What's the point of "Time Machine" for laptop users?

Question

I just bought a new Mac Leopard and I was under the impression that "time machine" was BUILT INTO THE COMPUTER as advertised. But now I realize that I have to actually connect my laptop into an external drive in order for time machine to work.

Doesn't this COMPLETELY destroy the point of having a laptop - to be able to travel around with my computer wirelessly?

Answer 1

Not a MAC person so bear with me. Time Machine is for backup purposes. Basically you connect an external drive, run time machine which makes a back up of your drive then copies it to your external drive.  Which you would store somewhere safe...only pulling it out to make updates to the back up or if you need to recover.