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Laptop gripes

  • Articolo

Dennis just wrote about some laptop frustrations. I have to agree. I can't tell you how many times I've closed my laptop lid, placed it in my bag and opened it back up on the train a 30 minutes later to find the battery half drained. Since I refuse to install any of the Toshiba Power management software for my Tablet PC (because it locks it up from time to time) I get about 1.2 hours of juice as my tablet runs at full bore the whole time.

Today I flew up to Redmond and for the first time in my life forgot my power brick. What a disaster. This made me wonder why the world needs 25 different kinds of power tips and adapters. Can't the manufacturers just agree on one common plug and then design DC adapters that aren't ugly and huge but smart and small, include cable management and can dynamically adapt to charge any laptop? Then I could just borrow one from anyone with a laptop.

Apple has always made superior laptops. They just work, aren't ugly with dozens of panels, protruding pieces of plastic and boneheaded design placement like my microphone that is located right near my loud fan. Oh, and lets not even mention the 15 or so “stickers that come on the thing. That's just tacky. I'm not sure this will ever change. The business that OEMs are in require that they compete on price, so they'll never spend the kind of money Apple does to make their stuff sexy and functional. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go to an Apple store and play with a 15 or 12 inch PowerBook. Notice the clean design, smart placement of panels, lack of stickers and panels, fluid lines, pulsing LED lights, keyboard controls that have stunning On Screen UI, and ambient light detection for back lighting the keyboard etc.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
    I agree completely. I have a Powerbook 1GHz and love everything about it. No problems, no hangups. Excellent machine. Worth every penny, especially when compared to a Wintel / WinAMD laptop!

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
    Ummm...I don't know why the website posted three of my responses. Ya might wanna clean it up a bit. Oh! maybe because it's powered by ASP.NET!!!!!

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
    I'm getting a Dell.... :0 Well I had one, years ago. The thing lasted exactly one year. I purchased a Pismo Powerbook G3... lasted until I sold to for a 667 Powerbook G4 in 2001. Well it's 2004 and I'm waiting for a Powerbook G5. These things are in best laptops. PERIOD...

    Why asp.net? try using php for you blog.

  • Anonymous
    April 01, 2004
    Maybe if you only click submit once you would have only one entry. Maybe its that single button on the Apple mouse. Did you get trigger happy?

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
    I'm actually toting around a TiBook and a PC laptop with me this time... hence the frustration I am experiencing right now ;-).

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
    IBM Laptops are great

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
    Whoa; some of you are carrying TWO laptops around! Just shows that with the price reductions, and reduced size, the techno-geek can justify having a Windows laptop and an Apple laptop in the same bag!

    As someone who uses Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows XP on a daily basis, with 3 kids that have both iBooks and ShuttlePCs on their desks, I can attest to the need for a well designed laptop that could conceivable run more than one operating system (not emulated; rather running concurrently).

    Indeed, my family experience proves that, while we all prefer to use Macs for the bulk of our day to day data-functions, we still need another OS or two for some things. Wouldn't it be great if Apple/IBM (The Power5 can run multiple OSes simultaneously) could one day come up with a superior laptop that could run other OSes much like Panther handles switching between users?! It wouldn't be cheap, but then it would be wonderfully useful for the professional users. Perhaps with future memory controllers and multiple core-processors, such a thing might become a reality.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Why indeed can't we have a common standard for power input sockets? Not only on laptops but mobile phones, digital cameras etc ? Think of the literally hundreds of millions of wall warts and battery chargers that go into landfill every year, not to mention the dollars that go down the drain with them.
    When is someone going to come up with a system where a wall wart/battery charger, with a universal standard connector, queries each battery or device as it's plugged in, determines the appropriate voltage and/or charging program. and provides it? This is far from rocket science, all the technology is available now, and you'd only need one or two, and they would last you a very long time. This business of having a new power supply bundled with every device is economic and ecological lunacy.

  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2004
    Typing this on my IBM X22, I'm afraid I can't identify with any of your gripes about PC laptops. My laptop is sleek, light, reliable, sturdy, and just reeks quality.
    The truth is that you get what you pay for. Dell, Toshiba, and others market to the lowest common denominator and sell on price and slickly marketed features whereas IBM and Apple pretty much ignore the mass market and continue to refine their products.
    I have had no trouble with my laptop, even after dropping it to the floor on a corner (save for a snapped lid catch) and other lesser mistreatments. I suggest that if you do invest in another PC laptop that you buy a real one.

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2005
    These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend, then...

  • Anonymous
    August 19, 2007
    These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend , then

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