Lap top advice

Hope you guys n gals don't mind me asking but I get more good advice here than anywhere else. Loving my Sony LCD[y]

I need a new laptop ( correction I want a new one lol ).

It will be a travelling one so the following is what I want it to do.

Broadband
wireless
I want to put my itunes on it ( I have movies on my itunes )
Something that my iphone can pick up contacts from.

What should I buy, don't want to be skimpy on price but at the same time I don't want to spend silly money either.

Have always used windows but might consider Apple if its anygood and easy to use.

I have a Hewlett Packard at present cost me 1500 and only has 19% memory left already.

Also

Is it possible for me AND my partner to have our itunes on the same machine.

If anyone could just type a spec list that I can copy and use in my search that would be great.

Oh yes I would want it to work on the plane as well and posibly play blu-ray or have hidef.

If only Gucci or Mont Blanc made computers.

Thankyou.

[Nottingham Nick]

Originally posted by easygoingeezer

If only Gucci or Mont Blanc made computers.

Gucci do make computers - but the badge says Apple. [8D][:D][:o)]

I am not (yet) a Macbook owner, but I would say they are exactly what you are looking for. [;)][}:)]

Nick

[HighFlyer]

Given your wish list (stylish, iTunes and iPhone compatibility) i think you are looking at a Mac. Dont forget that you can also run Windows on a Mac so you have a fallback option if you decide that there are Windows programs that you cant live without.

Thanks,
Sarah

Geez I love my v-flyer buddies.

Just the question of having two itunes accounts on one laptop/notebook left now.

thankyou so much for taking the time to answer my questions.[oo]

[HighFlyer]

There are two ways of doing it i guess, the standard way would be that you have the one iTunes account but you both sync your iPods on it. You'd have to have your whole library on iTunes and both select the songs you want. That is strightforward but might be a pain if you and the other 'arf have very different tastes in music. The other way would be for you to have Windows on your Mac through Boot Camp or Parallels and install the Win version of iTunes on there, that way having two seperate versions of iTunes, each with their own music library.

There may be other ways of doing this, but those are the viable options i can think of. One of the geniuses at the Apple store might be able to give you a better idea on how to do this.

Thanks,
Sarah

[Decker]

Surely if you create user accounts on the machine you can both have your own iTunes install?

[mitchja]

You can indeed have one iTunes account per Windows user account as each Windows user has their own seperate folder for storing music.

You obviously need seperate iPods/iPhones though, as otherwise every time you sync. the same iPod/iPhone with each others iTunes, it will over-write what's on the iPod/iPhone.

Regards

[HighFlyer]

Ah, I didnt know that, I assume it would work the same for Macs then.

Thanks,
Sarah

[Darren Wheeler]

I'd say go for the Macbook, but if you'd asked 3 month ago I wouldn't.

As a recent covert (still have MS on desktop) to Mac, it does take a little getting use to especially when you get stuck as I was trying to use windows solutions. Apart from the occasional KP when playing a DVD I've had no issues and it's running nearly 24/7.

AFAIK Blu-ray isn't possible but you can buy a empower lead for aircraft usage.

No idea on idea on iTunes though as I don't have an iPod.

[mitchja]

For Windows, all iTunes does is create a folder within your 'My Music' or your 'Music' folder (depending on which version of Windows you use) to store everything you add to iTunes.

As this folder is located within each Windows account user folder (where all your documents and photos are also stored) and every Windows user has their own user folder, each user just sees their own music when opening iTunes much the same way each user only sees their own documents and photos etc. they created.

I would guess that Apple also have a similar user account system as well.

Regards

[Darren Wheeler]

Enable fast-switch and it should be relativley painless to quickly sync s needed.

Can't help you with spec etc as I haven't a clue what is 'under the bonnet' but bought my first MacBook last summer and haven't looked back. So beautiful, easy to use and to date utterly reliable.

Interestingly whilst travelling last summer, I shut down my old laptop, put it through the Xray at Gatwick and when I turned it on in the departure lounge minutes later it was a mess. IT at work asked around and told me that it is technically possible that the card reader was wiped by the machine although they admitted it is impossible to prove. I was advised that MacBooks were even less likely to be damaged in this way, hence the change. Haven't regretted the switch at all.

I have windows and mac and always use the mac as for shared itunes yes you can have two ipods on one computer all you do is hold down the option key when you launch itunes it allows you to pick which Library (music folder) you want

Egg, on a Mac you have three options (may be the same on a PC but those are unfathomable beasts to me).

(1) You can create two accounts on a MacBook (or any new Mac) and let iTunes manage separate libraries of music and video.

(2) You can have more than one iPod syncing to the same iTunes library for the complete music set - but to do this you need to deathorise / delink them from any previous library.

(3) If you want both iPods to connect to a single iTunes library but like different music then set it to sync manually, then you control what to load simply by dragging playlists to your iPod - of course this is more laborious.


If you have different musical tastes then the simplest way is to create two user accounts and set to auto sync, but don't forget that if you both want the same CD you'll have to load it twice to ensure it's in both of your libraries. If your tastes overlap then I'd go for the manual syncing method!

Try this article:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300432

personally i would go for a sony vaio, far better, easier to upgrade and most people won't think you have more money than sense and are a superficial twonk for buying an imac [|:)]

[Darren Wheeler]

Careful.... Lots on here have a Mac and love them like their first-born.

Originally posted by esf666
personally i would go for a sony vaio, far better, easier to upgrade and most people won't think you have more money than sense and are a superficial twonk for buying an imac [|:)]

Speaking as a superficial twonk, I'm relatively new to all things Mac, having bought my MacBook Pro just last November. And I love it. Love it, love it, love it; and, whilst I can't say I love it quite as much as my first born, it does behave considerably better.

However, I would have to agree that a Sony Vaio is preferable to an iMac, mainly because the latter is a bit of a bugger to get into your hand luggage.

[honey lamb]

Originally posted by esf666
personally i would go for a sony vaio, far better, easier to upgrade and most people won't think you have more money than sense and are a superficial twonk for buying an imac [|:)]

I bpought a sony Vaio and I hate it because of the partitioned hard drive. If I had known that I would have run a million miles away

[RichardMannion]

Paging Decker - please do regale us with your Vaio horror stories. I've been through pretty much every brand of laptop, and wouldn't use a Sony Vaio. Current flavour of month is Lenovo - but then laptops come in various shapes and sizes and it all depends on the anticipated end usage. For a pro, a Vaio is not exactly robust.

[Scrooge]

A friend of mine used to be a sales rep for Panasonic, specifically toughbooks...he dealt mostly with government contracts, his pitch was pretty simple...walk into the room, say good morning, throw the lappy across the room...run over, pick it up, turn it on...

Sometimes the soft sell works the best [:D]

I just cant get past the fact that a Macbook costs 3 times the price of a notebook...for the same parts...

Originally posted by esf666
personally i would go for a sony vaio, far better, easier to upgrade and most people won't think you have more money than sense and are a superficial twonk for buying an imac [|:)]

Talking of Twonks !! [}:)]

Vaio's seem very nice and may be pleasing to the eye for some but they are certainly not a work horse and do not stand up to the day to day abuse that many of us give laptops.

As Richard says it comes down to what you are going to use it for !

My personal preference right now is a Dell Latitude D830, however speaking as an ex Mac user (forced back to Windows by my current employer [;)]) MacBook Pros are great pieces of kit and in my book worth every penny .... call me a Twonk if you like .... but comparing Vaio's to IMac's who's the Twonk ?? (whatever that is)


Cheers

Mark