Stories by: Brian Nadel

You've done the hard work of optimizing your Wi-Fi network, and it reliably beams high-speed data to every nook and cranny of your home or office. Now, it's time to take it to the next level by connecting more than just computers.

Like a diamond, a digital media player or a rare coin, the latest mini-notebooks are good things in small packages. By squeezing a lot of computing power into a very mobile package at a hard-to-beat price, they are turning the established mobile pecking order on its head.

When you're on the road, you can't call upon the resources that officebound employees enjoy. But whether your temporary workspace is a table at Starbucks, a hotel lobby, an airport or a client's lunchroom, you've still got to get the work done.

One thing you can depend on these days is that the claims made for wireless routers, like 300Mbit/sec. throughput and 1,000-foot range, are nothing more than digital pipe dreams. The plain and simple truth is that these speeds and distances just aren't going to happen in your home, office or any place on this planet.

From the beginning of the age of mobility, we've been trying to squeeze more computer into smaller, lighter and more mobile notebook cases. A new generation of large notebooks with impressive displays, however, turns that idea on its head.

Whether you're talking on a mobile phone, listening to tunes on a media player or typing on a notebook, it's a good bet that the device's battery won't last as long as you'd like. However, that will change over the next few years, as fuel cells designed to power mobile gear start to become common.

Calling all digital nomads -- you may not be wearing a dark suit, a tie and shiny shoes, but you're out there with at least a full day of work to get done. Chances are that, more times than not, your workspace is a table at Starbucks, a hotel lobby couch or a client's lunchroom. In other words, you labor where and when you can, without the kind of resources that a more office-bound employee can call upon.

Buying a notebook computer can be an exercise in limitless possibilities, whether you're buying for yourself or for 250 users in your organization. That's because most laptop vendors offer a dizzying array of configurations.

Look around at people talking on their mobile phones and, almost without exception, they are chatting on familiar-looking small rectangular boxes with glowing screens. However, this cookie-cutter approach to mobile phones will change dramatically in the next few years as phone designers get more daring and more personal.

My ThinkPad R50 just hit its fifth birthday, and the years haven't been kind to it. When it was new, the notebook was reliable and fast, and it traveled with me to many places throughout the world.

It's not just fingerprints -- the shape, contours and lines of your face are also as unique as you are. Toshiba's Face Recognition software (which is available as a standard feature on the Satellite Pro U400, M300, A300 and P300 models) attempts to replace tedious passwords and uncertain finger swipes with identification gleaned from images of you smiling at your computer's webcam.