Which college ? Some schools actually sell laptops at a discount and it'll have the programs they want the student to have. Sometimes looking around on their website you can gather that info. Laptop, Notebook - interchangeable - are used to describe the same thing by most people. Just pulled up three manufacturer websites to see which is proper; Toshiba, Dell calls em Laptops. HP calls em Notebooks. Weight is usually important to a student as he's going to be carring it around to some classes - and battery life I would imagine is quite important too. Some are lucky to run 3 hrs now, and others will go 8 hrs. I'd check with the school before rushing out and buying one to see if they have requirements.

dee_can if its under a year old you might call support and talk to them about that. Imagine you are still under warranter. Think if I had a hot laptop maybe the first thing I'd be looking in 'Task Manager for CPU percentage use to see if something is constantly using lots of CPU cycles. - Right click blank area on the bottom task bar and you'll see it, then 'Show for all users' followed by the 'Processes tab and click on the CPU heading a couple times to bring highest use to the top. You might look for a program that shows temps,, one of the popular freewares is called 'SiS' 'System Information for Windows' shows the temps in it. My Toshiba seems to mostly have a CPU temp of around 135-136F when just browsing around and a fan speed of 100 RPM which is its lowest & for sure quietest, cant hear anything. I can hardly feel air movement by the CPU vent, not even on my leg hairs like my last Toshiba used to occasionally cause that sudden bug crawling sensation.

Pam, I am trying to remember my initial cleanup / setup procedure on the Asus because it was well over a year ago but it was along these lines (bear in mind that I delete files/programmes and edit the registry to eliminate as much rubbish as possible - which I don't recommend others to do!): Turn off Windows auto updates to stop it jumping online before you are ready. First priority - remove Norton before you go online otherwise it will auto-install. I definitely downloaded Norton's Uninstall programme from their site using my desktop computer and a usb stick. I can't remember the order in which I did the cleanup but it included run uninstaller; delete all Norton, Symantec and Liveupdate files, folders and registry entries. Normal Second priority (not sure if these were on the Asus) - remove trial versions of MS Office 2007 / Works. Turn on Asus Windows Firewall. Using desktop computer, get latest AVG onto usb stick and install on Asus. Asus will go online but will be protected. Install all your usual security programmes. Turn off Windows Firewall once your own is running. Turn on Windows updates and choose which ones to install (e.g not IE8???). Install Firefox, Thunderbird and anything else you want - there is plenty of room. (I use my Asus as a truly portable photo storage and video editing tool so I rapidly fill up my hard drive.) Emails on more than one computer always pose questions about which is the best way to do everything - security, synchronising, duplicates, which copy is in the master file, etc. The Asus, being small and very attractive to thieves when travelling, poses even more questions because email is a direct route to all your personal details. Even if you are exceptionally careful then e.g. your Bank's name together with the account number etc. that they sent you using their secure email when you signed up will probably still be in there. Possibly the simplest/safest??? way with the Asus would be to use your ISP's webmail and only download essential emails onto the Asus and continue to use your desktop computer to store all of your emails as you do at present. I had forgotten that there is a card slot on the Asus! Don't forget to use the "Safely Remove" feature to avoid destroying the card (been there, done that - 3 times!). I haven't looked at your Asus spec but mine came with Open Office installed but, having used MS Office 2000 (not Windows 2000) for so long, I much prefer it but I had to buy an external CD/DVD drive to install it. Colin

We have an iPad and though I like it, if I'm going to do any amount of typing I'd rather use something with a keyboard. If I want something small and portable for internet, email, etc I prefer my iPhone since I can carry it anywhere in my pocket. The iPad is really DHs electronic newspaper reader so he can read all his papers online. He too prefers a keyboard for typing. It also has no DVD drive but I did buy some software that allows me to copy a DVD onto the iPad. Not sure what netbooks have in terms of a DVD drive - I think they also have no such drives. iPads also have no USB ports. We have a older compact desktop and an older big laptop. If I were going to get another computer right now I would consider a small laptop - like a net book size. Don't need one right now though so who knows what the latest technology will be by the time I do. Big plus of iPad compared to net books is much longer battery life.