Facts: best selling computer brand in 2006

On Yahoo!7 Answers I found a short post about best selling computer brand in fourth q in 2006. The brand is HP and is a conclusion from press releases from HP and Gartner-information technology research and advisory company.

Not a best selling laptop, but a powerful niche laptop for gamers or professionals, the Alienware Area-51 m9750

Today I will not write about any best selling laptop on Amazon or another online store. Instead I will say something about a niche laptop, about Alienware Area-51 m9750. When you first lay your eyes over its technical specifications you will be impressed by its capabilities and promises for future performance. When ordering customers will enjoy a large array of options to customize this portable machine. You can make a powerful gamming rig or a reliable professional editing tool out of it. You can even opt for a SLI dual graphics cards solution for better performance in games, or for the NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M GDDR3 graphic card for advanced 3D creative professionals. Other interesting option is the 7200 rpm hard drive or the solid state drive. Below I will present you the entire array of options for this powerful laptop. In a latter post I will be back with conclusions from user comments and reviews screening.
Operating Systems
Windows® XP Media Center
Windows® XP Professional
Windows Vista® Home Premium
Windows Vista® Ultimate
Processors, Chipset & Memory
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processors (4MB Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Intel 945PM + ICH7M-DH Chipset
Up to 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
2 dedicated SO-DIMM slots for Dual Channel DDR2 Memory
Graphics & Video
NVIDIA GeForce SeriesHigh performance for the game and entertainment enthusiast
Single Graphics Cards
512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT GDDR3 – DirectX 10 Enabled
Dual Graphics Cards
Dual 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT GDDR3 - DirectX 10 enabled with NVIDIA® SLI™ technology
NVIDIA Quadro FX SeriesPowerful mobile solution for the advanced 3D creative professional
Single Graphics Card
512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 1600M GDDR3 – Higher level of performance and ultra-realistic effects for OpenGL
Storage
Easily-removable Slot Loading Hard Drives
Single Hard Drive
5400 RPM - Up to 320GB SATA with NCQ
7200 RPM - Up to 200GB SATA with NCQ
Solid State - Up to 64GB SATA
Dual Hard Drives in RAID 0
5400 RPM - Up to 640GB (2 x 320GB)
7200 RPM - Up to 400GB (2 x 200GB)
Solid State - Up to 128GB (2 x 64GB)
Optical Drives
8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW
8x Dual Layer CD-RW/DVD±RW w/ LightScribe Technology
Dual Layer Blu-Ray/DVD±R/W/CD-RW Burner
Networking
Wireless Connectivity
Internal Intel PRO Wireless 3945 a/b/g Mini-Card
Internal Intel PRO Wireless 4965 b/g/n Mini-Card
Integrated Bluetooth 2.0
Wired Connectivity
Integrated Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45
Integrated 56K V.92 modem RJ-11
Audio
7.1 Digital High-Definition Audio
Two Speakers with SubWoofer
Connectivity
1 headphone jack
1 microphone jack
1 Front Speakers jack
1 Surround Speakers jack
1 Center Speaker jack
1 TOSlink Optical Audio
Peripheral Connections
4 Hi-speed USB 2.0 ports
Express Card Slot /54mm
IEEE 1394a (4-pin) port
4-in-1 Memory Card Reader (SD / MS / MSPRO / MMC)
LCD Panel
17” Wide Screen WUXGA 1920 x 1200 with Clearview
17” Wide Screen WXGA+ 1440 x 900
Keyboard & Touchpad
Full Size Keyboard with Separate Numeric Keypad
Full Size Touchpad with Scroll Functionality
Instant Access Buttons include:
Internet
E-mail
Windows Media Player
Power DVD 7
Windows Media Center*
Play/Pause
Skip Forward
Skip Backward

Considering the amount of performance the Area-51 m9750 pumps out, a light chassis that can manage thermals efficiently and has plenty of strength to protect everything inside is essential. Steel or plastic simply won’t cut it. That’s why the Area-51 m9750 features magnesium alloy, which is 75% lighter than steel and provides better rigidity than plastic to deliver the optimum solution. Alienware’s innovative material, Stealth Black, proves to be scratch and fingerprint resistant, scratches that occur from day to day use and, even though the style leaves quite an impression, your fingerprints never will. And if you do manage to get fingerprints on the material, they easily wipe off.

Review on Toshiba Satellite A215-S5849, a brief presence in Amazon's top best selling laptops

Last day I noticed a brief presence on the 5th place of the Amazon.com’s best selling laptop list, the Toshiba Satellite A125-S5849 laptop. Today it’s on the 42nd place. Brief presence but it was there, therefore I will say something about it. Technical details:
· Bright 15.4-inch LCD accented with an onyx blue metallic LCD cover and webcam integrated into bezel
· 2.0 GHz 64-bit AMD Turion 64 TL-60 processor, 200 GB hard drive, 2 GB RAM (4 GB max), dual-layer DVD drive (with Labelflash disc printing)
· 54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g); 10/100 Ethernet; integrated ATI Radeon X1200 graphics (up to 319 MB of available memory)
· Connectivity: 4 USB, 1 FireWire, 1 VGA, 1 S-Video, 1 headphone, 1 microphone, 1 ExpressCard 34/54
· Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)
Preloaded software: Microsoft Works 9.0, Google Desktop and Picasa, Ulead DVD MovieFactory 5, Norton 360 All-in-One Security (30-day trial), and Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60-day trial). The box contains the A215-S5849 notebook PC, rechargeable lithium-ion battery, AC adapter, and operating instructions. It is backed by a one-year limited hardware warranty. Approximate Unit Dimensions - 14.3 (W) x 10.5 (D) x 1.55 (H) Approximate Unit Weight - 5.78 pounds. When normal used, I mean surfing and office software the battery will last for about 2 and a half hours. I have to remind you that this model from Toshiba is part of the recently (April 1,2008) updated Satellite® A200 series laptops. The main and most needed update is the system memory increase to 2 GB from the previous 1 GB. This memory amount increase will help to a better running of Windows Vista OS. In this price bracket the big players this year seem to be the Toshiba Satellite A210/A200, Dell Vostro 1000 and Acer Aspire 47xx and 55xx Gemstone series. All are good choices. Where the Toshiba having an edge over the Vostro 1000 is in the buyer's ability to walk into a store and touch/feel the notebook. Things like keyboard and design are very personal and hard to convey in a small web photograph. Aesthetically the Toshiba is better looking. The Vostro can be bought with Windows XP - a vastly superior Operating System for PCs. The Dell has a more orthodox keyboard layout - for a lot of people this alone could be the clincher. It also comes with a smaller 120GB HDD, but is spins faster. Comparing the A210 to Acer's Aspire, the chassis is nicer on the Toshiba. The two Acer notebooks at this price both had Celeron CPUs - one was spec'ed with 512MB RAM and an 80GB HDD. So the Toshiba has an edge in terms of performance and specifications. Like the Dell, Acer uses a standard keyboard layout. When searched thru users comments I noticed two main issues. First was about screen going blank, and the solution seems to be a bios update. If you are not so much of a computer connoisseur that can be a big issue because Toshiba official support looks to be a little confused about this hardware problem and often blaming Vista for it. The second issue is about battery life being around 2 hours. The Satellite A215-S5849 laptop best feature seems to be the good quality of picture the display provides. In conclusion, if u are not a power user or a gamer and keep the expectations appropriate to it’s entry level line u can be satisfied by its performance, and, of course, if with this recent April updated line of laptops Toshiba fixed the blank screen problem.

Latter edit: Amazon.com seems to have the best deal on this laptop with the 699$ offer.

For future Apple laptops online buyers

When I was searching thru customer reviews about Apple MacBook Air laptop on Amazon.com I found this comment that I believe it will be helpful for future Apple online customers. It’s about an undisclosed written internal policy regarding online orders that cannot be canceled once launched and not delivered. (quote)“I purchased this item direct from Apple. I discovered that the MacBook Air did not have a changeable battery. Now for the worst part. About 30 minutes after I ordered the laptop I called back to cancel. Apple told me that the order cannot be cancelled that it had already been processed for shipment. Needless to say they told me it was part of the sales "agreement". I was not informed of any such sales "agreement" nor could the sales supervisor produce it. Then it turned into "well its more of a internal policy". But they are not allowed to show me the policy. My point is BEWARE of the hidden and written policies of Apple. I know this review will not deter those people that already are familiar with MAC's but for those of you who are considering switching from a PC, this is a whole new "ball game" I will never deal with anything Apple again, nor would I ever recommend them. Companies, who charge a premium for a product should ensure that customers are satisfied, not cut them off once they get your credit card number.”

Apple acknowledges graphics glitch on latest MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks

For MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops users and future buyers. On April 14th, Katie Marsal posted on Apple insider about the graphics glitch widely reported by users of 13-inch MacBook and 15-inch MacBook Pro notebooks, both of which began shipping in February. On the Apple discussion forums users say that QuickTime playback of video files is routinely marred by flickering or the appearance of "washed out" graphics on their new machines. Users are also reporting instances of graphics corruption on their machines when scrolling through Safari webpages or Mail messages (both of which rely on Apple's Webkit framework). The forums conclusion is that the anomalies are the result of a software glitch rather than a flaw within hardware. For its part, Apple over the weekend formally acknowledged the issues for the first time in an email response to one customer: "Apple has received reports similar to the behavior you are describing and we are investigating those reports,”. Source

Latter update: I added this funny Apple pride from back in 1998 online interface, taken from the internet Archive. Enjoy the photo.

Short entry for today on best selling laptops on Amazon.com

Today on Amazon.com, the first ten places on best selling laptops list are occupied by Apple and Asus with MacBook and Eee Pc lines of products. The two laptop manufacturers share the top places evenly, each one claiming five places for his products. Good job and hurray for them. I also checked if Sony who also claimed one of the top places was out of stock on Amazon.com but its entry level Vaio NR series laptop was on 19th place and it is not out of stock.

Today's top 15 best selling laptops on Amazon.com (to check versus my previuous post top 15 most popural laptops on PriceGrabber.com)

In my today’s previous post I presented the top 15 Most Popular laptops on PriceGrabber.com. To compare lists I will give you now the top 15 best selling laptops on Amazon.com, which also is monitored by PriceGrabber.com for price comparison:

1) ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Galaxy Black
2) Apple MacBook MB403LL/A 13.3" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive) White
3) Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A 15.4" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)
4) Asus Eee PC 8G (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB Solid-State Disk, Linux Preloaded) Pearl White
5) Asus Eee PC 4G (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Galaxy Black
6) Apple MacBook Air MB003LL/A 13.3" Laptop (1.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB Hard Drive)
7) Apple MacBook Pro MA895LL/A 15.4" Laptop (2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)
8) Apple MacBook MB404LL/A 13.3" Laptop (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive) Black
9) HP Pavilion Artist Edition DV2890NR 14.1" Laptop (Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 Processor, 3 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)
10) Apple MacBook MB158LL/B 13.3" Laptop (2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, 8x Super Drive) Black
11) Asus Eee PC 8G (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 1 GB RAM, 8 GB Solid-State Disk, Linux Preloaded) Black
12) Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S 15.4" Laptop (Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Granite
13) Apple MacBook Pro MB134LL/A 15.4" Laptop (2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, DVD/CD SuperDrive)
14) Asus Eee PC 2G Surf (7" Screen, 800 MHz Intel Celeron Processor, 512 MB RAM, 2 GB Hard Drive, Linux Preloaded) Galaxy BlackToshiba Satellite A205-S5812 15.4" Laptop (Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

About PriceGrabber.com and Best Selling Laptops and Notebooks

In a previous post about laptop buyers and Microsoft Windows where I argued a point made by Preston Gralla on his post about the same topic, I mentioned PriceGrabber.com related to best selling laptops. Now it’s time to go deep into this matter. PriceGrabber.com is an online comparison shopping engine with approximately 26 million consumers each month and up-to-date daily pricing of products supplied by more than 12,000 sellers. It’s pointless to say that we cannot provide a best selling laptops list from PriceGrabber.com since this is only an online shopping comparison engine and he cannot track online sales made on online stores that PriceGrabber.com is monitoring. The tool provided to online shoppers instead is a most popular list that tracks the clicks on items provided by its users. The conclusion is that PriceGrabber.com tracks the online shopping intention and not the actual transaction closing between buyer and the online shop. Considering the purpose of PriceGraber.com engine I think that this information can be reliable though. Most of us do not visit an online shopping comparison engine if we do not actually want to buy something. So, from now I will take a look at PriceGrabber.com’s most popular laptop list. Initially I wanted to use the most rated list too, but since the top rated product in laptops list is Powerbook G4 notebook I believe that this list is not relevant to our purpose. Below I present u the Top 15 Most Popular Laptops on PriceGrabber.com on April 12th, 2008:

1) Toshiba Satellite A205-S5804 Notebook
1.6GHz Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2330, 1GB DDR2, 120GB, DVD±RW DL, Windows Vista Home Premium, 15.4" LCD - MPN: PSAF3U0NR00V
2) Asus Eee PC 4G Surf Notebook - Black
900MHz Intel Celeron M 353 , 512MB DDR2, 4GB SSD, Linux, 7" LCD - MPN: 90OA01A20102111U305Q
3) Apple 13.3" MacBook Air Notebook
1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2, 80GB, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, 13.3" LCD - MPN: MB003LLA
4) HP (Hewlett-Packard) F750US Notebook
1.9GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57, 1GB DDR2, 120GB, DVD±RW DL, Windows Vista Home Premium, 15.4" LCD - MPN: KC489UA
5) Apple 13.3" MacBook Notebook
2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile, 1GB DDR2, 160GB, DVD±RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, 13.3" LCD - MPN: MB063LLB
6) Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro Notebook
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile, 2GB DDR2, 160GB, DVD±RW DL, Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger, 15.4" LCD - MPN: MA896LLA
7) Apple 15" MacBook Pro Notebook
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2, 200GB, DVD±RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, 15" LCD - MPN: MB133LLA
8) Asus Eee PC 2G Surf Notebook - Blue
800MHz Intel Celeron M 353, 512MB DDR2, 2GB SSD, Linux, 7" LCD - MPN: 90OA02AC0004111U105Q
9) Asus Eee PC 4G Surf Notebook - White
900MHz Intel Celeron M 353, 512MB DDR2, 4GB SSD, Linux, 7" LCD - MPN: 90OA06A40101111U105Q
10) Sony VAIO VGN-FZ240E/B Notebook
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7250, 2GB DDR2, 250GB, DVD±RW DL, Windows Vista Home Premium, 15.4" LCD - MPN: VGNFZ240EB
11) Dell Latitude D600 Notebook
1.3GHz Intel Pentium M, 256MB DDR, 20GB, CD-ROM, Windows XP, 14.1" LCD - MPN: D600
12) Apple 17" MacBook Pro Notebook
2.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile, 2GB DDR2, 250GB, DVD±RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, 17" LCD - MPN: MB166LLA
13) Sony VAIO VGN-CR320E/R Notebook
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7250, 2GB DDR2, 250GB, DVD±RW DL, Windows Vista Home Premium, 14.1" LCD - MPN: VGNCR320ER
14) Apple 13.3" MacBook Notebook
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB DDR2, 160GB, DVD±RW DL, Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard, 13.3" LCD - MPN: MB403LLA
15) Sony VAIO VGN-FZ340E/B Notebook
2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile T7250, 3GB DDR2, 250GB, DVD±RW DL,Windows Vista Home Premium, 15.4" LCD - MPN: VGNFZ340EB

On latter posts I will cover the notebooks that I didn’t reviewed on this blog yet.

Apple's MacBook Air MB003LL/A notebook main features

Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor with 800MHz frontside bus, 4MB shared L2 cache and 1.6GHz processor speed
2GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM for multitasking power
Note: Optical drive not included; compatible with optional MacBook Air double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW SuperDrive (model MB397G/A, not included)
The next-generation Intel® Core™2 Duo processor is based on the innovative Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, so it runs faster and is more energy-efficient for cooler, quieter operation
13.3" TFT-LCD widescreen display with 1280 x 800 native resolution
80GB Parallel ATA hard drive (4200 rpm)
Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 graphics with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared video memory; support for DVI and VGA interfaces (with included micro DVI-to-DVI and micro DVI-to-VGA adapters); dual display and video mirroring capability
S-video and composite video output support (requires optional adapters; not included)
1 high-speed USB 2.0 port; built-in Bluetooth 2.1 technology + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate)
Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n) networking; optional USB Ethernet Adapter (model MB442Z/A, not included) for connection to wired networks; optional USB Modem (model MA034Z/A, not included)
Built-in iSight Web cam and omnidirectional microphone
Touchpad with multitouch gesture support allows you to use specialized touch gestures to navigate your applications, zoom in on text, advance through a photo album or adjust an image with ease
Weighs 3 lbs. and measures only 0.8" thin for lightweight portability; lithium-polymer battery for up to 5 hours of battery life
Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" preinstalled; software package included with Time Machine, Quick Look, Spotlight, iChat, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools, iLife '08 (with iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand).

Is the Apple MacBook Air truly the "world's thinnest" notebook ?

As I promised before I am back with more info about Apple MacBook Air MB003LL/A, one of the best selling laptops on Amazon.com. Today is the 7th place on best selling laptops list and on the 3rd place in best selling Apple laptops. This post is the first from a series of post that I will write about this product and his family. I think I need to do that in order to find why at this price is one of the best selling laptop on Amazon.com. Apple MacBook Air MB003LL/A was made to cover the market rising need for ultra portable notebooks. Until recently many of the laptops were too bulky and heavy to satisfy the customers need for easy and comfortable portability and work on the road.
And now back to the post title. I will try to answer to this question. Is the MBA truly the “world’s thinnest notebook?
The company press release for the MacBook Air states in its headline that the MacBook Air is the "world's thinnest notebook" and in the copy that (quote) "its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks".
However, I found on everymac.com and as noted by Wired and CNet, that the Mitsubishi Pedion released in 1998 was 0.7244 inches thick (1.84 cm) and the Sharp Muramasas released in 2003 was a mere 0.54 inches thick (1.3716 cm), both smaller than the thickest point on the MacBook Air.
The Pedion and Muramasas were uniformly thick rather than tapered like the MacBook Air, however, so some might note that the average thickness of the MacBook Air is smaller or that these systems from many years ago are not "competing notebooks" so the point is regardless.
Basically, the MacBook Air is an extremely thin notebook, with the cost of sacrificing the connectivity, optical drive, performance ( not the most powerful processor in the Apple MacBooks class ) and the loss of possibility of changing the battery, but whether or not it is truly the "world's thinnest" notebook is largely up to interpretation. In conclusion we hope that notebooks will continue to get thinner and thinner after this MacBook Air dimensions challenge.

More on Apple MacBook MB403LL/A best selling Apple laptop on Amazon.com

This entry level model is the best selling Apple laptop today on Amazon.com and second place after Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S in all laptops best selling list. “Stylishly and intelligently designed”- this way the product description starts on the online Amazon.com store, and looking at it I have to agree with it. We will also meet all the innovations present on the MacBook product line. The integrated iSight camera, the MagSafe power adapter connector with the magnetic connection instead of a physical one, which won't send MacBook flying off a table if you happen to trip over a power cord, and the two finger easy scroll trackpad are the ones that I like the most. Unlike the Pro the video card in the MacBook uses part of your system memory and that's not a big deal if you aren't doing complex things like 3D Rendering or gaming.
The Apple MacBook MB403LL/A laptop also provides all the connectivity you will ever need: usb, firewire and wireless built-in AirPort Extreme 802.11n technology and takes good care of the media input/output. Below I will give u more features that I haven’t presented you in my previous post :
· 8x slot-loading SuperDrive with the following write speeds: 8x DVD±R; 4x DVD±R DL (double layer); 4x DVD±RW; 24x CD-R; 10x CD-RW
· Mini-DVI port for video output (VGA adapter and mini-DVI to DVI adapter sold separately)
· Built-in stereo speakers and omnidirectional microphone
· Combined optical digital audio input/audio line in
· Combined optical digital audio output/headphone out
· Two USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port
· Built-in full-size keyboard with 78 (U.S.) or 79 (ISO) keys, including 12 function keys, 4 arrow keys (inverted "T" arrangement), and embedded numeric keypad
· Solid-state scrolling trackpad for precise cursor control; supports two-finger scrolling, tap, double-tap, and drag capabilities
· Kensington cable lock slot
· Meets ENERGY STAR requirements
· Measures 12.78 x 8.92 x 1.08 inches (WxDxH) and weighs 5 pounds
Included Software:Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard (includes Time Machine, Quick Look, Spaces, Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Photo Booth, Front Row, Xcode Developer Tools); iLife '08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand); Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Test Drive; iWork '08 (30-day trial).
In the box you will find the MacBook laptop, 60W MagSafe Power Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord, lithium-polymer battery, install/restore DVDs, printed and electronic documentation.
Built in automatic backup capability (Time Machine) is a plus. The bonus is that you can dual boot with BootCamp and run all your Windows stuff that you want or need. Battery life on the MacBook seems to be quite good. The results when tested by ars technica under three different scenarios:
High usage: Playing a DVD, brightness set to half, "best performance" setting selected in the energy settings. -3:13 hours
Normal usage: Playing a stream in iTunes, WiFi and Bluetooth on, half brightness, "best performance" in energy settings -4:05 hours
Very low usage: No apps running, WiFi off, Bluetooth off, brightness set very low, "e;best performance" in energy settings -5:40 hours
A broad hardware review you cad read at ars technica. With details here, here and here.The bottom line: we have in Apple MacBook MB403LL/A a user friendly laptop, sharp looking with good performance and connectivity, recommended for use when on the road but not so good for power users or gamers. And, like someone before me said, don't fool yourself into thinking the less expensive MacBook is less worthy for general computing tasks than the more sophisticated MacBook Pro. It's very elegant looking and powerful. If you don't need the power and size of the pro, I think you'll be happy and the money you save can be put toward other things.

From (quote) "The laptop and the notebook: A fable" and some comments

"Once upon a time there was a Laptop (AAPL) that belonged to a mid-sized wazir of the realm. It was a rather large laptop as laptops go, with a big, roomy heart filled with all kinds of good things, an impressive collection of ports, and big, strong hardware that could stand the test of any ....."- teaser for a nice fable published by Stanley Bing on his blog with Apple MacBook Air as one of the main characters. MacBook Air notebook is depicted more like a starlet than a star of the story, where slender shapes and sweet lines trumps functionality . With this fable he draws a smile on our face and, arguing some good points, he reminds us the power that marketing and trends have over our buying choices. In the comments to this fable I noticed two issues. The USB hub that helps surpassing the lack of connectivity options that many are not aware of it's existence and the now forbidden possibility to bring spare batteries on carry-on luggage when we travel by air.
And now, for the big finish, I will reproduce a comment by Oz Crosby about what MacBook Air we dream to be (quote): “ … The Mac Book Aire is like an interesting concept car. Has some features i REALLY like, but it’s not ready for the streets i drive. What i wan to see, in the same case as my current MacBook Pro:More battery life, partially achieved by having a 500 gig hard drive with a 64-128 gig solid state drive sitting on top of it. the solid state drive will have the operating system and my every day tasks (email, word processing, etc) on it. Pictures, movies, music, TV shows, big spreadsheets etc will reside on the hard drive. There will be one more USB port, a 10-key pad in the setup (there’s room, just re-think the keyboard), and everything innovative the iPhone has brought to the party. And a truly faster, more efficient processor - not just another 6% incremental gain. Give us an entry level model, Apple, to keep that magic price point, then let us road warriors put about $1,000 of extras on to make the laptop of the future.” Now I will end this post about what MacBook Air notebook is not, and what we dream it to be and I want to announce a latter a short review about Air notebook the 14th place keeper in the today's best selling laptops list on Amazon.com.

Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S back on first place on Amazon.com best selling laptops folowed by Apple MacBook MB403LL/A

Today, when I checked Amazon.com best selling laptops i found that Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S is back in 1st place in best selling notebooks top. It is folowed by Apple MacBook MB403LL/A for some time so it is time to say something about this Apple toy.

Now i will bring you it's main features:
· 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3 MB shared L2 Cache
· 2 GB (two SO-DIMM) 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM; 160 GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive; 8x Double-Layer SuperDrive
· One FireWire 400, two USB 2.0 ports, DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video (requires adapters, sold separately)
· Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet; Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module
· 13.3-inch (diagonal) glossy TFT widescreen display, 1280 x 800 resolution; Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard

I will post latter more on Apple MacBook MB403LL/A.

Online Consumers Prefer Smaller and Lighter Portable-Style Laptops

On March 18, 2008, PriceGrabber.com® published a survey that research portable-style laptop trends in its latest Consumer Behavior Report. Results are based on a survey of 1,868 online consumers conducted in late February 2008. PriceGrabber.com defines portable-style laptops as weighing less than six pounds and having a screen size of less than 15 inches measured diagonally. Of the 72 percent of respondents who indicated owning or using a laptop, 58 percent own or use a portable-style laptop. The consumers who owns different laptops for different use: work/school and personal use, carry the burden of traveling with multiple laptops. Of those surveyed, 38 percent need two or more laptops. The demand for portable-style laptops has increased over the past year as more consumers find it unpleasant to carry around the standard-size laptop. 88% of respondents say they would consider a portable-style laptop when purchasing a new laptop and 44% of online consumers say they would travel more often with a laptop if it were smaller and lighter. 46% of consumers stated that performance is the most important feature to consider when purchasing a portable-style laptop. Of the nine percent of respondents who anticipate spending more than $2,000 for a portable-style laptop, 62 percent said they value performance as the most important feature, while 11 percent value battery life and nine percent value weight. PriceGrabber.com also reveals that Sony Vaio was the highest year-over-year traffic of the most popular portable-style laptops on the market, between January 2007 and January 2008. PriceGrabber.com is a major online comparison shopping engine, with approximately 26 million consumers each month and up-to-date daily pricing of products supplied by more than 12,000 sellers.

Laptop Buyers versus Microsoft Windows

On March 14th, 2008 Preston Gralla on his blog on Computerworld argues a point about Microsoft loosing the battle for laptop operating system. His conclusions are based on observations on top best selling laptops on Amazon.com and the price comparison PriceGrabber. I have to mention that he accounts only retail consumers sales, not the direct sales (like Dell) or corporate sales. His point is that Microsoft is loosing the battle to get the buyers on entry level and premium level, because those kind of laptops are in pole positions in best selling lists on online sales stores. Considering the facts that he used in his blog his conclusion is correct, and the main fault of Windows developer is that Vista is a hardware hog. I am not a Microsoft or Windows fan, because I also think that the Richmond giant needs to reinvent himself in order to survive the future, but I can’t stop myself from considering other fact that I think it completes the big picture. It is not the first time when Microsoft Windows is accused of being bloated and running slow on pc. Almost every single operating system that Microsoft has ever sold had been criticised as 'bloated' when they first came out; even those now regarded as the exact opposite, such as MS-DOS. He always was ahead of it’s time when he launched the new operating systems making hardware in our homes obsolete. It was always a race between Microsoft and hardware manufacturers, a race for end users money. And Microsoft is not the only software manufacturer the uses the consumers to improve the not mature enough on launch operating system. Below is a table taken from Wikipedia about Windows recommended system requirements.

Comparison of Microsoft Windows Recommended System requirements
Windows version
Processor Memory Hard disk
Windows 95[7]
25 MHz 8 MB ~50 MB
Windows 98[8]
66 MHz 24 MB 140–255 MB
Windows Me[9]
150 MHz 32 MB 320 MB
Windows 2000 Server[10]
133 MHz 64 MB 1 GB
Windows XP[11]
300 MHz 128 MB 1.5 GB
Windows Vista[12]
1 GHz 1 GB 15 GB

More on Asus Eee Amazon's Best-Selling Computer

The Asus Eee is both Amazon's best-selling notebook and No. 1 in computers and hardware overall. But it's also temporarily out of stock. As Gizmodo wrote on their blogg, on Nov 20 2007, Asus Eee laptop pc begins his reign in Amazon.com best-selling notebooks. Five months after launch, the Asus Eee laptop is still a desirable gadget that buyers get from Amazon.com. Following this success Asus is announcing the expanding Eee pc line with a series of desktop pc products. More on BoinBoing.

Meet ASUS Eee PC 4G Surf, today's new best selling laptop on Amazon.com

Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play- the Asus Eee laptop that is today’s best selling notebook on Amazon.com is certainly worth a look as a second laptop for travelers, or perhaps a first laptop for kids--one you won't be afraid to leave in accident-prone hands. the laptop weighs 2 pounds and measures 8.8 inches wide by 6.5 inches deep by a little less than an inch thick. In all, the Eee PC is about the size of a trade paperback book; it can fit in a large jacket pocket without too much trouble. We can find a QWERTY keyboard, 7-inch screen, and preinstalled Linux operating system. (This laptop is also compatible with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system although 4GB isn't a lot of space for a primary partition. A typical XP/Pro installation will run about 2+GB. Some users have reported installing XP in less than 1GB but it's not entirely clear which pieces they've left out. By the time you add the programs that don't run well from a secondary drive, there's a good chance that, even if the drive is not full, there won't be enough space to allow the computer to hibernate, which requires as much disk storage as the computer has memory ) You'll be able to stay connected to email and the Internet easily thanks to the Wi-Fi LAN (802.11b/g). Because it uses flash memory instead of a hard drive (with 4 GB of storage), the Eee PC is optimal for weathering rough handling and sharing space in overstuffed bags. The Eee PC comes with a powerful selection of software to maximize personal productivity--over 40 built-in applications. Asus has wisely decided not to tinker with its infinitely simple-to-use user interface, which hides the Xandros-based Linux operating system. Six easy-to-understand tabs (Internet, Work, Learn, Play, Settings, and Favorites) offer fast access to some rich applications, including OpenOffice, Pidgin, Skype, Thunderbird, Wikipedia, and quick links to the most popular Web-based e-mail services. Asus also tosses in a handful of edutainment games starring the Linux penguin. This only-what-you-need desktop is refreshingly free of clutter and bloatware. It's a good choice for young students, with a built-in Dictionary that's great for homework, and it includes two modes of intuitive graphic user interface design to accommodate both experienced and inexperienced PC users. The Eee PC handles well your digital images, movies, and music as well as Internet radio. Compact and highly portable at just 32 ounces, the Eee PC 4G has a 7-inch wide color TFT LCD with an 800 x 480-pixel resolution (WXGA). The monitor though at this resolution, is surprisingly bright and crisp. The extra space around the screen serves a purpose: a webcam sits above the screen and tiny speakers reside on the left and right sides of the display. We'd happily trade the thick screen bezel for an extra inch or so of screen real estate and a 1024x768 resolution, even if it meant we'd lose the Webcam and would have to get along with even smaller speakers. Under the hood is a 900 MHz Intel Mobile CPU with integrated Intel graphics processor, 512 MB of RAM (not expandable), and 4 GB of solid-state flash memory. With three USB ports, a VGA out, and standard headphone and mic jacks, the Asus Eee offers decent connectivity. FireWire is the one missing standard element, aside from the obvious absence of an optical drive. The SD card slot offers a good opportunity to boost the hard drive space, allowing you to pop in your own flash memory, easily doubling the system's 4GB drive (only about 1.3GB of which is actually free), with your own 4GB SD card, which you can get for around $50. The Eee PC includes software for Web browsing (Firefox), email, OpenOffice 2.0 for creating and editing word processing documents and spreadsheets, and a suite of other productivity software to help keep you on track. The Eee PC measures 8.9 x 6.5 x 1.4 inches, and it weighs 32 ounces. The 4-cell, 5200 mAh battery provides up to 3.5 hours of battery life (depending on usage). It's backed by a 1 year warranty for parts and labor. Cramming all the things one expects from a laptop into a package this small presents some difficult design questions, and the Asus Eee answers most of them about as well as can be expected. The biggest challenge is the keyboard. Tiny keyboards, as on ultraportable systems such as the Toshiba R500 or Sony VAIO TZ150, are hampered by both Chiclet-size keys and unfortunate compromises in key placement and double-mapped keys. There are no Caps Lock, Num Lock, or Scroll Lock indicators. However there is an excellent freeware utility available on the Web that places indicator lights in the system tray. The tiny touchpad measures 1.75 inches by 1.25 inches and works well on the whole, but there's only a single mouse button--click on the left side for the left mouse button, and the right for the right mouse button. Now a conclusion: The good: Small, light, and inexpensive; solid-state hard drive is fast and efficient; well-thought-out preinstalled software package. The bad: Cramped keyboard; very little hard drive space; low screen resolution. The bottom line: For less than $400, the Asus Eee PC 4G offers an impressive package for portable Web surfing and basic productivity, as long as you keep expectations tempered. The incredibly approachable price outweighs any shortcomings; it's a near perfect choice for a highly portable second or backup laptop. And given the capabilities of the device, the price is excellent. If you're comfortable with technology and are willing to spend a bit of time learning to use Linux, you'll probably enjoy this device very much.

Another Best Selling Laptop on Amazon.Com: Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A

This days on Amazon.com is Apple MacBook Pro MB133LL/A ( yesterday April 3rd, 2008 ).The next generation of the Macbook Pro laptops were released on February 26th, 2008. This release includes several upgrades over the previous generation Macbook Pro; most notably they include the new Intel Core 2 Duo Penryn core processors. Also, the Macbook Pros features the same Multitouch trackpad as found on the Apple Macbook Air notebooks released a month earlier. You’ll be able to use two-finger scrolling, pinch, rotate, etc. just like you do with your iPhone.
Technical Details
· 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 3 MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed,
· 2 GB RAM (two SO-DIMM) 677 MHz DDR2 SD-RAM (PC2-5300), 200 GB 5400 rpm Serial ATA hard drive, slot load 8x Super Drive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
· One FireWire 400, one FireWire 800, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
· Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit); built-in 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11n); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
· 15.4-inch (diagonal), 1440 by 900 resolution, matte TFT LED widescreen display with NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256 MB of GDDR3 memory and dual-link DVI
· Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard; iLife ’08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand)
· Package Contents: MacBook Pro, Display cleaning cloth, 85W MagSafe Ppower Adapter, AC wall plug, and power cord, Lithium-polymer battery, DVI to VGA adapter, Install/restore DVDs, Printed and electronic documentation
· Lithium Ion Battery Type with a life of about 6 hours
· 85W MagSafe Power Adapter with cable management system
· Your MacBook Pro comes with 90 days of telephone support and a one-year limited warranty. Purchase the AppleCare Protection Plan and get three years of service and support. Only the AppleCare Protection Plan provides you with direct telephone support from Apple technical experts and the assurance that repairs will be handled by Apple-certified technicians using genuine Apple parts.
A memory upgrade to 4 GB is recommended to reach higher performance. “Its performance pedigree was clearly on display with the intensive multi-tasking we put the laptop through. We surfed the net while burning a CD, encoding a movie and copying files to our network server. These are all CPU intensive activities and would have brought any other laptop to its knees. The Macbook pro sailed right through these tasks and did not look stressed.”- was the tech2.com team conclusion.My belief is that there is nothing more to ad – high level performance flows through it’s veins. The build quality is outstanding for a mass-produced device. Keyboard It feels solid and responsive. Plus, its backlighting is helpful when typing in dark environments. MacBook Pro laptop has a dedicated video processor. This is beneficial for driving large external displays and running graphics-intensive applications. LED screens looks much brighter (possibly the combination of whites and the better contrast) Also know that Apple claims the LED screen's efficiency gives it 30 extra minutes of battery life over the CCFL versions. MacBook Pro laptop sounds as good as it looks, with unprecedented attention to audio detail. For musicians on the go, MacBook Pro offers pristine sound through crisp, clear stereo speakers, a built-in microphone, and optical digital audio on both input and output. Also the MacBook Pro laptop helps protect your data if it detects a fall, by parking the hard drive head during fast changes in orientation. The MacBook is innovative right down to the power cord. The MacBook Pro power adapter with MagSafe connector is just that: a magnetic connection instead of a physical one. So, if you happen to trip over a power cord, you won't send MacBook Pro flying off a table or desk; the cord simply disconnects, without damage to either the cord or the system. As an added nicety, this means less wear on the connectors. The new hafnium-infused circuitry–which reduces electrical current leakage in transistors–conserves even more energy, giving you more time away from the wall outlet. The Richmond born operating system fans can install Windows using the Bootcamp software. The provided software and drivers worked flawlessly and u can have Windows booting into its final screen in no time.
In conclusion we've only got this to say - The Macbook Pro laptop with OSX is in a different league. And one more thing to notice: Amazon.com even beat out a Mac Mall an identically spec'd refurbished MacBook Pro laptop with this deal and with far less rebate hassle too!

More on Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S laptop, Best selling notebook on Amazon.com

More on Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S as best selling laptop on Amazon.com. If you buy this computer you need to know that Sony does not support Windows XP downgrade on this line so those who want to do it will have to work for it, and the maximum RAM upgrade is 2GB on every Sony Vaio NR Series notebook PC specifications sheet I have read. The estimated battery life is between 2.5 and 4.5 hours. In a November 8th, 2007 review by Jerry Jackson I found few interesting good to know facts about this Sony Vaio NR laptop series. He discovered a design flaw a battery wiggle and bad screen vertical viewing angles. About heating and noise he noticed that Sony Vaio NR laptops run extremely quiet and the bottom side gets a bit warm when running, but comfortable enough to keep the NR notebook on the lap. The dimensions 10.6 x 14.2 x 1.5 inches and the weight of only 6.2 pounds makes this laptop quite portable although you might encounter some problems fitting it in some smaller 15.4" notebook bags.
Main Specifications :
1.6 GHz Intel Pentium T2330 dual-core processor, 200 GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM (2 GB max), 8x multi-format/dual-layer DVD drive
54g Wi-Fi (802.11b/g), 10/100 Ethernet, Intel X3100 video card with up to 251 MB of shared memory
Connectivity: 4 USB, 1 FireWire, ExpressCard 34 slot, Memory Stick & SD readers
Pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium (with Media Center capabilities)
Other: 1 Headphone out; 1 Microphone-in, 1 VGA
Preloaded software: Includes Sony Click to DVD (for easy DVD creation), Microsoft Works SE 9.0, Microsoft Office 2007 (60-day trial), Symantec Norton 360 All-In-One Security (with 60 days of Live Update).

Today's (April 2nd 2008) best selling laptop on Amazon.com

Today, 2nd of April 2008, the best selling laptop on Amazon.com is Sony VAIO VGN-NR240E/S 15.4" display Laptop (Intel Pentium Dual Core T2330 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 200 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium) Granite. As Sony says on his website, the NR series was designed for everyday PC performance, a laptop for day-to-day productivity and entertainment needs, web surfing, working from home or building a media library of music and movies. This Vaio has the potential to be a good notebook. However an incredible amount of bloatware and rather sluggish Vista running may alter your Vaio NR laptop experience. Unnecessary software removal and purchasing of additional DDR memory will properly improve performance. The screen is pleasantly large and refreshingly crisp with vivid colors, Sony really knows how to produce superior displays. Expecting too much from the Vaio NR laptops line, an entry-level product line, is not a good idea. This laptop is not appropriate for power-users or serious gamers, but is well suited to surfing the Internet and watching movies. If you do not mind Vista, it is recommended for those purposes. Users may appreciate that almost everything is located on the side of the notebook instead of the back. It makes it easy to disconnect when you are on the go. In the end of this short first review of this Sony Vaio laptop I must notice the price which is half of what anyone normally pay for a notebook. I will be back latter with more details.

Reason to write about best selling laptops and notebooks

“It's one thing to ask people what they would like to buy, and another thing to find out what they actually bought. Because of this quirk in human behavior, we decided to find out which were the best selling laptop and notebook computers.” -That is the phrase that I encountered in my walk through web search pursuing my goal to find which laptop is THE best selling one and why. I will search reviews about them and try to find the reason the makes us pay the price. Brand, price, technical specifications, availability and terms of offers in the stores are the main reasons to consider in laptop or notebook buying decision. I will also review the stores that sell laptops and notebooks. That will help us get some hints on “why” we buy portable computers and devices from specific places. Because we do not buy laptops from any store we find in our way. For many of us there is trust involved in buying decision.