Notebooks & Accessories

Review: ThinkPad R51 Strikes the Right Balance

The IBM ThinkPad R51 recently earned PC World's Best Buy for an all-purpose notebook. It's slender, weighs 5.5 pounds, comes loaded with features, has an excellent keyboard and long battery life, and is extremely expandable. It's a bargain at $1700, even though it doesn't include business software or a DVD burner and the sound is tinny.

News: Trace Your Notebook

Absolute Software recently announced Computrace Personal, a service designed to help you track down an AWOL notebook. The service works through a software agent that regularly communicates, in stealth mode, your portable's location to a centralized server when it's connected to the Internet. If your notebook is stolen, Absolute Software's recovery team works with local law-enforcement agencies to get it back, according to the company. Absolute's service is backed by a guarantee: The company pays $1000 for any notebook not recovered within 30 days of its reported disappearance. The service costs $120 for three years.

News: Read Your Local Paper on the Road

Sure, you can keep up with your town's news when traveling by visiting the local newspaper's Web site. But PressDisplay.com, a new subscription service, goes it one better, providing online versions of select newspapers that retain the paper's actual layout and design. It currently offers some 200 national and international newspapers. The service works on notebooks, desktop systems, and Tablet PCs. Newspapers offered include Die Zeit, Il Giornale, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and others. Subscription rates range from $10 to $30 per month.