screen shortcuts, which let us place our favorite contacts, messages and a few other applications on the top layer of the interface. They don't add a lot of value to the experience, but they are there and some people may find it useful.

Outlook

The differences between the E5 and the E72 may not be a lot and, in fact, it may not even matter to most people. Given its estimated retail price of 180 euros, the biggest reason the E5 will catch on with users is the affordability of the phone. The E5 is expected to be available in Asia next quarter.

Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile

Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile is a portable Bluetooth wireless speaker system that can be paired with your mobile phone to listen to your music through its speakers or receive calls with the help of a built-in microphone. It also has a USB input, so you can connect it to your notebook or desktop computer. An analogue input is also provided, so you can connect other devices such as your MP3 player to it.

Bundle

• Logitech" Pure-Fi Mobile
• AC power adapter (100-240 V)
• Soft protective travel case
• USB cable
• 3.5 mm auxiliary audio cable
• Quick-start guide

Design & Construction

The Pure-Fi Mobile has a very compact and portable design. On the front are four speaker grilles, of which, only the leftmost and rightmost grilles contain the actual loudspeakers. The ones in the middle are pressure drivers (also known as passive radiators), which are not powered drivers, but just a speaker cone suspended that move in sync with the active drivers due to the change in air pressure in the speaker enclosure. In the center is the microphone and the status light.

On the top left are buttons for answering and ending calls and a mute button.

 

In the middle is the battery status indicator, power button, source button for switching between Bluetooth, USB audio and analogue input, and indicator lights for each of these.
On the right are the volume control buttons.

On the rear side of the device is the USB port for connecting the charger or connecting it to your computer for playing the audio over USB. It can also charge over USB from the PC. The feet for the Pure-Fi Mobile are tucked away underneath and can be rotated outwards so the device can rest on them.

The Pure-Fi Mobile is fairly light and can easily be carried around in your bag. The provided pouch is also handy, as it can store the device as well as the charger, and the cables all in a neat little package.

Performance

We first tested the Pure-Fi Mobile by connecting it to an Apple iPhone 3G through Bluetooth. Pairing was simple and effortless. You first have to press and hold the source button till its LED flashes blue and green, which indicates that the device is in pairing mode. Then search for it through the phone, select it and then the two devices are paired.
Once connected, all the audio from the phone is routed through Pure-Fi Mobile. You can play your music and videos and also make and receive calls as Pure-Fi Mobile also has a built-in microphone and call and receive buttons.
We first played some music on the Pure-Fi Mobile and unfortunately we weren't much impressed. Granted that it is a portable device with small drivers and expecting a powerful, bass heavy sound would be completely wrong, but I found it lacking in clarity. The mids were the only part of the entire audio spectrum that were portrayed somewhat correctly, but they too were overly upfront. The treble was a bit muted and lacked brilliance. The bass was non-existence and the pressure drivers did not help much.
Then we connected the Pure-Fi Mobile to a notebook via the USB cable. The audio quality improved slightly but there wasn't much of a difference. Next we connected it to our Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 audio card through the analogue input. Once again there wasn't too much of an improvement in the audio quality.
One thing we must mention is that despite the small size, the Pure-Fi Mobile can go pretty loud, loud enough to be used in a small part by connecting it to your phone. They are about three times more powerful than standard notebook speakers.
We then tried making some calls through the Pure-Fi Mobile. We first paired it with the iPhone 3G and later connected it to the computer for calls over Google Talk. Unfortunately, we observed that the microphone was very weak and had a hard time picking up our voice. We had to speak really loud for the device to pick up our voice.
Battery Life

Logitech rates the battery life of the Pure-Fi Mobile at 12 hours. But when we tested the device in our lab, we paired it with a mobile phone and let it play non-stop at 60% of its volume, which was sufficiently loud and what most people would use it at. We got an amazing 17 hours of playback time. The device did take a fairly long time to charge fully though, about three-four hours.
Verdict

The Logitech Pure-Fi Mobile is a very unique product, combining a portable Bluetooth speaker system, which can also be used for taking calls, with portable speakers for your notebook and your MP3 player. It has a very compact form factor and simple design. Unfortunately, we found the audio quality a bit lacking and the microphone performance was also not up to the mark. The battery life was quite amazing though and Pure-Fi Mobile can last a whole day even if you use it continuously. Priced at Rs. 10,995 MRP, the Pure-Fi Mobile can be purchased for around Rs. 8,500, which is not a bad price for all that the device does. However, we would only recommend the device if you must have something like it, as there are not many other options available right now.