Beginning May 20, students going back to school can get a steal on an Xbox 360 when they buy a qualifying Windows PC for $699 or more. I say a steal because, you’ll feel like your stealing since the 4GB Xbox 360 is free.

That’s right! Get a free Xbox 360 with a band new PC for back-to-school.

Microsoft offered his promotion last year and it they will repeat the offer this year. In the United States you must buy a $699 PC, while in Canada you’ll get a free Xbox with a $599 Windows PC.

Outlets offering the deal in the United States include the following:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Fry’s Electronics
• HP
• Microsoft Stores
• NewEgg

Canadian buyers can shop at:

• Best Buy
• Dell
• Future Shop
• Staples
• The Source

Many students will either start or return to college this summer and fall. A new notebook and an Xbox 360 will come in handy.

Use the computer for all those papers and projects. Get on the Xbox to play some games or use one of the many video apps, like Netflix or Hulu to watch TV and movies over the campus network. You can hook them up and play movies, videos, music and slide shows streamed from your computer. Maybe your dorm room will serve as the hub of fun and entertainment on your floor.

You’ll have to wait tilt he 20th to see which computers qualify for the deal at the various sites. The HP Envy Sleekbook 4t-1000 might offer a great option at $699.99 from HP directly. Its one of those new and thin 14″ models that offers some decent specs in a smaller form factor. Since you have the Xbox for gaming, you don’t necessarily need a powerhouse machine to carry to class and work on the papers you’ll write in the library.

The Toshiba Portege Ultrabook also might quality at $799.99 over at Best Buy. It offers a 13.3 display along with a 128GB SSD. it should provide enough battery life to get through your day and enough power for your basic student activities.

If you’re not satisfied with just Xbox gaming, then Dell’s Alienware M14x Gaming Laptop might show up on the list at nearly $1100. They build these for power with Core i5 or i7 processors at least 6GB of RAM. You also get at least 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with Optimus graphics powering a 14″ display. If you’re wiling to pay extra you can get 1600×900 resolution display. Dell recently refreshed the processor on these to offer the latest greatest.

You’ll find plenty of options at the above retailers, so check with them Sunday to see what you can get. For further details see the Windows Team Blog.

Students Get a Free Xbox 360 with $699 Notebook Purchase is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

The ThinkPad X130e takes the lessons Lenovo learned in the business market and pulls them together into a rugged mini notebook designed for students.

Lenovo built on the small frame of the ThinkPad X130e, adding features to help the X130e stand up to the abuses of K-12 classrooms. While there is a major focus on the iPad in classrooms, the X130e is better suited for young users who are more likely to drop the notebook or spill something on it.

The red Lenovo X130e is only available in the education market, but individual users can buy the black ThinkPad X130e direct from Lenovo.

Lenovo designed the ThinkPad X130e for education.

Who is the ThinkPad X130e for?

The ThinkPad X130e is primarily a notebook for students, but it also offers an attractive set of features for business users looking for a small, rugged second notebook with a great keyboard.

Design

Lenovo has created an incredibly well-built notebook. The X130e is bulkier than the X120e and competing 11-inch notebooks, but this is thanks to the military spec ruggedness that defines the notebook.

Lenovo ditches the square corners of the ThinkPad line, opting for more kid-friendly corners that complement the rounded design style.

Even under pressure, the lid and the base of the X130e remained solid under pressure. Lenovo includes a rubber bumper to prevent screen damage from the display pressing on keys and prevents random items in students’ bags from slipping in between the display and keyboard.

The notebook is MIL-SPEC rated for ruggedness, which is why the bezel is much thicker. Lenovo designed the hinges to last 30,000 cycles, to accommodate students opening and closing the notebook again and again.

The design carries over to the recessed and strengthened ports to prevent damage from students pulling on cords without properly removing them.

The ThinkPad X130e has 3 USB 2.0 ports, including one that can charge gadgets. The notebook also has Ethernet, VGA, HDMI ports as well as a combo mic/headphone jack and an SD card reader.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The ThinkPad X130e has a great keyboard for such a small notebook. The keys have near perfect travel and a slight curve that guides fingers to the middle of the key for faster, error-free touch typing.

Too often small notebooks have lackluster keyboards with poor key placement, but this is not the case. The X 130 has a full size keyboard and all the keys appropriately sized and placed.

The touchpad is incredibly small, even for the small hands of students. Lenovo includes the Thinkpad Trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard for precise pointing.

The touchpad is too small for multi-touch gestures, but supports two finger clicks. There are no mouse buttons on the bottom of the trackpad, but the mousepad is clickable.

ThinkPad X130e users should plan on using the accurate Trackpoint or an external mouse for long sessions.

Display

The 11.6″ display on the ThinkPad X130e has a 1366 x 768 resolution, which is quite good for a notebook of this size. Students won’t live comparing documents side by side, but the resolution is better suited for the classroom than those found on netbooks.

The matte display is usable outdoors and in harsh lighting, but some users will find the display a little dim even at the brightest setting.

While watching the trailer for The Avengers colors looked good, though blacks could have been blacker. Viewing angles are prefect for a notebook of this size, wide enough to allow three students to share the screen if needed.

Features

Lenovo includes many features in the ThinkPad X130 to meet the needs of the classroom and school administers.

• Rubber Bumper to absorb impact.
• 33% stronger corners to prevent damage form drops.
• 1.2mm thicker bezel for additional display protection.
• Active Protection System to stop hard drive in the event of a drop.
• Stronger hinges and Ethernet port to prevent damage during use.
• Security features including security features including TPM and Intel Anti-Theft

Performance and Graphics

The 1.3GHzAMD E 300 powers the ThinkPad X130e with integrated graphics, The X130e is configurable with up to 8GB of RAM, but my review unit came with 2GB of RAM. The notebook comes with 320GB or 500GB storage options.

This base configuration proved powerful enough to handle the needs of students. The AMD E 300 processor did not stutter when working in multiple programs including Microsoft Word and the web browser.

Watching videos on YouTube or accessing educational flash websites and games did not stress the system. The ThinkPad X130e has plenty of power to meet the needs of students.

The speakers are note impressive in quality, but are definitely loud enough for an educational setting.

The webcam is OK, with a VGA resolution, but won’t blow users away. Considering the use in classrooms and for Skype collaboration by students at home, it is sufficient. The webcam does well in low light conditions.

Battery Life

Lenovo rates the ThinkPad X130e for all day use in the classroom and battery testing proves that the X130e lives up to this claim. Using het Laptop Mag Battery Test, that simulates web browsing with the screen set at 40% brightness the ThinkPad X130e lasted 7 hours and 22 minutes. Long enough to last through a full day of school.

The Bottom Line

The ThinkPad X130e delivers everything Lenovo promises for the classroom. The features and rugged design are essential for unforgiving classroom environments. The processor offers limited power, but is more than adequate for the needs of K-12 students. Administrators will appreciate the included security features.

The iPad is a hot topic for schools, but the ThinkPad X130e offers a more durable learning tool geared at productivity and learning.

Gallery

Specs

ThinkPad X130e Review is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z series laptop helps student and Parkour aficionado Mikael study and play. Mikael is an exchange student from Russia studying in Beijing, China. As a computer science major he works on the laptop for school. But he also enjoys Parkour, an interesting sport where you climb walls, railings and anything else you can find to scale in your environment. He likes to use the laptop’s built-in camera to get some interesting video of his leaping, jumping and climbing around the walls of the city and campus.

Besides using it for school, he also is a photographer and works with his pictures. He takes video of his Parkour and edits them. Being so far from home he also uses the computer to keep in touch with family and friends home in Russia.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Z Series comes in three screen sizes, 13.3″, 14″ and 15.6″. They are designed as multimedia notebooks with multiple colors that are attractive but not flashy. They come with the Lenovo Enhanced Experience with fast booting technology as an option. This feature was demonstrated at CES as our own Xavier Lanier put his MacBook Air up against a Lenovo being operated by race car driver Danica Patrick.

The Z Series also comes with Intel Core iX Sandy Bridge processors and NVIDIA Optimus graphics. Blu-ray is an option on some of these. They start at $669 for the 13″ model, $899 for the 14″ model and $699 for the 15″ model. Below is a video from Lenovo about the series:

Lenovo IdeaPad Z Helps Student & Parkour Fan with Work & Play (video) is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

As a student, I take my laptop with me to class every day. That means unplugging the power cable and any USB devices that I have hooked up to it every day. When my laptop is gone and they don’t have anything to plug into, the cables tend to fall on the ground, and nothing is less fun than returning from class only to crawl underneath my desk to run the wires back up there.

Forgoing the sometimes expensive docking route, I’ve found a simple solution to this problem that works well and is completely free! All you have to do is make a little knot-loop in one of your cables and run the other ones through it. I’ve found that when bundled together, cables tend to fall behind the desk much less frequently. Now when I get home from class my cables are waiting there to greet me rather than hanging out on the floor!

Quick Tip: Use A Knot In Your Cables To Prevent Them From Falling Behind Your Desk is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

The Samsung SyncMaster P2350 is a 23″ HD monitor that offers looks and performance for a great price. Samsung provided us with a review unit for the past 30 days which gave us the opportunity to see how the budget priced monitor handles all types of tasks. The P2350 may be budget priced at around $200, but it delivers a high quality display with a high contrast ratio, fast response time and looks good too.

Who is this monitor for?

Given it’s price and performance, the P2350 is perfect for anyone from officeworker to student. Thanks to a fast response time and several easy to flip settings the screen can quickly be tweaked to tackle anything from spreadsheets to movies and games. Webworkers who spend their day inside the browser will especially appreciate the ability to instantly switch to an “Internet” mode that lowers the brightness and makes text and webwork easier on the eyes.

Samsung P2350 Video Review:

Samsung P2350 Quick Specs:

The Samsung P2350 is a TN monitor, supports both DVI and VGA connections, Full 1920 x 1080 HD resolution, 300cd/m2 brightness, a 50.0000:1 contrast ratio and a 2ms response time.

Samsung P2350 Design:

The P2350 is a snap too put together and get connected since it comes with a VGA and DVI cable. The base comes in two pieces which screw together and then snap into the monitor. Teh base does not adjust up or down like some monitors do, but it does tilt forward and back to allow users to locate a comfortable viewing angle. We should also note that the monitor does not swivel as some do, but the stand is sturdy enough that it is easy to turn the entire display if need be. This monitor is part of the Touch of Color line from Samsung which also gives it good looks thanks to a Rose Black finish that allows red to bleed through in certain lighting conditions for a classy finish. The small glass beveled edge adds to the beauty of this budget display. The Power, VGA and DVI connections are easy to access but a HDMI port is noticeably missing. While you can get a HDMI to DVI adapter for notebook connections it would have been a big plus to find a HDMI connection on the P2350.

Features of note:

Monitor settings are primarily changed using a touch panel on the lower right corner of the monitor which pulls up an on-screen display of settings. These settings allow you to change individual monitor settings to achieve a better image and calibrate the monitor if your work requires a fine tuned color palette. Just as most consumers won’t touch the settings on their HDTV, many don’t know where to begin when making adjustments to their monitor which is why the inclusion of 6 MagicBright settings are very helpful. With a few taps, you can tweak the monitor to offer the best settings for , Text, Internet, Game, Sport, Movie and Dynamic Contrast as well as customize all of the settings yourself.

Performance for Work:

For the first several weeks of our review the P2350 replaced a 17″ monitor in my office which is commonly used for 9 hours a day at a minimum working with spreadsheets, database programs, outlook and reading on the web. The upgrade in size alone was a major benefit to productivity allowing me to bring several documents on the same screen and work between them much easier than I could previously even though I was already using two monitors. With Windows 7 Snap I could keep the database I manage on one side and the student database on the other without sacrificing readability in either app. The ability to tweak the display to offer a less bright backlit instantly was a relief for the long time spent in front of the monitor. While the Internet or Text setting dimmed the display it was still brighter and nicer to use than the standard display I had at work. Since the settings are easy to change I could swap between a work optimized mode and a more Hulu friendly movie mode when lunch time rolled around.

Performance for Play:

As mentioned, a few taps on the menu options and you can change from work to play. To see how well the SyncMaster P2350 handles entertaining you, we watched movies, played games and caught up on a TV show with Hulu. For movies and TV shows the P2350 was great. Watching The Dark Knight proved a wonderful experience with black blacks and vibrant explosions. The only thing that detracted from the experience if you got too close to the monitor was a bit of backlight bleeding along the bottom of the monitor. That said, if you leaned back and watched the movie from a relaxing position it was less noticable. Given the price, and the rest of the features it didn’t detract from the overall quality of the monitor for me, but for those of you who are picky about your video you should keep that in mind. For gaming I loaded up a Far Cry 2 Demo and blasted my way through the beach without noticing any ghosting or issues to note.

Conclusion:

For the price the Samsung P2350 monitor is an incredible value. The large display, easy to configure settings and good looks combined with the low-cost when compared to other 23″ monitors makes the P2350 a standout display. Even with the few shortcomings we found, the SyncMaster P2350 is a good display and one worth considering for any setting from home, to work to a dorm room.

Pros:

• Price
• Fast Response
• Touch of Color looks
• Quick Switch between settings

Cons:

• Limited stand adjustments
• No HDMI connection
• Backlight bleeding along base

Samsung SyncMaster P2350 Specs:

Samsung SyncMaster P2350 Review: Big Screen on a Budget is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The other night I hopped into the app store and went browsing for some interesting new apps. I downloaded mostly games and one app called EMD PTE which I ended up spending more time playing with than any of the games I downloaded.

Before I found EMD PTE, I never thought I heard myself say the words awesome” and periodic table” in the same sentence, but here you go: EMD PTE makes the periodic table awesome.

If you are on your iDevice, click here to go straight to the app in the App Store. The same link will take you to to an iTunes preview page to learn more about the app if you are on a plain old computer.

EMD PTE is a free periodic table app for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad and was developed by Merck. What’s so awesome about it? Well first of all, its extremely simple to use. Easy? Yes. Basic? No. EMD PTE puts a wealth of element information at your fingertips and in your pocket. It’s highly visual (which is probably why I think it’s so great I’m a visual learner) and thus, I’m going to demonstrate it rather than try to describe it to you:

You can also find a similar periodic table on the web from Merck.

EMD Free Periodic Table app for the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad Could Be a Student’s Best Friend is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.

Are you a college student? Do you like ordering things online? If so then you better get your browser over to Amazon and sign up for a Free Amazon Prime Membership.

That’s right, Amazon is now offering any college student with a valid email address a one-year Amazon Prime membership valued at $79 for free. The free membership in Amazon Prime is part of a new program called Amazon Student.

With an Amazon Prime account students can receive free 2-day shipping on any order, without any minimums; Prime members also enjoy next day shipping for $3.99.

Want a new highlighter? Click, click two days later it’s in the campus mailroom. Need to save cash on your  textbooks but your professor has already assigned a reading due for the next course? $4 will get those books delivered in time to read and finish your assignment and you don’t need to set foot inside your college’s bookstore.

To sign up for the free Amazon Prime for students offer you need to provide Amazon with your .edu email address, class year and major.

The best part about this free Prime membership is that students will no longer need to waste money on filler items to get free 5-7 “Super Saver Shipping” from Amazon. While students in most cities can head to Walmart or another retailer for a last-minute item there are plenty of small town colleges where the closest store with audio, computer or other items is 30 miles away. With a free Prime account students can order textbooks, supplies, snacks — almost anything Amazon sells and have it delivered free in just 2 days.

While the standard version of Amazon Prime autorenews it appears that the free Amazon Prime offer for students will not autorenew when the year completes. As part of the offer you are agreeing to let Amazon send you email offers but you can disable that in your account settings after you sign up. For more info check out the Amazon Student FAQ page.

Free Amazon Prime Membership for College Students is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Nobody is perfect; and when a college instructor tries to write an entire semester worth of class schedule, there are bound to be some mistakes. Unfortunately, mistakes are hard to amend when you’ve printed the syllabus and given it to perhaps hundreds of students.

There has been changes and updates to class schedules in nearly every class that I’ve had this semester, and keeping track of it all is quite complicated. Most instructors aren’t about to hand out revised syllabi to a myriad of students — so at best the student gets a shout-out in class that something has been changed, and perhaps the schedule uploaded as a word file somewhere on the web. But regardless of how they try to notify students, schedules get confusing when there are multiple iterations, and if a student is absent that day how are they to know that they schedule has been modified? What’s more, the schedule can only be viewed by downloading a word file and searching through it to find the change.

So here’s a suggestion for instructors. Use a shared Google Calendar to keep your class schedule. What is a shared Google Calendar? In simple terms, it is a free, online calendar that can be viewed by multiple people (ie: all of your students). This has many benefits over the traditional way of doing things (explained above). What are they?

• Push schedule changes to students instantly: The real beauty of a shared Google Calendar is that you can update it whenever you need to, and the change will be seen instantly as students access the calendar. No more arduous altering and uploading of word documents. The calendar, of course, would be set to read-only so that only the instructor can make changes.
• Multi-platform: A word document is… a word document, and can only be read on a device that supports whatever format you choose. A Google calendar can be access in a vast number of ways. Students could access the calendar from a simple website URL. They could subscribe to the calendar with their own favorite calendar application. Students can even see changes to the calendar through RSS. If your students are really savvy, they’ll easily be able to get the calendar onto their phone or a device like the iPod Touch, and it will function as a handy pocket schedule for their class. The great thing about this is that if done properly, they’ll get instant schedule updates directly to their device if the professor makes a change to the master calendar (ah… the beauty of technology).
• Save the environment: Instead of printing hundreds of papers at the beginning of a semester (and maybe even again in order to update the schedule) just write the URL of the calendar on the board at the beginning of the semester. From this one URL, students can view the calendar, and advanced students can access the calendar from wherever they want (RSS, through a mobile device, etc.) A tip about the URL: Writing a long shared calendar URL can be annoying for you and for your students who need to copy it down. Try using a service like www.tinyurl.com which will shorten the URL to just a few characters and make it easier for everyone to copy down the address.

So consider using a more efficient, practical, and environmentally friendly approach to class schedules next semester. Not only will this make things easier on the instructor’s end, but students stand to benefit as well. Have a quick look at how easy it is to work with a Google calendar, and how students see the updates immediately:

Students: feel free to point your instructors in the direction of this article if you think that it’d be useful to you or them, maybe they’ll be willing to give it a try for their next semester of classes!

Professors and Teachers — Use Free Tools to Help the Environment and Keep Your Class on Schedule with Ease is a post by Ben from Notebooks.com.