Was thinking about getting an Ibook or a Macbook around the 15" not that makes a difference. I've got a Toshiba Table at the moment and only use it now to check mail, surf the web, a bit of photoshop and MSN plus movies nothing major anymore was my Uni work horse. What i want to know is there MSN on a mac and will i be able to do the above on an ibook/mac booka nd what you recon would be the best choice. Was thinking of selling or swopping my m200 tablet for one if i could. Much appreciated Morgan. [mac noob]
Yes there is MSN for the Mac, but I recommend you don't use it as it is under developed compared to the XP version... plus the fact that MS has stopped any further development in it for the foreseeable future. Your best bet is Adium X, it's a far superior messaging application than MSN imo, but as with all opinions, it's open to debate... what's not open to debate however, is that any other messaging application is better than MSN for the mac. http://www.adiumx.com/ And if all you want to do is general web surf, office and multimedia. I would suggest the new Macbooks. The bottom of the range one is a bargain at only £749 (and if you can get a student to buy it.. it's even cheaper via education discount) and comes with a 1.83Ghz Core Duo and a 13.3" screen (which is comparable to your M200 in size iirc) as well as a 60GB HDD. But I do suggest you upgrade the ram from the 512MB stock to 1GB, it does make a difference if you are a 'power' user and multi-task a lot. But then i'm biased as i'm also getting a new Macbook too!
Well you can't buy the iBooks really any more, they're discontinued. And I'm not quite sure why you'd want to, either. The Macbooks look really good for the money, far superior to an iBook. They only come in 13.3" btw, the bigger ones are the Macbook Pros which offer a few nicer features, but are a lot more expensive. Your only real issue will be with using Photoshop - There's not an Intel Mac specific version yet (Not until CS3). You can still use it, but in "emulation" mode (Rosetta) where it's pretty slow. So if you do a lot of Photoshopping, then I would keep the tablet until CS3 comes out. Otherwise, buy a Macbook
Another vote for adium. It really is a great app. Either iBook (2nd hand prices have fallen since MacBook introduction) or the MacBook will do what you need. The MacBook is alot better than the iBook, but if all you need is a typewriter/internet machine the iBook is fine. I was considering getting a MacBook but my iBook is totally fine for what I need. Its good to see more people coming to the Mac world
toshiba m200 12" 1.8Ghz Centrino 1GB Ram FX5200 GFX [32mb] 60GB HDD Wifi, Bluetooth, lan, sound 2 USB 2 ports, VGA out, PCMCIA, 2 pens Review found through google - http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2127&review=Toshiba+M200 mines slightly quicker then that one but mostly the same thing. I can for a bit extra provide a USB powered DVD drive i use with it. Morgan.
There is a MSN messenger version for mac. I use it.. I think it's alright.. it doesn't have all the flashy stuff that the XP version has.. but I does everyting I need. There are a few other MSN-Clients out there but I have no need for them. I have been having a 12" Powerbook G4 for over a year and love it to bits. I do everything on it and it's just great. But at this time (if you are buying new) then there are a few things to keep in mind. If you want a new 15" then you have to get a MacBook Pro. They have the new Intel Chips so keep in mind that most software isn't built for those yet. So it won't make use of it's full speed just yet. My advice (if you are buying a new 15" MacBook Pro) is to wait for intel-chip software (Adobe Creative Suite). I reckon that should be around newyears. Oh another thing to watch out for is the ability to expand the screen to another monitor. I could not do without this on my 12". At home I use my 20" LCD to expand to and at work I use a 17" LCD to expand to (it stores the settings, position and background for bouth). With the old iBooks you couldn't do that.. (not standard). So that is something to watch out for if you are getting those new 13" macbooks as I'm not sure if they offer spanning desktops. I hope that helps, L Remember: You'll never go back.
is there not a trillian out for MAC yet or is it just linux and windows what alternatives are there to PS i've seen the video editing sweets on MACs which is one of the reasons for looking at them, i do alot of editing sony vagus but MACs have there own which is quite nice. morgan.
Tillian isnt on OSX just yet - but see a few posts above ... Adium is by far the closest to adium / best client for msn / icq / aim / bonjour / jabber / whatever out there on the mac ... see www.adiumx.com to pick up a copy - it's freeware. As for replacing photoshop with something - the Gimp is free and pretty powerful - plus if youve ever used *nix you'll be used to it. Its free as usual and you can pull it off macupdate, versiontracker or sourceforge iirc. James
I'm a bit shocked nobody has brought this up: Macbook + Bootcamp = dual-booting OSX & WinXP If something isn't out for the Intel Mac yet, just fire it up in XP. In fact, if you had the $$ you could add tons of RAM and run XP at the same time, so you could use hotkeys to swap between OSX & WinXP. I'm borrowing my wife's iBook G4, and while it is nice, I would still gladly go with a smaller screen in order to get the intel-based Macbook. Of course, their 13 inch "smaller screen" has the same resolution as my 14.5" PC laptop, so you aren't really loosing real-estate if making the switch. Plus, with dual-booting, you don't have to make the switch, you can just take advantage of the nice looks and hardware support of apple and the software of Microsoft. (mmmm... Mac OSWin-alicious......)
the hardware support of apple usually ends with "you should have been careful, we can offer a discount on the repair charges"
what I reckon you should do is go the for the White 1.83GHz Macbook with 60GB HDD and upgrade the ram from 512MB to 2GB and then run Parallels Desktop with WinXP virtualisation. Then you can run both OSs as a switch of a button and instantly. £749 for the standard Macbook, and ~£250 for some crucial 2GB ram and then eBay the 2 x 256MB DDR-2 SO-DIMMs. Best off both worlds.
sounds like a plan i'll get it on student license see if its cheaper that way can save a few bob. Mogan.
yeah, if you do, make sure that you do it via your university computers or network, as iirc, accessing Apple's educational store via an institutional nets you larger discounts than if you access there educational store off-campus. [edit: bloody hell my english is getting crap!.. need to get some sleep]
I'd buy the ram separately though, if you upgrade it. I bought some Patriot brand DDR2-667 SODIMMs through Newegg for $185 total, took five minutes to pop them in my MBP (and by the looks, the Macbook is easier to upgrade than the MBP) and saved $300. Plus I've got the other 512mb stick around, just in case. My 2c
