Computer.co.uk

Over the next few blogs I’d thought I’d share with you some ideas and tips about how to chose the best hosting that’s right for you.

There are 1001 hosting companies out there  these days, so how do you know what’s right for you? How do you know if that company will even be in business tomorrow? Are the deals too good to be true? Of course every hosting company is going to claim to be the best but there are some important things to look out for. However what’s good for one person might not be good for you.

How do I know so much?
Quite simply, I use to own one of those large hosting companies so I know the inside secrets!

So what will we be reviewing:

* Price
* Reliability
* Email facilities
* Speed
* Growth potential
* Features
* How to tell if the  company is simply reselling another service
* Support requirements
* What’s right for your business

You’ll also find that in this modern era of hosting there is a great deal of choice and a vast difference in price. We’ll give you the inside track on what’s right for your business. And because I’m not trying to sell you anything you’ll also find that I’ll be completely honest.

Toshiba seem to have subtly launched a new website called Toshiba Life. If you’ve not seen it yet take a look.

It would appear to be their first attempt at a community site or public facing blog site.To give them credit, it’s not simply a blog all about Toshiba products which is good. It’s in its early stages of developments and content is still growing, but it does seem to genuinly be a site designed to help, educate, inform and develop relations.

The general concept is a site to help you improve your online experience and knowledge. If you’re not a geek, you’d probably wonder where a lot of people learn about new things online, here’s your chance to learn.  Today they are talking about new search engines to replace Google, they also seem to cover the basics such as how to clean your keyboard. Ok…so not the most exciting of topics…but how else do you find out these things!

Its a nice idea. The nice thing is they’ve not copied the likes of Dell with their ‘Direct2dell’ blog.

I’ve also noticed no one has commented on any of their articles yet so why not be the first!!!! take a look at www.toshibalife.com

Lets not make any bones about it, the Toshiba S300-120 is not going to win any speed races, it’s never going to solve global warming, and it might have a hard time curing cancer.  But if you’re not after the latest, high-powered, Core2Quad-powered laptop with obscene amounts of memory, then you might be pleasantly surprised by both the spec of this model, and its price.

With its decidedly non-flashy appearances, sedate metallic grey casing, and distinct lack of flame-style artwork, you’re not going to mistake this laptop for anything other than the solid business workhorse that it is.

Hot

But that’s fine, because for £439 + VAT, the 2Ghz dual-core processor, 2GB of memory and 120GB hard drive are probably enough for your every-day business needs.  As far as connectivity goes, this machine is surprisingly well-equipped, mixing old and new with an interesting combination of USB, eSATA, gigabit networking, 56k modem and a serial port.  For attaching all those serial devices you have. From 1997.  The now-expected card-readers, headphone connectors, built-in microphone and web-cam are also present.

Not

On a slight downside, while the S300-120 model does come with a wireless network interface, it is A/B/G only, so if you’ve just bought a shiny draft-N router, you might be disappointed.

Likewise, for those busy executives wanting to release some stress at lunchtime by playing the latest 3D-shooter at maximum resolution with 16x anti-aliasing, you might find that the Intel GMA 4500 is a tad underpowered. And by a tad I mean massively.

Recommendation

A decent overall model, it shouldn’t disappoint you on the business desktop front, and has enough bells and whistles to give you some bragging rights at the board meeting.  However, unless you’re failing UK bank with massive amounts of toxic debt, you should seriously consider spending an extra £30 to get the next model up.

When it comes to the T-series, are you getting anything more than “Sony Style”.  Not really!

These overpriced laptops are quite well made, beautiful to look at, and they may just win a beauty contest for their efforts, but they certainly aren’t worth the cash you’ll be forking over for such mediocre computing power.

What will £1,247 buy you when it comes to computing power?  Not much more than £300-£500 will.

• Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo SU9300 / 1.2 GHz ( Dual-Core )
• RAM - 2 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) - DDR3 SDRAM - 800 MHz ( 2 x 1 GB )
  
• Hard Drive - 120 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm
• Operating System - Microsoft Windows Vista Business
• Screen - 11.1′ TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ) - X-black
• Optical Drive - DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM - integrated
• Graphics - Intel GMA 4500MHD
• Bluetooth - Yes
• Notebook Camera - Integrated - 0.3 Megapixel
• Warranty - 1 year warranty

This notebook is made by Sony, who at this point may just be getting by solely on their reputation for quality alone.  I don’t doubt that this notebook is an extremely quality product, and that it will last a long time, but the specs just don’t add up when it comes to overall value.

Look at some of the £400 or less laptops I’ve reviewed, and you’ll quickly notice that spec wise, this just doesn’t measure up.

The only saving grace is the graphics card, and even that isn’t all that impressive.  It’s underpowered (1.2ghz processor), and the ram and hard drive space are equal or less than that of a laptop half it’s price.  Add to that the fact that you get an 11″ screen, and a .3 megapixel (that’s right, .3) integrated web cam, and it’s simply too much to ignore.  Speaking of ignoring things, ignore this laptop.