There’s no doubt that having access to mobile broadband has revolutionized the way we spend our time online. The internet used to be a fairly static tool that you could only access from home or work, but thanks to the power of technology it’s possible to get online pretty much anywhere these days.

In recent years it’s become relatively cheap and certainly easy to get yourself a laptop, plus a USB dongle, and tap into the mobile broadband network that has become so prevalent thanks to operators like O2, Vodafone, T-Mobile, 3, Virgin Mobile and others. As long as you can access a mobile signal then you’ll be able to get online, while coverage levels in the UK are now better than they’ve ever been.

Laptops versus the smartphone

More recently we’ve seen an explosion of smartphone technology, meaning that these amazing handsets are much more powerful than traditional mobiles and now provide another option for enjoying mobile internet services. So, if you’re in the market for getting online and you need it to be a mobile setup then there are plenty of choices.

In fact, if anything there are perhaps too many choices if you’re undecided about which deal to go for. Paying a visit to a free comparison website like Broadband Genie makes good sense because inside the site you’ll find a wealth of impartial information on every package that is currently available.

Which device to go for is largely down to personal preference, although either will allow you to do most if not all of the things you’d normally do on a home or work computer. Portability is one of the best things about smartphones, although it’s worth looking at a netbook as a smaller alternative to a laptop as its essentially the same thing but less bulky.

Why get a laptop?

Of course, the great thing about getting yourself a laptop computer for accessing mobile broadband is that you get a much larger screen area to play around with. You’ll also have a proper keyboard, while many modern laptops also come with a formidable specification making them a perfect machine for carrying out all manner of chores no matter where you are located.

Laptops have come down in price too, and some mobile broadband deals will throw in free laptops as part of the package, although you ultimately pay for this during the course of a contract, which is usually two years. If you’d rather not commit to a contract then pay as you go mobile broadband is a great alternative. Simply buy a dongle and put some credit on it and you’re in business.

PAYG means freedom and flexibility although some mobile broadband contracts offer a beefier package in terms of speed and data usage. Both of these factors are obviously important - bear in mind speed will never be as high as advertisements suggest - it’ll always be an ‘up to’ figure. Data usage will not bother lighter users, but if you want to download lots of content then make sure you pick a package that will allow you to do this without incurring penalties.

Why get a smartphone?

The smartphone is perfect for people who need a compact tool for getting online. Many new handsets are highly powerful and have many laptop-style features, although the smaller size of a smartphone will mean a reduced screen and keyboard.

Mobile internet on a smartphone has improved immensely in the last couple of years, and alongside email applications and social networking tools many people find that a fully-featured smartphone ticks all of the boxes when it comes to having mobile internet on the move. Software is now written specifically for these handsets so web browsers and tools like it work perfectly.

In a lot of ways the smartphone also provides more of a fun option, thanks to applications, or apps, that can be downloaded on to the device. There are plenty of mobile providers out there too and they’re all falling over themselves to offer you a great deal. A lot of people love the Apple iPhone but other makes such as HTC and Samsung are bringing out phones that deliver performance and great looks in equal measure.

Other points to consider

Both mobile internet platforms also give you the option of different operating systems, with laptops running everything from Windows to Linux to Mac OSX. Smartphones follow suit, with the likes of Android, Symbian and the Apple iOS all having their own strengths and weaknesses.

Whatever route you decide to take, make sure that you carry out a comparison on all of the deals that you’re interested in before committing to anything. Ideally, if you can get the right price then a combination of a mobile broadband laptop or netbook and a smartphone makes really good sense.

You may need to shop hard and haggle even harder, but being able to use both devices for mobile computing will ensure that you’re never far away from the internet and email, no matter where you’re headed.

About the author: Rob Clymo writes on behalf of www.broadbandgenie.co.uk, the independent comparison website for broadband, mobile broadband and smartphones.

Have you ever considered baking you very own donuts? No? Well, just imagine being able to put as many glazing as you want on your donut, and that would be enough to bake your own bunch. Also, if you want vegan donuts, you can do so as well.

The Mini Donut Factory makes the job easier for you by popping out six waffle-recipe donuts in just under four minutes. The device has clamshell design with non-stick Teflon for the inside.

Here are the features of the Mini Donut Factory:

* Bake delicious fresh donuts in less than 4 minutes
* Easy-to-use and safe for even the youngest baker
* Recipe book included
* Compatible with any store bought donut mix
* Easy-to-clean, non-stick surface
* Dimensions:
o Capacity: 6 Donuts
o Width: 9.25-in.
o Height: 9.75-in.
o Depth: 4-in.

The Mini Donut Factory can be purchased for about $19.99.

The Gateway NV back in 2009 was probably the best line of laptops in that year. Now, the company is back with more features—including the push-buttons for social networking sites and i3/i5 processors.

The Gateway NV59C09u is one of the new models under the new company line. It has a 15.6-inch, 1366 x 768 display screen, a Core i3 processor, a 320GB hard drive and a Blu-ray drive standard. But other than that, Gateway is also banking that the line’s new social networking site push-buttons will make a dent on an otherwise bland campaign. Some of the one-touch access buttons that will be included in this laptop are those for Facebook, YouTube and even Flickr.

Here is the complete list of specifications for the Gateway NV59C09u:

- Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor (2.13GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 3MB L2 cache) 2

- Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit

- 15.6″ HD Widescreen Ultrabright™ TFT LCD Display

- Mobile Intel® HM55 Express Chipset

- 4096MB DDR3 Dual-Channel 1066MHz Memory Packaging and Documentation

- Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD

- 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

- 4X Blu-ray Disc™/DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive

- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™

- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)

- High-Def Webcam (1280 x 1024)

- Two Stereo Speakers

- Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader

- One HDMI port and three USB 2.0 Ports

- Multi-Gesture Touchpad

- Dedicated Numeric Keypad 3

- 6-cell Li-Ion (4400 mAh) Battery; up to 4.5-hours of battery life(2)

- Notebook weight: 5.72 lbs

- 2-Year Limited Warranty

There will also be a 17.3-inch model currently in works, but we don’t have much information on that. The Gateway NV59C09u will sell for a starting price of about $800.

For years, it has been observed that seismic waves travelling in the east-west part of the earth are faster than those in the other parts. And scientists may know the reason now.

According to them, the iron alloys located at the center of the earth appeared to have crystallized in a way that is easier to pass on the north-south axis than on the east-west. The study was led by Maurizio Mattesini, a geologist at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. It was published on the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“The structure of the atoms looks different in one direction than the other,” Norm Sleep, a geologist who was not part of the study, said.

In textbooks, the Earth’s inner regions looks like the mantle and core were presented as simple and homogenous regions. But in the study, it looks like the geology of the core is more complex than scientists originally thought. By using better seismographs, the seismic waves are presented clearer than before.

The outer core is composed mostly of liquid iron while the inner core is made of solid ball that is about 750 miles in diameter, which formed as the geology of the Earth cooled.

“The center of the earth is literally a crystal,” David Stephenson, a geologist at CalTech, said.

By the 1990s, geologists slowly began to notice that seismic waves are traveling comparatively faster in the north-south region by about three percent than those in the east-west regions.

According to the new data, the crystals formed enable researchers to gather a particular alignment—known as anisotropy—that makes it easier for waves to travel in one direction than the other.

Last week, HP—which recently took over Palm—said that it will soon come out with a TouchSmart tm2 convertible tablet that has Core i3 and Core i5 options. And as fast as that, Amazon is confirming the upgrade.

A new page in Amazon confirms that the new HP TouchSmart tm2 will come with a 12.2-inch WXGA LED-backlit display screen, 2.13GHz Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 640GB hard drive (5400 RPM), Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) operating system, Intel’s integrated graphics set, Altec Lansing speakers, 5-in-1 card reader, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI/VGA output, audio in/out and a four-hour-good battery.

You can get the HP TouchSmart tm2 for a starting price of $950.

The first time I saw this, I thought they were a bunch of speakers. It surprised me, however, that these are actually MP3 players that are creatively designed for a smart and compact performance. This player allows you to play music anywhere—whether in the bath or shower.

Here are more details about this Juke Tower:

* Audio file: MP3 8k-320 kbps VBR

IDE Ultra DMA 133

* Memory: USB port x1
* USB Key (not included)

(32MB to 2GB Fat 16-32)

* Size: 78 x 183 mm
* Power supply: LR6 x3 AA (Not Included)
* Display: LED
* Speaker: φ50mm x1
* Maximum output: 0.5W or more (8Ω)

You can get this waterproof Juke Tower MP3 player in colors red, white, black and pink for about $155.93.

As this is the first 4G phone in North America, more than 4,000 RadioShack stores in America are now accepting first orders of the HTC Evo 4G.

Here are the specifications of the HTC Evo 4G:

* A 4.3-inch touch screen that’s one of the largest in the industry, ideal for viewing movies and other rich content
* An 8.0-megapixel camera on the back for capturing HD video
* Mobile hotspot functionality that allows up to eight WiFi-enabled devices to connect simultaneously to the Internet
* The increasingly popular Android 2.1 operating system for mobile devices
* A blazing-fast 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor for smooth and agile mobile multimedia experiences

You can get the HTC Evo 4G starting from June 4 onwards throughout all participating stores in North America.

The new line of Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player boasts of network capability and full HD 1080p resolution support. It is also the first media player to be compatible with Windows 7 operating system.

This device is pretty easy to use as it can able to play stored media in your USB, laptop or PC. It can also be able to initiate and control the streaming of video, music or photos to the WD TV Live HD media player and other home entertainment system that is using the Windows 7 platform. If you media files are compatible with the WD TV Live, you can play it straight to this media player.

Here are other features of the Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player:

* Full-HD 1080p video playback and navigation with the included remote control and crisp, animated navigation menus
* Play a wide variety of file formats including support for the most popular file formats with no need to spend time transcoding
* Play videos, music and photos from the Internet on your big screen TV and discover new music with Pandora Internet radio or listen to thousands of radio stations via Live365 Internet radio
* Ethernet port for wired or WiFi connection to access files anywhere on the network to play movies, music, and photos from any PC or drive on a home network
* Turns a USB drive into an HD media player and plays content from most popular USB drives, and digital cameras, camcorders, and portable media players that can be recognized as mass storage devices
* Unlimited media collection, just add more USB drives for more space
* Two USB ports for seamless media playback from multiple USB drives and ability to access them simultaneously while a media library feature collects the content on all the drives into one list sorted by media type
* Transfer files by copying, moving or deleting files stored on a USB drive, a network drive, a camcorder, or a camera to the attached USB drive using the on-screen menus
* Picture Transfer Protocol support to show photos and movies directly from digital camera or video camera and/or any digital imaging device that supports Picture
* Transfer Protocol
* Advanced navigation options including thumbnail and list views, media library and search
* Photo viewing to create custom slide shows, zoom and pan and search
* Movie viewing with fast-forward, rewind, pause, zoom and pan, view subtitles, and search
* Music playback with fast-forward, rewind, pause, shuffle, repeat and search
* File copying between USB devices
* HDMI 1.3 port, composite video and component video output for the highest quality HDTV or home theater
* SPDIF digital output that sends digital signals to your AV receiver for the best surround sound experience
* Ultra-compact design to fit easily into a home entertainment center

You can purchase this Western Digital WD TV Live HD media player for about $149.99 with a one-year limited warranty.

Remember the Mickey Mouse-shaped MP3 players that came out earlier? Well, here’s the camouflage version of it.

Here are the features of the MPlayer Camouflage Paint:

* Memory: 1GB
* Interface: USB2.0
* Channels: Stereo
* Music file: MP3, WMA, ASF
* Battery: Bulit-in Li-ion Battery
* Size: 44.0 x 39.5 x 30 mm
* Instruction manual: In Japanese Only

You can get the MPlayer Camouflage Paint for about $192.36 in colors brown and pink.

There’s a general sentiment among iPad consumers today—it’s lack of swappable battery. Imagine being stuck in a meeting or conference with your unpowered Apple iPad. That alone would make you cringe.

Fortunately, there’s the HyperMacs to solve things for you. This external battery packs can power your Macbooks for up to 34 hours via a MagSafe adapter clipped from a real Apple power-brick. The swappable batteries also have USB ports to be able to recharge other gadgets as well. This has been upgraded then to 10 watts to provide power for the iPad.

The 4.7-pound, 222-watt hour HyperMac can give your iPad extra 99 hours of power. It will cost you about $500. For $200, the 60-watt hour version will give your iPads a boost up to 34 hours.