Green IT Edge » laptop

Celebrate Earth Hour 24 hours 365 days

Birgitta Halvarsson — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 15:50:41 +0000

On Saturday March 26th hundreds of millions of people around the world are expected to participate in the world’s largest climate manifestation Earth Hour, and show our support by turning off the lights for one hour. Earth Hour is a great symbolic gesture to highlight the problems with climate change we are facing.

Why not show your support for the earth and “celebrate” Earth Hour every hour 7 days a week by switching off electronically gadgets when not using and change to ICT-products with minimal impact on the environment.

Pledge your support for more laptops designed for the planet
One simple action for more “green” notebooks is to show the IT industry that there are many of us who want to see more notebooks designed with the environment in mind. On TCO Development’s website you can show your support and take part together with companies, national authorities and individual people all over the world to influence the major computer manufacturers to offer the market more TCO certified notebooks. Pledge your support for laptops designed for the planet.

Notebook Display Luminance and Outdoor Readability

Stephen Fuller — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:11:05 +0000

Achieving Readability in outdoor environments has to date been problematic for notebook displays as they have not delivered sufficient luminance to counteract the ambient daylight.
In a major step forward for notebook usability, leading edge PC brands are now beginning to offer select notebooks designed to meet the specific outdoor performance needs of the mobile user, specifically higher luminance.

The new TCO Certified Edge award for Outdoor Readability in Notebooks will highlight leading edge Notebooks that offer high luminance as well as superior eco-design and image performance.

Two times higher luminance for outdoor readability
A display’s performance in daylight depends primarily on the differences between the screen luminance and the reflected luminance from daylight, sunlight or similar illumination falling on the screen. To counteract the negative effect strong ambient light has on the readability of the display, notebook manufacturers have typically used anti-reflective and anti-glare treatments, but readability improves mainly by increasing the display luminance. Most Notebook displays today achieve a maximum luminance of around 200-250 cd/m² (candela per m²), which is adequate for use with indoor lighting. For outdoor use, it is recommended that a display used during overcast conditions should achieve a luminance of 500-800 cd/m², and in full sunlight 800-1000 cd/m². These higher measurements are considered bright enough for the varying illumination conditions of the outdoor environment, and may help users eliminate the need to shield or tilt the display from the reflectance in order to view the image.

High luminance – without compromises
A top performing Notebook display should also retain other critical image properties even at these high luminance settings. Features such as contrast, greyscale and colour levels should remain constant regardless of the luminance level. The TCO Certified Edge award for Outdoor Readability ensures this level of performance at the highest luminance setting. This award makes no compromises in our demands for high visual quality & low environmental impact whilst achieving outstanding outdoor readability performance.

In touch with your display

Martin Soderberg — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:14:50 +0000

The Iphone pointed out the direction and the rest of the industry is eager to follow. The touchscreens are coming! It’s not that new of course. Touchscreens have been around for some time in ATMs and similar applications. But now with the launch of Windows 7 the road is paved. Many of the major brands have already launched notebooks with touchscreens. I just can’t help but wonder what the glossy screen will look like after a few hours…

Adding to the e-waste

Martin Soderberg — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 05:22:37 +0000

A dear friend of my wife’s – her Asus notebook PC- is ill. It’s only three years old and the battery is dead, the RAM is too small and she would need a bigger hard drive to fit all her photos. The symptoms don’t sound too serious but listen to this. Asus does not sell the battery type for this relic any longer, the RAM type can not be expanded (at least not by Asus) and the only hard drive that can fit is only 80GB (20GB larger than the present one). This PC is three years old and already facing its death! The only economically sound option, from the user’s perspective, is to buy a new one and add some e-waste to the world.

Samsung announces first TCO Certified Netbook

Clare Hobby — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:28:07 +0000

– mercury free, ultra energy-efficient and ergonomically designed
The Samsung N120 ultralight netbook is today announced as the first in the world to achieve the leading environmental and usability standard, TCO Certified. Free from mercury and other hazardous materials, offering outstanding energy efficiency and ergonomically designed keyboard and display – the N120 now adds the worlds toughest environmental and usability certifications – TCO Certified – to its list of features. See http://www.tcodevelopment.com to visit our press room for full info.

How can the IT manager choose the right notebook computer –

Per Jostein Haaland — Mon, 18 May 2009 08:45:13 +0000

In a corporate procurement setting the company’s IT manager will often focus on offering a limited number of different notebook models to the IT department’s internal customers. For most companies, offering several different models leads to high cost in regard to keeping updated images, spare parts and internal competence available. The users, however, will often have a different point of view.

Users who travel and for whom mobility is key, often prefer a very lightweight PC with a monitor of 12.1”. Some users want them even smaller. The readability of the monitor is not the most important factor to this group. However, the battery capacity and unified communication support are important factors.

Engineers and others whose jobs involve design, technical detail and accurate images often like to choose form several high performance laptop workstations with 15.4 or 17” monitors, powerful processors, different powerful graphical cards and up to maximum internal memory. For the young engineer the readability of the monitor is not the most important factor. The engineer will prefer an internal monitor with high resolution making it possible to display a lot of information. Mostly this laptop is used on a desktop and connected to power – so the battery capacity is not the most important factor.

Desktop replacement models are popular with older workers and those who dont require mobility in their work – working with office tasks, emails etc. The readability of the monitor is for these users an important factor. The battery capacity is often another important factor and. These users therefore often prefer medium powerful laptops with from 14.1” to 15.4” monitors. Internal monitor with medium ore even lower resolution are often the most popular models.

Even though the tablet PCs are still more of a niche product in many companies, many of the most “innovative” employees often prefer this laptop model. The normal readability of the monitor is not the most important factor. Tablet functions implemented, the battery capacity, the size and the implemented unified communication support are important factors.

The field engineer travelling offshore or working in areas with a lot of dust often prefers a fully rugged laptop with GPS or EX-approval. The computers approved certificates (ATEX etc) are the most important factors.

Then, what is the best way to deal with all these demands? Shall the IT-manager give the users all what they want? “Is The User Always Right”?

My experience after working for several years with these kinds of issues in one of Scandinavia’s biggest companies is that it is necessary to thoroughly analyze all the different user demands and then choose no more than one model for each of these 5 main user categories. This will give the company a maximum of 5 different laptop models to deal with. Smaller companies may want to choose even fewer. Combining a couple of the most common demands in one model is therefore often a preferred solution. The standard desktop replacement model and the laptop workstation can for instance be the same model with a common image. This could for instance be a laptop with 15.4” monitor, only differing in the internal graphics card and the resolution of the monitor.
The traveller’s PC and the desktop replacer PC might also be combined in one model. This could for instance be a lightweight 14.1” or 13.6” laptop offering a couple of different monitor resolutions.