599 replies to this topic

[Johnboy007]

I thought about getting the iPhone but opted for an LG. Maybe next time.

I never considered getting a Sony Ericsson. Our family used to get them when it was just Ericsson, but we never found them to be any good.

[Ambler]

Folks, excuse me if this subject has been discussed before.

I have just upgraded to Word 2008 and now my three-years-old MacMini is creaking at the seams. I assume that its 512Mb and G4 is not up to the job as Word 2008 takes a long time to load and seems significantly slower than the Word 2000 I used previously. I I should say that returning to Word 2000 is unacceptable to my publisher.

As the Mini is virtually a closed machine when it comes to user-friendly expansion I am thinking of upgrading to a new model. I need to be able to run large Word files (with many images and diagrams), PDFs, Apple Mail, Firefox, and Skype - all simultaneously.

Not sure what that means in terms of memory and processor, but, if its relevant, I am considering getting a larger monitor to replace my Hanns-G as well.

Any suggestions? Budget ceiling is about £1200. Thanks.

[Professor Dent]

Ambler, have you considered the iMac? The 24-inch is selling for just under your budget. The Intel machines are much faster than the G4's. They come with 2 gigs of RAM standard but, give the programs you want to run simultaneously, I would upgrade it to 4 gigs. Hopefully, you have an option to get the RAM from a third party vendor & not Apple who horribly overcharges for it. You mentioned a new monitor so not sure if that was included in your budget or not. If you were planning on spending extra for the monitor, use that money to upgrade the RAM. If adding the RAM puts you over your budget, you could always use it with the 2 gigs of RAM & see if it works for your needs. If not, just upgrade later. At least you will be able to get Word 2008 working for your publisher.

[Ambler]

Thank you, Professor. The iMac does indeed seem the best option for a desktop machine.

That said, a friend is convinced that an iBook with wifi is the only way to go, and it would be nice to escape from the desk occasionally, but I'm not convinced that proof reading and text editing is best done on a portable ...

Anyone here used an iBook for such purposes?

[Professor Dent]

My current laptop is the 15-inch MacBook Pro with the LED based screen. Its performance is excellent. Your trade off is definitely the screen size but you could always hook it up to a regular monitor & external keyboard when you feel the need for a bigger screen. The portability of a laptop is very convenient.

The MacBook is in your price range. If you are near an Apple store, head in to check them out & ask one of the people there if it will handle what you want to do. One word of caution: the rumor on the street is the MacBooks are being upgraded soon. You can never tell with Apple but the MacRumors Buyer's Guide has it near the end of it's life cycle.

One thing I forgot to mention is that Office 2008 is a Universal App so it runs faster on the Intel machines. May ease your RAM requirements a bit.

[Ambler]

Thanks very much, Prof.

The buyer's guide is very interesting though I suspect the trick with buying a Mac is always to be one model behind. Of course, that strategy assumes there's excess stock to shift.

[BlackFire]

I finally got my very first ipod! it's the new touch!

Of course, it was my Christmas gift.

[agentjamesbond007]

Ever since my old iBook G4 crashed, I got a new MacBook 15 inch wide laptop about 6 months ago.

I works faster and better!

[Jose]

Got my white MacBook last month. It's an breath of fresh air after having used Windows for a loooong time, especially since our PC was really giving me a hard time with its incessant freezing and updates that eat up space or don't actually contribute to the computer's performance. Kinda counter-productive if the updates don't actually update, right?
I got the basics, or what I consider to be basic hahaha.
2 GB of RAM
120 GB Hard Drive (I kinda regret not opting for a bigger hard drive but meh. I'll get an external hard drive later on)
iWork '08
Airport Extreme- a pain to set up at first but once I got it up and running everything was just great.
I've had no complaints other than Yahoo Messenger taking too long in shutting down. Other than that I'm very satisfied with my mac

[Professor Dent]

Congrats Jose. If Yahoo Messenger is giving you trouble, check out Adium. It a free IM program that works with just about every service out there. There is even a Sean Connery style Bond that you can change the dock icon into - you know, if you are into that sort of thing.

[darkpath]

Got my white MacBook last month. It's an breath of fresh air after having used Windows for a loooong time, especially since our PC was really giving me a hard time with its incessant freezing and updates that eat up space or don't actually contribute to the computer's performance. Kinda counter-productive if the updates don't actually update, right?
I got the basics, or what I consider to be basic hahaha.
2 GB of RAM
120 GB Hard Drive (I kinda regret not opting for a bigger hard drive but meh. I'll get an external hard drive later on)
iWork '08
Airport Extreme- a pain to set up at first but once I got it up and running everything was just great.
I've had no complaints other than Yahoo Messenger taking too long in shutting down. Other than that I'm very satisfied with my mac

Fortunately, the MacBook is incredibly easy to upgrade for hard drive and memory, if you decide that you want more out of your MacBook. Both are accessed through the battery bay. I believe you will only need a philips head screwdriver. The long axis of the battery bay is where the RAM is accessed. The short axis is where the hard drive hides.

[Jose]

Congrats Jose. If Yahoo Messenger is giving you trouble, check out Adium. It a free IM program that works with just about every service out there. There is even a Sean Connery style Bond that you can change the dock icon into - you know, if you are into that sort of thing.

Thanks Professor!! I got it right after I read your post and immediately got the Connery plug in. It's so awesome!

Fortunately, the MacBook is incredibly easy to upgrade for hard drive and memory, if you decide that you want more out of your MacBook. Both are accessed through the battery bay. I believe you will only need a philips head screwdriver. The long axis of the battery bay is where the RAM is accessed. The short axis is where the hard drive hides.

And here I was believing the people who told me you COULDN'T upgrade a macbook. This is really good news.

Thanks for the info darkpath!

[BlackFire]

Wow I purchased Sim City like 5 hours ago and I just stopped playing! fantastic game!

[[dark]]

I was given a Mighty Mouse for Christmas, but I'm weighing up whether to exchange it for a wireless one. Anyone have any advice on which Mighty Mouse to go for?

[zencat]

I've got my eye on MacWorld next month, because it's time to upgrade! I've been very frugal, getting an interim Mac Mini to use with my existing monitor... But my monitor is fading and the Mini just isn't cutting it anymore, so I'm hoping to see a new top-of-the-line iMac introduced at MacWorld (as is the rumor) and I'm jumping on it! Gonna max out every drop down on the Apple site and build a mega machine. Woo hoo! Would also love to upgrade my old laptop with a MacBook Air, but that will have to wait.

[Professor Dent]

I was given a Mighty Mouse for Christmas, but I'm weighing up whether to exchange it for a wireless one. Anyone have any advice on which Mighty Mouse to go for?

I prefer the wireless version. The Mighty Mouse is an acquired taste. I only use it when I travel. For some other options, I happen to have been in an Apple store yesterday (seeing a Genius to get my iPhone replaced - long story) & picked up this Razer notebook mouse that I really like. It's laser based & uses bluetooth for the connection. This wireless one from Microsoft is good & I like this wired Razer mouse too. Of course, the last two have white accents to match the old style iMacs.

I've got my eye on MacWorld next month, because it's time to upgrade! I've been very frugal, getting an interim Mac Mini to use with my existing monitor... But my monitor is fading and the Mini just isn't cutting it anymore, so I'm hoping to see a new top-of-the-line iMac introduced at MacWorld (as is the rumor) and I'm jumping on it! Gonna max out every drop down on the Apple site and build a mega machine. Woo hoo! Would also love to upgrade my old laptop with a MacBook Air, but that will have to wait.

Nothing like the rumour build-up to MacWorld which, unfortunately, is that last one Apple will attend. I've been eyeing one myself so I could begin to fully use Aperture for my photos & migrate my iTunes library off of Windows. I read they will look similar to the new LED Cinema Displays with an all black bezel on the front.

[[dark]]

I was given a Mighty Mouse for Christmas, but I'm weighing up whether to exchange it for a wireless one. Anyone have any advice on which Mighty Mouse to go for?

I prefer the wireless version.

Thanks for the response! What's the battery life like on the wireless Mighty Mouse?

[Professor Dent]

Thanks for the response! What's the battery life like on the wireless Mighty Mouse?

Your welcome. I use it about 3-5 hours a week & still have the original included Energizer Lithium batteries in it 10 months later. There is an on/off switch on the bottom & I always turn it off when it's not in use. For heavy, everyday use, I've read it's similar to other wireless mice. The key seems to be turning it off overnight or when you are not using it for longer extended periods. Otherwise, the Bluetooth will keep searching for something to pair to & drain the battery quicker.

[zencat]

Macworld keynote about to begin:

http://www.macrumorslive.com/

[Johnboy007]

That would explain the incredible jump in available downloads I have for iTunes Plus.

[Professor Dent]

While iLife 09 & iWork 09 both look really good, I think the iTunes updates may have been the news of the keynote. Higher quality, DRM free tracks plus the the iTunes store now works on the iPhone over the 3G cell network. Best of all, I just upgraded my Casino Royale soundtrack to iTunes Plus.

[darkpath]

After struggling for many months to find room for my iTunes library, pictures of my family and friends, applications, etc. I finally came to the unavoidable conclusion that I either had to replace my aging PowerBook G4 12" or change out the 100GB 7200RPM Seagate hard drive I'd installed 2 and and a half years ago after the original 60GB failed with something larger. Unfortunately larger hard drives in a PATA configuration are only available with a 5400RPM spindle speed, so I was very worried of a pronounced drop in performance in the PowerBook. I'd already maximised the amount of RAM installed (the firmware only recognises a 1GB SODIMM or smaller), so it was beginning to look like the end of the road for my PowerBook. When the new "unibody" MacBooks (to me, I think it makes more sense to call them the billet MacBooks; but that's because of my automotive background) were announced, I was more than a little miffed by the deletion of Firewire on the MacBook (as opposed to the MacBook Pro) as I prefer the smaller form-factor but the older model (which is still available as a bottom-end option) does not meet my bang for the buck requirements.

After weighing all of these issues, I decided to take a risk on a 250GB Western Digital 5400 RPM drive and move my 100GB Seagate 7200 RPM drive to an external housing, sourcing the new drive and the housing from Other World Computing. After 45 minutes of surgery, and about an hour of disk imaging over firewire, I was able to test my new arrangement and to my surprise, there is no noticeable performance drop at all and there is a slight improvement in battery life (my battery tests out at only 36% of its original capacity, so any power savings are a welcome addition). Additionally, I now once again have space enough to keep a local mirror of my .Mac iDrive on my hard drive (one of the items I'd given up with the smaller Seagate drive) and even set up an emergency partition with a replica of the Leopard installation disc in case I run into severe trouble.

I would recommend this as an option to my fellow Mac-using Bond fans, should budget or available current offerings from Apple tend to cause you to prefer an upgrade of your existing gear.

Cheers!

[bondrules]

I-Tunes Plus Non-DRM files still carry your personal info.

Right-click on an iTunes Plus file in either the Windows or Mac version of iTunes, choose Get Info, and you'll find your name and e-mail address.






http://blogs.chron.c...d_where_to.html

[Professor Dent]

iTunes Plus has encoded your account info ever since Apple introduced the format. Supposed to be a deterrent from you sharing the files. You could always burn them to a disc & re-rip them as an mp3 to remove your personal info if you want or buy music from Amazon as they don't encode personal info in the file. This is just an unfortunate sign of the times we live in. I still buy the vast majority of my music on CD so I'll live with it for what I buy online. I remember a while back one of the audio book companies using your credit card number as the decryption key for the files you bought. Now that's a deterrent from sharing!

[bondrules]

I remember a while back one of the audio book companies using your credit card number as the decryption key for the files you bought. Now that's a deterrent from sharing!

OMG, a cc number?

that is truly the worst!

[Arbogast777]

The Safari 4 Beta is now available. Looks like some nice new features!

[Righty007]

The Safari 4 Beta is now available. Looks like some nice new features!

My 11111th post. I'm done posting for awhile so I can let it linger on that number.

[Ambler]

Well, end of the tax year coming up, so it's time for me to buy a new MacBook.

I am tempted by the 2.4's illuminated keyboard, but now that Amazon.co.uk is flogging the unibody 2.0 at a market-beating £843.99 (anyone seen it cheaper?), it seems hard to justify the extra £250. For that extra cash I could max out the 2.0's RAM from Crucial and buy a Time Capsule.

So what's it to be? Common sense or pretty lights?

[Professor Dent]

I've owned the 12" Powerbook (with no illuminated keyboard) & now have a 15" MacBook Pro (which does have the illuminated keyboard). I really like this feature but, unless you have another compelling reason to buy the Pro machine, I'd spend the £250 on the extra RAM & time capsule.

[Ambler]

I took your advice, Prof., and am now awaiting the Amazon courier. I also found an extra £5 to spend on a USB light.

Incidentally, the best Mac accessory of all is a Steelcase Leap.