In this week's The Road Warrior on macOpinion, Charles Moore reviews the UNIEA Haptique Hard Shell Case - a molded plastic snap-on carapace designed to cover and protect your unibody MacBook and ensure that its elegantly handsome looks and jewelry-quality finish are preserved unmarred for when you want to show it off

• MCS and Macbooks
• Laptops And MCS
• PowerBook 2400c Video Slideshow

In a new Less Tangible on MacOpinion, Marc Zeedar says: "What's up with the interest in Palm's Pre? The Pre sounds great: it's got all the hardware of the iPhone plus a physical keyboard and removable battery the iPhone lacks. The design is stylish, and the operating system sounds like it's actually got a handful of innovative features. But I still can't figure out the appeal."

New on MacOpinion - MacCase's a new Premium Leather Flight Jacket has a retro flare, reaching back to the era between the twentieth century World Wars when aviators wore leather flight jackets to buffer the wind-battering they got in open-cockpit aircraft and chilly temperatures at high altitudes in non-pressurized cabins. The Flight Jacket Case looks like a piece of kit in which Indiana Jones - a young Indiana Jones - might have packed his gear around

Hidden in the new features Apple announced is an overlooked gem that will revolutionize e-commerce

New on MacOpinion - iFixit's lab has completed its disassembly of the new 17" MacBook Pro, with photography of the process to be used in a new iFixIt teardown guide for that machine. If you are inclined to tinker with your Mac laptop and have never availed yourself of iFixIt's superb Fixit Guide series, you're missing out on one of the most helpful and useful free resources for Mac laptop and Mac mini owners on the Web

New The Road Warrior on MacOpinion: Reader finds value of Lenovo netbook running Linux irresistible, and HP Mini 1000 Vivienne Tam Special Edition Mini Laptop a "netbook" with designer flair; how will Apple respond to the "netbook" tsunami?

New on MacOpinion: Instead of releasing a stripped-down, feature-challenged MacBook to address the market share challenge posed by the small, cheap PC laptop (AKA *netbook*) phenomenon, Apple has evidently chosen, as a first response at least, to hold their entry-level price point, but add value by upgrading the price leader $999 white polycarbonate MacBook with some solid enhancements

• Mac Fan Finds PC Netbook Life Satisfactory
• Cleaning Soiled White MacBooks, iBooks and iPods

Some users love glossy displays. Others can't abide them, and some are ambivalent. How big a deal is Apple's dropping matte displays?

• Leopard on a G4
• From The Archive Learning To Love Leopard

Nearly a decade ago, on December 10, 1998, I posted the Road Warrior column republished below, which provides an interesting sanpshot of the state of Apple laptops ten years back. Aside from the particularities of the hardware, much of my commentary still holds up I think, especially on the matter of timing one's system upgrades