Laptop Security -Where'd My Laptop Go?

Laptops are lovely. They are convenient, mobile, powerful and prestigious.
They are also thief magnets. Over 400,000 laptops disappear each year, leaving their owners wondering where they went, what is happening with their data and what to do next.
Some of the laptops are just lost - left in cabs, at hotels, restaurants and at conferences and events. Many of these laptops (but not all) find their way back to their lucky owners.
Some are stolen by people - many of them co-workers, service staff or people taking advantage of a "moment of opportunity" - who just want to have a laptop.
Some are stolen by professional "Laptop Lifters" who may work in teams to steal the laptops for resale.
And others are stolen, not for the laptop itself, which may be a bonus, but for the data on the laptop's hard drive - financial or identity data or business plans or data.
For example:

• QualComm's CEO had his laptop stolen while he was conducting a Press Conference. Reportedly, some of QualComm's most valuable secrets were on that laptop, unencrypted and only protected by an easily bypassed password.
• A Department of State laptop containing high level information on nuclear proliferation was stolen right from State's headquarters. Two administrators were fired and other personnel were reprimanded.

Think about it - What other piece of equipment or personal possession do we routinely carry around that is worth over a thousand dollars, by itself, and may be worth thousands more in data? Why wouldn't that be attractive to thieves?
A large part of the problem is less on the hardware or software end of things, it's in the HUMAN side of things. By raising our awareness many of the vulnerabilities can be greatly lessened.
There are 3 areas of vulnerability: 1) Securing the actual laptop, 2) Securing the Data, 3) Getting the laptop back.

1) Securing the actual laptop
There are many ways to control the physical security of a laptop.

There are cable locks that can be attached to an immovable object to make it more difficult to just pick up the laptop and walk away. Although these cables can be cut with a bolt cutter, some of them are combined with an alarm that will sound if the cable is cut.

Alarms or motion detectors are also available without the cable locks. They can be set to activate whenever the laptop is moved or when the laptop is moved a certain distance away from a pocket receiver that the owner has, which also alerts the owner.

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How To Buy The Best Laptops In 2011?

A lot of companies have been producing laptops of different styles every year. With all those laptops, mushrooming, consumers are wondering, what are the best laptops 2011? There are a lot of things to consider before buying the best notebook 2011. The user, the processor, the memory, the brand, and most especially, the pricing are some to consider. Here are some tips in buying the top laptops 2011.

If the consumer is a student, then it is advisable to find a small laptop with a huge memory. Or else, the student will just buy another laptop next sem. It is also advisable to have a laptop made up of durable materials most especially if a teenager is using it. It is expected that the laptop may fall if the user is careless. It is also a must that the laptop is small enough to fit in a school desk. School desks are less wide compared with study tables at home or office tables at work. A notebook by Dell is recommended by experts since they are less expensive and allow monthly payments. Dell also has released good models with different features and processors.
If the consumer is a businessman, then the laptop must be of the best quality. There are certain laptop brands that are known to crash very often. It is really a hassle to have the laptop repaired, and a crash down also allows the businessman to lose vital information as well. If the laptop is purely for business purposes, then it is a must that the laptop is of best quality.

The size matters as well. There are businessmen always travel around the city, so bringing a large and bulky laptop is a big no. It attracts the eye of the snatchers and it's a hassle as well, most especially in crowded streets. But if the consumer stays on the office and does a lot of typing, then it is suggested to buy a bigger laptop. It is not convenient to type with a small keyboard. The bigger the laptop, the bigger the keyboard. The battery life matters too. Choose a laptop that has a long battery life. It is really irritating if the laptop shuts down while in the middle of the job, Also, it is recommended to find a laptop with a built-in Bluetooth and is wi-fi ready. That way, it would be easier to be connected wherever the user is.
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Guidelines For Buying The Best Laptop

If you decide that you need a brand new notebook and you're overwhelmed by the excess of notebooks products existing on the market, these 7 guidelines will simplify the complete process of selection and in the end you will have the top notebook that will suits all of your requirements.

There are various reasons why somebody would need a laptop, and among them the need for portability. In a world where time is running increasingly faster, it is necessary to achieve the everyday jobs that we frequently execute in front of a desktop computer, at any time of day and anywhere we might find ourselves. For this reason laptops have become crucial devices in our everyday life. But because all of us have various desires, the notebook manufacturers struggle to find their position in the market by producing different machines to meet certain consumer requirements. As a result, we have on the market notebooks designed for game enthusiasts, college students, videographers, business travelers and even to exchange desktop computers in addition to plenty of computer brands to pick from.

Technology is evolving at a quick tempo and customer demands are greater than ever, which is why it is no surprise that choosing the right laptop from the infinite variety of machines that have appeared over night is probably an overwhelming process for some. To help you take a good decision, I'll highlight underneath a number of recommendations you must keep in mind, in the event you want to buy a brand new laptop.
1. Product value. Keep an eye on your spending budget! For some, price is absolutely not an issue, and if this really is your case you may skip to the next tip, but for many of us, price is really a significant factor specially in these times of crisis. A higher price of the product does not at all times guarantee the best performance, as a result it is vital to determine a budget that we are prepared to spend it for purchasing a fresh laptop from the beginning. Establishing the budget will shrink the search area making it quicker for us to obtain the best laptop intended for our requirements.
2. Notebook portability. Everyone knows that the main advantage of a notebook versus a desktop computer is portability. When the notebook has a much bigger size it is going to be difficult to carry with us wherever we require. Hence it is very important to keep in mind the dimensions of the notebook. Mid-size notebooks, 15 inch, are generally the most sought after because they can be used for most activities offering maximum comfort and can be quite easily transported in general. Larger notebooks, 17 inch, are commonly designed to replace desktop computers because they're just more difficult and uncomfortable to maneuver them from one place to another. Small laptops, 11-13 inch, ultraportables are intended for people who are always in a rush and permanently on the road, such as college students and business travelers.
3. Laptop configuration. After we lessened the search area only to products that fit our budget and the perfect size suited for actions carried out routinely by us it's time to take a look at one of the most important aspects, to be exact the laptop configuration. A better processor and a larger quantity of RAM will ensure us that we can execute several tasks simultaneously, and will provide faster loading and running for applications and programs used. The video card has an important role if you plan to utilize the laptop for playing games or 3D editing applications. Saving files is done on hard disk, therefore a larger space will offer us a greater volume of information that we are able to save. We will require an optical drive to read CDs and DVDs. A wireless network card will permit us to connect to the Internet from any public place wherever you can find an wireless network access point, and also an integrated video camera will facilitate video communication with friends or attending videoconferences.
4.Battery life. If you're the kind of people that travel a lot, a battery with a longer life, will allow the usage of laptop for a longer period with no worrying that you will remain unable to utilise the laptop. Typically the battery life of ultraportable notebooks is much higher than the battery life for desktop replacement laptops. As a warranty that you will not remain in the inability to utilize the laptop is recommended to purchase a second battery compatible with the selected brand.
5. Choosing the laptop brand! Every customer has the inclination to favor certain companies over others for some reason or other. If we used a laptop before, it will be more likely to go for the same brand if we were happy with the one that we used. For example, someone who used an Apple in the past will be inclined to choose an Apple as a replacement and will not study very well the qualities of the other brands except he wants something that Apple can't offer him. Undeniably it is much quicker to choose a product when you have preceding experience with notebooks, but if you wish to purchase a laptop for the very first time, deciding on from many of labels available in the market may prove as difficult and I would recommend to decide on the product that provides top performance at the least expensive price.
6. Laptop Guarantee. As well as with other electronic products, bad things can happen with laptops too. Ask the seller what is the common turnaround time for fixing the issues and where is located the closest service. Once something goes wrong with a notebook, you normally must send the entire object back to your manufacturer, this is why you need to make regular backups and keep your information on removable storage devices drives.
7. Deal comparison. After you have taken a choice concerning which brand you wish to purchase, my last suggestion is to check prices from multiple vendors to obtain the top deal. Amazon.com is one of the major and also most trusted internet based sellers and enables consumers to compare prices with other sellers
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Best Laptop Manufacturers

Choosing a new laptop can be quite a daunting task. There is no doubt that you want to buy the best laptop that you can afford. You will need to balance a whole suite of different features to try to determine which laptop is the absolute best laptop for you. When you make your decision, you should look at different features like battery life, memory, hard drive storage space, laptop screen size, and portability. Unfortunately, it is usually impossible to obtain the best laptop of all possible worlds. For example, screen size and portability are two features that are desirable in a laptop.

However, it's easy to see that these features are in direct conflict with each other. Some laptop manufacturers may try to mitigate this conflict as much as possible. For example, they could try to make the laptop extremely thin. The features that you decide upon will ultimately reflect what you plan to use your laptop for and your own personal needs.
Another factor that is extremely important to consider when you are selecting your next laptop is the manufacturer. Ideally, you would like to choose a manufacturer who has a reputation for producing a high quality product. Even more than this, you want a manufacturer that has a great reputation for providing fast and friendly customer service.

Sometimes something can go wrong with even the best laptops. When this happens, you want the manufacturer to be extremely responsive to you when you contact them. You would probably also like their customer service and technical support team to consist solely of the most competent people. Even amidst their high quality product and great customer service, no laptop manufacturer is worth anything to you if he charges an infinite price for his product; it is just as important that the manufacturer sells its laptops at a great price. Let's take a look at some of the best laptop manufacturers to see which one may be right for you.
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Choosing the Best Laptops for Students

Students need laptops more than anybody else. With their laptops, students can do research and write papers. They can also choose to do various activities with these mechanisms. These include playing games with them. Choosing the best laptops for students, however, is not that easy as there are many laptop manufacturers which proudly declare that their laptop is the best. Indeed, there is a profusion of laptop brands on the market. Having to choose which one is the best will surely give students tons of headaches.
Choosing the best laptops for students require careful consideration. Indeed, how can one chose from a plethora of laptops available on the market today? The answer is a discerning eye and a thinking brain.

These should help students choose the best laptops for their particular needs. The following are tips which students should put into mind when choosing the best laptops on the market. These would help them decide which ones to choose and which ones to actually ditch.
The first thing students should think about when choosing the best laptops for students is what the laptop will be used for. They should base the type of laptop that they are going to buy on what it is going to be used for. The next thing that students should consider when choosing the best laptop is the upgradability of the laptop itself. This means that they should consider buying an upgradable laptop to be able to save lots of money in the future. The next thing that students should put into consideration is the size of the laptop itself.

Because students will amble from class to class and from lodging house to campus, they will need a laptop small enough to be carried around. Finally, the most important consideration students need to think about when choosing the best laptop is the money. Because they are students, they have tight budgets, the reason why they need a laptop that costs less. There are quality laptops out there which cost less and would not completely empty their wallets. These are the ones which they should go for.
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Qualities of the Best Laptops for Business

It is a fact that very few businesses can get their work done without a laptop. Laptops are used during conferences and meetings and even during office hours when information is needed to be put into a database. Laptops are important in the everyday lives of people today especially those who are running businesses. They are important because they make work easier for those who manage information needed by the business in question.

In today's day and age, laptops are made for every conceivable purpose. There are those which are best suited for students while there are those best suited for gamers. There are also those best suited for media. Finally, there are those meant exactly for businesses. They are called business laptops.
Business laptops should be portable and should require little time for maintenance. This is because their owners are into business meetings and are on the go most of the time. This is the reason why business laptops should be the best laptops for business. They should have all the features needed to be able to help manage the business in question.
Purchasing the best laptops for business is not an easy thing. The following are the things to be considered when purchasing laptops for business use.

First, size in terms of screen size and weight as well as storage capabilities is important in business laptops. The hard drive should be able to store many documents and the like. The business laptop should also be able to retain portability and keep the size to a 15 inch maximum.
Second, the screen size is important but will depend on how one will use the laptop in question. If one is constantly on the road, the more portable laptop is better. If one always keeps the laptop in the office, there is no reason why he or she should get a laptop that is ultra portable.
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Recommendations For the Best Laptops For College Students

Laptops are very popular because of their performance and adjustability. The main advantage of a laptop over typical personal computers is that you can carry it around with you. You can use it anywhere like in park, library, bus and car etc.
Students need laptops for many reasons. They use laptops for research, for studies, for projects and for entertainment. Now the question is what type of laptops are best for college students and how much should they spend on purchasing the laptop. These questions are answered below.
Laptops for college students should provide very good performance, should have internet access so that students may do research online. Laptops for college students must have these features. First of all the size of the laptop matters, it should not be ignored. The size of the LCD is usually of 13 to 15 inches; otherwise the laptop would become too heavy to carry it around campus.

The laptop should have RAM at a minimum of 2GB and 160GB hard disk. 2GB would be enough to provide good performance that is required by the students. The storage capacity of 160 GB is more than enough. Students can store e-books, lectures, music, movies, pictures etc. Graphics are also important especially for students because they play computer games and most of the students show their interest in photo editing etc. For this purpose there should be fairly nice graphics card. NVIDIA is well known company for graphics card.

The laptop should be stylish and attractive. So the students should choose laptops which are good looking. There are many colors and designs available in the market. One of the important things that should be considered is price. Students should decide whether he/she should purchase a high priced laptop, low priced laptop or used laptop. Laptops should have WiFi and Bluetooth technology, decent battery life, sufficient number of ports, anti-theft device, and a 1 year warranty.
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