Mobile Computing News, Reviews, & Tips

Notebook Tips: Keep Your Notebook Safe

Unauthorized access and theft of proprietary information is on the rise, partly because too many people are carrying confidential data around on notebooks.

"Tips & Tweaks" columnist Steve Bass offers tips on securing your notebook, with a focus on ComputracePlus, a $50-per-year service. If a thief uses your notebook to log onto the Internet, the program stealthily alerts you, Computrace, and the police. For an additional fee, you can have your hard drive erased remotely. Read "Keep Your Notebook Safe" for details.

Notebook Tip: Connect Your Hard Drive to Your TV

Steve Bass is at it again. In a recent "Hassle-Free PC" column, Steve reported on his hands-on experiences with the Galaxy TVisto Multimedia Center (about $143).

The TVisto is an external hard drive enclosure that lets you watch on a TV the video files you've stored on a PC hard drive. You'll have to install a hard drive yourself into the TVisto (Steve says it's easy). Afterwards, attach TVisto to your PC via a USB 2.0 or FireWire connection. Drag and drop your video and audio files onto the drive, then connect the drive to your TV. Voilà, you can now watch your PC's video files easily on TV. For more info, read "New Uses for Old Hard Drives."

Notebook News: Portables Prone to Fail

Aside from needing additional capacity, hard drive failure is another reason you may need to upgrade.

About 15 percent of notebooks will break down within the first year of ownership, and 22 percent will break down within four years, according to a recent Gartner report. The most frequent component failures involve motherboards and hard drives. By comparison, only about 5 percent of desktop PCs will break within the first year, and 12 percent will break within four years.

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