Affordable High Quality Laptops
From the introduction of the first very heavy "laptop" portable computers, there has been a desire to make them better, lighter and above all, cheaper. As the technology has gotten better, laptops have gotten lighter and better. The prices have dropped, too, if you consider inflation. These days, the good, cheap, reliable laptop is so prevalent, they have begun to outsell desktop models. While they may run a little slower than desktops, there is virtually nothing a desktop can do that can't be accomplished on a laptop.
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Types
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Laptop computers essentially are divided into two categories, although these are blurring. The first and better of the two by far, is the Macbook and the Macbook Pro. These are the latest laptops from Apple Computer. They perform better and faster than anything on the market. They are a bit more expensive than the second type, which is the PC or Windows-based laptop from a variety of manufacturers. Macs pioneered many things on laptops, like the trackpad (a type of mouse) and color screens, backlit keyboards and, with the Macbook Air, the non-hard disk hard disk.
Identification
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Macbooks are designed for consumers. They can support 2 gigabytes or 4 gigabytes of random access memory, have bright screens and weigh very little. They also can support large capacity hard drives and can burn and read both compact disks and digital video disks.
Considerations
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Used, the Mac Powerbook still is a great laptop. The last generation of them is slower than Macbooks, but they can handle 120 gigabyte hard drives, 2 gigabytes of RAM and also generally have CD/DVD burners built in. They also have built-in wireless (Airport) cards and Bluetooth to add a mouse or wireless keyboard. They have firewire and universal serial bus ports, too. For things like writing, research and academic applications, Powerbooks still remain feasible. For those who want Windows-based laptops, there are a wide variety available. They are slower, clunkier and cheaper than Macs. Dell and some off brands are available without too much outlay of cash, but odds are they won't last like Macs and they are harder to use.
Function
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People have been moving to laptops in recent years because they make whatever you are doing portable and easy to take on the road. They allow users to take their data with them and work virtually anywhere. With wireless technology spreading to coffee shops, restaurants and libraries, users no longer must be tethered to their desks.
History
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Computer scientist and professor Alan Kay wrote about the possibility of the laptop computer in a 1968 paper. He envisioned this type of machine as a personal portable computer. It took a few years for technology to catch up. When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in 1968 and 1969, their onboard computers had a total memory capacity that would be taken up today by a medium-sized word processing document. In 1981, the laptop was born as the Osborne 1. It was first in its commercial availability to the world and weighed as little as 23.5 pounds. When Apple introduced its first laptop, the Mac Portable, in 1989, it weighed more than the desktop model. Soon, most computer makers were trying to build their own laptops and by the turn of the century, they were lighter and very reliable. Macs from this era still work well.
Size
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The size and weight of a laptop is what consumers tend to look at first. For good reason, too, since most of the time laptops are carried over their shoulders in laptop bags or cases. The Macbook Air is the lightest fully functional laptop on the market at about 3 pounds. The comparable Dell is about 6 pounds. There are smaller-screened Windows laptops, also.
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Comments
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this is a stupid mac fanboy article.
