That's actually kinda cute.

I paid $2400 for my current laptop and I get a whopping 45 minutes. It's also 8lbs.

This NEC looks brilliant. Maybe not uber-stylish, but it looks like it's ready to work, and that's all I need.

The hydraulic system is indeed very reminiscent of plants. With plants, the auxin hormone naturally builds up on the dark side of the plant, which increases the permeability of the cells so that it takes in more water and causes the cell to expand. This expansion on the dark side of the plant causes the plant to tilt into the direction of the sun.

It seems as though many "innovations" copy nature. Ah, the joys of biochemistry...

#30: While some (lots, rather) may enjoy the large cheap capacity of HDD-type MP3 players (namely the iPod), others prefer solid-state memory. It's more reliable (some friends of mine has gone through many HDD MP3 players so far, one even having gone through 5), and for those who aren't always sedentary, it's a great feature to have. Flash memory comes at a price. Of course, Apple does make solid-state memory MP3 players too, but price-wise are fairly comparable.

As for integration, it is easy to be drawn into Apple's marketing ploy. Because of the large (and easily impressionable) consumer base that owns iPods, many auto manufacturers and car radio manufacturers have decided to integrate functionality of the iPod into their products. While they can't integrate ALL MP3 players, the large consumer base of iPods allows them to integrate the iPod to their products.

Integrating EVERYTHING would be an almost insurmountable task. It is just like the Windows OS. Most people don't realise that Windows is made to accomodate an almost infinite amount of hardware permutations, whereas MacOS is made for a very very small amount of different machines. Anyhow, I digress.

MP3 players are just that--MP3 players. I don't need AAC (in fact I've never used it before, nor came across it nor plan to ever use it). I don't need games, organisers, coffee machine, etc. I just need something to play music to occupy me on my 2.5hrs of commute to and from the university. It is kind of like cellphones. I just need a phone to call people. True, things like calculators, photoalbums, notepads, and contact lists are great. In fact, I'd say they're almost indespensible. If I have those on my phone, I sure don't need another device that does the same. But, I still do not need games. A phone is a phone, an MP3 player is an MP3 player. My graphing calculator can handle my games for me...yuk yuk yuk...

Quality is debateable, because in most instances one would use headphones (namely earbuds) to listen to the music. MP3's quality (or lack thereof) is not the limiting factor, the earbuds are. If one were to use Sennheiser headphones (best headphones EVER, btw), sure, you could notice the difference. Likewise, hardware driver units can compromise quality. Indeed, if you plug in your MP3 player into your car stereo, you could easily tell the quality difference (say, between MP3 and OGG or WMA [which I use for my uber-HQ music]).

Styling is subjective. Personally, I find it very attractive, and a whole lot better than iPods. Never been a big fan of them. Nonetheless, I do love the brushed aluminium, kind of like the PowerBook or Macbook Pro.

All in all, I'm buying it. The price doesn't seem bad at all. Even here in Canada, where everything is more expensive (except housing and car insurance), it is a pretty decent price. I mean, 4GB of solid-state? Crazy! The Samsung's price is almost that of a 4GB CF card for DSLRs!

Independent reviews quote the battery life as 36hrs btw.