Mac questions

[Totality]

Thinking about going for a macbook (if only to see what they are like!) because I do a lot of travelling and fancy something functional but also something I can watch films on too.

This may be a silly question - but can you view divx, etc on them? Are they like PCs in that you can simply install the codecs or are they all locked down?

 

[Totality]

VLC will play everything and is available for PC, Mac and Linux

Perian, a freeware extension will allow Quicktime (Mac native playback app) to play pretty much everything too.

Divx will be fine. MKV, pretty much everything, and ultimately Flip4Mac will allow WMV too.

Cheers. Although I have just realised that macbooks have a built in battery so you can't take a spare with you How easy is it to replace if it goes wrong or does the laptop need to go back to Apple?

 

[Totality]

What about the shiny plastic? Is it prone to scratching and looking run down after a lot of use like the back of an iphone?