MacBook® All-in-One For Dummies®

Introduction

Do you feel it, too? The lure of freedom? The open road?

Since the early days of the so-called "portable" computer — which was easily the size of a modern carry-on suitcase — some computer owners have lived the mobile lifestyle. Back then, a mobile computer was generally considered to be too expensive, with far fewer features than a desktop computer. Only those business travelers and on-site professionals that really needed a mobile computer would possibly buy one, and they'd pay top dollar for it. The mantra was simple: a real computer is tied to your desk; a portable computer is practically a toy.

Those portable computers were just the beginning, of course — today's laptops are easily carried to a coffee shop, a meeting room, or out in the middle of the ocean! (Just keep it below decks.) An Apple MacBook offers the same processing power, holds the same RAM, and has the same hard drive capacity as one of Apple's desktop iMac systems. A MacBook hums contentedly as you run Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Heck, you can even connect the same external devices and access the same networks as a desktop!

So now, the mantra has changed irrevocably from the old days: The important thing is to compute (and if you're in range of a wireless network, to communicate) wherever you want to work today! In fact, I've written a good chunk of this book from my backyard, using my MacBook Pro ...while flinging bread crumbs at our resident cardinals.

The book that you ...