Carrying Cases

There are many different kinds of carrying cases, one kind has already been mentioned in the previous post (leather cases, in case you are wondering). In this post, we will be looking at hard cases and holsters and why they are used when one knows that your PDA or smart phone is doomed to die at some point or other in time. Well other than the fact that you would like to prevent (or more realistically attempt to slow down) this very natural phenomenon, you would also like to maintain the integrity of the device (while it is in working order) to ensure it continues functioning at its highest capabilities. Other potential benefits of using carrying cases might be prevention of scratches etc on your device as well as a degree of protection from shocks and bumps. Carrying cases are also quite capable of protecting your PDA or mobile device from water sweat and to a degree from moisture and heat.

Leather Cases

Leather cases are usually considered an unnecessary accessory and while some may agree to this statement, there are very good reasons for others to disagree. For example, leather cases do provide protection from scratches and dust and smoke. They also provide a limited amount of protection for your PDA or cell phone or smart phone from water and bumps and shocks. Another plus point is that, while some may disagree, leather cases actually look quite good. Nowadays, leather cases are available in every form and color. This means you can find a leather case suited to your very unique needs, even if you are looking for a bubble-gum pink leather case for your iPod chances are pretty high that you will find it and easily at that. Another good thing about this is that you will most likely be able to find a leather case for any smart phone or PDA you own no matter how obscure it is from Palm Treo phones to Blackberrys and Motorola Razr phones to Apple iPhones, old and new, there is a leather case for all.

Packages

It is worth noting that while the saying that good things come in small packages does not generally hold true, one could do worse than buying a package combo of accessories. While the writer of this blog cannot quote any statistics in evidence (for lack of research in this area), it is generally noted that packages (or combos as they are often called) of products generally have a sum total which is less than the sum of prices for each individual item (just go to your nearest fast food chain and look at the combo deals to verify this statement, however, as mentioned this is a generalised statement and does not hold true universally). Similarly, accessories for laptops and PDAs too come in combinations, usually gotten together for products by a single type of manufacturer or by compatibility with a single type of laptop or PDA, etc. Hence a combo for Blackberry PDAs or HP Pavillion Laptops, etc.

Bluetooth

And now, we move on to accessories for PDAs, and the first type of accessories we shall deal with are Bluetooth accessories. Bluetooth devices are very easy to use and manage, but they have two major problems. Firstly Bluetooth devices consume a lot of power, so battery life for a PDA with Bluetooth on is significantly lower than for one with Bluetooth off. The other major problem is that, transfer rates from one device to another are really slow so it is not the ideal transfer medium for synchronisation or file transfer, etc. On the other hand, the major plus factors include that it is wireless and, unlike Infrared, any two devices do not have to be aligned to each other to work. Bluetooth accessories for PDAs usually revolve around headsets, headphones and carkits. Bluetooth headsets are a lot more hassle-free as compared to conventional wired headsets which are forever falling off your ear and getting tangled in your clothes, ease of use is also high. In the near future we may well expect a completely new range of bluetooth accessories as Bluetooth capabilities expand through research and power consumption falls.

Laptop Chargers

There are two methods by which laptop chargers achieve their end-goal (to power the laptop). Firstly they can and are used to power laptops directly, in this way no power from the laptop battery is used. The other method is to charge the laptop battery so that the laptop has a constant power supply even when it is not connected to mains electricity. Of course the charge in the battery will eventually run out but that is something that one has to live with (of course one may have two batteries or a whole pack of batteries). One major problem with laptop chargers is that they are usually unique to a single type or a single line of laptops. What this means is that it is highly unlikely that a charger for an Acer Gateway laptop to work with a Sony Vaio laptop. Part of the reason is that different models have different power requirements due to differences in the display size, the number of hard disk drives, CD/DVD drives, graphics/sound cards, the processor, etc. The other reason simple seems to be that manufacturers want to sell over-priced chargers to increase their profits. There are however some universal chargers available that have compatibility that extends to various manufacturers' laptops. While one of the most popular type of laptop accessories are keyboards, laptop chargers are not far behind.

Accessories for the following laptop manufacturers are available at PDA Accessories: Acer, Averatec, BenQ, Canon, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hitachi, HP, iBooks by Apple, JVC, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nikon, Sony, Toshiba, Trigem, Viewsonic, WinBook, etc.

Laptop Accessories

This first post (first with any worthwhile information) is about laptops. To be more specific, it is regarding how much you can improve your mobile computing experience by using accessories. Most laptops come built with a keyboard and a touchpad, however the keyboard is usually too small and typing can be an awkward business with you trying to type in the way familiar to you on a standard keyboard and hitting all the wrong keys as a consequence. similarly, using the touchpad is quite a task as you often move over objects that you wish to go to as a result of not being adjusted to the sensitivity of the touchpad. Well worry no more! because while it is not I who has had this ingenious idea to make portable keyboards and mice for use with laptops (and for other devices as well: notebooks, smart phones, PDAs, etc), it is still a brilliant idea. To be able to carry a foldable keyboard or a really small mouse in your laptop's carrying case makes life so much easier than having to haul a full size keyboard and mouse (well not so much the mouse) with you. Similarly, while most laptops do come with wireless (more and more often wi-fi) and wired networking capabilities, there are few that have EDGE or GPRS capabilities so if you are stuck somewhere which does not have wireless or wired Internet, you can always connect to the net with your EDGE card! Just stick it into your laptop's PC card slot and you're good to go (though you'll usually have to install some software that comes along with the card in a CD). While EDGE is not amazingly fast, it can still provide speeds of up to 240 Kbps, this translates to 30 KBps. Other accessories for your laptop would include spare batteries, travel chargers, carrying cases, styli (for the odd person who has a touchscreen laptop), extra storage, etc.

These accessories are available for almost all laptop manufacturers including: Acer, Averatec, BenQ, Canon, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Hitachi, HP, iBooks by Apple, JVC, Mitsubishi, NEC, Nikon, Sony, Toshiba, Trigem, Viewsonic, WinBook, etc.

Welcome!

This is the beginning of a new blog, a new resource, one that will (hopefully) be of great (or at least some) use to people who visit...
As regards to the content of this blog it will be mostly related to accessories related to laptops, PDAs, smart phones, cell phones, notebooks, etc.
Onwards then, in the hope of finding something new, or perhaps something old, in either case, something useful!