There’s always the dilemma of what to do when you’re on a long flight. Whether your trip is for business or pleasure, it’s very easy to get bored while up in the air. Well, U.S. flights are working to make air travel a more enjoyable experience or a more productive time for their travelers.

As of now, one-third of U.S. flights are Wi-Fi friendly. Virgin Flights and AirTran can boast that they offer on-board Wi-Fi on every single one of their planes. Despite this, the New York Times says that Delta has the most planes with Wi-Fi access. Nearly all of their 500 different planes offer their travelers Gogo-based Internet access.

Other airlines are moving in the Wi-Fi direction as well. JetBlue and Continental Airlines are currently testing out Wi-Fi on their planes, and all other airlines seem to have at least some form of Wi-Fi available on some of their flights. Southwest Airlines claims that by 2012 all of their planes will be equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities, although as of now, only 6 of their 540 planes feature the amenity.

In a few years I’m sure that in-flight Wi-Fi capabilities will be completely standard. Although we haven’t gotten to that point yet, there are still plenty of airlines that offer the service. It’s a great way to keep yourself entertained while traveling for fun or to utilize your valuable time while traveling for business.

Renting a laptop to stay in touch with friends and family during vacation or to take with you on a business trip is a fantastic idea. PCRetro Rentals is the best place to take care of all your technology rental needs. All PCRetro Rentals laptops come standard with wireless network cards that can connect to the Wi-Fi currently being used by airlines.

Carrying a laptop through an airport should never have to be a hassle. But sadly, for most people it is. With the increase in TSA secuirty measures, taking your expensive laptop through the airport could be downright horrible. However, if you follow some very easy and simple rules, you should have no trouble at all getting your laptop onto the plane and not have to worry about it being lost, confiscated or damaged.

Rule #1: Make Sure You Have the Proper Security Measures in Place
An airport is one of the most popular locations for laptop thieves. No matter how well you guard your laptop, there is always a chance that it will get stolen. So, the best course of action to take here is to have a solid plan if this unfortunate event happens. Make sure to back up all of your files and have some security measures in place on your laptop to ensure that thieves cannot access your personal files. When backing up your files, it is recommended that you use an external hard drive. External hard drives are quick, easy and only run you around $100.

Rule #2: Don’t Argue with Security About Your Laptop
Airport security is allowed to confiscate your laptop at any time, no questions asked. If they ask you for your laptop, then all you can do is politely hand it over to them with no arguments. If you put a up a fight, you could lose more than your laptop, specifically your seat on your flight. In most countries there is no need to worry about airport security taking your laptop. Unless there is a valid reason you should have no problem with security and your laptop.

Rule #3: Going Through Security Checkpoints
Whenever you go through a security checkpoint in an airport, be sure to remove your laptop from its case and put it in a bin by itself. Some laptop bags are now being allowed at airports. If you are using a checkpoint-friendly laptop bag, then you may not be asked to remove your laptop from its case. However, if you are asked by security to remove your laptop then revert back to Rule #2 and don’t argue! After this, the next thing you need to do is remember to pick up your laptop. Surprisingly enough, forgetting to retrieve your laptop is a very common occurrence at airports. The best way to make sure it doesn’t happen is to attach a label to your laptop with your name and phone number on it.

Rule #4: Take Your Laptop onto the Plane
You may be tempted to check your laptop in with the rest of your luggage, but this is a big no no because chances are you will never see it again. If you are going to check it in with the rest of your luggage, then be sure to at least put it into another bag. You shouldn’t check it in with your luggage in its own bag because people will be highly tempted to steal it. Your best option is to personally carry it on board with you. Nearly every airline will allow you to carry your laptop on with you. You will be told to keep it turned off until takeoff, but after that you are free to do whatever you want. A new option that some airlines now offer is the availability of WiFi. This will usually incur a fee of around $10. But if you don’t want to take your laptop on board with you, then at least put it in a regular luggage bag, hidden from prying eyes.

Follow these four simple rules and you should have no problem taking your laptop on any flight you take.

Recently there has been a veritable tidal wave of talk about “touchscreen this” and “touchscreen that” as the technology gets better, faster, smaller and less costly. The latest Apple iPod nano (no, they don’t capitalize it) has a 1.54-inch color touchscreen with a stunning 220ppi (pixels per inch) display. There is some serious work you can do with touchscreen displays, but it may not be what you were thinking. Let’s take a look.

Touch up or touch down?

One of Microsoft’s “cloud” commercials shows a high-tech Mom editing a family portrait. She is using a touchscreen PC, similar to the HP Touchsmart, meaning she has to hold her arm up at shoulder height. About three more edits and the lady would have had to drop that tired limb! Sure, you can use touchscreens without tiring out, as long as you are spreading your action among the screen, the keyboard and the mouse. But if touchscreens are not perfect for everyday work (much less grueling audio, photo or video editing), where do they excel?

First, they excel in different positions and places. A touchscreen is fabulous in tablet PC rentals for note-taking and touch-driven work flows. And digitizing pads (essentially high-end, high-resolution touchscreens) let artists draw directly into graphics programs with the pad placed wherever they want it. You can also customize your touchscreen set-up to interact with clients, customers, colleagues or job applicants that you may encounter at a company meeting or trade show.

Whether you use an HP Touchsmart or a tablet PC, the touch capabilities give you a powerful meeting/conference tool. You can create product demos, various forms and conference literature that can be accessed right at your table or exhibit booth – like having interactive kiosk rentals without the kiosks! Of course, kiosks are powerful additions to your conference presence and can run unattended, while your touchscreen set-up lets you assist several people at once.

If you watched election results this year, you likely noticed that everybody is using big, BIG touchscreens now. You can make a pretty dramatic presentation to a decent-size group with 20-inch HP touchscreen computer rental. As a presentation aid, a touchscreen is perfect, and it also makes a great training tool (as discussed in various training approaches). Used the right way, for the right things, touchscreens are becoming indispensable.

To find out how to rent an HP touchsmart computer for all your touchscreen needs, please feel free to contact us today!

When you need solutions right now for project bottlenecks, conference sessions or storage needs, CRE is indispensable, too. Need a touchscreen for an upcoming event? Simply complete the Quick Rental Quote and our Account Executives are just one-touch away from assisting you.

When it comes to laptop purchase versus rent decisions faced by many IT Managers of corporations accross the country, the rental option is always the best way to save more capital that can be used for other large scale purchases that will allow your company to grow. Computer technology is changing faster than you can blink your eyes. A state of the art laptop of today will be obsolete in less than 1 year. Thats right, less than 12 months. Investing valuable capital dollars into these rapidly depreciating assets is the most common mistake made by companies every day. After having capitalized their laptop computers, IT Managers inevitably and rather quickly face the grim fact of being burdened with obsolete technology that impacts their users productivity immensly.

So what is the solution? Long term leasing is not suited for many projects that last only a few months at a time, then kept in closets for a few months, and then used again. Lease payments will still be due even in those months when the laptops are not used. The leases are also long term, usually 24 to 36 months which extend beyond the useful life of the laptop.

PCRetro Rentals Inc. Laptop and Notebook Rental services are tailored to solve this problem. Rent the laptops you need for your project for just the time you intend to use them. Short term rentals from PCRetro Rentals are designed to provide you with the most cost effective technology when you need it, where you need it. You can rent laptops from 1 to 1000 from 1 day to 1 year offering most flexibility. You can rent laptops made by leading manufacturers such as HP, Dell, Apple and Lenovo / IBM.

Rentals can be used for training, meetings, traveling sales people, engineers and field managers will help you stave off the absurdly truncated lifecycles of the modern day laptops.
You can save your capital dollars for purchase of assets that appreciate.

For more information on laptop rental programs, call our toll-free 1 877 673 1022

California’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal handed down a ruling that quite clearly tells the business traveler that anytime he or she enters or re-enters the United States – whether at LAX, JFK or any other international terminal – his or her laptop, and every directory, sub-directory and file on the hard drive, can be opened, read and potentially copied by Customs and Border Patrol officers. This should raise alarm bells for anyone traveling overseas on business, given the nature of the proprietary, confidential and sensitive information on virtually any businessperson’s laptop.

The most effective strategy to advert the risks of confidential proprietary information leaking into the public domain, or being exposed to the possibility of such leakage, is to take out a laptop rental at minimal expense from a PCRetro Rentals before embarking. Load the rental laptop with only the information and files you will require, and wipe the hard drive clean of any information or files that cannot be exposed to public scrutiny before returning to the U.S.

Files and sensitive data can be filed on your firm’s or provider’s secured servers at any time from your overseas business destinations. Business travelers, however, will want to avoid the risk of exposing crucial business data to public exposure by inadvertently leaving data on their personal laptop hard drive and having its security compromised at the U.S. border. Utilizing a laptop rental from PCRetro Rentals when traveling overseas avoids this. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents do not need any particular suspicion to search your laptop, and once you arrive at Customs it is too late to avoid having your data exposed to public scrutiny. Once it is read you can no longer warrant that your company’s private information is not in the public domain. Something as simple as picking up a laptop rental, and then returning it wiped clean at the end of your business trip can help you avoid potentially critical problems down the road.

As a member of ACRBO you will know that you are getting the BEST repair services from our retail locations that we can provide. We suggest renting a computer or laptop to use while your system is in for repair… for as little as $35 / week you can have a system to use while full diagnostics and repairs are done on your current system. Our fully knowledgeable staff is able to diagnose and repair most, if not all problems and issues that you may run into. PCRetro is truly your one stop shop for all your needs. From repair to rentals to recycling. We do it all! We are able to recycle or buy ANY electronic equipment you may have as well as get you situated with a new system and yes, as you know, we rent systems as well…
For ALL your computer needs, PCRetro is what you are looking for!
Please feel free to contact us with any and all concerns and we will respond in a prompt and timely manner. Check out our websites!
www.pcretro.com www.capasset.comwww.pcretrorentals.com www.caprecycle.com

According to a study conducted by the multinational electronics manufacturing company Casio, companies all around the world are losing millions of dollars each year due to meeting room equipment. This is mostly due to poor knowledge of how the equipment works and poor equipment set-up.

The study showed that projectors are proving to be the most troublesome pieces of equipment. At least 46% of those who particpated said they have had problems with their projectors in the last year. The study also showed that poor projector maintenance or lack of knowledge of proper projector maintenance was the biggest culprit when it came to malfunctioning projectors.

Does this sound like your company? Do you spend hundreds and even thousands of dollars on equipment you may only use a few times a month or year, equipment that you aren’t really sure how to maintain and that quickly becomes outdated? If so, there is a solution for you.

PCRetro Rentals offers projector rentals and other temporary technology for your meeting room. By renting a projector instead of purchasing one, you’ll solve a number of problems:

* You’ll save money by paying for the projector only during the times you’re using it.
* You’ll save time because we can set up delivery of the projector to your office and set it up if needed.
* You won’t have to learn how to maintain your equipment because you’ll only use it for a short period of time.

These are just a few reasons you should rent a projector for your meeting room. Go ahead and contact PCRetro Rentals today at marcia@pcretrorentals.com to start saving your company’s time and money!!
We have several models in stock at any time. Like the InFocus X1 to the Panasonic PT-L6500U workhorse. Anything from 600 ANSI lumens up to 3600 ANSI lumens. We have the right projector for you!