Instant on

The computer inside a BlackBerry or iPhone boots up in seconds, so why can't your laptop? Some of Microsoft Windows' start-up time is inevitable, says computer architect Peter Glaskowsky, an analyst with the Envisioneering Group, in Seaford, N.Y. "There's too much to do-initialize all of memory, start up the hard disk, assign virtual memory, and more." He says even embedded systems like an iPhone or cable modem, which don't have to look for keyboards and printers, still take 10 to 30 seconds to do these things.