Rolling with Windows 7 on Toshiba’s Satellite U505

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:49:24 GMT

In my guide to awesome Windows 7 PCs, under “All Around Great Everyday PCs” I listed the Toshiba Satellite U500. Courtesy of Toshiba, I had the pleasure of living with the Toshiba Satellite U505 for a few weeks this summer.

So let me start off with the specs for the Satellite U505:

Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo CPU P7350 @ 2GHz
Memory: 4GB (Supports up to 8GB)
Display: 13.3” Widescreen |1280x800 Resolution | Native 720P HD
Graphics: Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Network: 10/100/1000 Ethernet | Intel Wi-Fi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/g/n Wireless
Storage: 400GB (5400 RPM) Serial ATA
Optical: DVD SuperMulti Drive

The Satellite U505 has a textured design to it and comes in Luxe Red, Luxe White, and Luxe Brown. The Satellite U505 I have is Luxe Brown.

This Toshiba laptop comes with 3 USB ports (USB 2.0), a LAN port, modem port, and an eSATA/USB combo port. This eSATA/USB combo port comes with something a little extra: USB Sleep and Charge. That means while the Satellite U505 is asleep or off, you can plug USB devices into this port and have them charge. I had been out traveling with laptop and ended up leaving the charger for my cell phone at home. I was able to use the Satellite U505 to charge it overnight without leaving it on. It worked great. The Satellite U505 also has a VGA port to connect a monitor as well as a HDMI port to connect to an HDTV.

The TouchPad on the Toshiba Satellite U505 has multi-touch controls and can be enabled and disabled. It also comes with a LED backlit keyboard and just above the keyboard are media control buttons for mute, media, playback controls and volume controls.

The Satellite U505 also comes with an ExpressCard slot and a Memory Card Reader that supports Secure Digital, Secure Digital High Capacity, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, Multi Media Card, and xD Picture Card. You could certainly use the Memory Card slot to quickly add some more memory using Windows ReadyBoost but the fact the Satellite U505 comes with 4GB of memory and is expandable to 8GB tells me you likely won’t need to.

For more on the Toshiba Satellite U505, click here. Price starts at $698.99. You can also find the Toshiba Satellite U505 on Windows PC Scout as well.

After using the Satellite U505 for a couple weeks, it’s certainly a great everyday PC and perfect for Windows 7. The Toshiba Satellite U505 is packed with some great specs that give you the flexibility to use this laptop for a wide range of scenarios based on your needs – from video editing to multimedia hotness with Windows Media Center to simply being your workhorse PC.

Oh, one other thing – Toshiba has released updated models of the U500 series Satellite laptops that support Windows Touch in Windows 7 available today!

Watching TV in Windows Vista with the ATI TV Wonder 600 USB

Brandon LeBlanc — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 07:02:00 GMT

Windows Media Center makes it really easy to watch TV on Windows Vista (Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate) with a built in Guide that lets you browse TV shows and movies and schedule recordings of your favorite ones. Many PCs today come with TV functionality built in via TV cards. But not all Windows Vista PCs come equipped with TV capability. Unlike a few years ago - adding TV functionality to your PC is very easy. Let me share my experience in adding TV functionality to one of my PCs.

AMD brings TV capability to your PC through their ATI TV Wonder products. Some of their products are PC cards that must be installed inside the actual PC - and others are USB devices that can simply be plugged in to a USB port. I picked up AMD's ATI TV Wonder 600 USB TV tuner - which is Certified for Windows Vista. This small USB device lets you plug in a coaxial cable for TV capability or use an antenna for free over-the-air television - including over-the-air HDTV.

The ATI TV Wonder 600 USB has the following features:

USB 2.0
Hybrid TV Tuner Stick for:

Over-the-air Digital TV / HDTV1 (ATSC)
Over-the-air / Cable Analog TV (NTSC)

Remote control
Telescopic antenna to receive free-to-air TV channels
Capture from VCRs, camcorders with the included audio/video input cable

I took some unboxing shots to share with you:

Setting up TV functionality in Windows Media Center is really easy. If you have not used Windows Media Center before, when you launch Windows Media Center for the first time it will take you through a series of steps to set everything up.

If you have used Windows Media Center before and already did Windows Media Center's initial setup - to set up TV all you need to do is go to Settings and TV and click on "Set Up TV Signal". Windows Media Center will take you through a series of screens with options to set up everything you need for watching TV.

Picking up the ATI TV Wonder 600 USB TV tuner allowed me to easily add TV functionality to my main desktop PC. I had TV functionality in a matter of just a few minutes. Since the ATI TV Wonder 600 is a USB device, I can pack the device up and take it with me and use it on my laptop as well.

Hauppauge also offers products for bringing TV onto your PC and Windows Media Center.

I plan to dive deeper in several upcoming posts in using Windows Media Center and TV functionality.

Windows Experience Blog : USB

Rolling with Windows 7 on Toshiba’s Satellite U505

Watching TV in Windows Vista with the ATI TV Wonder 600 USB