NetbookShow

Although laptops are the epitome of convenience and mobile work efficiency, snags like dead batteries can leave you frustrated and impotent. Battery life is a key feature of battery performance is affected by computer usage, so you can take an active role in extending its life. Use these 5 simple tips below to use less energy and get the most out of your laptop’s battery.

1. Lower the LCD Screen’s BrightnessOne easy way to improve your laptop’s power consumption is to lower the brightness level of its LCD screen. When the screen’s brightness is lowered, images may appear darker on the screen. However, if there is an adequate light source available, higher brightness settings are unnecessary. Lowering the brightness is also likely to lengthen the life of your screen.

2. Use Power Saving Options. All laptops should have features that allow a person to improve power consumption. In Windows, these features can be found in a menu named “Power Options” that is located in the Control Panel. For Mac users, there is a feature called “Energy Saver” that is located in the System Preferences menu. You should be able to use these options to tell your laptop how long to wait until it powers off when it remains idle. You should also be able to set warnings to alert you a set period of time before your battery dies so you can save your files.

3. Use Standby More Often. Often people leave their laptops running when they leave their work desk. However, this needlessly consumes battery life. Instead, a person can use standby mode to cut down on power consumption when not using the laptop during these brief periods. Standby mode can usually be accessed by going to Power Options in the Windows Control Panel. Sometimes, this mode is referred to as Hibernation. This power saving mode can commonly be accessed by holding in the F12 key.

4. Disconnect Unused Devices from Your Laptop. Sometimes, a person may keep certain peripheral devices plugged into a laptop even when they aren’t being used. However, even though they aren’t in use, they may still be draining power from the laptop’s battery. If possible, these should be unplugged. Alternatively, certain devices can be disabled if they aren’t in use. Take for example a memory stick. If the memory stick is disabled by the laptop user, it won’t be consuming any of the battery’s power.

5. Turn off the Audio Speakers and headphones often use up a lot of a laptop battery’s power. If you turn the volume down, power consumption is greatly reduced. If the audio is muted, consumption stops all together.

Apple laptop batteries can be hacked to infect the laptop with malware, or possibly even rigged to explode, a well-known security researcher has found.

All modern laptop batteries have logic chips inside them that communicate with the computer they’re powering. That’s how you’re able to see how much charge is remaining. The chips also carry out regulatory tasks, such as shutting down the charging process when a battery’s at risk of overcharging.

But any logic chip has operating software — “firmware” — and that software can usually be remotely updated.

Charlie Miller, who’s famous for winning the annual Pwn2Own contest four times with his Mac OS X and iOS exploits, discovered that Apple puts the same password on all its laptop batteries in order to efficiently send out battery firmware updates.

Unfortunately, a skilled malicious hacker armed with the password could alter the firmware, Miller says. Altered firmware could be used to store malware or tweaked to damage the computer.

“These batteries just aren’t designed with the idea that people will mess with them,” Miller told Forbes tech blogger Andy Greenberg. “What I’m showing is that it’s possible to use them to do something really bad.”

Miller will be presenting his finding at next week’s Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas. He has already notified Apple of the vulnerability, and is not revealing the password.

Digging into source code

Miller, who formerly was with the National Security Agency and currently works for Denver security firm Accuvant Labs, was intrigued by a 2009 firmware update that Apple had sent out to fix a problem with MacBook batteries. Read more…

Meet the world’s lightest 12-inch notebook with a built-in DVD drive. But that’s not the only reason the Toughbook S9 is compelling. This 3-pound ultraportable packs in  a Core i5 processor and up to 11 hours of battery life. That’s a lot of endurance for such a powerful CPU.

As you might expect, the Toughbook can also take a beating. The machine has a Mil Spec 810G rating, which means its magnesium chassis can withstand drops of up to 30 inches while operating and 12 inches from any angle. The spill-resistant keyboard can take up to 6 ounces of liquid, and the lid and base can withstand more than 220 pounds of pressure.

Panasonic says the estimated street price is $2,499. Yeah, the price is steep, but the company says the Touchbook line’s  sub-5 percent failure rates justify the premium.

Security features include Trusted Platform Module (TPM) v. 1.2, Computrace theft protection, a Kensington lock slot, and an optional fingerprint reader. The notebook comes with a three-year limited warranty.

With Windows 7 launch day coming up fast, it looks like PC makers and retailers are getting ready. Amazon is a choc full of information today about upcoming laptop specifications and prices. I already told you about the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T/TZ and the Asus UL20A. But here are a few more thin and light laptops that popped up on Amazon today:

* ASUS UL20A – 12.1 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM 250GB HDD, 7.5 hour battery for $590
* Toshiba Satellite T115 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768  laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel  SU2700 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 8.5 hour battery for $450
* Toshiba Satellite T115 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel SU2700 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 9.5 hour battery for $480
* Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810T- 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz  Intel Core 2 Duo SU7300 dual core CPU, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 8 hour battery for $600
* Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810TZ – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 8 hour battery for $550
* Acer Aspire AS1410 – 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.2GHz Intel Celeron SU2300 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $400
* Gateway EC1440U – 11.6 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 743 single core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $400
* Gateway EC1430U – 11.6 inch laptop with 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 7 hour battery for $550
* Dell Inspiron Mini 11z – 11.6 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 dual core CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 4 hour battery for $550
* Sony Vaio P – 8 inch laptop with Win7 Home Premium, 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 CPU, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 1600 x 768 display, 3.5 hour battery for $850

And a whole slew of netbooks:

* Samsung N130-13P – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB HDD, 5.8 hour battery for $351
* Samsung N140-14R – 10.1 inch laptop with Win7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 7.5 hour battery for $401
* Toshiba Mini NB205 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 9 hour battery starting at $380
* Gateway LT2022u – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 hour battery for $300
* Acer Aspire One AOD250 – 10.1 inch laptop with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 hour battery for $320
* Asus Eee PC 1008HA – 10.1 inch netbook withWin7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, 6 hour battery for $430
* Asus Eee PC 1008HA – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Home Premium, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $480
* Asus Eee PC 1005HA-MU17 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 8.5 hour battery for $350
* Asus Eee PC 1005HA-PU17 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.66GHz Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 10.4 hour battery for $400
* HP Mini 110 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 3.75 hour battery starting at $380
* Dell Inspiron Mini 10 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 5 hour battery for $400
* Dell Inspiron Mini 10v – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6GHz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 3 hour battery for $330
* Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1.6Ghz Intel Atom N270 CPU, 1GB RAM, 160GB HDD, 6 hour battery for $350
* Sony Vaio Mini W – 10.1 inch netbook with Win7 Starter, 1366 x 768 display, 1.66GHz Atom N280 CPU, 1GB RAM, 250GB HDD, 7 hour battery for $500

Pretty much all of these laptops are scheduled to be available on Thursday, October 22nd, which by some strange coincidence happens to be Windows 7 launch day.

And Amazon’s not the only place where you can pre-order laptops with Windows 7 today. You can also place pre-orders from HP for the Mini 110 with an optional $30 upgrade to Windows 7 Starter. The HP Mini 311 is available with a $50 upgrade option for Windows 7 Home Premium.

Dell is also offering the Inspiron Mini 10v and Dell Inspiron Mini 10 with a Windows 7 Starter upgrade for a $30 premium when you order from Dell.com, although I know some people are going to question whether a switch from Windows XP Home to Windows 7 Starter really qualifies as an “upgrade.” Dell also lets you upgrade the Inspiron 11z to Windows 7 Home Premium for $30 or Windows 7 Professional for $130.

In other news, Amazon Germany is taking pre-orders for the Asus Eee PC T91MT with Windows 7 Home Premium, an 8.9 inch multitouch display, 1.33GHz Intel Atom Z520 processor, and 16GB SSD and 1GB of RAM for 506 Euros (about $754 US).  This model isn’t showing up at any US retailers that I can find yet.