In the rock/paper/scissors game of life cranberry juice beats laptop. Just sayin.
This is ironic because I want to ask the geeks to geek in front of me for a few minutes. I need a new laptop and I am pretty certain that I should make the jump to Apple because most of you are obsessed with Apple and I would be able to grunt and say, “Fix it!!!” to more people. This is a very appealing benefit to having an Apple over a PC.
As far as features go: I use word, excel, intarweb, chat, powerpoint, itunes, and I like to play with pictures in a very non-professional sort of way. I would also kind of like to have garageband as well because I am still interested in sitting down and playing with the podcast stuff more I just haven’t made time in the past few months. I hear I need iWork so that I can have Pages.
My question: what level of computer should I shoot for? What should I think to ask for? I have a friend at Apple who is looking into some bits of it for me but more generalized advice is darn handy.
The really interesting bit about this is that in the trying to save it process I called Tom for help. I went to his new place and we spent a couple hours trying to rescue it. I had forgotten how very much I enjoy working on projects with him. I love his casual assumptions of my competence. I love that he just hands me things to do knowing that I am smart and able to figure out weird bits. We figured out how to work together so well over the years and it was really awesome to just fall back into that without trying. I’m still happier with Noah overall, but that reminded me of something I would like to work towards with Noah. The two of us tend to butt heads more and question one another more because we don’t have a solid understanding of our mutual levels of knowledge yet. I say more time and experience must be had. 🙂
Yay for more time and more experience. (:
Alas, I do not have the helpful laptop advice.
If you’re at all willing to go PC (and not necessarily Windows, for you can install Linux on ’em…), I recommend the HP Pavillion dv 2000 series. I got mine for under 1k…new. And it was only that expensive because I needed/wanted certain things like Bluetooth. ;P
The only problems I’ve had with it is that sometimes when I’m coming back from Stand By, the monitor refuses to turn back on…resulting in me having to restart the comp. -.-
Is there a version of the Microsoft office stuff for Mac? If so, I was unaware… 😮
I have had two Compaqs and Compaq and HP are the same company and I have had a whole heap of trouble with them. The many many problems I have had with them are the main reason I am considering jumping to Mac.
Yup, Microsoft Office stuff is all available for Mac. I use them on my work computer. 🙂
Sadly, I’m not sure I can get you a cheap employee version as I’m not at MS any more, but the Students and Teachers Edition (which you most certainly qualify for) is around $100.
If you need another person at Apple, drop me a line.
Microsoft office stuff is available for the mac. But ask someone to show you Pages first. It’s cheaper, comes in iWork along with Keynote, and both Pages and Keynote are well worth the $100 it costs for the pair of them. Pages reads & writes mickysoft office files. There are also several free alternatives, (each of which is curious, but not nearly as macintoshly “it just works” straightforward.).
Apples come with MS Office, FYI. Also, iTunes, iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie and iDVD.
I’m a long time Mac user (since age 5, I kid not) so anything I say about it is going to sound like Mac propaganda. However, I’ll say that the OS is the most stable it’s ever been and this is a great time to start using it. That said, if you do buy a Mac, get the longest extended Apple Care you possibly can, particularly if you’re getting a laptop.
That said, if you do buy a Mac, get the longest extended Apple Care you possibly can, particularly if you’re getting a laptop.
I work on the MacBook team and I’d agree with that. 🙂
I believe the current bundle is a demo version of MS Office, so I’m not sure I’d consider that “comes with MS Office”. Student & Teacher Edition is only $100 I think, though.
Macs do not come with ms office to my knowledge. But check out Pages, (or openoffice and maybe abiword), before shelling out any more money to microsoft.
I checked the bundles when I got in to work this morning. All of our laptops ship with a demo of Microsoft Office. Personally, I prefer Word over Pages but iWork is about half the cost of the Student & Teacher Edition of MS Office.
Here’s what you need to know to shop for a mac.
There are basically three levels of macintosh use.
1) basic use (that’s you).
2) pro apps, that’s anyone who insists on running the apple professional applications, like final cut pro or aperture, (that’s me).
3) serious professional mac users. (these are professional video production people, macintosh developers, etc.)
For category #1, any new macintosh will do. I second the suggestion for extended apple care. It makes life easier, encourages apple to make more reliable products, and increases the resale value of the machine.
A macbook will do everything you care about. And you’d probably never notice the difference between it and a macbook pro. (Unless you really fill your disk drive).
Really. It’s just that simple. There are caveats, but those are the basics and the rest is mostly just minor.
The LED display on the new MacBook Pro just released today does look appealing though…
http://news.google.com/news?&q=macbook%20pro%20led