When should I buy?

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I have recently fallen in love with Macs and their software. I am going to buy myself a 20 inch imac, and a loved one a 13 inch 2.0ghz macbook for her birthday. I will probably be purchasing these items either next month or the month afterwards. Her birthday is in November. Should I wait and see if something better comes along? The person I'm buying for has never even touched a computer before , so I'm not buying her the super-duper 50ghz Macbook Pro. I have a limited time to wait (80 days), so I'd love to hear your advice.

 

[Silentwave]

Buy it the DAY the updates come out. Or maybe the week.

Either way you'll have a good chance of getting it by then

Since she doesn't have any Computer experience, she won't really notice if there's anything much newer than that, so its better to be safe than sorry. But i'd at least buy the latest revision.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I'd like to have the best iMac I can get ASAP.... however, she doesn't need cutting edge. I will wait until October to buy for her. She thought that the macbook was the coolest thing on the face of this planet. She probably wouldn't notice the difference between a PC from 2000 and a supercomputer.

 

[azzurri000]

I think you should wait as long as possible to order the MacBook, because there might be updates with nice surprises, and she might find her gift. That would certainly ruin any surprise...

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I think you should wait as long as possible to order the MacBook, because there might be updates with nice surprises, and she might find her gift. That would certainly ruin any surprise...

True, I want the box to look brand new. You know how boxes get dented and scratched up. This is a pretty big milestone birthday (60), so I want it to be perfect. She freaked out when she saw the widgets (especially the sudoku one).


I have no Mac experience (save for a few hours), so I'm looking forward to teaching myself. I'm just tired of the crap that comes along with PCs. Both the Mac software and hardware is perfect. My mom visits often too, so she could easily find a box with a big apple on it. That would ruin everything. I might buy from CompUSA or the Mac store at the Orlando Mall at Millenia. Is the AppleCare plan worth the dough?

 

[azzurri000]

True, I want the box to look brand new. You know how boxes get dented and scratched up. This is a pretty big milestone birthday (60), so I want it to be perfect. She freaked out when she saw the widgets (especially the sudoku one).


I have no Mac experience (save for a few hours), so I'm looking forward to teaching myself. I'm just tired of the crap that comes along with PCs. Both the Mac software and hardware is perfect. My mom visits often too, so she could easily find a box with a big apple on it. That would ruin everything. I might buy from CompUSA. Is the AppleCare plan worth the dough?

That's really nice, I'm sure she'll love it

I'm actually in the same boat in terms of Mac experience. My friend introduced me to his beautiful PowerBook last year, and it was love at first sight hehe. With the lappie, that is. I also plan on buying my first Mac soon.

From what I've read on these forums, it is a good idea to get AppleCare for portables, because they're more prone to breakage.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

Everything is so thought out on these machines! I will probably definitely get it for the notebook (I've had to get several fixed), but should I get it for my personal iMac?

 

[azzurri000]

Everything is so thought out on these machines! I will probably definitely get it for the notebook (I've had to get several fixed), but should I get it for my personal iMac?

I did a search and came up with this thread
that heavily recommends AppleCare for iMac users.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I did a search and came up with this thread
that heavily recommends AppleCare for iMac users.

More money down the drain!

I guess I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Can Mac OS X write to NTFS? (Not that it really matters, my Windows days are over).

 

[ddrueckhammer]

More money down the drain!

I guess I'd rather be safe than sorry.

You know you don't have to buy it until next year if you don't want to right?

 

[azzurri000]

More money down the drain!

I guess I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Righto... you don't have to buy it right away, though, you have a year. Hope that I've helped somewhat

Edit: I was totally munching on some cake and got beat to the punch by ddrueckhammer

 

[Chaszmyr]

I would get AppleCare for the 'book but not the iMac.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

Thank you all! I know NOTHING about Apple's products besides my iPod. If I bought an iMac and AppleCare this second, would I have 4 years (3+1) of protection?

 

[balamw]

would I have 4 years (3+1) of protection?

No, 3 total (1+2).

B

 

[FFTT]

Call up Apple @ 1-800-MyApple and order direct from them.

If you're buying new you'll always get the latest updates buying direct.

If you don't have credit cards, just place your order, get the Apple account information and wire the funds from your bank direct to Apple.

It's actually faster than waiting for a credit or debit transaction to clear.

Apple considers your order pre-paid when you wire funds that day.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I have credit cards. I want to be able to buy the notebook in time for her birthday, so I'll probably buy mid-October to make sure that shipping won't affect the big day! I plan on ordering both machines right then and there.


Does os x write to ntfs?

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Does os x write to ntfs?

No, but it can read. It can read/write FAT32, but i've heard its very unstable, so it's not recommended.

 

[FFTT]

I'm pretty far removed from the Windows world, but I do use PGP desktop
for encryption.

I can write, chat, e-mail and store with complete security.

http://www.pgp.com/

http://www.pgp.com/products/netshare/faq.html

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I appreciate all of your help.... as you can see, I'm slowly switching my entire family!

I plan on using my kickass pc for a file server (750 gb).

 

[FFTT]

We have a lot of switchers that turn their P/C's into Linux servers or they wipe the
HD and retire their P/C for clean trouble free OFFLINE gaming.

If you MUST use your P/C for some special dedicated Windows Only application, you can either do so offline or only when you're connected to a known secure server.

All you normal daily online stuff gets done without worry under Mac OSX.

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

Consider me switched! I have the money set aside for it right now.... all I'm doing is waiting for her bday. I had ubuntu hoary on my desktop (dapper wouldn't boot on it). I might just use it for that. I have a ton of dvds and mp3s that I don't want on my mac. I want to start fresh with a beautiful iMac.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Consider me switched!

welcome to a life less frightening

as you know by now, if you have any questions, here is the place to be.

 

[reflex]

No, but it can read. It can read/write FAT32, but i've heard its very unstable, so it's not recommended.

Where have you heard this?

If it were unstable, you wouldn't want to use usb thumb drives with it, they're all formatted as FAT32. And since everybody and their dog support FAT32, I'd be very surprised about any unstability.

 

[FFTT]

I found a link that explains MAC OSX Filesystems
http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/osx/arch_fs.html

This stuff is waaaay over my head, but you can read it yourself to learn more.

"NTFS
Mac OS X includes read-only support for NTFS"

 

[iDavidLeeRoth]

I will probably be very comfortable on mac because of my linux experience. However, learning the beautiful UI will be the best part. My mom's first PC will at least be a quality one without viruses or crapware.