Macintosh -- Will you buy one now or later?

[cstaylor]

[Greji]

[Charles]

But as an Apple user, he's no longer just one of the common rabble.

Amen, Brother! Mac rules

Well, this will be my 6th Mac, I still have them all, 2 of them in daily use now, adding the Powerbook to replace my old Pismo that suffered a miserable death after being horribly beat up on my last trip to Japan.

I think I'm going to resurrect my old IIcx so I can get some old multimedia projects off it, they only run in Macromedia Director 2.0 and I can't upgrade them to current Director versions without exporting them from the original machine. Oh man have I got some history in that box. Here's a good example, one of the few things I remembered to save off my IIcx. It's an Apple promotional montage I whipped up with my Polaroid SX-70 camera, an early scanner and Barneyscan (a/k/a Photoshop 0.87), must have been around 1989..

Oh man the LA Apple reps went nuts for that, I had to print out dozens of copies on my color inkjet. Yeah, it's a sloppy Photoshop job, but back then, NOBODY was doing this kind of stuff yet.

[nullpointer]

NOBODY was doing this kind of stuff yet.

Yup. Considering that all the buildings are converging at some point above them.

OOPS

[Charles]

NOBODY was doing this kind of stuff yet.

Yup. Considering that all the buildings are converging at some point above them.

OOPS ]
Well, I got pretty close, considering the skew functions in Barneyscan were so primitive. And the SX-70 camera had a really wide angle lens, which complicated things. This was my first real Photoshop montage. I do much better nowadays.
You know, the funny thing is, my new cell phone has a startup screen with almost exactly this same photo, taken from the same spot (but no macs).

[emperor]

New iBook, Mac mini part numbers appear
http://www.thinksecret.com/news/0507ibook2.html

[amdg]

[Charles]

[emperor]

[Charles]

I sympathise, but the dancing banana didnt seem very appropriate.

I am absolutely fed up with people telling me what is and isn't appropriate regarding my situation. I just spent the last year dealing with my 5 psychotic sisters who are raging at ME because of their guilt over being unable to rise to the task of caring for our dying mother. They even raged at me because they feel excluded since I was there holding her hand when she breathed her last breath, a scene of such horror that I dare not describe it to my sisters (which makes them even crazier). They have no idea how much grief I saved them from. So save your assessments of what is and isn't appropriate until you've walked a mile in my shoes. I use the dancing banana because my duties are coming to an end, I can go back to completely ignoring my psychotic siblings again, and that my Mother wisely made provisions to make sure I was financially well off enough to get out on my own despite the massive interference from my neurotic siblings (which of course just made them even madder).
No, emperor, it wasn't that much money, just more than I ever had in my life, which isn't much. I tried to get my Mom to live long enough to receive her final alimony payment, which was huge. But she died 5 days before she got that payment, so she never got to enjoy the benefits of that money. And it doesn't go far split amongst a large family. So it was just me and 2 visits a week from nurses for baths. I would not have wished this upon anyone, even minus the family neurosis. So just spare me your rude and unnecessary moral judgements.

[emperor]

Disappointed: minor bumps in ibooks and minis

[mr. sparkle]

Disappointed: minor bumps in ibooks and minis

What are you in the market for? It's probably not the best time to buy a laptop anyway. I'd wait until MacWorld to see what happens.

That being said, it's probably OK to go for a G5 tower either now or the next rev. It'll likely be awhile before the Intel Procs will be able to do as well with the altivec enhanced apps.

[emperor]

Disappointed: minor bumps in ibooks and minis

What are you in the market for? It's probably not the best time to buy a laptop anyway. I'd wait until MacWorld to see what happens.
That being said, it's probably OK to go for a G5 tower either now or the next rev. It'll likely be awhile before the Intel Procs will be able to do as well with the altivec enhanced apps.

ill probably have a new 12" ibook next to me in a few days time
its the cheapest of the apple notebooks - so not a huge investment and after a year ill probablly get back 2/3 of what i paid for it - which is ok
my dad is coming back from the states and ive asked him to get me one there @ €830, instead of paying €1059 or €996 with an edu. discount. here (our vat is 21%)

the idea is to bail out of windows xp before its becomes obsolete.
so first to go is my vaio laptop and then i still have my fairly new self-built desktop to replace, with its dodgy version of windows which now wont let me get further updates

in a years time i plan to be still carrying around my ibook around with me with thoughts of buying a G5 powerbook,
an intel powered imac as the family comp and a shuttle running a beta2 version of vista, with a decent video card for games and a big hdd for recording tv and sending it off with a slingbox

[amdg]

[emperor]

Why the fuck do some people not write wills?

There was a really wealthy guy living on my road, and who did write one and left everything to his best friend. The extended family were pissed and moreover convinced that he had hidden gold and other valuables under the floorboards of his house (cause he was a bit mad). So a group of them broke into the vacant house and pulled up all the floorboards only to find nothing.

[mr. sparkle]

Disappointed: minor bumps in ibooks and minis

What are you in the market for? It's probably not the best time to buy a laptop anyway. I'd wait until MacWorld to see what happens.
That being said, it's probably OK to go for a G5 tower either now or the next rev. It'll likely be awhile before the Intel Procs will be able to do as well with the altivec enhanced apps.

ill probably have a new 12" ibook next to me in a few days time

A god dang good reason to bring out the dancing bananas!

its the cheapest of the apple notebooks - so not a huge investment and after a year ill probablly get back 2/3 of what i paid for it - which is ok

and you'll be good to go with 512MB. Can you upgrade to 1GB?

my dad is coming back from the states and ive asked him to get me one there @ ?830, instead of paying ?1059 or ?996 with an edu. discount. here (our vat is 21%)

Oy vey!

the idea is to bail out of windows xp before its becomes obsolete.

Longhorn still likely a ways off no? Is XP really that bad?

so first to go is my vaio laptop and then i still have my fairly new self-built desktop to replace, with its dodgy version of windows which now wont let me get further updates

Oh, the educatiional bundle.

in a years time i plan to be still carrying around my ibook around with me with thoughts of buying a G5 powerbook

thweet!

an intel powered imac as the family comp and a shuttle running a beta2 version of vista, with a decent video card for games and a big hdd for recording tv and sending it off with a slingbox

What's "vista" and what is a "slingbox" old boy?

[amdg]

Why the fuck do some people not write wills?

Oh, in my case both parents have wills, but neither of them died, just a very messy divorce, where the house was quickly sold and my father and mother each had to move to pretty small apartments which weren't big enough to fit any of the furniture.

[emperor]

and you'll be good to go with 512MB. Can you upgrade to 1GB?

I was planning on seeing how it runs and swapping one of the 256 sticks out for a 512 or 1gb stick bought online (eg http://dealmac.com or ebay ) if i think its needs it, but as i will do most of my processor and ram intensive work on my rather powerful desktop its shouldnt be an issue.

my dad is coming back from the states and ive asked him to get me one there @ ?830, instead of paying ?1059 or ?996 with an edu. discount. here (our vat is 21%)

Oy vey! Rolling Eyes

I know thats a little 'jew-ey' but that money can buy more ram or accessories - and im still a student!
Actually my dad just contacted me after leaving the soho store, where he got the edu. discount too cause he was doing some teacher conference thing at a university (...?)
he also got a ipod mini and a printer cause theyre giving rebates - making them FREE
he bought applecare, which i didnt consider buying but i guess it couldnt hurt.

the idea is to bail out of windows xp before its becomes obsolete.

Longhorn still likely a ways off no? Is XP really that bad?

no ill still keep xp for games (gotta love that BF2) and... actually pretty much everything - all my program whether pirated or legit are for it so...
leopard, lynx or housecat will be out by the time ill be prepared to splash out large sums for mac software

What's "vista" and what is a "slingbox" old boy?

Vista will probably begin as a flashy but very buggy version of xp, and then turn into something that truely eclipses whats come before.

Slingbox will great for tv viewing while away from your home; at the office; in college; or in another part of the world - all the fucked gaijin will be able to watch whats recorded on their tivos under the tv of their family homes around the world from a laptop.

[Taro Toporific]

[Charles]

Good news--Bad news
Good news: Faster Powerbooks

Bad news: Powerbooks that break faster (with Sony's worst in the industry durablity and build quality)

Fortunately, it looks like Apple wants to tap Sony's x86 circuitry designers, not their industrial designers. Apple is doing pretty well lately with build quality on PowerBooks (and they damn well better at these prices) but they just don't have enough x86 hardware experts.

[emperor]

VAIObook

Do you think theyll be unveiled at Macworld in January?

... I think I originally voted 'intel' for the poll in this thread
Now that I have an ibook soon to be in my possession:
can I change my vote to power pc?

I always thought my first mac would be a powerbook...
cause Im such a posh bitch

btw PIEPOD

[Charles]

VAIObook

Do you think theyll be unveiled at Macworld in January?

From what I read (which is mostly speculation) it will probably be iMacs and Mac Minis first, then the PowerBooks and PowerMac desktops last. But maybe that's just wishful thinking since I just bought a new PowerBook, and I want to be king of the hill for a bit longer.

I don't expect any Intel Macs as soon as Macworld, IIRC they said they would start shipping Intel in the middle of '06. So Macworld would be a bit soon. These things take time.

[Caustic Saint]

I bought my 15" PB at the end of April (Tiger launch discount! ) and am very happy with my decision to buy now.

Even after the Intel models start coming out, apps will have to remain available for both for quite a while. Apple's installed base is bigger now than it was for the 68k/PPC changeover, and look how long it took before support for 68k Macs was dropped.

I doubt all the new switchers would be too happy if Apple said, "hey, we're glad you changed over to Mac, now buy a new machine since we're not going to support the one you just bought."

Mac users tend to hold onto their systems for quite a while, and Apple knows this.

[nullpointer]

Mac mini installed in the toilet

[emperor]

need some advice...

my mum stood on my ibook a couple of days ago:
no dents or scratches; it was only briefly and she isnt very big, but it was enough to make the lcd/lid and the mainportion/keyboard not line up exactly..

its about 3mm out of allignment now and it does close but needs to be slightly pushed to the side (right) in order to click shut with the catch
(& its a visible problem but only if you know youre looking for it i guess)

Im gonna be in paris next month to catch a day or two of the apple expo and then london for a few days after that - so i was gonna drop by the apple store in regent st. tosee if they would be able to do anything on the spot...

should i tell them someone sat on it instead?
can they fix stuff like that in the store - or will they have to send it off?
mr.sparkle?

Ive had plenty of people stand and sit on my vaio and its fine,
i guess the ibook is a little daintier...

[American Oyaji]

Why did your mom do something like that?

And why was it in a place where she could?

[TobidashiChui]

... admit as little as possible. Know the facts about the iBook. If you hold an iBook by the edge of the unit, it has a tendency to "flex." Many people simply press on the opposing edges to correctly realign the unit. If that fails, get in touch with Apple.

My advice: Do not admit any usage that could be intepreted as "abnormal" or "abusive." That will all but guarantee that your mother just turn your iBook into an iLunchTray.

Good luck

On the subject of the initial post, I might invest in an Apple next year, but I will never completely abandon PC-based computing. My first two Apples went defective in heartbreaking ways.

[tonikoro]

Some advice for your ibook ills,
I would take it to the Apple store and have the genius bar look at it first before trying to bend shit and fuck it up more. If you bought the AppleCare Protection plan, or if the unit is still under it's limited warranty, still customer inflicted damage to the unit will not be covered under those plans and a repair would result in customer out of pocket cost. A bit of a tough break, but it is a machine and still requires good care if you plan to use it and for it to last. I would just ask the Genius bar how much it would be to repair the bevel and glide kit on the screen. Besides that, keep your mom off of it.

[mr. sparkle]

This is something you'll have to ship to Apple Repair Facilities to handle. My Powerbook fell out of my backpack and onto my hardwood floor a number of months back. Onsite repair took care of it. I had a shattered backplate and a dead Airport card. Aside from a few scratches all is well once more. Send it in, you won't be sorry. I don't think the Genius Bar is going to do this repair, FWIW.

[Taro Toporific]

it's about 3mm out of allignment now and it does close but needs to be slightly pushed to the side (right) in order to click shut with the catch

A few months ago, the night nurses at the hopital got a frisky and knocked my Ti PowerBook off the bedtray. My Ti PowerBook was couple of mm out alignment in several directions. But hey, I'm used to autobody work so just tourqued the metal frame case by hand. As long as I applied pressure to the frame NOT the LED or motherboard it seemed safe. My fixed Ti PowerBook has worked for two months now.
Your iBook is mostly plastic covering a thin metal frame. It real repair will involve a "frame off" restoration meaning pulling the whole thing apart to get to the frame which is easy to to do IF you know what you're doing (less than 30-40 minutes for a service person). I've iBooks fully apart several times before and it's simple IF you know the tricks.