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Foreword By The Editor

This article by Hornet Thomson is basically about considering a bluetooth wireless keyboard and covers all the pros and cons as well as ending with a specific recommendation. If you find the subject of interest, be sure to read About The Author (last paragraph) and follow his links.
Mike Alexander
Author of ‘Internet Traps, Ripoffs And Pitfalls‘

Security

Bluetooth wireless technology offers a highly secure link to your keyboard and mouse, much more so then the older wireless keyboards, anyway up to 28 feet away. It keeps you connected, saves you time, and simplifies your life in ways you’ve never thought possible. I use laptops exclusively and never a desktop, and even I love the flexibility a bluetooth keyboard can give you!

Battery Power

Bluetooth technology is able to pipe a signal over 10 meters in distance. Wireless keyboards in general work on battery power and are fairly heavy in their consumption because they are generally used a lot of the time. With this in mind its best to get the rechargeable type of batteries.

Because of technical progress in battery life and advances in networking via wireless technology, it is almost certain that very soon every single piece of  hardware that needs a communication pathway to your computer (and back again) will be wireless.

Why Bluetooth?

The advantage of bluetooth rather than infra-red wireless keyboards is that bluetooth makes connecting with your computer a piece of cake in comparison. That’s one reason why bluetooth has become the standard in most computers today.

The critical reason why bluetooth is so much better is that infra-red utilizes radio signals and consequently experiences a great deal of interference. It is also very limited in it’s range capacity.

Smaller Is Better

I know what the average working area is like: papers scattered everywhere, cables, mouse pads etc. With smaller keyboards, a lot more freedom is experienced and a tidier office results.

Hot Keys

Hot keys might be of significant importance to you and, if so, you should search for a keyboard with them installed as an extra. If you are unsure what a hot key is, it is a button on the keyboard that has the ability to run a program just by tapping that button one time. Examples of this may be your email program, or perhaps Internet Explorer, or something else you use repeatedly. A hot-key simply makes it faster and easier to get to where you want to go.

Check This Out

Rocketfish Bluetooth Keyboard RF-ABTKB (can be used for PC or Apple). Technical Details: you can use this bluetooth wireless keyboard anywhere up to 30 feet away. This amazing low profile keyboard with great bounce back that’s built for fast typing has ‘one-touch’ access to multimedia functions, 90 days battery life on 2 AA batteries included (not a long life really but get the rechargeable batteries and save yourself lots of visits to the local shop for new batteries). A recent buyer of the Rocketfish Bluetooth Keyboard RF-ABTKB had this to say about the purchase: “I had a few initial connection problems because it kept dropping out of sync. After a bit of research the problem was easily fixed. Other than this, it works fabulously well and is very smooth to the touch, which I adore. Its got keys suited to both the PC and to the Mac, so it has best of both worlds, you could say. Overall, an unbelievable buy and ten out of ten from me! After getting over the teething problems, I fell in love with this keyboard. It’s just so smooth and my fingers glide over the keys.”

About The Author

Where is the best place to buy Bluetooth wireless keyboards? I’ll show you now. For more info on other wireless products: wireless mouse and keyboards.

Foreword By The Editor

I think it’s fair to say that laptops and netbooks have now become an essential part of everyday life, at least in our affluent western society. This excellent article by Francua Smith highlights some of the best ways to get the most out of them.
Mike Alexander
For all your content needs go to ClipCopy Content Solutions

Make It Last

You definitely want to try and make your laptop last as long as possible, whether to save having to buy a new machine every year or two or to get the best deal for it when you’re ready to change. If you want to extend your laptop’s life, there are some specific things you can do. No matter what it originally cost you, you’d do well to learn the following tips to extend its life.

Keep It Cool

The first thing I always do to extend my laptop’s life? Well, it’s simple. Keep it cool. The more heat your laptop accumulates, the more likely it is to suffer from component failure. Note that, if you like to slump into a couch to type on your laptop, you will most likely block the machine’s air vents and prevent the air from circulating. This spells heat for the machine; which is not  a good thing at all. To cool a laptop, one good way is to get a cooling pad. These things draw heat away from the system and usually cost about $30. You will, at the same time, prevent your laptop’s internal fans from spinning unnecessarily, thereby saving your battery life as well.

Carry It Carefully

I’ve seen some folks treat and carry their laptop as if it’s a piece of junk. If you throw your laptop onto the bed and it lands on the floor, or you leave it in the hot sun on the back seat of your automobile… well, fine, and good luck! No laptop is going to survive long in those circumstances. You need to treat it with respect and carry it with care. As an extra precaution, get a bag that is specifically made to offer maximum protection. Targus is an excellent maker of laptop bags, many come complete with padded sidewalls with air-protection technology.

Choose An SSD

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a next generation kind of hard drive. There are no moving parts, no platters or read/write heads (hard drive jargon) and everything is stored in non-volatile flash memory, like in a pen drive. This does wonders for your laptop. You will have longer lifespan because you don’t have a moving hard drive that breaks down. It also generates less heat since there’s no hard drive whirring away in the background. Unfortunately, the prices of SSDs are still quite high and currently cost about $15 per GB of storage. These prices are, however, gradually coming down. I think the maximum size now is about 128 GB so they certainly have capacity. Remember to look out for them if you’re in the market for a new laptop.

Protect The Battery

Your laptop’s battery is really sensitive. Don’t charge and discharge it all the time. Whenever you plug your laptop into an outlet, make it a habit to unplug the battery. If you leave it in, the AC force could cause the battery to overheat and overcharge. Then, when running on battery power, utilize the laptop until you get a low-battery warning, then plug in the charger and let it recharge fully. That will extend the life of that battery.

Reformat The Hard Drive

If you find your laptop running really slow, one option is to reformat the hard drive. Remember, we all let all sorts of junk software clog up our operating systems but Windows tends to get bogged down by orphaned files, funny registry entries and spyware. Reformat the hard drive and install everything afresh (or get a friend or a shop to do it if you’re not sure how). I guarantee you will get your laptop functioning and running faster. One trick I like to use is to install all my essential software (Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat, etc.) then take a backup using imaging software (e.g. Acronis True Image). When you feel the laptop going sluggish, simply backup your data files and do an image restore. Your system will be refreshed with all the original clean, intact programs and it will run faster.

Avoid Standby Mode

One last thing is regarding the ‘Standby’ mode. It’s nice but it consumes battery power so you run the risk of reducing the life of your battery. Next time, use the ‘Hibernate’ mode instead of ‘Standby’. It preserves your laptop’s current state by writing it to the hard drive as a file. And it does not require any extra power. It takes a few extra seconds to use ‘Hibernate’, but it will extend your laptop battery life.

Conclusion

I hope you feel that this article has shown you some good tips for extending your laptop’s life. A laptop computer is a pricey investment; do your best to keep it safe and it will keep working for a long, long time.

About the Author

Francua Smith is a skilled Computer specialist who has a lot of experience on laptop computers. He can help you choose your own laptop computer. If you are interested in laptops or want to learn more about them, feel free to check out his free guide.