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<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Hello Amir,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>I am working on a project with an outside robot
that has a pan-tilt-zoom cam, an omni-cam, and a laser. We tried a couple
of laptops in-field, and I can assure you that Apple products were the worst.
We tested with a fairly old 13" MacBook and a more recent 15" MacBook Pro.
The main problems were the number and proximity of the ports, the battery
life, the opening angle and viewing angle of the monitor, and the lack of some
keys (like Print Screen).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>My current MacBook Pro has only 2 USB ports, but
they are so close to one another that I can really use only one. Thus, I must
attach a powered USB hub, which is problematic on the robot. I also noticed
recently that it has no serial port, and that our laser and robot's
micro-controller work with a serial port. My MacBook Pro also lacks a microphone
jack, which you may or may not need. I noticed also in field experiments that my
laptop does not open wide enough, and that the glossy screen make it unusable in
many situations.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>What I would recommend, especially if you have the
budget for a MacBook Pro, is to look at Panasonic's Toughbook series. We tried 3
models for our project, and we loved them. One was too slow, but the others were
very fast and the batteries lasted forever. Just ensure that they have the right
ports for you, because some models are fairly limited.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Benoit Larochelle, B.Eng., M.Sc.<BR>Software
Engineer</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>DFKI GmbH<BR>Language Technology Lab<BR>Campus D3
1, Room +1.12<BR>Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3<BR>66123 Saarbrücken, Germany</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial>Phone: +49-(0)681-857-75-5287<BR>Email: <A
href="mailto:Benoit.Larochelle@dfki.de">Benoit.Larochelle@dfki.de</A><BR>Web:
<A
href="http://www.dfki.de/~blaroche">http://www.dfki.de/~blaroche</A><BR>
<A href="http://nifti.eu/">http://nifti.eu/</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt Tahoma">
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title="mailto:amirhst@gmail.com
CTRL + Click to follow link"
href="mailto:amirhst@gmail.com">Amir H. Soltanzadeh</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Saturday, February 05, 2011 10:06 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=ros-users@code.ros.org
href="mailto:ros-users@code.ros.org">User discussions</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [ros-users] Selecting appropriate Laptop for
ROS</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Dear all,<BR><BR>Sorry again for another general
question!<BR><BR>I want to buy a laptop to run ROS on our custom made robot
(which has 2 hokuyo LRF, 1 Xsens IMU, 1 Vedere STOC, 12 Devantech SRF08 UR and
an onboard 2 GHz Pentium M) for autonomous navigation/manipulation in rough
terrain. But, I'm not sure if I should buy Macbook Pro core i7 or something
else!<BR><BR>I'll appreciate it, if you advice me to choose the proper
one.<BR><BR>Regards,<BR>Amir <BR><BR
clear=all>============================<BR>Amir Hossein Soltanzadeh<BR>ME @
R&D Dep. in ISOP Int. Co.<BR>RA @ Robotics lab in IAUCTB<BR>Fax: +98 (21)
883 19 902<BR>Tel: +98 (21) 888 10 817<BR>Cel: +98 (912) 20 60 429<BR>ICQ:
434884650<BR>Skype: amirhst<BR>email: <A href="mailto:amirhst@isop-co.com"
target=_blank>amirhst@isop-co.com</A><BR>web: <A href="http://www.isop-co.com"
target=_blank>www.isop-co.com</A><BR>blog: <A href="http://amirhst.blogspot.com"
target=_blank>amirhst.blogspot.com</A><BR>============================<BR>
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