My Dad's looking at switching from Windows and buying a Mac. And he's looking at switching from his weird assortment of mobile phones he's had over the years to an iPhone. I talked him into this so I can stop having to fix weird issues with his computer stuff. He can just March down to the Apple
Store if he needs help and I'm not available...
What's weird about his set-up that I'm not sure what to do about is the only Internet access he currently has is through T-Mobile with a hotspot device called Mifi. He gets about 3.5 GB of data per month with this thing. And he's keeping his usage down to a GB or 2 per month. He doesn't do any YouTube or Netflix stuff. It's just web browsing and email as far as the Internet is concerned.
Part of why he's keeping his Internet usage so low is he's simply not applying any of the updates that Microsoft releases. Like even his anti-virus definitions hadn't been updated in six months the last time I saw his computer.
Maybe he should just pay the extra $40/month and get wired Internet access in his house. But he splits his time between two small properties he and my Mom own in two different cities. If he got Internet access in one place, it's only solve half the problem. And he really doesn't want to pay even the $40/month.
What I'm worried about with a new Mac for him is performing regular system updates will consume so much data that it won't be a good solution. His regular usage patterns will fall down low enough that Internet access through his mobile phone provider is reasonably priced, but doing those updates could push costs up high enough, we need to do something else.
Shopping around, I'm looking at a Verizon prepaid plan (which allows you to tether) for him. Data costs $20 for 3 GB. Anybody has a good idea how much data it takes per month to perform regular system updates on a Mac? He'd be running the operating system (of course) with included email, browser apps, and he'd be running word processing and a little bit of spreadsheets. So that's all he'd need to keep updated. Might might be a few other things, like Flash..
I'm not so worried about keeping an iPhone and probably an iPad updated for him because he's frequently in places like libraries and restaurants where they have public Wifi access. He can just update his iPad and iPhone whiles he's there. He can click "Update" and leave them on the table while he's eating or whatever.
But if he gets a Mac desktop, it won't be so easy to bring it around somewhere with free Wifi for updating. What I was hoping for is he could do something like download to his iPhone the updates for his Mac desktop. And then when he gets home, apply them to his Mac desktop.
But talking to The Apple Store on the phone this morning, Apple doesn't have any functionality like that. In fact I was told it is impossible to update a Mac that is not directly connected to the Internet. Like the update process won't even work if there's not an active connection.
One solution is just to get a laptop instead of a desktop, I guess. But for other reasons, I was thinking a desktop would be better for him... The laptop would require less bandwidth for updating because he could just carry his laptop to somewhere that has free Wifi and perform his updates there.
Anyway, in picking a set-up for him, I'm trying to figure out what to do about his Internet access, ideally without spending any more money than what he's spending now on Internet access.
Store if he needs help and I'm not available...
What's weird about his set-up that I'm not sure what to do about is the only Internet access he currently has is through T-Mobile with a hotspot device called Mifi. He gets about 3.5 GB of data per month with this thing. And he's keeping his usage down to a GB or 2 per month. He doesn't do any YouTube or Netflix stuff. It's just web browsing and email as far as the Internet is concerned.
Part of why he's keeping his Internet usage so low is he's simply not applying any of the updates that Microsoft releases. Like even his anti-virus definitions hadn't been updated in six months the last time I saw his computer.
Maybe he should just pay the extra $40/month and get wired Internet access in his house. But he splits his time between two small properties he and my Mom own in two different cities. If he got Internet access in one place, it's only solve half the problem. And he really doesn't want to pay even the $40/month.
What I'm worried about with a new Mac for him is performing regular system updates will consume so much data that it won't be a good solution. His regular usage patterns will fall down low enough that Internet access through his mobile phone provider is reasonably priced, but doing those updates could push costs up high enough, we need to do something else.
Shopping around, I'm looking at a Verizon prepaid plan (which allows you to tether) for him. Data costs $20 for 3 GB. Anybody has a good idea how much data it takes per month to perform regular system updates on a Mac? He'd be running the operating system (of course) with included email, browser apps, and he'd be running word processing and a little bit of spreadsheets. So that's all he'd need to keep updated. Might might be a few other things, like Flash..
I'm not so worried about keeping an iPhone and probably an iPad updated for him because he's frequently in places like libraries and restaurants where they have public Wifi access. He can just update his iPad and iPhone whiles he's there. He can click "Update" and leave them on the table while he's eating or whatever.
But if he gets a Mac desktop, it won't be so easy to bring it around somewhere with free Wifi for updating. What I was hoping for is he could do something like download to his iPhone the updates for his Mac desktop. And then when he gets home, apply them to his Mac desktop.
But talking to The Apple Store on the phone this morning, Apple doesn't have any functionality like that. In fact I was told it is impossible to update a Mac that is not directly connected to the Internet. Like the update process won't even work if there's not an active connection.
One solution is just to get a laptop instead of a desktop, I guess. But for other reasons, I was thinking a desktop would be better for him... The laptop would require less bandwidth for updating because he could just carry his laptop to somewhere that has free Wifi and perform his updates there.
Anyway, in picking a set-up for him, I'm trying to figure out what to do about his Internet access, ideally without spending any more money than what he's spending now on Internet access.
) but you can just leave it be.