Buying two Macbooks this week...

[Naeeldar]

Well me and the gf both need new laptops and we are both set up picking up a pair of macbooks in the next few days.

Were both first time apple owners and I've been doing some research on things I will want after ownership (adium etc... )

Anyway I'm wondering if there are any deals to be had out there or diff specials to get on the notebook itself or accessories?

Or are we pretty much stuck paying full price in store?

OH also any accessories we will want to purchase right away? Been going back and forth on picking up Office for mac or maybe iWork will be enough (honestly I only want a MS money type program as does she). Any old word processor/spreadsheet program would be fine as we only need the most basic features.

Anyway it's odd for me to feel lost when it comes to PCS and I feel like I've stepped into a whole new world I know nothing about.

Sigh and I also still need to find a good portable case also.

 

[bigrash]

If you're in school, you can use the apple educational discount so you don't have to pay full price

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: bigrash
If you're in school, you can use the apple educational discount so you don't have to pay full price

I've toyed around bringing my kid sister with us. I know my other sister got a pretty nice discount in high school and at the time we had used my gfs grad id (expired now).

I'm not sure if that would work normally though.

 

[ubercaffeinated]

if you guys both have id's, and the expiration date isn't obvious, you can use them still. they don't probe. i didn't even have my id with me in jan when i used my edu discount for my mom. they just asked for the zipcode of the school and a printout of my latest class schedule. they are pretty lax in general.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: makoto00
if you guys both have id's, and the expiration date isn't obvious, you can use them still. they don't probe. i didn't even have my id with me in jan when i used my edu discount for my mom. they just asked for the zipcode of the school and a printout of my latest class schedule. they are pretty lax in general.

Well I never went to college and she hasn't been in grad school even for 4 years.

I know she's getting us about 70 off each through her company. From what I remmeber that was pretty close to education discount I think anyway.

Oh extended warranty? Needed? Worth it?

 

[Parasitic]

University discounts only work for 1 laptop per academic year, so there's really no way to look at that.

One place for deals is the Clearance section on the Apple store website, especially if you don't need the newest or the best and can live with a previous generation model. Another place to look is Newegg (if you're not in California) or Amazon (if you're not in WA) - that way you don't have to pay the hefty sales tax.

By the way the pricing on iWork '08 only allows one installation per license (i.e. on one computer), so you might want to look at Office 2008 H&S edition instead; they're $129 on Amazon.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Parasitic
University discounts only work for 1 laptop per academic year, so there's really no way to look at that.

One place for deals is the Clearance section on the Apple store website, especially if you don't need the newest or the best and can live with a previous generation model. Another place to look is Newegg (if you're not in California) or Amazon (if you're not in WA) - that way you don't have to pay the hefty sales tax.

By the way the pricing on iWork '08 only allows one installation per license (i.e. on one computer), so you might want to look at Office 2008 H&S edition instead; they're $129 on Amazon.

Hmm 08 has multiple lincesess? Seems like a no brainer then for me and the gf then.

 

[bearxor]

Keep in mind that the Entourage in teh Home and Student edition does not support Exchange servers.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar

Originally posted by: Parasitic
University discounts only work for 1 laptop per academic year, so there's really no way to look at that.

One place for deals is the Clearance section on the Apple store website, especially if you don't need the newest or the best and can live with a previous generation model. Another place to look is Newegg (if you're not in California) or Amazon (if you're not in WA) - that way you don't have to pay the hefty sales tax.

By the way the pricing on iWork '08 only allows one installation per license (i.e. on one computer), so you might want to look at Office 2008 H&S edition instead; they're $129 on Amazon.

Hmm 08 has multiple lincesess? Seems like a no brainer then for me and the gf then.

I think the Student and Home edition has 3 and the Professional has 2 (strictly speaking, 1 desktop and 1 laptop).

 

[Megatomic]

If you only need basic office app features, NeoOffice is free and works pretty well on my macbook. I'm going to be getting Office 08 Home and Student Edition next month, but NeoOffice is working fine so far.

 

[Naeeldar]

Well I think I am the only one out there who can manage to destroy the OS on a Macbook first day of ownership. Somehow during my office install I got a similiar blue screen of death (basically grey screen telling me to reboot).

Well I can't seem to get the stupid thing to boot from OS disk for repair. And now I'm not even getting an error screen thing won't turn on stays black and beeps like crazy at me 9-10 times waits a minute or so and then beeps again.

Sigh hopefully they can fix this at the store tomorrow. I hate having a brand new product break like that.

 

[bearxor]

Try resetting the PRAM.

Turn it comepletely off, press the power button and hold down the Option + Apple + P + R keys. You should hear it chime four times (keep it held down). See if that fixes you.

Remember, Macs don't crash. They just 'Unexpectedly quit'.

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: bearxor
Try resetting the PRAM.

Turn it comepletely off, press the power button and hold down the Option + Apple + P + R keys. You should hear it chime four times (keep it held down). See if that fixes you.

Remember, Macs don't crash. They just 'Unexpectedly quit'.

Won't even letm e do that although I did try earlier.

As far as I can tell it's not getting far enough into boot up to do it. I'm betting money on either HD failure or ram failure.

Lucky me. Gf's macbook works great. I was just lucky enough to find one with a bad piece of hardware. Happens but man does it suck.

 

[bearxor]

Reset the PMU?

Pull the battery and hold the power button down for 30 seconds.

 

[Naeeldar]

I swear my luck this week. I took the macbook in and it goes and boots up right away no issues nothing. I spent 4 hours messing with it last night and it did nothing but sit on the couch overnight. I'm starting to think ram was loose or something and it settled from car ride but who knows.

Now to figure out the new commands I need to learn and different widgets/software I should download.

 

[Parasitic]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar
I swear my luck this week. I took the macbook in and it goes and boots up right away no issues nothing. I spent 4 hours messing with it last night and it did nothing but sit on the couch overnight. I'm starting to think ram was loose or something and it settled from car ride but who knows.

Now to figure out the new commands I need to learn and different widgets/software I should download.

Your MB has the "service-tech jittery syndrome" lol.

Did you get AppleCare?

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: Parasitic

Originally posted by: Naeeldar
I swear my luck this week. I took the macbook in and it goes and boots up right away no issues nothing. I spent 4 hours messing with it last night and it did nothing but sit on the couch overnight. I'm starting to think ram was loose or something and it settled from car ride but who knows.

Now to figure out the new commands I need to learn and different widgets/software I should download.

Your MB has the "service-tech jittery syndrome" lol.

Did you get AppleCare?

Haven't bought it yet but I will probably pick up in next few months. I'm planning on paying off a 5k loan first week of May so wanted to do that first before I spend more money.

Do have a quick question though. Is it possible to view my work e-mail through the web? I can't seem to get it to long into the web exchange.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Naeeldar
I swear my luck this week. I took the macbook in and it goes and boots up right away no issues nothing. I spent 4 hours messing with it last night and it did nothing but sit on the couch overnight. I'm starting to think ram was loose or something and it settled from car ride but who knows.

Now to figure out the new commands I need to learn and different widgets/software I should download.

Guide to the Mac

Guide to Leopard

These are of course, shameless plugs, but other have found them useful, so maybe you will too

 

[Naeeldar]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: Naeeldar
I swear my luck this week. I took the macbook in and it goes and boots up right away no issues nothing. I spent 4 hours messing with it last night and it did nothing but sit on the couch overnight. I'm starting to think ram was loose or something and it settled from car ride but who knows.

Now to figure out the new commands I need to learn and different widgets/software I should download.

Guide to the Mac

Guide to Leopard

These are of course, shameless plugs, but other have found them useful, so maybe you will too

Thanks found both of them very useful. Now I think I have a grasp on everything I need for now.

One question is there any decent finance type programs for the Mac? I used MS Money on my old notebook. The only thing I've found for the mac so far is quicken but it sure seems to have a huge amount of people trashing the program. Not sure it will be worth the 50 bucks to purchase but I can't seem to find any alternatives.