I need a new hub. I have a Gigaware four-port hub, but it just isn’t enough for my needs, I’ve decided. Plugged into my laptop currently are a printer, iPhone charger, wireless USB key for my keyboard and mouse, and external hard drive for backups. That’s not enough for a gadget guy like myself.

After some research, I’m closing in on this one — the Belkin USB 2.0 seven-port hub.  Seven hubs; now that’s more like it! It’s relatively cheap, at less than $50, but it has some strong selling points.

In addition to the ports on the side, there are two on top. That makes it easy to plug in things like thumb drives, that you use often. It also has a little clip on the side, which you can route your USB cables through — a thoughtful touch.

Another positive is that these hubs are stackable, so you can add one to another and double your USB outlets. For folks like me, who use their laptop as a desktop, the Belkin hub isn’t a sexy item, but a necessary one anyway. And Belkin is a name I trust, as I’ve used a number of its products over the years.

My daughter heads off the college in a few days. She has a nice laptop already, but it’s large; I’m thinking she needs something with enough power, that’s also really portable. And it can’t be expensive, seeing as how we just paid the tuition bill.

That, of course, led me to examine netbooks. They offer a nice compromise between functionality, size and price. My daughter isn’t much of a computer gamer, so it doesn’t have to be a fire-breather; something with which she can take notes, check e-mail and surf the Internet (only for research for classes, of course (wink, wink)), and that won’t tire her out lugging from class to class.

Here’s what I’m zeroing in on: it’s a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v Netbook.  The 10-inch screen lends itself to small weight, but is still large enough to be easily viewable. It has an Intel Atom processor and 1GB RAM, which is plenty to run Windows XP, the operating system of choice for this netbook (Windows Vista is too resource-hoggy to use with a netbook.)

Another very nice thing is the hard drive. It comes with 160 GB, a very nice size at this price point. I’ve owned many Dells in the past, and have been happy with the quality and service they offer.

In all, this is a capable computer in a form factor that works for my daughter. It even has a webcam, so she can chat with her parents at night, and see them crying that their baby is gone!

I have a daughter leaving for college in a few weeks. When she goes, she’ll be taking our love and best wishes with her, along with a primary school tool: a laptop.

In a college environment, security is critically important; in many jobs, it’s just as — or more — important. Consider the cost of a stolen laptop: not just the computer itself, but the data on it, which could be vital, and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.

To that end, it’s worth your while to strongly consider a laptop lock, like this Targus DEFCON 1 Retractable Cable Lock. One of the highlights of this lock is that the cable retracts into the unit itself, making it ultra-portable. It’s also a combination lock, adding another layer of security.

Another advantage of the Targus is that it can lock up more than your laptop. In a pinch, it could lock up pretty much anything the four-foot cord can wrap around.

If you travel a lot or carry around your laptop often, strongly consider the Targus or another lock. While it won’t stop a determined criminal, it will definitely scare off most everyone else that’s looking to score a free laptop.

How many of you can really put your laptop on your lap? It’s something I almost never do, for example, because it just gets too hot — both the computer, and my lap!

One very clever solution is the Targus HeatDefense for Laptops. It’s clever because it’s so simple. The gadget is just a mat filled with crystals that absorb heat. That turns the crystals into gel. Once the heat (a.k.a. the laptop) is removed, the crystals re-form. The laptop stays cool, and so does the lap on which it sits. Nifty.

It’s one of the very few gadgets you don’t have to plug in or charge. I like that. I also like the fact that the HeatDefense rolls up into a small bundle, making it very portable.

The company claims that keeping your laptop cooler will help the battery last longer.  While I haven’t used the HeatDefense, the basic premise behind that claim is correct. In any event, it’s a neat way to keep your cool and chill out.

I’m a big Google fan (that doesn’t mean I’m a Google fan that’s BIG, however). I have a gmail account (Google e-mail) which is easier to use and more efficient than my Hotmail account (Hotmail is owned by Microsoft). I also use the Google iPhone app quite often, especially the voice lookup, which allows me to tell the phone what I’m looking for, and have it brought up in a Google search.

It also continues to be the best search engine on the Internet (although I’m intrigued by Microsoft’s Bing, and will continue to use it). Now, Google is entering a new realm of unified communications by adding Google Voice, a phone service that may revolutionize the way you use phones.

Still in beta (i.e. pre-release), Google Voice supplies you with a single phone number. That phone number is tied into all your other phone numbers: your home phone, cell phone, work phone — whatever numbers you want it to support. That means that your phone numbers follow you around. If you move and change numbers, or change your cell number, those with your Google Voice number don’t need to know; they continue to call your Google number.

You can also do all kinds of cool stuff, like choose which calls you get on which phone, from which people. Calls from your mom can go to all your phones, for example. Calls from your boss can go to your work or cellphone only. You can even choose to have certain callers go directly to Google voicemail. How awesome is that?

You can read your voicemail through your phones, online, or even have it automatically transcribed and get it e-mailed to you.

I’ve signed up for the program; I’ll update you regularly on my progress. I have to say I’m very excited by this new use of technology, and can’t wait to try it out.

Microsoft, taking a page from Apple’s playbook, has decided to open its own chain of retail stores.

CNET is reporting that Microsoft is opening the first two stores in Arizona and California starting this fall. Those are just the first couple of stores at which you’ll be able to buy hardware, like the HP laptop shown at left, software and assorted gadgets and devices.

It’s a bold and risky move for Microsoft. Yes, Apple does very well with its retail stores; but Apple also has a cachet, a coolness, that Microsoft lacks. That doesn’t mean that Microsoft doesn’t make good stuff, because it does. It’s just that it has a different perception and reputation than Apple. Folks (like me, for instance) will see the “me-too” attempt here to duplicate Apple’s success in yet another market, like the Zune tries to be iPod-like, without success.

On the other hand, the Apple stores have helped fans connect more intimately with the company, a strategy Microsoft would also like to emulate. But it’s a hard economy in which to do something as fraught with uncertainty as opening a chain of retail stores and all the overhead of floor space, product, staff, etc. If any company in the computer industry has the bankroll to to try it, it’s Microsoft.

It will also have a new operating system to sell, with the expected launch of Windows 7 expected to coincide with the retail store openings. Will the excitement over Windows 7 and the new retail experience be enough to make the stores a success? Time will tell.

Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader is a really good product. The large screen, wireless network and print-like resolution make it a perfect gadget for those who want to combine old-fashioned reading with new-fangled technology that allows you to store multiple books, magazines and newspapers on a single device.

The Kindle has also done very well in the market, leading to the Kindle 2, released earlier this year.  The main downside to the Kindle, and Kindle 2, is the price.

Well, Amazon has done something about that, marking down the Kindle 2 to under $300.

The new price represents a $60 cut, especially significant in this economy. And the Kindle 2 includes some nice upgrades from the original. Some of the big ones include a better screen that displays text and images more clearly; more memory, for more documents; and a huge increase in the types of documents it can display, including PDF, HTML, TXT, JPEG, GIF, PNG and BMP, among others. What all those acronyms mean is that the Kindle 2 can handle all types of graphics and a wider range of text documents.

There are hundreds of thousands of free books available for the Kindle 2, and that number is increasing all the time. Add into that the fact that there’s no monthly subscription to pay, and the Kindle 2 looks like an even better value.

As I mentioned before, I’m not much of a computer gamer, except for one title: Microsoft Flight Simulator (FS).  I’m also a private pilot, and there’s one thing about FS that really bugs me; in a landing pattern, you have to push buttons to see around you. What I mean is that to look left, you push a button and see a left view out of the cockpit, and so on. In real-world flying, you look around without pushing buttons, and still have your hands on the throttle and yoke or stick. In FS, you’re pushing buttons to get a view, and it’s terribly distracting, at least for me.

That’s why my next FS-related purchase  will be NaturalPoint’s TrackIR. TrackIR is a device that grabs on to the top of your monitor and tracks your head movements. It then sends that information to the game (it can be any kind of flying or driving computer game). That means when you turn your head right, the game will follow your head movements to the right.

It’s kind of difficult to explain, so it might be best to watch a YouTube video of TrackIR in action to get a better sense of what I’m talking about. For me, this will revolutionize my flight-simming. Takeoffs and landings, in particular, will become much more realistic, and therefore help my real-world flying. Even if you only fly virtually, the TrackIR shouild be at the top of your list of gadgets to enhance your gaming.

To go with my new laptop, I decided it was time to upgrade my monitor (the laptop has a 13-inch screen; great for portability, not so good for working on all day, every day). I wanted something that wasn’t too expensive (i.e. less than $200), had HDMI inputs to get a very sharp picture, and at least 20 inches wide.

After some Internet shopping, I decided that the Acer H233H had the best combination of price and features. So earlier this week I headed to my local Best Buy and picked one up for the exceptional price of $179.

I’ve been using it most of this week, and have been very happy with it so far. Some of the features include full HD 1080p resolution, 40,000:1 contrast ratio and a maximum resolution of 1920×1080. All that means that the picture is extremely sharp and vivid. It also has DVI and HDMI interfaces, making it compatible with most modern desktops and laptops.

I had no problems setting the monitor on the base, even without looking at the directions. It worked immediately, and hasn’t caused a moment’s worth of trouble. The colors look true, and the glossy black frame helps the screen pop. My sole complaint is that the base doesn’t raise the monitor up higher. It sits fairly low on the base, and I had to put it on a small platform to get it to a comfortable eye level for me.

That’s a small nit to pick, though. On the whole, I’m quite happy with the Acer. It’s been easy on my eyes, and that’s what I need in a monitor.

I recently reviewed my new laptop, the Dell Studio XPS. I gave it a strong thumbs-up, but I may have spoken too soon. Soon after arriving, the laptop started acting up; bluescreen crashes became regular occurrences, then it started freezing at random times.

I contacted Dell support for help. To the company’s credit, tech support was for the most part knowledgeable and fast. We ultimately determined that there was corruption in the Windows Vista operating system, and a complete hard-drive wipe and re-install was necessary. Not fun at all, but worth a try.

Those are things I can do myself, so I did them, including re-installing a host of drivers I knew very little about (drivers are tiny programs that tell your hardware how to interact with your operating system). That seemed to cure the problem, but alas, it was only a tease; after another day or two, the problems (crashes, freezes) came right back. Grrrr.

I wasn’t about to go through another re-install. I told Dell to ship me out another unit, one with a properly-installed operating system. I got the new computer this afternoon, and have been installing programs like Microsoft Office yet again and using it all afternoon and evening. So far, so good; it looks like (knock on plastic) this one might be a keeper (of course, I’m undoubtedly jinxing myself by even saying it.)

My lessons learned from this: computers can be fragile things. Back up your data often (and hit “Save” often). Just because you spend a lot on a gadget, it doesn’t mean it will work out of the box (although you should be able to trust that). And Dell’s tech support, at least in my case, was very good.

I know others have had poor experiences with Dell support, but mine has been just the opposite. Yeah, I wish they’d built the computer right the first time, but they worked hard to solve the problem, and were unfailingly polite. That doesn’t often happen with computer-related tech support these days.

Anyway, I’m now happy with my Dell purchase. I hope to have another positive report in the near future.