Below are some of the laptops that I find aesthetically pleasing.

Lenovo ThinkPad T410S

Some people think the Lenovo ThinkPad line is too plain to be attractive. I humbly disagree. I find the simple black matte finish strangely alluring. The simple lines and no nonsense look of the machine appeals to me, whether I working on it or it’s simply closed sitting on my desk.  It’s a very professional looking machine.

The T410s is thin and light at only 0.8- inches thick and weighing in at just under under 4 lbs. It’s made of carbon fiber that looks bit like plastic, but not in a cheap way. Overall the machine is quite stunning.

Lenovo IdeaPad U260

Like the ThinkPad T410S above, the IdeaPad U260 is made by Lenovo and shares the same quality build. But that’s about where the similarities end. This is a slick little machine made to look like a book when it’s closed. Weird, yes, but cool nonetheless. I had the opportunity to play with one at the Microsoft Retail Store in Bellevue, WA on a recent trip.

The U260 is a very portable machine with a 12.5-inch screen. It’s made from a magnesium-aluminum alloy shell making it relatively light at 3.4 pounds. In addition to the good looks it has leather palm rests and a glass touchpad. While I wouldn’t use the U260 as my primary machine because of the small screen size, I certainly wouldn’t hesitate to carry it with me.

Toshiba Portege R700

I’ve always like Toshiba laptops, but have only owned one. The reason has nothing to do with the looks, but rather the poor battery life I’ve seen with many of their machines. The Toshiba Portege R700 is another in the long line of great looking thin and light machines. It’s slightly bigger than the IdeaPad U260 with a 13-inch screen, but it’s actually a little lighter at 3.2 pounds.

The R700 has a black magnesium cover, which looks a lot better than the silver body of its predicessor, the R600. Overall, it’s simply a great looking machine.

Samsung Series 9 Notebook

The Samsung Series 9 laptop is one of the thinist Windows based laptops I’ve ever seen. Even though this machine has a 13.3-inch display it comes in at a mere 2.88 pounds and is only 0.64-inches thick. For comparision the MacBook Air is 0.62-inches thick.

The minimalistic look of the Series 9, the black finish and chrome borders make it quite appealing. I’ve had the opportunity to play with the Samsung Series 9 on a couple of occassions and have to say that it’s easy on the eyes. This is a machine that I wouldn’t hesitate to own as my “ultra-portable” of choice.

Apple MacBook Pro and Apple MacBook Air

It’s hard not to like the Apple line of laptops. The aluminum finish and the unibody design are hard to resist. They’ve easily been the king of looks for several years now, but PC makers are catching up. I think any all the machines above offer similar good looks to the MacBook line of laptops.

My favorite has to be the MacBook Air secondary to it’s size. It’s so thin.

The configuration is as follows:

• Windows 7 Professional (64-bit)
• Intel Core i5-M560 Processor
• 160GB Intel Solid State Drive
• 8GB RAM
• 14.1-inch WXGA touchscreen…yes, that’s right, it is a touchscreen
• 6 Cell Li-ion battery
• 3-cell ultrabay battery that fits in the DVD slot when I need additional battery
• And all the typical stuff that goes with most laptops, i.e. camera, Bluetooth, wireless (no 3G), etc

Impression
After using the T410s for a little over a week I only have one question, why haven’t I been using Lenovo machines all my life? This is a great laptop. Since purchasing a Lenovo X201 tablet back in November 2010 I haven’t considered using another laptop/tablet manufacturer for my needs. Period. And after using the T410s I know why I feel that way. I have no regrets and think it was the best choice for a new machine, hands down.

People might find the simple matte black finish of the ThinkPad series a bit boring, but there’s something about it that catches my eye. I find the simple lines and no nonsense look of the machine attractive; opened up working or simply closed on the desk. In my opinion it looks like something a professional might carry around and not something a little teenie-bopper opens up at Starbucks (ironically I’m sitting in a Starbucks drinking coffee and composing this blog while waiting for my daughter to finish cheer practice).

The T410s is thin and light. It’s only 0.8- inches thick and weighs in under 4 lbs; much thinner and lighter than my last 14-inch laptop. The build quality is good and it doesn’t feel cheap to me even though much of the housing is made of carbon fiber that looks a bit like plastic. As with my X201 tablet the keyboard is great. It’s easy to type with and doesn’t have the flex I’ve experienced with other machines. It has the same weird configuration with the “Fn” and “Ctrl” keys that I noticed on my tablet. Now that I’m using a Lenovo tablet as well as laptop it’s not a big deal. I’ve gotten used to it. One nice touch on the keyboard is the “Delete” key in the upper right hand corner. It’s double size, which makes it easier to use for some reason. I’ve found it more useful than I would have ever imagined. I suppose that means I make too many typing errors, but what the heck, it works for me.

I enjoy touchscreen devices and the T410s doesn’t disappoint. With its SimpleTap feature I’m able to quickly get to some of the functions that I’m constantly tinkering with like microphone, volume, wireless, camera and the smokin’ awesome reading light at the top of the monitor that illuminates the keyboard when I’m sitting on a dark plane (see image below). Nice touch Lenovo. I find myself reaching up and touching the screen when I need to reposition the cursor. I find that easier at times than moving my thumbs down to use the touchpad.

One thing I really like about the Lenovo machines is the utilities that come pre-installed. Collectively they’re called ThinkVantage, and include utilities for battery management, wireless management, screen management, and so on. I typically don’t like pre-installed utilities on my machines, but Lenovo did it right.

The overall performance of the T410s has been stellar to this point. It’s hard to say what the actual batter life is as I keep going back and forth between the plug, battery, wireless, Bluetooth, etc. Based on usage over the past week or so it looks like it’s around five hours on a full charge with both batteries in place. I consider that fairly solid as I don’t baby my machines. I don’t dim the screen or turn the wireless off when not in use, etc.

With all that said, there are a couple of things that bother me. First there’s no separate microphone jack. I didn’t realize it when I ordered the T410s, but it doesn’t have a separate microphone jack. It has a headphone jack. I find that odd. Next is the screen. While I love the touchscreen capability and it’s fine for my needs, the screen isn’t going win any beauty contests. The images look a little washed out to me. And finally is the modular CD/DVD player. It’s just not very good. In fact it frustrated me to the point where I just pulled it out and keep the 3-cell battery in the slot. I don’t really need a CD-RW so it isn’t a big deal to me, but it might be to someone else.

That’s it, the Lenovo T410s is an awesome machine. I’d buy one again in a heartbeat.

It turns out that Toughbooks are more than just cool technology, they may actually save healthcare a little money when used the right way. NHS Kirkless, a primary care trust in the UK estimates that they are saving more than $900,000 per year by deploying 600 Toughbooks to their care providers in the field.

Smart Healthcare.com:

Remote working in patient care, with staff ‘hot-desking’ using mobile broadband-enabled laptops, is a proven cost-saver for the NHS. But the idea has been met with caution by some trusts owing to the limitations of 3G mobile reception.

However, one primary care trust, NHS Kirklees, has embraced the technology by deploying around 600 Panasonic Toughbooks, supplied and serviced by BT Health. The staff are, in the words of Robert Flack, managing director of Kirklees Community Healthcare Services (CHS), “loving it”.

Flack’s NHS organisation is the provider arm of NHS Kirklees, which employs more than 1,200 staff to meet the healthcare needs of more than 400,000 people across Dewsbury, Batley, Spenborough, and central and southern Huddersfield.

But, says Flack, the technical aspects of laptop-toting members of clinical, nursing and administrative support staff is only part of the equation. Improvements in patient care in the field are what is driving the project forward.

The last 12 months have seen Kirklees CHS steadily introducing 600 laptops to staff in a variety of healthcare environments, including health visitor services, to patients in their own homes.

“The fact that it involves the patient working with NHS professionals to determine how their healthcare will progress is the really great thing. We’ve had 25 (in-depth) interviews with patients about the new system and they all love it,” says Flack.

The use of laptops at the clinical coalface – in the patient’s home – has been especially successful, says Flack, particularly on family partnership work. “This is where the NHS works with teenage mothers to ensure that mother and baby get the best start in life, and the system allows staff to fill in the health record with the mother,” he says.

As well as tangible cost savings – NHS Kirklees is saving around £600,000 [$940,000] year in travel costs, as staff no longer need to return to base or the GP surgery to pick up notes – the use of remote working laptops has changed the way people work. Staff spend less time at base and increase their productivity when out and about.

The cost of a Panasonic Toughbook may seem high at first glance, but they are guaranteed to withstand rigorous use that would send most “regular laptops” to an early grave.

Mobile PC options for pharmacists
New technology is providing unparalleled opportunity for pharmacists desiring mobile computing solutions. Mobile phone platforms such as the iPhone are offering ever increasing access to patient information, while Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPCs) remain a viable alternative as a highly mobile computing solution with hardware configurations and software rivaling some desktop PCs. UMPCs offer an attractive alternative to PDAs and mobile phones, but their limited screen size may ultimately make them unsuitable for pharmacist use. I could find no literature evaluating the use of UMPCs in healthcare.

Other options include:

Laptop computers (laptops) – Laptops provide many desirable qualities such as large monitors, keyboards, a built-in pointing device (mouse, a touchpad, also known as a trackpad, and/or a pointing stick), ample processing power and memory. The obvious negative to a laptop is their awkward shape making them difficult to hold while accessing patient information. Their portability is designed around access to a surface on which to work. Without sufficient real estate to place the laptop, their use as a mobile platform is significantly reduced.

Netbooks – Primarily designed for web browsing and e-mailing, netbooks are popular for accessing the internet and for remote access to web-based applications. Netbooks are similar to laptops in almost every way with one major exception; they are typically smaller with screen sizes in the 8 to 10 inch range. Newer netbooks like the Eee PC T91 even offer a convertible tablet pc form factor and touch screen interface. While these devices offer an attractively low price and are a valid alternative to laptops, their limited screen size and limited processing power remain a question mark.

Tablet PCs (tablets) – Tablet PCs are portable computers similar to laptops in many ways. They offer large color displays, processing power similar if not identical to that of a laptop, large amounts of storage and are much smaller and lighter than a desktop PC. The difference between a tablet and a laptop is in the tablet’s unique form factor and pen driven interface similar to that of a PDA or mobile phone.

Tablet PCs can be grouped into two basic categories: slate and convertible. The slate tablet has no attached keyboard or mouse and closely resembles a paper notebook or clipboard. Data entry is performed via a tablet pen or voice, although a keyboard and mouse can be attached via a variety of ports. Slate tablets are often smaller, thinner and lighter than convertible tablet models. Examples of slate tablets include the LE1700 and Motion C5 and F5 from Motion Computing and the Sahara Slate i400 series by TabletKiosk.

Convertible tablets closely resemble a laptop with attached keyboard and navigation device. The lid may be rotated and folded down over the keyboard creating a form factor similar to a slate tablet. The convertible tablet PC may also be used as a traditional laptop with the lid in the upright position. The convertible tablet offers several advantages over the slate with its attached keyboard and navigation device providing flexible data entry.  However, the addition of the keyboard and navigation device adds bulk to the device often making them heavier than the slate tablet. Anecdotally convertible tablets appear to be more popular than their slate counterparts. Convertible tablet PC examples include the Dell Latitude XT by Dell Computing and the ThinkPad X200 Tablet offered by Lenovo.

Common to both the slate and convertible tablets is the use of digitizing tablet technology (digital inking). Digital inking is made available through the use of a digitizer overlain on an LCD screen that creates an electromagnetic field. The motion of the digital pen on the screen is recorded via this field as a series of data points that are ultimately displayed and stored as pen strokes. The user sees visual confirmation of this on the screen as writing, allowing users to input data via the digital pen provided with the tablet. The end result is similar in look and feel to writing with traditional pen and paper. The digitized handwriting can be converted to standard text via handwriting recognition software or as sketches, drawings or notes making paper notes nearly obsolete. Annotating electronic documents such as those in the portable document format (PDF) is also possible. Handwriting recognition can be challenging, but practiced use can result in remarkable speed and accuracy during data entry.

The digital pen also acts as a navigation device similar to the stylus on a PDA or a mouse on a traditional desktop PC. The pens included with tablet PCs often have programmable buttons that are similar to the buttons on a typical desktop PC mouse. Applications may be accessed by tapping the pen on the screen, simulating a mouse click.

Tablet PCs are equipped with hardware configurations similar to that of desktop PCs making them capable of running hospital systems and office suite programs, such as Microsoft Office. The benefit of this is seen with user comfort and familiarity, creating less of a learning curve to the new device. They offer an ideal solution for the mobile pharmacist.

A great source of information for tablet PCs is TabletPCReview.com. They cover the latest trends in tablet PC use and manufacturing.

- Dell laptop. My family likes to sleep late, which offers up some quite time for me to aimlessly search the internet, read, watch a movie, etc. Because hotel internet access can be a little finicky at times, I always carry my Verizon 5750 wireless card for my laptop. That way I never have to guess.

- Cell phone. I carry an LG Dare. I realize it’s not an iPhone, but that is a personal choice. Do you hear me Apple, I want the iPhone on the Verizon network. Anyway, I use the phone to connect to the internet, update and read Twitter and facebook (including some cool photos – see image at right) and for navigation. I used my Dare to find restaurants, a shoe store for my daughter, a car wash following a seagull incident and the place we rented our ATVs. It was absolutely invaluable.

- iPod Touch (8 GB) – The iPod Touch is an awesome entertainment center. I listened to music during those quiet times mentioned above, watched movies and played games. My playlist of choice for the trip was Easy Listening (Journey, Wham, Third Day, Queen, etc). This is quite a bit different from the playlist I listen to at work, which includes Metallica, AC/DC, Linkin Park, Audioslave, Alice In Chains, etc. Hey, music goes with the environment and sets the tone. My movie of choice for this trip was one of my favorites, Iron Man. Games on my “Touch” include such classics as Fieldrunners, Stickwars, and iShoot. The iPod Touch is a great device and I drained the battery several times on the trip.

- Canon 30D with 17-85mm f/4.5-5.6 lens. You can’t go on vacation without taking way too many pictures. I love my digital SLR and have several hundred gigabytes of photos to prove it. The bigger lens (EF 70-200mm f/2.8L) remained at home in its case this time. It’s a fantastic lens, but is often more than I need for casual photos. The camera performed well, even after the beating it took in the “dunes” while I photographed my daughters and wife riding ATVs.

That’s it. Besides some shorts and a bag full of T-shirts, that’s all I needed for a week at the beach. As compact as this set of tools is, I hope to whittle it before our next vacation. When Verizon and Apple finally decide to make me happy, I will replace the Dare and the iPod Touch with an iPhone. I also have plans to replace my bulky laptop with a small netbook just as soon as they become available with Pixel Qi’s new LCD screen. I realize I could use the iPhone for everything, but I really enjoy reading on a larger screen. The camera stays, pictures are just too important to skimp on.

One final word of advice, keep the cell phones off the beach. That beach sand is a bugger to get out of the phone. You’re just going to have to trust me on that.