Laptop

However, most modern mid-range laptops have integrated WiFi, so only require a wireless router to connect to the internet; or a wireless hotspot. At least one version of corporate history claims that the twenty-year-old Irving Thalberg rose so quickly because he told subordinates that he alone spoke for Carl Laemmle in making production decisions, while the others were more concerned with battling among themselves. The growth of Metropolitan area networks may render a constant connection possible in the future. For several years some of these junior partners carried considerable weight within Universal; inevitably factions and rivalries were the rule. This is possible via Wi-Fi or related technologies, but most laptops do not maintain a constant connection to the Internet. Among those early film-production studios (and their proprietors) were:. This is a myth perpetuated by many commercials, where a person is shown using the company's website from a laptop with no wires plugged into it. In the early years of Universal, the company absorbed a number of small firms.

Some computer novices assume that laptops are constantly connected to the Internet, even (for example) while located on moving vehicles. Movie Not Listed. The word laptop is often spelled incorrectly as "labtop," "lab top," or "lap top.". For example, for Waterworld in 1995, the sea level on earth rises, covering the land as the Universal title moves into place. It is sometimes preferable to use a laptop on a desk. There have been occasional modifications to the logo to match the picture. Despite their name, using a laptop on one's lap can be both unpleasant (due to heat from the computer, particularly from its CPU) and possibly even dangerous to the laptop, as it may overheat. Added to this was a dramatic, swelling theme by Jerry Goldsmith.

This still existent difference in performance continues to be minimized. This was tweaked a bit in 1997 to add lights on earth and highlights on the rotating letter-wrap. While desktops continue to outperform notebooks at the high end, both types of systems generally offer sufficient performance for the mainstream. Using CGI, the new introduction simulates a satellite-eye view of earth; as the point-of-view pulls back, a classically-styled "UNIVERSAL" moves into place like a belt. These new technologies take time to tranfer over to the laptop market because of its smaller package. To celebrate the company's seventy-fifth anniversary, the logo got a digital makeover in 1990. Desktops have outperformed mobile computers because new technologies expend more heat. Added at the bottom of the screen was the sub-head, "AN MCA COMPANY." Earlier on this was used for widescreen where the logo is slower and UNIVERSAL blurs in then A & Pictures are sandwiched on it.

Laptop performance has been inferior to desktops for the same price. When the "International" portion of the name was dropped in 1963, the logo was updated to a more stylized revolving globe inside a whirling Van Allen Belt, with the name "UNIVERSAL" centered over it. There is not a standard for A4-size laptops. Following the 1946 merger with International Pictures, a new, more conventional logo was introduced, with a realistic representation of earth shown underneath the new name "Universal-International" in a dignified type font. Outright replacement of faulty parts can include the display screen, drives, daughterboards, modem, storage devices and other components, but repair costs can be high, even when feasible (low upgradability). With new management in the mid-1930s came a completely new logo; introduced in 1937, a highly stylized glass globe, surrounded by twinkling stars, rotated to display the name "UNIVERSAL PICTURES." This logo quickly conveyed a message of "new management" while tapping into the modern movement in design. Because nearly all functions are integrated into the proprietary-design mainboard theoretically to save space and power, laptops are difficult to repair and upgrade. At the end of the movie The End is on the globe then it read " It's A UNIVERSAL PICTURE".

Many laptops also include a MiniPCI slot inside, however it is usually not intended to be utilized by the end user. An updated logo was introduced in 1929, as a biplane circling the globe "wiped" into place the words "A UNIVERSAL PICTURE". Often the CPU can also be replaced, and sometimes video card modules are upgradable too. Universal has used an image of planet Earth as their logo since the early 1920s. Upgradability is severely limited: typically only the RAM and hard drive can be upgraded. As presently structured, GE owns 80% of NBC Universal, with Vivendi holding the remaining 20%, with an option to sell its share in 2006. Performance is usually lower than that of a comparable desktop because of the compromises necessary to keep weight and power consumption low. The reorganized "Universal" film conglomerate has enjoyed several financially successful years.

Laptops generally cost more than a desktop computer of similar specification. remained the name of the production subsidiary; and while some expressed doubts that regimented, profit-minded GE and high-living Hollywood could coexist, so far the mix seems to be working. Some parts for a modern laptop have no corresponding part in a desktop computer:. The resulting media super-conglomerate was re-named NBC Universal, while Universal Studios Inc. Many parts for a laptop computer are smaller, lighter, or otherwise adapted from the corresponding part in a desktop computer:. Subsequently burdened with debt, Vivendi sold its majority share in Universal (including the studio and theme parks) to GE in 2004, parent of NBC. The pricing goal is to start at $100 and then steadily decrease. (These same properties would be bought back later at greatly inflated prices.) Seeing a way out, in June 2000, Seagram sold itself to French water-utility and media company Vivendi and the media conglomerate became Vivendi/Universal, while the music-related subsidiaries of MCA were sold to Geffen Music, thus effectively ending the existence of MCA.

Ad-hoc wireless mesh networking may be used to allow many machines Internet access from one connection. sold Universal's television holdings (including cable network USA) to Barry Diller. These machines will be rugged, Linux-based, and so energy efficient that hand-cranking alone will generate sufficient power for operation. To raise money, Seagram head Edgar Bronfman, Jr. The laptops will be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. to enter the lucrative videotape sales industry; but the up-and-down profit in Hollywood was no substitute for a secure cash-cow like whiskey. The aim is to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern forms of education. Hoping to build a media empire around Universal, Seagram bought Polygram and other entertainment properties, and created MCA/Universal Home Video Inc.

In 2005, faculty members from the MIT Media Lab including Nicholas Negroponte introduced the $100 laptop as part of the One Laptop Per Child project. This provided a cash infusion, but the clash of cultures was too great to overcome, and, in frustration, five years later Matsushita sold control MCA/Universal to the Canadian liquor-distributor Seagram. Among them were:. At this time, the production subsidiary was renamed Universal Studios Inc. Several developments specific to laptops were quickly implemented in their design, improving their usability and performance compared to desktop computers. Anxious to expand its broadcast and cable presence, in 1990 Lew Wasserman, now head of MCA, sought a rich partner, of MCA/Universal to Matsushita Electric, the Japanese electronics manufacturer. As technology improved during the 1990s, the usefulness and popularity of laptops increased while prices went down. There would be other film hits like E.T: The Extra-Terrestrial, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park, but overall the film business was still hit-and-miss.

Later PowerBooks introduced the first 256-color displays, first true touchpad, and first built-in Ethernet networking. Weekly series production was the workhorse of the company. The following year, IBM released its Thinkpad series, offering similar miniaturization. Though Universal's film unit did produce occasional hits, among them Airport, The Sting, American Graffiti, and a blockbuster that restored the company's fortunes, Jaws, Universal in the 1970s was primarily a television studio. The Apple PowerBook series, introduced in 1991, heralded many changes that are now standard on laptops, including ergonomic improvements such as the placement of the keyboard at the back of the machine, thus creating a palm rest, and the inclusion of a built-in pointing device (a trackball). An innovation of which Universal was especially proud was the creation in this period of the ninety-minute, made-for-television movie. In the absence of a true Apple laptop, several compatible machines such as the Outbound Laptop were available for Mac users; however, for copyright reasons, the user had to supply a set of Mac ROMs, which usually meant having to buy a new or used Macintosh as well. Television now carried the load, as Revue-MCA dominated the American networks, particularly NBC (which later merged with Universal to form NBC Universal-see below), where for several seasons it provided up to half of all prime time shows.

Another "luggable," rather than laptop, the Mac Portable was praised for its clear active matrix display and long battery life, but was a poor seller due to its bulk. But it was too late, since the audience was no longer there, and by 1968, the film-production unit began to downsize. The first Apple Computer machine designed to be used on the go was the 1989 Macintosh Portable (although an LCD screen had been an option for the transportable Apple IIc in 1984). And so, with MCA in charge, for a few years in the 1960s Universal became what it had never been: a full-blown, first-class movie studio, with leading actors and directors under contract; offering slick, commercial films; and a studio tour subsidiary (launched in 1964). Truly the size of a notebook, they had hard drives and standard-resolution screens. As a last gesture before getting out of the talent agency business, virtually every MCA client was signed to a Universal contract. The first notebook computers with standard drives were the Compaq LTE series, introduced toward the end of that year. remained a subsidiary only engaged in export/international release of Universal product.

The NEC Ultralite, released in mid-1989, was perhaps the first notebook computer, weighing just over 2 kg; in lieu of a floppy or hard drive, it contained a 2-megabyte RAM drive, but this reduced its utility as well as its size. Universal-International Pictures Inc. By the end of the 1980s, laptop computers were becoming popular among business people. The actual, long-awaited takeover of Universal Pictures by MCA finally took place in mid-1962, and the production subsidiary reverted in name to Universal Pictures, while the parent company became MCA/Universal Pictures Inc. Although it anticipated the future miniaturization of the portable computer, as a ROM-based machine with a small display it can — like the TRS-80 Model 100 — also be seen as a foreruner of the PDA. The studio lot was upgraded and modernized, while MCA clients like Doris Day, Lana Turner, and Cary Grant were signed to Universal Pictures contracts. About the size of an A4 sheet of paper, it ran on standard batteries, and contained basic spreadsheet, word processing, and communications programs. Although MCA owned the studio lot, but not Universal Pictures, it was increasingly influential on Universal's product.

Another notable computer was the Cambridge Z88, designed by Clive Sinclair, introduced in 1988. After a period of complete shutdown, a moribund Universal agreed to sell its (by now) 360-acre (1.5 km²) studio lot to MCA in 1958, for $11 million. These also introduced the now-standard "resume" feature to DOS-based machines; the computer could be paused between sessions, without having to be restarted each time. Talent agent MCA had also become a powerful television producer, renting space at Republic Studios for its Revue Productions subsidiary. Although limited floppy-based DOS machines (the operating system was stored in ROM), the Toshiba machines were small and light enough to be carried in a backpack, and could be run off lead-acid batteries. The combination of the studio/theater-chain break-up and the rise of television saw the mass audience drift away, probably forever. Among the first commercial IBM-compatible laptops were the IBM PC Convertible, introduced 1986, and the Toshiba T1000 and T1200, introduced 1987. By the late 1950s, the motion picture business was in trouble.

Initial specs included 8 kb of RAM (expandable to 24 kb) and a 3 MHz processor. This kind of arrangement would become the rule for many future productions at Universal, and eventually at other studios as well. It weighed less than 2 kg (4 lb) with dimensions of 30 x 21.5 x 4.5 cm (12 x 8.5 x 1.75 inches). When one of those films, Winchester '73 proved to be a hit, Stewart became a rich man. Due to its portability, good battery life (and ease of replacement), reliability (it had no moving parts), and low price (as little as US $300), the model was highly regarded, becoming a favorite among journalists. Wasserman's deal gave Stewart a share in the profits of three pictures in lieu of a large salary. With its internal modem, it was a highly portable communications terminal. Leading actors were increasingly free to work where and when they chose, and in 1950 MCA agent Lew Wasserman made a deal with Universal for his client James Stewart that would change the rules of the business.

The computer was not a clamshell, but provided a tiltable 8×40-character LCD screen above a full-travel keyboard. case. The Tandy's internal programs, including a BASIC interpreter, a text editor, and a terminal program, were supplied by Microsoft, and are thought to have been written in part by Bill Gates himself. Paramount Pictures, et al. The machines ran on standard AA batteries. vs. Although it was at first a slow seller in Japan, it was quickly licensed by Tandy Corporation, Olivetti, and NEC, who saw its potential and marketed it as the Olivetti M-10, NEC PC-8201, and [1] Radio Shack TRS-80_Model_100_line or Tandy 100. Though Decca would continue to keep picture-budgets lean, they were favored by changing circumstances in the film business, as other studios let their contract-actors go in the wake of the 1948 U.S.

1983 also saw the launch of what was probably the biggest-selling early laptop, the Kyocera Kyotronic 85. At this point Rank lost interest and sold his shares to the investor Milton Rackmil, whose Decca Records would take full control of Universal in 1952. Both had LCD displays, and had optional printers that attached to their cases. By the late 1940s, Goetz was out, and the studio reverted once more to the low-budget fare it knew best. Like the GriD Compass, the Gavilan and the Sharp were housed in clamshell cases, but they were partly IBM-compatible, although primarily running their own system software. While there were to be a few hits like The Egg & I, The Killers, and Naked City, the studio still struggled. The Gavilan was notably the first computer to be marketed as a "laptop." It was also equipped with a pioneering touchpad-like pointing device, installed on a panel above the keyboard. William Goetz, a founder of International, was made head of production at the re-named (as Universal-International Pictures Inc.) production arm of the Universal Pictures complex (distribution and copyright control remained under the name of Universal Pictures Company Inc.; Universal-International Pictures additionally served Universal as an import-export subsidiary, and copyright holder for the production arm's films), and he set out an ambitious schedule.

Two other noteworthy early laptops were the Sharp PC-5000 (1983) and the Gavilan SC, announced in 1983 but first sold in 1984. While trying to improve the quality of the studio's output, he instigated a merger in 1946 with a struggling American independent production company, International Pictures. GRiD Systems Corp was later bought by Tandy (RadioShack). Arthur Rank bought a one-fourth interest in Universal in 1945. The GRiD company subsequently earned significant returns on its patent rights as its innovations became commonplace. After the War, looking to expand his American presence, the British entrepreneur J. military, and was used on the Space Shuttle during the 1980s. During the war years Universal did have a co-production arrangement with producer Walter Wanger and his partner, director Fritz Lang, but their pictures were a small bit of quality in a schedule dominated by the likes of Cobra Woman and Frontier Gal.

However, it was used heavily by the U.S. Fields, and Marlene Dietrich. It was not IBM-compatible, and its high price (US$ 10,000) meant that it was limited to specialized applications. Low and medium budget fare dominated through the years of World War II, when the studio's most popular stars were the many cast-off Paramount players like Mae West, W.C. The computer could be run from batteries, and was equipped with a 320×200-pixel plasma display and 384-kilobyte bubble memory. Only the films of young singer Deanna Durbin were given reasonably high budgets, under the control of Joe Pasternak upon his emigration from Europe; if any one star can be said to have kept Universal in business during the early 1940s, it was Durbin, despite her often being woefully miscast as a young teenager when she was, clearly, a fully adult woman. Enclosed in a magnesium case, it introduced the now familiar clamshell design, in which the flat display folded shut against the keyboard. By the start of World War II, the company was concentrating on small-budget production of the fare that had once been Universal's sidelines: westerns, melodramas, serials and sequels to the studio's horror classics.

However, arguably the first true laptop was the GRiD Compass 1101, designed by Bill Moggridge in 1979, and released in 1982. Gone were the big ambitions, and though Universal had few big names under contract, those it had been cultivating, like William Wyler and Margaret Sullavan, now left. While it was made to be used upon one's lap, it weighed 150 pounds, and therefore could not be deemed truly portable. The Laemmles were unceremoniously removed from all association with the company, and the new owners instituted severe cuts in production budgets. Another claim to be the "first laptop" was made by a novice programmer Thomas Kelly in 1982. When production dragged on, a cash-strapped studio could not repay the loan, and the bank foreclosed, claiming the pledged collateral, the Laemmle family's stock in (and therefore control of) Universal Pictures Company Inc. (IBM's own later Portable Computer, which arrived in 1984, was notably less IBM-compatible than the Compaq.). Throughout its twenty-plus years' existence, Universal had never borrowed money; to complete production on "Show Boat" the studio turned to the Standard Chartered Bank for a $750,000 production loan.

Although scarcely more portable than the Osborne machines, and also requiring AC power to run, it ran MS-DOS and was the first true IBM clone. His intentions to upgrade production resulted in, in 1935, a lavish, all-star remake of Show Boat. This would prove to be a costly production for the studio, and for the Laemmle family. A more enduring success was the Compaq Portable, the first product from Compaq, introduced in 1983, by which time the IBM Personal Computer had become the standard platform. held fast to distribution, studio and production operations. However, it was not possible to run the Osborne on batteries; it had to be plugged in. The theater chain was scrapped, but Laemmle Jr. The Osborne was about the size of a portable sewing machine, and importantly could be carried on a commercial aircraft. Taking on the task of modernizing and upgrading a film conglomerate in the depths of the depression was risky, and for a time Universal slipped into receivership.

This and other "luggables" were inspired by what was probably the first portable computer, the Xerox NoteTaker, developed at Xerox PARC in 1976; however, only ten prototypes were built. Other Laemmle productions of this period include Imitation of Life and My Man Godfrey. Although it was large and heavy compared to today's laptops, with a tiny CRT monitor, it had a near-revolutionary impact on business, as professionals were able to take their computer and data with them for the first time. also created a successful niche for the studio, beginning a long-running series of horror classics, among them Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Mummy. The first commercially available portable computer was the Osborne 1 in 1981, which used the CP/M operating system. Laemmle, Jr. Before laptop computers were technically feasible, similar ideas had been proposed, most notably Alan Kay's Dynabook concept, developed at Xerox PARC in the early 1970s. His early efforts included the 1929 version of Show Boat, the first color musical; King of Jazz; and All Quiet on the Western Front, winner of the "Best Picture" award for 1930.

. saw what his father could not, and acted at once to bring Universal up to date, by buying and building theaters, converting the studio to sound production, and upgrading the quality of production. In addition to a built-in keyboard, they may utilize a touchpad (also known as a trackpad) or a pointing stick for input, though an external mouse or keyboard can usually be attached. To his credit, Laemmle, Jr. Laptops usually have liquid crystal displays and use SO-DIMM (Small Outline DIMM) modules (rather than the larger DIMMs used in desktop computers) for their RAM. benefitted from one of the greatest acts of nepotism in Hollywood history when his father handed him the keys to — and control of — Universal City as a twenty-first birthday gift in 1928. Laptops contain components that are similar to those in their desktop counterparts and perform the same functions but are miniaturized and optimized for mobile use and efficient power consumption. Carl Laemmle, Jr.

Laptops are capable of many of the same tasks that desktop computers perform, although they are typically less powerful for the same price. Nazi persecution and a change in ownership for the parent Universal Pictures organization resulted in the dissolution of this subsidiary. Laptops usually run on batteries, but also from adapters which also charge the battery using mains electricity. In the USA, Universal Pictures did not distribute any of this subsidiary's films, but at least some of them were exhibited through other, independent, foreign-language film distributors based in New York, without benefit of English subtitles. Terms for subtypes of notebooks (and related computer types) include:. With the advent of sound, these productions were made in the German language or, occasionally, Hungarian or Polish. A laptop computer (also known as notebook computer) is a small mobile personal computer, usually weighing from 1 to 3 kilograms (2 to 7 pounds). This unit produced 3-4 films per year until 1936, migrating to Hungary and then Austria in the face of Hitler's increasing domination of central Europe.

Zyrex. In 1926, Universal also opened a production unit in Germany, Deutsche Universal-Film AG, under production direction of Joe Pasternak. Winbook. Mayer company. Voodoo PC - Envy. For a few years in the early twenties the young producer Irving Thalberg tried to improve the quality of Universal's output, but he left in 1923 for a better opportunity with the Louis B. Rock Direct. Content with a market in small towns, its product was primarily melodramas, cheap westerns, and serials.

Relion. By the early 1920s, as the other studios soared, Universal was decidedly in the second rank. Toshiba - Dynabook, Portege, Tecra, Satellite, Qosmio, Libretto. He also financed all of his own films, refusing to take on debt. Tadpole - SPARCbook. Unlike rivals Adolph Zukor, William Fox and Marcus Loew, Laemmle chose not to develop a theater chain. Sager - NP series. Despite Laemmle's role as an innovator, as a studio head he was extremely cautious, and within a few years the rapidly expanding film business had passed him by.

Sony - VAIO. Studio management now became the third facet of Universal's operations, with the studio incorporated as a distinct subsidiary organization. Samsung - Sens. Following the westward trend of the industry, in 1915, Laemmle opened the world's largest motion-picture production facility, Universal City Studios, on a 230-acre (0.9 km²) converted farm just over the Cahuenga Pass from Hollywood. Panasonic - Toughbook. By naming the stars of films, he was able to attract many of the leading players of the time, and created the star-system which helps sell films today. Packard Bell - EasyNote. Though dodging the Edison trust, the new Universal company was an immediate success, in part because Laemmle broke with Edison's custom of refusing credit to actors.

NEC - VERSA. Film production and distribution were the Universal company's activities. Medion. Eventually all would be bought out by Laemmle. Linuxcertified - Linux laptop. While Laemmle was the primary figure in Universal, by absorbing several smaller firms he acquired a number of partners, among them Mark Dintinfass, Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel, and Pat Powers. LG - XNOTE. That company quickly evolved into the "Independent Moving Picture Company", or IMP; and a further reorganization in 1911 saw IMP reincorporate as the "Universal Film Manufacturing Co.," on June 8, 1912, introducing the word "universal" into the organization's name.

Lenovo - IBM ThinkPad. Soon Laemmle and other disgruntled nickelodeon owners saw that a way to avoid paying Edison was to produce their own pictures, and in June 1909, Laemmle and partners started the Yankee Film Company. iQon - Qompanion. Using Edison's patent on the electric motor used in cameras and projectors, the trust collected fees on all aspects of movie production and exhibition, and also held a monopoly on distribution. Hypersonic. For Laemmle and other such entrepreneurs, the creation in 1908 of the Edison-backed Motion Picture Trust meant that exhibitors were expected to pay fees for any trust-produced film they showed. Hewlett Packard - HP Pavilion and HP Omnibook. Within weeks of his Chicago trip, he gave up dry-goods to buy the first of several nickelodeons.

Gericom. One story has Laemmle watching a box office for hours, counting patrons and calculating the take for the day. Gateway. On a 1905 buying trip to Chicago, he was struck by the popularity of nickelodeons. Fujitsu Siemens - Lifebook. Carl Laemmle partnered with Abe Stern and Julius Stern to create Universal Pictures. ECS. The founder of Universal, Carl Laemmle, was an German Jewish immigrant who had settled in Wisconsin, where he managed a clothing store.

Dell - Inspiron and Latitude. The longest-lived Hollywood film production company, Universal Pictures can trace its origins back to the creation in 1909 of a predecessor, the Yankee Film Company. Compaq - EVO, Armada, LTE, and Presario. . Clevo. Distribution and other corporate, administrative offices are based in New York City. Bacoc. Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal, has production studios and offices located at 100 Universal City Plaza Drive in Universal City, California, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County between Los Angeles and Burbank.

Averatec. Los Angeles Library Photo Collection "Nestor Studios" . ASUS. Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills - map Providencial and Water Development. Apple Computer - iBook, PowerBook and MacBook Pro. Los Angeles Library Photo Collection "Bird-Eye View of Universal City" 1911. Alienware - Area 51m, Sentia and Aurora m series. Putnam's Sons, 1931, illustrated.

Acer - TravelMate and Aspire. G.P. These devices weigh about 500 g (about 1 lb) and often take the name "power brick.". The Life and Adventures of Carl Laemmle. Most laptops are powered or recharged from an external AC converter that usually takes the form of a plain black rectangular box. Drinkwater, John. Docking stations may be used for expanding connectors and quickly connecting many components to the laptop, although they are falling out of favour as laptops' integral capabilities increase and USB allows several peripherals to be connected through one plug. New York: Vintage, 1994.

Batteries gradually degrade over time and eventually need to be replaced, depending on the charging and discharging pattern, from one to five years. Movie-Made America. Typical battery life for most laptops is two to five hours with light-duty use, but may drop to as little as one hour with intensive use. Skalr, Robert. Current models use lithium ion batteries, which have largely replaced the older nickel metal-hydride technology. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998. At one point, the Pismo G3, at up to 500 MHz, was faster than the fastest desktop G3 (then the B&W G3), which ran at 450 MHz. When Hollywood Had a King.

However, the PowerPC G3 and G4 processor generations have been able to offer almost the same performance as their desktop versions, limited mostly by lower performance in other parts of the system bus bandwidth and peripheral units) in Apple's notebooks; recently, though, with the introduction of the G5s, they have been far outstripped. Bruck, Connie. Generally, notebook processors are less powerful than their desktop counterparts, owing to the need to conserve electricity and reduce heat output. New York: Crown Publishers, 1998. Motorola and IBM develop and manufacture the PowerPC chips for Apple notebooks. The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA and the Hidden History of Hollywood. Notebook processor: There are a wide range of notebook processors available from Intel (Pentium M (with Centrino technology), Celeron, Intel Core Duo and Centrino Duo) and from AMD (Athlon, Turion 64, and Sempron). McDougal, Dennis.

Modern laptops can often handle sophisticated games, but tend to be limited by their fixed screen resolution and display adapter type. New York: Fireside, 1989. Display adapters and sound cards are integrated. The Hollywood Studios. Internal hard disks are smaller—2.5 inch (64 mm) compared to the standard desktop 3.5 inch (90 mm) drive—and usually have lower performance and power consumption. Mordden, Ethan. Most modern laptops use an active matrix display with resolutions of 1024 by 768 pixels (XGA) and above, screen sizes 10 inch (250 mm) or larger, and have a PC-Card expansion bay for expansion cards, formerly called PCMCIA. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.

Internal modems and standard serial, parallel, and PS/2 ports on IBM PC-compatible laptops made it easier to work away from home; the addition of Ethernet networking ports and, from 1997, USB, and from 1999, Wi-Fi, made laptops as easy to use with peripherals as a desktop computer. The Genius of the System. Improved interconnectivity. Schatz, Thomas. As thin, high-capacity hard disk drives with higher reliability and shock resistance and lower power consumption became available, users could store their work on laptop computers and take it with them. Rex Motion Picture Co., William Swanson. Early laptops had only floppy disk drives. Powers Motion Picture Co., Pat Powers, president.

Improved hard disk technology. The New York Motion Picture Company, Charles Baumann and Adam Kessel, proprietors. Improvements in production technology meant displays became larger, sharper, had higher display resolution, and could display color with great accuracy, making them an acceptable substitute for a traditional CRT monitor. Nestor Motion Picture Company, David Horsley. Early laptop screens were black and white or grayscale passive-matrix LCD displays prone to heavy shadows and blurry movement (some portable computer screens were sharper monochrome plasma displays, but these drew too much current to be powered by batteries). Champion Motion Picture Co., Mark Dintinfass, president. Improved liquid crystal display design, in particular active-matrix display technology, and increasingly, color screens. Miami Vice (2006).

While laptops in 1991 were limited to the slower 80286 processor because of the energy demands of the more powerful 80386, the introduction of the Intel 386SX processor, designed for the specific power needs of laptops, marked the point at which laptop needs were included in processor design. Nanny McPhee (2006). Power-saving processors. Curious George (2006). The heavy lead-acid batteries were replaced with lighter and more efficient technologies, first nickel metal hydride (NiMH) and then lithium ion and lithium polymer. Two for the Money (2005). Improved battery technology. The Skeleton Key (2005).

Computers larger than PDAs but smaller than notebooks are also sometimes a called palmtops. Serenity (2005). Powerful laptops (often heavy) designed to compete with the computing power offered by a typical desktop are sometimes known as desktop replacements. The Producers (2005). Notebooks weighing around 5 kg are sometimes termed desknotes (desktop/notebook). Prime (2005). Notebooks smaller than a A4 sheet of paper and weighing around 1 kg are sometimes called sub-notebooks or subnotebooks. The Perfect Man (2005).

Munich (2005). King Kong (2005). Kicking & Screaming (2005). Jarhead (2005).

Cinderella Man (2005). The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005). Van Helsing (2004). Ray (2004, distribution).

Meet the Fockers (2004). In Good Company (2004). Friday Night Lights (2004). The Chronicles of Riddick (2004).

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004). The Bourne Supremacy (2004). Seabiscuit (2003). The Rundown (2003).

Peter Pan (2003). Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). Love Actually (2003). Hulk (2003).

Honey (2003). The Cat in the Hat (2003). Bruce Almighty (2003). American Wedding (2003).

2 Fast 2 Furious (2003). 8 Mile (2002). The Bourne Identity (2002). Jurassic Park III (2001).

American Pie 2 (2001). The Mummy Returns (2001). A Beautiful Mind (2001, distribution). Erin Brockovich (2000, distribution).

End of Days (1999). American Pie (1999). The Mummy (1999). The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997).

Daylight (1996). Casino (Film) (1995). Balto (1995). Apollo 13 (1995).

Junior (1994). We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993, distribution). Schindler's List (1993). Jurassic Park (1993).

Carlitos Way (1993). Scent of a Woman (1992). Child's Play 3 (1991). Kindergarten Cop (1990).

Child's Play 2 (1990). Back to the Future Part III (1990). An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1990). Back to the Future Part II (1989).

The Land Before Time (1988 plus sequels). Jaws: The Revenge (1987). An American Tail (1986). The Breakfast Club (1985).

Back to the Future (1985). Sixteen Candles (1984). Scarface (1983). Jaws 3-D (1983).

The Thing (1982). Sophie's Choice (1982). Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). the Extra-Terrestrial (1982).

E.T. Conan the Barbarian (1982). On Golden Pond (1981). The Blues Brothers (1980 plus sequel 2000).