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)

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.

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.

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!