That is the one thing I have noticed since scouring the net and asking everyone and anyone in the know their opinions on who makes the most well put together laptop. It seems that many folks are extreemely loyal to one particular product or brandname, but one brandname doesn't seem to be conclusive over the other. The Imac sure has its very loyal following, as well as Dell and Toshiba and, another brand rapidly picking up steem is HP, especially their DV6000 and DV9000 lines. I am beginning to conclude that at this point, figure out exactly how much of a laptop you need and can afford, paying particular attention to Size of Hard Drive, How much Memory (RAM), and third, how much graphics card, and lastly and most important, the CPU. I have concluded that the duel core processor is important, as it is essentially two processors stapped together, and the OS uses one for certain functions and the other for certain functions, and most importantly, only one is being used and powered when both are not needed, saving battery power and overall electric consumption. Another rule of thumb, to save money, get the base core duo (1.60GHz, I believe), and skip the upgrade on the CPU and get 2G's of RAM, as your CPU runs out of cache space for storage, it will draw from Ram, and adding RAM is much cheaper than adding a high end CPU. Bottom line, I'm waiting for some hot sales. Another thing to think about is size, and yeah, folks, size does matter... Most of the 17" models that I've tried out in the stores just seem too damn big and heavy, especially if your going to use the thing as a LAP top... it's just too damn big for my lap, and I have a big lap at that... the 12" is just too small, especialy for viewing movies, etc. That's the one thing that turned me off from the DELL XPS 1200... hot looking little machine... just too small. 14-15" seems just right for my taste. It seems to me that all these machines (Toshiba, Dell, HP and many others) are all beginning to become clones of one another. Seems they are are made in China nowadays, and no one has yet to convince me overwhelmingly that one is better than the other...

Thought I would come back and update. Well, in the end, I decided to go with the Apple. :-) There were so many reasons I wanted to get one and quite a few reasons I didn't want to get another windows machine. Two of the issues that were keeping me from getting the Apple resolved at the last minute and I was very happy to see no obstacles to getting it. I have had a MacBookPro for two weeks now and loving it! Almost have everything moved over from the old computer and Monday got the new printer installed and connected. Tech support has been great as expected. There have been some issues with changing over from the windows system to the Mac. I was using MS Works on the old Dell and converting those to iWorks was not straightforward although in the end most of that is done. Going from MS Office is easier. Changing over from Windows Media Player to iTunes...if you are importing your music to WMPlayer in the wma format, well, come to find out it is a proprietary format to Windows and it is not easy to switch over to mp3 that will allow the iTunes to play it. I had to convert 800 songs to mp3 before moving it to the Apple which was not so great. Time consuming. Had to download four programs on Tuesday and only one of them actually made the conversion. Plus converting the files does lower the quality some. So, I am planning on getting as much off of CDs to replace them as I can, but they are fine for the time being. Just for your information, you can set your WindowsMediaPlayer to import into it in the mp3 format and that will make your life so much easier if/when you want to move them or use another player. Photos were a breeze to move and using iPhoto is just a treat! Such an improvement over my previous photo software for organizing photos. I have never used Photoshop software, so maybe that is as good at organizing as the iPhoto? I do plan on trying photoshop at some point. So that's my story. :-) Jane, I hope you have made the change over to whatever you liked the most and have a new machine that you are happy with. :-)

Jess, I would make sure the mapping software you want to use will work on the Zire31. The screen on that model is 160x160 -- not high-resolution -- which either will make maps harder to view or may make it impossible to install the software. You may not know that Pa1mOne just introduced a Tungsten E2. The key improvement over the E is Bluetooth networking built-in. The E2 also can use a Palm card to connect to Wi-Fi networks (the E cannot), but the price of an E2 and the Wi-Fi card is really close to other, better Palms. That aside, unless you know you're ready to use the Bluetooth, I think you'll be happier with a Tungsten E. The E was one of the most popular PDAs Pa1mOne ever made, so there are likely to be numerically-higher numbers of unhappy customers. While the E does not have the Tungsten "universal" connector, it is decently supported with peripherals like keyboards and all kinds of cases and sync cables and such. Finally, one way to try out a Palm without paying top dollar is to look at the Factory Outlet on their Web site. I purchased my Tungsten C open-box and I was hard-pressed to find out why it wasn't considered "new in box" -- at a much lower price than a regular C would cost. Might want to check that out. The link is below. Here is a link that might be useful: Palm Factory Outlet

Then I would say go with a tablet that is more portable and easily can travel with you. We only take our tablets now when we travel in the RV. We can do everything we need to do on the tablets. Plus there is no worry about it over heating or getting hot like a laptop they don't have those problems. For the price you are wanting to spend it will probably be in the 7" range, you can find a 10" on sale sometimes. If you want to go with straight Android not a branded one like Amazon then I would look at the Asus Transformer or one of the smaller Asus tablets. The Amazon Fire is good but it is a branded version of Android so it is more limited than a regular Android, The books would be of course for the Kindle and from Amazon. But you can add the kindle reader to any Android tablet. Plus with regular Android you can add other reader programs and read any format of book not just kindle books. I would not get anything below Android 4.1 as far as the operating system goes. You can find several of the unknown brands around for much cheaper, some are fine some use cheaper products in them. Another alternative altogether is a tablet that runs windows. For example this one by HP which is on for $299 today at Woot. It is a factory reconditioned which does not bother me, I have bought several tablets that were factory reconditioned with no problems. And it does come with a 1yr factory warranty. HP ElitePad 900 10.1" Tablet, Intel Atom Z2760 1.8GHz, 128GB SSD, 2GB RAM, 802.11n, Bluetooth, Win8Pro 32-bit Asus Tablets at this link you can see various of the Asus tablets from 7" to 10" brand new and refurbished. Products ******Now this right here is a really really good deal on this 10" LG G Pad which is a quad core running the latest version of Android. Plus there is a code there for $20 off. This might be the deal of the day.And it is from newegg a very good place to do business. It is brand new, it has some very unique features and it also has IPS display excellent! It is a very good entry level first tablet, not as powerful and full bodied as some of the others but those others will be in the $400-500 or more range. For $229 this is a nice first tablet. LG G Pad 10.1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GB Memory 16GB eMMC 10.1" Touchscreen Tablet Android 4.4 (KitKat) LG G Pad In that same size/price category is the Acer Iconia with some decent specs for an entry level also. Acer Iconia 10.1" Tablet 32GB Quad Core samsung is also a good brand in tablets(maybe out of the price range). Google nexus is good The main things you need to look for in the specs is the resolution it should be at least 1280 x 600 or so higher is better. The version of Android it is running 4.1 or higher. The Ram memory and storage space plus the ability to add an additional sd card. 1-2 GB of RAM or higher. Usually 16 GB is the internal storage and most take up to a 32GB sd card. just let me know if I can help with anything. That LG is a sweet deal. I would go for ASUS, Samsung, Google, or the LG or Acer Iconia all very decent brands and offer nice options.