Jarvik7 Wrote:Broken DVD and only 2.5hr battery?

Your last sentence was sarcastic right?

After 4 years of use! Or should I say abuse, current stats:

20:28:20 up 24 days, 11:54, 3 users, load average: 1.26, 1.30, 1.30

That's more than 3 weeks not switching it off, when I go with it somewhere or sleep I just suspend it. I have worked on trains, buses, cars and even walking (movements sure not good for the HD), I have traveled like 10 countries with it.

Damn, I had an elevator fight (we even broke the elevator's mirror in the struggle) with it under my arm.

If it survived all that, it is great.
Batteries age, 4 years old battery giving 2.5 hours is great.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's only on the new aluminum (unibody) macbook and macbook pros.

It's not. Snow leopard gave support for the older ones two, including support for the 3 / 4 finger gestures. At least this is true for my generation (last generation before the Unibody).

The touchpad itself is a godsend and works so well I rarely use it with a mouse. Only for gaming do I really need one. The thing is light years ahead of the usual crappy touchpad installed on laptops.
Though for the kanji input on it.. I find it too inaccurate, it usually never gets which kanji I try to draw. Maybe this is better on the Unibody one's (with the bigger touchpad) though.

Rekkusu Wrote:

Ryuujin27 Wrote:It's only on the new aluminum (unibody) macbook and macbook pros.

It's not. Snow leopard gave support for the older ones two, including support for the 3 / 4 finger gestures. At least this is true for my generation (last generation before the Unibody).

The touchpad itself is a godsend and works so well I rarely use it with a mouse. Only for gaming do I really need one. The thing is light years ahead of the usual crappy touchpad installed on laptops.
Though for the kanji input on it.. I find it too inaccurate, it usually never gets which kanji I try to draw. Maybe this is better on the Unibody one's (with the bigger touchpad) though.

Huh, didn't know that.

But that problem must be with the older models. I've yet to have a problem with kanji writing on my laptop, except when the Chinese uses a different form than the Japanese do.

You can switch language on any version of Vista/7 if you just take 5 mins out of your day to use Vistalizor. http://www.froggie.sk/

I changed all 3 of my computers from English to Japanese. 1 was Vista Home, the other 2 we're Windows 7 Starter.

Real simple.

mezbup Wrote:You can switch language on any version of Vista/7 if you just take 5 mins out of your day to use Vistalizor. http://www.froggie.sk/

I changed all 3 of my computers from English to Japanese. 1 was Vista Home, the other 2 we're Windows 7 Starter.

Real simple.

Thanks a lot. Somebody else also recommened the Vistalizor to me and it seems it really works. Thanks a lot

Now, I only need to figure out which brand to go for, I guess

trusmis Wrote:Damn, I had an elevator fight (we even broke the elevator's mirror in the struggle) with it under my arm.

If it survived all that, it is great.
Batteries age, 4 years old battery giving 2.5 hours is great.

Wait a minute, you're just going to end the discussion of a fight on that? Come on, the last fight I was in involved a knife being pulled and that was over twelve years ago. So details, man, details. Was the laptop used as a weapon of offense or defense? That'll tell me if it's worth buying.

I'm glad you asked because I was going to and forgot. This is a story worth derailing a thread for, I think.

Vistalizator (http://www.froggie.sk/) is free and can be used to switch any version of Windows Vista and 7 to another language. In my experience (English to Japanese), it worked fine. You can then change the locale to English (or I guess German in your case) which should solve any compatibility issues.

Since your using Photoshop and are on a budget, I would recommend sticking with Windows since you would have to buy another license since they are OS-specific. Plus you have a friend who is knowledgeable about Windows and can help you which is a big plus.

As for the keyboard, as you've pointed out, you can buy stickers, change the input keyboard layout in Windows, and I honestly don't think the Japanese keyboard is all that different. You still get QWERTY and that's all that really matters.

gamelab Wrote:You still get QWERTY and that's all that really matters.

I'd need QWERTZ, though, as the Y and Z are switched on German keyboards and when using an English or Japanese keyboard I always end up confusing those two keys, it's really annoying *g*
Thanks a lot!!

If you are concerned about quality the current leader is Asus. They currently have the lowest notebook failure rate in the industry, Apple included.

I believe the Asus UL30VT series was rated as the best notebook of the year by several publications: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032FO...W01R8DWKTV

12hrs of battery life with a NVidia G210M GPU and a 1 year accidental damage warranty for only $800 is damn tough to beat.

Nukemarine Wrote:

trusmis Wrote:Damn, I had an elevator fight (we even broke the elevator's mirror in the struggle) with it under my arm.

If it survived all that, it is great.
Batteries age, 4 years old battery giving 2.5 hours is great.

Wait a minute, you're just going to end the discussion of a fight on that? Come on, the last fight I was in involved a knife being pulled and that was over twelve years ago. So details, man, details. Was the laptop used as a weapon of offense or defense? That'll tell me if it's worth buying.

It was like 3 years ago, it wasn't used either as defense or offense but the it was me who broke the mirror with the elbow when the guy threw me to it. As far as I recall it didn't received any direct impact and the fight continued outside the elevator once the doors opened (what from the point of view of the people waiting on the second floor, the door opens an two guys fighting appear) but I left the laptop on the floor.

Anyways as someone else said Asus are very good.
About software I can only but recommend Linux. Ubuntu is absurdly easy to install and use. You can set the language system to Japanese and get all your applications menus, etc. Translated to Japanese for extra AJATT or just setup the input system.

You know? Mac has a built in pop-up dictionary. Try control-command-D on the Japanese word you want to see the definition. I can't think of reading things without a pop-up dictionary anymore. I have a software called "better touch" and I can pull up the definitions with just a tap on the touch pad.

If you are using Windows, Lingoes is a good free software, though I don't know how legit it is...

activeaero Wrote:If you are concerned about quality the current leader is Asus. They currently have the lowest notebook failure rate in the industry, Apple included.

I believe the Asus UL30VT series was rated as the best notebook of the year by several publications: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0032FO...W01R8DWKTV

Wow, in Japan (Amazon Japan) it's only half the price (490$)! Well, in Japan that model is probably already considered as old XD
Thanks for the recommendation

If anybody else has similar recommendations, then please don't hold back, it will help me with my decision eventually

So, Fujitsu notebooks are extremely expensive even with the same hardware the price difference is too huge. For some reason I'm not really interested in HP, so I was only looking at Sony and Acer notebooks.

This new Acer Aspire notebook looks really promising and it seems to be quite popular in Japan right now (according to the reviews) - and it's cheaper than most other brands with the same hardware (why?):
http://kakaku.com/item/K0000105020/spec/

Another option would be this Vaio notebook. It seems to have the same hardware as the Acer, but is waaaay more expensive. Reviews seem to be quite good, though.
I like Sony's design better, but just because of that I wouldn't pay more money!:
http://kakaku.com/item/K0000062420/

I wouldn't mind paying more money if it's JUSTIFIED!
I'm also worried about the graphic card. My current laptop starts having trouble when I try to watch .avi files with a 1028x720 solution (sometimes!) .... o_o; ....

What do you think?

It's difficult to find any reviews that are not Japanese of the Acer one as it seems to be only available in Japan so far. I found some English sites writing about it, though and am currently reading all I can find

Try out a netbook OP. They don't have a lot of power (no 3D games) but they can do pretty much everything else. I for one have been extremely pleased with my Eee 1001p. It has an advertised battery life of 11 hours (I've yet to use the battery all the way. I have used it without charging on-and-off for almost 3 days one time) and ASUS includes lots of third party programs so you can still do some things left out from Windows 7 (like changing the background).

The only downside is that it doesn't have a CD drive, but it isn't hard to buy one. In my case, I networked the CD drive on my desktop to my netbook, so any CDs or DVDs I need to read I do it through the network.

Mighty little netbook is strong though to run even Photoshop CS2, albeit a little bit laggy for drawing. No problems with office software, anki, etc since they are low in graphic requirement. It can also play 720p movies with no issue.

Meanwhile I figured out that Japan seems to only have glare-type displays for laptops nowadays. I have no freaking clue why, though.
I HATE glare-type displays and am not willing to pay a lot of money for that kind of junk!!

Overseas they still sell at least the business notebooks with non-glare type displays!
I saw quite a few notebooks I would buy immediately in Germany. One is a Fujitsu Lifebook, another is a HP ProBook.

The problem is, how to get it here and then there's not international warranty.
A family member is coming to visit me in August, so it could be brought to me. Saves me trouble with the customs and no high shipping costs.

Completely lost. Have no clue what to do ATM.
While you have a huge variety of notebooks overseas, there's only a small selection here in Japan. WHY?! :/

I'm getting a free laptop from my fudousan when I sign my rental contract next month. If you're near Nagoya I can sell it to you cheap

I don't know the stats yet so I don't know how cheap though.

If it's a Japanese notebook, then it has a glare-type display, so no thank you
... *sigh* :/ But lucky you! *gg*

Even in the west your options for a non-glare display are extremely limited. Glossy displays look sexy in the store so it's what sells. It also costs less to manufacture.

You can buy cheap anti-glare films which have the added benefit of protecting your screen from scuffs from the keyboard when it's closed

I heard of those films, but of course I have no idea how it'll look in the end.
The mirror-effect will still be extreme, right? If you have a huge window close by or if you want to use your notebook outside you're doomed, no?

I don't understand the hype anyways. Glare-type displays suck (O__O'')

I use an anti-glare film on my macbookpro and there is 0 glare. It wasn't a cheap one though (~2000en). I've seen films at the 99yen store lately.

Actually if it works well, I wouldn't mind to pay 2000yen
Did you ever use your notebook outside with that film and did you have any problems?
It's not that I use my notebook outside often, but I HATE mirror-effects like WOAH!!! (not only on notebooks, but on TV screens as well XD)

I've never used my notebook outside (I have an iPhone for that), but I do generally use it with a large western facing window directly behind me, so a lot of sun comes in in the evening.

When they release an iPad with the camera on the screen side (for skype/video recording) and back side (for upsk^h^h^h^h scenic photography) then I'll get it. The benefits I'm seeing from a jailbroken iTouch (manga, books, dictionaries) would be amplified on a screen that won't destroy my vision.

Heck, be cool Apple. Make a camera that turns around. Is it that hard to design?

It's probably easier to just put two cameras on it than some sort of clumsy fragile rotating bit. It's a safe bet that the next iPad will have cameras.