My father's dilemma...

[asparagus]

Greetings to all.

My father is a doctor whose practice is moving over to electronic medical records. They have not fully adopted (the software actually isn't fully installed on their server), but the entire practice is moving over to EMR within the near future.

He needs a machine to interface with the server for the remote processing of forms.

He actually *could* run everything in OSX only, and simply do a window of the server, but he wants to run BootCamp to keep business and personal lives totally separate.

Here's the dilemma.

He needs portability. He moves from patient room to patient room constantly, and can't be plugging in power adapters all day long. He needs about 6-10 hrs. of battery life to last him through the day.

Financing additional batteries is no problem. However, charging them up, is.

He has seriously looked into a Vaio, which has a separate charging location for spare batteries. This *would* function, and the Vaio is much lighter (sub 4 lbs.).

He would like a Mac...but he, and I, cannot find any way to charge spare batteries outside of the laptop. He doesn't want to have to deal with swapping batteries at night, and running around worrying about charges.

Does anyone know of any way to resolve this problem? Should he go with the Vaio?

Thanks for any assistance,

David

 

[Warbrain]

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/

Scroll to the bottom of the page, they have a charger/conditioner for batteries. Oddly enough, I don't know if they make one for the MacBook/MacBook Pro yet.

 

[butaro]

buy 2 macbooks?
hehe

 

[asparagus]

Yeah, we found those. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that that specific company had MBP chargers. We didn't call their PR guys, but we figured if it wasn't listed, it didn't exist - at least for that company.

The main reasons not to buy two MBP's was simply that a) it would look slightly shady if an IRS auditor ever questioned - he's going to use it somewhat for personal activities, and wanted to avoid any questioning along those lines.

Also, he was looking at the 15" MBP, and the idea of shelling out an extra 2 grand to charge a battery wasn't the highest on his list of priorities. Also, it's a second machine to get old and replace in the future. The costs of the laptops are effectively reduced from their before-income taxes, as each person's expenses are traced to their own accounts. So while cost isn't a big factor, it's an expensive battery charger.

 

[Warbrain]

Yeah, we found those. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem that that specific company had MBP chargers. We didn't call their PR guys, but we figured if it wasn't listed, it didn't exist - at least for that company.

They might have it but just not have it up. The guys are top-notch - I just ordered from them and it was totally hassle free. If you call or e-mail, they'd be able to help you a whole lot.

 

[iBookG4user]

I have a somewhat similar dilema. I had to get a laptop for school and I had no trouble with the battery on my iBook and expected the same on my MacBook Pro, but it doesn't last nearly as long as I expected, so I got a second battery. Once one battery is depleated I put in the other and when I get home, I charge the first battery and when that's done, put in and charge the second battery. I suggest that you use that stradegy, but I also suggest that you get the macbook and not the macbook pro, because of the improved battery life and lighter weight.

 

[FFTT]

Your father could quit medicine and make a fortune selling MacBook Pro battery chargers

I have a feeling that the Vaio's battery life specs are based on extreme power conservation.

Any laptops with similar specifications to the MacBook Pro are going to have about the same battery life.

Your father may want to consider an iMac for his office and either a MacBook Pro
or well equipped MacBook for his true portable needs.

I would also recommend the 160 GB perpendicular Hard Drive and the lower
spec 128 MB VRAM if battery life is crucial.