2 Many Apple Laptop ?'s

[your_dreamguy]

Hello,

A while ago, I made a post about purchasing a new laptop. I'm leaning towards an Apple and I have a few questions:

1. Will an Apple still run Microsoft and other products such as: MSN Messenger, WORD, Excel, AIM, Yahoo Messenger?

2. Some people have said Apple is virus proof, even checking out porn sites, how is that possible?

3. What about Apple's customer service and follow-up?

4. I heard that Apple has specific Apple retail stores that sell for close to wholesale? If that's the case, I would not need to look at various websites and shop around? Correct?

5. Is it worth it to wait to buy during Christmas time and wait for a sale or does Apple not lower it's prices during the Christmas time?

6. Is a new update or version of Apple's laptops coming out soon (i.e. should I wait for that)?

7. How long can I use my new Apple laptop before it gets outdated and I would need to buy a new one again?

8. How do you sell your laptop after you're done and want to move on?


Look forward to your responses. If you're currently using an Apple laptop could you please mention that in your response.

Thanks

 

[landlover]

1. an apple will run of those programs you listed, just need a mac version.
2. Virus, I have a mac and have for several years and have never had a virus. i think they are virus proof because the virus' are designed for PC not macs, not sure though.
3. Customer service is great, you buy and never have to worry about it. not 1 problem with the unit i have now or the 2 others I have owned in the past and it is over 2 years old, it has never crashed.
4.you are correct thier are apple retail stores, however i don't know if they sell the goods for wholesale.
5. im not sure of this either.
6. check apple.com for this.
7. my brother has had his apple laptop for about 3 years, he still uses it for buisness.
8.ebay

 

[dseagrav]

Hello,
A while ago, I made a post about purchasing a new laptop. I'm leaning towards an Apple and I have a few questions:

1. Will an Apple still run Microsoft and other products such as: MSN Messenger, WORD, Excel, AIM, Yahoo Messenger?

No. Apple computers cannot run PC software. Microsoft does make Apple-specific versions of their Office software (Word, Excel, etc.) but the rest is up to chance. Apple computers have completely different insides from a PC.

2. Some people have said Apple is virus proof, even checking out porn sites, how is that possible?

Same reason as #1. Nobody makes Apple-compatible viruses.

3. What about Apple's customer service and follow-up?

It's either really good or really bad, never in between and usually at random.

4. I heard that Apple has specific Apple retail stores that sell for close to wholesale? If that's the case, I would not need to look at various websites and shop around? Correct?

Apple is the only seller of Apple products. They don't have clones or compatibles like PCs do. Apple sets the sale price for all of their products and their resellers do as they are told.

5. Is it worth it to wait to buy during Christmas time and wait for a sale or does Apple not lower it's prices during the Christmas time?

Don't remember. If they lower prices, it won't be by much, they sell on a pretty low margin anyway.

6. Is a new update or version of Apple's laptops coming out soon (i.e. should I wait for that)?

Yes, but you shouldn't wait for it, it's still a year or two away.
Apple is changing from PowerPC-based processors to Intel processors, but they will still be incompatible with PC software after the change.

7. How long can I use my new Apple laptop before it gets outdated and I would need to buy a new one again?

As long as you like. Apple products tend to last far longer than their PC counterparts, and once it is doing a given task it will continue to do that task until you break the computer or bearings/fans/etc. wear out. Keep it clean and take care of it and you can get 10-15 years out of the average Apple laptop.

8. How do you sell your laptop after you're done and want to move on?

EBay.

 

[flydrummer]

Hello,

A while ago, I made a post about purchasing a new laptop. I'm leaning towards an Apple and I have a few questions:

1. Will an Apple still run Microsoft and other products such as: MSN Messenger, WORD, Excel, AIM, Yahoo Messenger?


2. Some people have said Apple is virus proof, even checking out porn sites, how is that possible?

3. What about Apple's customer service and follow-up?

4. I heard that Apple has specific Apple retail stores that sell for close to wholesale? If that's the case, I would not need to look at various websites and shop around? Correct?

5. Is it worth it to wait to buy during Christmas time and wait for a sale or does Apple not lower it's prices during the Christmas time?

6. Is a new update or version of Apple's laptops coming out soon (i.e. should I wait for that)?

7. How long can I use my new Apple laptop before it gets outdated and I would need to buy a new one again?

8. How do you sell your laptop after you're done and want to move on?


Look forward to your responses. If you're currently using an Apple laptop could you please mention that in your response.

Thanks

1. Yes, you can run all of those applications on a MAC.

2. Apples are not virus proof but most of the viruses out there are written to only infect Window's operating systems. Virus protection is recommended, however I've been using MACs for about 17 years without it and have only run across one virus.

3. I've always had great experience with Apple's customer service. The standard one year warranty covers anything that can go wrong with it. Laptops are costly to fix so I would suggest you buy Apple Care which extends your 1 year warranty to 3 years.

4. Hmmmm, not sure about this one

5. They usually don't have any holliday sales. None that I've seen at least.

6. They just had an upodate about 2 months ago. I don't think you'll see another update for at least 6 to 8 months. If you need the comuter just get it. If you wait to get the "latest" machine you'll be waiting forever. The laptop you get now will be great for at least 3 years.

7. Again....3 to 5 years

8. I've had good luck selling two of my MACs on eBay for a decent price.

Hope that helps. Of course when I start my Private Pilot training all of the software home based instruction packages (Gleim, Cessa, King) are PC based. I need a PC..hahah

 

[Hair-on-Fire]

Disclaimer, I'm a big Apple fan and have an iBook and a G5 desktop as well as a couple iPods.

1. Microsoft makes a version of Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) that's for the Mac as well as Messenger and Apple's iChat is compatible with AOL IM. If there is a program that’s not available for Mac you can get virtual PC and run windows on your Mac. I’ve got Virtual PC on my desktop but not on my laptop and am able to do everything I want.

2. I read in a magazine there are about 90,000 know viruses for the windows platform and less than 100 known for the mac. And most of those are pretty old and don’t impact the new operating system – OSX. Probably a couple reasons:
1. Hackers probably don’t spend much time on a OS that only has 3% of the market
2. The UNIX basis for OSX is inherently more secure than windows.
3. Apple spends more time on producing quality/secure programming
You can surf the porn sites to your hearts content. J

3. I’ve been happy with the Apple customer service. The only complaint I have is that the basic warranty is only 1 year. You can buy an extended warranty if you’d like

4. The apple stores are the best. Great place to check out and play with all the products and ask questions of people that actually know something about what they’re selling. Many of the stores teach free classes on using the software and have a “genius bar” where you can bring your mac to ask questions about or to get help with a problem. It is such a great service to be able to be able to sit with a tech person and show them the problem you’re having and get it resolved right there (FREE). No talking over the phone. Of course you can use the phone support if you’re not close to an apple store. Regarding pricing, Apple really controls their pricing between their website/stores/authorized retailers. I’ve always bought strait from Apple, but you might be able to buy through macmall.com or somewhere and save sales tax if Apple has an Apple store location in your state.

5. Not going to see much price movement through the year even at Christmas. No reason to wait.

6. Starting next year Apple is going to start switching to Intel processors starting with the laptops. Don’t know what to tell you about this. Apple is saying that the programs will be able to run on both the pre and post Intel machines. Computers are like any technology. As soon as you buy it they’re coming out with something better and cheaper.

7. This is not an apple specific question and it really depends on what you’re doing with the laptop. My iBook is 2.5 years old and is still great for internet, Word, Excel, Email etc. Still does everything I want it to. Not as fast as a new one, but I figure if you get 3 years out of a laptop you’re doing pretty well

8. Ebay I guess.

Overall I’ve been most impressed with the quality of the Apple products and software. The operating system is super stable (no blue screen of death) and everything works so well together. If you plug something into the USB port the OS just knows what it is and what to do with it. No crazy IRQ setting and the wacky stuff from the windows world. Everything just works.

Just my experience. Good luck

 

[CA1900]

Hello,

A while ago, I made a post about purchasing a new laptop. I'm leaning towards an Apple and I have a few questions:

Good to hear! I think you'll be very happy with it. I'll try and answer as many questions as I can:

1. Will an Apple still run Microsoft and other products such as: MSN Messenger, WORD, Excel, AIM, Yahoo Messenger?

As for Word and Excel, they've been out for the Macintosh platform for years longer than their Windows counterparts. So yes, definitely. (Although you'll need the Mac versions of them; you can't just use your Windows CD.) A 30-day test drive of Office 2004 is included.

A very, very good AIM client is built into the OS (called iChat), or you can download AIM for Mac. Yahoo and MSN both have Mac versions of their chat clients available.

2. Some people have said Apple is virus proof, even checking out porn sites, how is that possible?

Better engineering, and that's not an exaggeration. Some claim the small user base is the reason, but it's much, much more than that. While a smaller base of installed computers makes it less of a target, a better design makes it a much harder target to hit.

Very briefly, while the current Mac OS is only about 4 years old, it's built on top of a variant of unix (called FreeBSD), which is a stable, proven platform that was designed from the ground up as a multi-user system. What that means is that, even though you may only have a single user on your computer, other programs are also restricted from having free run of your computer.

Programs can't install without your hand-typed password. Programs run for the first time are caught by the OS and brought to your attention, asking if you really meant for this new program to run. I made a post some months ago regarding their iBook model: Read more if you like. Apple's Security Page also adds good information.

There are NO VIRUSES on the Mac. None. Zero. Don't waste your money on anti-virus or anti-spyware at this point. If the "zero" status ever changes, then I'll consider it. It hasn't happened yet.

3. What about Apple's customer service and follow-up?

Consistently rated the top brand for service and support, year after year.

Consumer Reports has an article this month comparing various brands, and Apple once again had the fewest number of repairs and serious problems of all the major brands, followed by Sony and Dell. Gateway was among the worst. In June, tech support was surveyed: Apple got a reader average score of 81%, while the next best was Dell at 57%.

For a laptop, I do recommend budgeting for the extra two years of warranty (called AppleCare), just because of all the delicate equipment that gets banged up on the road. You don't need to buy it with the machine; you can purchase it near the end of the regular 1-year warranty. That's what we did, and it paid off when my wife's trackpad started going a little nuts.

I called the support line Monday (and spoke to a gentleman in Toronto, not Bangalore), and a box showed up Tuesday on my doorstep. I put the laptop in, and he took it away. On Thursday morning, the repaired machine was back in my hands. If I'd brought the machine to an Apple retail store myself, it would have been a day faster (no wait for the box), and it still would have been delivered right to my home. I've been very happy with the little service I've needed.

4. I heard that Apple has specific Apple retail stores that sell for close to wholesale? If that's the case, I would not need to look at various websites and shop around? Correct?

No, they're not close to wholesale at all -- the prices are pretty consistent no matter where you buy them. The stores are nice, though, and all the equipment's there to try out, with no pressure at all. If you want to read tech specs and such, you can look at the Apple Store Online.

5. Is it worth it to wait to buy during Christmas time and wait for a sale or does Apple not lower it's prices during the Christmas time?

No, they generally don't do Christmas sales and such. They introduce new products and speed bumps pretty regularly; the iBooks were just sped up a couple of months ago. No reason to wait if you're ready now.

6. Is a new update or version of Apple's laptops coming out soon (i.e. should I wait for that)?

I'd bet that's at least a year away. Apple's going to be switching processor families from PowerPC to Intel, because IBM has been unable to provide a low-power version of their G5 processor. The laptops are powered by the G4, which is very fast, but not the very fastest as it was before. Do keep in mind that the processors are radically different as far as speed comparisons; a 1.33GHz PowerPC G4 is roughtly equivalent to about a 2.7GHz Pentium 4. The PowerPC does more per clock cycle, which is why they don't compare directly on clock speed.

7. How long can I use my new Apple laptop before it gets outdated and I would need to buy a new one again?

I'd say a minimum of four years, honestly. Apple machines are usable for a long, long time. I have an old G3-powered 466MHz iBook from 2000 that's still a viable machine, running the latest version of the OS thanks to a memory upgrade. Not speedy anymore with today's software and bloated web pages, but it has WiFi and makes a great on-the-road laptop. (My primary machine isn't a laptop at the moment, so I take that one with me.)

8. How do you sell your laptop after you're done and want to move on?

I sold an old one from my closet (bought in 1998, I think) to a company called PBFixit for parts, and got $200 for it just a few weeks ago. You could sell it on eBay for a pretty good price too, of course.

Just for comparison's sake, a new 12" iBook G4 goes for $999 today. I looked on eBay, and found This iBook: A 3.5-year-old 12" G3-powered one, with less memory, currently at $520, with four days left for bidding. The resale market for Macs is quite good.


I hope that helps, and let me know if you have further questions.

 

[sbav8r]

check this site for news and buyers guide.

macrumors.com

These guys follow rumors on Macs as closely as the regional thread guys keep up with industry gossip. However, they do seem to be a bit more accurate. The buyers guide tells you when the last update was and when the next one can be expected.

Here's the buyers guide. It says a new update is likely for September, Skywest is purchasing Great Lakes, and Mesa pilots will now be flying 74's under the current 70 seat contract.

buyers guide

 

[wxman13]

CA1900's post was right on and covered all the important points. Macs are rock solid.

I will just add two short things--the current line of iBooks is *very* similar to comparable PowerBooks (the aluminum ones). Unless you are doing movie editing, statistical processes, database management, or anything else involving large files and heavy processor requirements, save the money and get an iBook. They will be more than enough for your average MS Office tasks, Internet, and so on.

Also, if you are afffiliated with an educational institution, Apple offers somewhat discounted prices ($100-$300 less on computers), but you MUST purchase directly from Apple either online or in one of their retail stores to get those prices.

Happy shopping!
Peter

 

[Thedude]

Condsider buy a refurb laptop from Apple or one of the re-sellers such as smalldog.com. Just watch the special and sometime you can get a really great price. the refurbs carry the same 1 year warranty and come with all the software pre-installed just as if you had bought in new from Apple.

Depening on what your are gonna use your laptop for...i would steer you toward a 12.1 Ibook. The newer ones are built a little more rugged and the size in perfect for people on the move.

 

[jknight8907]

Hello,

A while ago, I made a post about purchasing a new laptop. I'm leaning towards an Apple and I have a few questions:

1. Will an Apple still run Microsoft and other products such as: MSN Messenger, WORD, Excel, AIM, Yahoo Messenger?

Yep.

2. Some people have said Apple is virus proof, even checking out porn sites, how is that possible?

99% of viri are written in 'Windoweze'. They simply don't run on the Mac OS X operating system.

3. What about Apple's customer service and follow-up?

My experiences have been awesome.

4. I heard that Apple has specific Apple retail stores that sell for close to wholesale? If that's the case, I would not need to look at various websites and shop around? Correct?

No. The largest price difference I've ever seen in all my researching is $5....so not really any point in shopping around a lot. The only way to get a discount is to qualify for the student/teacher/gov. discounts from Apple, buy a refurb, or buy used. Also some other website or store may be offering, say, a free printer or some other promotion that would make it better than store.apple.com

5. Is it worth it to wait to buy during Christmas time and wait for a sale or does Apple not lower it's prices during the Christmas time?

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

6. Is a new update or version of Apple's laptops coming out soon (i.e. should I wait for that)?

Could be. Check out www.macrumors.com's buying guide and the forums there for opinions by people 'in the know'.

7. How long can I use my new Apple laptop before it gets outdated and I would need to buy a new one again?

A very long time, possibly longer than you would get out of a windows system.

8. How do you sell your laptop after you're done and want to move on?

Just like you would anything else. eBay, newspaper, etc.

Look forward to your responses. If you're currently using an Apple laptop could you please mention that in your response.

Thanks