New Apple MacBook – Disassembly, Review (PC Mag)

It’s now a given – as soon as a new laptop that’s been hyped up quite a bit is released, that somebody will get one and then take it apart. The new 13.3″ Apple MacBook is no exception. KODAWARISAN quickly unboxed their new aluminum MacBook … Read more

HP 2133 Mini-Note Updates Part II

About three weeks ago, we mentioned that HP was getting aggressive with the price drops and rebates on the VIA-powered HP 2133 Mini-Note netbook. There were $50 and $100 rebates being offered on top of lowered prices. The rebates have been dropped in favor of … Read more

Hands-On/Mini-Review of New Apple MacBook (LAPTOP Mag)

Yesterday, LAPTOP Magazine got their hands on one of the new 13.3″ Apple MacBooks (aluminum). My rants aside about some of the choices Apple made, it’s shaping up to be a solid entry in the budget 13.3-inch market. The “glass” touchpad is turning out to … Read more

Apple MacBook Redesigned

Apple Redesigned MacBook 2008 Now that we’ve seen the new 13.3″ Apple MacBook and are reassured of Steve Jobs’ health, let’s take a look at what your $1,299 or $1,599 is going to get you. Be warned, I have a long-winded rant about the removal of the FireWire port at the end.

It’s going to get you a very nicely designed notebook (that appears to be sturdy). It’s environmentally-friendly to boot (which matters to some). It’s got a decent graphics chipset that even supports Apple’s new 30″ Cinema displays (which just so happen to have cables to charge your MacBook without you having to take your A/C MagSafe adapter out of your bag). It’s got LED-backlighting, and you even get the option of adding a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD).

It also gets you an incredibly cool multi-touch touchpad that’s glass, yes glass, that actually acts like a button (it is the button – there are no separate buttons). You can even use four-finger gestures for certain actions. This was the most interesting thing to me (even more so than the design). I’m looking forward to getting my hands on one in my local Apple Store.

It’s a great looking notebook brought up to date, but for every two steps forward, there’s one or two steps back, and some of these are real head-scratchers.

Here comes the long-winded rant about FireWire – you’ve been warned!

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Samsung NC10 Hands-On (LAPTOP Magazine)

Over at LAPTOP Magazine, Joanna Stern has her hands on a new 10.2″ Samsung NC10 netbook, and she’s posted a video along with her impressions. This is not their final review unit, but they took plenty of pictures of keyboards – the NC10 is fast … Read more