Buying a new laptop- Apple?

Originally Posted by T.G

my kind of girl,

Christos, CES is 1/7-1/10. I'd wait at least until then to see what's on the horizon. While in general I agree that waiting for new tech is a losing proposition, in this case I don't see what waiting one week to see what's coming out is going to hurt.

Tablets are going to be very hot this year, and if you're looking at Apple the long rumoured Apple Tablet is supposed to be coming soon.

[King James]

Originally Posted by Resipsa

the long rumoured Apple Tablet is supposed to be coming soon.

don't remind me.... i don't think I really have the need for one....but it just seems like it will be so damn cool... I'll have to just resist

[pmwz]

dont have any laptop experience but the two apple products that i owned broke just after the warranty ended.

[GreekGodX]

Does anyone know if Apple will be releasing an update to the Macbook Pro anytime soon?? Obviously Windows 7 came out recently so no changes on that front.

[mosesbotbol]

Don't buy a Mac. Unless you are hardware obessed or have deep pockets, it's not worth it.

Make sure it is at least 2.1 GHZ, 64 bit processor and 16 GB of RAM minimum. Windows 7 Pro has 192GB max RAM in x64, so go nuts. Try adding 16 or 32 GB RAM in a MAC... Expensive I bet.

[JaKaacH]

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by JaKaacH

Very apropos.
Secure, safe on the left.
Dangerous, bound to crash on the right.

I have yet to find a person that switched to a Mac from a PC that didn't love it.
Seems the haters are the ones that have never switched and need to justify not doing so somehow.

[JaKaacH]

Originally Posted by Blueface

Very apropos.
Secure, safe on the left.
Dangerous, bound to crash on the right.

I have yet to find a person that switched to a Mac from a PC that didn't love it.
Seems the haters are the ones that have never switched and need to justify not doing so somehow.

I'm not a hater. I just can't justify spending twice as much on a Mac to solve problems I have never encountered with a PC.

Seems the PC haters are the ones that have switched and need to justify doing so somehow. Two way street.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by JaKaacH

I'm not a hater. I just can't justify spending twice as much on a Mac to solve problems I have never encountered with a PC.

Seems the PC haters are the ones that have switched and need to justify doing so somehow. Two way street.

Touche.

No regrets here.
Still paying for it two years later but no regrets.
I had many crashes due to viruses on PCs. That, coupled with minimal tutorials to assist turned me away.
iPhoto and iMovie sold me on my Mac for my purposes. iDVD was just the icing on the cake.

[cort]

I just made the switch 2 weeks ago. I love my new Mac. I actually got my old PC running again with a new hard drive because the old one took a sh!t on me. I dont hate the PC but the Mac is so much more user friendly. As for the price difference....you get what you pay for.

[Veritas]

I have both platforms in my household and use both. I prefer the Windows machines for almost everything. There are never any issues with compatibility, things simply run as installed. The only advantage of the Mac is that they are very easy to learn. Navigation is relatively simple once you figure it out, but no easier than using Windows Explorer. I agree with the others about the quality of Apple's online tutorials. Microsoft simply doesn't have any thing that can compete.

Originally Posted by Blueface

I had many crashes due to viruses on PCs

I have never encountered a virus that penetrated my firewall and defeted my anti-virus software. Keeping both updated is of vital importance to anyone running Windows. I'm running Windows 7 now and it has a self-contained security suite (Microsoft Security Essentials). Microsoft know that the vast majority of the virus writers are targeting their software so they seem to be doing something about it. Malicious coders target the most users they can - hence Windows machines, not Macs. Now with the proliferation of the iPhone there have been viruses written specifically to target them. If Apple succeeds in getting a bigger slice of the pie, coders will begin writing viruses/trojans/worms for OS-X.

Originally Posted by Blueface

iPhoto and iMovie sold me on my Mac for my purposes. iDVD was just the icing on the cake.

Windows Live Photo and Movie Maker programs have very similar functionality and are equally easy to use. Again, Apple will hold your hand through every step of using the software where Microsoft will not. The help features are there, you just have to dig to find the answers.

I cannot think of one area where the Mac outperforms the Windows (7) machine to the degree that justifies paying more than double. Macs are easy. Windows has a steeper learning curve. The decision is yours. My advice is to find a quality machine running 7 and give it a spin.

[JE3146]

Originally Posted by JaKaacH

I'm not a hater. I just can't justify spending twice as much on a Mac to solve problems I have never encountered with a PC.

Seems the PC haters are the ones that have switched and need to justify doing so somehow. Two way street.

I got mine with a huge student discount and a free ~250GB Ipod Classic plus a free printer which I sold for about 75$.

All in all, I was out the door with a 13" Macbook Pro with OS X 10.6 /w 4GB of RAM and a new Ipod Classic for 980$.

So for me, the price was justified, because I couldn't get anything similar from a PC in the price bracket, but then again I'm a student

[JaKaacH]

Originally Posted by JE3146

I got mine with a huge student discount and a free ~250GB Ipod Classic plus a free printer which I sold for about 75$.

All in all, I was out the door with a 13" Macbook Pro with OS X 10.6 /w 4GB of RAM and a new Ipod Classic for 980$.

So for me, the price was justified, because I couldn't get anything similar from a PC in the price bracket, but then again I'm a student

Miller Lite is fine.

[rizzle]

Originally Posted by JaKaacH

I'm not a hater. I just can't justify spending twice as much on a Mac to solve problems I have never encountered with a PC.

That sums me up perfectly. I just recently bought a new laptop, thanks Andrew , and I said all along that I was going to get an Apple as my next purchase. Why? Because I heard nothing but good things from people that own them and it just seemed like the right thing to do. But I couldn't force myself to pay twice as much for a comparable machine especially when I've never had any of these problems that I hear so much about. Plus, I'm no geek so as long as I can do what I want with no problems, I ain't out to impress anyone.

So I bought another Toshiba. My last one was great, this one is incredible, and I took the rest of the money that I would have spent on the Mac and bought some crack.

[spectrrr]

First thing: DON'T GET LINUX. Nothing wrong with it, but if you have to ask, the answer is always NO.

Now on to the fun stuff. Despite the obvious humor in the picture below, this is by far the most accurate way to describe things, and REALLY should guide your decision Christo. This post is a bit long because I tend to ramble, but I think you'll get the idea.

I'm not a hater of the fruit, I grew up on PCs and I worked in the photo & journalism industry for three years and used macs extensively during that time.

What I will tell you is this: It sounds like you should get a Mac. You would probably be pretty happy with Windows 7 (I won't discourage you), but it sounds like mac is the better way to go for you, based on the things that you have listed that you need the laptop for. You will pay a bit more than you should, BUT complaining about that is like complaining that you went to Saks Fifth Avenue and paid too much --> don't like it, shop elsewhere, you knew the price going in.

NOW that I've told you to get a mac and established that I'm not a hater.... I'll say that I will NEVER, EVER, under any circumstances, get a Mac for myself.

And here's where the fun begins.... to really evaluate the difference between a mac and a pc with as little bias as possible, you have to be honest with yourself, keep from being unnecessarily offended, and separate things out.

The analogy in the picture, if you can not be offended by it, is stunningly accurate. Ridding a motorcycle is not for everybody. If I asked a guy whether he was qualified and possessed the skills required to race a Ducati motorcycle at 150mph+, he would probably say no (although he sure as hell would want to!). This is not saying that he's stupid, its just saying that racing that thing requires a very specific skill set that many people do not have. Far too often in the mac versus pc debate, it becomes a matter of "well, you're just not smart enough to operate a PC". But this is not true. It has nothing to do with intelligence, so don't get offended!

It has everything to do with what YOU need and want, and whether you have the skills to do it. Racing a bike at 150mph is fun (for some)! BUT its NOT free! If you're not willing pay for regular maintenance on that bike, and get it tuned up and running properly, and put the time into learning how to ride it safely at 150mph, THEN you shouldn't own the bike!!!!

If you DON'T know how to ride a motorcycle or want to invest the time and money to keep it tuned at peak performance, and just want the damned thing to WORK every time you turn it on, then buy something that does what it's designed for. To switch to cars, I own and love my Jeep. I don't complain that's its slow, I relish that it has 4x4 and owns the road in the winter. If I wanted a fast zippy car, then I'd go buy a sports car, with the understanding that there was a trade-off in that I might have trouble the next time a snowplow came by.

OK, so I've said the same thing three or four different way and rambled on long enough... I think you get the idea. Two different products, two different uses & users, and a whole hell of a lot of people that can't understand that last bit without getting offended. I learned PC and learned it good. This required time, effort, and a few bruises & injuries along the way. As a result of that investment, I get to enjoy the performance of my 150mph supertuned (overclocked) Ducati, virus free and purring like a champ.

oh yeah, and , don't get the memory upgrade from Apple, get it separate.

Originally Posted by JaKaacH

[Smokin Gator]

I've been a Mac user since '89 and hate it when I have to us a PC. They just work!!!

[Titan410]

I went to a Macbook in October 08 and never looking back.
You really don't hear anyone say they tried a Mac but prefer a PC, at least I haven't.

I've used PCs for years. Then in the last yea3, we bught an older iMac from a friend. It was still lightning fast and runs very smoothly. We liked it so much we bought a MacBook toom. My wife uses it exclusively. The functionaloty and ease of use of the programs is awesome. I honestly don't think we'll go back to PCs. Yes they are pricier, but my experiences with them tell me it's worth it.

[King James]

if you can swing for it get the macbook. switched to apple 5 years ago and haven't regretted it since.

And there is no reason you would ever need 16GB of ram from what you said you will be using it for, Christos.

and if you buy your ram from crucial and don't have apple install it, its not expensive at all

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by King James

if you can swing for it get the macbook. switched to apple 5 years ago and haven't regretted it since.

And there is no reason you would ever need 16GB of ram from what you said you will be using it for, Christos.

and if you buy your ram from crucial and don't have apple install it, its not expensive at all

I listened to all of you guys and did this and upgraded mine for around $40.