New to apple... From the uk

[jack-j100]

Hi from the uk! I'm Jack

I bought an iPhone around 8 months ago and wouldn't go back now!

So now im looking to buy an iMac as in hooked on apple tech now 8)

I've never had one and have no idea about apple desktop software really. I have just seen that OSX Mavericks has been announced at the same time at ios7. My iPhone 5 will update to ios7 thought a software updates on the phone.

Is this the same with the desktops....? As I don't want to buy a desktop to then find its out of date 5 minutes later.

Thanks in advance Jack


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[YanniDepp]

OS X updates aren't free. Before 2007, new versions of OS X cost about £90. Snow Leopard was £25, and both Lion and Mountain Lion were about £20. I'd expect Mavericks to also be about £20. For comparison, new versions of Windows cost at least £70.

But yeah, it works in a similar way. You open the App Store on the Mac, then buy OS X, then install it. You'll have to reboot a few times and it'll be installed.

Apple sometimes give you a 'free update' if you buy a new Mac just before a new version of OS X comes out. I don't know if they're doing this yet for Mavericks though.

 

[Moonjumper]

You have to pay for each new generation of OS X, but not updates within the generation.

Mountain Lion is 10.8, currently on 10.8.4. Mavericks will be 10.9 and you will have to pay for that, but not for 10.9.1, etc. The next time after that you will have to pay is for 10.10, which will be a year to 18 months later than Mavericks.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Hi from the uk! I'm Jack

I bought an iPhone around 8 months ago and wouldn't go back now!

So now im looking to buy an iMac as in hooked on apple tech now 8)

I have an iMac and they are great. If you have a decent monitor the Mac Mini's might be worth a look (as you can use your current screen(s)).
If you're looking at a fast machine go for the Fusion drive or (if you have the cash) an SSD option on the hard drive. 8gb of RAM should be plenty, but if you go for the 21" iMac you can't upgrade yourself. It always works out cheaper to do that, so bear that in mind. In the future 16 or 32 might be needed, depending on what you plan on using it for and how long you think you will keep it.

 

[jack-j100]

Thank you all for the replies great info!

I have an iMac and they are great. If you have a decent monitor the Mac Mini's might be worth a look (as you can use your current screen(s)).
If you're looking at a fast machine go for the Fusion drive or (if you have the cash) an SSD option on the hard drive. 8gb of RAM should be plenty, but if you go for the 21" iMac you can't upgrade yourself. It always works out cheaper to do that, so bear that in mind. In the future 16 or 32 might be needed, depending on what you plan on using it for and how long you think you will keep it.

I'm probably going to be spending a lot of time editing go pro hero 3 black footage.....

Nothing like 4k probly only 720 video but I've had a go in the apple store and it seems to handle it ok..... Will I need an upgrade to edit 720 60fps video ? Or will the entry iMac cope ok?





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[Apple fanboy]

Thank you all for the replies great info!
Will I need an upgrade to edit 720 60fps video ? Or will the entry iMac cope ok?
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The base unit should handle it fine.

 

[jack-j100]

The base unit should handle it fine.

Do you know approximately when it may start to struggle?


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[jack-j100]

And how often does hardware get updated?


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[Moonjumper]

And how often does hardware get updated?


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Hardware tends to get updated with each new generation of chip, but the new Haswell chip probably won't make much difference to the iMac. Although it might see an improvement is SSD upgrade prices (prices most often change as part of an update). The iMac had a new design with the last update. It is likely to stay with that for a few years, so no worry on that score.

The MacBook Air is the only Mac updated to Haswell so far. It could take many months to transition all the others, or maybe not. Some might coincide with the launch of Mavericks, but we don't know when that will be.