DIMOSOL's Mobile Technology Fun Blog

Dell Latitude D600

This is the first of a series of reviews that I am posting on the laptops that we sell. Why am I doing a review on a laptop that is a few years old you ask? Since we sell refurbished laptops (i.e. laptops that are a few years old, I felt it would be nice (and hopefully helpful) to provide a review of the laptop (s) you are shopping for.

Latitude D600

The D600 model was one of Dell's greatest business class laptops. Durable, easily upgradable and VERY easy to fix and get replacement parts for should the need arise made it a standard on many desks and conference tables, in brief cases, laptop bags, hotel rooms worldwide for many years.

DESIGN (or Redesign)
When Dell redesigned their business line they listened to those of us who, for years, had been using it's predecessor (remember the c640?) and made changes that worked for all of us. The silver D600 is a smaller, sleeker version of the gray C600, The chassis was designed using aluminum, magnesium alloy and steel, to make the D600 Latitudes lighter and thinner than previous models. The end product measures in at 1.2 by 12.4 by 10.1 inches and weighs an easy-to-tote 5.3 pounds.

POWER AND PERFORMANCE
Pentium M Mobile processor 1.3 Ghz - 2.0 Ghz Using Intel's 855PM chipset and standard 256 266 Mhz (PC2100) DDR memory more than enough to handle most of today's business application and tasks.

A PLETHORA OF OPTIONS, CHOICES AND UPGRADES
One of the things I like most about Dell is they give the buyer plenty of choices and upgrade options to choose from. Optical Drives included: Cd, CD-RW, DVD, DVD/CDRW Combo, DVD-RW. Hard drives came in 20GB - 60 GB flavors (but can certainly hold up to 120 GB), and the all-important RAM choices ranged between 256MB and 1.0 GB (with a maximum capacity of 2 GB). One would find it a challenge not to be able to spec out your laptop and keep within your boss' budget.

GRAPHICS
One feature Dell didn't hold back on was the graphics card that it put into the D600. Powered by a 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 chip the output drives a 14.1-inch SXGA+ screen which has a native resolution of 1,400 x 1,050 pixels. The result, a nice 14.1" Clear LCD, which was easy on the eyes BUT also provided enough power to run most games available at that time.

CONNECTIVITY
Dell offered a wide range of connectivity options for those road warriors that this laptop was designed for. All models came with an internal 56K bps Modem, and an integrated Gigabit Ethernet card (10/100/1000Mbps). Wireless options were aplenty. Choices included the Intel Pro Wireless PCI card (Centrino) for one of Dell's own TrueMobile solutions, either the 1300 with 802.11b/g or the 1400 which supports 802.11a, b and g. The choice of adding an internal BlueTooth card was also available.

ONE COOL FEATURE: The Multibay
The multibay came standard with whatever optical drive (CD, DVD, etc.) you chose installed in it. However, that was not the end of it (It is called a multibay). The bay was designed for you to add options to your laptop to make your life on the road MUCH EASIER. Options like another battery, an extra hard drive or even a floppy (remember those?). Simply pop out your DVD, pop in the extra hard drive that had your back up on it and you were "good-to-go) no reboot needed. How cool is that?

INPUTS, OUTPUTS, OTHER ODDS-AND-ENDS
The d600 came outfitted with all the standard ports, slots and jacks that all business applications required. On the back: 2 USB 2.0 jacks, S-Video-out, modem, Ethernet, parallel, VGA, and serial ports. On the left: Headphone and microphone jacks, an IrDA port, and one Type II PC Card slot. Across the front: 2 speakers located on each corner.

SUMMARY AND CLOSING REMARKS
In my opinion this laptop strikes a good balance between mobility and performance. It's some great features that blow away even some of the newer "bargain" models that come out since.

Check it out: dell latitude d600 laptop deal

Our First iPod Giveaway

And the winner is......

The winner of our first ipod giveaway for the month of March is
Russ Langlet of Sandia Plains, NM

For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, we have started a new campaign to increase our eBay feedback. For some reason only about 30% of the people who buy a laptop from us on eBay leave feedback. After some research, I have found that this is typical across ebay as a whole. I'm not sure if people just forget or what. So to encourage your feedback we are putting those of you who take the time to leave feedback into a "hat" and drawing out a name. The winner gets an iPod Nano. We are drawing a name each month. You've got great odds!!

See Ya'll soon, Anthony

Personalized Tech Support, By Appointment Only

DIMOSOL on Demand

In another step to improve our already award winning customer service we are now offering personalized technical support help or tech support by appointment.

If you have a tech support question send us an email (as you normally would for tech support), and we will set up an appointment at a set time and date for you to meet with our technical support team to help you fix your issue. In our Beta testing period we found out that our customers' issues were taken care of faster and with much more satisfaction.

Appointment times are Monday - Friday from 3-5 PM est

New Tech Support Page Added

A NEW TECHINCAL SUPPORT PAGE
We are VERY pleased to announce the addition of a "beefed up" technical support page. Over the past year last year we have been gathering data from you our customers, and then using it to create a new tech support page based on the most common support issues. You are invited to check it out and give us your feedback. click here to check it out now.

WIFI CENTRAL
We are also adding a wifi (wireless) dedicated page. Here you will be able to get help regarding your individual wifi issues. Topics include: how to set up a WIFI network, info on the different types of WIFI connections, Trouble shooting your wifi connections, and MUCH more.

Brent Cash's New Album - BUY IT!!

I have known Brent for MANY years. I copied this from his record label's my space site

Do you believe in magic?! Well, we do. Especially since we’ve heard this album. Marina is proud to present a brand new recording artist: Mr Brent Cash - a musical wunderkind from Athens, GA (home of R.E.M. and The B-52s, among others).

Brent entitled his debut album “How Will I Know If I’m Awake” and it is almost too good to be true. Sounding like a lost sunshine pop classic from the 60s, the record is overflowing with hook-laden choruses, multi-layered vocal harmonies and lush sophisticated arrangements. It’s the sound of endless summers and good vibrations...

From the start, multi-instrumentalist Cash decided to record his songs like “they did it back then”. So no costs were spared to hire the best musicians in town and assemble a mini-orchestra featuring strings, brass and even a harp (!). The results are simply stunning.

From the opening chords of “Everything That’s Grey” we enter melody wonderland. A place where major 7 chords rule and beautiful vocal harmonies dazzle your mind. “Digging The Fault Line” is full of Byrds guitar jangle, sounding like the perfect soundtrack to cruise into golden California sunsets (feat. a great Wes Montgomery-like guitar solo along the way). “Only Time” explodes with 100 % fat-free youthful euphoria - Roger Nichols meets The 5th Dimension. Ba-baba-ba…!

While deeply rooted in 60s songwriting - influenced by Bacharach, Wilson, McCartney, and yes, The Monkees - Cash certainly has his own unique signature style. Just listen to “And Had We Ever…” and “I Think I’m Falling In Love” - with its complex enchanting textures, ignoring conventional song structures.

“Love Is Burning Down Tonight” - a striking duet between Brent and Amanda Kapousouz - is a special highlight of the album. It’s a song about a relationship going wrong - yet it’s so beautifully arranged, that it makes the scenario almost sound like the best lifestyle option ever (ha...). “Good Morning Sunshine” could be the theme song to the best TV series in the world - the harpsichord driven piece is chock-full of amazing twists and turns of melodic beauty. Play it over and over again - and you’ll still discover new beautiful details. “Making shapes on corners...”

“This Sea, These Waves” moves us into Bossa Nova territory. Starting off in a classic Getz/Gilberto mould, the song soon morphs into orchestrated Sergio Mendes & Brazil ’66 elegance (with one verse even sung in Portuguese!). Wow. “More Than Everything” - clocking in at over six minutes - ends this beautiful song cycle about love lost and found. A great final statement about overcoming heartbreak, delivered with the sincerety of a Carpenters record.

Listen to this album - and believe in magic!

How'd We Do Last Year, And What's in Store For 2008

OK, It's February 11th so technically we have already started the NEW year. Why am I posting the "year-end" message in February? Well it takes almost an entire month to recover from the Holiday sales push. Now that we've settled back down to normal I can bring you all up to speed.

HOW DID DIMOSOL DO IN 2007?
As the numbers are coming in it appears as if we blew away our goals that we made at the beginning of the year. On ebay alone we sold an average of 1000 laptop per month. We also greatly expanded our presence in the Google/Yahoo community and have had a 65% increase in web traffic from those two sources.

WHAT WILL WE HAVE GOING ON IN 2008?
First, I am planning on increasing our ebay presence even more by getting more in to laptop parts. This is the most natural step. We want to be able to offer the parts to support the laptops we are selling.
Second, we are amping up our advertising in our Google and yahoo campaigns. The testing we did during the last half of 2007 proved successful, and we hope to continue this trend.
Third, we are building up the customer support side of our website to be a little more "user friendly." Whether you need help reinstalling your operating system or help setting up your wifi system, our goal is to make our website the place to come to for the answers to all of your tech questions. We are very excited about this. We are adding "how-to" video, some snazzy downloads, and maybe a few surprises. Make sure to bookmark our support page for easy access in the future.

I'd like to thank all of you personally for your business, without each of you we wouldn't have achieved our goals.

Here's to a healthy 2008, Cheers
Anthony
President, DIMOSOL

Is Vista For You?

You would have had to have been living in a cave (without a TV or radio) not to see all the hype that surrounded Microsoft's January release of it's highly anticipated upgrade to XP operating system, Vista. Although it has a slew (yes, I said slew) of awesome features and upgrades, there are two categories of buyers that might want to wait before making the big jump to what Vista has to offer: Gamers and Businesspeople.

Why should hardcore gamers wait? Jeffery Wilson of Laptop magazine says "Although DirectX 10 (a Windows Vista graphical API) is designed to be backwards compatible with most DriectX 9 games, many older DirectX-compatible titles will be completely incompatible.

Some of the most popular games and their compatibilty issues
Released Using DirectX 10
Crysis

Scheduled for Release in the second Half of 2007

Unreal Tournament 2007

BioShock

Hellgate: London

World of Conflict

Age of Conan

Currently have DirectX 10 patches Available

Company of Heros

Flight Simulator X

One of Vista's Hyped new features is it's super-duper security capabilities. So why am I suggesting that businesspeople wait to upgrade? Wilson states "Large businesses tend to develop their own special tools and software, so they may not see Vista as possessing enough significant benefits to overcome the development costs of making their internal software compatible with the operating system, in addition to the initial costs of purchasing it."

So what are my final thoughts about upgrading to Vista? I think that there are some REALLY cool kick-butt features and improvements (especially in the area of security). Pass on it for now if your a hardcore gamer or a business user worried about your customs apps running smoothly. All others should go for it.

Reviews of Vista worth taking a look at:
www.cnet.com
www.pcmag.com
software rewiew

Sports & Technology

I am honored to write the first outside edition of the Tony Tiberia sponsored blog.

I am a big sports fan. I admit it. I am unashamed of it. I like to watch it. I like to talk about it and I like to think and write about it.

So I was thinking, for a blog, why not write about sports and technology.

There is a lot going on in sports. Barry Bonds hit his record 756th home run, David Beckham has played his first few minutes of soccer in the US, football (both college and pro) are about to start, and the insufferably long golf season finished its final major.

Golf embraces technology, or so you would think. Every year a new $500 driver is out on the market and promises you will hit your ball longer and straighter. The players hit the ball longer than ever before.

But the players still have to keep their own and their playing partners scorecard even though each group has a PGA Tour official with them.

At this weekend's PGA Championships, Sergio Garcia got disqualified because his playing partner, Boo Weekley, kept an incorrect scorecard and Garcia signed it.

There is a guy at the event walking around with a sign with both players score on it. Every person on TV and at the event knows the players score. The players scores get updated real-time on PGATour.com.

Technology, use it.

So I watched a few minutes of David Beckham's much advertised US soccer career. In soccer, they play games in stadiums that cost 100s of millions of dollars to build with state-of-the art scoreboards. These scoreboards come with things we call “clocks”.

You may have heard of them. They've been around since 4000 BC.

The official time clock in a soccer game is kept by the head referee. The fans, the players, the coaches, the people watching at home, have no idea the exact time left in the game. At the World Cup finals, 2 billion people don't know the exact time left in the game.....1 guy does.

Technology, use it.

Barry Bonds broke baseball's most hallowed record under the suspicion of steroid use. I'll come back to steroids later.

On a nightly basis I watch baseball highlights where a fielder makes a disputed diving catch, a hitter hits a controversial home run or a ball goes inside or outside the foul pole for a home run or a strike.

By the way, if a ball hits the foul pole its a fair ball. Call it the fair pole!!!

I digress. We have these things at baseball games called television cameras. They take pictures. This camera and picture thing has been around since the 19th century. After the play is over, review it.

Technology, use it.
Now to steroids. I am not going to refer to our 7th grade social studies class on due process regarding Barry Bonds being innocent until proven guilty.

If your head pushes the notch on your adjustable baseball hat 6 spots, you may be using steroids.
Look at Barry Bonds 10 years ago and look at him today.

Football is starting. Clearly football is far more casual about its players using steroids than other sports. Last year, San Diego Chargers Linebacker Shaun Merriman was suspended 4 games for using steroids and was a finalist for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.

This casualness has to effect younger players, I would suspect, all the way down to the junior high school level. If you are a border line NFL player, you are probably going to use steroids. There is too much money out there.

If you are a college kid wanting to be drafted in the NFL and there is any doubt in you “making it” you are going to use. If you are a high school kid and the difference between Middle Tennessee State and Tennessee is steroids, you are going to use.....and so on.

Long story short, if you are in an industry where athletic performance and pay are related, steroids will soon be found.

Technology.....this time, don't use it.

Steve

Back To School Special

BACK TO SCHOOL PROMO FOR AUGUST 2007

OK, I just got back from a trip to the mall and my local office supply place. I originally started out this morning armed with the freshly printed list (sent by his teacher) of items that my son HAD to have for this upcoming school year thinking that i would be in and out, and back at the office by noon. It is now 4:15 PM, I am beat, and i think i have qualified for American Express' monthly award for "cardholder spending the most money by an individual."

Honestly, when I was in school, my mother was NOT sent a list of supplies that I HAD to bring. I simply showed up on the first day with a pencil and a spiral-bound notebook. Fortunatley for me and my sister we didn't have to walk to school up hill both ways with one shoe between us in 3 feet of snow, but i digress..

As a result of just having to spend 3 months worth of salary to pay for my son's school supplies (and he's only in Kindergarden), I have decided to make it a little easier on all of you parents whose "School Supply List" includes 1. laptop Computer.

Both models that I have chosen to mark-down are great for any student, especially those going of to college. Both are NEW and come with a year warranty.

Please let us know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Anthony

ECONOMY

IBM LENOVO 3000 c200
Intel Celeron M 1.6
512 MB Ram
40 GB HDD
DVD/CDRW COMBO
WIFI
15.1" Screen
XP Professional
(More Info)

POWERHOUSE

IBM LENOVO 3000 n100
Intel Dual Core 1.6
1023 MB Ram
120 GB HDD
DVD-RW
WIFI
15.1" Screen
Vista
(More Info)

Laptop Batteries, Part 1

WARNING: This article has a geekiness factor of 4 pocket-protectors (out of 5)

Lately, it seems, we Americans have divided our lives into two simple segments: work and sleep. About one in five of us work more than 49 hours a week, and one in twelve work 60 or more hours a week. Our laptops allow us to start the work day on the commuter train, to continue it past dinner and on the weekends, and even to pound away while on vacation. No matter when and where, we need to keep those hard disks humming and those LCDs glowing, and sometimes a source of external power just isn't available. Since Nikola Tesla's dream of broadcast power has yet to become reality, Laptop battery life is a major concern in fin de siecle America.

Our Tech support people get more questions about the laptop battery than we do about almost any other part of the laptop. So we've decided to run a series of posts regarding, yes you've guessed it, how to properly maintain your laptop battery for optimal performance and life.

The battery is probably the most fickle part of the laptop. If not coddled from the start it's life and it's capacity will GREATLY suffer.

Just like flashlight batteries, the laptop battery, believe it or not, is considered to be a consumable item that has a definite life span. In other words it will eventually die and have to be replaced. The key to maximizing the number of charges a battery will accept before it says "No more" is preconditioning.

Steps to Take to Properly Condition a Laptop Battery
The first three charges will determine, in great part, how long a battery will last. You will get the best results if you run the battery through three complete charge/discharge cycles before putting it in service.

• Place the battery into the computer (with the power switched off), plug in the adapter, and let it charge for 24 hours.
• Then, unplug the cord, switch on the computer, and disable all of its power-management routines.
• When the battery has run down completely, and the computer has shut down (make sure the power is off) plug it in, and charge it for another 24 hours.
• Three full charge/discharge cycles will let your battery deliver all of the performance designed into it.

And One More Thing...
While we're on the topic of preconditioning older batteries, let us add this tip -- don't top it off! Many, maybe most, laptop users run their machines on AC power most of the time, figuring that it's better for the battery. The battery will be employed, if at all, for a brief period -- maybe a 40-minute train ride on the way home form office -- and then plugged in again.

Li-Ion batteries don't mind this treatment, but NiCads and (to a lesser degree) NiMH batteries will eventually suffer for it through the dreaded "memory effect."

Simply put, if you "top off" a battery -- charge it before it's been drained (or nearly so) -- it will eventually forget how much capacity it has. A battery that, under the best of circumstances, delivered three hours of operation will begin to fade after two hours, or even one.

NiCad batteries are most susceptible to memory effect, but initial expectations that NiMH technology would put an end to the phenomenon turned out to be optimistic. Although less sensitive to topping off than NiCads, NiMH batteries will lose some capacity unless they are fully discharged regularly.