Laptops Respond to Right Accessories
A laptop computer is an auxiliary to a desktop computer for many people, and it can become an even better partner with the addition of a few accessories.
CursorPower ($50, from North Shore Systems Inc. of Incline Village, Nev.; (702) 831-1108) does a great job of making the various cursor arrows and I-bars of Windows and OS/2 easily visible on a laptop computer’s liquid crystal display screen.
You can choose from several sizes, shapes and colors of arrows and bars suitable for the various cursor types in Windows. Or you can design your own. Even on the large, high-resolution color screen on my laptop, I frequently lost track of the standard Windows cursors. CursorPower cured that problem. (Incidentally, it’ll work just as well on a desktop monitor.)
The big advantage of a laptop is portability, but what about room-to-room portability within your home or office?
The Laptop Desktop ($199, available by mail from American Business Concepts in Dallas; (800) 877-4797) can enable you to move your laptop around. It is an easily movable desk on wheels.
Designed with a height-adjustable, tiltable laptop work surface and a large, adjacent flat surface to hold the papers or books you’re working with, most parts of the Laptop Desktop are sturdy enough for their tasks. But the plastic tray that is supposed to hang below the work surface is too flimsy to bother with.
The system comes with a lamp on a flexible boom, a surge-protected power strip and a strong platform at the bottom to support a printer. The clever design will accommodate both left- and right-handed people and allow you to use the desktop with a variety of chairs, perhaps even a sofa. It will also let you work in bed.
If you have both desktop and laptop computers, it is important to be able to link them so you can share files and programs. (Many software publishers authorize installation of their programs on more than one computer, as long as the program is used on one computer at a time.)
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There are three basic kinds of programs to connect laptops and desktops: remote control software that lets you run the desktop computer over a telephone modem from the laptop, file transfer programs that let you easily and quickly copy files from one machine to the other, and file synchronization programs that keep data files updated from one machine to the other. Close-Up 5.0 ($199, from Norton-Lambert Corp. of Santa Barbara; (805) 964-6767) is an excellent remote-control program for running both DOS and Windows programs. Unlike competing programs, it easily enables you to work in high-resolution graphics mode in Windows on the desktop PC, yet drop down to lower screen resolution for remote use. That’s often necessary to match the graphics capabilities of laptops and reduce the amount of screen image data being transferred. Performance on 9,600-bits-per-second or faster modems is acceptable in Windows once you get a program running and have loaded the file you’ll be working with. Startup is slow, however.
Close-Up 5.0 has password protection, allows file transfers in either direction between the computers and can also function as a standard communications program to connect with on-line services such as CompuServe.
Traveling Software Inc. of Bothell, Wash., ((800) 662-2652) has long set the standard for laptop-desktop file transfer software with its LapLink product. Now it has an expanded package, called CommWorks for Windows ($199).
One of its modules, LapLink Remote, takes a different approach to remote computing. You run Windows programs on your laptop but have access to data files on the remote computer via a modem link. You can also print to the remote printer. It has the advantage of requiring less data to be transferred, but you can’t run a program that you don’t have on your local computer.
CommWorks for Windows also includes a fax module, TX FAX, for sending, receiving, editing and forwarding faxes. Another module, TS OnLine, is a powerful communications program for on-line access. LapLink V, the latest version of Traveling Software’s standard file transfer program, is also included.
File Express ($149, from Synergy Communications Inc. of Santa Barbara; (800) 999-7771) is a Windows program offering local and remote file management. You can use it in place of Windows File Manager program, gaining some advantages locally.
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You can also turn your desktop computer into a remote-access file server, complete with restrictions by ID name and password. This controls who can have access and what directories and files each remote user can reach.
It would be a good product, for instance, to enable a sales force to call in, download the latest product files and deliver their sales reports. Access could be controlled so that no one could alter or delete the product files in the course of downloading, yet they could send in their own reports and even leave messages.
File Express creates a log to record all activity, so it is easy to see who has called in and when.
The program looks a lot like the Windows File Manager on the screen, and it allows local and remote “drag and drop” movement of files and even entire directories. On the local computer, you can also use File Express to launch programs associated with data files.
Yet another approach to file management is used by SmartSync for Windows ($170, from Nomadic Systems Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.; (415) 335-4310). Basically, the program hides in the background while you use your usual Windows programs and keeps track of changes in the data files you create and modify.
Then you can synchronize the file contents with another computer equipped with SmartSync, connected either by modem or cable. By sending only the file changes between the two computers, there is less data to transfer. That could be a real boon if you need to keep large spreadsheet or database files synchronized between two or more computers.
If you have only a few files to keep synchronnized, the easiest way may be to use a floppy diskette and FileRunner for Windows ($100, from MBS Technologies Inc. of McMurray, Pa.; (412) 941-9076). It determines which files are new or updated and lets you decide which versions to keep. It can even compensate for time zone differences in determining which file is the latest version.
Files can be compressed to expand storage capacity on the floppy. You can also use multiple floppies as “runner” disks.
