Dear old Dad

[Trout74]

My father ( 65 yrs. old) is retireing. He is wanting to buy a laptop to take with him to and from Arizona in the winters and have a computer he can take around the house to acess Internet and do E-mail etc. We were going to purchase one tonight 2-12-2008

His uses are E-mail, surfing the web and shopping on cabelas and E-bay. Maybe mild word processing or spreadsheet work.
He would like to use the camera to view the grandkids.

Would it be beneficial to wait for the update? or does it not really matter for him?

 

[waterskier2007]

My father ( 65 yrs. old) is retireing. He is wanting to buy a laptop to take with him to and from Arizona in the winters and have a computer he can take around the house to acess Internet and do E-mail etc. We were going to purchase one tonight 2-12-2008

His uses are E-mail, surfing the web and shopping on cabelas and E-bay. Maybe mild word processing or spreadsheet work.
He would like to use the camera to view the grandkids.

Would it be beneficial to wait for the update? or does it not really matter for him?

a macbook will serve every need and then some. its a great computer. super portable, and quite powerful

 

[tersono]

If you need it now, buy it now...

 

[waterskier2007]

If you need it now, buy it now...

yeah i guarantee he wont notice a different based on his uses

 

[killmoms]

My father ( 65 yrs. old) is retireing. He is wanting to buy a laptop to take with him to and from Arizona in the winters and have a computer he can take around the house to acess Internet and do E-mail etc. We were going to purchase one tonight 2-12-2008

His uses are E-mail, surfing the web and shopping on cabelas and E-bay. Maybe mild word processing or spreadsheet work.
He would like to use the camera to view the grandkids.

Would it be beneficial to wait for the update? or does it not really matter for him?

Doesn't matter in the slightest. Any MacBook made in the last several years would perform these tasks just fine. Plus, OS X tends to be pretty decent about supporting older hardware, so assuming he even finds any reason to upgrade to later versions of OS X, I would imagine he'll be well off for at least the next 4 years. (As an admittedly un-scientific example, my PowerBook G4 shipped with Jaguar and still ran quite competently with Leopard, albeit a bit slowly, but still quite usable for those sorts of tasks).

 

[Trout74]

Actually he wants the Mac BookPRO 17 inch model so he can see better, so I assume he will be fine with 17" PRO, and not wait for the update coming.

Trout

 

[Batt]

Actually he wants the Mac BookPRO 17 inch model so he can see better, so I assume he will be fine with 17" PRO, and not wait for the update coming.

Trout

MacMall has/had the last gen 17" (2.33GHz) for $1999. I bought it for $2099 on 11/30, saved a ton of $, and it does all he wants, including video chats, as well as the newer, more expensive, one.

 

[killmoms]

Actually he wants the Mac BookPRO 17 inch model so he can see better, so I assume he will be fine with 17" PRO, and not wait for the update coming.

Trout

The MacBooks and MacBook Pros have the same DPI on their screens (approximately), so he won't really be able to see better, just have more desktop area. Apple still hasn't enabled the resolution-independent hooks in OS X and not all app developers have designed their apps to behave well with it either, so it'll be a while before we have a true "increase the size of things" solution in OS X.

 

[bijou]

When you go to the Apple store make him take a long hard look at the iMac (24"). It is much easier on the eyes than a laptop and although it doesn't have the convenience of a laptop, he'll get better features for the $$. My father uses an iMac and he loves it!

 

[chaosbunny]

If your dad wants a lower res screen so that everything is bigger I would trade you my 15" powerbook for this new mbp.

But honestly maybe consider a used 17" G4 pb with the lower 1400x900 resolution. It will still do everything your father needs and will be way cheaper.

 

[Pees330]

I would recommend the Macbook for him. It doesn't seem that he needs anything with great power, plus the Macbook's are great machines. If money is not an issue, then you could of course go for the MBP.

 

[byke]

get him a macbook air, its lighter and has a better keyboard for him.