The PC isn't personal enough today. The laptop is, and variety is this species' other name. Can you visualise one of these beauties on your lap?

DESKTOP REPLACEMENTS

Toss that chunky old computer tower out of the window and get one of these instead. Okay, they're not exactly feather-weight, and the dismal battery life is a definite killjoy. Then, these wonder machines can give any pc a run for its money. And the big screens are a definite lure.

Apple PowerBook G4 (17-inch)
Did claustrophobia keep you from buying the sexiest pc ever made, the new iMac G5? You've just gotten lucky. The Apple PowerBook-the sexiest laptop ever made-is here, and is as near as it gets to total satisfaction. The added perk? It's not heavy.
Key Specs: Motorola Power PC-1.5 GHZ G4; 512 MB DDR SDRAM; 80 GB IDE hard drive; DVD-R/CD-RW super drive; 17-inch wide-aspect TFT LCD screen with 1440x900 resolution; OS: Mac OS x 10.3
Price: Rs 1,71,400

IBM Thinkpad G40
Pardon the pun but the Thinkpad G40 equals 'think economy'. It's heavy, and could do with more memory, but it's not a bad bargain for a desktop replacement. And hey, it comes with a p4 processor.
Key Specs: Intel Pentium 4-2.2 GHZ; 128 MB DDR SDRAM; 20 GB IDE hard drive; CD-RW/DVD combo drive; 14.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1024x768 resolution; OS: Windows XP Home
Price: Rs 62,000

HP Compaq NC6000
This is a Wi-Fi enabled gadget with adequate battery life. It comes with an external wireless mouse (minus FireWire connectivity). For occasional entertainment, you can rely on its decent video and quality sound output.
Key Specs: Intel Pentium M-1.6 GHZ; 256 MB DDR SDRAM; 60 GB IDE hard drive; CD-RW/DVD combo drive; 14.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1024x768 resolution; OS: Windows XP Pro
Price: Rs 1,14,990

BUSINESS LAPTOPS

Built to be an intelligent mix of convenience and utility, these are a must-have for the corporate road warrior. The pluses: reasonable pricing, Wi-Fi functionality and easy portability. And they boast top-of-the mill battery life.

Dell Latitude D800
Handy, reliable, well-featured and, okay, a bit boring. Does everything you want it to, though. A perfect companion for the mobile professional.
Key Specs: Intel Pentium M-1.7 GHZ; 512 MB DDR SDRAM; 60 GB IDE hard drive; CD-RW/DVD combo drive; 15.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1200x800 resolution; OS: Windows XP Pro
Price: Rs 1,23,574

ULTRA PORTABLES

If you swear by the two CS of comfort and convenience, an ultra portable is just the thing for you. These machines are super light, good-looking and, ahem, desirable tag-alongs. The negatives? Low battery life, small screen and low processor speed.

IBM ThinkPad X40
Light and well-featured for its size, the X40's modular design allows you to boost capacity. Like most ultra portables, the basic X40 comes sans a built-in optical media drive. A convenient companion at just over a kilogram in weight.
Key Specs: Intel Pentium M-1 GHZ; 256 MB DDR SDRAM; 20 GB IDE hard drive; 12.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1024x768 resolution; OS: Windows XP Pro
Price: Rs 1,14,900

Apple iBook G4 (12-inch)
A virtual stunner, the new Apple iBook G4 comes in all sizes (15- and 17-inch screens are also on offer). This is the best buy around when it comes to computers. Light yet copiously featured, the machine has good battery life.
Key Specs: Motorola Power pc G4-1 GHZ; 256 MB DDR SDRAM; 40 GB IDE hard drive; 12.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1024x768 resolution; OS: Mac OS x 10.3
Price: Rs 70,900

TABLET AND CONVERTIBLE NOTEBOOKS

Machines for the technologically well-informed. they are great to look at, but all that techno-wizardry comes at a cost. And often enough, this gets in the way of performance.

Toshiba Portege M205
It comes with a swivel screen that is handy while making a quick, quality presentation. Agreed, you could do the same with a laptop that's a lot cheaper, but with something that's so cool, we wonder whether you really care about the economics.
Key Specs: Intel Pentium M-1.5 GHZ; 512 MB DDR SDRAM; 40 GB IDE hard drive; CD-RW/DVD combo drive; 15.1-inch TFT LCD screen with 1400x1040 resolution.
OS: Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Plus: Digitiser and stylus.
Price: Rs 1,71,999

-Compiled by Kushan Mitra

TREADMILL
The Virtual Trainer

It's a good trend, this new fitness craze. More people are becoming health conscious, critically focussing on what they eat and hitting the gym regularly. Yet, there's a downside to all this. I notice it all the time in the gym. While people are more aware of their health and fitness levels, awareness about exercise is seriously lacking. Only a minority can afford well-trained personal trainers or memberships to upscale gyms-even at those glass and chrome affairs, getting a top-class trained instructor isn't easy. The result: hordes of gymmers doing their exercises with the wrong techniques, putting their bodies at risk of serious injury. I know of people who've suffered slipped discs, torn ligaments, injured their knee-caps and so on probably because they followed the wrong techniques in the gym. I've also gone to gyms in India-of the opulent as well as the rudimentary variety-long enough not to expect to encounter the really super-qualified instructor. I can't even think of an institute offering a top-of-the line physical education course in India, can you?

So where do you learn the right techniques from? I'd suggest the good old world wide web. Yes, the internet. Like on everything else, the internet has millions of resources on fitness, health, exercise and diet. But I'll save you the trouble of trawling its waters and list some sites that could be of help.

EXRX.NET: This must surely be the king of exercise sites. It's an exercise instruction and kinesiology (the study of the mechanics of body movement) site that could be any gymmer's one-stop guide to exercises, muscle information and proper technique. Its exercise section is the best I've seen. Each exercise is not only analysed and cross-referenced with entries on different muscle groups, but it also has over 500 animated demonstrations of technique for every conceivable exercise. It's like having a virtual trainer who's very well-trained. The best thing about the site is its easy accessibility for people at every level-beginners, experienced gymmers and even powerlifters will find it useful. It is gender-friendly and incorporates what's probably the most scientific basis for exercises.

IVILLAGE.COM: I'm sure many of our readers are familiar with this internet resource for women. But although ivillage is about everything from relationships to parenting, home and garden, it has useful resources on health and exercises during pregnancy as well as health tips and information customised for women. A useful site to have on your favourites list.

TRULYHUGE.COM: Now, this is in the realm of the serious. Here's what separates the boys from the men. If you're truly into bodybuilding, trulyhuge is the site for you. You can sign up for the trulyhuge newsletter besides surfing the listed pages for a plethora of information on supplements, exercising, training schedules, forums and a muscle chat room that enables exchange of opinion about bodybuilding with others, both pros and amateurs.

NETSWEAT.COM: A little more commercialised than the rest, this is a site that can be a good lead to books on fitness, equipment and a guide to activities as diverse as rowing, skating, martial arts, volleyball and triathlon! Worth a look-see.

MENSHEALTH.COM: The baseline of menshealth.com simply says 'Tons of useful stuff'. Believe it. Besides fitness, weight loss and nutrition, this site of one of the most popular men's magazines also has stuff on relationships, sex, lifestyle and style. But its fitness resources are very, very good. True, there are sections that you have to pay for but there are also free resources aplenty. Add this too to your fave list. Oh, and if you're a woman, here's the site of its newly launched sister magazine, Women's Health: womenshealthmag.com. Equally good.

-Muscles Mani
write to musclesmani@intoday.com

ALL ABOUT VEG PROTEINS

Proteins are vital for good health, and if you are a vegetarian, you can still get your required quota, sans the meat. Here's a FAQ-list.

HOW MUCH: "The normal protein requirement of the body in adults is 0.8 to 1gm per kg of body weight," says Sheetal Vohra, Senior Dietician at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital. That amounts to generally 50 gm per day. Excess protein could be harmful, since it requires more energy to digest and leaves behind an acidic residue, too much of which the human body doesn't need. "The growth rate of humans is slow and higher intake of protein leads to faster degeneration," explains Anju Venkat of Mumbai Health Awareness Centre.

SOURCES: So, what are the vegetarian foods that contain protein? Milk and milk-based products, curd and paneer provide protein, as do soyabean, soya milk and tofu. Nuts like almonds, peanuts and sesame seeds are ideal as well.

FOR VEGANS: Vegans, in addition to being vegetarian, do not consume products like eggs, dairy products and honey. Sources of protein for vegans are potatoes, whole wheat bread, rice, broccoli, spinach, peas, chickpeas and peanut butter.

BENEFITS: Here's some good news for vegetarians. Diets that are rich in animal protein have been linked with osteoporosis, kidney disease, calcium stones in the urinary tract and some

CANCERS: Diets rich in veg proteins, however, contain lesser unsaturated fats, and so you are less at risk.

-Amanpreet Singh