Big Beautiful Wonderful priced laptop

By Daniel G. Lebryk

This is my second Toshiba laptop. Number one is around 4 years old and still works well.

This review is more about the A355 chassis, than this exact spec laptop, and should apply to just about every one of the laptops in this series whether they run AMD or Intel chips.

The first view is that the materials are just plain flat out gorgeous. From the shiny exterior, to the semi rounded base, the two large chrome mouse buttons, the nicely integrated Harmon Kardon speakers, the illuminated touch areas, the big beautiful monitor, and those shiny keys. Yes this is one very pretty computer.

Under that pretty hood are some interesting specs. It used to be incredibly rare to see an eSATA port on any computer, let alone a laptop. Well this one has exactly that - an eSATA port that doubles as a USB port. Nice option to hook up external hard drives. It also includes an iLink, Firewire, or IEEE-1394 port - an incredible rarity (even Apple dropped this port). The audio ports and volume control are on the front, nicely placed. There's absolutely no ports on the rear. There's also an express card slot (not a PCMCIA slot, but EXPRESS card slot) and a multi flash memory card reader (they've dropped CF from the list). It does not include Bluetooth - a very strange omission since every single bluetooth adapter uses the Toshiba stack to run. Use either of these adapters, they work perfectly: IOGear GBU421 Bluetooth 2.0 USB Micro Adapter or Cirago BTA3210 Class 2 Micro Bluetooth Adapter (Black Tip) - both are outstanding miniscule adapters.


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Buy this laptop

Just Joke

A Singaporean was on holiday in Malaysia ..
He was having his coffee, croissant, bread, butter &
jam at the hotel's coffee house.
A Malaysian man who was chewing gum, sat down next to him
& started a casual conversation.
Malaysian : 'You Singaporeans eat the whole bread?'

Singaporean : 'Of course.'
Malaysian : 'We don't. In Malaysia , we only eat
what's inside. The crusts we collect in a container,
recycle it, transform them into croissants & sell them
across to Singapore .'
The Malaysian then had a smirk on his face while the
Singaporean listened in silence.
Malaysian : 'Do you eat the jam with the bread?'
Singaporean : 'Of course.'
Malaysian (chuckling): 'We don't. In Malaysia , we
eat fresh fruit for breakfast, then we put all the peels,
seeds & other left-overs in a container, recycle them,
transform them into jam, before we sell it across to
Singapore .'
This time, the Singaporean retorted : 'Do you have sex
in Malaysia ?'
Malaysian : 'Why, of course we do'
Singaporean : 'Do you wear protection'
Malaysian : 'Of course! We wear condoms.'
Singaporean : 'And what do you do with the condoms once
you've used them?'
Malaysian : 'Stupid question ! Of course we throw them
away.'
Singaporean : 'We don't. In Singapore , the
government secretly puts them in a container, recycle them,
melt them down into chewing gum & sell them across to
Malaysia ,... & that's the real reason why we
banned chewing gum in Singapore .'

Great new offering from Panasonic,.......

By R. Reuben (San Francisco Bay Area, CA United States)

If you are anything like me when trying to decide on which flat screen TV to buy, let me just say that you will not go wrong by choosing this 46" Panasonic plasma TV. I spent several days and multiple trips to electronic stores before getting this one. I have had the TV for nearly a month now and here's what I think:

Pros:
1. Fantastic contrast ratio - sometimes can even get too dark for my liking! (level of contrast can be adjusted via menu options)
2. Very handy 15 pin PC connection (I use this very often to view online movies and documentaries)
3. Very good color rendering. False contouring is minimal and typically only with weaker/lower res. signals
4. Sound is awesome! There appears to be 3 channels/speakers at the bottom of the piece. You have the ability to have surround capability (I do not have a home theater sound system connected).
5. Pixelation during fast motion very minimal (typical for the plasma)
6. Very good inbuilt tuner. I use it to get the off-the-air HD channels, great quality
7. Very good form factor - looks that will please most
8. Wide sturdy base

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Buy this Panasonic Viera TH-46PZ85U 46-Inch

Good, , for htib

By someguy - See all my reviews
NOTE: I HAVE ADDED ADDENDUMS TO THIS REVIEW, MAKE SURE AND READ THE COMMENTS
A search of the internet will quickly reveal many in the audiophile community bashing "home theater in a box" (htib) systems like this, and many of their entirely valid criticisms of such systems apply to this unit, but it has a lot of redeeming qualities too that make me overall convinced that this is a good buy for anyone whose needs match what it provides. Also it is a pretty high end htib so the sound quality will exceed what many would expect. A quick word on settings: This unit comes with a number of effects such as surround enhancement and some pre set EQ settings. Don't use them. Maybe turn down the sub a bit and turn up the center channel, but your goal with movies is to ACCURATELY reproduce the sound as it was intended to be heard. Keep everything flat and you will hear how the movie was meant to sound. That's how I know this is a quality htib: It sounds good with everything flat)

This is a good system for what it is, namely a way to get both blu-ray and 5.1 surround in one convenient and affordable package. The rear speakers are wireless, as in there is a second amp that connects wirelessly to the main amp so you don't have to run cables from the front to back of the room although you do have to run cables from the second amp to the rear speakers. The rears are very light and thus easy to mount on the wall, and I don't worry about that lack of weight too much because surrounds really don't need much power as they just add effects. The fronts and center are much beefier and are two-ways with what appears to be real crossovers so that's pretty good for a home theater in a box. The subwoofer is (unfortunately) passive but its driver is bamboo so I don't think it has the paper-driver problems of other htibs. It seems to cross over at a decent point as the bass stays properly nondirectional. All in all, in my fairly small room it sounds really great for me, and it's pretty cool how it has all the latest surround decoders including Dolby trueHD and DTS HD.


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Buy this Panasonic SC-BT100

Beautiful TV! From the picture to the bezel, just perfect,....

By Scomel (Greensboro, NC)

I've had this TV since very early March. I've watched HD, SD and Blu-Ray and can not find a flaw. The 650 handles motion extremely well to where blurring and other artifacts are vitually non-existant. The AMP is a very cool feature that brings a realism to film making it seem more life-like, or as if it were originally shot on HD Video. Some have said this gives off a "soap opera" effect. I can see that description, but to me it makes film based DVD's and movies look more like your watching a real-life play, viewing it through a window. It's a very cool effect!

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Buy this Beautiful TV