Mobile technology has been getting pretty damned popular these days. Between mobile phones moving away from just being a phone and towards doing everything but taking you out to dinner before they shag you, to computers becoming smaller...better...faster...stronger, mobile tech is really running amuck these days.
With that being said, I thought I share some hands on time that I had with the Alto Connect stand from Logitech.
As you all know, I absolutely love my laptop. She has her own case, special slot in my bag, custom sticker job, and is even named after one of my "guilty pleasure" anime series. She is my road warrior. Every tradeshow, meeting, and production meeting we have, my baby comes with me. For the longest time when I have returned home from a hard days work I have hardly ever connected my companion to an external monitor. The 15-inch screen is fairly bright so I have been able to get along ok with it on my desk, over time however it became more and more difficult to focus on the screen while wearing my reading glasses. After a lot of adjustments on the computer itself I realized the problem was with my desk. It was designed to frame a desktop machine and not a laptop, so the height at which my laptop rested on the desk was my real issue, and not my eyeballs. I can't not stress how much of a relief this realization was as the last thing I wanted to do was think about laser eyeball surgery, so I turned my attention to finding first the perfect riser for my laptop then to finding a great external monitor to use.
When it comes to laptop risers there are a lot out there on the market. Some that are simple with no bells or whistles and then others that are a PCI express port away from being a mobile workstation. With my original laptop, I use a small riser made out of titanium which was great at both dispersing heat and being lightweight enough to travel around with me. It was a wonderful little gadget, but my previous laptop was 12-inches and as I mentioned the new one is 15, so she didn't quite fit the bill. I made a list of things that I wanted to be able to do with my laptop when it was on my desk which basically wound up equalling my previous desktop setup and with my ideas in print, I set out to find a riser that would fit my need.
I have to say of the majority of risers I looked at, I ended up getting the Alto Connect Hub by Logitech
I chose the Alto Connect for a couple of reasons. First, like my previous riser it is highly portable. The riser consists two interlocking legs that meet in the middle to create the perch for the laptop to rest upon. The Alto Connect has the added benefit of a built in 4 port USB hub that is powered and discreetly placed in the back of one of it's legs. I want to point out that only three of the USB ports are on the leg, the forth port is actually in the front of the riser for quick plug and play action. Need to charge your music player or get some stuff off your flash drive, no fumbling with trying to hook it up in the back.
I have had the Alto Connect for a month now and I have to say I'm quite happy with it. It keeps me from having to pick up the workstation components [USB hub, power supply, and riser] separately and can travel with me. Now I just need to get monitor.
With that being said, I thought I share some hands on time that I had with the Alto Connect stand from Logitech.
As you all know, I absolutely love my laptop. She has her own case, special slot in my bag, custom sticker job, and is even named after one of my "guilty pleasure" anime series. She is my road warrior. Every tradeshow, meeting, and production meeting we have, my baby comes with me. For the longest time when I have returned home from a hard days work I have hardly ever connected my companion to an external monitor. The 15-inch screen is fairly bright so I have been able to get along ok with it on my desk, over time however it became more and more difficult to focus on the screen while wearing my reading glasses. After a lot of adjustments on the computer itself I realized the problem was with my desk. It was designed to frame a desktop machine and not a laptop, so the height at which my laptop rested on the desk was my real issue, and not my eyeballs. I can't not stress how much of a relief this realization was as the last thing I wanted to do was think about laser eyeball surgery, so I turned my attention to finding first the perfect riser for my laptop then to finding a great external monitor to use.
When it comes to laptop risers there are a lot out there on the market. Some that are simple with no bells or whistles and then others that are a PCI express port away from being a mobile workstation. With my original laptop, I use a small riser made out of titanium which was great at both dispersing heat and being lightweight enough to travel around with me. It was a wonderful little gadget, but my previous laptop was 12-inches and as I mentioned the new one is 15, so she didn't quite fit the bill. I made a list of things that I wanted to be able to do with my laptop when it was on my desk which basically wound up equalling my previous desktop setup and with my ideas in print, I set out to find a riser that would fit my need.
I have to say of the majority of risers I looked at, I ended up getting the Alto Connect Hub by Logitech
I chose the Alto Connect for a couple of reasons. First, like my previous riser it is highly portable. The riser consists two interlocking legs that meet in the middle to create the perch for the laptop to rest upon. The Alto Connect has the added benefit of a built in 4 port USB hub that is powered and discreetly placed in the back of one of it's legs. I want to point out that only three of the USB ports are on the leg, the forth port is actually in the front of the riser for quick plug and play action. Need to charge your music player or get some stuff off your flash drive, no fumbling with trying to hook it up in the back.I have had the Alto Connect for a month now and I have to say I'm quite happy with it. It keeps me from having to pick up the workstation components [USB hub, power supply, and riser] separately and can travel with me. Now I just need to get monitor.
Labels: Gadgets, Laptops, Ninjasistah, Product-Review, Tech-Gadgets
