stevemich

you could look into this.... Hewlett Packart "Touchsmart"

http://h20426.www2.hp.com/campaign/t...om/hhotextlink

bigAPE

Have you considered the Dell Studio Hybrid. That has an HDMI port too and the form factor is certainly small enough to make it storable. Just make sure there is plenty of ventilation.

Al

Amazulu

Just had a look at the Dell Studio Hybrid. Very nice it looks too. Just under $1000.

DrWho

Got one with the BFO screen thingy for the Missus last Christmas... She loves it and only lets me near it when something's gone wrong... Trouble is I haven't a clue what to do with it... Though I have to say the airport bit works a treat...

Amazulu

Looks nice. This would make a great - if somewhat expensive - 'remote control' for my overall multimedia system.

philnorris

hmm I have worked in the IT industry for 10 years now, when I first started supportng MAC's they where far far superior to your standards Microsoft PC. However things are changing, even the IT industry is begining to see it with the increasing reports in Computer weekly mag about them crashing more often than the equivilant Microsoft PC, updates & patches being a problem etc.

I really think you would be hard pushed to say one is better than the other these days, they both have faults. For one I would hate to try and replace a faulty bit of hardware in a MAC, yet the same is cheap to do in a standard PC.

http://www.computerweekly.com/Articl...s-problems.htm

Like I said, I cant see one is better than the other these days, they both have their faults and benefits.

EvannTel

Yes but isnt that mainly due to the genius of MS marketing. After technically Betamax was a far superior platform to VHS but look who "won"

I like my Mac but also use Windows a lot too. Just fancied a change and am delighted. An expensive indulgence if I really look at what I use it for compared to what a midrange lappy does for half the price.

Hutch

Nah - Microsoft's marketing is now and always has been shit (paying good money to use 'Start me up' by the Rolling Stones at the launch of Windows 95? Please god no.). The reason it took off was because for all its flaws, it's an incredibly flexible operating system, capable of successfully utilising a vast inventory of hardware. Couple that with the massive range of software that works on it (even DOS software still runs on Vista) and the fact that you aren't locked in to a specific hardware platform and the end result is inevitable. As long as Apple lock in the hardware to the OS they'll never compete properly with Microsoft - and I don't think that's a bad thing.

JackTheLad

I have a colleague in work who bangs on about how good Apples are. He has a sweet little situation set up with salary packaging etc that he gets the latest and greatest Mac every year and it costs him nothing.

He bought the iPhone on the day it was released. Unfortunately he got it on the Optus plan... in Brisbane. Then Optus 3G fell apart in Brisbane for a few days, and strangely his phone couldn't flick over to 2.5 G like all other phones could.

Still didn't deter him though. I was talking to him last week and he was saying how brilliant it was that Apple were replacing his phone, cos the software update from Apple to fix his problem (wouldn't convert to 2.5G), hadn't worked. He had to use his wifes old phone for a few days until Apple replaced his stuffed up iPhone.

But still, weren't they brilliant to replace it.

(he'd only have to replace all his contacts, and every other detail he'd ever entered into his original iPhone).

I actualy like Apple products, but jeez, when I have to work with Apple evangelists like that it freaks me out. Its like having a conversation with a Scientologist.

JTL

Hutch

I made that exact analogy in a magazine article once ... and it didn't go down very well at all. I mean look at the facts. Both highly litigious, extraordinarily secretive, multi-billion dollar organisations. Both have obsessive followers who use a strange language all their own. Both charge you a fortune to rid yourself of thetans by means of hooking you up to weird technology. Both feature high-profile Hollywood advocates. Both have inner-circle employees/devotees who offer advice at modernist places of worship.

bigAPE

Classic

Ak

TiddlyPom

As opposed to IBM who helped the Nazi's keep a tally on the amount of Jews they exterminated. I really don't think that there's much in it to be honest. At least Apple have a cleaner conscience.

Hutch

Well - all IBM did was kickstart the PC platform, so I don't quite know what that's got to do with anything - the components that go into them (just like Apples) are primarily produced in the Far East.

But anyway - you're on very thin ice if you're trying to take the moral highground with Apple. This is the company who included the use of toxic flame retardants and polyvinyl chlorides in their products - long after ever other manufacturer with a conscience had banned them. Apple ranked lower than HP, Dell, Nokia, and Sony in the green stakes until very recently when a prolonged Greenpeace campaign made Jobs change his tune. However Apple still get their iPhones made in China by 12 year olds - so tell me again about that 'cleaner conscience' of theirs ...

Hmmmm?

JoanL

I'm still using an old 'clamshell' Mac. I did use my husband's ASUS laptop for a while, but it all got so complicated and slow with all that virus protection you need.
The Apple simply works better - no axe to grind here - I'm just a computer user with no IT knowledge so I like something that works with no fuss.

EvannTel

With a 2 second click while wirelessly linked to his Mac. Not overly troublesome eh?