New superdrive TiBook - Nokia? or only t68i?, and DVDs, and Grounding (earth)

[Paul Watkins]

I am shortly to be delivered a new g4 powerbook – with no IR connection.

1	I am switching from a vaio which I have been using with nokia phones on
the IR connection.

I have cable access from home and the office, but my job entails a lot of
travel, and I’d like to be able to check emails when eg on the train. I am
in Europe, on vodafone unless roaming on the continent. I'm looking at
getting a new phone

I don’t need hi-speed internet access.

It seems that with the pb I shall be restricted to bluetooth to allow me to
connect to the web on my travels. I’ve seen lots of mails/articles about how
the Sony ericsson T68i works well with the pb. There are a number which
mention nokia phones, mainly with questions, but they dry up about 6 months
ago.

I saw in one of the magazines, mac-user, I think, a comparison of the
various phones. The Nokia 6310i, I think, came out tops. However, the
article did not mention at all the main mac-related use for me, which is
sipmply to dial-up for internet access. It did talk about GPRS, or whatever
it is, but my company won't pay for that.

I am used to nokias, and I like:
1-	the predictive text SMS facility, (the magazine said that the T68 also
had that?)
2- the fact that everyone I know in the UK has a charger for the nokia – and
many pubs even have a free charger set up on the bar – handy for when I
forget to charge,
3- the fact it syncronises with my address book and calendar in Microsoft
outlook (However I am switching to apple mainly because I am fed up with the
Microsoft software)

I primarily want a phone which will get me a connection so I can use a web
browser to check for email, or download it with something like Eudora.

Sicondly I want it to syncronise with the calendar and address book on the
pb. I think the T68 does one or the other. If I take the NOkia, I can get my
address book out of my shortly to be defunct pc, so won't need to worry
about importing the whole list from the mac.

Am I limited to the T68, or are there any Nokias which may (now, not in 6
months time) do the job?

2	I naturally want it to be DVD region free, but am not sure as to what
stage the machine gets locked- is it the 5th DVD, or is it the 5th switch
from European to US?
And secondly, do the previous firmware versions allow you to switch after it
has become locked, or must they be installed before the 5th DVD or switch?

3	In my impatience I looked up some stuff about the powerbookon the apple
site, and it says that if your mains cable has an earth supplied, then you
should use it. Being in the UK, mine will have an earth supplied. However
much of my work is in Europe, and every other appliance I have takes a
figure 8 2-pin plug  which can be connected in the UK and Europe. Is apple
basically advising me not to use the pb in Europe? Do I have to get a
European mains adaptor, as well as the UK one? Or should I just ignore that
comment?


Thanks in advance
Cheers
Paul