i bought this laptop because a had to change my vaio, and I think that toshiba is an excellent device, but to be honest i want to change vista. 1.0 I have a Toshiba Satellite A215 and experienced the blank screen pretty much every day. Wasted many hours on the phone with Toshiba techs reinstalling Vista, updating the Video Driver and BIOS which DOESN'T WORK. So I thought what the hey I'll just go without a computer for a week and have Toshiba fix it. Sent it in (which was a major hassle to go through UPS) and about a week later I got it back. Whoo Hoo!! Finally, a working computer right?! WRONG!! About 2-3 hours after running it BLANK SCREEN STRIKES AGAIN!!!! (All they did was update BIOS) So for those of you thinking about sending your A215 in to Toshiba DON'T DO IT!! It will come back still defective. My story however I believe at this point ends happily because of a suggestion someone posted on this site a couple weeks ago. This was the user's suggestion "If you are running VISTA, try going to the Power Options, advanced options, processor power management, and change the value of the minimum processor state to 100%." (THANKS RICARDO!!!) It's been a week now and still no blank screen. My computer NEVER has gone that long without blanking out so I'm extremely hopeful the problem is solved. Hope this works for everyone..... -Trevor -1.0 The iBook G4 line has been incredibly successful, for Apple. Why? It combines a beautiful and sleek form factor, while at the same time being a machine capable of getting your tasks completed. Improvements - What were the improvements in the July 2005 update to iBook? Faster Processor - The G4 chip was increased in the 14-inch model, from 1.33 GHZ to 1.42GHZ. Big improvement? No, but it is good to always improve performance. The system bus speed in the 14-inch iBook was also increased, from 133MHZ to 142MHZ. More memory - The memory in the iBook has been doubled, with a now standard 512 MB DDR SDRAM, which speeds up your entire experience on the iBook, particularly, when multi-tasking. The iBook also has an open user-accessible slot, where you can add 256 MB, 512 MB, or an entire gigabyte of DDR SDRAM. However, the now standard 512 MB, allows the majority of users to fully appreciate the iBook out of the box. Store More Stuff - The hard drive has been increased to 60 GB, from the 40 GB that was previously standard on the 14-inch. This is important, for people are constantly putting more music, photos, and applications on their systems. This hard drive will hold thousands of songs and photos, but video takes up space fast, so be careful with that.Even More Wireless - Airport Extreme, for wireless networking, continues to be standard, but Apple has also made bluetooth technology standard, with this iBook. Bluetooth allows you to use wireless bluetooth mice, keyboards, mobile phones, etc. It is a great technology and helps to clean-up your desktop by doing away with some of the cords. Core Image Compatible - The new IBook G4's video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon 9550, which is core-image compatible. This allows you to take advantage of Mac OS X Tiger's core-image technology, including the well-known "droplet" effect, when you open a widget. The great iBook features that continue to shine: A buyer of the iBook will continue to enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, which is the best consumer operating system in the world. It works seamlessly with the hardware to provide a simple, fast, elegant, and reliable experience. One of the favorite descriptions of Mac fans, to describe Macs, is simply, "it just works." The iBook continues to include iLife '05, with great applications such as iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, iTunes, and Garageband. These are all included, with every iBook G4. You will be challenged to find any PC notebook that includes applications that come anywhere close to the iLife suite. Manage thousands of your digital images in iPhoto, create home movies in iMovie, and create professional music in Garageband. Appleworks is included for simply word processing, spreadsheets, etc., but you might want to pick up Microsoft Office for Mac. A student/teacher edition is available, for just over $100. Superdrive - The Apple SuperDrive allows you to burn music and data CDs, plus you can burn your own DVDs! Edit home videos in iMovie, put together a beautiful DVD menu to access those home movies in iDVD, and then burn it all to DVD! Furthermore, you can use your Superdrive to back-up important data to DVD. Form Factor - The iBook's strong, white casing is rugged. It is, unfortunately, prone to scratching, so be careful. However, the iBook is strong, and there are many stories of it taking a beating, but kept on performing. Drawbacks? The 14-inch iBook G4 has a drawback when it comes to video output options. The 14-inch iBook only supports mirroring to an external display, and you cannot close the iBook, while connected to an external display, or it goes to sleep. Furthermore, the iBook splits the video memory between an external display and its on built-in LCD, no matter what you do. The external display is also limited to 1024x768, since it mirrors the iBook's own display. What does this mean? If you want a notebook that works beautifully with a big external display, when you're back at your desk, then you probably do not want an iBook. However, if you're going to use the iBook as its intended, as a notebook computer, it is a fantastic choice. Furthermore, the 14.1" display runs at a resolution of only 1024x768. This is not a particularly high resolution. In fact, it is the same resolution as the 12-inch iBook. This means you will not fit anything more onto 14-inch iBook display than you would the 12-inch display. The 14-inch display simply makes things look bigger, which is an advantage, if you have a difficult time seeing things up-close.Overall, the July 2005 update to the iBook G4 has made Apple's consumer notebook even more competitive in the market. It is faster, has more memory, a bigger hard drive, and bluetooth technology built-in. Furthermore, you'll continue to enjoy Mac OS X Tiger, iLife '05, and the other great Macintosh applications. The 14-inch iBook does not offer any more screen real estate than the 12-inch model, but things will appear larger, for those with poor eyesight. Of course, a larger size and slight increase in weight are consequences of the larger screen, but you are also rewarded with a standard superdrive for burning DVDs, which is not even an option on the 12-inch iBook. The new iBook G4 is a brilliant machine, and it is sure to find its way onto many desks in the coming months. 1.0 I just adore this laptop! I am a recent convert to Mac and treated myself to the 17 inch MacBook Pro when I first opened my small business earlier this year. I liked it a lot so bought myself this small 13 inch to use at home and to carry on business trips. Well, I soon found myself completely attached to this smaller machine. It is lightweight and has a battery that lasts an impressively long time. I can carry it anywhere and be set up to go in a flash, wherever there is a wireless connection. And the speed of the wireless is terrific! I also purchased an Airport Extreme and am now running my home network through its new, faster n standard. I have an old digital camera that was a huge hassle to use with Windows. I had to download software and there were always glitches when I tried to upload photos from the camera card. Now, with the MacBook's iPhoto, no software is necessary. I just plug the camera into the laptop via a USB connector and the software does the rest. I had pretty much given up on digital photography, but now find that I am using the camera a lot and easily sharing pictures with friends over the Web. The only drawback to this laptop is that it gets quite hot when it's in use for awhile. (I've noticed that happens with my MacBook Pro too, as well as with other laptops I've had. But the Pro doesn't present a problem because I don't use it on my lap because it's a bit too large for comfort). So I purchased a lightweight, insulated lap pad and now I have no problem keeping the MacBook on my lap for hours.I am incredibly enthused about the 13 inch MacBook and highly recommend it to everyone. It is a great value for the price. I only wish I had converted to Mac sooner. 1.0 I bought this laptop on the 2nd day after it release. I am happy user until now although it cost more than other PC laptop. But there are many advantages that makes Macbook Pro be the top machine today.Pro: Fast Speed - I am a photoshop user. This machine runs very fast. Almost as good as the mac pro. I run WindowXP and OS X at the same time, very smooth. Some people complaint heat of the old MBP, I haven't experience heat problem at all. I believe Apple fix the problem in this new MBP. Beautiful screen - I have the Matte screen, very bright, nice color. Very good view angle. Operating SystemOS X - very stable and user friendly. Can't wait for the Leopard release.Battery life last upto 5-6 hours depends on how you used it. For movies, expect 3 -4 hours.Parallels support I didn't miss the Window at all. SupportXP/Vista. Window Xp runs even faster and stable on MBP than the PC.Slim design, weight Only 5.3lbs, lighter than another 15.4 laptop. Web cam, bluetooth, Isync, build in Mic. Apple just make very thing user friendly, they know what user looking for. At the end, I Iike the touch of the keyboard.Con: Pricey. But worth every penny 1.0 I bought a Titanium laptop - at full price several years ago when they were the new hot thing. It has never been much more than a door stop. It came with a 10 GB hard drive, the operating system took up most of that space. I also purchased extra memory from the merchant (MacMall) which was installed at time of purchase.I had never before been disappointed in a Mac - it was my 4th mac purchase.Because it was such a dog, I never used it much and finally well after warranty it broke. I brought it to the "genius" bar, on the north shore of Massachusetts, for help. They took it in, fixed the problem... it wasn't a memory problem, but they insisted on removing the additional memory because it wasn't apple memory - making the machine more of a dog than before.So finally I take it again on vacation and I am so frustrated, I try the "genius" bar again at Derby Street mall in Hingham. they could not get me more "apple" memory, they could not put in a bigger hard drive. They were supercilious and dismissive , I assume because I didn't have the latest and greatest mac - I have a top of the line G5 at home. like I would think about buying another laptop from apple after this experience?Just really want you to know what it is like to deal with the bad side of Apple. I figure at somewhere around $2500 - I have maybe used it 20 times if that - I spent over $100 per use. Call me a very disappointed laptop customer.Moira Ashleigh -1.0 Checking PC World and PC Magazine, all the budget PCs they choose to review are $1,200+ machines. With rebates, I paid little more than half that and am very pleased. I was concerned that the RAM hungry Vista would make this IGB RAM product sluggish, but it seems super-fast compared to the 4 year old XP loaded Dell Latitude that it replaces and that cost around $1,500. That said, we don't use it for games or heavy graphics work. The Windows Experience Index (Start | right click Computer | left click Properties) gives it a Vista capability score of only 3 out of 5. However, click on the link next to Ratings and the detail reveals that it is only the graphics capability that drags the score down: it gets:Processor 4.6Memory 4.5Graphics 3.1Gaming Graphics 3.0Hard Disc 4.6So maybe this is not a machine for graphic designers or gamers.Nevertheless, the screen is bright and clear, if a tad too reflective. The 15.4" (diagonal) screen, actually 13" x 8" (1.625:1) has to be navigated using a 60mm x 45mm (1.3:1) touch-pad, which is about the aspect ratio of my old desk-top monitor. As a result, it is sometimes difficult to drag an object all the way across the screen without dropping it in the wrong place. Vista takes some getting used to and I have yet to understand the hype surrounding it. I find its constant security warnings very aggravating but just could not find a new XP loaded laptop available. This machine is light on serious software and high on junk. I guess the price is kept low partly by filling the desktop with paid links to trial versions of software that the vendor hopes we'll buy. I am sure many PC novices are scared to delete this garbage. The worst of these is MS Office. Start using this and producing documents and you'll find that you have to cough-up a lot of money when the free trial period is over in order to even view your own files. It does have the lightweight MS Works, which is OK if you don't share files with others in business where it is almost never used. There are plenty of ports. 4 convenient full sized USB ports around the machine's periphery and one mini-USB, one COM port, one LAN outlet, one RG11 phone jack, a PC card slot, a PS1 socket, mic and headphone jacks, a PC Card slot and a slot for media cards such as flash memory. Note that there is no LPT1 parallel printer outlet, which is normal these days. We figured we could overcome that with a parallel to USB converter, but it wasn't until we bought one that we realized that Vista does not support it, so we ended up having to replace our trusty laser printer.All in all, this machine is great value for money and highly recommended, unless perhaps you need fast graphics. 1.0 THIS IS A NO STAR REVIEW IN MY OPINION!If you are looking for a Notebook or Laptop, please be extremely wary of anything with the Averatec label.Please remember that you get what you pay for, and for slightly more you can purchase a satisfactory product from many well known reputable manufacturers.Although I did not purchase my 4100 series from Amazon (not available at the time)I feel duty bound to speak out about this grossly inferior product.Within one week the DVD-RW drive began functioning intermittently and ultimately failed completely. Then the battery would not charge fully, and would not last over a half hour. The heat problem was so bad that you could barely touch the case bottom. Even the keyboard would feel quite warm to the touch. (fine for Igloo living)Lastly, the machine began taking several minutes to boot-up and programs operated at blimp speed.The worst thing was that it was a gift to my Son, who was leaving in two days for Europe where he resides. Unfortunately there was no warranty service available to him there.Had I been able to purchase the Notebook from Amazon, it would have been covered under their excellent Returns policy. Why go through all of that when you can save a lot of time and grief by purchasing a known brand.Michael in Tucson -1.0 I bought one recently and found that the black color really is a better choice because of its cool looking. I have tried MacBook Pro (the recent release) for a week and found that this little black one is not as hot as its big brother. I was so suprised by that since my other friend has the old white version of MacBook and it is hot while not running anything.This laptop is speedy, cool looking and cool running as well. With Parallels running Windows XP, it it really the ultimate laptop solution for everyone to get the best of both worlds.BTW, this machine is very quiet and you can hardly hear its fan noise unleas you are running tye CPU 100%. 1.0 We've had the computer for about a month now and it's lived up to our (modest) expectations. It's a solid machine with good specs at a low price for a laptop. So no major complaints. A few minor gripes: the fan seems to run a lot (like every 10 seconds). And the keyboard is laid out differently than others. I find myself unintentionally hitting the Caps Lock key. 1.0 My First Mac and its FAST. It boots in less than 24 seconds and i am hopefull it will not vary once i load the data and apps.Its just ready to use in terms of wireless network connectivity.Am still learning how to use the Mac OS-X . Need to load it with Neo/Open Office and uninstall the MS Word Test Drive Suite.But i am impressed with its performance , especially when playingVideo CD or DVD and other CPU intensive graphical apps It has not crashed/hung except once when i trued to make a copy of a Music CD when it was being copied to a burn folder.Underlying OS being Unix like, should make it easier for some users to Tweak and Configure the system.The one thing that Apple can improve is to try to make the surface finish as scratch proof as possible, and the latest version of iLife suite should be provided as a free upgrade.Also the Software to Burn CD/DVD can be made a little more interactive. I havent used this feature in my 13" White 1Gig RAM McBook,so please dont take my word for it. 1.0 MUY BUENA COMPUTADORA, LA RESOLUCIÓN DE VIDEO ES EXCELENTE, ES SUPER RÁPIDA, ES BASTANTE LIVIANA EN COMPARACIÓN CON OTRAS LAPTOS, BASTANTE FUNCIONAL; EL ÚNICO DETALLE NEGATIVO ES LA POCA DURACIÓN DE LA BATERÍA POR LO DEMÁS ES MUY BUENA. 1.0 This is my first laptop ever and I love it! My parents bought this Toshiba last month from Staples and it's running without any problems. Because of 2 GB of RAM, it runs very smoothly and quickly. I think you can play the Sims 2 or any other 3d games on it because of its ATI Radeon graphics card. The laptop also comes with a small web cam and a ton of hard drive space. The screen is bright and clear and you can run a lot of big programs like Photoshop without any problems. It's very quiet and has a little vent at the side that gets a bit warm sometimes after hours of use.I honestly don't see what everyone is complaining about because I haven't had any major experience with the the screen going black. It does become black when it goes into sleep to save power after like a minute of inactivity but pressing the power button or the touch pad brings the screen back up. Plus, I think it's a Vista problem, not a Toshiba problem. Sleep can also be turned off by going to Power Options and then Edit Plan Settings and change "Turn Off Display" to "Never" in the task bar. The biggest downside is the battery life. It only lasts for two hours and and the AC Adapter gets warm very quickly. Another con would be that it comes with a load of programs and ads on the desktop but they can be easily deleted.Overall, the Toshiba Satellite A215 is a great notebook considering its price. It was around $800 at Staples but $900 something with tax.10/27 EDIT: I just got my first black screen glitch! But it happened when the battery was awfully low. Anyway, I just opened the battery compartment at the bottom and closed and reloaded the computer and fortunately, there was an option for system resume and everything I was working on was still there. Phew! 1.0 Just a note to others - Amazon says it is "in stock" but they still haven't shipped the computer I ordered on Sept.12 for overnight delivery and all I get are apologies or excuses. So if you need this right away.....be warned that "in stock" really means very little. -1.0 I have been a long long time Apple supporter and have always recommended Apple over PC to everyone who asks my opinion - including my daughter. However, recently I have not been so fast to do so. A little over a year ago I convenience my daughter to spend her hard earned money on a MacBook. What a mistake. She is on her third one, which has now this morning frozen up and according to the people at Apple on the phone sounds like the hard drive is gone. If so, they want $900 to replace. Now when people ask me about Apple all I can say is - My daughter has had 3 models in a little over a year and all three have had hard drive problems and on top of that Apple's support has been pretty much worthless - so you do the math. I was waiting to order a new powerbook for my self when they finally introduce Leopard but I have to admit this once good Apple seems to be rotting. -1.0 I bought this notebook to discover the Mac World. It is very interesting for someone that always used Windows. Great performance, easy to use. Iam very glad with my purchase and I recomend it to other windows users. 1.0 I had a compaq which broke and then i decided to splurge on something really nice. I have no complaints so far and this is the first mac ive ever owned. I found the transition extremely easy. Everything on the mac is easier and faster, simply amazing. 1.0 Got mine for a great deal at a box store a couple of days ago, but might take it back in the end. The mousepad is sooo sensitive, it makes the cursor jump around all over when you are typing...so there you are typing an email and boom...where'd the cursor go? It's two lines up typing in the middle of a different sentence. And it did this over and over and over. I have an old Dell laptop with the same style mouse and it never does that. Otherwise I like it so far, but a very basic thing like that gets annoying very quicly, so if you get one...check out that issue. -1.0 I returned this Macbook because I realized that with me runnig WinXP withParallels, the harddrive & ram would not be large enough for my needs. -1.0 We've owned many different laptops over the years, Dell, Sony, and Gateways. My daughter was heading to college and wanted a very high-end HP Notebook complete with TV tuner. It sounded great and we even bought the extended 2-year on-site warranty from HP to make sure if there was a problem, she would have the service she needed while on campus.What a Mistake! What HP provides for this many hundreds of dollars borders on criminal. After 2.5 months of issues and calls, the hard disk was finally recognized as a problem (the one we bought had 2-160 GB drives). The computer is only three months old. Eagerly we called the "extended" service numbers only to find out the 3-day turnaround is 9-10 business days and you need to mail it in to them. While we clearly had a document stating the "3-day" turnaround complete with pick and delivery, someone obviously offshore stated that we must be mistaken and our only choice was to mail it in and get it back in 2 weeks or they could send us an unformated disk and we can do it ourselves! If we wanted a new hard disk, we needed to give them a credit card before they would ship a new drive out!Let's see, my college freshman was going reformat a new drive, for a new computer under warranty, covered by an extended warranty because that's how special HP believes its customers are! NEVER AGAIN should anyone else be subject to this poor customer service and breach of responsibilities that we suffered at the hands of HP customer service. By another brand! Stay away from HP! -1.0 This is just the perfect size for someone who writes, travels and and uses the computer for research and shopping. I read some of the negative reviews here from people having problems with their powerbooks and I never feel compelled to write because I don't have any - problems that is, besides the bluetooth being a bit too competitive with the airport. The airport works fine (not great like with my plastic cased iMac, but very respectibly nonetheless), but it tends to kick the bluetooth out of the air. At least that's my somewhat uneducated opinion and experience. Other than that: great, flawless screen (thank God!, oops, sorry, Steve Jobs), wonderful keyboard, great working hard drive (fingers crossed now), and overall a superb piece of equipment. 1.0 This is the fourth Averatec my family has owned and they have all performed admirably. The averabrite screen really is a cut above. We also owned a small Sony and--so far--I cannot see any reason to pay the extra amount (double) for the brand name. 1.0 I purchased my Toshiba two months ago. Everything runs smoothly but, as I was reading some reviews afterwards, I had some concerns regarding the speed of MS Vista on this notebook. So far no problems at all, even when I make it very busy when running several very demanding programs at the same time and Internet also. Despite that, I purchased aditional 1GB RAM from Amazon too. That just in case. The problem is, didn't checked before, Amazon never announced that RAM consists of 2x512 Mb memory instead of 1GB RAM as it is stated in notebook description, so my additional memory will be useless 'cause both memory slots are already possessed. I don't know why they made false information, and I don't what to do, especially because I'm curently overseas (Western Sahara) and it is too expensive for me to make a phone contact to customer support. I think they should have to make a fair offer regarding this 2x512 Mb RAM to be replaced with another 1GB RAM. Oh, there is biggest disadvantage. Battery is running out too fast. I measured discharging time, and it is about one hour and thirty minutes. total frustration. And additional battery is so expensive... They could put longer lasting battery, especially knowing that MS Vista is so demanding. 1.0 It was good, but the image of the laptop online is a little different because it doesnt have the finger print log in. then, it was ok 1.0 I admit that I don't know a lot about computers, so this review will be all about my FEELINGS! I have never owned any type of computer other than a Mac, although at school I sometimes am required to use a PC. Using the PC is always depressing and counter-intuitive to me and I am always happy when I am back on a Mac. I have owned Apple computers since 1990 or so, and I can truthfully say that I HAVE NEVER NEEDED TO GET ANY OF THEM REPAIRED OR SERVICED! Isn't that amazing! I've never had a virus. I've never had a crash. These are experiences I have read and heard about, like unicorns and UFOs, but never experienced for myself. Sometimes, however, I need to know how to do something obscure and I can't quite figure it out. In such cases I call the Apple-Care Hotline. Now anyone who has ever called, say, the Microsoft Hotline knows how awful calling a computer-related support number can be...you're on hold forever right? And then you end up saying your name 20 times to someone in Bangladesh who doesn't really know the product, right? Well, if this sounds like something you would like to avoid with a computer product, get a Mac. I have never been on hold more than 5 minutes and then I get a friendly, knowledgeable and often funny person who is located in the US! I know! Impossible right?!? But it's true!!! It is a real joy!And I very much love Tiger OSX and on this computer in particular. It is so fast and you can have 20 programs open with no problems at all! You can burn DVDs and CDs on it with such ease. I have never had to read a manual to use a Mac. Most of the time I think "How would I design the computer to work if it were up to me?" And guess what? It works the way you would think it would.Also, I don't know if this is the case for all computers now, but I love the search feature where I can type in the most obscure word or term from an undergraduate paper I wrote 5 years ago, like "teleological suspension of the ethical" and it will show me every single thing on my computer what has that sentence *anywhere* in it. In a 20 page paper I didn't even remember writing! That's amazing.I am very much an Apple advocate. It is the one product I can think of that I will actually tout the merits of, and defend against lame PC advocates in public. I just think the Mac is one of the last well-made products in this sorry, war-ridden and weary world of ours. 1.0 This is definitely one of the best notebook computers on the market. I really like the long battery life and how quickly it goes in and out of sleep mode. It's very fast and intuitive, and best of all it comes with just about all of the software that you'd ever need so you don't need to buy any. (I did purchase M$ office 2004 for mac and it is perfectly compatible with the PC version. I'm a student so I need office.) All and all I think that Apple is where it's at as far as notebook computers are concerned because it's so well designed. On the Apple notebooks the ports are all on the side, no need to climb around the screen to plug stuff in, also the ventilation is in the back as opposed to on the bottom, no more dust in your CPU fan and no need to worry about a blocked vent when it sits in your lap. Wonderful product!! 1.0 Edges surrounding keyboard are sharp and dig into wrists. Seems like Apple forgot why the original toilet seat iBook was so cool. Sandpaper can ease the edges, but taking wood working tools to a $3,000 laptop shouldn't be required. -1.0 nice, pretty, light, very fast. Being old fashioned I hope that the plastic case of the G4 has more strength then it looks. It looks like you had better not drop, bang, or verbally insult the G4. Time will tell. I would rather worry about more weight then a fragil machine. We'll see. 1.0 After being apprehensive on spending over 1K on a laptop, I finally broke down and purchased the macbook. Being a lifetime PC user, I was skeptical about navigation. I have found my way through most of the features and I feel quite comfortable composing documents. My kids caught me experimenting with the built-in webcam. I'll never use it, but its still a neat little toy. I added Windows for Mac which, I was easily able to adjust to the features. You will not be disappointed. It is well worth the purchase. It makes my Dell Inspirion look like a piece of garbage. The only 2 minor complaints I have are: the bottom can get a little toasty while sitting in your lap and my dvd/cd drive is a little noisey. The performance outweighs these 2 quirks. 1.0 Just received this item and popped it onto my macbook easily. It came off easily as well with no scratches (I was careful). It also helps with the edge of the computer being so sharp against my wrists - so that is a definite bonus. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is I seemed to think the plastic would be thicker. It doesn't seem very sturdy until you put it onto the computer--but still I think it could be sturdier. Overall, I am happy with it and I love the way it accents my computer while protecting the case from damage. 1.0 I have read the reviews and find it interesting that the reviews for two machines are all listed for both models. If the $400 difference means anything there should be a distinction between the reviews.I bought a X205-S9349 and am stunned at how big Vista is. The unit I bought had problems out of the box and I have yet to resolve them. This is too bad, as I need a working machine immediately. Vista takes a LONGGGGG time to boot, so trying to determine the problem has eaten most of my Saturday and I still have no idea what the issue is. -1.0 The airport card reception/transmission is blocked by the Aluminium case of the PowerBook. Apple even says so. Great computer. Just dont go online.... -1.0 I just received my HP DV6470US today from Amazon. Overall, the laptop is pretty good. I'll break my review into three sections; General Comments, Pros and Cons.General Comments: - Processor: AMD Turion 64 Processor TL64 - Memory: 2GB - Screen Size: 15.4" - Hard Drive 200GB - OS: Vista Premium - Video: Nvidia GeForce Go 7400Pros: - QuickPlay: Lets you play DVD's, Videos & Music without having to have the computer booted. - QuickPlay Buttons: Above the keyboard there are touch sensitive buttons for stopping, playing, pausing and volume levels while using QuickPlay. - QuickPlay Remote: Comes with a mini remote that stores in the ExpressCard port for use with QuickPlay. - USB Ports: It's got three USB ports which is good for most needs. - DVD+RW DL LightScribe Burner (What else could you ask for?) - Integrated WebCam/Microphone (Works good with Yahoo & MSN)Cons: - Preinstalled software, demos and junk!!! OMG, I was watching something on CNET and they were saying that new computers are overloaded with preinstalled software, but this is ridicules. "Try AOL, High-Speed Services, Easy Internet Services, Microsoft Office (preinstalled, but you need to pay to use it.), Vonage, Vongo, Rhapsody, Ebay, muvee autoProducer and Online Services (Earthlink, Juno, MSN, Netzero, AOL, Vonage, Vonage Small Business). - Programs running in the taskbar. One first bootup, there were like 12 program icons in the taskbar for programs that autorun at startup. Half of the icons were for the preinstalled demo software!!! This laptop has 2GB of RAM, but on bootup, the OS, demo software and HP tools take up 1GB of memory. - No restore CD/DVD: HP creates a 8.18GB partition on your 200GB hard drive for a "recovery drive." If you jack up your computer, you can restore it to the original software. Why can't HP include a couple of DVD's with all of the software on it so you can pick and choose what you want to install? No, you need to install everything and then try to uninstall the demo software you don't want. I wouldn't mind paying an extra $20 for my laptop if it came with restore DVD's that would let me pick the software. (ok, rant over.) - 200GB Hard Drive? No, the actual size, minus your recovery drive, is 178GB. 178GB hard drive space minus the OS, HP Tools and Demo Software, you have 155GB for your actual use. - Ports: All of the USB, network, card readers and monitor ports are on the side of the computer. The only thing on the back side of the computer is the air vents. It's a pain in the neck trying to handed a computer (on your lap) with a network cable hanging off one side and a mouse and power plug hanging off the other side. - Display Resolution: Maximum resolution is 1280x800!!! It's a new computer with a decent video card and that's the highest resolution? If I would have known this, I would have probably got a different model. (Amazon didn't like max resolution on details page.)Synopsis: - If is wasn't for the Cons. This would be a 5 star laptop (for the price), but I just can't get over the preinstalled software. So, 3 out of 5 stars it gets. -1.0 I've been using an earlier model Toshiba Satellite for four years now. I've hauled it all over the U.S., and as it has gotten older, I've certainly stopped babying it. It has never missed a beat, which is why when *this* model became available at an even deeper discount in a brick and mortar store, I picked it up immediately. Although I've only had it a a week (and the true test comes over time), it works great. Had a small issue with the integrated wireless connecting to my WEP-protected network. I changed the encryption at the router to WPA-PSK, and it it's worked fine. Although the bundled software isn't terrific, it's adequate, and overall it's free of shovelware. Light, big screen, quiet and a dual-layer DVD writer. Gotta like that! For the price, I can't imagine doing better.Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 15.4" Notebook PC (Intel Pentium D Processor T2080, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, SuperMulti DVD Drive, Vista Premium) 1.0 I am writing about the 2.33ghz macbook pro i have had this model for half a year now and its been great and ive heard good things about the newer ones so id say yes to this macbook pro its worth every cent its never crashed on me once and only froze twice on me but its not happend recently and it does great at running windows xp pro but dont get vista on it it will cause your computer to restart alot for no reason 1.0 Nothing was packed or in original packing, the power adapter having some starches and remote was used. they said it open box but i think if u want the open box better buy it from apple ( refurbish one) they will do better job the amazon. -1.0 This machine performs amazingly!Basic needs are done with no hassle here, like web browsling and photo editing.Gaming.. havent tested it muchly yet but so far so good.Probably I would consider in around 6 months upgrading it to 2GB of ram with Vista, burning DVDs may considerably make it run crappy... With its configuration, with 1GB of RAM and Windows XP Media Center, this machine would beat up anything of its type for sure.The design of the machine is so... sleek! not like those Toshiba or DELL laptops, all squared and thick... this is just round, shiny and beautifully designed!I think the purchase overall is just and a bit more of what I have expected.HP is great! 1.0 My old G3 ibook died (which I had bought second hand) due to a defective motherboard. I sent the computer to Apple for repair, but supplies were on back order and would take more than a month to arrive. Apple subsequently sent me a brand new ibook G4 "14 as a replacement, free of charge. Not only was my original G3 3 years old, but I was not even the original owner. It didn't matter. Apple treated me like a valuable customer. The ibook G4 is a great computer, and it's nice to have a company backing their products up with great customer service. Though I only used PCs before I got my original G3, I am now a lifelong Apple user. 1.0 I bought a older version of this computer a year ago. I had the computer one month and the hard drive crashed. I sent it back to the company and three weeks later they returned it, fixed (not to bad. The computer served its purpose for me for some time but it never ran at 100% since day one. The disappointing part wasn't the lap top itself, it was the service I recieved from Toshiba. They are very slow in resolving problems for you. I needed to order a new battery and power source for it, three months later I still have not recieved the parts. I am very upset about this and I can honestly say I will never by another Toshiba product again. -1.0 I don't own this particular laptop but was looking into buying the A215-S7422 model. BB and OD currently have them for $550, and on paper, the specs are pretty amazing for the $$, particularly the max capable 4GB ram- easily enough not just to run Vista, but in VMware with multiple instances of whatever else one could want. So I was very sorry to discover in my research, that all of the A215 models seem predisposed to the persistent black screen of death glitch. Probably fixable (last resort being install of a different OS), but people shouldn't have to mess with that in an out-of-the-box product.Where my 2 cents come in is that my ex owns an A65 (P4 model) that has the infamous overheating/shut-down problem. That particular laptop also has frequent sound card issues, also common. Products from any company can have bugs (though Toshiba seems to take the award for frequency of fatal ones), but the real concern for me lies in the lack of accountability taken by Toshiba on these obvious lemons. I used to own an old P75 Toshiba Satellite that was absolutely rock solid, even after years of horrible abuse and neglect, but after reading all of these negative reviews and the insane problems my ex went through, I don't think I'd ever buy a Toshiba laptop again. On paper, their performance per dollar can't be touched, but what's the point if the box itself isn't reliable? Like too many electronics that hit the market, some of these Toshiba laptops clearly never make it into the hands of us engineers before they're built. -1.0 I just bought the Macbook. I must admitt the switching was easier than I thought. Although I'm in a whole new world, I figured things out mostly just by clicking on icons that I had no idea what they were. I was really debating on whether or not to buy this or stick with Windows. So I dediced to see if I could find a Windows based laptop with the same specs around the same pice. Not even refurbished laptops offers as much as this laptop ( Intel Duo Core processor 2.16, 1 Gig RAM, 120 Hard Drive). Don't believe me? Research it . I like how the system is more stable, and you don't have to worry too much about viruses. My biggest thing I really like is how the dvd burner is built in. you don't have to worry about breaking it when you open it. the system is fast to upload and shut down. The only thing I don't like is how dirt shows on it. It shows everything. It's a problem for me, because I'm in Iraq, and everything gets dusty. I bought a over to solve that problem. Also I recommend, buying the crucial 2gig RAM. It's cheaper than having apple do it for you, and simple to put in Just follow the instructions on the everything MAC. But for gamers good luck! I'm more into movie editing. This product is perfect for anyone, except gamers. 1.0 Its an Apple, I expected to give it 5 starts but this has been my most buggy software wise mac since OS9, maybe they are spending too much time on the stupid iPhone, but the current version of the OS has all my internet appps going wacky, and I get Kernel Panics every fricking week. The new LED LCD is very bright, the Battery life is better than older MBPs and its bloody fast and thats with the 2GB of 667 RAM, I wonder what it will do with 4GB of 800 RAM. I m just sorry I could not wait till October to get it with the new OS. 1.0 I've been using this machine for a week or two now and can honestly say it lives up to it's billing. There are a couple of things that I think could be improved:The hard drives are 5400 rpm and you can definitely tell when the machine boots up. This could be improved by installing 7200 rpm drives or by not including so much bloatware. This leads me to point number two:Don't include so much bloatware. I realize this is an off the shelf machine and I'm going to have to put up with this as such... but this machine could be SO much faster if it didn't have so much extra software installed. I'm still learning my way around Vista or I would've probably wiped it and started over straight out of the box.Of course, I have to mention the size and weight of this thing. It's really a desktop replacement, as I can't see anyone carrying it every day. I would strongly suggest that if you're buying one, to get it first and get an idea of how big it is before you go buy a bag for it. I have one of the Targus messenger bags and while the laptop fits fine, there isn't much room for other things. (Gaming mouse, headphones, etc etc) Buying a large laptop means you need large everything else too.. ha!With those things out of the way, let me talk about what I enjoy about this laptop.The screen is REALLY nice. Having 1680x1050 in a 17" may be a bit taxing on some people's eyes but I really enjoy it. Watching an HD DVD is very clean and crisp.The graphics board (8700m GT w/512mb dedicated) is very fast and is more than adequate for the games I play. I'm able to run World of Warcraft with everything but AA maxed at ~100fps in towns and ~40-60fps around the world. Shattrath City, which is a constant source of pain for those of us who play this game runs at around 30fps during peak hours. I've also played Lord of the Rings Online, which seems to run very well at high/ultra detail levels. Warhammer 40k Dawn of War (and all expansions) runs buttery smooth with all details maxed.The speakers sound amazing, especially given the fact that they're in a laptop. While it's a bit off topic, I also highly recommend the Razer surround headphones that Amazon also sells. Very comfortable and they sound even better than the Toshiba's speakers.All in all, I'm pleased with this laptop. The only things that I feel could be remedied are somewhat par for the course for this class of machine (retail prebuilt).If I happen into anyone looking for a laptop and this class of machine, I will definitely recommend it. 1.0 I really recommend any Apple product. I have this particular laptop, however, it's not fast enough. More resolution, more RAM, and a bigger processor is definately needed. 1.0 I just got this laptop to replace my old 12" PowerBookG4 which i had for over 3 years (my 2yr old son spilled whole bottle of water while it was on). Right out of the box i just fell love with it... Apple kept the design pretty much unchanged... which i love, but on inside, it's whole different story... just blazing fast! i'm running Adobe CS3... and most of time, i have more then 4 app running... no lagging, no rainbow wheel... simply amazing. Only reason i gave this 4 star is the price... i admit this is one fine machine...but almost double the cost of my XPS Gen 2 laptop? (by the way, perfomance IS better then xps but not twice better) 1.0 This laptop has lived up to my expectations. I didn't care for all the introductry software it was loaded with and that I had to delete. Also, Toshiba should better advertise the fact that this unit comes with a basic word processing program. Otherwise, it seems to serve my purposes just fine. 1.0 My new laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A215-S4757. It came with 2 gigs of ram, a dual core processor, a 250 gig hard drive, and a web cam which I haven't bothered with yet. It is LIGHTNING FAST and I got it at Best Buy for under $1000.00.But it has one serious defect that had me considering taking it back to the store for a refund. It was intermittently going into hibernation mode once or twice a day - and wouldn't come out no matter what I did. This was REALLY FRUSTRATING!!! Sometimes it went into hibernation even while I was actively using the keyboard!!! Toshiba's tech support people were clueless. They advised me to re-install windows and a bunch of drivers from the recovery cd... to no effect.I did a Google search for the phrase "Toshiba Satellite A215-S4757" and discovered lots of negative user reviews... many others are experiencing this problem too... and Toshiba's recommended solution of using the recovery cd doesn't do squat.But I REALLY LOVE THIS MACHINE otherwise... can't type the letters large enough to emphasize this fact...So I began playing around with the machine itself and believe it or not I found a workaraound for the hibernation problem that works for me:1. Go into CONTROL PANEL2. Go into HIGH PERFORMANCE/change Plan Settings3. Change the setting "Put the computer to sleep" from the default of 20 minutes to NEVER and click SAVE CHANGES.After doing that the problem simply STOPPED happening!So, despite the negative press, I would still recommend this machine as a good buy. Just be prepared to go into Power Options and set auto-hibernate to Never. It's a pity Toshiba tech support couldn't think of thaton their own... and a pity Toshiba quality control didn't discover the problem before these machines started showing up on shelves.By the way, HP makes a similar machine for about the same price. My two cents...Jeff PSan Diego, CA 1.0 This laptop had a dead battery on arrival and it would not charge. However, it worked from the power adaptor. Seems it was a bad battery, there was a batch of them apparently. Of course this would not have happened if I had purchased from the Apple Store or other retail place but I would have paid more and amazon.com had a $200.00 rebate for this model. Anyway the day it arrived I called Apple and after they checked the serial numbers and ok'd it, a new battery arrived the next day. Other that, it has performed above expectations. I would suggest you add more RAM as that will speed things up. This machine is a work of art. 1.0 I've owned many laptops from differnt brands but by far this one is my favorite, plays all my modern games and simulators, has a large hard drive to store your needs, a nice amount of memory and has all the extras a person can use.Alot of the reviews I see bad about a machine, I wonder how many people work on computers and understand them, sure a person may get a lemon but that happens time to time. I build and reapair computers so I feel this laptop is a great deal..Plain and simple this laptop is a great machine for the cost, I see many laptops with just about same specs and cost over $2500.00 1.0 Got this laptop for my mom a month ago. At the time it was the only Name-brand laptop with 2GB of ram I could find for sub-$900. Since then I have seen a proliferation of such laptops. I could do without Windows Vista, but oh well-I'm glad I got my computer late last year with XP.I think this computer will serve my mom as long as the last computer did (7 years). She's just glad it doesn't freeze up all the time!The wireless does seem to be a little sluggish establishing a internet connection at times. I don't think it's the router - brand new Linksys WRT-54GS. The battery life is moderate: about 2-3 hrs depending on use.Be aware that the "Quickplay" does not play outside of windows...it only automatically plays after windows starts if you press the DVD button. I believe it's a common misconception that it will play in 20-30 without windows (at least that's what I expected).Overall, she is happy with it. Might get the 12-cell battery to extend the battery life, I hear it does wonders. 1.0 I killed a computer, and was afraid of Vista. All the IT professionals at work talked about Vista like it was the uncle that talks too loud at the table. I thought this would be a great time to switch.It's definitely scary to start from scratch. I didn't buy books, read up, etc. I jump right in to things.I really like it. I am using it mainly for converting movies to DVD, converting photos to DVD's for older relatives without email, and now iTunes. Linking up to my wireless network was a pain, because I have a linksys WRT54G which has had problems in the past with Apple products. I was ready to just get a new router as the quickest solution, but it worked the next day without me doing anything, so I have no clue why.I did get a mouse for that right click action. The keyboard only has one button, which was a little disconcerting at first.The built in camera is great for taking snapshots of daily life, sending pictures of the pets via email.For all intents and purposes, if you're not a die-hard-home-use computer user, and just use it for basic surfing, email, forum posting - it's a cool computer. 1.0 Can't believe it took me so long to switch from Windows! A wonderful machine, that is a pleasure to use. Just one minor gripe - under-powered USB ports mean some external USB drives need a powered hub. There's no excuse for that. Other than that, by far the best laptop I have ever used, and great looking as well! 1.0 Laptop came with a broken DVD drive and headphone jack worked sometimes. Returned for refund and it to ship properly with insurance it cost me $80.00 to return. Expensive experience Do not purchase refurbished from this company. Have purchased 2 refurbished directly from Apple and they work great. -1.0 The first notebook I received woul just shut down randomly. I returned and Amazon sent me another one. The second wouldn't even start up. They were both awful. I sent that one back also and opted for my money back. -1.0 I just got a powerbook and am in love. It does everything I expect it to. In the past, I have used Linux and Windows, but Mac OS X is probably my favorite OS thus far. Everything is just so pretty and thought-out. I had this preconceived notion that OS X could never compare to XP because Microsoft has much more resources, but this is just not true at all. The Mail program is a perfect example of Apple's technology. It is extremely easy to use and is EXTREMELY powerful, comparing to Outlook in my opinion.The lit keyboard is extremely useful, while the screen's higher resolution makes productivity much more efficient. The processor is slower than I would prefer, but is much faster than my previous 1.7 GHz Pentium M. It is much more comparable to my top-of-the-line (two years ago) desktop PC with a 2.53 GHz Pentium 4. This is based on normal, everyday tasks, not intensive programs.I am so impressed with this computer that my brother bought one a week after I received mine. He got the 12" and is very impressed with it. It is MUCH smaller than the 15-incher, but I prefer the bigger screen and backlit keyboard. Also, the 15" is very small for other laptops in its category, so I have no complaints with weight and size.In all, I highly recommend this computer. It is much more expensive then a PC, but all Apples are. The construction is better than any other computer I have ever seen (as is true for all Apples as well). If you do not want to spend so much money, the iBook is a great alternative and is almost as fast as this computer in reality. 1.0 I've been working on and with computers (mainframes) since 1967 and personal computers since 1990. This is the most functional and easiest to use computer that I've ever used. I've owned six DOS/Windows machines and none even come close to this one. Also the learning curve after the switch was very short and almost painless. I highly recommend this product. 1.0 Till the time i was only knowing Apple for the ipod. By Mistake went to site of Apple where there was an Advt of Mac book pro . i found it intresting i seached a lot for it and last i took a risk to buy it and you know what. I think it was not a risk it was the wise decesion which i took unknowingly i am really happy with apple really happy i switched it form Sony Vaio And OS of WINDOWS VISTA ULTIMATE and i know i ve not lost anything but i got something more which was not there with me. I am happy really happy really happyyyyyyy 1.0 The last time I used an Apple computer was in the early 1980's with an Apple II. Things have come a long way since then but my computer experience since has always been with Windows PC's. I looked at Macs and their users as rebels, outsiders who wanted to be different, away from the mainstream with little understanding of what makes someone want purchase a Mac. Setting out to purchase my 1st notebook for home use, it seemed an almost impossible project with so many choices in the PC world. Reading the reviews and shopping in the electronics superstores only made it worse. Then I spent a few minutes with a Macbook. "Hey this software is pretty neat, the design is solid and well thought out, and I can actually have both operating systems on the same computer if I want....this is it!" Having used my new Macbook for only four days I am a now a believer. Using a Mac computer is actually FUN and not BORING & frustrating like a Windows PC. I will never go back to a Windows PC for home use. Infact, I plan to look at the new iMac to replace my old desktop. I am very happy with my purchase. 1.0 Finally this just came through and i am honestly amazed by this machine. Let me discuss dirst why i went for this machine: (i have 3 XP desktops and 1 notebook from the office)1. I just enrolled in a distance learning course and wanted an independent light machine to work on for school only2. This was perfectly priced for my budget3. Needed to easliy connect in my apartment's wireless network 4. I love the zoom feature in Mac (i have vision problems looking @ small fonts. in windows this is not a standard featre and u cant enlarge eveything on all applications) 4. Mac is still virus free! i honestly don't care what they say about the viruses situation. Let the truth be told: so even if Mac viruses picked up in the last few months, it can never compare to the ongoing agony on XP machines (if anyone is counting on numbers of spy-wear, viruses, registry corrupters etc on XP. please check the stats with NSA!) i frankly just want a PC that works and doesn't require infamous:DLL error fixers! buying more registry cleaning programsbuying more antivirus junkbuying more anti spy wear junketcthis little machine is perfect for anyone who wants to work on internet/word processing/presentations/spreadsheets (although u might want to pickup an MS OFFICE For Mac.) 1.0 I decided to buy a Toshiba notebook computer after getting tired of the constant problems with my e-Machines desktop computer. A $100 off for a Labor Day sale and an additional $100 mail in rebate at Circuit City sealed the deal. This is my first notebook computer and I found myself reaching for a mouse out of habit. The display (screen) is crystal clear, there are plenty of USB connections, the "quick start" card is easy to understand, and everything worked right out of the box. The only thing I would like to see is a hard copy of the owner's manual instead of one preloaded in the computer. 1.0 the macbook is, like all apple products, simple to use and beautifully designed. but like all apple products, something has to suck. the last time i bought an apple computer half the lettering on the keys rubbed off. for the new macbook, the battery doesn't hold a charge. i don't like leaving the computer plugged in when i'm not using it, so i unplug the power after shutting down. not for long--maybe 8 hours. in that time, i lose one or two percent of the battery charge. when i replug the power while i'm working, the battery never seems to recharge past the percentage it was at when i turned it on. plus now that apple is using intel chips, the computer runs hotter than before. be prepared to hear the fan turn on unless you're working in a very cool room. i don't know about most people, but i hate hearing my computer make unfamiliar noises. -1.0 The apple ibook is the best computer that i've ever had.. not only is it beautiful but its very efficient and easy to use. I have not had any problems with it in the 2 months that ive owned it, unlike other computers I have. I have an hp desktop that I purchased last year and ive already had to get a new monitor and the tower turns off on its own. Hp gave me the run around about fixing it, even though I was still in warranty. After countless hours on the phone with a foreign country I gave up and purchased this ibook. The programs that are preinstalled are wonderful and the customer service specialist are friendly and easy to understand. If your in the market to buy a computer i would definitely recommend that you purchase an ibook. 1.0 I have been using computers since 1979. My first was an Apple II plus, then a Mac, then onto the PC world until 2005.I bought my MacBlack from Amazon almost 6 months ago and couldn't be happier. This is truly a portable notebook computer - it's small, light, and very dependable. Apple's engineering rocks. Also, for anyone who has owned an Apple computer, you know that their customer service speaks english (well), is courteous, and works with you to solve your problems.My MacBlack replaced a PowerBook G4 and I am very satisfied by my decision. The only design flaw that I see is that the keys are not backlit. Otherwise, I love my MacBlack. It will be my computer of choice for a long, long time. 1.0 This is the best computer I have every owned. The HDMI output hooks directly to my HD television for superb HD DVD viewing. The only downside to this mammoth laptop is the two hour battery life. I would think they could add a larger battery to this beast. Otherwise I have no complaints after two months. 1.0 I bought this machine to replace an 800 MHz G3 iBook. I wanted something faster, more capable and lighter.I got all of that and more. The built-in wireless Airport system has excellent range and the screen is bright enough that I can use the computer in the shade in my backyard.It seems as quick to me as my desktop 2.1 GHz desktop iMac and it's very portable -- much lighter and smaller than the computer it replaces.This is probably my 15th Mac since about 1989 (I've lost track, but it started with an LC). They just get better and better. 1.0 I received this 15" MacBook Pro on my 18th birthday and although I am still loyal to my beloved PC at home... Mac is my new favorite at school :) It's a lot smoother and simpler than Windows and the programs that are preinstalled (and FREE!) are amazing to say the least :) When ordering this product, the only "built in" option I'd say you absolutely NEED is the speed upgrade from "5400 rpm" to "7200 rpm". If money is not an issue for you, then of course I'd recommend buying ALL the options lol, but if you have a budget (like most of us)...REASON (for purchasing speed upgrade): As you gradually save more information/programs on your laptop (whether it's a Mac OR PC)... you will start to see a decrease in speed on your system. With the upgrade, as your computer slows down it will then eventually become as fast as it would've been in the first place WITHOUT the upgrade. Yes, you could always purchase the doubled memory (preinstalled is $700/separate is $500) OR you could save your specific files on USB memory drives! Maybe it's only because I'm a student... but I've discovered it's easier to save all my documents/pictures/videos/web history for each class on these drives (and it also develops my organization skills! lol). I have 6 classes and with 2GB USBs at $20 each that's only $120.By doing this, the only thing slowing down your computer will be programs you later install or download... and the decrease in your system's speed will occur 1/2 as quickly than if you'd been saving EVERYTHING on it.If you're interested in any other information I can give you about this (or any computer), email me at RachelLMayo@gmail.com :) I'd be more than happy to help! 1.0 How To Get a Laptop or Mac book FREE !!! This Gorgeous Piece of technology is amazing, high spec and sexy design,To get a Laptop, go to - **| Laptop-Incentives.notlong.(com) <<(Remove Brackets) |**- Sign up and complete 1 offer(I recommend the Blockbuster FREE DVD Trial or the Tickle Test, or even the FREE Trial 20 minute FaceLift.... Go For It !!! | Laptop-Incentives.notlong.(com) <<(Remove Brackets) 1.0 Purchased the computer for my wife, with both of us coming from a purely Microsoft background. We both easily made the transition to Mac OSX, and the computer ran more smoothly than I imagined (though I did purchase a third-party RAM upgrade and perform a self-installation... that's more for the future, though.)Excellent laptop, and not even all that expensive once you consider comparable systems. We expect this one to last us a long time. 1.0 I HAVE AN OLDER VERSION OF AVERATEC 2200 AND I'VE HAD THIS PROBALLY NO MORE THAN TWO YEARS AND IT WAS BOUGHT AS NEW. THE TRUTH IS, WEATHER YOU BELIEVE THIS OR NOT. THE LAPTOP AND THE BATTERY ITSELF OVERHEATS IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. IT GETS SO HOT THAT IT BURNS MY HAND WHEN I TOUCH IT OR ON MY LAP. I DON'T RECOMMEND THIS COMPUTER OR ANY OF ITS MAKING OF THIS MODEL BECAUSE OF THE OVERHEATING PROBLEM. I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE NEW ONE THOUGH BUT I'M REFERRING TO THE AVERATEC 2200 VERSION. I DON'T SEEM TO FIND ONE HERE ON AMAZON.COM SO I'M LEAST LETTING YOU GUYS KNOW THIS COMPUTER HEATS UP AND IT CAN BE UNSAFE. -1.0 This is probably my fifth notebook in last three years. I bought toshiba, sony, dell and now apple. One area of improvement is screen size. if they would have made it slightly bigger may be upto 14" or so. secondly absence of pcmcia slot. i know they made a space saving design by cutting here and there but some things are definitely required.anyways overall very good product. excellent performance and lightweight. 1.0 Bottom Line: Don't buy this iteration of the PowerBook - (...). On paper the specs are great. But, as several posters have said there are two huge problems with this PowerBook which Apple refuses to acknowledge let alone fix!First, there are profound issues with the audio. The audio skips and stutters randomly. I know I'm not the only one experiencing this difficulty. Apple has issued a Knowledgebase document on this issue http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302978. But the solution - if one can call it that - doesn't work and essentially implies this machine is seriously crippled in its ability to multitask. When I've called AppleCare they either deny the existence of the problem or have no solution.Second, there are profound issues with the screen. Apparently, there is horizontal banding of every second or third pixel row over the entire screen. Each pixel row is darker or lighter than it's neighboring pixel rows. This is a well documented seemingly ubiquitous issue over the entire line of new 15" PowerBooks and again a problem that Apple does not acknowledge. It appears some people have sent the computer in to AppleCare for repair for this issue and it was returned without any repair done the technicians claiming that the problem is "WITHIN SPEC" meaning that the screen is within the model specifications and that it is not a problem or they are shipped a replacement which exhibits the same problem.If you still feel like gambling on one the good news is Amazon has a great return policy so if you have one or both of these problems Amazon will take it back. -1.0 We bought 2 of the Toshiba S4697. The first arrived with a defective power adapter/battery charger. Toshiba wouldn't ship one directly to us when Amazon asked them to. We had to contact Toshiba ourselves. Toshiba wanted us to give their support person (in Phillipines) our credit card # so they could charge us and send the replacement power adapter. Idiots, to loose a sale just because Toshiba didn't trust us to send the defective power adapter back without charging for a replacement first, at our expense no less. AMAZON worked extremely hard to rectify the problem with Toshiba, but had to have us return the entire computer for a complete refund. We also bought a SONY camera that has a memory card that the S4697 is supposed to be able to read. the Toshiba only has a 3 card reader instead of 5 card and can't read the SONY card when Toshiba states it will. AMAZON was nice enough to send us a 5 card reader for free. The second Toshiba hasn't had any problems as of August 3, 2007 (3 weeks ago) when we fired it up. WE DON'T LIKE the fact that in 3 weeks the price has gone down $60. I guess Toshiba is dumping this one. Microsoft Windows Vista on the Toshiba S4697--My opinon is that Vista is a joke. Now you have to go to about 6 different places to change 1 setting, the changes are just bells and whistles. Soon the overwriting of software commands will bring us back to how it was when we had to type all those DOS commands to do 1 simple thing. Software now needs better hardware, uses more memory and drive space too! all to do the same thing it did before. Keeps us updating and the money wheel turning i guess... -1.0 I will be attending law school in August, and I needed a laptop, something I've never researched before. When I began looking both online and in stores, this Apple iBook came back with every option I required. Let me be honest: I was a Windows elitist. If it wasn't hacked up from the bowels of Microsoft, I had no interest in it. Macs were just computers with training wheels. How wrong I was. I finally, after much internal debate as well as research into cross-compatibility with my desktop PC (it is fully compatible) bought this iBook. I was especially attracted to the reputation Macs have for relaibility, which is a must for me. Also, the external casing feels so much more solid than the Toshibas and Hp's I was looking at. So I took the plunge. I've used Mac products before, so OS navigation wasn't too bad of a transition. I should say that if you are concerned about learning a new OS, don't be. OS X Tiger falls over itself to be easy to use and intuitive. What do I mean by intuitive? Your files end up where you think they should. They are always in easy reach. The interface (or GUI) is a work of art both asthetically and functionally. Don't buy a Mac if you want to play the latest videogames. DO buy a Mac if you want a computer that will do anything a Windows will do with a minimum of fuss that makes usage actually enjoyable. When I first got this baby home and turned it on, it automatically detected my Linksys-G wireless router and connected to the internet. It then updated all of the programs on the hard drive, and had me enter a password (which was the same as my iTunes account, making things simpler. That was it. Seriously. It took ten minutes tops, and I was up and running. No need to worry about virus protection or third party software working on my computer. I was ready to roll! That's the simplicity that makes me recommend this machine to whoever is reading this. Do yourself a favor: poney up the extra money for a Mac; Once you're up and running, you may never look back at Windows again (except, of course, for games!) 1.0 I guess all Apple reviews eventually become a comparison between PCs and Windows to the virtues of Macs. Most of us really only have these two options.... we can look at RAM, memory, processor speed and a variety of other indicators - but to be honest what characteristics really matters? Hopefully, this review can help make this as painless as possible for the non-tech savvy (The power users already have their preferences). By the way, I use both PCs and Macs during the course of the day, so I will give my opinion on the strengths and weaknesses.Apple - Strengths- The Apple goes from "off" to "surfing the internet" in 15 seconds. It is truly amazing how fast it gets booted-up and ready to run.- Video editing is a breeze - lots of power here.- Lack of viruses ...there are some... but not nearly as many as Windows based computers...an added benefit is that you don't have use "Norton" or "McAfee" and all of the annoying pop-ups that those programs provide.- Ichat... my wife is able to have a picture perfect video conference with her sister every night...even though they live 2500 miles a part. The best part? It is free!- Apple support is top-notch! You make an appointment at a store and they bend over backwards to help you! This is sooo much better than calling into some random help desk.- Quality of construction - sorry, I have had to many PCs die from hardware related issues over the last 5 years... Apple's seem to last forever.Apple - Weaknesses-Spreadsheets - It is true you can get a Mac version of Excel - but it is absolutely horrible. Things that you take for granted on Windows based Excel...i.e adding a comment in a cell are missing!- You can not buy (at least at the time of this review) music and videos on Amazon.com - they do not support Macs at this time.- Lack of programs in general. While there are many cool programs and games for PCs there are only a handful available for the Mac.- Attaching photos to email is not as easy as using a PC and Yahoo.- a 13.3" monitor really is too small.My final recommendation? If you have to have ONE computer you probably want to strongly consider a PC. The variety of programs and the power of spreadsheets have become critical to most of us.... especially for our jobs. However, if you need a computer simply for "fun" (not counting games) and surfing the internet the Apple is impossible to beat. If you need a computer for work or Video Games = PC/windowsIf you need a compuer for surfing the internet/photos/videos = Apple/MacOS 1.0 I'm actually very happy with this laptop as it has and does everything I need it too. The price is great and fit, finish and feel of the machine is good. Initially the software was working OK, but after a week it is getting slower for some reason. My old wireless machine with an AMD processor and WinXP is up and I'm surfing the internet before this one ever connects to the internet through my wireless network. Sometimes I have to disconnect and reconnect the wireless adapter before I can surf. I'm an experienced computer person but have not figured this problem out yet. Could be that I need to buy WinXP for the time being until the Vista bugs are worked out. I do recommend this laptop. 1.0 I have recently purchased white macbook with 2.16 Ghz processor and 2 Gb of RAM. I have NEVER before used a mac and was a little nervous but my husband and I wanted to try something new. Our Dell laptop was getting outdated and we had to buy a new machine. And you know what? I have been doing a lot of research and every time I would come back to a mac. So we took the risk and here I am typing this review on my new beautiful macbook :) To be on a safe side, I have bought a "Macbook for Dummies" book, but honestly you do not even need it. OS REALLY is intuitive. These are no lies. Well, I hadn't have a chance to play around with Windows Vista (I am a stay at home mom, so I am a little bit not out there any more so to speak) but from what I heard, it takes after OS used on macs. Why shouldn't it? Moving from Windows XP is quite an experience but there is nothing to be afraid of. It is a pleasure. Seriously. If you are considering purchasing a new computer, consider mac. I am 99% sure you will not regret it. 1.0 Averatec have made an excellent product. I did have initial concerns when I researched the company. Could a laptop really have such a top spec and cost so little, and perform?Well the answer is a resounding yes. It runs flawlessly, and fast.On the down side, the laptop does get hot but that is not really an issue as such this happens to most computer when used all day. The battery life is not amazingly strong. However, if you turn off the wireless it lasts well enough. If you want great compact laptop with strong spec at a great price this is the one, if you can get hold it. 1.0 THIS IS THE BEST COMPUTER ON EARTH FOR THE PRICE. I PURCHASED TWO OF THEM AND THEY WORK GREAT! THE COMPUTER DOES NOT HAVE A LARGE LIBRARY OF SOFTWARE ALTHOUGH EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO FUNCTION IS THERE. THE COMPUTER IS AS LIGHT AS A FEATHER AND THE SCREEN RESOLUTION IS CLEAR AND BRIGHT! 1.0 I had mixed thoughts about buying a IBOOK. Apple computers have always had a great reputation, but do they live up to expectations? Are they as good and as compatible as they claim to be?I bought my IBOOK 14" in Mexico City, but it is the same model as the U.S.A. model.Technical specifications:- iBOOK 14"- 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 Processor- 1 Gb of RAM (I added 512Mb)- 60 Gb Hard Drive- Super Drive (DVD & CD burner)- English keyboard- Bluetooth and Wireless Internet (Airport Extreme) included- MAC OS TIGER 10.4.2 OPERATING SYSTEMIt's a breeze to use. You take a bit of time (about 3 days) to get used to it, especially a ONE button mouse and the shortcuts with the keyboard, but it is very nice, very stable. I've had the computer for a week, no problems in that time. No freezing, no crashing, but a lot of rebooting for new or updated software.SPOTLIGHT, and instant finder of files anywhere in your hard drive, DVD/CD bay, IPOD or connected devices is fantastic and easy to use. On the other hand, the very celebrated DASHBOARD (widgets in your desktop like clocks and maps and calculators) feels and looks very cheap. Yahoo! Widgets are much better and are available for APPLE and PC computers.SCREENIt's bright, bright, bright ! Looking at it from different angles does not give you a very sharp and contrasted image, but right in front of you, it has incredible colors. TIGER OS, also has incredible and elegant wallpapers and icons that are a joy to see through your screen. 14" is good enough for me. If you read something about "fuzzy text" in other reviews, it is true; compared to my previous laptop (Sony VAIO 15" monitor) it is fuzzy, but it isn't too much and won't notice it in a couple of days.Best of all, the screen came with no dead pixels. Excellent quality.KEYBOARDIt has a very nice feel to it. It is soft but yet sturdy. I have it configured in Spanish and can type the characters "ñ" and the accents "'" easily, no need for silly "apple+n+n" combinations or "apple+e+vocal". Underneath the keyboard you will find the extra space for an additional RAM memory module.HARD DISKAnnounced as a 60Gb disk, it really has a 55.5Gb capacity minus the pre-installed TIGER OS, which leaves around 42 - 43 Gb of free space. FORTUNATELY, I have seen that Apple software (Office, Adobe, Macromedia, etc) are made in VERY small files (Office 2004 is only around 250Mb big), so you will have PLENTY of space (30 - 35 Gb) free when you have done installing quite a lot of programs.Games, on the other hand, do take a lot of space.RAM MEMORYI heard that 512Mb were enough, but several people got me convinced on getting an additional 512 which cost $170 USD here in Mexico. It does better performance and allows multitasking (I use Excel, Fire Instant Messenger, Safari Web-browser, Itunes and posibly Adoble at the same time with no lag).The instalation of the RAM can be do-it-yourself and it is easy (I was very frightened at first, but found it easy enough). The computer recognized the new RAM memory right away.CD/DVDI have been able to read copied DVDs in this driver which I haven't been able to play elsewhere (I'm sorry, it was a present, but say NO to piracy).I have only burned data disks so far, but with TOAST 6.0 Software (not included out of the box) it was a breeze and the burn rate was very fast (around 600Mb in 4 min).DVDs look OK, but they lack a LOT of crispiness and contrast.CDs sound great !SPEAKERSThey are small, have no bass, but sound good overall.AIRPORT EXTREMEThank goodness this is standard now. I picked up wireless hotspots easily and manage to connect in a few seconds. I have not found it to be as powerful as some people say. It still can't get a decent signal through to concrete walls, but one wall gets you a nice signal.BLUETOOTHThis thing is awesome, if you have a cel phone with camera and bluetooth connectivity, you certainly want to check this out ! It connects easily and fast. I had my strange format videos from my phone in the my hard drive in no time and playing in Quicktime (format .gp3, who knew?)BATTERYJust as promised. If you use non-demanding software and no CD drive, you will have around 4.5 - 5.5 hours of battery, which is GREAT. They other day I installed software using the CD drive and had it in "maximum performance" and still the battery lasted for about 3 hours.The option of adjusting the energy consumption through processor performance is great, so you can set it to "low consumption" if you are doing internet only or "high performance" if you are doing heavier stuff. Also dimming your screen brightness and deactivating Bluetooth and Airport Extreme will result in longer battery life.PROCESS0RIt's not lightning speed, it seems quite as fast as my old Celeron 2.4GHz (aprox. Pentium IV 1.7 Ghz), but it does the job.VIDEO MEMORYI have seen no problems with this. Although I do not do image rendering or design, my Astronomical software has had no problems with this.CASEIt is a beautiful case, the white is astonoshing and the lit up Apple behind the screen is just way too cool.Yet, NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO, it will sooner or later get scratched. It is up to you how much you take care of it and how deep and common will your scratches be.OVERALL:I have used the computer for too little, only one week, yet I believe that going back to Windows is a big NO NO. This system rocks, it's easy to use and stable.The goodies offered are great and at a fantastic value.The battery life is awesome, yet the disk space could be bigger.2 USB ports, 1 FireWire 400, 1 DVI video (strange format) seem to be enough considering that you have bluetooth for new-generation mouses, printers and extra keyboards.Office's Excel in spanish has proved to be quite annoying. The decimal point separator is a "," instead of a "." This is the way Spain uses it, but not the rest of LatinAmerica and there is NO WAY OF CHANGING THIS PREFERENCE.Tiger Operating System has proved to be compatible with (almost) everything, why not switch now when the price and the hardware are correct? 1.0 It's really disappointing and annoying this issue with horizontal lines that plagues the new Apple Powerbooks, especially the models with a 15" screen.The new Apple Powerbook is a great, if not, an almost-perfect machine. It could be perfectly use as a desktop replacement, being powerful enough for most people to do their work and their normal everyday tasks.The horizontal lines are barely noticeable under normal work, web browsing, emailing and word processing. When you get into graphics, picture editing or video editing, you do really see the lines, especially running across faces if you're working with pictures. This problem is a major problem for those of us who take our display seriously. If you're a professional photographer who relies on their Powerbook to work and make money, you will find that your job will be greatly obstructed and you will become frustrated with this growing problem. Heck, you don't even have to be a professional photographer or a graphics or web designer. Even the average Joe who uses their Powerbook for photo editing for his own family picture will notice these lines, supposing Mr. Joe has at least a bit of attention for detail.I believe Apple should fix this problem as quickly as possible, and so do think many, many other unhappy new Powerbook owners. When you're paying almost $2,000 for a notebook computer, you expect a great, non-defective, quality product. You don't expect to have problems with the most important part of the notebook - the screen. The screen is what you use the most on a laptop, isn't it? Some people claim that they do not have the lines. Please, look a little closer, look at different pictures and shades of color. I've noticed that full colors don't display the horizontal lines. I did not seem them in dark colors, like red, blue or black, but do appear on gray, light blue (Tiger's default wallpaper), and earth-like colors. Other people argue that the lines are barely noticeable - Yes, this is exactly what I thought, until I did something different than web browsing and emailing on it. Try looking at family pictures or editing some video - Then you will notice a difference if you have a flawed display.Other than the horizontal screen problem, the Powerbook is an excellent computer. Having owned one for nearly a week and being this my first laptop, I'll say I'm mostly pleased with it. I really like the display resolution, the widescreen, the backlit keyboard. The speakers also sound pretty decent compared to other notebooks on the market. The computer feels fast enough for most of my everyday tasks, which are web browsing, emailing, light photo editing, some gaming, some video editing and listening to music. Another minor annoyance is the strength of the Airport Express card. I have compared my reception to my girlfriend's Dell, and where she gets 5 full bars, I get 4 and sometimes oscillates between 3 and 4.The battery on my PowerBook was also dead on arrival when I received it. It wouldn't charge at all. A quick call to Apple and the customer service representative acknowledged the problem and quickly set me up to send me a replacement battery. Within 48 hours of that call, I had a new, working battery in my doorstep. I sent back my dead battery in the pre-paid box and didn't even have to step out of my house because it was picked up.I hope the horizontal screen problem is as easy as a software update or firmware update. If it's a hardware issue, I hope Apple recognizes fault for shipping a defective display and offers a replacement display, free of charge, to affected users.It's not a perfect computer, at least not yet, but a very nice computer compared to what's in the market now. 1.0 All I can say is that this is the perfect laptop, my track record along with all thepositive reviews here must say something. I must make note of the one reviewerwho couldn't understand why his hard drive had 20GB's filled up. This goesto show that Apple offers plenty of extras loaded on the HD and the factthat trouble free OSX uses a little more space than Windows. Plug in almostany camera, printer, scaner or anything and chances are your iBook will load without adding software, all these drivers save much time and frustration and well worth the little space on the HD. Yes, if your picky about this or thatanyone can find fault with anything but try to find a better laptop for themoney you'll be hard pressed to come close to the iBook. PC users with an open mind will soon discover why Mac's are loved around the world, join the Family of HAPPY iBook owners and Enjoy! 1.0 I've been a loyal Apple user for about 15 years now. Everything about Apple has always been cutting edge and way ahead of its time. GUI, the iMac, the iPod. As things like the iMac and iBook and iPod and anything else with "i" preceeding it has brought the Mac more and more mainstream, their quality has begun to slip. iPods delievered DOA, G5's with cracked cases. But Apple has always made good on these problems. Now however, they have commited a horrible offense with this new Powerbook. Apple claims these new Powerbooks have higher resolution screens. And this is true, the screens resolutions are higher. However, the 15" Powerbook has a major screen problem. If you go into an Apple Store and look at all 3 laptops in the Powerbook family, you'll notice the 12" and 17" books have gorgeous displays. However, the 15" screen has lines running across it. The lines are very small and are very visible on Apple's default blue background. Look for yourself and you will see. Especially next to a 17" or 12". However, this is not the greatest offense.Many who have bought the new 15" powerbook have sent them back to Apple for repair or replacement only to be told their laptops are "within spec." Apple is ignoring the problem. Some people say they don't mind the lines. And that's fine for those people. But would you want to drop $2,000 on a top of the line laptop, only to get a screen you would normally see on a $700 laptop? When you buy an Apple, you expect the best. Now, they are delivering a substandard product and still charging top of the line prices. And it gets better.Some who have bought these new units have found responses to the problem quite comical. In Apple Stores they have been told such things as:"What, it's a beautiful display. I don't know what you're talking about." "It's within spec." A personal favorite of mine. But the best is: "It's a new battery saving feature." To which people respond,"How do I turn it off?" "You can't." "Well if it saves battery, why isn't it a feature on the new 17" or 12"." To which the so-called Mac Geniuses at the stores have no response.I would never buy this product. Not only that, but even if you have no plans on getting one, but are a loyal Mac user, you should let Apple know by calling them. The more they hear from users, the more they will consider fixing the problem. Even if you have one, see the lines, but accept dealing with them, just call Apple to let them know of the problem. -1.0 I bought this laptop about a month ago in preparation for college in the fall. I had been a Windows user all my life, and little did I know what I was missing! The Mac OS runs flawlessly and intuitively, I have yet to have any problems with it. I even installed Windows on my laptop and found that the Mac OS was still far superior. I also love it because it is completely customizable -- even most of the settings are easy to change and make for a pleasant experience. This laptop is worth every penny you'll spend on it. It's reliable and very resilient....it even fell off my bed and still functions perfectly. Also, the Bluetooth Mighty Mouse is a very worthwhile investment. It makes everything MUCH easier to use (especially scrolling and right clicking). I plan on buying Macs only from now on! 1.0 I have had my white 2.16 ghz MacBook for almost three weeks now and I love it! I have been using windows all my life and finally decided to jump ship and head to the good side.[...] The macbook runs blazingly fast and can multi task like none other with only 1 GB of RAM. I cannot wait to see what it can do with 2 GB of ram running XP Pro in Parallels! In addition to its performance aspect, the macbook's design is amazing! The 13 inch lcd is just the right balance between screen size and portability. Its thin profile and light weight make it easy to carry around without being a burden. Overall, the macbook rocks no matter what model you choose! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! 1.0 First things first. I have always been a loyal apple fan. Even before the whole ipod craze began, and Steve Jobs began to drive this company out from the shadows, I was dazzled by the ease of use that all apple computers offered to users. With the purchase of this ibook, however, all of my feelings about Apple's computers were reiterated and magnified. I feel that this review would be more meaningful if a comparison was drawn between the ibook and a similar high-end laptop offered by Dell (the Inspiron 600M Celeron) Please note that this is not a true comparison because the Dell Inspiron 600M has a 1.3ghz processor while the ibook (14") has a 1.42ghz processor.The Dell Inspiron 600M at a price of $1,623:1. Processor: Celeron M Processor 350(1.30 GHz)2. Memory: 768MB DDR SDRAM3. Hard Drive: 80GB4. Optical: 8x CD/DVD burner5. Monitor/Video: 14.1-inch XGA 32MB video memory6. Wireless: Dell Wireless 1470 Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54 mbps), bluetooth technology7. Software: Windows XP home edition, Microsoft Office Small Business (including outlook, word, excel, and powerpoint) *note: office is an add-on and does not come pre-installed8. Service: 3 year limited warrantyThe Apple Ibook at a price of (vis-a-vis my parameters) $1,653:1. Processor: PowerPC G4 1.42 GHz2. Memory: 768MB DDR SDRAM3. Hard Drive: 80GB4. Optical: Superdrive (DVD±RW/CD-RW)5. Monitor/Video: 14.1-inch TFT 32MB video memory6. Wireless: Airport extreme card (802.11 b, 54 mbps) built-in bluetooth technology.7. Software: Mac OS X Tiger, ilife (including itunes, iphoto, imovie, garageband, appleworks and more) iwork (including pages and keynote) *note: the full version of iwork does not come pre-installed; you only get a 30-day trial version.8. Service: Applecare warranty and service/supportSo there it is. I know what you are probably going to say: "Oh. The Dell is cheaper and it has more memory." What about the processor speed? I know that 1.42 isn't much better than 1.30, but this is dell's low-end 600M. Even the low-end ibook has a faster processor (the 12-inch with 1.33 ghz) Also, the price difference is mainly due to shipping, which dell offers for free on top of the 34% discount that you get on the laptop. Another thing about the dell 600M is that you have to add-on all of the software, security and wireless capabilities. Looking at the software, you have to purchase Microsoft office in order to attain the same degree of productivity that you can get with ilife on the ibook. (Which comes pre-installed by the way). Iwork, however, is not pre-installed but I would suggest that you purchase it ($49 extra) if not for keynote. Keynote (apple's version of Powerpoint) blows it's opponent right out of the water. Here's just a quick summary: with keynote you can enhance slides with animated text, layered images, and transcending builds and transitions. In short, it makes Powerpoint look like freeware.Turning to wireless and networking capabilities, the ramifications of both the systems are basically the same. But the set-up is not. To begin with, the specified dell system doesn't come pre-installed with a wireless card like the ibook does. You have to add those on. Second, the ibook comes pre-installed with bluetooth wireless technology, while the 600M doesn't.Networking and Security: AirPort let's you take offSecurity is another feature that comes standard with apple (considering that Tiger is a much more secure operating system than windows). Right out of the box, the apple ibook offers configuration while with the 600M, you have to get tons of software to protect you from spyware and other potential security breaches. The apple airport extreme system features a built-in firewall to protect the end-user from hackers and potential thieves offering password protection and encryption technologies.Another great feature of the apple ibook is that Mac OS X has a network autosensing feature which detects the fastest network available to you, all the while automatically configuring your computer for network activity. Wave good-bye to manually setting your wireless settings.ITunes Of course the whole driving force behind apple's success as of late has been the ipod, itunes team. With the purchase of an airport express (sold separately) you can use your built in AirPort card to wirelessly play your music through a home theatre system or any other audio device in your home. All you have to do is plug your speakers into the AirPort Express Base Station and the rest is music to the ears. WidgetsAnother handy feature of Mac OS X tiger, "the most sophisticated operating system in the world", is the ability to use mini-applications called widgets. There are over a thousand of them and each are unique. My favorite one is the "Gas Finder" which, true to it's name, finds the cheapest gas in a specified area. Along with their basic albeit necessary purposes, widgets simplify so many things and take the place of the internet in some cases.If you're truly interested, I would recommend doing some more personal research about apple's ibook. There are so many features (many that I did not cover) that propel this laptop past many of it's competitors. I am truly impressed with this laptop's performance and would recommend that anybody who is uncertain about apple definitely suspend any negative judgment or advice that they may have received from other PC addicts. The fact is, Microsoft has been working on their new operating system Longhorn for quite sometime now. Apple has already come out with Tiger and has consistently offered updates every year (which Microsoft has not). Apple has made computing trendy. 1.0 The iBook just works. The OS X software is uncrashable and so easy to use. This computer leaves me wondering why I ever tolerated PC's. The iBook is a must have for any student or home user. 1.0 A brief selection of the problems I had with the mac:Safari doesn't work with some webpages and extra gadgets notablegoogle chat and google toolbar. Firefox is nice, but consistentlycrashes (a known bug).Palm desktop for Mac works much less efficiently than on the PC(mainly in terms of the interface, but also things like how long ittakes to sync). Attempts to rig iCalendar and iAddress bookl to syncwith the Palm Pilot did not go well.Word, Excel, Acrobat Professional and Endnote were far slower on a brand new MacBook than they were on a PC purchased two years ago for much cheaper. This probably reflects the general trend for companies to put far less effort into Mac programs than PC ones (supply and demand).OSX has great looks and graphics capabilites, but I was unimpressedwith the basic functionality. For example:anchored highlighting is ludicrousswitching between tasks is much less efficient than on a PC, wherealt-tab really does the job (I tried a freeware utility called"Witch", but it functioned very slowly)I suppose I could have invested more time and money in trying more Macnative software (DevonThink, Scribner, Bookends, Pages, etc), butsince I need to be interoperable with the rest of the world--and likegetting things like the new version of google, I found it moreefficient to cut my losses and switch back.I do miss the streamlined design of the MacBook, and its greattrackpad, with the two-fingered double click and scrolling. However, the side of the machine is sharp, making typing uncomfortable--but it looks good. -1.0 Don't repeat it. Averatec dies after 6 months. The customer support is very unfriendly. I had to garbage it and buy another brand. NEVER BUY AVERATEC -1.0 I have always been a Toshiba person however that does not make the fact that this purchase was a very good value for money biased. Small and actractive and for a Laptop under $800 it was well worth it. Huge hard drive, tons of Ram and Vista Premium I made me think it was well worth. Could have been a little faster and slightly larger screen but it was eight hundred so no complaints. 1.0 I've had my Macbook (MB) for about two weeks now and I have to say I love it, and I'll tell you why:1) Ease of use. After you get over the PC to Mac unfamiliarity (it took me a day or so), you'll realize that everything on this MB is so much more user friendly than any PC/Notebook I've ever used. For example, deleting items/programs off the computer. There is no need to uninstall...just drag the item to the trash and bingo, the program is gone. There is no registry in OS X to deal with. Wireless connectivity is a breeze - just walk into a hotspot and a little window pops up asking if you want to connect. That simple! My previous laptop - Dell Insipiron - took some windows configuration which if you're new to wireless connectivity could take awhile to get used to. Bluetooth comes standard and any device is automatically detected. I have a BT mouse that I just turned on and the MB took care of the rest. It was that easy -- so far I haven't had to deal with drivers and updating and the like.2. Security -- I am still a litle wary about this aspect of the MB, but no anti-virus software! I have not yet (knock on wood) encountered any spyware/viruses whereas in PC, that is the first thing you have to contend with. That is not to say Macs are not vunerable, but much less so than PCs from what I've read.3. It is sleek, light, and great looking. Aesthetics aren't too important to me, but it is a plus. The MB looks great and works well. Not to mention its 1" all around size. It is slightly heavy, a little over 5lbs with the adapter. Fits nicely in my school bag -- not much heavier than a 5 star notebook with about the same dimensions.4. Little things. So you can probably get more functionality/customizibality from a Dell for at or just under the price of this MB. But what the Dell probably won't offer is the little things. For example, the AC adapter comes in two parts - one much like the IPod adapter with two prongs for travel and then a three pronged extension when using at home. The fast connectivity of this MB - I never have to turn it off/restart, I just close the lid and the its goes to sleep. When I open the lid, the computer starts right up and picks up where I left off in seconds. On that note, the use of magnets for the lid closure and power cord connector -- that is ingenious! No latch to break, no hard cable connection to send your MB flying from the careless, unaware college kid. Installing applications -- just download app, an icon appears on your desktop, drag it to your applications folder and you are done. There are many more little things that I could mention, but this review is turning out too long as it is.Bottom line: I am very happy with this MB. It is my first Apple Computer, and when my Dell XPS dies, I intend on replacing it with an Apple PC. They just seem so much more user friendly. I am not a computer whiz and the Mac seems to target the average user like me. I love every aspect about this MB from the size, weight, design, to its functionality. Switching from PC to MAC is really not that difficult and if you get stuck, just google whatever it is you need and someone somewhere has probably had the same question. Most of the stuff is common sense. Unlike some other users, I don't think the MB gets overly hot on my lap after many hours of usage. The keyboard is flat and takes a bit of getting used to, but I love it. All in all, well worth the price. I bought mine off the Apple store, used the student discount ($100 off), got a free IPOD. Granted you cannot upgrade much on this machine (I got a larger HDD), so it won't replace a regular computer for gaming or serious graphic design. If you want more value for your money - you're probably better off with something like a Dell. But if you have the money (although it's not overpriced for compared to other notebooks in its class), and want a well thought out, nicely built machine - with very little headaches that are associated with PCs, you should get this MB. You won't be disappointed! 1.0 This is my second Averatec ultraportable and like the first, it's a great value. I use it as a road computer when I travel for business, so its small size is the biggest advantage to me. I upgraded the memory to 2gb, which was a completely painless process (unlike with my first Averatec, a 3715, which ultimately led to its demise) and it runs like a champ. Yes, it gets a bit hot like the other reviewer said, but its someting I can deal with.I researched a lot of small laptops and for the money, this one simply can't be beat. Considered a Dell, but the fact that this one features an internal DVD drive was the deal sealer.I'm giving it 5 stars thanks to its outstanding value and portability. 1.0 I bought this laptop after being so impressed by the new iMac that I purchased. I'm not one for spending lots of money on computers, but these computers are worth every penny. The last laptop I owned was a Toshiba Satellite, and the laptop I owned before that was a Sony. I ended up having major problems with them both. Software problems, and hardware problems. I have had my powerbook for a month now and smile everytime I use it.But if you do buy one I recommend buying a protective case for it as well. The casing gets finger prints on it very easily, and though mine has not gotten any scratches because I keep it in its case when I'm not using it, I could imagine it's finish getting scuffed. The only other complaint that I have about this computer, and its a minor one, is it doesn't get the wi-fi range that my last laptop did. It doesn't have horrible range, but there were places I could get reception with my last laptop that I cannot with this one. But I guess it doesn't matter if you can get a signal if your laptop only works half the time. I'll deal with the mediocre reception if I can have a computer that runs as good as an apple does. 1.0 I've been an everyday computer user since the 80s and have always, until now loved MacIntosh. I have not always had them, for example because I use computers issued by my workplace, but when possible Mac's what I've had off and on over the years. About a year ago I bought a Macbook and Applecare protection plan as a gift for my college-bound son. The computer has not been troublesome until recently, although I found myself wondering why a $1300 (plus plus plus) Macbook was any better than the $500 Dell I use at work. Experience over the last month has soured me on ever buying another Apple product ever. The problem is in customer support. The Macbook broke down (or was inadvertly damaged), which I thought would be a simple matter to diagnose, relate to the warranty, and correct...even if not covered by the warranty. The first trip by my college age son to the Apple store produced advice from the Apple technician to send it somewhere else due to expected delays and difficulties---better to pay someone else to fix it than to deal with Apple...despite having the expensive Applecare extended service plan. This without any real diagnosis of the problem. So we took it to Comp USA, listed on the Apple website as an authorized Apple repair center. To make a long story short, Comp USA completely fumbled after charging me $100 for data recovery, which it turned out can not be done with voiding the Applecare warranty. (The authorized technicians at Comp USA were unaware of this.) They never did the data recovery, and I had to return to the store and wait in a long line to get a refund. It turned out that there is virtualy no provision for data recovery when Macs go down (perhaps it can be done by paying a minimum of $500 to an outside service). Okay, backing up is the customer responsibility. After the computer sat in the authorized service center unrepaired and un-sent to Apple for over a week, with the technician there lying that it had been "sent to Apple," I finally went to that store to pick it up. I took the computer again to the Apple store to drop it off to be sent for repair, only to find out that to drop off a malfunctioning computer requires an appointment---and they specify the time. So now yet another trip to the Apple store. Too bad if you're supposed to be at work during all these trips. Counting that, a routine malfunction, still unresolved has caused me (or my son) five trips through heavy traffic to absolutely nowhere. In the meantime, my son who needs the computer for college work, has been computerless for almost a month and counting. Everything about this experience has been stupid, rude, wasteful, and frustrating. This from a company that charges a premium price for its products and absolutely needs customer loyalty. Whether the computer merely malfunctioned or has suffered trauma, I do not know. I can live with either conclusion. The point is with Apple it has been impossible to even get ANYWHERE on this problem despite extensive efforts. I'd suggest looking at other computers. -1.0 Have had this notebook for about a week. For the money (got it for $899 during a sale) I think it's a great machine. The screen is great and it handles all sorts of media very well. It's very speedy and does a fine job running all the regular business applications I use (Word, Excel, etc). I don't have any complaints about how it functions as a computer and media player.Only 2 complaints are:1. A high-pitched buzzing noise when running on battery power, while the computer is idle. I researched this and it looks like it's an issue with the CPU power saving technology switching back and forth, and was able to fix it by installing a free utility called RMClock, which fixes the noise but reduces battery life a bit by keeping the CPU from going into the lowest level of activity for power saving. Appears that this is an issue with other laptops that use Intel Core 2 Duo chips, not just HP. The alternative is getting a machine with an AMD or older single-core chip, which isn't attractive at all given the speed advantage Intel's mobile 2-core chips have right now.2. Sensitive power cord - electrical connection breaks if the computer is jostled sometimes. Not a huge issue, but need to make sure the cord is solidly plugged in. HP could do a better job here.Also to note that battery life seems only average (even before the fix noted above). However, for a media laptop this might be expected since I think a lot of the functions (playing movies, etc.) draw a lot of power.Overall a very good laptop, and a great buy compared to other alternatives if you can get it in the $900-950 range. 1.0 This is my first Mac computer as well, after many years of using Windows PC at home and at work. I'm very impressed with both Macbook and OS X. Macbook, performance is awesome with just 1g of ram memory. From the first time Mac user, I'm very pleased with Apple hardware and software, it just works. And I'm impressed with how it all works together.As for this specific version of the macbook, I have found no problems at all, works beautifully as advertised. The only thing I found is that mabook's screen needs to be calibrated or adjusted. Don't settle for default screen profile, pictures will appear washed out. Calibrate screens settings; you should be able to get it pretty close to what it should be with just what macbook has in OS X. I also recommend buying this model, since it has a bigger harddrive, its worth it. This laptop is very fast and reliable! 1.0 great performance, great look and a mind blowing interface like apple technology can provide 1.0 Im a first time user of apple OS. Its a pretty good product but a few things could have been better like the keyboard...it definitely could have been faster to type, you just dont see the words on the screen as fast you type... its just not quite as good a speed as its on other windows xp laptops...you just can't type that fast. most of the things OS X does pretty well but i found after i downloaded a windows xp on it that there are things i still prefer to do on xp...like watch live video stream, plus its a pain when websites dont open in safari or firefox and are designed only for explorer and a few other things...but for me keyboard needs to be improvised for people who type fast... 1.0 If you want a good computer, forget HP, especially on their customer service. My laptop was under warranty, and when the charger went bad, after a couple of months, I had to call them several times, and it took two months for the replacement to arrive. So, if your thinking of an HP, forget about it. Go for Dell, Sony, Gateway. They know how to treat their customers. -1.0 Wonderful gaming laptop with a very nice size screen. This laptop is exactly what I wanted for portability. I wanted a desktop that I could go mobile with and this is it. Don't expect to use this on a tiny airplane dinner tray, but do expect to open it up in your hotel and enjoy your games. I was a bit disappointed with the lack of RAID support. I wanted so badly to make those two 120GB hard drives into one 240GB RAID 0. After explaining to Toshiba tech support what a RAID 0 was, I was led down a very lengthy non conclusive result. Still unable to make it RAID 0. All in all, still a good buy. Perhaps a 7200rpm drive will make me happy. 1.0 My purpose in buying a notebook was to run Microsoft Flight Simulator X exclusively. At the time of my purchase, this is the only notebook available with the NVidia GeForce 8700M GT graphics card. This incredible machine has everything I could think of cramming into a notebook, including a subwoofer. It out-performs most of the $4000 Dell and AlienWare notebooks without even heating up. It's 3DMark06 score is 5089. The bottom line is that Flight Simulator X runs on Ultra High settings at 30FPS. All of the other features speak for themselves. 1.0 Like some other people, I recieved my computer and was extremely excited, because this time, I actually paid for mine instead of my parents. I turned it on, connected my external hard drive, and started to play music. BAM! Screen went black, music turned off, and the only way I could continue was to hit the power off button, then power it back up. This is completely unacceptable, and I have no earthly idea why Toshiba hasn't issued a recall. I wouldn't have felt compelled to write a review here on Amazon, but I took my computer back, and got another one. The same GODD*MN thing happened the day I got it! I am stunned, sitting here with a non-working computer, thanking the sweet lord for the fact that I kept my reciept. I would go with another computer, and dont even waste your time hoping to get one that works. Other than that, its an ok machine. -1.0 My previous (non-Windows) laptop was a trusty 12" G4 ("titanium"). I loved it, as it was (and still is) of an almost perfect size, and capable to do almost everything I needed to do on the road. But it *was* getting old, and when Apple came out with the slightly speedbumped MacBook Pro (a name I still don't like), I ordered it. I'm reviewing the 15", 2.4 GHz, 2 GB, 200 GB hard drive version.The first thing that strikes you is how thin it is. My good old G4 was already slim, and the envy of almost every other passenger next to me. However, due to the increased screen size, the new MacBook Pro seems even slimmer (it actually *is* slightly slimmer than the G4 in case you wonder). What is really impressive is that the 12" G4 weights nearly the same as the much larger (and newer) 15" - that's progress! And the 12" G4 is a lot lighter than my Wintel laptop.The next thing you notice is when you turn it on: the screen's brightness. I've purchased the matte screen, as I'm not really fond of glossy screens (reflections). Still, the (now LED backlit) screen is astonishingly bright, and bright enough to use outdoors on almost any occasion (except in direct sunlight on a sunny summer day). Contrast is good (even exceptional compared to my G4). The screen's resolution (1440x900) is great, and more than enough for most presentation, spreadsheet and word processing work. Since it's 16:9 aspect ratio, it is also great for most image processing (lots of space for your palettes). It is less well suited for coding, as it is not wide enough for two 'real' code windows side by side. Then again, the MacBook Pro comes with a graphics card that can drive an external (additional) 21" monitor without breaking a sweat, and that *is* enough for most coding needs. I should note that Apple chose to make the video connector DVI (luckily a standard connector this time, unlike in my G4, where it is a proprietary connector), and omits a standard 'VGA' style connector. This means that, if you plan on giving a presentation, you should always bring along the DVI to VGA adapter (that Apple thankfully includes in the box).What I really enjoy about the MacBook Pro is it's selection interfaces. I have rather large amounts of data that I have to move in and out of it (from our production machines that do most of the heavy lifting), and having a FireWire 800 port is a godsend. Using Firewire networking, I can move gigabytes in minutes (limited, it seems, more by the laptop's hard drive than bandwidth). In addition to that, it sports a USB 2.0 (for connecting all those Wintel things, plus iPods), a FireWire 400 port (can be used with older Macs, and many HandyCams), and 802.11 ("Airport") connectivity (b/g/n). Since the 'n' part of the 802.11 is not yet officially ratified, there aren't many hotspots that support it (unless you are lucky enough to be close to a new Apple Basestation).Sadly, it does not have a slot for memory cards (CF, SD, whatever), but since readers are really cheap today, that's not an issue. On the upside, it also comes with self-sensing Gigabit Ethernet, wich is something that is really important when you want to quickly connect the laptop to a wired high-speed network.The MacBook Pro also comes with a front-loading trayless DVD (DL) writer. It's not really fast, but it integrates nicely into the laptop, and is decidedly much, much cooler than those flimsy contraptions that I see sliding out of so many other laptops (my Dell included). I know that there are faster writers, but then again, if I want to write large amounts of data, I usually transfer them to a big box that can write at four times the speed.Temperature-wise the MacBook Pro shares the same problem as most recent laptops: it gets uncomfortably warm for something that is supposedly be used on your lap. I didn't get burned, but did not enjoy the sensation either. So, whenever possible, use a surface you can put it on instead of using it directly on your lap. Speaking of using it - the keyboard is very similar to the one built into my G4. It's OK, but nothing much to write home about (sorry, couldn't resist that pun). The keys are, however, backlit, which is a definite improvement (and looks really, really great). I still have mimxed feelings with regard to the trackpad. It supports the 'two-finger clicks' to simulate a two-button mouse and to implement scrolling, but I havn't much used it, opting for a small two-button mouse instead (purchased separately, and not from Apple).There are some other things that come with the MacBook, most notably the built-in iSight (which can't be physically disabled short of voiding your warranty), and a tiny remote. I don't plan to use either. Looking for some freebies on the disk, I discovered that Apple, too, had succumbed to pre-installing demo versions of (thankfully few) applications: MS Office, Aperture and iWork (Keynote and Pages). Freebies are Comic Life, iLife (iMovie, iTunes, iDVD, iWeb, Garageband), and Omni Outliner.It took me roughly 2 hours to completely configure the new laptop the way I wanted it (most of the time taken up by installing Parallels (with Windows XP taking 45 minutes), Final Cut Studio, XCode, Office, Aperture, Freeway, and iWork). I did not take advantage of the 'transfer from other Mac' feature (which I know to work well), because I wanted a freshly set up Mac. Still, compared to the time it took me to install and configure my last (Wintel) laptop, that is next to nothing. Network and Internet setup was a snap, and didn't require much more beyond adding it to our Firewall's 'good guy' list. I then took it on a road trip over the week-end.I'm happy to say that it passed the trip-test easily. The 'mag-safe' power adapter is definitely more than just a gadget, but also definitely less than revolutionary. It came off twice during the week-end, but both times a normal power adapter would not have snapped. The second time it came off I only noticed because the screen dimmed immediately (to conserve power, as per energy settings). I never worked with it off the normal power for longer than two hours, so I don't know how realistic Apple's figures are. The battery pack does come with one of those cool green LED charge meters, and after two hours they indicated about 50% charge left (as did the on-screen meter). Working with the MacBook Pro was always good, with all applications being very responsive (except, of course MS Office, as my version is not Universal. It was responsive enough for serious work, though). The wireless antenna seems slightly more sensitive than that from my old G4, but still can't hold a candle against reception in most PC laptops with low-cost (and sometimes drop-dead ugly) WiFi adapters. This may be caused by the metallic casing. BlueTooth reception, on the other hand, is good, and proved no problem with any of the bluetooth devices I tried (well -- I only have two: my phone, and my car). All in all I'm very happy with my new laptop, prefer it immensely over my Windows-based laptop (which, now that I have an Intel-based Mac, I can safely store in the attic and return it for the regular company-sponsored upgrades), and only feel slightly guilty of purchasing over my old (but still working) G4. The screen size and brightness, the connectivity, and the incredible slickness of the form factor make this a great laptop. It's really a hot laptop. The only downside is that it is also literally a hot laptop, but not more than my Windows-based laptop from Dell. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a slick, high-end laptop. 1.0 Now that I know that we (I) are stuck with OS X for better (mostly) then a new Mac is the only way to go. There are many things this low-tech Mac pilot likes about all things Mac, but the loss of some really fine features by the intro of OS X is hard to take. NOt being able to just go into a "Control Panel" and uncheck an unwanted program for example, or knowing how much you are dumping in the trash for another. The idea of "crash proofing" the system IS a good trade off I will admit, but sometimes I wish the programmers hadn't been so quick to do away with the easy to use stuff just to create a NEW AND BETTER SYSTEM!!!! Sometimes the price of progress is a bit steep. That said, I wouldn't touch a PC with a ten foot firewire cord, so I'm happy to have a SuperDrive and all the other goodies the iBook has, though I really doubt I will use half of them. iPhoto is a cute gimmick, but I prefer Photoshop, iTunes are nice to have, but with a dial-up causing all things like this to load slowly and often, I'm just not going to get into it. And there's not that much worth listening to on radio......and etc., etc., etc. STILL! even a curmudgion will like an iBook. This one does. 1.0 I purchased two Toshiba Satellite computers and one Qosmio G15R computer. Within a short period of time, the electrical connection on both Satellite laptops had broken and we were advised the repair cost was higher than the cost of a new computer. The Qosmio G15R was built with a defective motherboard. Within a few months I had vertical lines on the screen. I brought it to an authorized Toshiba repair center. A month later I received it back and it seemed to work. A year later, again lines. This time I sent it to Toshiba and they replaced the motherboard. Another year, lines again. This time Toshiba told me the computer was out of warranty so it was my problem. When I insisted it was a manufacturer defect, the Toshiba technical supervisor yelled at me on the phone that it was not a manufacturing defect. If you want these kinds of problems, buy Toshiba. I'll never purchase any Toshiba product ever again, and I'm going to warn my friends not to as well. Wallace Reid. -1.0 I bought this laptop 2 days ago and it came OVER LOADED with 3rd party software like Vongo, AOl and more. The laptop performs well under "normal" usage, but under stress, it lags a lot, making it very uncomfortable to work on. The main reason why I rated this laptop with a 3 stars is because the computer gets WAYYYYYYY to hot. It seems that HP didn't create a proper heat dissipation system because on the left hand side (where you rest you left wrist) gets way too hot, it even radiates through the keyboard.Aside from that, the laptop is very tempting for the price, and the remote is just beautiful, you can even turn you computer on with it.Bottom line is, I couldn't stand the heat, so I ended up returning this machine... but if you don't care a little heat on you wrist.... then go for it. -1.0 I purchased the Toshiba satellite laptop to replace a failing home computer. I wanted a laptop mostly for the portability. I researched various brands through web reviews and Consumer Reports and this particular laptop was rated very high in both consumer satisfaction and reliability. I had to purchase an Ethernet cable to connect the laptop to my modem, but once I made the connection, I was able to access the interrnet right away. I hadn't heard great things about MS Vista, which came preinstalled on the laptop, but I haven't experienced any issues with it (knock on wood). I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Toshiba satellite laptop - they've won me over! 1.0 After developing R.S.I. I decided to invest in a macbook on the theory that Apple's legendary usability would put less stress on my hands. What a mistake! Nearly every common operation takes longer in finder than exlorer, many operations and configurations are as far from 'intuitive' as anything in Windows (much further in some cases). Yes the O.S. is more stable (just), but can't say the same for much of the software - and the lack of good quality, free software is disappointing (even good quality paid software is harder to find). I've been using it for about 6 months now so it can't just be lack of familiarity. There are so many areas in which OS X is flawed or lacking compared to Windows that I can only conclude that the mac's reputation for usability is pure bluff and hype. The thing that's saved the macbook for me is installing vmware fusion so that I can run XP on it. Could have got a really sweet Windows-based notebook for the price though! -1.0 I have waited for a long time to be able to buy a Mac, and this is my final veredict:1. First of all, the Superdrive is absoulutely necessary if you wanna back up your hard disk or big files... it's a little slow and bored to burn a lot of CD's with 700 MB, instead of a big DVD with 4,7 GB of capacity.2. The Intel-Based system is very fast, have a extremely quick start, and native software runs perfectly.3. The Intel Core 2 Duo is better than his first version. The Core 2 Duo, works colder, and doesn't have problems of unexpected shutdown. Very solid.4. The space in gigabytes of Apple software and applications it's simply a hassle, that's why I buyed this computer with a 80 GB hard disk, and when you open your laptop the first time, you can check with horrour only 56 GB available!! That's because you can see a lot of unnecessary Apple software that uses a total of 17 GB of your precious hard disk space. The solution? I re-installed Mac OSX from the DVD, erasing the whole hard disk, and simply I "personalized" what software I really need to use, so, I unchecked all the unecessary language packs, printer for all drivers, garage band, and some useless software, and finally, I get a lovable 3,5 GB Mac OSX and a 70 GB free... perfect.5. Mag-safe technology, simply comfortable.6. The 13" with 1280 x 800 resolution, it's very bright, clear and you can "see" everything.I recommend this computer for people who wants an easy-to-use system, and enjoy it without thinking in virus, patches and worms like another operating systems. 1.0 I picked up one of these guys in a brick-and-mortar store, but ended up returning it within a few hours. The problem: the laptop comes with 1GB memory (2GB max), and the 1GB consists of 2 512MB DIMM's. So if you want to max it out (and you do, if you want to run Vista), that means you'll need to buy two 1GB DIMMs and throw away the two 512MB DIMMs that came with the system. That's too lame for words, so back to the store it went. -1.0 I have owned this computer for a month now. Please research carefully before purchasing. Mine has faint lines on the display, of two types: diagonal ones (scrolling), and horizontal ones every other line of pixels or so. Seeing them depends on the calibration of the screen, the angle under which you look at the screen, how much you care and how good your eyesight is, but it's not subjective, the lines are there. I didn't notice them right away, I did think that the display was a little muddy compared to the previous 15" model with lower resolution I had used just before though, but I did also notice the lines after a few days and was shocked to find so many people describing the exact same behaviour when making a simple search on google for the keywords 'powerbook 15" horizontal lines'. What is worse is that after a month, Applecare still acts like the issue is unheard of, urges me to send mine in for repair, but to the best of my knowledge, nobody, on any forums where users describe the issue, has said they had sent their computer in for repair and it came back without the problem. It is to wonder whether every PowerBook is affected, casual users might not care but based on 1) friends 2) visits to the local Appe store 3) online forums, it seems quasi general. The problem is obvious on mine, I have a good eyesight - and depend on my PowerBook for graphical work, and earn a living... so scrolling diagonal lines on light grey backgrounds behind text, scanline texture surimposed to any graphic, is not an option for me and is giving me headaches literally as well as figuratively (pun intended) and I sincerely don't know what to do as refund, resale, switching to a 17" is not exactly what I want to do if it is even an option with Apple for me at this point. And contrarily to what some say no, I don't need to be two inches from the screen to see them, and I am looking at the monitor perpendicularly. Other than that, small problems with the USB, it seems that I need to unplug and plug my external mouse for it to be recognised when the computer wakes up from sleep. I can live with that. Otherwise, great little machine... -1.0 Pros:Beautiful large screen.Fast processor and plenty of RAM.Great video card GRAW2 runs at acceptable FPS with all settings at it s highest .The sound is fantastic, everyone is always shocked when I play something for them on it.Very sturdy case, not flimsy at all.Lots of extra little features on it that aren t mentioned in the description toggle switch for WiFi, volume control spins instead of having hard stop so it works well with the soft volume controls, touchpad can turn into a media control pad .Cons:Very large laptop, it actually doesn t fit very well in my X-Large Timbuktu Messenger bag.The little rubber feet are just glued on and one has already come off.The power supply is gigantic and literally weighs 3 pounds by itself.If you are looking for a desktop replacement or a portable mid to high end gaming system, this is a great laptop. If you are not looking for either of these things, take a look at another laptop. This is a very large and powerful laptop that is at the limits of portability. I love mine, but I use it for the reasons mentioned above. 1.0 I bought this laptop a few weeks ago for [...],which was a good value. It works fine, but my two complaints are the fan noisy and the ram (2x512 sticks rather than 1GB stick, makes expansion wasteful/more costly). I'm not so concerned with the ram, since I don't require any high end processing, but with the fan, even though I use it mostly for browsing the web and watching videos online, the fan seems to turn on and off frequently (on 10-30 seconds, off for about a minute), after using it for a period of time (30 minutes to an hour). It's very noticeable and distracting. Is it supposed to be like that? Does anyone else have this issue? Any suggestions regarding making the fan quieter, or turn on and off less frequently would be appreciated, if you can leave a comment. Thanks! -1.0 I agree with the previous reviewer concerning the massive resource pig Vista. I blew the money on extra ram - there are two DDR2 PC5300 ram chip slots that ship with 1gb ram chips in them - i upgraded both withK-Byte 2GB PC5300 DDR2 SoDIMM Notebook Memory, doubling the ram, and the computer functions much more swiftly & efficiently - although it cost @ $350 for the ram upgrade and i could only order it online through bestbuy. Otherwise, as both a gamer, movie lover, and general power user, I recommend the computer. I opted for this over the Qosmio because recent models of the Qosmio line don't flaunt the graphical horsepower for gaming that these new Satellites do - I'm very happy with the Nvidia GeForce 8700M GT for both gaming and movie performance, and the onboard harmon kardon speakers offer better than expected sound quality. Take the time to trim all the unnecessary preloaded software and the startup will boot a bit faster. I was skeptical of the biometric fingerprint reading gadget, but so far, so good - and when i burned my fingers with a poptart so the reader couldn't read my print (lol) it was very easy to disable. 1.0 Nah, I'm just kidding, would be nice though.Okay, review time. Not going to go "all happy go lucky time review" here, just some things I want to shed some light on. So I've been a PC user ever since I was a young teen and when I finally decided to jump ship to OS X I was very skeptical. Having finally been able to play around with Apple's OS I can finally say that it is WAY nicer than any Windows version. There are a few bumps though, not with the OS but with the laptop itself. The main one I find very disappointing is that there are no PCMCIA slots located anywhere. I have a Mogo Mouse which I wanted to use with this notebook but now it just collects dust. Aye...Another is that it gets really hot after a few minutes. When you actually look at the Macbook you realize that there are no vents for the heat it produces so I don't recommend putting it on your lap for a long period of time...especially if you're a guy because...well you know...lastly, the front of the keyboard ,where you lay your wrist to type, is very sharp. VERY. It can be a problem if you try to type for a long period of time. It's SO uncomfortable and it leaves marks on your wrists (not that it hurts it's just freaking horrible how Apple designed it).Conclusion: Yes, the Macbook has it's problems (just like every human being on the face of the Earth...ahem...) but it is a great piece of hardware that is sexy as H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks. OS X is fast and smooth with little to no hiccups. Well worth it's price.My name is Mr. Jeff and glad you took the time to read this horrendous review. Drive home safe and sober. L8. *Drops mic like Chris Rock* 1.0 La calidad de Apple se ve reflejada en el producto! un excelente diseño y velocidad! en mi caso en particular de una vez compré la actualización de memoria para llevarla a 2GB de ram. El unico detalle de la laptop es que no cuenta con dispositivos de lectura de tarjetas de memoria (mmc, sd, etc.) la cámara integrada da una excelente resolución! 1.0 I'm one of the HP notebook users and I don't wanna to use any HP notebook anymore till I saw the new pavillons.. The pricing was excellent and decided to buy one for my wife.. After getting the products I get the rebate from amazon directly but it was diffucult to get from HP. I provided everything that they requested and send them the documents with postal mail however they didn't get it and if they don't get it they are not responsible to provide me this rebate with any information.. I can't believe it..!!! After a while my notebook begins to work slowly, since I'm a technical guy I understood that there is smthng wrong with the main processor.. My mistake was to buy a HP again.. :( I won't recommend anyone this new pavillons.. -1.0 I'm running windows and Mac and both are very fast except for windows load. It's a beautiful PC, very fast. Everything is perfect except for 1 thing which is why I didn't gave it 5 stars. It runs very very hot. Your hands get hot with contact. Sometimes I have to touch my face while using the notebook and immediate I have to take it off, cause it feel like burning. Another thing that bothers me a lot lot is that it only has 2 USB. Apart from that I love it. Its very quiet also. 1.0 Flawless design. Incredible power. I usually work with almost all the applications running at the same time and I jump between them with no delay at all. It starts up in record time and is the most solid operating system I have used.Only a few minor negatives. The light sensor for screen brightness is in a bad spot and the screen brightness levels can change constantly unless you have good lighting in the room. And when it comes to battery charging, the laptop wont take a charge unless it drops below 94 or 93 %. So I let it drop down below 90% in the morning before I plug it in.Overall if you need a muscular, powerful computer for design and editing I highly suggest purchasing one! 1.0 Good product, quick delivery. Needs more USB ports and memory card slots and that's why I only gave it 4 stars. 1.0 Although I recently had trouble with my previous generation Powerbook, I contacted apple and was able to send the old laptop back and received this one a few days later. My previous powerbook had 1.5ghz, Combo drive, the slower DDR Ram, and less screen resolution. This Powerbook is already much quicker, even after loading all the things back on to it. I love the higher screen resolution and the added battery life. It really does make a difference!!! Although I do see the lines on the screen when up close to the panelb ,but I mean you have to be REAL close to see it. Needless to say, it doesn't bother me one bit. I had no battery problems (with either powerbook) and would recomend this computer to anyone. My sister recieved a Toshiba for Christmas and is already on the search for an extra battery to extend her short 1 hr and 7 min life. Although I was upset about my first computer, it eventually got me a brand new upgrade at no cost and I could never be happier! 1.0 Ok, so there are plenty of detailed reviews by now, here is my main observation after 2+ weeks of use:- It is HOT (the 2.2 GHz version), both as in beautiful product and as a... portable coffee maker: I managed to get processor temp up to 94ºC/201ºF running Photoshop CS3. And that was during normal use, not specific tests. The area just above the keyboard gets so hot, I am affraid to close the lid untill it cools down a bit. Average CPU working temp is about 54ºC. But it's FAST, so I suppose it's a fair tradeoff.Other than that, it works like a charm, fast, stable, elegant. Oh, and It now supports external display rotation by default (with the newest software update). I use a 19" pivot display and the rotation menu is visible all the time in the display preferences pannel. Still no automatic pivot suppor though. 1.0 This is an excelent disktop replacement computer. It is too thick and heavy to use as a everyday portable. This computer is fast. It is an excelent value for the money if you leave it in one place. TV tuner hooks up easly but is cumbersome, HP makes a better one. 1.0 We bought a MacBook this spring and liked it so much we bought a 2nd for my son's HS graduation 2 months ago. Both perform flawlessly. However after only 2 months of NORMAL use the LCD screen on my son's Mac has cracked. Apple quoted a base cost of $750 to replace--more than 2/3rds of the original cost! (Actually, they said "Don't fix; buy a new unit.") I was quick to blame my son for misuse, but now I'm uncertain if that is fair. I have found many blogs reporting the same fragile LCD cracks on MacBooks, many which seemed to occur spontaniously. Apple, of course, claims misuse and will not warranty. Even the additional Apple Care warranty excludes LCD replacement. Perhaps the cover design inadequately protects the screen. Think twice. Or at least buy a hard snap on case which may provide some protection. -1.0 I ordered this product in June, hoping to receive a fast, stable computer. In stead, what I got was a big disappointment. The graphic driver did not function correctly, Vista is confusing, keypad is slow to respond, I called the TOSHIBA technical support number more than 10 times within 3 days of receiving the laptop!!! And the TOSHIBA support line is a wast of time. There is only one guy competent enough to help me immediately. All other "technicians" asked me to wait before giving be instructions. When I asked them more questions, they asked me to wait more!! Worst of all, No one could help me to change the language setting. I finally figure it out by meself. Anyhow, It was a disaster. I returned the product after too many frustrations. The graphic driver still did not function correctly before I return it. -1.0 you know i thought i would try my first mac based on all the positive raves about how great apples are, there is this buzz about them that it is magical experience and that all the ills you have with your PC will be obsolete and that it is a superior under the radar computer. Everyone that owns an apple swears by it. I tried this unit for a couple days and i have to say i did'nt like it. for one thing the palm rest gets very hot and emanates and uncomfortable electromagnetic radiation on your hands or on your lap if you keep it there, very similar to "cell phone ear" for some reason that bugged me my pc laptop does not do that i beleive because of the thin size of this notebook the hotness is a trade off , i did'nt like the keyboard either , now onto a completely newer operating system , granted i never really took the time to fully learn it but my impression of it is this, it is supposed to be intuitive and more user friendly than windows, i think it is dumbed down , furthermore i think that windows is great if you have it working well, the advantage that this apple has supposedly is that it is less prone to bugs virus's crashes and things of that nature. All in all after using it for a couple days i really missed computers and decided to return it, i am now shoppng for a new pc laptop. Alot of the stuff apple gives you is based around photo's music and movies , which is kinda nice in way but i still feel that apple is a niche product and that there is a reason why 90% of people still use windows based pc's. windows may not be perfect but it is a universally usable product that is the best way to use the internet among other things. And apples are'nt exactly cheap either. And there is still alot of stuff like peripherals and programs that don't work for apple os , even though apple is growing alot of stuff is still left out for apple users. Also i have heard that windows vista has copied and knocked off alot of the good features of apples OS tiger 10.4 , ultimately i wanted to like this computer but i feel it does'nt live up to it's hype. you get an expensive computer with a bunch of preinstalled music movie web publishing programs thats basically it. -1.0 If you plan on buying this laptop, be aware that there have been issues with the memory slots on this model. Apple has issued a repair extension program to help owners deal with this. Unfortunately this program only applies to 1.5 GHz and 1.67 GHz machines. A number of people with 1 GHz and 1.25 GHz machines are having the same failure, but I am not aware of any help for these machines.See [...]for more details. -1.0 I USED to love Apple products, but I've soured on them after my experience with my MacBook. Have had to replace the battery twice and a week ago, the hard disk died. Bad hard disks seem to be rampant with these computers - Google up "macbook hard disk failure" and you'll find a feast of complaints about MacBook hard disks borking out. To its credit, Apple replaced my battery and hard disk without a fee even though my MacBook had just passed out of warranty.Although I feel that Apple dealt honorably with the hard drive/battery issues, I don't recommend buying a MacBook until Apple fixes the problems endemic to these computers. -1.0 I bought this one refurbished from the apple site. It was advertised as a completely perfect computer with no flaws and arrived looking as such. Everything seemed fine, but a few days ago -- just a little over 3 months since the date of purchase -- the computer abruptly shut down on me, and continued to do so each time I used it. After troubleshooting with the phone agents (for which, by the way, I had to pay a ridiculous $50 because my 3-month-included phone plan ran out...by mere days), I was able to fix the shutdown problem, but now the computer will not run without the power chord. It does not turn on without the power chord. At all.I am deeply shocked and disturbed that a product like this would break down so quickly. I have never experienced anything like this before, with any kind of electronic. I was told by the agents that I will have to get the harddrive replaced, which is a real headache. So I just keep asking myself why I ever bought this thing.Laptops are NOT Apple's forte. If you are determined to buy an apple product, stick to desktops. You might find that you get lots of unnecessary headaches with your macbook. Don't be fooled by its cute look and speed. I'd rather have an uglier, a bit slower computer, but one that is consistent and doesn't break down on me after 3 months. -1.0 I've been a PC user all my life but decided to go Apple after hearing so many rave reviews from friends. Keep in mind that I was a master of my PC (with all of the shortcuts and tricks), aIt may just take time. Here are some initial comments after a few hours of playing around with my new iBook:Pros - Easy setup! took minutes to get the system running and updated!Beautiful machine - as much as I have always liked it, owning one feels differentCons -The screen does not open a full 180 degrees. Often I like to sit with my knees up and open my laptop completely flat, but this is not possible with an iBook.ctrl+arrows do not skip you over words if you are trying to navigate through a document (I use MS Word ALOT).Even though it comes with a 60GB, 20 GB was already full from programs and the OSI'll continue to update and add to this review as I learn more... -1.0 I use a variety of notebooks. The iBook I owned had a very flimsy LCD screen. You can see this if you press on the case on the other side of the screen: the slightest pressure immediately distorts the screen. I don't see this effect on the Lenovo or Dell notebooks I use.Not surprisingly, the iBook screen was damaged (hairline "cracks" in the LCD screen) in less than 6 months. I don't know how this came about but I know the case was intact so I didn't drop the machine or drop anything heavy on the case.I purchased the Macintosh with a three year "AppleCare" warranty (at a very steep cost). Despite this, all Apple would offer me as a repair option was to replace the screen for $800. The new iBook was about $900. So, caveat emptor. The recent Wall Street Journal article on fragile iPod screens prompted me to write this. Seems that Apple continues to prefer style over substance. -1.0 The MacBook Pro has many issues which is why I am rating it at 2 stars. There are much better laptops available. Be aware the price offered here at Amazon by third party dealers is not the cheapest available. Apple sells it for less than the current price shown. The strongest thing going for the system is it's operating system which gives a brief breath of fresh air from the coldness found in Windows. There is also a strong community of users who will help you out and a friendly customer service team.The main issues are a screen which is horrific. Apple can no longer be known for graphics. The maximum resolution found on the screen is less than other models sold by their competitors. This is how this system was designed. Investigate.The MacBook Pro screens have a defect affecting most of the production currently. The lower 1/3 of the screen will have a yellowish/golden hue. The very top of the monitor has a 1mm bright white line. The tones from top to bottom are inconsistent. The screens background helps to mask the problem but you will see it if you ever do any work with the system. The viewing angle is very narrow. If your head leaves a 4 inch box the screen is almost unreadible and will be golden in color. This is due to the "LED" backlighting system. Investigate.If you are still intent on an Macbook look at the 17 inch model. You will notice the 17" is the most commonly reviewed model because the other ones will be horribly received. It does not use the LED backlighting and the maximum resolution is higher.The second main issue is something Mac users are referring to as "Kernel panic". It is the same thing as Microsoft's notorius "blue screen of death"except the cause is the hardware. Should your system have "kernel panic" you will have a locked up, unusable system. The work will have gone unsaved and you will be out of the notebook for 3 weeks as they repair the brand new system. Investigate this further.Yes, stick a fork in it. This model is a turkey. -1.0 So, I needed a new laptop because my last model, an Inspiron, was prone to randomly threatening to explode.The Toshiba is honestly beautiful, it runs everything amazingly. I love Vista too (and haven't encountered issues with it yet). I'm a graphics artist and often run Photoshop CS2, Corel Painter, and a game or two at the same time alongside AIM and it handles everything flawlessly.But, of course, there's the Black Screen Of Death. Nothing I do can seem to fix it, so I'm going to take it in soon. My advice? Shell out a couple extra hundred for a Dell. I just might go back to my Exploding Inspiron rather than deal with losing my art every few hours. :P -1.0 The machine arrived in non-working condition: turns out the logic board needed to be replaced. Rather than return to Amazon, I merely brought it to a local Apple store since I was likely to get it back sooner than arrange for pickup and redelivery with Amazon and obviously it was covered under warranty since it was non-functional out of the box. This isn't a criticism of the machine which works well, but it was frustrating to receive a new machine that was broken. -1.0 I frankly don't have a review of this laptop because the screen didn't work even after we spent several hours attempting the recommended fixes . Eventually, I went to the Apple store in the Glendale Galleria. The people there were fabulous: professional, helpful and ready to help. I understand that this Apple laptop has a problem with the screen. They should stop selling it to unsuspecting customers who then have to suffer through several fixes, which may or may not work.Spending $1,200 for an item should provide you with a superior product; not one that the company knows has a problem that will need fixing. -1.0 I bought this computer to us AutoCad and to play games. I have had nothing but problems with it. Im not sure what the problem is. I tried everything less a total reformat. I used to have problems with it not shutting down. Now it shuts down about 25% of the time. Now im haveing problems with software. For example, my autocad menus and toolbars are missing and when I look for them under the support folder they are gone. I tried to install and run Battle Field 2142 and it would not run. Not even in compatability mode. I have a cousin that bought and HP a few months back, $1000 less than this toshiba, and it runs it perfectly. When I look back on the event viewer there are 174 errors dating back to 6/14. I received the computer on 8/16. Im not sure what this means. I have tried doing a system restore but it has an error and stops. Anyway, maybe I got a lemmon because it looks as if everyone else has given it good reviews. I just wished I had returned it within the 1st 30 days. Now its too late. -1.0 I bought a Macbook last June. Here are the things that have gone wrong with it since then:1. Computer shut down repeatedly at random times. This was eventually fixed with a software update.2. Battery stopped working. Had to be replaced.3. Headphone jack started to malfunction, so that I couldn't use the speakers. This went away on its own after a long time.4. Ethernet port ceased to work.5. Case became discolored, and a piece chipped off. Other macbooks I've seen have a sliver missing in the same place. Other problems that aren't bugs. Just annoyances:1. Mac OSX won't work with my Canon scanner. I got it working with Boot Camp.2. Mac OSX wouldn't recognize the satellite modems that were available to me while I was traveling abroad.3. The speakers are extremely soft and lousy sounding.-------In spite of all these issues, I've liked the laptop and the operating system. I was an early buyer, and they may have made the machines more reliable since 2006. -1.0 After a lifelong predilection for Toshiba Sattelite notebook, I decided to make the switch.I figured for $1000, I would get enough for internet, word processing and DVD playing and do the rest on my desktop PC.Was I ever wrong.The internet is OK. Fonts are displayed very poorly with quite a bit of washout.Word processing is very, very slow - frequently the displayed words lag behind my typing - very annoying. DVD playing is good and the battery life is impressive.You are stuck with iTunes for music, although I was able to finally find a utility to let me play music without creating a playlist and manually sorting it, but all the millions of iTune lovers will probably disagree.THE ABSOLUTE WORST PART OF THE MACHINE IS HOW SLOW IT IS. The operating system is constantly optimizing the disc without giving that process a lower priority then anything you need to do - as a result a simple close an active window can take up to a few minutes. The machine is doing disc writes as I am typing this - why?OVERALL IMPRESSION: reliable mac software. completely inadequate hardware. MY RECOMMENDATION: avoid this one like the plague and spend money on a much more expensive Mac notebook. Me, I am going back to Toshiba as soon as my iBook dies or gets thrown out of my window on 23rd floor. -1.0 I bought this notebook a month ago. It has been a real nightmare since. The worst part is with HP's technical support offering no solution other than repeatedly asking to reload the factory software, there is no end in sight. The problem is with the display. After using it for a few days, the screen started shaking and went blank. Called HP's technical support, no much waiting time, which is very good. The HP technician in India asked me to take the memory cards and the hard drive out, reinstalled them. Nothing improved, then instructed me to wipe out the hard drive and reinstall the factory software. It worked for a few days until the problem resurfaced. Called again, being asked to reinstall the factory software. They even FedEXed a factory recovery DVD to me. Called three times already, no real fix. Each phone call lasted for about two hours, just imagine the frustration.I initially suspected it could be Vista problem. I avoided loading application software after the first rebuild. Same problem. In fact, I noticed that the screen started shaking after the machine became hot. The HP tech support guys still insist reloading the factory software... -1.0 This is not the exact notebook I have, but it is about Toshiba. When I sent off my toshiba in Kentucky, the technician called me and argued with me that I did not have a DVD burner. I had a software, which before I sent the notebook in, the DVD Burner option was available. After I got it back, even after reloading my software, the DVD option never could be reloaded-they intentionally disconnected my dvd burner.I did make a request to the UPS headquarters that the people behind the counter need to package and seal anything being shipped out right there in front of the customer. I do believe Toshiba's intentionaly disconnecting my DVD burner had to do with lies from the City of Lafayette. Everyone around Lafayette was asking me how much does a laptop cost-about 1000 people-they were implying I stole my laptop. The store I bought it from in Lafayette, pulled something strange before I bought it. The store claimed they were out of the laptop I wanted and sent me to another Lafayette store. The sales person had them hold it under his name, instead of ours. When I emailed Toshiba headquarters, I did not get a response, but eveyone all over Lafayette started insisting they were getting us (my b/f and I)confused with somebody else-or claiming they always see us in places we never have gone. To eliminate some of the problems, I should had ordered from Amazon.Still Toshiba techs in Kentucky and the headquarters has no excuse for going along with the lies from Lafayette Louisiana. That deal with Fema from Hurricane Katrina says a lot about the character of the people who live in Lafayette Louisiana. Not a good idea to believe these people, Toshiba! -1.0 Mines died after a few months and had to be sent back to repairs. The repair it within two weeks and it worked for a month or so before dying again with the same problem. I send it back again, and I haven't gotten mines back yet even after 2 months. I call and they said they're waiting for parts. Said the only thing they can do is to send back the broken laptop.Note that I have to pay shipping to them, so I lost money on each failure and they won't extend my warranty, so it could run out while I wait for them to repair it. -1.0 After deciding to make the switch from a windows pc to apple, I purchased my 15-inch powerbook. It arrived with a dead battery that wouldn't charge. I send it back and purchased a second powerbook....and that one arrived with a dead/unchargeable battery. I haven't decided whether I'm going to try for third time or defer my conversion to apple computers. I'm pretty disappointed both in Apple & Amazon (for selling defective products). -1.0 I bought this Toshiba A215-S4747 about two weeks ago and returned it a week later (Aug. 2007) because I (like other reviewers here) started getting the blanking screen problem. The specs look great on paper, but if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Like others, the screen on my unit would just go blank (black) right in the middle of whatever I was doing and there was no way to get the screen to come back other than doing a hard power reset. -1.0 System goes black and does not respond except for turning it off and on again. happens on average once a day. Google search said fix in vista to set minimum cpu power usage to 100%. Installed XP on system so not solution. Not sure if solution means CPU will always run at 100%. Otherwise great. Very pretty. Could not return my item because I left country after buying. -1.0 Dear Amazon,All 8 of the HP DV64XXXX models share the same customer reviews? As of 8/27/07, there were 17 customer reviews and regardless of which model is picked from the dropdown, the same 17 customer reviews are displayed. Unless the reviewer specifically included the model number in their review, how is anyone supposed to make sense of the reviews?On top of that...4 out of 5 stars are given for model number ????I guess it's buyer beware... -1.0 Do not buy this laptop if you have any intention of watching DVDs, playing music, or playing any sort of presentation that has audio. All new 15" and 17" powerbooks are exhibiting an intermittent audio looping problem. Apple Support says they know nothing of the issue, yet Apple has released a Technical Support Note (http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302978) that offers this solution: "To avoid this [audio problem], run only one audio application at a time".I have the problem with iTunes, Mail, iChat, DVDPlayer, and Finder. All of these applications output audio.A detailed thread on the problem can be found here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=240423Additionally, I have had faulty batteries and a sticky trackpad button. The quality is just not there.Until Apple offers a fix for the audio issue, I strongly suggest not buying this product. -1.0 My PowerBook G4 15 incher suffered a processor board failure after a mere two months of use. It had to be shipped out to an Apple repair facility and I have been without it for almost two weeks. No, Apple did not offer me a "loaner" while the PowerBook was in the shop.Sure I have backed up my files and got by with my old computer but the PowerBook is marketed as a professional's computer and I find this failure inexcuseable for a $2,000+ top-of-the-line laptop.Do not buy this product until Apple gets its quality assurance act together! -1.0 So i neglected to do research before purchasing this computer. Boy was that a mistake. It seemed like it would be a great notebook that had all the specs I needed. It took about two hours before the screen went black the first. I lost count at 25 times after that. I took it back to Best Buy and they were very sympathetic to my dilema. They gave me another one to take home and I thought my problems were solved...boy was I wrong. The same thing happened again and I had to take it back. At this point I decided to buy a more expensinve HP instead and I have been more than satisfied. Dont buy this computer unless you want a one headache after another. -1.0 I returned my first new 15" Powerbook (M9969LL/A) within three weeks because the battery literally only ran for 10 minutes on a full charge at that point. Now the second unit is only 3 days old and I'm only seeing a 1-hour battery life on a full charge! I'm obviously hoping (like others) that Apple will address this issue, because other than the battery problem I love this laptop. My 2-year old Thinkpad T42 still runs 2-3 hours on a full charge with full screen-brightness and no battery saving features turned on. I have not experienced any problems with the screen like other users. -1.0 Ok. Let's just get it out of the way right now: yes, it is cool, yes the Unix-based operating system is good. Yes, it is virus-free. In other words, it has a lot of things that other laptop makers can't claim. And yet: I have had mine 8 months, and increasingly, I have to end sessions because I get the "spinning beachball of doom", indicating that RAM is being hit (i.e. is processing and I can't do anything). I went into the Apple store and they told me it was not spyware, but "you have too many sessions open at once". And yet, it happens when I have one single session open. To be fair, I am not 100% sure that this is Apple's fault. It could be something else that I don't see right now. But it didn't used to happen. I hate ending sessions with the "beachball of doom". Another issue is battery life: for instance, I often leave my MacBook with 50 % power. When I turn it on the next morning, it is dead and I have to start back at 0 %. Why ?Battery life seems to be the achilles heel for Apple, on most of their products. Thus: 3 stars. -1.0 I bought a Toshiba Satellite A210/A215 Series laptop little less than two weeks ago. Let's just say it's going back this Monday. Like others here who have laptops from the Satellite A210 series, my screen randomly goes black while the power appears to remain on. Moving the mouse, hitting the keys, doing ctrl + alt + delete does nothing. Only a hard restart works. I can't say I'm a computer expert, but going by the other reviews, it seems Toshiba has built a faulty product. Considering my much older laptop, which lasted me four years, never went to the black screen of death, I can't imagine why this new, and semi-expensive product would be so fatally flawed. A laptop shouldn't go to black screen the first day you get it! Perhaps it's overheating (even though I have a fan underneath), perhaps the brand has faulty components...I don't know. All I know is I now have to be burdened with bringing this back and getting a different brand. It's a shame because otherwise the laptop is great, and from what I hear Toshiba was considered by many to be a good brand. It seems "WAS" is the keyword. I recommend that people don't buy this laptop until Toshiba fixes this major flaw. -1.0 Dont buy this laptop, and if you are travelling abroad, dont buy Toshiba.After 6 weeks it went dead, and online support was no help, told me to send it in for repair, contacted Toshiba Mexico:They want 100 dollars up front to do anything, I am now thinking of throwing it away and buying a Gateway instead.Mexico October 5 2007 -1.0 I wish i could keep this notebook. It seems well made, is powerful and most importantly OS X is a much better thought out OS than Vista and generally better supported than Linux. It has a few shortcomings such as just 2 USB ports, and it gets too hot due to the metal frame. I could live with these but I have struggled fruitlessly to get decent wifi internet speeds. (My friend's Thinkpad is 10 times as fast to download and render pages on my wifi system side by side. Ive spent ages searching the web for the solution and found loads of people have similar problems (Just Google for "macbook pro slow wifi connection" if you don't believe me. There doesnt seem to be one single problem and people have come up with a range of solutions. Some people say its WEP keys that are the problem, other that its something to do with the N wifi card. I do get geat speeds if i take it to the Apple store and use their non encrypted Wifi connection. Probably I could eventually get it to work, but I want this laptop to travel around the world with so i cant afford to take kiyt thats going to take 6 hours of headaches to get cproperly working each time I get to a place.The other issue is working within a mixed Mac/Windows enironment. Boot camp and parallels are very helpful, but I still have encountrred annoying issues eg that it doesnt like NTFS formatted disks, that it tries to format Ipods wit MAc filing system so that they cannot be used on PCs without special downloads.Bottom line its a lot of hassle. If you live in a completely Mac environment than this is a great laptop, if you want to interact with a wide range of non mac equipment, it may be more trouble thatn its worth. -1.0 I have an a75 the class action lawsuit model. It has been crap the whole time i've owned it. almost three years and still sucking. Just sent it in for the 6th time not to count the times i've used the recovery cd. I say get the word out they suck. Word of mouth is still the best way to spread truth and it needs to be spread until they start creating a real product and not a shell of one. Don't bother with tech support. they couldn't fix a cup of coffee. I was thinking about buying this model because of the price but I'm glad I research it on the internet. -1.0 I'm not sure what's up at Apple but they have slipped up on QC for their new 15.2" powerbooks. I'm now packing up the second replacement for return to Amazon. And am going to have to wait another three weeks for what I suspect is another defective 15." The first arrived with a partially defective hard drive. The second had a dead battery that refused to charge (Apple is sending out another). But what instigated the return is that I cannot get the ethernet cable to detach from the computer. (I've got a PhD in bioinformatics and have rigged my house with custom cat 5 ethernet cable so I pretty sure I'm doing the obvious). What's up Apple? Your operating system is awesome but your QC seems quite poor. Any chance you'll allow us to install Tiger on a T43 Thinkpad? On a second note, I have seen the horizontal lines but for both machines it's not been a big issue. -1.0 I recently purchase a new HP notebook and I honestly thought that this will be better than my no so old Acer turion 64 TK-53 2.0 GHZ at least on hardware my HP looks superior, but much to my surprise the ACER work faster, better, and with more stability than my new "hardware superior" HP, I'm not sure why but the only explanation is that the terrible Windows vista home factory install form HP is messing up everything, while in rest with absolutely no programs running not even the messenger Vista have almost 70 process running that takes about 65% of the physical memory (more than 600 MB) just for the background programs and services, Vista freezes all the time while burning a DVD which is bad, or just web browsing which is even worst, the Acer works great with XP with very little problems from time to time but nothing that a good tune up can't fix.After trying Linux Ubuntu Ultimate at work I found that this is not a very friendly OS mostly when I try to make it work with some application that I use daily or when installing new drivers or some programs that just don't work, but Ubuntu give me the stability that Vista can't offer and I'm more then willing to learn how to deal with Linux just to show Microsoft the finger and move on to a different OS, or you can always downgrade to Windows XP and wait for Microsoft to fix the millions of problems that Vista have, personally I don't think SP1 for Vista is going to do much for an OS that relies in taking so much resources from hardware, I rather use those resources for my programs and applications to run stable and smoothly. -1.0 I received my 15" powerbook thursday evening. Plugged it in. In the morning I opened my mac to find the battery had not charged. Called Apple Care and opened a ticket. went to Apple Store which was a complete waste of time. Apparently, apple care means different things based on point of purchase. I patiently waited 40 minutes watching the "Genius" work on 5 ipods. All but the HP ipod was attached to a store computer for troubleshooting. My amazon purchased laptop got zero attention.Yes, there are horizontal lines which appear to fluctuate based on saturation and luminence, Its not acceptable.Apple knows they have a faulty product, which is too bad since when its plugged in its a great computer.R -1.0 2 weeks ago our laptop died and because I swore I'd never buy another Compaq again, we went with the Toshiba on the recommendation of our computer tech. BAD IDEA!! The first day we got it I was on the internet and the screen went black. I figured I must have hit something that set it in hibernation mode so I held down the power button until it shut down and restarted it again. A couple hours later, same thing...the next day, again and so on. I decided to do some research as I was planning on taking it in tomorrow to have it looked at. Well, after going on many websites, I have discovered this is happening all over the place. I am not the only one!!! I wish I had read these reviews before I bought mine.Needless to say, I am taking this laptop back tomorrow. I am not wasting my time with a company that KNOWS they are selling a product that is flawed and yet they continue to do so.Don't buy this computer, you will be sorry!! -1.0 I bought this at Best Buy locally. I recieved my first one and the screen would suddendly go blank. I would have to restart it by pushing the power button. I took it to get diagnosed and it was a bad motherboard. Just recieved the replacement. It did the same thing the first time I used it. Assuming the motherboard is bad. When I took this one back, I was told that there was another one that came in with a bad motherboard. I am extremely disappointed that if I could give it Zero stars I would. Please buy something else and save yourself the headache. Don't know what features I like since it didn't stay on long enough to really use the computer! -1.0 I really wanted to like this Powerbook, but these latest models have been particularly troublesome.The first unit I received had a completely dead battery (wouldn't hold any charge), horizontal lines running across the screen (see other reviews), and several stuck keys. The second unit has a working battery (lasts 3:30 on a charge) and perfect keyboard, but there are STILL horizontal lines visible on the screen. My advice is to wait until Apple fixes these problems before spending $2k on a Powerbook. -1.0 If you are planning to buy Averatec STOP and listen to my bitter experiences (2 of them). Mine:I purchased a prior version of this and within 8 months(1) Computer started switching off automatically due to heating problem(2) The exterior lost painting and some exterior parts came out. It looked very old and ugly. (3) As I was working on the laptop one day I lost display. I sent it to the repair facility. They took 3 weeks to find my serial number and then they said I have to pay $336 as the display is not covered under warranty. Remember I was typing an email when the display was lost. It was not my problem. My Friend's:(1) His Averatec computer simply died (may be due to heating problem) on the 14th month. Since the warranty was over he had to throw it away. So please be careful and never buy Averatec. -1.0 Really this laptop runs almost like my old 486 Compaq Presario Desktop. Maybe is the Windows Vista memory requirements, but is totally sickness wait to open the system.Disspointed at all. -1.0 I bought this computer thinking that it would be a great tool for bringing to college (the 200 GB hard drive was the main sell), but the screen keeps going blank and the touchpad does not work well. It highlights things I don't want highlighted and kept locking, and as a person without any patience whatsoever, this has become a problem. I've called Toshiba countless times and their technical support is terrible in helping me with this problem. I'm returning this laptop this weekend and getting the laptop I originally wanted...an HP. Do not spend your money on a laptop that just keeps giving you problems. -1.0 This computer is VERY slow. I don't know if it's because of AMD or Toshiba. Internet takes forever, even though I have high speed wireless. Sometimes the fingerpad doesn't work, sometimes the keyboard doesn't work(like it freezes up randomly). Also, sometimes the screen randomly turns white and all I can do is turn it off and restart it, losing anything that was unsaved. It seemed fine when I first got it; all the neccessary programs installed easily. Vista sucks, especially when transitioning from Windows. For a high school or college computer, I would NOT recommend this. Mine is being returned. -1.0 If you are a pc user switched to mac - bad, bad idea! It takes me forever to do the simple stuff like opening an attachment, downloading files, cause i have to think which program to use, and where do I get that. I am sure I will figure it all out one day, but for me it is definitely not an out of the box kinda experience. And btw, it got frozen several times. Looks cool though! -1.0 I bought a Satellite A135-S4527 1 year ago and my warranty just expired. I am very gentle with my laptop and the monitor went out. Toshiba tech support will not talk to you unless you give them a credit card and I have found that to replace the monitor (part alone) is $400 +. This is more than half the price of a new laptop. It doesnt make sense. So if you buy Toshiba get that extended warranty. Remember, when they sell something cheap its for a reason. Good luck -1.0 Out of box, the system will not boot. On call with HP support for 5 hrs, still won't boot. Checked if hard dirve was good, ram was good, driver were good, it is a shame a new computer just out of box and HP is checking all the parts. Did anyone try using the model number DV6426us to find drivers and updates on HP site, the site does not recognize the model??? It comes with 1 GB RAM, I wanted to upgrade to 2GB, so went to find specifications, guess what you cannot find the specifications. The HP parts store does not have any parts for this product number???? What is up HP?? Again I was on call with HP support and sales for 1 hr just to get memory type, Support told me it is 333 DDR SD, sales tol me it is DD2 PC4200 533 Mhz.I had a lot of repect for HP as a company, but this purchase made me rethink. I am returning it. -1.0 The battery falls out of this laptop whenever you pick it up. I took the first one back thinking it was broken but come to find out it is the way they are made. Since I had purchased this one specificaly for the portibility I am not happy about this feature which seems to me would have been very easy to prevent. I have to duck tape the battery in in order to move from place to place. Doesn't that look nice? Our previous laptop was a tobisha and I wish now I had purchased a new tobisha instead -1.0 I have been a long time PC user, decided to give mac a try after reading rave reviews of macbook. now i wish i could return this expensive machine and go back to pc. my gripes are mostly small things but they are really irritating. first, no right click function. you have to go to the title bar (or use inconveniently located apple key). their softwares, with few exceptions, are NOT user friendly. Safari does not allow tabbing, along with lack of right click, which is quite annoying. i found iPages not so user friendly either. another annoying thing is DVD player, which does not allow speed play back and good luck finding a mac compatible media player. i must admit that iMovie is superb, as well as Key note which i think is much better than powerpoint. now would i shell out 500-600 bucks more than a comparable PC again? the answer is emphatic NO. addendum: tabbing is allowed in Safari, thanks to the comment. also now using a mouse, which allows right click function. but i still standby assesement that mac is overrated and not worth the extra bucks. -1.0 I am having the same problem, and I just got mine 3 days ago now. It got a blank screen 3 times now, and the only way for me to repair it is pushing down on the power button and forcing it to shut down. After that, I can restart it again. I bought this notebook laptop to go to college with, but I don't think it's very reliable. I don't know what I'm going to do. I'm going to call Toshiba tech support, but I've read at many places that people are still getting the same "blank" screen problem even after updating and installing the BIOS and graphics card. If the tech and support are just going to tell me to update the BIOS or update the graphics card, then I'm not even going to try it and return it. I leave for college in just 3 days, so I seriously need a laptop that will last me for about 4-5 years, and longer than that. DON'T BUY this laptop, because as I have read through many websites and support forums, it seems that a lot of these laptops of Toshiba are having this problem. Either than the blank screen problem, the laptop works perfectly fine. But if I'm going to be writing a very important paper and then it goes to a blank screen, I will definitely be angry if that happened. I think I'm going to go for an HP, Sony, or buy a Dell laptop instead. The brands that are the most reliable. I thought Toshiba was a reliable and good brand to buy from, but I was wrongly informed. I really think they should have a recall on these products. -1.0 A co-worker bought this computer then I bought the same model the next day. He started having the problem with the screen going blank at random times, requiring hard reboots, on the first day he used it. This continued over the next few days, it happened 10 times total. He then returned it to Circuit City. When the sceen goes blank, you can see that there is still power to the sceen, but its not displaying any signal.I am now having the same problem, but less frequently than he was. Toshiba tech support had me do a couple driver updates but that didn't solve the problem. I've been running the laptop with the battery removed and the AC adapter plugged in and haven't had the problem return in the past 24 hours, I don't know if this will continue however. Has anyone else tried running the laptop on AC power alone and the battery removed - and still have the blank screen problem?Update: Well it just crashed again. So far I've done the BIOS update, graphics driver update, and ran with the battery removed....still get the blank screen -1.0 Sadly, I have to add my voice to other customers who have received a defective Powerbook. Apple puts incredible thought and sophistication into design and form factors, but judging by my experience and what others have posted, something has gone wrong with their QC. When I opened Apple's beautiful packaging, I found that the finish on the laptop's lid suffered from several small imperfections (the aluminum was pitted in one spot and in another place had an uneven, almost scratched look.This was annoying, to say the least. But I decided I'd overlook these small flaws, as they were purely cosmetic. What I couldn't overlook was that the battery wouldn't charge! Others in this forum have noted that their new machine came with a dead battery and flawed screens. My screen was gorgeous, with no dead pixels or other flaws. But the combination of the flawed lid and dead battery was too much for a $2,000 purchase, so I'm (sadly) returning the Powerbook to Amazon. -1.0 The 14" iBook gets four stars from me. I feel I need to say that, since the Amazon system is not working properly now -- every time I preview this review, the rating comes up as one star. Having tried to correct the star rating at least five times to no avail, I'm just going to hit the submit button now. I'm giving my impressions as a new iBook owner rather than waiting several months to do so because the current iBook models will most likely be discontinued this calendar year. You can expect the successor models to use an Intel chip.I bought an iBook (my first laptop) with full knowledge that it will not be around in its current iteration much longer.Why? iBooks get pretty good reviews for laptop reliability. I'm of the school that wants the dust to settle on a newly introduced product before I buy it. New models are generally more prone to having problems than a design which has been around long enough to have the glitches sorted out. Also, I'd always been curious about the Apple operating system, having always used a Windows product.So, how does OS X stack up against Windows? Sorry, Apple zealots, I'm not going to completely trash the competition. I have been running XP Pro (64 bit version) on my desktop for around seven months now and like it. It works pretty well -- I've had no crashes, no blue screens of death, etc. like I was used to getting with Windows 95 and 98. It is however, still prone to the things that plague Windows: spyware and viruses. According to the log on my spyware software, I've run 295 scans that picked up over 2000 tracking cookies and have eliminated the Ibis toolbar twice in seven months. I really enjoy not having to scan for spyware at all with my new notebook.So far as the Windows vs. Apple debate goes, -- yes, Mac OS X is an extremely stable system. It blows away Windows 98 and the home versions of XP. XP Pro comes pretty close to matching it in terms of stability, from my experience. So, I give the edge to Apple. The tradeoff for buying OS X over Windows is in software availability. As far as the iBook itself is concerned, I like it so far. It only took a few minutes to set up and get on the Internet. The operating system seems a bit more intuitive than Windows. What, as a complete novice to OS X, I expect to happen is usually what does happen. Don't be afraid to switch due to fear of not being able to operate the computer: things fall into place nicely.Any dislikes? Yes, a couple of things. First, believe all the comments you read in the reviews about the screen on the 14" model not being overly sharp. It isn't. Being a presbyopic middle-ager,I bought a 14" model for the larger screen size over a 12" iBook (with which it shares the same native screen resolution). You get a bigger, but less sharp screen. Apple does seem to be a bit behind with screen resolution on the iBook compared to competitively priced notebooks from other manufacturers. On the upside, the fairly low contrast viewing screen is easy on the eyes. A high contrast screen may initially seem more appealing, but eye fatigue usually sets in much sooner. I have yet to get eye fatigue with the iBook.The keyboard could be better. It does not have the nice tactile feel that the Apple Powerbooks and the better Windows notebooks possess. The feel does not bother me that much, but be aware the difference does exist.Also, if you use memory-hungry applications at all (Photoshop or doing a lot of video editing), go ahead and max out the memory of the iBook to its 1.5 gigabyte capacity. It will run noticeably faster than the stock version.Anything else bad? Nothing pops into mind. Would I buy the iBook if I got to start all over again? So far, yes. So long as it holds up over time, I will not regret my decision to buy one. -1.0 I've used all kinds of laptops, including other Toshibas, with little or no problems. I purchased the S4747 because it has a built-in web cam and microphone and it was on sale. I opened the box and started using it even before checking reviews; that was my mistake. I've relearned the lesson that even with a good brand like Toshiba I should check reviews first!I had the same "black screen of death" that other reviewers have mentioned. I worked with several technicians at Toshiba technical support for many, many hours trying to fix the problem (ticket 1-704536542). They were convinced that it was not a problem at all, rather, that the PC was simply going into hibernate mode, even though I repeatedly told them that the problem occurred while I was USING the PC and it was plugged in to power. Or, when I told them that I had to do a hard reboot to get the PC to work again, they would tell me that all I had to do was press the power button for a short time to bring it out of hibernate mode. It was extremely frustrating, though they were certainly "polite." The black screen of death is bad enough, but it didn't happen every day. What is worse, in a way, is the cursor problem. If I rested my hands on the laptop while I typed, the cursor would jump all over the place, sometimes erasing entire sentences. This happened almost every paragraph, and I was forced to watch my typing so that I could reposition the cursor. Or, I was forced to keep my hands up and completely off the laptop, which resulted in arm fatigue after a page or two of typing. You can imagine how much this slowed my typing speed! At first, Toshiba technical support tried to tell me that I was getting my fingers, thumbs, or hands on the touchpad, causing the cursor to move, but I knew that wasn't the case. Then they thought that perhaps the touchpad itself was overly sensitive, that the vibrations on the case were causing the cursor to move. But they couldn't figure out how to adjust the touchpad or pointer sensitivity. Those parts of the operating system which control it were missing, and they didn't know why! At that point, after so many hours and so much frustration, I gave up and decided to return the laptop.Some reviewers seem not to have any problems with their laptops. Does that mean there are quality control issues and only some of these models have problems? I don't know. But do you want to take the chance? I would have liked to keep this PC. Update: A friend asked me to fix a problem with hibernation on her Toshiba laptop (a different model), and Toshiba tech support told me that I needed to reload Windows from the recovery CDs that came with the unit, which I did (ticket 1-718056769). Not only did this not fix the original problem, it created a new - and worse - problem with the video drivers. After more hours on the phone with Toshiba, they informed me that the software on the recovery CDs was corrupt and I needed a new set, which would cost $40. Since the laptop was still under warranty I objected to this charge, but I was told that is Toshiba policy. Between the bad customer support and the billing for defective parts under warranty, I don't think I'll be purchasing a Toshiba again. -1.0 ...and not in Taiwan, as the Powerbooks were and the Macbook Pros are. And it shows, at least in some aspects of the machine. The processor is fast, the machine is compact, light and slick-looking, while Mac OS X is rock-stable.The keyboard is my real gripe; 2 days old and the it needs to be replaced as the "chicklet keys" are wobbly and the click-bar below the track pad is variably responsive at the edges. Oils from one's hands can smudge the polycarbonate case but the avidity of dirt is less an issue with the black model. The glossy screen is sharp with great color saturation but the glare from it in brightly lit rooms is somewhat distracting. On the whole it is a solid machine for a competetive price but if you can spare the $200-350 differential, check out the new 15" LED-backlit Macbook Pro's, particularly if you're a heavy user and prefer the better keyboard action of the higher-end models.ADDENDUM:The keyboard was swapped under warranty and the experience is far improved. Keys, track pad and buttons are as they should have been to start. While my estimation of the machine has risen, the new Macbook Pro is still is worthy of the extra expense. -1.0 The unit was delivered ontime. It worked very well in the first few days but started giving problems. It turned out with mother board problem. Now running behind Toshiba's service center.. I hope it will be fixed.... -1.0 So I purchased quite possibly the biggest bad boy around as far as a laptop. The Toshiba is very very nice. Why Toshiba did not stick to XP instead of Windows Vista remains a mystery. Windows Vista is likely the most doggy, system crippling operating system I have come across since windows 95 came out and was installed on a 386 sx. If you have an option try to stay with XP, its more stable it operates faster and certainly wont cripple your hardware with all its bloat! As far as the laptop is concerned, I love the wide screen, This is a desktop replacement type of laptop. Buyer beware if you intend on using this laptop on any real travels it is quite heavy. by the time you load up the laptop, power supply (huge by its own right), accessories in your laptop carrying case, well hold on cause this thing gets heavy on a long trek, long like from your office to your car. Compared to other laptops this one does not cook your legs as it operates so it runs relatively cool even under the most demanding games like supreme commander. HD dvd is nice but the battery life does not hold long enough to complete a full movie.This unit comes with the TV tuner feature. A nice Plus10 key is nice if you need it otherwise its just something to fill the keyboard for the wider display.The speaker system installed is the best that you can find on a laptop. By far the best sounding system I have ever listened to. almost as good as an external speaker system on lower volume.Toshiba knocked themselves out on this box and crammed about everything but the kitchen sink inside. unfortunately they loaded a boat anchor OS on it. -1.0