lgpOnTheMove

On Location - CES 2012

Las Vegas saw plenty of action again as the Consumer Electronics Show went into full swing this week in the Nevada desert, with tons of new mobile gadgets and companies there to show off their wares for 2012. Eager to build on my first experience from last year, I spent considerable time covering the exhibit floor looking at devices and meeting with both manufacturers and vendors.

While not everything at the show was being "on show", I managed to get a good indication of what users will be seeing later on in the year, and in some cases as soon as a few weeks. Slates continue to be a major theme as they were last year, but there were just as many new notebooks to show off as well. Read on to see everything I was able to find!

Less than 1 week left before I get behind the wheel again for sin city. This year I'll be traveling light, taking merely my HP 210 Mini netbook, HTC Touch Pro 2 smartphone and Energizer XP8000 battery pack. New in my gear bag this year is the Apollo 4G mobile hotspot from Clear (review coming on lgpOnTheMove soon), giving me always-on connectivity wherever my feet happen to take me.

Housing all this gear will be my versatile Solo TCA511-4 netbook case. Considering how much smaller this is than the gear bag CES hands out to press attendees, I may actually walk the show floor with the Solo. I'll have no problems snapping photos with the Touch Pro 2. Blogging and posting images will be child's play with the 210 Mini. And with the XP8000 riding on my belt with plenty of juice on tap, I've got all-day power for running both my smartphone and fast 4G hotspot.

Off the Beaten Track - why Mobile Broadband in the U.S. Still Sucks

Nobody can deny that over the last 2-3 years, mobile tech has changed more dramatically than at any other time. The advent of slates flooding the consumer market along with the explosion of smartphone use has pushed mobile data demands into the mainstream. Now more than ever, data is king! It's no longer a matter of choosing how many minutes you need when shopping for a wireless plan, but how much data you get and how you want to use it.

Ideally, consumers welcome choice. But die-hard mobile data users, business users, enthusiasts and a large chunk of consumers who have previously enjoyed unlimited data are left out in the cold. For them, choice simply doesn't exist, facing either a monopoly of one carrier or going without service at all. Put simply, mobile broadband in the U.S. still sucks!

It's that special time of the year again where lgpOnTheMove is sharing the Christmas spirit. I would like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful, safe, fun-filled happy holidays.

For those of you lucky enough to have a brand-new notebook sitting under the tree, I'm guessing your Christmas just got extra special.

Stay tuned for more great notebook news and reviews coming in 2012!

The Best of 2011

Wow!!! 2011 has been such a pivotal year in mobile technology - it just boggles the mind thinking about everything this year has brought consumers. With the onslaught of slate hardware to the arrival of mobile Sandy Bridge, 2011 has certainly set the stage for some of the best gadgets we've seen, and has given quite the indication of what 2012 has in store.

Indeed, with CES just four weeks away, manufacturers are eagerly waiting to take the wraps of their latest high-tech gadgets. But before our jaws drop, it's only appropriate that I wrap up 2011 with my list of top notebooks and netbooks.

It amazes me the number of folks who continue to suggest that netbooks are underpowered, useless and cheap toys compared to more expensive slates. And this viewpoint reaches peak when folks see a slate docked with a fancy clamshell-style keyboard/case combination, entertaining the idea that it can even replace a notebook! Yet quite the contrary is the truth. Today's best netbooks are in fact as good as any notebook flashing a Core 2 Duo sticker, and can handle pretty much any everyday task you throw at it, even including casual gaming.

Using my own 10" HP 210 Mini netbook as a baseline, I've gone ahead and compiled a list of 101 things that you can do today with a netbook. These examples go beyond just software that you can run and peripherals you can attach, but extend to ways in which you can get the most out of your sub-$400 investment.

It's been a long time since I last looked at a big 17" notebook, but this latest Toshiba Qosmio model warranted my undivided attention. There's a lot to like about the X775-3DV78, chief among them the nVidia GTX560M graphics, 1920x1080 120Hz display, an impeccable keyboard, and harman/kardon 2.1 speaker system. Looking for a notebook with some "attitude"? Keep reading to see what else this system can do.

At last, some new Glamor Shots for you to peruse over - this time showing off my latest notebook acquisition, the Toshiba Qosmio X775-3DV78. This high-end 17" gaming notebook has some decent hardware under it's hood, and aims to continue where the X305 and X505 left off. Exactly how good is it? Stay tuned next week for a full review here on lgpOnTheMove.