Electronic Notebooks: Why Businessness Need Them

Take Note

Notebook computers, commonly referred to as notebooks, are personal computers that are very light. To understand the notebooks concept you need to understand what personal computers are.

A personal computer is relatively small and inexpensive, compared with the computers of large businesses and organizations that act as servers or run computer operations on a grand scale. Personal computers are made for the use of individuals or small business entrepreneurs. Many personal computers are used in home offices nowadays. Many rely on notebooks as their only or their additional choice.

Personal computers can be purchased for a few hundred dollars or several thousand. Notebooks are somewhat higher in cost. All personal computers are based on the technology of microprocessing that enables the computer and notebook manufacturer to install a complete CPU on one computer chip. A business can use a personal computer, and sometimes a notebook, for accounting tasks, word processing, desktop publishing projects, database management, and spreadsheets. Notebooks or personal use PCs are often used for gaming, music and even movies.

Before notebooks the first personal computers showed up towards the end of the 1970's. The Apple II, launched in 1977, was one of the first personal computers. It became one of the most popular as well. The introduction of new operating systems and new computer PC models seemed a nearly daily routing during the end of the 1970s and into the early 1980's. The IBM PC was introduced in 1981, taking over first place status among personal computers. At this point, with the exception of Apple, many personal computer brands and manufacturers fell by the wayside thanks to IBM's onslaught.

The result, still prior to notebooks, was the production of IBM clones by other manufacturers. These clones, with nearly the same internal components as the real IBMs, were much less expensive. They used the same microprocessors and could run identical software. While IBM, thanks to price and innovations that weren't accepted such as the OS/2 operating system, is no longer the preferred PC brand, its notebooks are widely acclaimed.

Now personal computers are divided into two types - PCs and Apples. Personal computers, whether desktops, notebooks or laptops are designed as single user machines and run on microprocessors. They can be linked into a network, however, to use several of them together. The power of personal computers varies considerably from one to another.

Notebooks typically weigh considerably less than PCs - fewer than six pounds. They are typically so small that they can easily fit into their own carrying case or briefcase. Notebooks use a flat panel technology to have a display screen instead of the monitor that runs as a separate piece of hardware on a PC. Notebook display screens have considerable variation in display screen quality. The resolution can be either VGA (video graphics array) or SVGA (super VGA.) Designed by IBM, VGA systems provide a text mode resolution of 720x400 pixels, and a graphics mode of either 16 colors (640x480) or 256 colors (320x200.) The latter is the most common. SVGA is a standard for graphics, with greater resolution than the original VGA. SVGA supports resolution of 800x600, equal to 480,000 pixels.

The computer power of notebooks is actually just about equivalent to that of personal computers. Notebooks have the same capacity for memory, the same CPUs, and the same disk drives as PCs. The small package this power comes in is what makes them more costly than the PCs

One of the most popular aspects of notebooks - what makes them preferred to PCs for many road warriors, is their portability. Notebooks have battery packs installed so they can run without electricity for 2-4 hours before having to be recharged.

by Robert Michael

A notebook computer as a desktop pc replacem

It used to be that to get all the computing power you needed, you needed a desktop. But would you be surprised to know that today, a notebook computer is not only as powerful but is even more useful?
And with the many technology advances we've seen in recent months, notebooks are now very affordable.
So as you look at that big clunker taking up all the desk space, why not consider a notebook computer?
All the big manufacturers make them: Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, HP, Sony, Lenovo, Compaq and, of course, Apple computer with its like of MacBook and MacBook pro computers. First, though, just what is a notebook computer?
A lot of people - even come computer manufacturers - use the words laptop and notebook interchangably. If you do, that's okay. But the terms are really different. While both are portable computers meant to be carried from place to place, a notebook is generally smaller than a laptop. It gets the term from a sheet of note paper.
And that's a pretty good rule of thumb to use in defining it. A notebook is about the size of a sheet of 9-by-11-inch note paper and generally about an inch-and-a-half thick and less five pounds in weight. Anything bigger than that can reliably be called a laptop. Other than size, there are no other significant differences between a laptop and notebook so if you want to use the same term for both, no one is going to quibble.
There are two classes of notebooks. Notebooks with 12 or 14 inch screens are standard-sized. Smaller notebooks - those with 9 and 10 inch screens and weighing around two pounds - are called ultraportables. Ultraportable notebooks usually have smaller keyboards, don't have built-in CD or DVD drives and hard drives that typically have 20 to 40 MB capacities
Technology has made notebooks smaller, more powerful and much more affordable today than even a year ago. You can expect to fiind a solid, reliable notebook for well under $1,000, with fully-featured powerhorse models listing out at a tad over $2,000. Notebooks can easily be used as replacements for desktop computers. Many fit into docking stations that hook them up to larger screens, power supplies and bigger keyboards and mice. A docking station at home or in the office is a great convenience.
But so is a notebook. That's why for many, it's their main computer. Taken from home to office to school, on business trips and vacations and - with wi-fi Internet connectivity or PC card modems that patch into the cellular phone network - notebooks provide always-available computing and Internet access. All your files, all your programs, are always with you.
As you can see, notebook computers make a lot of sense as replacements for desktop PCs. So start shopping. Once you have one, you'll be glad you did and wonder how you got along with one for so long.

by Mike Fletcher