Which laptop should I get?

[Crispy]

Wave your laptop around and it goes 'wooooowwng, wwwwoongch, skkksksks wooowwwwowww' like a lightsabre. You can get one for the Wiimote too. Very and hyper-sad at the same time.

 

[tarannau]

You haven't played with it yet? Download macsaber from Version Tracker.

It uses the motion sensor in your mac (used to park HD heads if you drop the laptop, protecting the HD) to replicate a lightsaber - move your mac from side to side to make Skywalker sounds. Last used in celebration by me after getting Glasto tickets at 5am last yea - a dangerpous, geeky, but fun mode of celebrating

Also look out for Smacbook Pro - an application which allows you to switch virtual desktops by smacking the side of your macbook pro. Probably not healthy, but good fun nonetheless - and genuinely useful if you haven't two monitors

 

[ChrisFilter]

LOSER. LOSER LOSER

heh. You know the trouble with those Dell screens - they may look big, but you can't read anything on their low quality surface...

What was that? I could only make out 'loser'

Actually, for text, these shiny screens are clearer. I take your point about colour definition, but it's only noticeable stacked up to a normal TFT.

 

[ChrisFilter]

It uses the motion sensor in your mac (used to park HD heads if you drop the laptop, protecting the HD) to replicate a lightsaber - move your mac from side to side to make Skywalker sounds. Last used in celebration by me getting Glasto tickets at 5am last year

What were you saying about loser, Obi G Kinobi?

 

[tarannau]

Oh yes, and the keys on my keyboard light up too. Ambient like.

I am the coolest kid in ultrageekland.

 

[pk]

Oh dude, that is most excellent...

Join me and together we shall crush the rebel alliance!!

 

[FridgeMagnet]

Honestly, I'd never heard of that before. Surely the most fantastically sad thing _ever_.

I was going to suggest that it could fight two MBPs against each other via Bluetooth, and have them score hits etc when you swung the thing, but that would actually be less sad and almost approaching some sort of game.

 

[pk]

I could see it ending in tears too...

... and I doubt if you strike it down it would become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

 

[cesare]

Rather than start another 'which laptop' thread ...

I've been asked to source one for someone, so asking for help cos my own laptop's years old and I don't really know what's on the market atm.

So, user wants one that:

1) Isn't too 'gadgety'
2) Can access webmail and Internet (also when flying, is that possible?)
3) Can open and/or edit attachments (primarily Word and PDF, they hardly ever use Excel and PPT)
4) Perhaps play DVDs although that's not essential
5) Light & slimline but ...
6) Decent sized screen and keyboard
7) They're not too restricted on budget
8) Battery has to be able to last 5 hours +

What they don't want is anything that feels too high tech/complicated. They actively prefer carrying a basic phone and/or camera and/or iPod and/or DVD player than have something that's combines all those functionalities but feels to hard to work out, or where the screen/keyboard is too weeny.

Anyone got any bright ideas?

TIA

 

[editor]

Really? Not one Cubase user I've met has anything good to say about Vista so far - it's all about reverting to XP, although I understand earlier versions of Cubase are particularly problematic.

I'd say Cubases's own user forums are likely to more useful than what some blokes told you.

 

[editor]

I've been asked to source one for someone, so asking for help cos my own laptop's years old and I don't really know what's on the market atm.

So, user wants one that:

1) Isn't too 'gadgety'
2) Can access webmail and Internet (also when flying, is that possible?)
3) Can open and/or edit attachments (primarily Word and PDF, they hardly ever use Excel and PPT)
4) Perhaps play DVDs although that's not essential
5) Light & slimline but ...
6) Decent sized screen and keyboard
7) They're not too restricted on budget
8) Battery has to be able to last 5 hours +

Dell M1330 or M1530 with extended battery. Great machines and so all of the above (the webmail on the plane bit depends on whether the carrier has wi fi installed. Most don't).

 

[cesare]

Thanks editor!

I'll search on those for where the deals are.

 

[editor]

You can get the Dells in pretty colours too!
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsnb_m1530?c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

 

[cesare]

ooo

 

[tarannau]

I'd say Cubases's own user forums are likely to more useful than what some blokes told you.

There are loads of enquiries and flaws on that forum though? In fact the crackles, pops and latency issues touched on are exactly the same thing I've heard about from 'some bloke'

Instability in sequencing software is about the most frustrating thing you can experience on any machine ime.


Maybe it's got better, but if Bees is anything to go by:

Every single "pro" user of PCs I know in my work area (live events), from sound engineers, to graphics operators, to autocue prompters, have ditched Vista and gone back to XP.

It either dosen't work correctly (in the case of audio) or risks huge pauses while the disk thrashes away (in the case of graphics) to be reliable enough for pro live use.

Utter shite.

 

[pk]

Cubase runs fine on OS X...

http://www.steinberg.net/540+M52087573ab0.html?&cHash=a2c3e169dc&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=314