Apple Macbook - i want one so badly but....

AdamSpain

AdamSpain

New Member
im scared....of paying 899 quid for technology that has a very low marketshare in the computer industry. Macs look great, they have the style and sophistication, they do everything professionally, but im just worried that i will be buying into compatibility problems. Ive been a recent owner of a Rock Xtreme CT gaming laptop which was amazing (highly recommend to anyone who wants to play oblivion at 50fps!) but i sold it to fund a HD tv and 360. Im not too fussed as im quite happy with the decission but i really do need a laptop for everything i do so its time to buy a laptop. I spend on average about 3 hours a day on a pc, i play movies, listen to my huge library of music, look at my picture gallery, surf the internet alot (porn) and i am a regular user of myspace and facebook.

Im really interested in having fun with pictures and editing them. I also want to get an ipod or iphone in the near future. The next hope is that me and my friend want to start playing around with making music as we are huge dnb and hardcore fans.

So the other day i was walking in West Quay in Southampton my local Shopping Mall. I came across a brand new Apple shop, every product they have on offer was on a series of tables in demonstration. I was in heaven :D i've never ever considered a mac, ive always had this assumption that they are incompatible with pc software and if only a few people have them its not worth investing in as most of the features will go unused. For example not everyone has a 3G phone, so the video calling option is pretty pointless unless your best mates have one also.

Anyway back to the shop, i was drawn to the look of the laptops and just started playing on a white MacBook never having touched a mac in my life. I soon got the hang of the operating system OS X and there was just so much to do with it. Now ive never played with Vista but im sure its pretty comparable to that. Everything on the OS was so organised and i just wanted to own that laptop.

So there is my dilema, im a regular XP user who is considering going over to the dark side. I just want to make sure the 899 price tag is worth any issues i might have in the future.

At the end of the day all i want to do is.....DO EVERYTHING I DO ON XP, BUT BETTER AND IN MORE STYLE!

PS. the magnetic power cable is sooooooooooooooooo cool!!!
 
Apple has a decent market share and it is growing steadily. Since OS X has been released a lot of people are starting to switch. One major factor is that corporations and other enterprise level networks can not make a switch to mac because it would cost them so much money in down time, software, training, etc to switch from their existing windows platform. You can not migrate over night and it is a long and hard process which is why not a lot have done it. A few companies have, and I know that a few hospitals over in the US have switched over completely to mac because they are more reliable.

I have a macbook Pro, which I did not pay for, my work bought it for me. It is hands down the best laptop I have ever owned. Not to mention you should check out ebay. G4 desktops that sold for $3,000 USD 4 years ago are selling for $500 to $700 USD. I have never in my life ever seen a PC hold its value that much. If you pay $1,000 right now and say you want to sell it in like 3 years and buy a new laptop you could probably easily get $700 out of your $1,000 investment.

Out of the box the Mac can/is:

1) More secure
2) edit video
3) Author a DVD
4) Record and edit digital audio
5) Play a DVD (windows can not even play a DVD out of the box)
6) Has the backing of a stable OS like BSD Unix
7) Is completely compatible with windows, can run windows and can network with windows (a few exceptions apply)
8) Has more built in hardware and more features by default.

People try to compare PC laptops with the same processor and the same amount of ram to a Mac, which is like comparing an orange to an apple IMO (no pun intended). A mac laptop for one, has a high quality engineered system board, not some cheap board made cheaply by some company over in asia. They also have A/B/G wifi built in and blue tooth, both of those are extra features on most laptops that cost you more money. Most PC laptops will have a b/g card and some are not even upgradeable. They all have high res firewire camera's built in. It also has USB2.0, Firewire, and Firewire800 built in, which most laptops do not meet that either. Add in the fact that Apple makes some wonderful displays (just look at their cinema displays on their desktops) so you are getting a very high quality nice screen. Add in the fact that their laptops are freaking 1 inch thick and weigh nothing compared to chunky bulky PC laptops. Take into consideration all the bundled software you get too: iPhoto, iTunes, iDVD, iMovie, iComic, iWeb, etc it blows the crap out of any bundled laptop from any manufacturer.

So, if you add the cost of all the extra hardware and software that comes bundled with a mac, they are easily the better deal.

My advice to you is, just shut up about it and go buy one. You'll be happy.
 
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You're so right man, ill go buy one right now, oh wait....im a uni student with no money....damn it! I will get one within the next month i promise!:D
 
AdamSpain said:
You're so right man, ill go buy one right now, oh wait....im a uni student with no money....damn it! I will get one within the next month i promise!:D
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as long as your application barrier is not one that demands heavy 3D (animation, rendering, gaming) you can run just about any basic office type application in a virtual machine of windows on your mac. If you are a student you can get a 10% discount through Apple's Educational discount system. So that can save you a few bucks as well.

I run 4 OSes on my mac and have a virtual machine of windows xp for stupid active x website I have to use for work. Other than that its OS X all the way for me. I am even starting to use safari over Firefox, though firefox is probably still my most used browser since I use it both in windows and Linux.
 
tlarkin said:
as long as your application barrier is not one that demands heavy 3D (animation, rendering, gaming) you can run just about any basic office type application in a virtual machine of windows on your mac. If you are a student you can get a 10% discount through Apple's Educational discount system. So that can save you a few bucks as well.

I run 4 OSes on my mac and have a virtual machine of windows xp for stupid active x website I have to use for work. Other than that its OS X all the way for me. I am even starting to use safari over Firefox, though firefox is probably still my most used browser since I use it both in windows and Linux.
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Haha see that was just a blur to me, i have no idea what safari and firefox are, the macs internet browsers at a guess, excuse my lack of knowledge of mac programs im just learning them. Correct, my demands arent for gaming as i have a 360, i would just like to make cool stuff like edit photos or make music and movies. I know ill find that interesting. The other thing is im being directed to a macbook pro, i know this is better but i dont like the look of them as much. They dont look as portable and they dont have the ipod look that im so fond of. Do you think i'll be more impressed if i do get a pro, i suppose the main advantage is the graphics upgrade to a x1600, but whats the point if i dont need it for games? Cheers for help!
 
AdamSpain said:
Haha see that was just a blur to me, i have no idea what safari and firefox are, the macs internet browsers at a guess, excuse my lack of knowledge of mac programs im just learning them. Correct, my demands arent for gaming as i have a 360, i would just like to make cool stuff like edit photos or make music and movies. I know ill find that interesting. The other thing is im being directed to a macbook pro, i know this is better but i dont like the look of them as much. They dont look as portable and they dont have the ipod look that im so fond of. Do you think i'll be more impressed if i do get a pro, i suppose the main advantage is the graphics upgrade to a x1600, but whats the point if i dont need it for games? Cheers for help!
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honestly it goes like this, ie,safari,thenfirefox as king. and macs are insane multimedia devices thanks to itunes,garageband,iphoto and imovie. the pro is better but only if you have the money to spare. get the discount to llow you to get more for what you would normally pay.
 
Since you can run WinXP natively on the new Apple laptops (since they have Intel processors now) I don't really see what your problem is?
 
Styrak said:
Since you can run WinXP natively on the new Apple laptops (since they have Intel processors now) I don't really see what your problem is?
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hows that rrelevent. he said he wants one fortthat reason, not oh i have a mac and want windows. i dont have any idea what your talking about in the slightest bit.
 
cheers buddy, im sure styraks intentions werent really how they sounded. however styrak i was only asking because i wanted to know the opinion of people who really know what they are talking about not apple store employees who will tell me anything to create a sale. Im sorry if ive commited a crime for that but macnoob and tlarkins info helped me make a very good decision in gettin a macbook, which i was going to do anyway their info just set my mind at rest.
 
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Hey AdamSpain , I highly recommend Mac laptops. I am also planning on buying a Mac Book as soon as I can save up the money. They are simple, productive, and really quite stylish in my opinion.

I'm sure you will love using it. They are great machines. As you said, you hadn't even used a Mac before, but as soon as you did, it had you hooked right from the word go.

:)
 
AdamSpain said:
cheers buddy, im sure styraks intentions werent really how they sounded. however styrak i was only asking because i wanted to know the opinion of people who really know what they are talking about not apple store employees who will tell me anything to create a sale. Im sorry if ive commited a crime for that but macnoob and tlarkins info helped me make a very good decision in gettin a macbook, which i was going to do anyway their info just set my mind at rest.
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It just seemed like you were concerned that you couldn't use Windows XP or that it would have big compatibility problems. This is not the case. Also, I havn't really used one that much, just other people's, but they seem nice and they can run Windows as well, so why not. Really depends on your preferences. Compatibility isn't that much of an issue anymore.
 
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