iMac G5, Finland, the US, and problems?

[riku]

Hello all I'm a new member here and I'm looking to buy a new mac.

So I'm choosing between an iBook or iMac (yes I know that's a little odd :-D )

So my situation is this:
My cousin is in the US for a few months and he would be able to buy me a Mac (for a lot less money than I could buy it here) and then send it to me.

My question(s) is this:
If I were to let him buy it for me and send it to me are there any regional differences (electrical, keyboard and so on...) that I would have to know about. An iBook from the US would have the wrong keyboard (no Å Ä Ö buttons, they are important here in Finland :-D ) Is it possible to change the keyboard? The iMac would not have that problem, but does OS X have any big differences if you buy it from the US or Europe? The powercord would need an adaptor would it not (iMac)?

And does anyone have any idea what it costs to sen an iMac to Europe (Finland) with UPS, DHL, FedEx?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Ugg]

Hello all I'm a new member here and I'm looking to buy a new mac.

So I'm choosing between an iBook or iMac (yes I know that's a little odd :-D )

So my situation is this:
My cousin is in the US for a few months and he would be able to buy me a Mac (for a lot less money than I could buy it here) and then send it to me.

My question(s) is this:
If I were to let him buy it for me and send it to me are there any regional differences (electrical, keyboard and so on...) that I would have to know about. An iBook from the US would have the wrong keyboard (no Å Ä Ö buttons, they are important here in Finland :-D ) Is it possible to change the keyboard? The iMac would not have that problem, but does OS X have any big differences if you buy it from the US or Europe? The powercord would need an adaptor would it not (iMac)?

And does anyone have any idea what it costs to sen an iMac to Europe (Finland) with UPS, DHL, FedEx?

Thanks in advance!

I believe you can change out the keyboard. Take a look on eBay. You can also just switch the keyboard layout although the keys wouldn't match what you're typing. I do that quite a lot when typing in German although I have a hell of a time remembering where the @ symbol is.

OSX should be the same, only the language changes. Yes, you would need a voltage adaptor, but I'm sure they're easy and inexpensive to come by. There's a thread here somewhere about a woman who brought her iMac to the UK and fried it because she didn't realize she needed a voltage thingie.

My guess is that shipping charges for an iMac are going to be around USD 100-150. Go to FedEx or DHL and you should be able to get an estimate if you can provide the weight and dimensions of the carton. If you do it this way though there is a very good chance that Finnish customs is going to get you for tax and duty. It would be better if it were to travel with your cousin when he comes back. Even then there's a chance that they might still charge duty since he's only been out of the country for a few months.

Also, the warranty is only valid in the US, so, if you have problems, you could get it repaired but you would have to send it to the US and pay to have them ship it back to you. That could prove to be very expensive.

 

[skubish]

US iMacs don't have autoconfiguring power adapters. They only work on 110V 60Hz. I don't know about getting a different keyboard for the iBook. I suppose it is possible, I just don't know how much it would cost.

 

[riku]

Okay thanks for the info guys!