When we moved I thought it was the end of the world to be honest with you. I’d never lived anywhere but sunny California and when my husband accepted this job in Ohio I wasn’t really sure what to do. I love him a lot but I won’t lie that the thought crossed my mind that maybe it was time we ended things. I got my act together though and packed up alongside him and things are actually much better here than I imagined they’d be. I spent some time on the web looking for Wild Blue Deals Ohio and I also got in touch with some other mommy groups here in town and I feel like making friends here isn’t any harder than it was back in Cali. I do miss the beaches but there’s something to be said for the slower paced, less glamorous pace of life here in Cinci and if I had to guess I’d say we’ll be here for quite a while. My husband loves his new job and this place is really growing on me!

Assess your true needs. Don’t just walk into a store and say you want “the best” laptop. The best for whom? A graphic designer has different needs from a CPA. A gamer has different needs from a marketing consultant.

Here are a few tips for selecting the right laptop for you:

1. Will you use your computer extensively on site at client offices? If so, a laptop with a large screen will help you work efficiently and save your eyesight—and your disposition.

2. Do you often have several applications open at once? If so, make sure you have at least 2 GB of RAM. I would not recommend buying a new laptop with less than 4 GB.

3. Do you visit client sites where you cannot connect to their network? If so, make sure you can write CDs if you need to give them a lot of data or large documents. Otherwise, you may have to provide large memory sticks (thumb drives), which you may not get back.

4. A matte finish, nonglare screen is much easier on the eyes, wherever you may be. And having it built in, if available, is better.

5. A high-resolution screen allows you to view a whole page at a time if you need to, and still be able to read it. That can save time and prevent errors and embarrassment when you must quickly prepare a document for a client.

6. If you travel a lot, get the lightest-weight laptop you can for the amount of screen-size and features you need, all things being equal. For example, if you seldom transfer large documents to clients, and can simply email files to them, you may not need a CD/DVD drive, and that saves weight.

On the other hand, you can use a rolling computer case. So do not trade any features you really need (like a large screen) just so that you can carry your laptop in briefcase or messenger bag.

7. Is battery life crucial to your work? A battery charge in one laptop may last 6 hours; in another laptop, only 2 hours. So if you must use your laptop where there are no handy electrical outlets (as in some coffee shops), be prepared.

Unless you want to have to carry spare batteries (ugh! heavy), be sure to check how long a battery charge will last. Battery charge time varies widely among laptop models even of the same brand.

And remember that any accessory that draws power from your computer through Firewire or USB port will seriously reduce that the life of a battery charge.

8. Do you travel a lot? Traveling is hard on laptops. If you travel constantly, make sure you get a sturdy, well-made machine that will stand up to constant jolting.

If you travel abroad, you may want to get a cheaper laptop that won’t cost too much too replace if it gets lost or damaged.

9. Does prestige matter? In some business circles, the brand matters, and your laptop may need to be the biggest and most powerful for you to be taken seriously. In other business environments, you may be considered savvy for not overspending on a prestigious brand. Know your market’s mores.

What kind of statement do you want to make? Do you need to blend in, by using the same kind of laptop as most of your clients? Or do you need to stand out buy using a prestigious brand and a top-of-the-line model?

10. Buy from a reputable dealer. I cannot stress that enough. Even a new computer can be defective. You need to be able to easily return it for a prompt refund or exchange.

I live near a computer store where I get great service. But some of the big box stores are notorious for not standing behind what they sell. And I never recommend buying from a no-name shop in a strip mall.

If you live in Canada, you might want to take a look at the wide range of Asus laptops offered by Canada Post. You should be able to find exactly what you need in an Asus laptop at a good price and save time by shopping confidently on line.

Generally you get what you pay for—if you can figure out what you need. But price does not always guarantee the best quality. You need to know what to look for.

I have looked at quite a few shopping carts for clients. They generally fall into two groups: free or cheap but very limited, or very, very expensive.

Most do not seem to have considered SEO. They may generate pages that the search engines (and customers) will ignore. But this one is different.

SEO Shopping Cart looks like a good shopping cart solution that almost any business can afford. Prices are $35, $125 or $250 a month, depending on your business needs. All three levels offer these Shopping Cart Features:

Custom keyword-rich URLs (not those junky-looking gibberish strings some shopping carts create)
Custom image ALT attributes (great for SEO)
Custom Page Titles (very important for customers to bookmark potential purchases while shopping)
Custom Anchor Text
Breadcrumbs (for customer convenience)
Custom Header H1 Tags
Configurable META Keywords
Configurable MEATA Descriptions
No Duplicate Content (because this system prevents it!)
301 Redirection
XML Sitemaps generated automatically every night

The two higher levels also feature dedicated product review pages with Add to Cart buttons.

Interested?

Ascender Cart is so confident that their SEO Shopping Cart is the MUST HAVE shopping card that they will give you a FREE SEO training manual.

This looks like a deal to me. What do you think?

Defying marketing maxims about the difficulty of creating brand new markets for totally new products, Jobs has succeeded on a grand scale with products such as Apple II, Macintosh, iMac, iPod, iPhone…

And lest anyone think his success with Apple Computer was just a fluke, when Jobs left, the company foundered. His return brought the company back to success. Clearly he knows what he is doing.

But Uncle Stevie’s latest brainchild strikes me as a mismarketed product. It is a great product. I believe there is a large market for a tablet computer with great Internet connectivity at a reasonable price. Yet the iPad tablet computer is being marketed as a phone!

Too big to carry in your pocket, and too expensive, vulnerable, and heavy to carry everywhere, the tablet seems likely to fail in the cell phone market for those reasons and a few more. I hope I am wrong, because I really want one—but not to use as a cell phone.

At least that’s my opinion. What’s yours?