I'm sure there are people out there doing it, but have you guys ever tried to get your iPhones to do what the celebs get them to do in their ads? I've heard tell that at least Zooey and Sam's tasks are hard to duplicate.

I do not even get the Scorsese one--I'm just assuming it's an extended Taxi Driver riff and not supposed to imply any functionality of the software or hardware.

I know nothing, so I come here for advice.

I have too many computers. I want to sell them all and buy an ultralight laptop. It doesn't have to be a top-of-the-line machine. I don't play games or do intensive work with huge files. I want to surf the Web, download and watch movies, install iTunes and have it work, and mess around with my old version of Photoshop. That's it.

I have two tablets, two netbooks, an old Dell laptop, an ancient Toshiba Satellite, and an old desktop tower. I don't use any of them. I do everything on my work laptop, and that really needs to stop; I need a personal computer - one that I'll use - so I can get the personal stuff off the work computer.

Any recs?

What's wrong with the tablets and netbooks and laptop that you have--what do you want out of your new machine that you can't get out of those? That will help guide suggestions.

Rob--I forgot to mention--that charger reset for the Touchpad worked, and it's charging normally again. Is the assumption that I manhandled it in some way to misalign the connection? It's not something I usually even touch. The USB cable stays plugged in all the time, and I just attach or detach the other end from the device as required.

What's wrong with the tablets and netbooks and laptop that you have--what do you want out of your new machine that you can't get out of those? That will help guide suggestions.

The laptops I have are old and heavy. The netbooks are cool but the screens and keyboards are too small for regular use. The tablets are okay but they have several problems: It irritates me that they can't stand up on their own - if I have to carry around a separate stand, that defeats the idea of portability, to me. I don't like that the screen is exposed; a protective sleeve is again just something else to carry around. The virtual keyboard is easy enough to use but still hard to type on when the screen is vertical. Mine are a Touchpad I got in HP's firesale, and an Acer. They just don't seem to *work* very well. The problems are probably fixable, but I'm not invested enough in the machines to want to invest the time to figure it out.

So. I want a laptop, for the horizontal keyboard and vertical screen, at least a 13-inch screen, light enough to carry in a totebag without giving myself a backache, with enough battery life to last a day (or a cross-country flight) of watching movies or Websurfing. I don't want it to be stuffed with apps that I have to keep that I don't want; I don't want to be managing the machine's function. I'm used to the PC platform, and I need something that's simple to use; a steep learning curve will result in me throwing it under the couch and forgetting about it. Price, under $1000.

Any advice is appreciated!

I have no notion why Touchpad charging might go awry. I was gone from Palm/HP for a while before they started work on that.

Zenkitty,

I'm a Toshiba fan, so here are a couple ideas:

Do you recall that you gave me a demo of your new netbook at the Providence F2F? That showed me that I prefer a larger keyboard, so when I bought a travel laptop for my trip to Europe that August, I bought a 13" Toshiba. This is the current version of that model. Mine is still going strong, and I like it a lot.

Here is something similar.

dcp, yes! I've come to agree with you that it's too small. I need it for travel too; I'm planning on taking it to the UK this fall. Thanks for the recs! I like Toshiba too, that was on my short list already. How heavy are they?

Mine is 3.2 lbs. The ones I linked to above are a little larger, and weigh about 4.3 lbs.

I adore my 11" MacBook Air, but that only really works if you're a Mac person.