Archive for July 30th, 2008

Which Dell Latitude E Series laptops replace the current D Series Models Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

 

When companies revamp their product lines they change product names which make it difficult to figure out which new model replaces the old one.

So I made the table below mapping the old to the new.

Screen D-Series E-Series  
12.1″ D430 E4200  
13.3″ N/A E4300 *New
14.1″ D630 E6400  
15.4″ D830 E6500  

This comes from some early information and is subject to change/error.

The Latitude product line is due for a refresh very soon. The D-Series family has served me well and is a great choice for a business user.

Learn Something New HDMI the High-Definition Multimedia Interface Wednesday, July 30th, 2008

From time to time new standards are introduced but rarely is it explained to consumers what they actually are.

The purpose of this post is to point you in the right direction about HDMI a semi new type of connection (pictured above).

You use HDMI to connect devices together typically for Hi-Definition Audio and Video.

So it might be a PC to a Display or even a Blu Ray player to a TV.

For the first time in PC technology we have a cable that can carry both Audio and Video on  a single cable.

From the PC End HDMI is the latest in a very long line of Display technology that started with EGA, CGA, VGA then DVI.

You can get converters from DVI to HDMI (pictured below).

HDMI does come with a steep learning curve in terms of specification and compatibility from HDMI 1.0 to 1.1, 1.2, 1.2a, 1.3. 1.3a, 1.3b and 1.3b1 (insanity I know).

Each adding something or fixing something in the HDMI specification.

Find below some good links all about HDMI for further reading.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDMI

Link: http://www.enduserblog.com/2008/07/how-i-learned-t.html

Link: http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/patterson/2708