Macbook? for University now? or wait?

[Eric Lewis]

Ok, so im in grade 10 right now! and i have a part time job(well just started and made like 200bucks) now...i finally convinced my rent to let me get a mac laptop for school..which id take to university in 2 years)
i wouldnt get the laptop till like aug. early sept....i have to pay $1200 cnd with my money (and the black one is $1544 with my sisters university discount) so my rents would pay 350 and then the tax(which is 14%)
as of right now i want to be an architect and go to waterloo...but who really knows..(maybe a teacher?).its to early to tell(i want a laptop in grade 11,12 for notes/presentations etc)....now if i buy this black macbook with 2ghz, 120gb, 1gig ram now...will it still be good enough for university 2 years down the road? (well ill prob. upgrade it to 2gig the following year or (some christmas) and then the hard drive to 200gig(or whatever the biggest is...now in 2 years would a 2ghz, intel core 2 duo, 2gigs, and 200gig hard drive(after i eventually top it off) be good for university..(then after university..id by a new one)

1) id put windows xp pro on it, cause some architect programs only run on windows...
2) id do light video editing(in iMovie, with iDVD) to edit home videos...and older things on my video camera...just for like a hobby....but after i make the movie..import the clips...id delete it off my hard drive!
3) id prob...do very very very very basic photoshop things...like very very very basic...(i barely know how to use it now) lol
4) is macs like used/and works well with universitys?
5) id do lots of essays, writings etc with word, keynote, exel etc..so id get office mac, and iwork..right?
6) and would my cannon zr400 work with imovie, and the firewire cable?
7) is there any architecht programs like to design homes etc for macs?
8) is applecare really worth it?
9) and is $1544 cnd a good price for an Macbook in black at the store? plus id get a free ipod shuffle(which is going on till october 2007) at my sisters university? so i could always sell it(cause i already have a silver, and orange)
10) how would i get files off my ancient eMac with 10.2 onto my macbook...like itunes...photos...documents with out a firewire cable!

thanks so much ahead of time...and if this works out well in aug...my mom said shed look into a 24inch iMac wooooo!

and one more thing...there would be at least one update before augest/sept...and i thinking correct! like there hasent been an update in a while...and thats like 6 months down the road roughly till sept(i dont care about leopard.(ill get it eventually)...cause tiger is still the best operating system now! lol)
i hate it when i buy something like...right after i cant return it(like 30days...) a new one comes out...its happens so many times! uh!

 

[karichelle]

While I can't answer all of your questions, I can answer a few. I do, however, want to say that since you are in grade 10 right now, it's highly likely that any computer, Mac or not, that you would buy now, will be very outdated and slow by comparison in 3 years. My iBook that recently died was purchased my sophomore year of college, and I am now in my second year of graduate school...it's very old, slow, and has trouble running a lot of "new" software simply because it barely meets the requirements. It was still very dependable up until the TSA equipment at the airport smacked it around, but the processor speed lacked a lot to be desired. For that reason, I would recommend you wait until at least grade 12 before buying a computer for college...besides, who knows what cool new thing Apple will have out by then?

Now, onto the questions...
- Macs work great at universities...in fact, better I think because you don't really have to worry about catching the latest Windows virus from the campus network (unless, of course, you are running Windows )
- I don't think you need both Office and iWork...I'd say one or the other would be sufficient but your university would probably recommend everyone use Office for compatibility purposes.
- Applecare is very worth it...hard drive replacement alone in my iBook will run $300 at the Apple Store, $270 at a respected reseller...for that price, it's cheap insurance

 

[zioxide]

Intel is supposed to be releasing a new mobile platform within the next month which should make it into the apple notebooks by the summer, so definitely wait until then.

The Macbook will be a great computer for you, but if you get it now, expect to probably get a new computer again after your freshman or sophomore year of college. Computers really will only last you 3-4 years.

Get the 2GB of ram, it will make a huge difference.

Macs are great for college. I'm in college and use a Mac, and never have to deal with any of the extra security they have to prevent viruses on the network from windows pcs.

I'd recommend Office for Mac over iWork, because you'll have easy compatibility if you need to work on documents and send them to your friends who have windows pcs, and its been around longer so it has more features. Office 2008 for Mac should be coming out this fall I think.

Your canon minidv camera should work fine with iMovie.

AppleCare is definitely worth it. If you have any problems at all, it will cover them.

I'm not sure about architecture programs.

Also, to get files off your eMac, you could do a firewire network which would probably be the easiest. There's also the option of using a regular LAN, usb flash drive, or external hard drive to transfer the files.

 

[protocol7]

wait