Laptop time. NLC.

[kerryxeg]

I bought a Samsung laptop from Tesco direct - apparently a refurb, but in reality new (full warrantee etc). Over £100 cheaper than anywhere else, so worth a look if they've got what your after.

[mattg]

This looks like a reasonable deal.
Toshiba Portege Z830
Core i3
4Gb
128Gb SSD
Weighs 1.12kg
battery life 6-8hrs

http://www.kikatek.com/P208584/PT224E-0 ... ce=froogle

I have the i5 version of this... very lightweight
SSD trades capacity for speed which isnt an issue for me as i store my entertainment media on a NAS

[campbell]

Campbell you should clearly get a PC from here:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/

Mostly good stuff from previous generations, all of which was perfectly useful at the time and still is today. Then when you're bored running Windows98 you can upgrade to Linux, get rid of all the graphical nonsense and focus on what's actually useful

Cheers,
Robin

Robin - jackpot site for a family laptop for sure. Sadly I think most of the kit there is on the heavy side for the fleet-of-foot existence I foresee in the coming months. I did try to extricate my lovely Toshiba Portege R600 out of Logica's evil grasp but they weren't having it. Shame. The thing is probably nearly or completely depreciated on their books in any case, weighs barely 1kg, and I know exactly how to support and administer it with all its foibles

Haven't had time to do a proper shortlist or try to eyeball some of them in PC World or John Lewis etc, but hope to do so soon. I heard recently on the radio that a great time for online bargains is right before Xmas when delivery windows are getting tight...so will be watching with interest.

Graeme - your treatise on the MacWin subject is strong. I shall certainly ponder. Part of me is now giving serious thought to getting an iPad instead...after all, I have a perfectly serviceable 8 year old Dell desktop PC in the study (thankyou again Robin for the procurement consultancy way back when!) and you can get Pages, Keynote and Numbers, right? Add a wee keyboard for those longer typing sessions and wahey. I have rather enjoyed stealing Lisa's iPad 3 of late...in fact I've a trip to London coming up next week, perhaps a 2-day extended test drive is in order. Although I shall also be playing with my new iPhone. How many gadgets can a guy deal with on one business trip

As for Linux. Some day. For fun. I did leave a spare partition when the desktop machine received its C Drive transplant a couple of years back

vi, you say. More of an emacs guy myself, really.

Matt. That Toshiba deal is real tempting, that model was on my shortlist...


All who contributed - thanks for the insights, really appreciated. I am equipped to reach a decision now. Don't want this turning out like those infernal "what car should I buy next threads" eh

[tut]

As Graeme says, it runs both OS's seamlessly, Windows 7 runs as quickly and smoothly as on a native computer, but I would never go back to it after OSX.

I use Parallels which is similar to Fusion, as I need to run Quicken for our accounts. I use Mac Office 2011, but I could have installed my existing copy of Office 2010 under Windows instead. Had my Macbook Air for over two years now, Apple even changed my screen for free after I cracked it, on the spot in the Apple store. I was in there yesterday looking at the iPad Mini, and it is a pleasure to chat with people who really know their subject and are not trying to sell you their product. I even found out how to access an external USB hard drive to use its content, a non Apple wireless product, but unfortunately it costs £150.

If anybody knows any other way to use a USB drive with an iPad I would be interested in the solution.

tut

[graeme]

What's on the USB drive, Tut? Is it movies or documents or photos, and what do you hope to do with them when they're accessible from the iPad?

[tut]

Nothing at the moment Graeme, but if I buy the mini, when the boys use it twould also be used for watching movies etc that they have on external USB hard drives, or their own laptops. For myself the internal 32gb would be ample, though it would be good to have the choice when traveling.

These can not be accessed from their drives, but they could be copied onto one of the wireless hard drives that are now becoming available, albeit at a price.

tut

[graeme]

OK, for now there are a couple of cheaper options...

There are media player apps which can play movies from Dropbox, so maybe you could upload a few films to there. I have't tried them, but I guess you'll need to download the movie from Dropbox to the iPad before playing them, so that's probably a pointless option. Might as well just load a few onto the iPad with iTunes as normal.

There are other apps which can stream movies from the Macbook Air (as long as it's switched on and on the same network). You plug the USB drive into the Air instead and the Air sends movies to the iPad for viewing. The Air needs to be switched on and accessible on the same Network. I've tried a few different apps which do this and they all work ok. Not ideal for travel unless you take both devices.

You could also jailbreak the iPad (at your own risk)! This means replacing the operating system with a slightly hacked version which allows you to run non-Apple-approved apps which don't come from the App Store, but from another app store called Cydia. Jailbreaking allows you to use the usb camera connection kit to plug a USB drive directly into the iPad and then use some Cydia apps to play the contents. The risk is the apps might be buggy. Some might even be malicious (but that's not generally the case). Jailbreaking is easy to do, but at your own risk. I haven't done it for a while so can't recommend personally. It would give you exactly what you want though, so you could try it and restore to the proper OS if you're not happy.

[Shug]

Is this the bit where I have a small rant about Apple forcing you to use cloud services or hack their product to allow perfectly normal access to a device that should be easily accessible from the tablet? Like, pretty much any Android tablet is able to do?

Okay, of course, they just work. As long as you don't do anything that Apple decree you shouldn't... I just don't get it.

[tut]

With you on the rant Shug, in fact Clare will not touch an iPad because of that and is buying an Asus Affinity TF700T.

Not interested in iTunes and sure as hell would not be buying anything off there, especially as I probably have it. Just read that Apple make 40% profit on very product they sell.

tut

[tut]

My MBA is always on Graeme, and the router and an extender covers the whole house.

I do not travel much now, so if I wanted to watch a film or TV series in bed on the mini the streaming sounds ideal.

Could you let me have the name of suitable apps please.

tut

[graeme]

Check out Air Video, Plex and VLC Streamer. If you search for those in the App Store or on Google you'll probably throw up a few more I don't know about.

Basic idea is that you install the player on the iPad and the server on the Macbook Air. You point the server at your library of media and then you can access it from the player on the iPad.

[tut]

Thanks Graeme, if I go ahead with the mini, which looks pretty likely, I will try that.

tut

[campbell]

I see the Apple Store had a Macbook Air 13 for under £850 in their refurbished section. That's £200+ off list I think? Full year's Apple warranty etc. Tempted...except it's gone. Will keep an eye on that section though.

[tut]

If the funds stretch to it Campbell, you will never regret buying a MacBook Air.

However make sure that you are getting a 2012 model at that price, the new style started in 2010 which I have, then upgraded in 2011 and 2012. Basic spec of 4mb memory and 128gb SSD drive will do you fine. I only have 2mb and 64gb but the difference is negligible for my use.

tut

[campbell]

Finance Director says I have to land my first big contract before she will sign off a Macbook

In the meantime it's either a keyboard for the iPad or a Wintel device in the £600 bracket, it would appear!