How Cramped Must This iPad Mini Bluetooth Keyboard Be?

If you’re using a touchscreen device for any kind of serious work, a physical keyboard is a must-have accessory. It’s no different for the new iPad mini, although at just 7.78 inches wide when used in landscape mode, this new Bluetooth keyboard case from Zagg is probably going to feel a little cramped.

In comparison, the 11-inch MacBook Air, the smallest laptop Apple makes with a full-sized keyboard, is a spacious 11.8-inches across. So with the ZAGGkeys Mini 7 you’re sacrificing about four inches worth of keyboard real estate, and for touch typists who expect the keys to always be in a certain spot, the cramped layout here is going to be an issue.

The better and cheaper option is probably still Apple’s own wireless Bluetooth keyboard, unless you like the fact that the $US90 Mini 7 case turns the iPad mini into a tiny makeshift laptop.

Thin laptops, including MacBook Air, meet eco-standard

An investigation of ultrathin laptops, including Apple's latest MacBook Air, has found they do conform to the EPEAT (Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool) environmental standard. The investigation, which covered five laptops made by four companies, was started after Apple said in July it was withdrawing from the voluntary certification then reversed its position after an outcry from its customers.

The Cupertino-based computer maker never explained its initial reason for wanting to drop out of EPEAT, but the move came shortly after it refreshed its MacBook Air laptops. At the time there was considerable speculation Apple's decision was because the new laptops didn't conform to aspects of the EPEAT standard related to disassembly, upgrade and replacement of components.

As a result of the verification process, details of which were announced on Friday, no products have been removed from the EPEAT registry, said Sarah O'Brien, director of outreach and communications for EPEAT.

One of the issues in question was EPEAT section 4.4.2.1, which in part required that "the product is upgradeable with commonly available tools."The organization's verification process began with an attempt to clarify ambiguous wording in a couple of parts of its requirements, which are based on the IEEE 1680.1 environmental assessment standard for personal computers.

In determining what that meant, EPEAT decided that an upgrade doesn't necessarily require access to the inside of the computer.

"Products containing externally accessible ports such as a high performance serial bus or a USB are capable of being upgraded by adding a hard disk, DVD, floppy drive, memory and cards, and therefore conform to this criterion," EPEAT's product verification committee said in a clarification to the rule.

A "commonly available tool" was determined to be one that can be "purchased by any individual or business without restrictions and is readily available for purchase on the open market."

A second issue requiring clarification was the definition of the "ease and safety" disassembly requirement in two other parts of the EPEAT regulations. The committee decided that was something that had to be demonstrated rather than explained in the text of the document.

The verification process started wide but soon narrowed.

"In reviewing, we found a large number of products with clear disassembly instructions, then we looked at the uni-body group," said O'Brien. "There was a high risk of non-compliance."

Unibody refers to a new form of laptop manufacture in which the body of the computer is formed from a single piece of metal or plastic. The method makes the computers more compact, but has the possibility of making them more difficult to take apart and recycle.

So EPEAT decided to focus its attention on unibody laptops and selected five computers from Apple, Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba.

Disassembly instructions were solicited from the manufacturers, the laptops were bought on the open market, and they were sent to an electronics test laboratory that would do the tests.

"They found they could disassemble all the laptops in at most 20 minutes and remove batteries in at most 3 minutes," said O'Brien. "The recommendation was that all five [laptops] be found in compliance."

Batteries had been a focus of the initial speculation on Apple. Early attempts to disassemble Macbook Air laptops revealed the batteries were glued into space rather that mounted—something that would enable the company to save a little internal space—and that was thought to fall afoul of EPEAT standards.

NOTE:Apple lapotp batteries,LENOVO laptop batteries.

Acer’s new laptop

Recently the rise of the Ultrabook Windows laptops, elegant metal geschottete wedges significantly after Apple's MacBook Air laptops modeled designs from Apple Inc. looking at it seems as if everything with a chip inside lifts.

Many companies are introducing them 13-inch aspire S3 from Acer Inc. is one of the first arriving. It is 400 at a cost of $899, $ cheaper than the same size of MacBook Air with more disk space, but much lower video quality. In all, it is a fair to-middling laptop, it is its brushed magnesium body cooler than it really is.

The S3, such as the MacBook Air, is part of the, which lacks defined. There are to no place in an Ethernet cable connector, because they assume the designers use Wi-Fi wireless technology. And there is no DVD drive, because Wi-Fi you'll use to download software or connect an external drive to one of the S3 the two USB ports.

On the MacBook Air, Apple installation can be software by connecting to a DVD-enabled computer. Acer has no such option. You need to copy your disk-based software on a USB device, before you.

Apple future-proof their laptops by Thunderbolt, a super fast new data interface for plugging in external devices. You are not a thunderbolt port on the S3, but there is an HDMI port for connection to a high-definition TV.

The keyboard is not illuminated, such as on the MacBooks, but this is no big deal. Also it is a good keyboard, with a good-looking, feel good. It is a pity to the small, poorly placed arrow keys, though. The mouse is a buttonless touch pad with multi-touch control, so you can expand or shrink images by pinching or scan through photos of flicking your finger back and forth.

Under the hood, the Acer laptop with an Intel Corp. is core i5 processor that works well enough hot to warm your lap but only a little.Acer hot laptop battery: Acer BATBL50L6 battery, Acer AS07A51 battery, Acer AS07A71 battery, Acer AS09A61 battery, Acer AS09A71 battery, Acer AK.006BT.019 battery, Acer AS07B71 battery, Acer AS07B51 battery.

The fan which blows warm air the back was surprisingly loud.

The S3 is its got the edge on Apple in storage capacity, thanks to the hybrid powertrain. Traditional hard drives are cheap and hold much data, but they are relatively slow. Flash memory chips are fast, but expensive. Acer combines the two: a traditional 320-gigabyte hard drive for storing large files and applications, and 20 gigabyte Flash, the Microsoft Inc.'s operating system Windows 7 keeps.

Start Windows from Flash to the S3 boot in about 30 seconds, about as fast as a MacBook, which has no hard drive and used only Flash chips. And the S3 emerges from hibernation in about two seconds. Acer hybrid approach allows many on-board memory, good performance and a lower price, so it's hard to argue against it.

I'm far less happy with the the Acer's other big compromise, whose cut-rate screen. Apple's video monitors are the right numbers not less than sensational, that it is crazy is saved on video quality. Acer sees things differently, and so, alas, you.

The S3 screen provides a lower resolution than the MacBook Air. The screen of the limited point of view is far worse. Several years ago took flat-panel displays on a grey, ashy look, if you saw it frontal; newer plates are usually much better. But it seems Acer engineers found a hidden cache of old monitors and hated it, they squander. Only move your head a few degrees is sufficient to bad the S3 worsen video image. It is by far the weakest feature of this notebook.

Overall, the Acer Aspire S3 is a decent small laptop, but better machines come. Intel plans a greater chip for Ultrabook-type laptops in the first half of 2012 publish. Also comes the support for Thunderbolt technology and USB ports that can exchange data 10 times faster than the current generation.

At the moment which are laptops best razor the MacBooks, elegant computers with outstanding video quality. With its lower prices and adequate performance Ultrabooks such as the Acer Aspire S3 will do OK, but with one is like living in a Mac world on a tourist visa.