Laptop upgrades are not difficult to complete yourself, and there are three key upgrades that you can easily accomplish to make your laptop run faster.  These will also give your laptop a higher resale value when you decide to replace it.

One of the most simple laptop upgrades to complete yourself is to upgrade your operating system. If you are running Windows XP or Windows Media Center, upgrading to Windows Vista is a good idea.  You will be able to take advantage of the many features of Windows Vista, as well as enhance the speed of your system.  An upgrade to Windows Vista for the Home Basic edition is under $100 and is worth it to enhance the efficiency of your system. (More…)

Do I need to say or explain anything?

Woot

JK on the Run is reporting that the HTC Athena is going to be priced at $1,700. This is the unit that everyone was drooling over until they found out it was going to run Windows Mobile, not XP Tablet or Vista. $1,700 for a Windows Mobile device with a 5 inch screen, detachable keyboard and phone capabilities is crazy. Is Louis Vuitton making these things for HTC?

The $1,700 price is unconfirmed and may be an error but the problem is that even if this device comes in at half that price, you can get an original Q1 for about the same money. As Windows Mobile devices continue to come up, not down in price and Origami prices decline, it’s going to get harder and harder to justify windows mobile.

As information dribbles in, the Athena is quickly becoming the computer equivalent of a lap dance. All tease, no satisfaction and way too expensive for what you get. So if you’re looking at the Athena, take my advice, buy an original Q1 or EO for around $900, buy a Smartphone that works as a modem for around $150 and send me the difference for teaching you how to spend your money wisely. We’ll all better off.

I took the family on an Alaskan cruise over the summer. Needless to say, that put a dent in the technology budget and I have to lower my sights this Christmas. I wish the kids would quit whining about food, clothing, shelter and college and embrace technology instead.

Lots of sites have done a Christmas gift list with tablet or tech items like an infrared trash can. That’s too out there for me. (Infrared is so 1980’s. How about a Bluetooth trash can?) Warner Crocker at Gottabemobile.com has a nice list but it’s a little ethereal for my tastes. I can’t unwrap Vista drivers on the 25th, nor can I point my parents to a website and say “I’d like Skype quality to be better for Christmas, get me that”.

So I’ve decided to put up my REAL Christmas list to help you find something you might actually be able to buy for the UMPC geek in your life. (If you don’t have a UMPC geek in your life, your spouse probably does. After all, YOU’RE the one reading this post!)

 Hollux Compact Flash GPS - I’m jealous of the embedded GPS in the Asus R2H but I’m unwilling to give up the media advantage of the Q1. Since it’s easier to add GPS to a Q1 than to attach better speakers to the R2H, I want this CF GPS card. It appears to have drivers for XP and since it’s CF, I don’t have another USB thingy sticking out from the Q1. (Under $60 US)

Microsoft Streets and Trips - I have to have software to go with the GPS! (Under $40 US)

Samson USB Microphone - I’m wanting to start a podcast for another website I own (sadly it has to do with accounting software, so it’s even geekier than UMPC’s). I’ve said before that a UMPC may be the ultimate podcasting machine and as good as the array microphones are on the Q1, I’d like an external microphone as well. (Under $50 US)

Ram Mount for the Q1 - This is what I need to mount the Q1 in the car. My 45 minute commute home was an hour an half last night, in the rain, past 3 malls. This is quickly becoming a need, not a want.  (Under a $100 US, price depends on the mounting components you pick.)

Samsung Blackjack (Cingular) - My trusty Audiovox SMT 5600 Smartphone is showing some wear. My wife actually said “Oh my god, look at your phone! It’s all beaten up”.  I’ll commit tablet PC heresy here and say that I prefer a Smartphone to a Pocket PC phone. Once in a while I need a break from the stylus. Everything I’ve read says this is the phone for me, except for battery life and no headphone jack. It does come with 2 batteries and I’d rather use  a Bluetooth headset to get rid of the cords so I should be ok. (About $200 US with 2yr plan. I’ve seen it as low as $150.)

The post is here.

In case you’re new to the Tabletscape, I’ve put together a little Tablet PC Hardware Dictionary to help you find your way. This isn’t meant to incorporate every detailed spec but to give you a lighthearted overview of Tablet Hardware. Enjoy. Feel free to add to the dictionary with comments to this post.

Tabletscape - A parallel universe where ink is King, OneNote is Queen and guys like Kevin Tofel can be rock stars.

Slate Tablet - A PC running Microsoft’s Tablet PC operating system, which allows using a special pen and which does not have a built in keyboard. Often this is used by advanced tableteers seeking freedom from the tyranny of the Qwerty. (Example: Motion LS800)

Convertible Tablet - A PC running Microsoft’s Tablet PC operating system, which allows using a special pen and which has a built in keyboard. User often select convertibles as a hedge against learning to use the pen or if they have heavy data entry requirements. Convertibles are typically heavier than slates. Unlike cars, convertibles are not necessarily cooler. (Example: Lenovo X60 which may actually be cooler, go figure)

Hybrid Tablet - A PC running Microsoft’s Tablet PC operating system, which allows using a special pen and which has a detachable keyboard. Hybrids offer some benefits of both Slates and Convertibles. They also have a high cool factor and often a high cool factor price. (Example: HP TC1100, sadly discontinued)

Apple Tablet - See Fairytales, Myths and Legends. (Example: See Photoshop ’cause that’s the only picture you’re gonna get)

Dell Table - See Holy Grail

Keyboard - See Anti-Christ

Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) - A smaller version of a slate tablet with a 7 inch touch screen and high cool factor, usually weighing less than 2 lbs. (Example: Samsung Q1)

The Perfect Carrying Case - See Holy Grail. Currently you can only use The Perfect Carrying case to carry the Dell Tablet or the Apple Tablet since none of these exist.

Active Digitizer - A tablet pc screen that responds to electronic impulses from the pen. Touching the screen with anything other than the pen has no effect. Active digitizers may be more accurate than touch screen input, until of course, you lose the pen. Then touch screens are always more accurate.

Touch Screen - A tablet pc screen that responds to touch input and does not require a special pen. However, many touchscreens can result in vectoring (stray inputs) from the users palm or heel of their hand. Please don’t use other body parts with your touch screen. Enough said.

EVDO - High speed cellular leash connection that allows broadband class speeds. Currently available in and around major cities with a special card. Mine works at the beach. Yours will only work at the beach if I’m with you.

Tablet Like PC - PC’s with specifications similar to a Tablet PC or UMPC but not running the MS Tablet PC OS. (Example: Sony VAIO UX280P or Flybook)

A 2 lb convertible tablet with a Pentium processor, high resolution touch screen, anti-vectoring features, daylight viewing angles, 8 hr battery life, WWAN, WIFI, Bluetooth, Windows Vista Ultimate with Aero and a 100mb hard drive for under $1,000. - Ha Ha Ha Ha ROTF LOL crying! It’s fun to dream!

So what’s so special about a UMPC? You’ve heard or seen all the criticism. They’re too expensive, too small, too slow, no keyboard, they vector if you drag your hand when writing, etc. And yet, they continue to sell and evolve. So why are Ultra Mobile PC’s important tot the Tabletscape? One word:

PRICE

But you thought they were too expensive didn’t you? I keep talking about lifestyle, not price don’t I? But, a UMPC is the single cheapest way to get a pure slate tablet PC. Period. End of Story. Cheapest by a lot.

If you look at the bottom end of the pure slate and ultra portable tablet markets, you can find something for around $1,600-1,700 US. In many cases, $1,600 US doesn’t get you specs much different from a Q1 or a ASUS R2H.

For example, a Fujitsu P1610 is $1,599 base. With a 1.2 ghz core solo processor, 512 mb of RAM and a 30 gig HD. A 30 gig HD?  Yep. Pretty close to a Q1 or an R2H . The original Q1 is now $899 US at CDW. A little more than half the cost of the Fujitsu.

A Motion or Sahara slate tablet is even more, $2,000 for a well equipped machine. Price is important. People are still unsure about tablet functionality and whether it’s worth the premium. So price is a bigger factor than most people will admit. With PDA’s at $600, a $900 tablet has a much higher spouse acceptance factor than a $2,000 one. Also, at under $1,000, it’s under the fixed asset limit of many corporations and so it has a chance to sneak into the enterprise as a trial unit with a lot less red tape. Even in single hardware vendor organizations.

Will people move from UMPC’s into convertible tablets or slates down the road? Maybe, but who cares. Only Gateway manages to get a convertible in under the $1,600 price threshold and it’s heavy enough that it should come with it’s own Sherpa. More tablet pc choices are better. No, UMPC’s are not $500 yet but they offer a entry into the tablet world for people who otherwise couldn’t afford it.

Steve at Carrypad has published an article about his experiences with his i7210 the past few months, using it has his main PC.

Overall he is pleased, but there are points that still need to be addressed. And some of these points affect all other UMPCs in the market:

Screen off/standby/Hibernate issues. I can’t believe that after all this time ECS has not fixed this issue that was reported for the first time in the same week this device was released to the market.

No floating TIP. This issue is present in Samsung Q1 too. But it’s not present in eos v7110. I have been using my Q1 has main PC for the last two months and I still find the ink experience in my eo V7110 a lot better… did you get this Kevin?
Loudspeaker quality is poor. But probably a lot better than in a eo v7110, believe me.

BIOS throttles CPU under battery power. I think that this is probably a common issue in other UMPCs because I also noticed that the Q1 runs slower when it’s on battery too. The eo v7110 offers a better control of the CPU and Power Management. I can have my eo v7110 running at 1Ghz if I want but I can’t stop this slowness in my Q1 if I would like to do this.

In conclusion, I think that some of the OEMs released these devices when they needed at least few months more in their labs. And, if you ask me who released its device with the best quality control, I would say Samsung.