Chris Howard's Profile

Oops! Don't know how, but I left "Things" of that list of software.

yeah, I must admit, my MBP 13 which I get next week is being financed via a no interest loan scheme for people on low incomes. (My income for the last 4 years has been around AU$10K p.a.. Seriously.) So I certainly had no intention of giving the impression of "everyone is made of money"! However, you are right. A MBP and iPhone is an expensive "ideal" option. I'm not sure you can find a cheap ultrasmart phone (they all seem similar rprice down in Oz), but you certainly could save a bit of money getting a 13" Windows laptop from Dell, HP, Acer etc.

Khürt, am running 32 bit. Beeb, just snarking the look. Ever since XP, Microsoft has had this belief that the visual design has to be in your face. Personally, I don't like that, and in both XP and Windows 7, I have reverted to the "Windows Classic" appearance, which although somewhat dowdy, is not distracting.

Let's look at those one by one Crappy Crappy because of what you can't do? I look at it the other way, that is, it's fantastic because of what it can do. Off-roaders and sports cars are both cars and both excellent cars and both overlap their usage. But both are suited to specific uses that the other is not. This doesn't make them crappy because they can't do everything. Insanely expensive... costs $2000 Well that's a furphy and a half when we're discussing whether it's a computer or not. Mine cost me AU$847. It's the phone charges and wireless broadband that bumps the cost to US$2000. And consider, you're going to have cell phone charges anyway, with whatever phone you have. If you don't want the phone features and costs, just buy an iPod touch: US$229. If I wanted wireless broadband on my laptop, it would at a minimum add AU$15/mth and that's on a 36 month contract and a measly 200MB. So my laptop suddenly costs at least an extra AU$540. If I want something approaching unlimited access, it's AU$45/mth, adding AU$1620. So my laptop, when compared fairly to my iPhone is suddenly "insanely expensive" also. There's plenty of phones on the market that do a lot less than the iPhone but cost just as much, so we really shouldn't judge the cost of the iPhone as a computer, based on its phone costs. Further, if we are comparing costs, we should also consider the savings of a multi-function device. It replaces a pocket camera, a GPS, a PDA, a phone, a DS or PSP etc. If you bought it outright and never used it's phone or wireless broadband capabilities, it's still very good value. Can't multi-task That is disappointing but is just an inconvenience and relative to the device, so see the "crappy" points above. So, overall, when you take out the cost of it as a phone, and consider what it can do (rather than just what it can't do) including where it can duplicate or replace your desktop, then I think it is a great computer at a decent price.

PS What I like about pre-paid is if I don't use it, it doesn't cost me. And if I use it a lot, I have the option of upgrading my pre-paid deal or, if need be, going on a contract.

Well, I didn't need to get cold feet after all. Though I could been a bit bolder in my predictions. @chaos_disorder, so now we know how they'll do Firewire. Rejig the whole thing. Surprising on a design that's only 9mths old.

Actually, the one that really makes me laugh is sms forwarding. On the iPhone website it says "You can even forward one or more messages to others." Wow! I mean, wow! I mean, now that's revolutionary. Like, other phones have only had that feature for 20 years...

I'm thinking I'm going to be wrong about MacBooks in the keynote because no one us rumoring this. And rumors of Steve hosting a media event on his rerurn in late June could also be when the inevitable MacBook updates get announced.