Category Archives: tech gadgets

college costs, tech gadgets, technology

Investing in a laptop for college

laptop

If you have a teen heading off to college in the fall, these upcoming weeks are a great time to get ready for college: like purchasing books and dorm room furniture and supplies to be ready for the first day of class.  And hopefully, many students received some of these supplies as graduation gifts.  One of the most necessary items to have before stepping foot on campus in the fall is a laptop.  Laptops offer supreme portability and efficiency, aspects which make them an essential item for all college students.

And parents, laptops have far more uses for your children than checking Facebook every ten minutes and playing online games.  With a laptop, students can easily and more effectively take notes during class and Skype their parents to tell them face-to-face how school’s going.  But there are so many laptops to choose from–how do you decide?

Fortunately, Parents Countdown to College Coach has a laptop comparison tool, powered by FindTheBest, that enables parents and their children to narrow down the best laptops for their needs and preferences.  With the widget below, you can sort through hundreds of laptops by price, display size, battery life, and Smart Rating (a single rating based on technical specifications and review scores from expert sources).  Also, if you want to narrow down the list, just filter the search by price range, display, battery life, and storage range, and also laptop type.  If and when you find the laptop that best fits your child’s needs (and your budget!), you can purchase it directly from Amazon, and it will be at your doorstep in a week or less.

[findthebest container_style=”width:520px;margin:0 auto;” width=”520″ height=”400″ style=”vertical-align:top;” src=”http://laptops-and-notebooks.findthebest.com/w/srp?new=2&w=520&h=400&amazon_id=parecountocol-20″ after_style=”text-align:center;” link_href=”http://laptops-and-notebooks.findthebest.com” link_style=”font:10px/14px arial;color:#3d3d3d;” link_text=”Compare Laptops and Notebooks”]

Also, a crucial accessory to have for laptops in college are headphones.  Whether your child wants to listen to music while he’s in the library, or he needs to watch a documentary for class while his roommate is asleep, this item comes in handy very often.  Like laptops, determining which earphones are right for them is a difficult process.  Check out the widget below to find and purchase the right headphones for your kids!

[findthebest container_style=”width:520px;margin:0 auto;” width=”520″ height=”400″ style=”vertical-align:top;” src=”http://head-phones.findthebest.com/w/srp?new=2&w=520&h=400&filter_by=Price&amazon_id=parecountocol-20″ after_style=”text-align:center;” link_href=”http://head-phones.findthebest.com” link_style=”font:10px/14px arial;color:#3d3d3d;” link_text=”Compare Headphones”]

 

college guidance, college planning, tech gadgets

How to maximize laptop battery power

 

laptop batteryLaptops were once fairly rare possessions, but they have become very common these days. Students are issued these devices to further their education in some schools. People of all backgrounds find them necessary for working on the Internet or for their employers remotely. However, knowledge of how to care for these devices has not spread so quickly.

As a result, many people spend far too much on new laptop batteries. These sources of power can actually last much longer if people would use them properly. Some education about laptop battery usage could save you or a friend a lot of money and a lot of hassle in the long run.

Following are five suggestions to help prolong and maximize laptop battery power:

1. Manage Your Power Settings

You may not know it but you are in charge of how much power your laptop uses. You can exercise this control significantly when you alter the brightness of the screen. You can memorize the steps to find this control or simply type screen brightness into the search bar that appears when you click on the Start menu in the lower left-hand corner. You can make the screen bright for when it is in use and program the computer to dim it whenever a certain amount of time goes by.

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