So I was curious how many of you have
a Notebook/Laptop computer.

I have a Toshiba Satellite 4005CDS that
I bought 6+ years ago. Never had an issue
with it.

I just bought a new one. It’s an Averatec
6200 series. 2400 AMD 64 processor, 60 GHD,
DVD +/- RW/CDRW optical drive, wifi, 15.4"
widescreen, PowerNow technology.

I wanted a wide screen for working on mastering
and graphic design. I wanted an integrated
modem because I only have dial-up available
here, and integrated is better than a PCMCIA
card (Toshiba has that). I was caring so much
for the DVDRW, but it came with it. I also
wanted a larger than 40 GHD.

So far it’s beautiful! I can't believe how light
and thin it is. Well worth my money. I've saving
hard for it for 3 years.

Now I want mini-multi tracker. A little upgrade
for my project studio.

Always a little toy I want.

I've got a Dell Lattitude 366 - I got a great price on it and it gets the job done. The graphics are awful, so I've got to use the desktop for design, but I have some nifty speakers for the notebook. I listen to radio shows through it! It's main use if checking email and surfing the net.

I have a Panasonic Toughbook 18. Great laptop, virtually indestructible.

I had a laptop. A Dell. We had a falling out!
Now I don't have a laptop! I have a pile of plastic and metal.

I recently bought this Dell Inspiron 5150 and it snmokes....not literally but it's very fast and has more storage than I'll ever use in this lifetime.

I can't afford a Laptop at the moment and I want one soooooooooo badly.
I envy everyone who has one (and I am not prone to envy).
Like Andy (Hi Andy, long time no chat) I want one to listen to Radio shows and to do my photo editing and burning my mp3 files onto.
I see more and more passengers on airlines using their laptops to watch DVD's and listening to music (much larger screen than those portable DVD players).
Some day my ship will come in and I will be among the happy laptopper's. Until then I am ENVIOUS of all of you.
Iven

All I use is a Dell laptop (Inspiron 1100) Got rid of my lunky desktop, went wireless with internet and printer. I have the same memory and processor speed as my desktop with out the bulk, and much to my wife's dismay, I have more room on my desk for more magic..

Jeff

Just got a new HP Pavilion ZD7260US.

17" widescreen (1660x1200) display, 3.2 MHz Pentium 4, CD & DVD burner.

Great for playing magic DVD's while keeping prying eyes away.

Two iBooks. I've been a MacHead since 1984.

I am going to hang on and get a PcTablet. about 1-2 years wait!
infoblast...
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/11/14/tablet.pc/
Take it to a meeting and colleagues will want to borrow it to doodle. Take it out in public and people will try not to stare, but they will. Microsoft's new tablet PC has the "wow" factor going for it.

I tried out Fujitsu's Stylistic, a flashy thin, silver and black pad about 8-by-10 inches big, complete with keyboard and docking station. It looks like a designer Etch A Sketch -- except you write on it with a stylus -- and people found it to be irresistibly stylish

Or from Sony...
http://www.esato.com/archive/t.php/t-74899
Sony VAIO U-Series Notebook Combines Power of Full-size PC with Portability of PDA

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 9, 2004 _ At a shade over 1 pound, Sony's new VAIO® U Ultra Portable PC, announced today, has the heart of a PC but the soul of an entertainer.

Doubling as a portable media player, this "pocketable" PC allows you to download entertainment content and enjoy it virtually anywhere you go. Integrated 802.11 b/g wireless LAN connects you to thousands of hotspots across the country and helps you stay in touch with the Internet, email and your favorite digital content download services.

Multiple input modes contribute to the PC's extreme versatility. Using the stylus and virtual keyboard on the unit's touch panel screen, you can compose email messages or navigate files even while standing up. Handwriting recognition software simplifies note-taking or annotating documents. Users can also quickly launch programs or execute common commands with thumb-controlled action buttons, or draft longer text files with the included foldout keyboard.

I would love an i-book and also movie software to go with it!

Ellen

Is the I-book an apple thing?
I don't like apple at all. Very poor company philosophy, very good marketing gurus!

I've always heard that Apple laptops were very good. Oh, well.

This summer, I bought a Toshiba, before I knew much about laptops. By providence or coincidence, it came with Windows XP Professional (as opposed to XP Home). Saved me some bucks when I learned I needed Office Professional 2003, as I did not need to upgrade the OS!

They are very good. Ask anyone who owns one.

They are very good. Ask anyone who owns one.

You must mean. Ask anyone who was conned by slick marketing!
All Apple does is showcase the latest in superficial design. The actual guts and structure of the soft/hardware is very poor in comparison to the exterior design of their products.
The only time I advise ppl to go the apple route is when they only require a computer. When they don't need to aquire additional soft/hardware and are just going to use the computer for a simple set of tasks and don't want to get involved with computers too much.
The apple range are for ppl who don't want to fiddle too much and want a stable but limited base to work from.
This is how I differentiate the base units.
PC - ultimate flexibility for little cost. You can take a PC and make it do most anything for little money, many users and community support.
Apple - Closed system both hard/software, can only be fixed by Authorized apple dudes. inflexible for multitudes of applications, expensive to focus the unit to any application. poor support in the community.

Example: I automated 60% of a house with a PC and basic software and easy to obtain hardware. The same project with a Apple based system would have been obscene in cost.
PC cost = £5k
Apple = £13K

Apples secret motto - Its all in pretty icons and slick plastic.

Partizan, joking right?

Poor support structure? The people who are die hard Mac fans haven't been "conned" as you put it. If a product is bad, people will stop buying it even with slick marketing. You can always sell poor products with good marketing but you can't win lifelong customers without a good product and great customer service.

Many people in technology industries like them because they are much more stable for graphics and video editing.

The faults you mention are true as far as hardware and software. That is also the reason why PC's can have so many problems. Often it is a 3rd party driver that can cause problems in a PC. If you buy directly from an electronics store (ie Best Buy) they come bundled with loads of junk software that slow up the system. That being said, here in the states, when you go to buy a program most times it is compatible for PC and Mac.

My opinion is that it is better to have specific hardware/software options available from one company that are guaranteed to work right out of the box than a multitude of options. Here is a little example in story form-





Apple as a company are brilliant marketers but without a good product they would never have survived this long.

Commodore's Amiga system was the BEST computer on the market at the time but due to the attitude that commodore took (we are the best so we won't waste time trying to push it) it got very little support and now is based in Germany and as far as I know is doing ok.
Philips Corporation (formerly Advanced Technology Laboratories) Ultrasound division still uses the Amiga chipset in their high end Ultrasound cart systems for the 3D graphic's.
As most of us know, Beta was superior to VHS but the public is more concerned with flashy advertising and slick salespeople so the better system lost out to the lesser one.
Bottom line, the best is not always the most popular and when it comes to push and shove, popular will always win out.
Iven

P.S. I do believe that the Apple system is more stable than Bill Gates Windows and I know that Linux is more stable than windows. And Bill Gates, please fix your memory leaks, OK?

As I said before about Macs, ask someone who owns one, not someone who enjoys bashing Apple.

For some reason, the topic of Mac v.s PC gets many PC users so emotionally charged that they can't see the obvious fact that Apple does indeed make good products. And often their opinions are based on what they read in PC trade pubs, not from actually using one.

I've worked with PCs as well as Macs, but I prefer the later. It's a personal preference, but that doesn't mean I think PCs are junk.

One telling thing I do know is that my brother who is a product-development manager for Hewlett-Packard bought a Mac for home use, despite the fact he can get PCs virtually free.

(You're right, Iven, the Amiga system was brilliant in its day. Absolute best for multimedia.)

I have a Dell Latitude and I am eying a Powerbook, but I am waiting for the G5 to get in them

Got mine for college... scholarships are nice...

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Hewlett-Packard Pavilion zd7000 [widescreen]

3.40 gigahertz Intel Pentium 4

1.0 gigabyte RAM

260.05 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity [60 gigabyte internal 7200 RPM hard drive, external 200 gigabyte 7200 RPM USB hard drvie]

HL-DT-ST DVD+RW GCA-4040N [CD-ROM drive]

1024 Megabytes Installed Memory

NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5700 [Display adapter]

Desktop docking station with wireless mouse and keybord

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