So, I hope to be able to get a new laptop. Not a MAC. but reliable, with a decent quality webcam and microphone. Fast (not uber, but good), decent memory and processor, excellent screen graphics, not a lot of need to buy bells & whistles. I don't game on it, but I watch Netflix sometimes and make videos for my business.

I'm hoping to be able to save $500-$700, buy in early to mid spring.

I am collating suggestions. My current laptop is giving up the ghost in bits and pieces, and it's my livelihood.

No, we don't have a credit card.

Any thoughts appreciated!

Strix, there is a Micro Center near you and they often have good deals, including refurbs, on a variety of brands. Worth checking out from time to time.

My current Toshiba was around $700 and meets those requirements. I can't speak for the microphone and webcam, though.

I am a fan of Lenovo laptops - the Thinkpad and Essentials series particularly. They're not the prettiest laptops in the world, especially at the lower range of prices, but they are pretty reliable in my experience. I've had good luck with the webcam and microphone in mine. I've never used them for video editing, but spec wise they should be as good as anything else in the price range. We use them at our school, as they have good durability.

The Ideapad line is much prettier, but I can't speak to its durability or anything really.

Agree with both Toshiba and Lenovo.

I love my ThinkPad Edge and it was fairly inexpensive about $600 including the battery upgrade I got (I almost never used it plugged in). My wife has a Lenovo too and it's worked well, but it's a different model (and she uses hers almost always plugged in).

Anyone happen to be really handy with ArcGIS 10 for Desktop? I spent 12 years not using ESRI products and they went and moved my cheese. I could use a better quality refresher than the one in their help documentation.

The new Google tablet sounds really nice:

[link]

No conflict of interest with this one, it's not made by Motorola.

I'm a bit confused by some of that article.

In the top left corner is a drop-down list of notifications, and settings are in the top right. The new Android has a swipe-typing feature, so you can drag your finger around the on-screen keyboard to spell a word, only taking your finger off the screen between words.

When did notifications move top left? Mine are still bottom right. And the default Android keyboard is swipe-enabled? Mine isn't.

And my Jellybean doesn't have support for multiple users either--was I robbed?

Does Google ship with its own skin? And as an owner of a Galaxy Nexus phone, aren't I entitled?

Can anyone recommend a good program to convert PDF files to Word or Pages on a Mac? The one I have has left a lot of artifacts, including paragraph symbols at the end of every line on all 321 pages of the document I'm formatting as an e-book.

Thanks!