Top Tech For Uni

Today I thought I would give a quick run-down of the tech I have brought with me to university. Some are a tad pricey, admittedly, but others could save you a small fortune once the grant has run out.

Apple MacBook Air £1,199 - After handing the aging MacBook over to my mother I invested in a shiny, new 1.6 GHz Air. While the RRP may seem a tad steep, I found an un-opened example on eBay for £850. The weight and size of the Air make it the ideal laptop for the university student who finds himself walking a fair amount with a bag full of books on his back. Some may find the performance inadequate but, as I’m doing English and Journalism, I won’t need to encode HD video anytime soon. The lack of ports is a problem, however, and I currently have 4 USB’s plug in via a hub, a VGA 
cable and audio jack crammed in the side of the Air and I could still do with more.

iPhone - free to £169 - My first generation iPhone has saved me a couple of times so far with it's brilliant Maps application. Not knowing the area (Greater London) I have got completely lost a few times now and punching a nearby road name into Maps brings up the quickest way home. Another use so far has been the wireless sync to Mobile Me - and thus my laptop - so adding a new friend’s number adds it to my laptop’s address book too.

Win TV HVR 900 - £50 - While the idea of watching TV on your computer is not that new, its something I’ve never bothered with; until coming to university. I wasn’t going to bring my TV from home, so I was faced with either buying a small TV or one of these USB sticks. The device comes with a fairly shabby portable ariel, but if you can hold it in such a way that you get all the Freeview channels then you won’t have to pay the £139 license fee - you’ll be covered by your parents’ license back home. I tried this but, sadly, I couldn’t pick up enough channels so I took the plunge and bought a cable to plug into the wall-socket and a license. Now I can watch most of the Freeview channels, have a fairly decent EPG and the ability to set stuff to record while I’m out sampling the Student Union bars.

Skype Unlimited - £22.43 per year - I’ve been using Skype for years now, with its free computer-to-computer calls and found it to be very good, despite random dis-connections and lag for time to time. While I did know about Skype's ability to call proper phones and remember clearly burning through £10 alarmingly quickly when calling a mobile, the Unlimited service is new to me. For just over £20 per year, or about £2 per month if you prefer, you can have unlimited calls to UK landlines. You can also select a landline number to go with your account, so when I call someone from Skype it appears as a London ‘020’ number on the receiver's phone. So there’s no excuse for not keeping in touch with family and friends back home.

Hanns-G 21” monitor - £150 - While I could have used the laptop’s 13" screen for everything, I felt that taking my desktop display was a must to provide extra screen-space. My set-up involves having my laptop on a stand (Griffin Elevator) to the right of the main screen; this works really well as I can watch TV on one screen and use applications on the other. The brand maybe fairly unknown but it works well enough and with a VGA and HDMI input I can have the laptop and PS3 plugged in together.

Ally Capellino Satchel Laptop Bag - £109 - I did bring a laptop bag with me but, and I know this sounds shallow, the colours and design really annoyed me. The khaki-green and orange was pretty horrible and the velcro was embarrassingly loud in lectures - told you it was shallow. So anyway, with my student grant and loan burning a hole in my pocket, I purchased the new bag. While the cost is rather high, as soon as you hold the bag and feel the quality of the zips and straps, you know you have bought a quality product that will withstand anything university has to throw at it. The bag is fairly small but able to carry the Air and many accessories and/or books with ease.

So there we are, a quick run-down of what I have with me at university; I do have other bits and pieces such as speakers and a camera but they weren’t really worth a mention. Oh, and don’t, whatever you do, forget about insurance. I have everything covered and my phone and laptop are covered wherever I take them, even from accidental damage. At £120 per year its well worth it to make sure you are fully covered.

Alistair