Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Why laptops
WorkIT column in NZ Herald.
Laptops handy but care needed
Wednesday May 17, 2006
In the third quarter of last year laptop prices in New Zealand went under the all-important $1000 mark.
Sales of portable computers leapt that quarter to 46 per cent of the total, compared with 40 per cent for the whole year, according to research firm International Data Corporation.
In 2003, only 30 per cent of computers sold were portables. The trend is holding up. Almost 45 per cent of the 129,682 PCs sold in the quarter to March 31 were laptops, preliminary IDC figures show.
That is changing the way we live and work. It means people need to appreciate the difference between the form factors so they can get the best out of their machines, and not damage themselves.
While portability implies mobility, the fact is most laptops will get used at the same office or home office desk where the desktop PC used to sit. But many of the ergonomic workarounds we developed to make out working lives more comfortable will no longer be available.
Instead of being able to have the keyboard at a comfortable height, the mouse waving round at the end of your arm in plenty of space, and the screen at eye height, you will be hunched over looking down at the screen, and making fiddly movements on a trackpad or trackpoint to move the cursor round.
If you are doing a lot of spreadsheeting or copying and pasting, your problems with tiring micro-movements will amplify.
Read more... (may be time barred, but can be found through google) ¶ 9:43 am
Laptops handy but care needed
Wednesday May 17, 2006
In the third quarter of last year laptop prices in New Zealand went under the all-important $1000 mark.
Sales of portable computers leapt that quarter to 46 per cent of the total, compared with 40 per cent for the whole year, according to research firm International Data Corporation.
In 2003, only 30 per cent of computers sold were portables. The trend is holding up. Almost 45 per cent of the 129,682 PCs sold in the quarter to March 31 were laptops, preliminary IDC figures show.
That is changing the way we live and work. It means people need to appreciate the difference between the form factors so they can get the best out of their machines, and not damage themselves.
While portability implies mobility, the fact is most laptops will get used at the same office or home office desk where the desktop PC used to sit. But many of the ergonomic workarounds we developed to make out working lives more comfortable will no longer be available.
Instead of being able to have the keyboard at a comfortable height, the mouse waving round at the end of your arm in plenty of space, and the screen at eye height, you will be hunched over looking down at the screen, and making fiddly movements on a trackpad or trackpoint to move the cursor round.
If you are doing a lot of spreadsheeting or copying and pasting, your problems with tiring micro-movements will amplify.
Read more... (may be time barred, but can be found through google) ¶ 9:43 am
