First time mac owner & it's causing me financial problems :)

[Mak47]

$5k on apps & software is probably more than a bit out of the ordinary, but all the hardware isn't that strange.

The fact that Apple's products all work so well together makes it very desirable to make a complete switch. The fact that by and large, most of us have excellent shopping experiences in Apple stores also makes us as consumers want to be repeat customers.

I used Mac Pro's in my recording studios for years, but for personal use had been all PC until the iPad came out. Once I got my hands on one it was all over. Some people like to trash talk on iOS, but it's really quite brilliant. Most people still need an actual computer and all the other cool stuff that goes along with it--products like the iPad & iPhone have had a really impressive pull-through affect for Apple.

 

[PharmDoc]

For me, my gateway "drug" was the 1st gen ipod touch and I then had to go to the iphone...then the iMac, then the Macbook Air (along with the airport extreme and the apple tv 2). They all integrate so well together and the airport extreme really does have a noticeable speed difference from my old N router. Apple has me hooked...now I'm debating on whether or not I sell my iphone 4 to get the next version. I feel like that lady on the old Mervyn's tv commercials saying "Open, Open...."

 

[Chipg]

$5k on apps & software is probably more than a bit out of the ordinary, but all the hardware isn't that strange.

The fact that Apple's products all work so well together makes it very desirable to make a complete switch. The fact that by and large, most of us have excellent shopping experiences in Apple stores also makes us as consumers want to be repeat customers.

I used Mac Pro's in my recording studios for years, but for personal use had been all PC until the iPad came out. Once I got my hands on one it was all over. Some people like to trash talk on iOS, but it's really quite brilliant. Most people still need an actual computer and all the other cool stuff that goes along with it--products like the iPad & iPhone have had a really impressive pull-through affect for Apple.

Well, after racking up $500 in iTunes for JUST movies on my first gen iPad I have decided to buy the apple tv for $99 tomorrow, right after I will drive as fast as I can to best buy to drop another $2k on a sweet hd tv.

It's like smoking nicorette gum in a bong! IT's FANTASTIC!

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Hi, my name is Chip and I'm a mac addict

 

[2IS]

You people are insane.

OP, not normal. Such a devotion to one company whose only interest is you money is not healthy. You should be buying the best product, not the product with the apple on it. Sometimes the product with the apple on it is the best, but not always, and you'll never know if you're so devoted to one brand.

I agree with this, not sure why it garnished negative votes. There's nothing anti-apple about it, the man is just speaking the truth.

I was a long time PC guy and now I'm a hybrid user. The iPhone was my first Apple device and my MBA is my second, I've also used iPads extensively but don't own one. For me, I've found that I prefer Apple for my mobile devices and prefer a Windows 7 PC for my desktop to do all the heavy stuff. I'm also a PC gamer so that's a big part of it. The ability to choose any piece of hardware I want is also very valuable.

 

[jouster]

If you really needed all of it, and had the money for it, why the heck not? I restrain myself from buying a new macbook year after year. I stopped with the 09 unibody version of my macbook, the iPhone 4, and iPad 1.

I've made the decision I will not be purchasing any other product until these "die" or are useless. But before these products I had every iteration of the iPod touch, nanos, iPhones, MacBooks, and it's not worth it. Invest the money in stocks, put it in a bank, etc. The products keep coming year after year, and the newest designs make your last product feel so outdated. You either keep your addiction under control (not such a bad addiction compared to what other people do), or you'll be spending a lot of money to satisfy your technological urges.

That works for me too. If you wait until your existing stuff dies, you tend to spend less and get much bigger performance bumps. My 2006 MacBook and three year old Mini will eventually be replaced by a top of the line iMac and Air. I look forward to that day, but am not enough of a power user to initiate it early.

 

[tootall]

Thank you for this thread, it makes me feel a lot better.

In my case, like a drug, it all started slowly at first with an iPod touch. Installed mobile me and all my contacts, calendar and email were in sync. Then I figured I would give in and finally bought an iMac 27 (i7 what a beautiful beast). But then I hated using my PC laptop so I bought a duo core 13" MBP.

Wanted to take advantage of Airplay so bought an Airport extreme and 2 Airport Express (as replicator and to hook sound systems) and an Apple TV.

Seeing all this my wife gave me an iPhone 4 for my Xmas although she did not understand my addiction to these wonderful apple products. Then I just had to have an iPad 2, although it did not fit my needs (not a good purchase for me), it became the primary computer for my wife!

Right now I am waiting for the arrival of a new MBA so I can leave my MBP permanently at work and have a laptop at home.

I am hooked and admit to be huge fanboy. I am glad, I took the chance and (little) effort to switch to MACs; I should have done it a long time ago.

 

[Chipg]

I'm an idiot, I went to support my addiction today to buy a sweet looking remote control at the apple store, I told the genius it was for my air, bought it, got home and spent 2 hours holding the right & menu buttons waiting and hoping.

serious let down, why don;t they make it blu tooth or something that works with the air?

 

[talmy]

I'm an idiot, I went to support my addiction today to buy a sweet looking remote control at the apple store, I told the genius it was for my air, bought it, got home and spent 2 hours holding the right & menu buttons waiting and hoping.

serious let down, why don;t they make it blu tooth or something that works with the air?

If they did you couldn't control the computer with a universal remote (which I do all the time).

And Apple probably figures that nobody would be using a remote with a Macbook Air. I'm annoyed that my MacBook responds to IR and see commands from my Logitech Harmony Remote intended for my Mac mini entertainment center!

There are a number of Wifi solutions for remote controls that use an iPhone or iPod Touch. Maybe that would work for you ?

 

[Chipg]

If they did you couldn't control the computer with a universal remote (which I do all the time).

And Apple probably figures that nobody would be using a remote with a Macbook Air. I'm annoyed that my MacBook responds to IR and see commands from my Logitech Harmony Remote intended for my Mac mini entertainment center!

There are a number of Wifi solutions for remote controls that use an iPhone or iPod Touch. Maybe that would work for you ?

Appreciate the tip, I'll look into the other remote ideas.

 

[andrewlgm]

Well, it s a question of: Is it better for the economy for people to spend like drunken sailors, or be prudent and hoard their money like misers.

My take is:

You spend like mad so Apple's stock goes up: hence more jobs.

go for it.

That would be a positive take if it actually were true. The worst place to spend money is at apple (even though I love them). ALL of their factories are in China and by the end of the year also in Brazil. I'd say that the majority of people employed by apple are also in China. Let me throw a number out - 90% or more. All of the cash they bring back into the country is being "stored," and very small parts are being "moved" around into acquisitions of smaller companies for their patents and services - jobs are probably destroyed with these acquisitions. The few store employees, and developers, and relatively few stores out there are not that much when you compare it to the amount of cash they have and to the size of the economy.

 

[yetanotherdave]

I'm annoyed that my MacBook responds to IR and see commands from my Logitech Harmony Remote intended for my Mac mini entertainment center!

Go into system preferences > security and privacy > General.
There you can either turn off the remote receiver, or pair you mac with one specific remote, so only that remote will control your mac.

Back OT, me too, it started with a G4 mini. Then I added a white iBook G3 dual USB and an iPod photo. Forward to today and between me and my wife there are 2 MBP's (2009 and 2011), 2 ATV's, 2 time capsules, 2 airport expresses, 2 iPhone 4's, 1 iPod touch, 1 mac mini (the original G4! ), 1 iPad and 1 iPod nano. I'm done until at least the next MBP update when I hope to upgrade the 2009 MBP. Oh, and the iPhone 5. and maybe the iPad 3...

 

[-y0-]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_5 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8L1 Safari/6533.18.5)

Once you go Mac, you never go back lol.

 

[Chipg]

Well, it s a question of: Is it better for the economy for people to spend like drunken sailors, or be prudent and hoard their money like misers.

My take is:

You spend like mad so Apple's stock goes up: hence more jobs.

go for it.

Again, best mobile all around computer I have ever owned!

 

[Chipg]

I returned my $19 remote today at the apple store and walked out with an iMac

 

[Abazigal]

Understand the feeling. Got an imac 2 months back, and now have this urge to complement my collection with an iphone, ipad and macbook air!

 

[2IS]

This thread is getting obnoxious now...

 

[BayouTiger]

Macs save me money

I am also addicted, as I have an 11" 2010 MBA, a 13" i7 MBA, 17" i7 MBP, Mini for Home Theater, 27" i7 iMac, 2006 Mac Pro, AppleTv, iPhone4, 2 iPads, several iPods, Airport Extreme, 3 Airport Express's, and a 20" and 30" Cinema Display.

That's a bunch of cash sent to Cupertino, but in the long run I think I am ahead of the game overall. In my PC days, my computers were always being upgraded chasing the top spec. My 2006 Mac Pro stayed in service for over 4 years and in truth is still perfectly fine in every way except that Sandy Bridge finally has over taken it. My i7 iMac is now closing in on 2 years and is still flawless as well. Frankly, the MBP has been the only machine I haven't kept for much longer than I would have kept a PC, as I made a couple of upgrade decisions which were unnecessary.

I will be selling several of these gems in the next couple months, so some of the costs will be recouped, something that NEVER happened in the PC days. Add to the fact that nearly all my family that I used to spend HOURS providing tech support for keeping their PC's working are now using some of my Apple hand me downs and my tech support days are practically over!

I you add in the gains on the Apple stock I have bought since becoming a fan, I am way ahead of the game!

 

[orfeas0]

30 years on a pc for me, I bought a 13" i7 256g air, love it, best mobile all around computer I have ever owned!

I'm hooked, I ordered the 27" thunderbolt display, bought the 3tb time capsule, mouse, keyboard, trackpad, apple external dvd drive, g-tech external small 750g drive, about $5k in software and apps etc.

It's like a crack addiction for nerds, am I the norm?

Ohh yea, I have never owned an iPhone so I'm going to buy the iPhone 5 now...

This all started because I bought the first gen iPad. LOL

It's been expensive so far but I have to say worth every penny!

5k in software and apps?
And all those things you bought... If i had your money and was gonna spend it for apple, I would go for:
Best 11" macbook air.
Best 17" macbook pro.
Ipad 2, iphone 5.
Maybe an ACD, although if you have the 17" pro and/or a TV in your house, you don't need tha ACD.

 

[jvmxtra]

This is only problem if this is causing a serious financial problem.
I do the same thing. I used to laugh at people who tell me they work only out of mbp. Now? I am them. I don't work on anything other than my apple product at home.

 

[Chipg]

5k in software and apps?
And all those things you bought... If i had your money and was gonna spend it for apple, I would go for:
Best 11" macbook air.
Best 17" macbook pro.
Ipad 2, iphone 5.
Maybe an ACD, although if you have the 17" pro and/or a TV in your house, you don't need tha ACD.

I bought / ordered EXACTLY what I need for myself, still waiting on the TB display. That's the beauty of Apple, lots of flexibility to tailor your order per your unique needs.

 

[ThomasBoss]

My MacBook Pro does everything I need and want lol at least you are not wasting the money on drugs or gambling lol

 

[garybUK]

Good to see lessons from the economic crisis are being taken on board

But if you have the money and its something you like and use then why not. Some people like nice cars, some nice clothes etc. everyone has their vices.

 

[jahala]

Long post

I constantly have to fight back the urge to buy more Apple products. It started in 2006 when I was in college and needed a new laptop for school. At the time, I had a great 12" dell that weighed about 3 lb and had an external optical drive. I ran FreeBSD on it. I needed a more powerful machine that ran Unix, and my friend badly needed cash, so he sold me his white macbook at almost 1/2 price. Since I knew that OS X has the BSD user land, I thought why not?

After a while, I understood why the Mac was so great. The power, flexibility, and stability of Unix with a wonderful graphical user interface and vendor support that made it a first-class citizen on the internet with regard to media sold me on OS X. I had that machine for quite a while until I traded it for an HP laptop that was more powerful. I ran linux on the HP for quite a while but got tired of fighting with the system to make all the goodies like card reader, camera, etc. work. I picked up a used 15" macbook pro and enjoyed having everything just work again. My wife got that machine, and I picked up a Dell laptop. Sold that and repeated the cycle with several more PC machines until I finally got a Unibody Macbook. That was the first one I used that really had gesture support. It was the gestures that hooked me.

We sold the 15" macbook pro, my wife got ended up with Unibody Macbook and still uses it almost three years later. I have bought and sold every size Macbook and Macbook Pro. I have settled on the 2010 11" Macbook Air as my personal machine due in large part to the screen and weight. I have also had the 24" iMac, but I prefer a laptop.

Now I don't even consider anything but Macs. My friend gave me an original iPhone and pays the bill, so I use it. I don't need a phone most of the time, but I like having the camera, apps, and phone all in one device. If the iPhone 5 works on T-mobile's 3G or 4G system, I might actually buy it and sign up for a data plan. I love the retina display and use my iPhone to read ebooks.

I have used the iPad from both generations. Not the device for me, but my wife and kids loved them. I was tempted to get an Apple TV, but I ended up getting a WD HD TV Live Plus ($100) because I don't have to have another computer on to watch my media stored on the USB drive attached to my Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS).

I actually tried three different high-end wireless-N routers from two different manufacturer's before buying the AEBS. I spent hours trying to get them to do everything I wanted. In the end, I returned them all, bought the AEBS and was ready in 5 minutes with exactly what I wanted. I am extremely impressed with the throughput on this router. I can copy data between my Macbook Air and the drive connected to the router at approximately 1 GB per minute which is pretty awesome for wireless.

I am intrigued by the combination of the newest Macbook Air with thunderbolt cinema display, but cannot justify spending that much. I am editing 1080p video now, so it would be nice to have a powerful 27" iMac to make that go faster/smoother.

I am not sure if I am addicted, but I definitely have the desire to buy some of the newest apple kit because it works well for me.

 

[Chipg]

I constantly have to fight back the urge to buy more Apple products. It started in 2006 when I was in college and needed a new laptop for school. At the time, I had a great 12" dell that weighed about 3 lb and had an external optical drive. I ran FreeBSD on it. I needed a more powerful machine that ran Unix, and my friend badly needed cash, so he sold me his white macbook at almost 1/2 price. Since I knew that OS X has the BSD user land, I thought why not?

After a while, I understood why the Mac was so great. The power, flexibility, and stability of Unix with a wonderful graphical user interface and vendor support that made it a first-class citizen on the internet with regard to media sold me on OS X. I had that machine for quite a while until I traded it for an HP laptop that was more powerful. I ran linux on the HP for quite a while but got tired of fighting with the system to make all the goodies like card reader, camera, etc. work. I picked up a used 15" macbook pro and enjoyed having everything just work again. My wife got that machine, and I picked up a Dell laptop. Sold that and repeated the cycle with several more PC machines until I finally got a Unibody Macbook. That was the first one I used that really had gesture support. It was the gestures that hooked me.

We sold the 15" macbook pro, my wife got ended up with Unibody Macbook and still uses it almost three years later. I have bought and sold every size Macbook and Macbook Pro. I have settled on the 2010 11" Macbook Air as my personal machine due in large part to the screen and weight. I have also had the 24" iMac, but I prefer a laptop.

Now I don't even consider anything but Macs. My friend gave me an original iPhone and pays the bill, so I use it. I don't need a phone most of the time, but I like having the camera, apps, and phone all in one device. If the iPhone 5 works on T-mobile's 3G or 4G system, I might actually buy it and sign up for a data plan. I love the retina display and use my iPhone to read ebooks.

I have used the iPad from both generations. Not the device for me, but my wife and kids loved them. I was tempted to get an Apple TV, but I ended up getting a WD HD TV Live Plus ($100) because I don't have to have another computer on to watch my media stored on the USB drive attached to my Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS).

I actually tried three different high-end wireless-N routers from two different manufacturer's before buying the AEBS. I spent hours trying to get them to do everything I wanted. In the end, I returned them all, bought the AEBS and was ready in 5 minutes with exactly what I wanted. I am extremely impressed with the throughput on this router. I can copy data between my Macbook Air and the drive connected to the router at approximately 1 GB per minute which is pretty awesome for wireless.

I am intrigued by the combination of the newest Macbook Air with thunderbolt cinema display, but cannot justify spending that much. I am editing 1080p video now, so it would be nice to have a powerful 27" iMac to make that go faster/smoother.

I am not sure if I am addicted, but I definitely have the desire to buy some of the newest apple kit because it works well for me.

I really appreciate this story! I could never pass down a PC to my niece or nephew but they are in line for my air when it's a couple years old and I upgrade.

It seems to be the norm even with iPhones from what they tell me, I was hesitant to spend $1700 on a laptop but looking at the overall picture it's cheaper.

It reminds me of the big debate I got into about how much cheaper it is to shoot 35mm film than to buy an expensive dslr.

 

[P0stalTek]

It's gotten worse.. our Apple total has gone up by a Mac Mini, a 11" MBA, Magic Mouse, and Magic Trackpad in the last 48 hours

At least my wife is finally onboard!