powerbook or Dell?
Posted by: Sloop John B on 30 June 2006
yes this laptop I'm using with Windows 98 on it is reaching the end of the road, things going very slow.
I'm wondering whether to go the Mac route or stay with what I'm used to.
So come on you mac-men convince me.
will it seamlessly (I actually detest the overuse of this word but sometimes it just happens to be the right word) connect to my windows home network (wireless) and make me cool at the same time?
SJB
I'm wondering whether to go the Mac route or stay with what I'm used to.
So come on you mac-men convince me.
will it seamlessly (I actually detest the overuse of this word but sometimes it just happens to be the right word) connect to my windows home network (wireless) and make me cool at the same time?
SJB
Posted on: 02 July 2006 by garyi
Just one or two words of caution Slop.
Firstly Mac is going very much down the same route as every other computer company in terms of customer service. I bought an iMac for my dad its 6 weeks old and the last 3 weeks has been in for repair it was going to take until end of July before I went chicken oriental. The good news is it goes to an apple service centre and they deal with it, but if anything does go wrong don't expect a 2 day turn around.
And secondly get your mac from the apple store or from an apple store I cannot stress this enough do not save yourself 12 quid by getting it elsewhere. If you get it from apple you might get a little delay of say a week but you will be getting the latest one out of the factory. This is important because they recently had an issue with heat dissipation which was down to various things which have now been fixed. You have no need to concern yourself over it, if you get it from the apple store! John Lewis might have had theres since day one.
If you want to run things like Aperture into the future then don't skimp on the model or ram, I run Aperture it is the single most important programme I have ever purchased.
Lastly you will love it, I only know of one person (Alexg) who owned a mac and wanted to get back to PC and thats because his was broken but he would not have any of it.
Have fun.
Firstly Mac is going very much down the same route as every other computer company in terms of customer service. I bought an iMac for my dad its 6 weeks old and the last 3 weeks has been in for repair it was going to take until end of July before I went chicken oriental. The good news is it goes to an apple service centre and they deal with it, but if anything does go wrong don't expect a 2 day turn around.
And secondly get your mac from the apple store or from an apple store I cannot stress this enough do not save yourself 12 quid by getting it elsewhere. If you get it from apple you might get a little delay of say a week but you will be getting the latest one out of the factory. This is important because they recently had an issue with heat dissipation which was down to various things which have now been fixed. You have no need to concern yourself over it, if you get it from the apple store! John Lewis might have had theres since day one.
If you want to run things like Aperture into the future then don't skimp on the model or ram, I run Aperture it is the single most important programme I have ever purchased.
Lastly you will love it, I only know of one person (Alexg) who owned a mac and wanted to get back to PC and thats because his was broken but he would not have any of it.
Have fun.
Posted on: 02 July 2006 by Sloop John B
quote:Originally posted by garyi:
If you want to run things like Aperture into the future then don't skimp on the model or ram, I run Aperture it is the single most important programme I have ever purchased.
This looks an interesting program.
Could you expand on what you used before and what advantages it has?
What sort of spec are you recommending?
Regards,
John
SJB
Posted on: 02 July 2006 by garyi
If photos are your thing then aperture is amazing.
Luckily I work in a school so got a substantial discount making the software £130
Before I was using an, erm, slightly warm version of photoshop and aperture is not really intended to compete with photoshop.
But if you consider what you mostly use photoshop for. Image enhancement, cropping that type of thing then aperture does that. What aperture does different is it works on your raw files in real time and virtually. That is to say any adjustments you make can be reversed at any time, and I don't mean multi undo, I mean if you have say sharpen, crop and saturation applied, you can go back and remove just the sharpen 3 months later.
When you use it it seems so bloody obvious but the best photoshop has to offer is history, or you can fark around with layers all day.
If you have a run of photos all with the same issue, say under exposure you can fix one then lift and stamp these corrections over the batch. Again photoshop offers similar but so much more clunky and cludgy.
The downside to aperture is its is a serious, and I mean serious memory killer. It wants a lot of ram a good graphics card and the wind behind it. When it first went out professionals went mental because it was unusable but now it is fully usable. I am not a professional but I love it. I have not used photoshop since.
I am not dissing photoshop, if you want to do serious graphics manipulation then PS is your man, if you want a workflow for quick and easy image fixes and output Aperture wins hands down.
I cannot recommend an iMac maxxed with ram and aperture enough for the home user it really is a total solution for people with cameras.
Luckily I work in a school so got a substantial discount making the software £130
Before I was using an, erm, slightly warm version of photoshop and aperture is not really intended to compete with photoshop.
But if you consider what you mostly use photoshop for. Image enhancement, cropping that type of thing then aperture does that. What aperture does different is it works on your raw files in real time and virtually. That is to say any adjustments you make can be reversed at any time, and I don't mean multi undo, I mean if you have say sharpen, crop and saturation applied, you can go back and remove just the sharpen 3 months later.
When you use it it seems so bloody obvious but the best photoshop has to offer is history, or you can fark around with layers all day.
If you have a run of photos all with the same issue, say under exposure you can fix one then lift and stamp these corrections over the batch. Again photoshop offers similar but so much more clunky and cludgy.
The downside to aperture is its is a serious, and I mean serious memory killer. It wants a lot of ram a good graphics card and the wind behind it. When it first went out professionals went mental because it was unusable but now it is fully usable. I am not a professional but I love it. I have not used photoshop since.
I am not dissing photoshop, if you want to do serious graphics manipulation then PS is your man, if you want a workflow for quick and easy image fixes and output Aperture wins hands down.
I cannot recommend an iMac maxxed with ram and aperture enough for the home user it really is a total solution for people with cameras.
Posted on: 02 July 2006 by garyi
BTW don't base your purchasing on this programme that would be silly, but just so you know even apple don't recommend a standard macbook for Aperture, you want a Pro.
Posted on: 02 July 2006 by garyi
And one other thing, Adobe are fighting back with Lightroom, check it out (although it is nothing like aperture)
Posted on: 03 July 2006 by Alan Paterson
Get a mac - you won't look back. I wonder if i can copyright this? Lol.
Posted on: 03 July 2006 by rocketboy
Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac, Mac...
You turn it on and it works. No viruses, no BS. Spend more time doing things you like to do, like all that Naim gear in the corner, instead of dealing with Windows issues.
Rocketboy (Apple since OS7)
You turn it on and it works. No viruses, no BS. Spend more time doing things you like to do, like all that Naim gear in the corner, instead of dealing with Windows issues.
Rocketboy (Apple since OS7)
Posted on: 03 July 2006 by kuma
Get a Mac®. 
(Apple since IIGS/OS)
(Apple since IIGS/OS)
Posted on: 04 July 2006 by Steve G
quote:Originally posted by garyi:
Lastly you will love it, I only know of one person (Alexg) who owned a mac and wanted to get back to PC and thats because his was broken but he would not have any of it.
What about me? I've owned several macs (and still own one) but much prefer PC's.
Posted on: 04 July 2006 by garyi
Ok then, two people.
Posted on: 04 July 2006 by Greggles
I, like many, was lured to the dark side (as my IT manager describes Macs) by the purchase of an iPod video about a year ago. I know own 3 (iMac G5 plus Intel MacMini and MacBook). I am continually impressed by all of them. The MacBook is absolutely fantastic - far better than my similarly priced work laptop (Dell). Even my IT manager was impressed by iChat AV (video conferencing). NB any would-be switchers who live near an Apple Store should invest in a Procare card. It allows you to book unlimited one-to-one training sessions with the experts.
Posted on: 04 July 2006 by Chris Kelly
Kuma
Another II GS veteran here! Only just finally thrown it out, though it had not been out of the attic since we got back from the US in '89. It was even more streets ahead of its contemporary PCs than the current Macs are against theirs.
garyi
Thanks for the sidebar discussion about Aperture.
It won't run on my G4 Mac and that might be enough to launch me into switching to a MacPro of some description with as much RAM as it can hold! Once Aperture can open my Leica RAWs I'll be totally sorted.
SJB
Do it! Get a Mac!
Another II GS veteran here! Only just finally thrown it out, though it had not been out of the attic since we got back from the US in '89. It was even more streets ahead of its contemporary PCs than the current Macs are against theirs.
garyi
Thanks for the sidebar discussion about Aperture.
It won't run on my G4 Mac and that might be enough to launch me into switching to a MacPro of some description with as much RAM as it can hold! Once Aperture can open my Leica RAWs I'll be totally sorted.
SJB
Do it! Get a Mac!