Tips on caring for your laptop

Lincoln Spector over at Computerworld offered some interesting advice about caring for one's laptop. With more companies buying laptops than desktops these days, I've decided to highlight a couple of pertinent tips that will benefit readers of FierceCIO:TechWatch.

One tip is to keep the laptop battery cool. Contrary to popular belief, it is perfectly fine to leave the lithium-ion batteries found in modern laptops plugged-in all the time, or to recharge them before their charge is depleted. Subjecting them to excessive heat, though, can dramatically shorten the lifespan of the batteries.

While Spector recommends that the battery be removed, my opinion is that a nice laptop stand would be more than adequate in to facilitate ventilation. Of course, my personal philosophy is that a well-designed laptop should not trap heat in the first place.

While many executives benefit from the portability afforded by their laptops, few, if any, do their work exclusively from cafes and airports. When at home or at the office, Spector recommends that laptop users switch to using a full-sized keyboard and mouse, and also an external desktop monitor to work from. This allows for more ergonomic use, and also alleviates eye strain--especially when using a tiny netbook.

For the rest of the tips:
- check out this article at PCWorld

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