Is there anything I should know before I buy an Apple Ibook Today?

[Fragmintz]

Fellow Lobbyists -

My piece of Sh** Sony Vaio crapped out on me for the last time last night. I am now resolved that this is G-d's way of telling me to take the plunge and purchase the I-book I've been spying for the last few months. Anything I should know about making the switch from PC to Mac? Will there be compatibility issues? Are there any cool things I can do on Ibook that can be translated to the 360? Should I make the switch?

Feedback is appreciated.

Thanks

[Jon Liu]

Are you going to be purchasing a used iBook or are you going to be purchasing a MacBook? The new MacBooks and MacBook Pros are incredible machines.

I think it kind of depends on what you do on your laptop and such, it'll depend on what kind of programs you run.

I made the switch from PC to Mac with the 17" MacBook Pro (then ended up having to return it due to unforseen circumstances, which I won't go into here) but, when I did it, it was a seemless translation. Before that I hadn't had too much experience with a mac so I had to get adjusted to where buttons where, what did what, etc.

I didn't run into compatibility issues with the Mac at all either. Basically anything that I plugged into it, worked without any hitches! My printer, it didn't need drivers or anything, it just worked! You can even use PC mice on their if you get the proper drivers for them (so you can even get the goodness of multiple button mice with the mac)!

What's nice also about the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros is that they can dual boot with the option of having Windows on your Mac as well. I was toying with that with my friend's computer recently and it seemed to work very well! We put some games on the Windows side and played them (which were otherwise unplayable on OS X) and had no problems! Granted doing the dual boot option requires an official standalone copy of WindowsXP, but still... if windows only programs are an absolute must, then you have another option for you!

If you can even swing the MacBook Pros now, they've up'ed the specs! They have the 64 Bit Core2 Duo processors and they up'ed the standard amount of RAM!!

Just thinking about this makes me drool... I will be repurchasing a MacBook Pro soon. Working it out, I think I can probably swing a Refurb from Apple. I won't be making the decision probably for another month or so, but still...

I hope WonderMonkey chimes in, he's got more information than I do on macs in general!

[Fragmintz]

Thanks so much for the chime in.

I am thinking of the Macbook (trying to keep it affordable, w/maybe an upgrade or two).

Mainly I use it for writing (I am writing a few novels), law school notes, interweb browsing and I would like to dabble in some gaming (but have never been able to quit swallow the whole mouse & keyboard thing).

With that said, what do you think? Also, what is a good price? I was going to hit up Best Buy this afternoon and they have it for about $1300.

[Jon Liu]

if you are still in school, I'd suggest going the route of Apple Store or their online store. They give you a little bit of a discount which eases the pain a bit!

That way, you can either save money or use the money saved to get it customized further!

[WormholeXtreme]

Traitor!

[Fragmintz]

Worm - are you suggesting that I am a traitor?



I'm still loyal to MS (I'll be loading XP and always faithful to my 360)