1. New and Improved - Hah!

"New" is a word used too freely to describe laptop and notebook computer model upgrades. Buyers are often hurt both by real model changes that happen too quickly and by mostly bogus changes done for marketing purposes.

Damn, damn, damn! Have you ever bought some wonder of the 21st century piece of hardware only to find out a week or so later that it's been replaced by the next wonder of the 21st century piece of hardware? Laptops and notebooks come and go like flies at a garbage dump, sometimes with less apparent reason than the flies. In such a fast paced world, it's important to know when the latest and greatest is real and when it's, well, crap. When it's real, you've got to be careful that you're not buying into a technology that will be obsolete almost before you open the package and start using it.

There is real technological progress. CPUs and memory seem to get faster with the passing of each nanosecond. Every month or two graphic processors are able to manipulate more pixels at higher resolutions and speeds. Disk drives shrink in size and grow in capacity at mind numbing rates. And everything requires less juice to run, which, when coupled with longer life batteries, allows your portable computer to run longer and longer between charges.

It's great when a new laptop or notebook sees the light of day because it features really new and improved technologies. The fairly quick transition from Pentium M to Core Duo to Core 2 Duo comes to mind. On the other hand, it's not so great when a new portable computer comes to market because its manufacturer didn't do its technical or marketing homework or when all that's new about the computer is a very minor CPU upgrade, a photo of a crinkly surface covering its outer case or some other insignificant cosmetic change.

Let's look at three instances of new model mania. The first is a lesson in design gone wrong. The second is a sad tale of model upgrade gotchas that weren't solely the manufacturer's fault. The third is about change for change's and marketing's sake.

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