You want to buy yourself a laptop, but what type should it be: an Apple macbook or notebook pc that has a Windows operating system?

In the next lines we will present to the cons and pros for each one so that you will the best choice for you.

There are many myths surrounding both of them and the first myth is that a macbook is not able to do the things a notebook pc can. Well this is not entirely true, because nowadays macbooks can support almost the same application as notebooks can. Let’s take, for example, Microsoft Office, this software can be used on a notebook but also on a macbook. Thanks to the Intel Core Duo or Intel Core 2 Duo processor you can find on a macbook, you can use your favorite applications on your macbook. Some voices say that the macbooks have an operating system that is more intuitive than notebooks operating system and because of this feature macbooks are easy to use and more intuitive while notebooks are less intuitive and have a complicated way to work. This aspect is a matter choice because not everyone is looking for an intuitive computer and some of you like a challenge. If you like a challenge and you don’t like an intuitive environment than you should have a notebook pc.

The operating systems are very different. The macbooks operating system comes with everything your computer needs to work well: all the basic applications are already installed so you don’t have to install them, the web camera is installed that means when you fist turn on your macbook you can chat online with your friends. At notebooks is not that easy, you have to install a lot of divers for a lot of application if you want your computer to work: the hard drive software, the webcam’s software, software for the wireless recognition (if you want to have a wireless connections to the Internet) and many more.

The macbook are save form the Internet viruses while notebook pc’s aren’t. If you want to be safe while browsing the Internet and you have a notebook you have to find an antivirus software and install it on your computer, but sometimes even this antivirus won’t keep your notebook safe from the malware aimed at it.



Both computes use the same universal file formats: MP3, PDF, AVI, WAV etc. and by using similar programs we can say that they work in the same way at this aspect. The price between them is not the same; the notebook pc’s cost more than macbooks even if they have the same features, applications and can do the same things like surf the Internet, basic business functions and more. But if you want to write a document on Microsoft Word or to open a PDF file you should buy the software because notebooks don’t come with these applications and a lot more.

Buying a macbook or a notebook is a matter of choice because both support a lot of new applications and new technologies. The notebook pc is a lot easier to use than a macbook but the macbook has a better operating system than the notebook has.

The macbooks and pc’s market in a free one in terms of design, software and hardware, so if you want to buy a macbooks you have the possibility to choose what type of software will be in it, what kind of hardware, you can choose the display, the memory, the brand and the design. Apple doesn’t allow you to do that and you only have a few options to choose from when you want to buy a macbook.

The Mac is based on Darwin, NetBSB and FreeBSD which makes the macbooks user-friendly and a lot more flexible than the notebook.



At aesthetics department many of you tend to believe that macbooks win, because they are more appealing than notebooks and have a great look. If you search the market you will find a lot of notebooks that look better than the macbooks, let’s take for example Sony Vaio Nebula, Ailenware or Dell Latitude Z, all of these notebooks look great.

At software upgrades the macbooks win because the Apple OS software upgrades are a lot cheaper than the software upgrades on notebooks and Windows.

The notebook pc’s have a life time of about 5 years and in this 5 years the costs of the software you are going to use will add up over time but when you buy it, you can buy it with a lot less money than a macbook. For example the cheapest macbook an Apple Store is $999 but not anyone can afford it and if you don’t have that money you can always buy a notebook that will cost you around $500.



Macbook vs notebook pc’s are a matter of debate and they will be for a long time even if they got closer and closer in matter of the applications they have and support, the hardware they use, the design and the cost of them. The only think that separates them a lot is their operating systems that are very different and will continue to stay this way.

Doesn’t matter what type of laptop (macbook or notebook) you buy, if you get one that will be able to help you a lot with your job or your hobbies. The most important thing for a laptop is to be able to do the things which it was programmed to do.

This is a quick reference guide for your iPod mini to help you discovering the options and the features of this iPod.

The first thing you have to do after you buy an iPod is to install the software from your iPod CD; this installation will help you import songs from your computer or from your CDs to your iPod. The CD will install iTunes software from Apple and this is the only way you can import tracks into your iPod.

Let us start with the buttons; iPod mini has the following buttons: Menu button, Hold switch, Previous/Rewind button, Click Wheel, Select button, Play/Pause button and Next/Fast-forward button. It has also a Dock connector port, Headphones port and iPod Remote port.

The Click Wheel and the Select button are used if you want search through songs, to play them, to change settings, to navigate through onscreen menus and to see information.

If you want to skip to the next song you have to press the Next/Fast-Forward button. If you want to listen to the previous song you have to press twice the Previous/Rewind button. The iPod mini allow you to skip into any point of a song, to do that you have to press the Select button from the Now Playing screen and then scroll to the point to want in the track. You have to press the Previous/Rewind button if you want to play again a song. To rewind or to fast/forward a song to have to press and hold the Previous/Rewind button or the Next/Fast-Forward button depending on what you want to do.

iPod mini can play songs in a random order, if you want to shuffle the tracks all you have to do is to select from the main menu the option Shuffle Songs. If you have a lot of favorite songs and you want to listen to them over and over, iPod mini has the possibility to do that. From the main menu select the Setting option and you will see 2 options: to repeat all songs in the list or to repeat a song over and over. The first option is going to play all the songs again and the second option only one song.

Its annoying when a song is lauder than the previous one (this happens because they wore recorded to different types of volume) and you can set iTunes to adjust the volume to all the songs in your iPod. To do that you have to open the Edit menu and select the Preferences option if you are using a Windows operating system or open iTunes and the Preferences option is you have a Mac. Select the Click Effect option and then click on the Sound Check option.

The iPod mini turns on by pressing any button. If you want to select an item from the menu you have to press the Select button and if you want to go back to the previous menu you have to press Menu found on the Click Wheel. If you want to turn off or on the backlight you have to select the option Backlight from the main menu or press and hold Menu. You can set the Hold switch to Hold if you don’t want to press any buttons accidentally on your iPod mini.

The iPod mini gives you the possibility to listen to the songs you want in the order you want. This feature of the iPod mini is called On-The-Go playlist, to do this type of playlist fist you have to highlight the song you want and to hold and press the Select button until you see the title of the song flashes. The iPod mini will play the tracks in the order you select them and to view the playlist to have created you have to go to Select Music > Playlist and select On-The-Go. It you are happy with the playlist you have created and you want to listen to it, you have to follow the same step as above but when you see the On-The-Go playlist you have to select a song.  You can delete songs from the playlist by highlight them and by holding down the Select button until you see the track flashing. If you want to make a new playlist and you want to delete the existing one from the On-The-Go menu you have to select Clear Playlist option.

For your iPod mini to work in the right way you have to connect it to your computer only in a USB 2.0 port or to its Dock. The iPod will recharge from the USB port and when you are transferring music from your computer to iPod you will se the message “Do not disconnect”, this message will disappear after the transfer is complete. Do not disconnect your iPod if you see that message.

iPod mini is your favorite mp3 player and you have to take good car of it. You can clean the outside but also the inside of your iPod mini. To do this you have to use a soft sloth and a lint-free one. Do not try to use alcohol, solvents, aerosol sprays or abrasives when you are cleaning it.

We hope that this quick reference guide will help you understand better how your iPod mini works and now you know how to use it in a safe way, to make playlsit, to delete them and to enjoy it better.

If you have problems with your iPod Mini you will find the answers in the following lines. Most of your iPod mini troubles can be solved by resetting the device. To reset it you have to toggle the Hold switch off and on. The next step is to hold and press the Menu and the Select buttons for 6 seconds and your iPod mini will be restarted.

If your iPod mini troubles continue and the device doesn’t want to responds or won’t turn on, you have to keep the Hold switch off. The next step is to restart again your iPod mini or to connect it to your personal computer because the problem may be the battery and it needs to be recharged.

You synced in iPod mini your favorite songs, the transfer is complete, and you want to disconnect it but the iPod has the message “Do Not Disconnect”. You have to go at the iTunes Source list and select iPod mini from the list and then click on the Eject button. After you did this you will se that the iPod mini will disappear from iTunes Source list and you can disconnect it even the message “Do Not Disconnect” in still on your iPod’s screen. If you saw that iPod mini didn’t disappeared from iTunes Source list and you are using a Microsoft Window PC, you have to click on the Safely Remove Button from the right down side of your computer display and select the iPod mini. If you are using a Mac you have to drag your iPod mini icon (you will see in on the desktop) to Trash.

If you imported the songs you want, but iPod mini isn’t playing music you have to follow the next step to solve the problem: the Hold switch must be in Off position. If you are using the remote you have to see that the Hold switch from the remote is Off. The next step is to look at the headphones connector and to see if it is pushed all the way and look at the volume if it is adjusted properly (you may have it on Mute). If your iPod Mini still doesn’t work you have to push the Pause/Play button (the iPod may be in pause mode). If you are using the Dock and the iPod isn’t playing music, you have to look at all the cable and make sure that they are connected properly and the iPod stays correct in the Dock.



When you connect your iPod mini to your computer, iTunes should open and the connection between iTunes and iPod would have to be automatically. If this doesn’t happens you have to open iTunes manually and to search for your iPod mini in the iTunes Source list. If the iPod appears in the iTunes Source list the problem in solved, but if doesn’t appear make sure that the software is installed correctly from your iPod CD.  If the software works and you can’t see your iPod, reset it. The solution for this iPod mini trouble can be as easy as looking if the cable is connected correctly and if it is orientated correctly.

Look at your iPod battery, if it is low on power once you connect to the USB port, your iPod mini will charge for about 30 minutes and you can’t use it in the mean time. Wait for the iPod to be charge and then try to use it. If your iPod still doesn’t work you may have a problem with your computer, restart the computer and try again.

If you on your iPod screen a folder with an exclamation point you have to reset the iPod or charge it. Be sure you only connect it to USB 2.0 ports because it works only on them, and if you connected to other ports, for example USB 1.1 will not work correctly. If it doesn’t work you may have to update the software. We will talk about this in the next lines.

If you set by accident the screen contrast to dark or to light you can bring your iPod mini to its default setting by pressing the Menu button for 4 seconds.

To restore or to update the iPod mini software you have to follow the next steps. The update and the restore software are 2 different options: by restoring the software all the data on your iPod is going to be deleted (photos, songs, contact, files or calendar information) and by updating the software all data, songs and setting are goring to stay the same.



To update your iPod mini to the latest software you have to go at www.apple.com/support/ipod and from there you have to download the software. The software is easy is easy to install, just follow the instruction on the screen and the software will do the rest. After the installation is complete you have to open iTunes and connect your iPod mini to the computer. The update application will open automatically and, so the update is complete.

To restore the iPod mini you will find the application on iPod CD and if you installed the CD you will find the application in Star > All programs > iPod if you are using a Windows PC and in Applications > Utilities > iPod software Updater if you are using a Mac. The steps are the same as in updating the software.

Now you know all about the problems an iPod mini can have and the ways to solve them.

The smartphone form Apple amazed everyone with its application, state-of-the art technology and looks. The newest spartphone from Apple is iPhone 3GS, this is the fastest iPhone until now. The brand new software integrated makes it 2x faster then the iPhone 3G, this means that iPhone 3GS gives you the possibility to see e-mail attachments very fast, it launches the applications faster and opens the web pages very quick.

iPhone 3GS uses the most advanced browser for mobile phones called Safari. iPhone gives you the possibility to have a large view form websites by rotating it 90 degrees and the websites rotate with the iPhone. iPhone 3GS is a small computer (small referring to the size of it, not to the functions) and the e-mail on iPhone is exactly like the one or your personal computer. The smartphone works with: Yahoo! Mail, MobileMe, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail. The e-mail feature allows you to see PDFs, images or Microsoft Office Documents is their original format. You can search the e-mail by sender, recipient or sender and if you get an e-mail with a phone number all you have to do is to tap it to make a call.



iPhone 3GS has a 3.0 megapixel camera, you can switch from video to photo or the other way around just by tapping the camera toggle. You can record in portrait or landscape and trim a video (when you see the video you have taken tap the screen and then you will see the controls; then drag the end frame viewer to the top of the video and tap trim). You can send the videos or the photos you made on YouTube or sync them into iTunes and then to your computer.

The images you made can be turned into wallpaper and can be edited with many applications iPhone 3GS has to offer. You can sync the photos back to your computer via iTunes, you can e-mail them to your friend, or send them via MMS. The camera has built-in a macro lens that is able to take high quality close-ups.



The Voice Control application is very easy to use, just hold and press the Home button to activate it. The Voice Control is able to recognize the names in your phone and the tracks. You have the possibility to say a number or a name and the iPhone 3GS will call that person. You can tell your iPhone to play more songs that match the song you are listening, to one of the music albums you have or to say what track is playing.

iPhone 3GS has an onscreen keyboard which helps you to type messages, to send e-mail or the browse the Internet. It has a built-in dictionary and the keyboard has the ability to learn words as you type, to correct spelling, insert punctuation and suggest words. The keyboard enlarges all the keys when you type so you can get a visual feedback.

The built-in digital compass can tell iPhone users which way they are facing. The GPS helps you to find what type of buildings to search from, for example a theatre or a coffee and to find your way to them with a bus, on foot or train. If you are with your personal car and you want to get somewhere fat, iPhone can help you because it is able to show you traffic information. The Maps application can show you street view, satellite view and hybrid view of your location.



iPhone 3GS has a smart application that can help you search and find anything on it; you can play a song, search for an album, songs titles, artists, go to a calendar even (search an event by location, attendees and subject) or a contact.

iPhone 3GS gives you the possibility to record your class lectures, your meetings, notes or ideas and then you can edit them and send them via e-mail.

iPhone has a lot of applications for you, the best place to keep them in on the Main Home Screen. You can make up to 11 Home Screens that can keep up to 159 applications.

The WiFi and Bluetooth wireless technology can help you listen to your favorite music wirelessly and connect to the Internet in any place that has a wireless internet connection.

iPhone 3GS has 2 type of calculators: scientific and basic.



The sensor technology allows your iPhone 3GS to save power when you lift it to the ear by turning of the display; this technology also dims the display if you are in a darker place and brightens it if you are in a bright place.

The accelerometer technology allows your iPhone 3GS to respond to your movement. This technology gives you amazing game control and makes your iPhone to change the display when you move it from portrait to landscape.

The Global Positioning System built-in the iPhone is able to find the closest satellite to give you information quickly.

You can find the iPhone 3GS in two colors: black or white and with a flash drive capacity of 16 GB or 32GB. It supports the following file formats:MP3, MP3 VBR, Apple Lossless, WAV, AIFF, AAC, Audible and Protected AAC.



The battery is lithium-ion, and if your iPhone is in standby you have 300 hours battery, if you listen to music up to 30 hours battery and if you watch video files the battery can last about 10 hours. In internet use the battery will last 9 hours on WiFi and 5 hours on 3G.

This is iPod 3GS the latest gadget from Apple and at a price starting at $199 is a lot of technology for a small cost.

The iPod is a mp3 player design by Apple that comes is many sizes and many shapes. It can be found from 1GB memory and up to 160GB memory. You can use an iPod to play music, but also to view photos, store documents, view music or if you want you can use it as an alarm clock.

iPod uses a hard disk for storage and the iPod shuffle uses flash memory that is a lot faster than the regular computer memory. The information from the iPod is transferred from the pc to the iPod with the help of a USB cable.

The iPod has integrated in it iTunes so you don't have to install it. When you connect your iPod to your computer you will se that iTunes will automatically update the music library, it can also add new playlists a new tracks to the iPod. The iPod can play AAC music files, this format has the same quality as the mp3 files have, but is a lot smaller so you can have a more songs in AAC format than in mp3 format. iTunes is able to convert audio mp3 files in AAC files if you don't have the software to do it. The iPod has a memory cache this means that the iPod doesn't have moving or mechanical parts; therefore it is not affected by the movement.

The iPod, as a digital music player, has an embedded processor built-in it. This uses codes to convert the music. The player plays the songs with the help of a lot of codecs.

iPod works also with a lot of software programs that help it users to connect it to the personal computers, to catalog and organize the music, to play audiobooks or movies, the ability to repeat the music, to shuffle the music, to pause and play.

Has an audio port for your headphones or your speakers and has also a power source.

The mp3 music files are also recognized as 1's and 0's, so for you to hear the music, it has to be digitally converted in to your iPod. The iPod has a big capacity of loading a lot of music and songs, with a lot of format files, like: WAV, AAC, Audible 2, 3, 4 and Apple Lossless. You can't find this loading capacity on your CD's or DVD's, because iPod uses the latest technology in storage and with the help of AAC format; the iPod is able to store a great number of music files, movies or audiobooks.

The iPod has the capability of decoding and coding a lot of files, efficient and fast with a lot of codesc that can be found in it. It has built-in a digital audio chip or DAC. This digital audio chip is able to convert the all the digital music in a high quality sound for the consumers.

Some of the iPod's components are: the click wheel, battery and hardware storage, the last one it has less than 2 inches in size. The battery is a 3.7 volt battery, it is rechargeable and it can be used up to 500 rechargeable cycles.

Everyone knows the click wheel; it is one of the popular features of iPod. The click wheel allows users to explore, play programs and browse the Internet. This iPod feature is operated by the user's fingers. Beside the click wheel, iPod has also 4 buttons for different functions: backward function, forward function, play/pause function and open function.

iPod gives its users two possibilities for loading, saving or transferring movies, songs, other video or audio file. The first possibility is to download them directly from iTunes and the second one is to connect the iPod to your personal computer and then transfer the files you want from the computer to the iPod. You should know that the iPod can't be connected to every computer; it can just be connect to the computer where you installed iTunes application.

iPod shuffle doesn't have a display so you must use the circular control pad to rewind, fast forward, pause or start the music. The iPod shuffle gives to its users the possibility to choose between shuffle playback and regular playback. If you choose the regular playback you will see that the tracks will be played in the order they were downloaded from iTunes. For the shuffle option the iPod is using an internal algorithm that plays the songs in a random order.

iPod Nano is different from the iPod shuffle because it has a display screen and its users can view video files. To hear the song you want from your iPod, the player amplifies the analog signal and this amplification allows you to hear the song. iPod Nano has a hard drive that weighs only 42g and it has also a 38 mm diagonal screen.

iPod players are extraordinary mp3 players and more than that. An iPod can fit in his memory many hours of music when a normal audio CD can only fit 80 minutes of music.

It is the best player you can find on the market and you have a lot to choose from relating to memory size, options, features, what type of file formats can play: audio, video or both of them. You have the possibility to choose between iPod Classic, iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano or iPod Touch.

No matter what type of iPod you will choose, you will understand it better because now you know how it works.