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…)

Looks like the PepperPad people have been sending out review units of their new baby. I always enjoy it when new terms are coined to describe a device that just doesn’t seem to cut it in another, more defined category.  

“The Pepper Pad, by contrast, is explicitly not a replacement for a laptop or desktop PC, but a “couch computer” for home use. It’s even set up to act as a universal remote for the entertainment center.”

Couch Computer. I love it!

[Read a “New tablet tries to break curse” via  www.azstarnet.com]

The Tablet PC team at Microsoft has released a nifty little blog piece on some tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Tablet PC or UMPC with Windows Vista.  Among the tips is this one: 

#4: Enlarge the caret (text insertion point)

Consider making the caret (text insertion point) easier to see in bright / daylight conditions, by increasing its thickness slightly.  I don’t know if this setting is available anywhere in the Control Panel, but you can increase the caret width with this straightforward registry key:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "CaretWidth"=dword:00000003

This trick can be especially helpful on Tablet PCs, for visually identifying which field on a form has the input focus (ie, the field which will receive results from the Tablet PC Input Panel).

There are several more, and some are quite good, so I encourage you to check it out.

Source: Tablet PC Team Blog : Windows Vista Secrets for Tablet PC?

Here’s a bonus tip from Tim Sneath on his blog.

According to a report published in Digital Times, Asus has sold 40,000 R2Hs since September… that’s 20,000 more than the company’s sales estimate. And that’s just Asus! In my opinion, Asus has released a lot less units than Samsung, whose Q1 has been sold online and in retail stores since this Summer.

So, are UMPCs a fiasco? Well, beside what was predicted by some magazines and the criticism of pages like engadget.com, it seems to me that these numbers are really good numbers!
[Thanks to Carrypad.com for this tip]

The title of this article is “Apple Tablet PC confirmed”, but I think I’m going to need more sources before I’ll buy that.   Still, it’s very interesting and would definitely set Apple’s offering apart from the tablets we currently know and love.

Sources in Taiwan have said that the focus has been more on the home and the education environment than the enterprise marketplace. Several months ago I was told that Apple was exploring a neat new device that is basically a touch screen that links to various source devices including a brand new media centre that Apple is planning to launch next year.

The Mac tablet has been designed to handle third party applications such as home automation software that will allow users to control lighting, audio, entertainment devices and security feeds. It also acts as a full blown PC has wireless linking for a new generation of Wireless Hi Fi speakers that are currently being tested by Apple.

Source: Smarthouse - Display Panels - Apple Tablet PC confirmed

(Hat tip: TabletGear)

ZDNet has published a Black Friday Shopping Guide and guess what? The Samsung as and the Asus R2H were included in this list!

Samsung Q1 or ASUS R2H UMPC: I have been using a Samsung Q1 UMPC for several months and am pleased with this UMPC device that allows me to work on the go and carry a light load. The Q1 is optimized for multimedia and if you are looking for an UMPC with more enterprise focused features then I recommend you check out an ASUS R2H device. Make sure to check out Josh Bancroft’s 162 detailed photos where you’ll see every detail and feel a bit more comfortable buying online. Both of these UMPC devices are available for about US$1,000.

Stand back folks, this is the biggest unboxing/review you’re likely ever going to see.
Click here to see it. Go ahead, you know you want too.

[Via Tinyscreenfuls]

Ed Holloway as announced a new little tool that is another of those simple programs that are destined to be a must have in any UMPC.

The tool lets you write search terms on a small form, and instantly send the terms to a Google search inside your default browser with one tap (or a gesture). No more awkward use of the Tablet Input Panel (TIP) inside a web page!!

This program is a freeware and can be downloaded here.