Starting a business for the first time can be a daunting task, given the financing, logistics and administration involved. Then, there’s also the IT infrastructure.

What PC to buy? Which networked printer should I install? How should I store and back up my data? Here are some suggestions from the first of our Techgoondu SME Toolbox guides to get your business started with some basic IT gear. …

What if you’re making a thin-and-light laptop that’s just shy of Intel’s ultrabook standard? You come up with another easy-to-remember marketing name, of course! And that’s just what HP has done with its new “Sleekbook”, laptops that look, er, sleek.

Available in 14-inch and 15.6-inch varieties, these Sleekbooks are Envy-branded, and each has its own ultrabook counterpart, adding up to a total of four new Envy notebooks: the Envy Sleekbook and Envy ultrabook with 14-inch screens, and the Envy Sleekbook and Envy ultrabook with 15.6-inch screens. …

If flat-screen TVs, cameras or printers had ruled previous tech bazaars in Singapore, then this year’s IT Show is surely being taken over by an overwhelming range of ultrabooks.

The latest craze among laptop makers to go really slim, yet retaining most of the power of a full-fledged machine while keeping costs relatively low, means that buyers are spoilt for choice when shopping for a PC for both work and play.

We’ve all seen how nice the first wave of ultrabooks from Asus and Lenovo are from last year. The next wave, from Acer’s Aspire Timeline Ultra to HP’s stunning Envy 14 Spectre, brings even more choice.

Here are a few to check out as you make your way through the crowds at the IT Show at Suntec City this weekend. …

If 2011 was remembered for shiny new tablets that made people part with their hard-earned cash, then 2012 may just be the one where the craze for these thin and light yet powerful and affordable ultrabooks takes off big time.

At the annual CES show just concluded earlier in the week, a good number of laptop makers joined the fray with their takes on what people would be carrying to meetings and classrooms in the coming months.

Perhaps having seen Asus, Acer and Lenovo whip up demand for such ultra-light PCs in the closing months of 2011, the likes of Sony, Dell and HP showed of their versions of the ultrabook at CES this year. Lenovo too came up with a quite surprising “yoga-like” ultrabook cum tablet.

Here’s a sneak peek.

…

Folks looking out for an ultrabook this holiday season has yet another choice on top of the increasingly crowded segment – the Lenovo U300s. Eschewing the wedge-shaped design championed by Apple and ASUS, Lenovo’s take on the ultrabook is a sensible book-shaped machine that has a nice heft and overall feel. We go hands-on! …

Asus and Acer may have been slightly earlier to the game, but the battle for the slimmest, lightest and most powerful laptop is just getting hotter with new arrivals like Toshiba’s new Portege Z830.

Shown to the media in Singapore last week, the latest in the Japanese laptop maker’s thin-and-light Portege line is just 15.9mm thin and weighs a feather-light 1.12kg. On that frame are a 13.3-inch screen and 128GB solid state drive, along with either an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 chip. …