TeleCenters - My Technology Blog

Twitter just rolled out a number of new features on Twitter.com. Many users have noticed the changes which seem to have hit within the last few minutes.

In a tweet just now, Sean Garrett of Twitter called these new features “social context features”, and said that the “included in list” thingie. The Zelig-like feature is not ready for primetime”

The ones that we have noticed so far include [Updated, see comments]:

A new feature that recommends other people when you follow them.
A “You and USERX both follow” screen
A mobile icon that allows you to receive SMS tweets from that user.
A “You follow these followers of USERX” screen

Around 100 people have rallied outside Google's California offices to protest against controversial proposals to alter how data is treated over the web.

Google and Verizon suggest treating fixed line services differently to wireless and some specialised content.

This would allow net providers to give priority to certain online traffic.

Protesters outside the famed Googleplex said this would create a "pay-to-play" service and urged Google to live up to its famous motto "don't be evil".

"Companies like Google have benefited from a free and open internet and their plan will destroy that," said James Rucker of ColorofChange.org, one of many consumer and public advocacy groups taking part in the event.

"They are talking about producing a fast lane, essentially a higher tier, for premium content that means if you want to play in the 21st Century internet you will have to pay."

The proposals unveiled this week by the search giant and telecom titan Verizon champion an open net for wireline services but suggest loopholes for wireless and what they called "differentiated" content.

Critics have said this would undermine the principle of net neutrality where all web data is treated equally and no-one is given preferential treatment or discriminated against.

"Whether you are a blogger, an entrepreneur, a journalist or someone trying to organise a community, the internet is precious," said Mr Rucker.

"We all want to stand together to ensure it is protected for the future. We would expect Google to take leadership in making that happen, not be on the front line of undoing that."

'In mourning'

Google and Verizon made their announcement after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ended closed-door talks with service providers and internet companies to find a consensus on the principle of net neutrality.

The FCC is trying to navigate what it has called a "third way" to resolve the issue after its authority was called into question when a court ruled it had no power to sanction Comcast for slowing some net traffic.

Net neutrality is seen as central to the government's broadband plan to provide high speed access to every citizen by 2020.

Protestor Christine Springer criticised the lack of leadership coming from the agency.

"The FCC is sitting on their hands. They are hoping nobody will notice but unless we make a lot of noise the corporate giants will prevail. The job of the FCC is to regulate not negotiate with giant corporations."

Those taking part in the rally agree and chanted slogans like "net neutrality is under attack, stand up and fight back" and "we demand our internet rights, together we stand together we fight".

There was also some singing to the tune of "Clementine" organised by a group of senior citizens calling themselves the Raging Grannies.

"We want to raise awareness about this issue and shine a light on how important it is to keep the internet free and open to one and all," said Raging Granny Gail Sredanovic.

Martha Champion donned a heavy black Victorian costume to drive home her concerns.

"I am in mourning for the death of the internet and believe this plan will lock out those that can't afford to pay a premium for their content to load faster or for their site to go quickly."

The rally also attracted the very young. Seven year old Alexis Buggs said she took part "to help save the internet".

Her mum Erin Hodgson told BBC News "I'm a stay at home mom and so it was either go to the park or come out here and take a stand and teach my kids about putting our voice out there and being proud to be American."
Fierce supporter'

The rally organisers presented Google with boxes of petitions they claimed held the signatures of 300,000 people opposed to anything that would harm the principle of net neutrality.
Google asked those that took part in the protest to fill out a form and submit their own comments about the proposals.

Afterwards the company's head of public policy, Nicklas Lundblad spoke to reporters.

"This is an important issue, a complex issue and it deserves to be discussed. Google is a fierce supporter of an open internet and we see that we have a couple of key enforceable protections in our proposal with Verizon and that is much better than no protections at all.

"This issue has been at a standstill for quite some time and we think this proposal is a way to advance that discussion."

In a move that comes as no surprise, telecom company AT&T has given its backing to the plan while firms like Facebook and Skype have denounced it.

A new piece of legislation claims to level the playing field between Internet retailers and brick-and-mortar stores, but this "fairness" bill is anything but.
Internet stores and direct mail operations have long been targeted by money hungry legislatures as potential sources of more tax money for government coffers. There's always a bill in the works trying to tax Internet stores. Over the years, these proposed laws have been discovered early on, forcing the tax mavens to regroup, over and over again.
They're at it again, with a bill called The Main Street Fairness Act (HR 5660). This time the bill is cloaked in a cloud of last minute darkness. The argument is that the poor brick-and-mortar stores are being killed by Internet companies, because the latter don't have to charge tax if they are out of state. Of course! This supposed advantage is negated by shipping costs, but that is seldom brought up. People generally buy things on the Internet when they are not available locally—or when they're much cheaper online. Tax has little to do with it. This rationalization is meant to cover up the fact that HR5660 is just a money grab.
The bill was introduced by Massachusetts Democrat Bill Delahunt, along with five co-sponsors. Delahunt is retiring from Congress, but the other five should be voted out for this bill. It will cost the hapless consumer more money for everything purchased online. The co-sponsors are Michael Capuano (D, MA), John Conyers (D, MI), Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D, SD), Adam Smith (D, WA), and Peter Welch (D, VT). Using words like "fairness" and "Main Street" in the bill title is a ridiculous trick. Do these lawmakers really think the public is that stupid?
Here's a quote from the press release,
This bill is about fairness and competition. It will help make sure that the store on the corner and the store on the Internet are playing by the same rules. This will create fair competition that benefits consumers," said South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds (R-SD). "Tax law should not favor out-of-state retailers over our own corner stores."
The idea is that the law favors your corner store over out-of-state retailers. How is this playing by the same rules? It's creating a new rule that says that Washington State will charge sales tax on an item coming from California.
Sales tax is charged to pay for police protection, road maintenance, etc. So, I'm going to be charged sales tax in Washington when the company is in California. Does that money go to police protection or road maintenance for the company in California? Wouldn't that mean that I am being taxed by California when I don't live there? And if the tax money stays in Washington, then it must be used to pay for the Washington companies I'm not buying from. They collect taxes from their customers for that. Why am I forced to pay, too? This is just a crummy money grab.
The more interesting aspect of this bill is the bogus meme that this is really about collecting taxes on what is "already owed." This concept peppers the press release. What is that supposed to mean? If it is owed, then someone must have collected it somewhere along the way—or are the sellers remiss? This is going to just make things more expensive, and it will require more government workers to enforce. It will also put a paperwork and legal burden on small operators. Only eBay and Amazon will be able to afford the overhead.
What should bother readers is the way they're trying to ram this law through during the summer. I'm sure you haven't heard much about this, have you? With unemployment at a high water mark, and no relief for small businesses, we don't need an onerous tax hike for online shopping. This will make all of your purchases cost eight to 10 percent more than you are already paying—plus the high shipping costs. Goodbye Internet retailing, hello Walmart Super Center.

Forgive me for being excited but if there is one major gripe I’ve had with the iPhone it’s battery life. I’ve bought battery case after battery case and external battery after external battery but have never been satisfied.

I even tweeted just a few days back that for its next release, Apple should focus on improving nothing but the iPhone’s battery life – call it the “iPhone Charged” or something.

With the release of this new iPhone however there seems to be some very surprising news. Three credible sources are reporting that their iPhone life has surpassed anything they have experienced with the iPhone before.

Engadget reports that – on heavy use – the battery lasted 38 hours. Mossberg claims that his battery didn’t even reach the red zone in his single day of tests (which means he must have been using it a fair amount.) Finally, Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing reports that with “3G data and WiFi turned on the whole time, she got a full 4 days of battery life!??

This is huge.

Now their exact quotes because I know I’d want them if I were you:

Engadget:

The battery life on the iPhone 4 has been outstanding thus far, exceeding our expectations for longevity during testing. We’ve only had a short time to use the phone, but in the week or so we’ve been carrying the device as our main phone, we’ve had pretty amazing results under normal to heavy use. In fact, we managed to squeeze more than 38 hours — yes, 38 hours — of life out of a single charge using the phone as we normally would. We’re talking calls, some gaming, lots of push email and calendar invites, playing music over Bluetooth in the car, and just general testing (like downloading new apps, rearranging icons, tweaking settings). We went from 10:30AM on a Saturday morning till 1:00AM on Monday without needing to charge the phone. Of course, it switched itself off just after the clock struck 1, but it was thrilling — like that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer and the car salesman see how far they can get in a car with the tank on E. Sitcom references aside, the battery life seems markedly improved in the iPhone 4, and why not? It’s got a much larger battery coupled with that iPad-powering A4, which has already shown that it can sip rather than gulp power.
Mossberg:

Apple claims longer battery life for most functions—seven hours of talk time, for instance, versus five hours on the earlier model. I didn’t perform a precise battery test, but, even in heavy use, the iPhone 4’s battery never reached the red zone on a single day of my tests.
BoingBoing:

With light use, but with 3G data and WiFi turned on the whole time, I got a full 4 days of battery life. With very heavy video recording and playback, instant messaging, email and data tethering over 3G, I got a full day of battery life. I didn’t have enough time before this review to do careful benchmark testing against Apple’s claims, so I can’t provide specific percentages, but it felt like the battery life was a good 20-25% meatier.

Apple promises up to 7 hours of talk time on 3G and 14 hours of talk time on 2G, Standby time of up to 300 hours, up to 10 hours of solid use on Wi-Fi, up to 10 hours of video playback, and 40 hours of audio playback.

Compare that with the stats promised for Apple’s iPhone 3GS: up to 5 hours talk time on 3G, up to 12 on 2G. Up to 5 hours of internet use on 3G, up to 9 hours on Wi-Fi. Up to 10 hours of video playback, and 30 hours of audio playback

A 40 year-old Canadian woman allegedly took shoplifting to a bold new level. The woman lined up an interview at an Ontario retail clothing store. Then she went to the store to shoplift for some clothes. Next, she wore the shoplifted clothes to the interview. Finally, she helped herself to a little more shoplifting on the way out of the interview. The manager, who had just finished interviewing the suspect, saw the second of her shoplifts on the security video tape. He wasn't quick enough to catch her before she left, but her escape would be short-lived. It was an odd career strategy that failed to pay off.

It wasn't hard for police to track her down; security had her resume in hand when they called the police. She is facing shoplifting penalties. The woman, who has not been identified to the public, has been charged with two counts of theft under $5,000 according to the London Free Press.

The crime that is commonly known as shoplifting is an area of law that nearly everyone has heard of. Shoplifting refers to theft from a place of business. It's a type of larceny, which means taking the property of someone else without their permission.

In many states, shoplifting penalties can range from a low level "infraction," to a misdemeanor, and sometimes felony charges. Many states have enacted statutes called "shopkeeper's privilege laws," which authorize stores to detain suspected shoplifters in certain circumstances. The laws protect the stores from lawsuits claiming false imprisonment or false arrest as long as the detention is reasonable and complies with the statute.

The unidentified Canadian women would have been wise to learn more about the law before so brazenly breaking it. Chances are her lawyer is catching her up as we speak. Regarding her employment prospects, the Canadian police weighed in:

"It is unlikely that she will be getting an interview in the near future," police deadpanned, according to the London Free Press.

Of all the anti-discrimination laws, none confuses employers more than the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially when it comes to hiring. Employers want to make sure that the person they hire can actually perform the job, but often aren't sure how to explore this issue without running afoul of the law.

If you remember one simple rule, you'll be in good shape: You can ask people about their abilities, but you can't ask about their disabilities. This means that you can ask how an applicant plans to perform each function of the job, but you can not ask whether the applicant has any disabilities that will prevent him or her from performing each function of the job.

One way to ensure that you stay within the rules is to attach a detailed job description to the application or describe the job duties to the applicant during the job interview. Then ask how the applicant plans to perform the job. This approach gives applicants an opportunity to talk about their qualifications and strengths. It also allows them to let you know whether they might need reasonable accommodations to do the job.

Some other rules to keep in mind:

If you have no reason to believe that the applicant has a disability, you cannot ask whether he or she will need an accommodation (meaning special help or equipment) from you to perform the job.
If you do have reason to believe that the applicant has a disability (for example, the disability is obvious or the applicant has told you about the disability), you can ask about accommodations.
If you still feel a little lost about which questions are legal and which aren't, see the list of permissible and impermissible questions below.

Did walking away from your CitiMortgage just get easier?

CitiMortgage, a CitiGroup mortgage provider, announced the launch of a pilot project this week. The new program will allow distressed homeowners to hand over the keys and walk away, under certain conditions.

The notion of "deed in lieu of foreclosure" isn't a new one. It's the idea that you can convince your lender to take the house instead of having them run you through the gauntlet of foreclosure proceedings. It can save a lot of headache and potentially even have less of an impact on your credit score.

In both cases, the owner of the house loses their home for failure to make payments. A deed in lieu of foreclosure is just a more streamlined process, one that reduces legal fees the lender would have to spend on foreclosing.

The Citi program would allow distressed homeowners to stay in their home up to six months, if they agree to hand over the deed to the lender. In order to be eligible for this new pilot program, homeowners must have their first mortgages with CitiMortgage, have no secondary mortgage, actually live in the home and be at least 90 days late on their mortgage payments.

Another possible advantage of this program is that Citi will forgive the difference in the mortgage amount and the value at the time of the repossession. This would eliminate the fear of deficiency judgments. The program will be offered in six states: Texas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey and Ohio.

Although there is much hype about this program, is it really a novelty in the world of foreclosure alternatives? Truth be told, the Citi program is just a more streamlined deed-in-lieu program. It's just a memorialization of terms that distressed homeowners may already have been entitled to.

So how is that anything new? It's really just the simplification of something that already existed. Or rather, it's normal deed-in-lieu process with some clever public relations packaging.

As CitiMortgage's CEO puts it: "It's deed in lieu on steroids."

This time around the recession didn't spare anyone. Not the bankers on Wall Street, not the Joes on Main Street, and not the Bravo reality TV stars Teresa Giudice and husband, not so regular Joe. The couple will be auctioning off their personal property at an August 22 at 12 p.m. (EST) auction at their Towaco, New Jersey, home. The $1.8 million dollar home (contrary to Teresa statements on her reality show The Real Housewives of New Jersey) is in foreclosure. Thus begins the real Teresa Giudice bankruptcy.

Not only do the Giudices have to contend with the sale of their property, but they have to refute claims by the bankruptcy trustee overseeing their case that they are undervaluing their property and hiding assets. CNN reports that the court papers filed by trustee John Sywilok says that the couple is claiming assets exempt from the bankruptcy filing at a low value including a pool table ($1000) and even their wedding bands ($400).

According to CNN, the attorney for the reality couple, Jim Kridel, says the value set by his clients reflect what someone would pay for it, not the sticker price. "You can't sell used, personal property for the sticker price. A $5,000 chandelier won't sell for $5,000. Nobody will buy a used mattress. The real issue in bankruptcy is, what's the value of everything? And at the time of the bankruptcy, these things didn't have any value," said Kridel.

Most people file for bankruptcy when they have made a good-faith effort to repay their debts, but see no other way out. In that case, individuals (or businesses) may declare bankruptcy by filing a petition with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court that asks the court to provide protection and debt relief under the Bankruptcy Code. In addition to that request, the debtor must provide information about his or her assets, liabilities, income, and expenditures. Complete disclosure, candor, and honesty are required. After the filing, a court will decide if one of two results will follow. Either non-exempt assets will be sold or a three to five year repayment plan will be approved by the bankruptcy court.

In the case of our now desperate housewife, the asset sale has been set, but the Giudices hope the auction won't need to take place. Their public probably hopes it will. If you seek a piece of Housewife glamour, don't miss the opportunity to consider items from the Teresa Giudice acution such as a foosball table, a faux marble chess set, a suit of armor and at least three chandeliers.

California is in a state of crisis. Financial crisis, that is. And ever so slowly, the state of California is seeing itself teethering on the edge of insolvency. So naturally, there are some pundits who have been talking of bankruptcy for California.

There is just one problem with that-- states can't declare bankruptcy. But try telling that to the former CEO of one of the world's largest Fortune 500 companies and US Senate hopeful.

Carly Fiorina, former CEO of Hewlett Packard and avid sheep advocate, made the comments on Monday during a round-table discussion with business leaders at a cement plant in the Inland Empire community of Colton.

Chapter 9 of the Bankruptcy Code applies to municipal bankruptcies and provides that an eligible "municipality" is a "political subdivision or public agency or instrumentality of a State."

The key difference in a Chapter 9 and others, such as a Chapter 7 or 11, is that there is no provision for liquidation and distribution of the municipality's assets to creditors. It is simply a bankruptcy that allows the municipality to reorganize its affairs and do some debt negotiation.

Recently, the City of Vallejo in northern California filed for municipal bankruptcy. The city of Harrisburg, PA and San Diego, CA have both been throwing around the idea.

But even talk of bankruptcy could cause problems for a municipality and mere consideration of bankruptcy could cause panic in the municipal bond market. Essentially, holders of municipal bonds begin to worry about their rights to the bond in the wake of the potential restructuring.

After all, their bond obligations could be one of the first things up for negotiation in the Chapter 9 bankruptcy.

"I think it should always be considered," Fiorina responded, to the question about whether the State of California should file bankruptcy. "Whether that is the right approach now, I don't know. I think bankruptcy, as a possibility, at the very least focuses the mind on what has to be done to salvage a situation."

In light of the sour economy and high rate of distressed homeowners marching to bankruptcy court, many see a serious need for some decisive legislative action.

Well, action that accomplishes something, instead of proposed legislation that keeps dying in Congress. But in the current political climate, is the prospect of bankruptcy law reform dead?

Will bankruptcy judges ever be given more power to help the masses of distressed homeowners flooding their courtrooms?

President Barack Obama has repeatedly promised the introduction of legislation intended to help distressed homeowners. But every time President Obama has proposed a brilliant plan, the bank lobby groups seem to reply with their own brilliant plans.

And their brilliant plans often involve large dollar figures and extreme lobbying directed at the legislators. There have now been two recent futile attempts to give bankruptcy courts "cramdown" powers.

As discussed in a previous post, "cramdown" refers to giving bankruptcy courts the power to adjust the terms of mortgages held by those who declare bakruptcy. Last May, the Senate blocked legislation that would have given the courts such power. As one Senator said:

"The banks -- hard to believe in a time when we're facing a banking crisis that many of the banks created -- are still the most powerful lobby on Capitol Hill. And they frankly own the place."

The measure was re-introduced later in 2009, but was defeated again in December.

The passage of this bill would have been great news for struggling homeowners. It could have have provided lenders with added incentive to negotiate.

Or rather, a looming threat if they didn't negotiate.

You see, no lender would want the terms of their loan to fall under the gavel of a bankruptcy judge. Lenders would be more willing to negotiate the debt and modify loans on their own terms, if they knew that the alternative could be a debt negotiation on the court's terms.

And a bankruptcy court with such power could very well allow for the principal of a loan to be reduced greatly, which would send panic alarms ringing in the banking industry.

Unfortunately for many distressed homeowners and bankruptcy petitioners, their only two choices remain either debt negotiation of bankruptcy. Debt negotiation is not always the most optimistic choice these days, since banks are being frugal and often, just reducing the interest rate by a few percentage points.

If judges are given the power to "cramdown" on mortgages, there might be a greater influx of debtors headed to bankruptcy court. If not, distressed homeowners might continue finding themselves drowning with their underwater homes.

This week's Supreme Court decision in a bankruptcy case involving student loan debt, not to mention the soaring numbers of bankruptcies, has many people curious about the boundaries of debt discharge in bankruptcy.

Well, what is "discharge" in bankruptcy?

In a nutshell, discharge is essentially a forgiveness of debt. If discharge is granted by the Bankruptcy Court, then the debtor is released from the liability of paying that debt. This means that creditors cannot come after the debtor for the debt, once the discharge is granted.

Sound good? Well, not so fast.

To begin with, not all your debts can be discharged in bankruptcy. And the type of bankruptcy you file can also have an impact on which debts may be discharged in bankruptcy. So if you're thinking about declaring bankruptcy, make sure that the debts you are trying to wipe out can, in fact, be wiped out through the type of bankruptcy you are considering.

Debts not subject to discharge in bankruptcy include, but are not limited to:

Some tax debts
Employer trust fund taxes
Alimony or support debts
Fines and penalties to governmental units
DUI-caused personal injury debts
Furthermore, with some debts -- secured debts -- the creditor holds a lien on a piece of property (or other collateral). A discharged debt does not equal a discharged lien. If your creditor has a lien on your property to secure payment of the debt, then be careful. You will need to get the lien cancelled in order to prevent the creditor from exercising his/her rights under the lien to take the property.

Finally, be aware that certain tax rules apply to forgiveness of debt. There is essentially a "forgiveness of debt tax." where the IRS sees your forgiven debt as income you earned. You might have to pay tax on that forgiven debt under certain types of bankruptcies.

In the recent Supreme Court case, the Court upheld a student loan discharge in bankruptcy. Generally, student loan discharge cannot be discharged in bankruptcy, unless the debtor can show that they (or their dependents) would suffer undue hardship as a result of paying the loan.

The lesson: Look at your debts and do your research. Be wise about your debts and do your due diligence to determine if bankruptcy is even right for you.

Bankruptcy is not always the answer.

Students might just have a lot more to thank Al Franken for than the years of laughs on Saturday Night Live. Senator Franken, along with fellow Democratic Senators Richard Durbin of Illinois, and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, have reportedly introduced a bill that will make it far more possible for borrowers to discharge private student loans in bankruptcy, which have been generally shielded from bankruptcy discharge since 2005.

Currently, unlike other common forms of private debt such as car loans, credit card debt and mortgages, student loans from private lenders (typically banks) cannot be discharged by bankruptcy. As discussed by the NextStudent Student Loan Blog, under the Fairness for Struggling Students Act and its companion House bill, the Private Student Loan Bankruptcy Fairness Act, the debt students incur could be discharged in the same manner as other private debt.

Thanks to a provision the 2005 Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act signed into law by then President George W. Bush, the current law only allows the discharge of private student loans in bankruptcy after a showing of "undue hardship," the same requirement that is made for federal or non-profit backed student loans. Undue hardship requires a separate showing to a bankruptcy judge proving, in essence, that the borrower would never be able to pay off the loan. This is an extremely difficult legal standard to meet.

NextStudent notes that several Republican legislators think the proposed changes are a bad idea. Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona believes the new law could tighten already restricted credit markets for young borrowers. "The exception from bankruptcy discharge that private student loans currently receive is vital ... ensur[ing] that private capital continues to flow into the student lending market," Franks said. If the credit market does constrict due to the new law, this could mean that only borrowers with the very best credit would have access to private student loans. Most people going off to college and in need of a private loan have not had the time or means to build up any, let alone a sparkling, credit history.

Opponents of the change in the bankruptcy laws often focus on whether it is unfair to leave the "undue hardship" bankruptcy exception in place for government-backed student loans, while allowing private loans to be discharged in bankruptcy without the same hurdle. Supporters say it is not the difference in the treatment of government and private student loans that should be discussed, but the difference in student loans and other private debt that is the real issue. According to NextStudent, Deanne Loonin, an attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, who was called to testify before the House, focused on what she says is an uneven playing field because of the lack of bankruptcy protection for student borrowers.

In her testimony, Loonin said that when she contacts student loan lenders on behalf of struggling borrowers to try to negotiate more manageable repayment terms, the lenders "offer virtually nothing." Without being able to discharge their private student loans in bankruptcy, financially distressed borrowers are left with no other choices, while on-going student loan payments keep them from being able to save money and get back on their feet.

"Basically, the most vulnerable borrowers are the least likely to be able to repay the loans," Loonin said, "and they are the ones who are hurting the most."

Like chocolate and episodes of Mad Men, there's no such thing as too much battery life. Alas, it's the rare notebook battery that'll give you more than a few hours--unless you know some tricks for squeezing extra juice. (And by the way, if you like these tips, be sure to check out "Tips for Laptop Users.")

Remember these three tips the next time you travel:

Disable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Few airplanes offer Wi-Fi (yet), so turn off your notebook's power-sucking Wi-Fi radio. Same goes for Bluetooth.
Drop the screen brightness. You can afford to keep screen brightness cranked up when your notebook is plugged into an outlet, but not when you're flying coach. Drop the brightness setting a few notches, then get back to work. Chances are you'll hardly notice the difference. Then drop it a few more notches. The lower, the better.
Watch downloads, not DVDs. Notebooks are great for watching movies, but DVD drives consume a considerable amount of power. Leave the DVDs behind and choose digital downloads instead. Stock your hard drive with movies from Amazon or iTunes and you'll be able to watch longer. Don't want to pay for movies you already own? Use a tool like Handbrake to rip your DVDs, creating MPEG-4 files you can store on your hard drive (or put on your iPod).
Give Your Laptop Battery a Longer Lease on Life
Does your laptop spend more time on your desk than your lap? If so, you're probably causing your battery to wear out much sooner than it needs to.

See, it's a sad (and expensive) fact of life: You're lucky to get 18-24 months from a battery before it loses a good chunk of its charge capacity (meaning it no longer powers your laptop for as long as it used to).

And you're accelerating this unfortunate timeframe if you leave your laptop plugged in 24/7, which is common for most folks who work at a desk. Because the battery rarely (if ever) gets a chance to discharge, it loses its capacity to hold a charge.

The simple solution: Pull the battery out of the laptop and leave it out when you're deskbound. Most laptops can run on straight AC power, so there's no need for the battery. And it's easy enough to pop back in when you hit the road (though obviously you'll want to make sure it's charged, so plan ahead a bit).

It's a hassle, sure, but consider the price of a replacement battery: usually $100 or more. What's more, old, discarded batteries wreak havoc on landfills. Sooner or later, they'll leak acid into the ground. So it's in your best interests to keep your battery as long as possible, and to keep it from dying a premature death.

Turn Vista's Sleep Button Into a Power Button
As a recent Windows Vista convert (I just couldn't cling to XP any longer--a subject for another day), I'm mostly liking the OS. But I do have one small grievance: When I click the Start button and then click what looks like a power button, my system doesn't actually shut down. Instead, it goes to sleep.

Hey, Microsoft: I don't want it to go to sleep. I want it to shut down! But that requires an annoying extra step: I have to mouse over to another menu and choose Shut Down from a list of half a dozen options. If I'm in a hurry, it's way too easy to inadvertently click the wrong wrong.

Fortunately, there's a way to reprogram that "sleep" button to become an actual power button. Here's the process in a nutshell:

Open the Control Panel and go to Power Options.
Click Change plan settings for your selected power plan.
Click Change advanced power settings.
Expand Power buttons and lid.
Expand Start menu power button.
Change the setting from Sleep to Shut down.
Click OK.
Wow, could Microsoft have buried that setting any deeper? Thankfully, Windows 7 makes it much easier to reprogram this button's function. Now if we could just get an honest-to-goodness Shut Down button that doesn't require a visit to the Start menu, we'd really be making progress.

Even accomplished geeks shy away from motherboard upgrades on their main PCs. Years ago, I would often upgrade gaming and test systems in my own basement lab, but keep chugging along with a production machine using a two-year-old motherboard and CPU.

Then I learned how to swap in a new motherboard without having to deal with a clean install. It isn't that difficult, provided you do a little up-front prep. The hard part is not the hardware installation--modern motherboards are easier to set up and install than in years past--it's bringing up an existing Windows installation and all your applications.
In this article I'm going to focus on a single-generation upgrade. Examples might include moving from an Intel Core 2-generation board to a Core i5/i7 board, or from an AMD Athlon 64 X2 AM2 board to a Phenom X4-capable board. Even in this case, you may be looking at additional hardware--particularly memory, if you're moving from DDR2 RAM to DDR3.

Specifically, I won't look at trying to move from very old hardware (say, a motherboard with AGP) to brand-new hardware. If you're planning on moving from ancient gear to current gear, a clean install really is the best way to go.

Here I'll walk you through the process of upgrading the motherboard in an existing PC, including taking care of all the software issues. The goal is to keep and maintain your existing Windows installation even after a motherboard upgrade. I'll focus on the process with Windows 7, but I'll also offer tips and tricks for Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Performing a motherboard upgrade is fairly simple, and consists of three parts: pre-upgrade preparation, the physical swap, and post-upgrade polishing.

Prepping for the Swap
Step 1: Back Up!
One key point to remember: You are putting your data at risk. Even if you're not into regular backups, now is the time to back up your system. I suggest backing up your valuable data onto an external drive first. Then, if possible, make an image backup of your entire hard drive, using a tool such as Acronis True Image ($50) or DriveImage XML (free). You don't have to clone to another hard drive; just put an image file on another drive, even on the external drive that contains the data backup.

Step 2: Collect Software Registration Keys
Take a close look at all the software you're running. Most modern applications require entering a registration key. You may have to reenter those keys, so make sure that you have them on hand, preferably on hard copy. If you have a lot of programs, grab Magical Jelly Bean Keyfinder--it will pull all of your registration keys so that you can easily record them.

Step 3: Deactivate or Uninstall Activated Applications
If an application requires activation, it may see a new motherboard as an attempt to copy the software illegally, and it may refuse to run as a result. For example, most Adobe professional apps (Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, and the suites, CS3 or later) require activation. However, they also have a handy "Deactivate" button in the help menu. If you're running an Adobe suite, you need to deactivate only one app to take care of the whole affair; but if you've installed individual programs, you'll have to deactivate those as well.
Similarly, some games will require deactivation or uninstallation if they've been activated. Whatever the application, if it has gone through an activation process, you need to be prepared to reactivate it when you're installing a new motherboard. This rule of thumb may include Windows itself--I'll talk about how to take care of that in the post-upgrade section.

It's possible to skip the uninstall step for some apps, but doing so may mean that you'll find yourself calling the company for a new activation. I've done this for both Adobe and Microsoft apps without any issues, but it can be time consuming.

Step 4: Update Your Drivers
This step is particularly useful if you're moving from an older Intel chipset to a newer one (or from an older AMD chipset to a more recent generation). The latest Intel chipset drivers, which you can download from Intel's Website, are generally supersets, so the driver for your motherboard will also install drivers and .INF files for newer chipsets. Note that these files aren't actually active in your system, but are enumerated and installed when you bring up Windows for the first time on the new board.

It's also a good time to update your graphics board's drivers and, if you have a discrete sound card, your audio drivers. If you're using the motherboard's integrated audio, you'll obviously be installing those drivers after the upgrade.

Step 5: Check Your Storage Settings
First, check your disk-interface settings. Migrating between chipsets from different companies can be problematic. For example, if you're moving from an nVidia chipset to an Intel one, you'll want to make sure that your PC isn't running proprietary nVidia drivers for IDE. Otherwise, you might experience a blue-screen error on first boot--namely, the dreaded 'STOP 0x0000007' error, indicating that the disk interface is unrecognized.

For this article, I'll be upgrading a relatively standard desktop system with a single boot drive. Similar considerations hold true for RAID setups, however. If you're running RAID 1, you might want to revert to a single-volume setup until you get the system up and running. If you're running RAID 0, it's more complicated if the chipset manufacturers differ; you may have to reimage the volume to a single drive until after the installation. Note that moving from one Intel RAID generation to the next usually works without a hitch.

This is one reason backups are critical: You are changing your primary storage driver.

Note that I'm talking about boot drives here. If you have a RAID 1 or RAID 0 secondary drive, you'll probably be okay--but back up before upgrading anyway. There's always the chance that the new system won't recognize your old RAID volume if you're using the motherboard chipset to handle RAID.

If your machine is booting off an add-in disk-controller board (for instance, a PCI Express SAS or SCSI controller), you might not have a problem with the first boot, but there's no guarantee. You may have to perform a Windows repair (possible with Windows XP or Windows 7, but something you can't really do with Vista).

If you are migrating between similar chipsets (old Intel to new Intel, for example) and are running Intel RAID or AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) mode, update the Intel RAID drivers to the latest version.

Check your BIOS setting to be certain, and make sure your new motherboard's settings are the same before fully booting for the first time. For example, if you're running AHCI in the current arrangement, set your new motherboard to AHCI in the BIOS prior to your first system start.

There are other possibilities as well--and if you have an unusually complex setup, a clean install may be the only way to go.

One passenger was killed when an airplane crashed in bad weather and split into two when landing early Monday on the island of San Andres, Colombia, officials said.
The number of injured remained unclear Monday morning, but the national police said six of at least 127 people aboard the plane were not hurt.
There also were conflicting reports as to how many people were aboard the Aires airline 737-700 jet when it crashed around 1:49 a.m. (2:49 a.m. ET). The Colombian national police initially said the flight had 131 people -- 121 adult passengers, four minors and six crew members. A list the police later released, however, indicated 127 people on board -- 121 passengers and six crew members.
The passenger list included six Americans, five French, four Brazilians, four Costa Ricans and two Germans, said Col. Hector Carrascal, director of navigation services at the Colombian Civil Aviation Authority.
Police identified the woman who was killed as Amar Fernandez de Barreto. The passenger manifest, which goes by last name first, lists a Barreto Fernandez Paola Andrea.
There also was conflicting information about what caused the crash. The initial report from the national police said a downdraft may have shaken the airplane as it prepared to land. But Pedro Gallardo, governor of San Andres y Providencia state, told CNN en Español that lightning hit the plane. The pilot also reported a lightning strike, El Tiempo newspaper said.
A storm was reported in the area but not at the airport, Carrascal said.
The accident occurred about 260 feet (80 meters) before the start of the runway, Carrascal said. Wreckage was spread about another 328 feet (100 meters) on the runway, officials said.
Photos of the airplane on the runway show it split in two, with the nose and first eight rows of seat pointing in one direction and the rest of the aircraft almost pointing in the opposite direction.
The flight had taken off from Bogota, Colombia's capital, shortly after midnight, police said.

It's been almost a year since I served up some nice, hot laptop tips (see "Laptop Q&A: Power Off Quickly, Fix Sticky Keys")--and that's inexcusable. I'll make it up to you this week with some useful advice on adding memory to a laptop, turning an old laptop hard disc into an external drive, and using your laptop's power settings effectively.

Add RAM to a Laptop
So my dad was griping that his Acer Aspire 9300 laptop takes forever to boot. I inspected it for spyware, excessive startup programs, and the other usual suspects, but everything checked out.

Then I remembered that the machine is about three years old and wasn't a powerhouse to begin with. So I checked the RAM. Bingo: It has only 1GB. Windows Vista needs at least 2GB to run smoothly. (So does Windows 7, but I've seen it run reasonably well on less.)

Upgrading a laptop's RAM may sound like a big deal, but it's actually the single easiest upgrade there is. The only challenge lies in determining how many RAM modules your system currently has and what kind they are.

To find out, turn off your system, unplug it, remove the battery, and flip it over. You should see at least one panel that can be removed with a small screwdriver. Consult your manual if you can't find the one covering the RAM sockets--or just open them all. Here's what you're looking for:

Most laptops have two sockets. If only one is occupied, just buy a module that exactly matches the existing one and drop it in. That'll effectively double your RAM.

If both sockets are filled, you'll have to replace both modules. In the case of Dad's Aspire, for example, it had a pair of 512MB modules for a total of 1GB of RAM. We elected to replace them with a pair of 1GB modules for 2GB total. (What to do with the displaced RAM? EBay, of course!)

Not sure what kind of memory your laptop takes? Head to a site like Crucial, which can identify nearly every make and model. (Of course, once you know what you need, you can shop around to find the best price.)

Recycle an Old Laptop Hard Drive
Inexpensive hard drive enclosures are ideal for recycling old laptop drives that have been replaced by higher-capacity models.

An enclosure is essentially an external case for that internal drive, one that lends it a USB interface. When all is said and done, you'll have a compact USB hard drive you can use for backups, extra storage, transporting files, and so on.

More immediately, an enclosure lets you easily restore your data onto the new drive--a simple drag-and-drop operation. With that done, you'll have to decide if you want to wipe the drive or keep it intact (you know, "just in case").

When shopping for an enclosure, make sure to choose one that offers the proper kind of interface for your old drive. Again, if it's more than a few years old, it's probably IDE. Any newer and it's more likely to be SATA. In either case, you should be able to find one for just $10-15. I recommend hitting sites like Meritline and Newegg.

Learn Your Laptop's Power Settings
My aunt recently told me about a problem with her new laptop: Whenever she'd step away from it for more than a few minutes, she'd close the lid. Upon returning, she'd open the lid, only to be faced with a blank screen and no response from the mouse or keyboard.

Want to know why? The default lid-closing action for most laptops is to put the system in Sleep mode, and Windows is notoriously bad at waking up properly. I advise most laptop users to use Hibernate mode instead, as it's much more reliable when it comes to waking up.

You see, Sleep (aka Standby) puts your system into a low-power state, allowing you to pick up where you left off (in theory, anyway) after just a few seconds. However, a PC in Sleep mode continues to consume battery power, so it's not uncommon to return to a "sleeping" PC to find that it's just plain dead. Or, in my aunt's case, unresponsive.

Hibernate, however, saves your machine's current state to a temporary hard-drive file, then shuts down completely (much like Off). When you start it up again, it loads that file and returns you to where you left off--no booting required.

Both ends of the Hibernate process take a little longer than sleep mode (usually 10-20 seconds, in my experience), but you avoid any of the issues that can arise when Windows suddenly loses power.

And as noted, sleep mode is notoriously flaky. If your system refuses to wake up properly, you'll end up losing whatever documents and/or Web pages you had open. Consequently, I recommend using hibernate most of the time.

Have you ever wished that your iPod Touch was an iPhone? Now it can be, thanks to a new device called the "Apple Peel 520" and created by a Chinese company.
Invented by a 22-year-old programmer who lives in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, the gadget is comprised of a case that fits around the outside of Apple's iPod Touch, a popular media player and Wi-Fi-enabled pocket computer with e-mail, maps and other applications.
The Apple Peel 520 case contains a battery, dock connector and SIM card that allows voice calls. Users will also have to install special software to enable a text messaging function, and to allow the device to properly work with the iPod Touch (users will have to break into the software of the iPod in order to download the necessary applications).
Once installed, the Apple Peel gets around five hours of talk time and 120 hours on standby, according to a review posted on Dailytech.com.
CNN interviewed the inventor of the device via QQ, a popular instant messaging service in China (he declined a phone interview and was only willing to offer his online name: "Maxpy").
When asked why he created the Apple Peel, Maxpy said it boiled down to economics: "Because I love the iPhone, but it's too expensive in China."
Maxpy said he began building the device last April, revealing the final product online about a month ago via a company he started called Yosion Technology.
The iPhone, which was officially launched on the mainland last October, more than two years after its debut in the US, costs between $588 - $740 while an iPod Touch is around $235. The Apple Peel sells for $57.
Analysts said a thriving gray market flooded with fake iPhones smuggled in from Hong Kong and the West has hurt legitimate sales of the Apple smart phone here.
The illegitimate phones are usually cheaper and contain functions, such as wireless Internet, that are not available on phones sold through legal channels.
"All of the potential users already had purchased an iPhone, they had found a way to buy one," Leo Wang, founder of Mobile 2.0 forum, a telecom and mobile organization, told CNN after the China launch of iPhone release last year. "The official iPhone is too expensive."

Whether or not the Apple Peel 520 will appeal to Chinese consumers or have any impact on iPhone sales in the country remains to be seen. So far, according to Maxpy, only around 150 of the devices have been pre-sold on Taobao.com, a popular Chinese e-commerce site. Two were sent to technology websites for review.
While there are plans to mass manufacture the gadget in the future, Maxpy says those plans are on hold until the company can ensure there are no intellectual property right violations.
"We have no detailed plans," he said. "But of course we want to make a profit from it."
Maxpy also said they want to check on Apple's policy on "outside devices" as well as try to reach the company to see if they have any interest in the gadget, asking CNN whether we could put him in touch with Apple CEO Steve Jobs. We could not.
CNN did try to reach Apple representatives in Beijing and Hong Kong. No one was available for comment.
There are also a few technical glitches to be worked out. According to a Chinese review translated into English on M.I.C. Gadget, the Apple Peel does not support 3G, there's a small lag time when calls are made from the iPod Touch and deleting and forwarding text messages is not available, among other minor complaints.
Nevertheless, many say they are impressed with the functionality of the device.
"It is the first time there has been a hardware application that has changed the functionality in such a key way," said Tai-Pan (a pseudonym), editor of the Taiwan-based Shanzhai.com. "It is very cheap for someone with an iPod Touch, so there is some kind of value proposition for people who want to save money."
What's more is the Apple Peel also illustrates the evolution of China's massive "shanzhai," or black market, phone industry. Based mostly in Shenzhen, it is an industry characterized by the massive production of copycat mobile phones and other devices, which are sold at lower prices and often with more localized functionality than global brands.
Every year, millions of shanzhai phones are sold throughout China and exported to developing countries, resulting in a major dent in the sales of mainstream manufacturers in those markets, according to the research firm Gartner.
"People are already or will soon be buying not just China-made but China-owned products," said Benjamin Joffe, founder of the Beijing-based mobile and Internet consulting firm Plus8Star.
"Most of Apple's factories are in China, so it is not like China cannot make high-quality products," he said.
"The issue remaining to go up the value chain has been design, marketing and distribution. Chinese companies are learning, acquiring talent and buying what is missing."

Everyone relax, Google and Verizon want you to know they're not out to destroy net neutrality, as previously reported. In fact, they've got a few suggestions on how not to ruin the future of the Internet.

In a joint conference call on Monday, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and Verizon chief executive Ivan Seidenberg announced a few joint policies that will pacify net neutrality supporters. Both companies oppose slowing down, blocking or prioritizing wired Internet traffic of any legal kind, and they said the Federal Communications Commission should be able to enforce the rules with fines. Google and Verizon also support the principle of transparency, so you know what your Internet service provider is doing.

Public vs. Private Internet

So far, so good, but here's where it gets tricky: In addition to the "public Internet," which is basically what you're enjoying right now, Verizon wants the right to maintain a private Internet, on which companies can pay for fast delivery of traffic. Seidenberg said these private uses could include medical services or education, but he also left the door open to entertainment and gaming.

At this point, even Verizon doesn't really know what this means. The company's public policy blog says the proposal "includes safeguards to ensure that such online services must be distinguishable from traditional broadband internet access services and are not designed to circumvent the rules." But Seidenberg mentioned 3D as a possible service, even though there's technically nothing stopping a company from delivering 3D content over the Internet now. Without more concrete examples, I'm not confident that Verizon's private Internet wouldn't some day seem like a way to put the squeeze on streaming video or online gaming.

Paid Fast Lane: Good vs. Bad Idea On the bright side, Verizon's devotion to transparency means you'd at least know what services are buying fast access, and how they are supposedly different from something you could get over the public Internet. Also, Google's Schmidt stressed that the company won't be offering anything over the private Internet, so no priority access for YouTube or Gmail.

The other red flag is mobile broadband. With the exception of transparency requirements, Verizon and Google want cellular data to be exempt from the policies they've proposed. While Seidenberg said the purpose of this policy is to allow wireless carriers to manage their traffic according to demand, it doesn't rule out the possibility that one video company could pay for faster traffic than all the others. Again, the transparency policy at least means you'd know about it.

What's going to happen with these grand statements on net neutrality? Schmidt stressed that there is no business deal between Google and Verizon. It's just a policy proposal, and he said the FCC will comment once it has a chance to read the proposal.

When [cellular] subscribers sign up for service, they want their network to move data -- not to choose which companies are wealthy enough to buy access to subscribers. Without vital net neutrality protections, companies with commercial incentive to limit the free-flowing Web, like T-Mobile, Verizon and Comcast, can decide who will have a voice online. These companies should not have the power to determine anyone's fate on the Internet." -- Joel Kelsey, Political Adviser, Free Press

Nicely put: Who will have a voice online is, indeed, the core issue.

What prompted Kelsey's comments was the recent announcement that T-Mobile was stepping definitively away from net neutrality (the idea that carriers should not be allowed to shape data traffic for their own commercial ends) and planning to make the likes of Google and Apple "pay to play" when it comes to video traffic.

If T-Mobile has its way, Google, Apple and probably every other company with the kind of consumer success that generates significant traffic will be sent a bill. The result will be no pay, no play. Should T-Mobile get away with this, then it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that every other cellular carrier will follow suit.

What T-Mobile and the other carriers who provide Internet data services (both wired and cellular) are missing is that these video services are "pulled" by the consumer, not "pushed" by the likes of YouTube. This means it is a choice by the consumer.

Now, call me crazy but it seems to me that any attempt to control what users can and cannot see, even if it is by just by limiting performance, has to be squarely in the territory of censorship and we can pretty much guess how this will play out. First it will be argued that this is just for video and it's for the good of the network, then certain types of content, both video and Web, will get blocked for political or outright commercial reasons, and then, step by step, our rights will be eroded until we're all paying way more but only for what the powers-that-be allow us to see.

How the FCC can still move on net neutrality

Here's the big thing: It seems to me that any such move by T-Mobile would have to violate the agreed terms of service and require a revised agreement. The obvious consumer move should be to take that as an opportunity to switch carriers without incurring any kind of early termination fee.

The same situation applies to Verizon's mooted termination of its unlimited data plan and AT&T's recent termination of its similar plan: Given that these are material and significant changes to the contract, users should be able to say "so long" without having to cough up ETFs.

But wait! It looks like all of the major carriers are doing the same thing, so other than leaving a carrier you don't like for one you might like, you'll still be losing out. Isn't that market fixing?

Even if the carriers aren't explicitly agreeing to all do the same thing, the fact that they are, actually, all doing the same thing that isn't in the consumer's interest should raise all sorts of red flags.

The problem is that consumers are addicted to their comms. They are all hooked on their iPhones, their Droids and their BlackBerrys. So, for example, will iPhone users leave AT&T because the company is changing the deal? Nope, they won't. And thus, the heart of the battle for net neutrality could be lost because consumers have become comms junkies.

Lenovo's new SL510 won't surprise anyone who has used a ThinkPad before--it's an excellent laptop that's oriented entirely toward no-nonsense use. The matte black housing, the iconic nub in the middle of the keyboard, and the deep-set keypad are all comfortingly familiar, as are its black, boxy looks, with the familiar "ThinkPad" logo on the top of the case's corner. The machine's lightweight feel is surprising but welcome. It's the return of an efficient, gifted friend--a friend who is now marginally less awkward at social events. And it'll set you back $889 (as of 11/9/2009).

At 15-by-9.7-by-1.4 inches and weighing 5.7 pounds, our review unit was big, but not too bulky. The latchless case opens easily, and the join between screen and laptop feels rock-solid. Our review unit's 15.6-inch screen was matte, not glossy, which means a bit less brightness and color but makes the screen easy to view under just about any lighting you like (a glossy screen is available). The native resolution is just 1366 by 768, but going any higher would have required Lenovo to pack a little more graphics dynamite under the hood.

Our review model's guts include a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8700 CPU, 3GB of RAM, Intel's integrated 4500 Graphics Media Accelerator, and a 320GB, 7200-rpm hard drive. That was enough to earn a score of 104 in our WorldBench 6 test suite, and is actually fairly fast for an all-purpose laptop. In my own subjective tests, the SL510 easily handles DVD and streaming video playback, but is also meaty enough to deal with 12 tabs of Firefox running while fiddling in Office and Photoshop. However, that anemic GPU means gaming is secondary--hardly a surprise here. (That said, if you need a quick gaming fix, consider Torchlight, which ran swimmingly and is a lot of fun.) As for battery life, the SL510 lasts 5 minutes shy of 4 hours, or about 20 minutes less than the average we've seen from all-purpose-class laptops. So, while it has moxie, keep your charger handy.

The keypad is the fantastic standard that ThinkPad users have used to write so many memos. It's full-size, with plenty of space between individual keys and a fantastic feel on each individual keystroke. The arrow keys and the dedicated Page Up/Page Down keys sit in the lower right as a two-row, three-column bunch with a careful trio of grooves leading the hand from the bottom of the machine to the keys themselves. It's a little thing that makes it very easy to navigate documents and apps without looking down to find keys. The keyboard also features Lenovo's usual spill-resistance technology--it even feels as if you could drop a brick on the keyboard, and it'd be fine.

The keyboard's positioning doesn't make as strong a case for adoration. Sticking close to Lenovo's plain-design philosophy, the keyboard sits squarely in the middle of the laptop. Given its wide screen, that decision leaves a broad swath of space to either side of the keys, though the left side has four dedicated volume buttons, while the right has the ThinkVantage and power buttons and your indicator light array. I'll admit it irks me to see such swaths of unused space on a laptop, but this is still a very comfortable setup. The keyboard is center-aligned with the screen, and you can rest your hands comfortably without accidentally hitting any extra arrays of buttons.

The aforementioned ThinkVantage button gives access to an excellent suite of support and monitoring tools. It is a central clearinghouse of information about your machine and doesn't require someone from IT to come over and help just to get something useful done. Lenovo's electronic help documentation is quite thorough--designed, clearly, to be helpful to the IT guy while not overwhelming to the business user. And ThinkVantage's Enhanced Backup and Restore features make online, external, and local backup easy, while its Performance and Configuration History tracks a wide variety of boring but important facts about your machine: hardware scans, tests, system changes (as granularly as program updates), critical events (with full error logs), performance-changers (such as new programs that launch at startup), and when you created restore points. The SL510 also incorporates the ThinkPad line's usual Active Protection System, which stops the hard drive from spinning if the machine takes a sudden impact. It's a recurring theme: This ThinkPad is a tank.

As for what you'll find lining the box, here's a quick rundown: Three USB ports, a hybrid eSATA/USB port, VGA- and HDMI-video outputs, a mic and headphone jack, a media card reader, a DVD/CD-RW drive, an express card slot, and an ethernet port are arrayed around the machine. One USB port sits in the back; every other connection is on the right or left side and recessed into the SL510 just a little. That rear port may not seem very useful, but think about it for a second: How many odd dongles or awkwardly-sized USB flash drives block up neighboring USB ports? This back-mounted port should accommodate any USB devices with exceptionally fat plugs. 802.11 Wi-Fi is supported out of the box for every version; optional Bluetooth, WWAN and WiMax units are available.

Overall, the ThinkPad SL510 is a solid Windows 7 machine. Its wide screen gives ample room to work without a full jump up to a monster-size model. The defining ThinkPad reliability is very much present, and its speed is admirable. True, battery life could be a bit better, and Lenovo really should have given the SL510 a bit more punch--you certainly won't want to try to play anything graphically demanding--but it's a surprisingly light, remarkably quick notebook. In short, it's a ThinkPad.