the instant on feature will likely be welcomed by many. as i would sit down with my peers to do business, i'd always have time to grab a coffee while others waited for their windows-based laptops to boot up. i have little experience with such machines, so i do not know if a "sleep mode" was an option for these people. rather than powering down completely, the laptop could basically sit in idle, awakening the moment i would open it up. this state would draw very little power out of the battery. i have flown great distances without draining the battery completely, opened it up at the next layover and bingo…no waiting. this sounds similiar, if not the same as what you are talking about.

as an aside, i was advised to leave my laptop in this "sleep mode" setting permanently. the argument being that it was far easier on the computer than always booting up. not only did it lessen aggravation to the user (as we all want these devices to work as fast as our wants appear), it also further improved the stability of the operating system. as a result, i never powered down except to install software. oh…and that time the battery bought the bullet.

the ability to tailor custom power saving settings could be found in the preferences panel. also greatly useful.

and guess what? it came from the factory back then with these features. and, ummm, no subscription required…ever.

i'm a little confused as to why other brand laptop users had to wait so long for features that are indeed as useful as a browser.

wow.