Questions about international Mac purchase

[Tired8281]

Hi. I've decided it's about time to buy myself a Mac. I usually live in Canada, but I'm currently visiting the US. I feel it's pretty likely that there will be an update on Tuesday, so I plan to buy a week from Monday when I am in Las Vegas (if I'm wrong, and there is no refresh, I'll probably still buy, as I need a new computer regardless). I do have a few questions...

1. If I buy a Macbook Pro 13 at the Apple Store in Las Vegas, can I buy AppleCare in Canada when I get home (as opposed to buying it at the time of purchase, in the US)?

2. Will Apple Canada cover a US-purchased Macbook Pro, or will I have to go to the US for service?

3. If I go cheap and get the lowest options for RAM and HDD (for the Macbook Pro 13), can I upgrade them myself later without voiding my warranty?

4. What would be the drawbacks of only getting 2GB of RAM? I tend to perform two or three tasks at a time on the computer, rarely more.

5. Is it worth it to get the Apple Remote? I watch a lot of media, and I used a USB-connected remote control on my old Windows computer (I don't have it anymore).

Thank you very much for your considered advice.

 

[Nermal]

2. Will Apple Canada cover a US-purchased Macbook Pro, or will I have to go to the US for service?

3. If I go cheap and get the lowest options for RAM and HDD (for the Macbook Pro 13), can I upgrade them myself later without voiding my warranty?

I believe that the warranty is global. I've had no trouble with getting my US-purchased, self-upgraded MBP fixed under warranty in NZ.

 

[RudyGrow]

3. If I go cheap and get the lowest options for RAM and HDD (for the Macbook Pro 13), can I upgrade them myself later without voiding my warranty?

4. What would be the drawbacks of only getting 2GB of RAM? I tend to perform two or three tasks at a time on the computer, rarely more.

5. Is it worth it to get the Apple Remote? I watch a lot of media, and I used a USB-connected remote control on my old Windows computer (I don't have it anymore).

3. Yes

4. It will be slower than 4gb? I myself had a machine with 2gb of ram, but upgraded it to 4gb. The difference isn't tremendous, but it is noticable.

5. I would, or get an iTouch/iPhone (they can double as a remote.)

Hope my input is something of use

 

[Tired8281]

Well, I guess I was wrong about the 9th, and I'm getting a current-gen (unless Apple really surprises and updates later this week...I pull the trigger on the 15th).

How much slower is slower, when it comes to 2GB of RAM versus 4GB? I know it's hard to quantify, but I've never used a machine with more than 2GB of RAM, and I found the 2GB machines (admittedly, with Windows and Linux rather than OSX) to be crazy fast, and they all had processors that were much, much slower than a Core 2 Duo. The only terribly taxing task I tend to undertake is video encoding...will that be strongly affected by a lower amount of RAM? I'm just trying to get an idea of whether or not I could handle having only 2GB of RAM for six months or so before I upgrade, or if it would be too annoying.

Another question...can Mac read NTFS-formatted disks?