One thing that's kept the computer industry alive for years and years is that the computer purchase never stops with the computer itself. First comes software. Then follows more hardware and even more hardware. Peripherals! Gizmos! Gadgets! And then you can get fun accessories like mouse pads and tchotchkes to sit atop the monitor. The computer is endlessly expandable.
Check out these fun or must-have items to expand your laptop universe:
- Laptop bag or travel case: Buy yourself and your laptop a handsome laptop bag.
- Spare battery: Nothing cries "freedom!" to the laptop road warrior more than an extra battery. Having a bonus battery doubles the time that you can compute without being tethered to an AC wall socket. Some laptops even let you hot swap from one battery to another while the laptop is still running, meaning that the total time you can use your battery greatly exceeds your capacity to do work.
Make sure that the spare battery is approved for your laptop, either coming directly from the manufacturer
or from a reliable source that guarantees compatibility. Using the wrong battery in your laptop can meet
with disastrous results.
- Docking station or port replicator: A docking station or port replicator helps immensely when it comes time for your laptop to serve desktop duty. A port replicator also gives your laptop more ports and more expandability options than the laptop may come with on its own.
- Cooling pad: The ideal accessory for any modern laptop is the laptop cooling pad. This is a device upon which your laptop sits. The device contains one or more fans and is either powered by the laptop's USB port or standard AA batteries. Your laptop sits upon the device, and the fans help draw away the heat that the battery and microprocessor generate. You get a cooler-running laptop, which keeps the laptop happy.
- Mini-vac: You may find the mini-vac handy for cleaning your laptop, especially the keyboard. You can find these wee vacuums in most office supply stores. You may be surprised (and disgusted) by the gunk that the mini-vac can suck from your laptop.
- USB lamp: Your laptop's LCD screen is illuminated, and you can even see it in the dark. Sadly, however, most laptop keyboards don't light up. To help you see the keyboard, as well as other important things around your laptop, in the dark, you can light things up with a USB-powered lamp.
The lamp plugs into a standard USB port on your laptop. It either has a stiff, bendable cord or a clamp so that
you can position it. Flip the switch and let there be light!
•col2markFull-sized keyboard: Although you may not want to tote one around with you, you may find a
certain pleasure when using a laptop with a comfy, full-sized keyboard. Especially if you rely on the numeric
keypad, either for numbers or cursor control, it's a joy to use a full-sized keyboard with a laptop.
You don't need to do anything special to connect a full-sized keyboard to your laptop, but do note that
most laptops don't sport a PC keyboard port. Instead, use the USB port, or if you have a port replicator or
docking station, you can connect the full-sized keyboard to it, instead.
In addition to (or perhaps, instead of) a standard full-sized keyboard, you can select any of a number of fun and
different keyboards for your laptop. You can find keyboards with special Internet buttons, ergonomically designed
to make typing easier on the human bod, as well as wireless keyboards. Because your laptop didn't come with a
full-sized keyboard, it's your buyer's paradise as far as choosing one for your laptop. Or if all you need is
that numeric keypad, you can find special USB numeric keypads for your laptop.
- External mouse: As with a keyboard, you aren't limited in your choice of an external mouse for your laptop. You can get a basic mouse, one of those space-age optical glowing mice, a mouse with a lot of buttons, that weird mouse that you can hover in the air and use like a TV remote, wireless mice, trackball mice, those tiny laptop mice, and the list goes on and on.
- ID card or return service sticker: If your laptop wore underwear, you'd most likely want to write the laptop's name on the underwear. But since laptops don't require underwear, the next best thing is to create an ID card for your laptop.
You stick your name somewhere on your laptop not only to claim ownership of it, but also to pray that if you ever
lose it (or someone steals it), some good citizen can recognize the laptop as your own and contact you.
A better solution is to use a return service and take advantage of its tamper-resistant asset tags.
- Theft prevention system: The perfect gift for the laptop that you love - either some type of cable to keep your laptop from walking off or one of those annoyingly loud my-laptop-has-been-moved alarms. Ease your fears, secure your laptop!
