Looking at buying a Mac

[dclive]

For the "needs" you stated, getting a mac would probably be a nice purchase.

Personally tho, and I'm not trying to hate on apple, I don't jive well with mac. I purchased an iMac recently and had to take it back within a week and exchange it for a PC because of the compatibility issues.

When buying Apple, keep in mind that it is kind of a walled in garden. My experience was this, in point form

-i enjoy video gameplay capture, edit and upload to youtube
-got a mac on hearsay that mac is superior to pc for video editing in terms of smooth processing, rendering etc
-my hauppage hdpvr for gameplay capture was not compatible with mac. hauppage did not offer a patch or anything for compatibility
-no mac freeware for compatibility, had to purchase a $30 application
-said $30 application worked well but...
-imovie, a staple of advertising for mac was not compatible with hauppage video recording format: m2ts
-purchased $30 file converter "featured by apple btw" from apple appstore to convert to imovies preferred format: AIC
-said file converter crashed thrice and left no option but to restart my computer

take my experience and consider that you may run into a similar compatibility issues.
Basically what I'm saying is that the problem is not necessarily with the hardware or software, but rather with the lack of support for OSX among software developers.

Sorry to kind of put a damper on it all, and again, I'm not trying to hate on apple, but what I am saying is that my personal experience was unpleasant with my personal hobbies and interests that I wanted to use my imac for. You may or may not run into the same problems due to dissimilar interests and hobbies.

I liked how smoothly imovie DID run mind you, and garage band came preloaded with some great loops that had me slappin together songs straight out of the box! The resolution of the screen was fantastic and all apple products are extemely aesthetically beautiful, and they emanate a statement of affluence just by having them in the household.

The integrated email consolidation thing was pretty sweet too. You just register your email addresses, and similar to your iphone, all your email is consolidated into one handy, easy to navigate application, which is pretty sweet.

Your choice OP, but my personal suggestion is to stick with windows for better OS compatibility support from software developers. Otherwise, you may find yourself doing a lot of shopping on the appstore, searching the web for third party applications, etc etc that windows would likely offer support for with much less hassle. At least thats how it was for me

I think a lot of your issue is with a lack of familiarity with the platform. For example, on the Mac, the converter of choice is (free) Handbrake. Grab it and give it a shot.

 

[alent1234]

For the "needs" you stated, getting a mac would probably be a nice purchase.

Personally tho, and I'm not trying to hate on apple, I don't jive well with mac. I purchased an iMac recently and had to take it back within a week and exchange it for a PC because of the compatibility issues.

When buying Apple, keep in mind that it is kind of a walled in garden. My experience was this, in point form

-i enjoy video gameplay capture, edit and upload to youtube
-got a mac on hearsay that mac is superior to pc for video editing in terms of smooth processing, rendering etc
-my hauppage hdpvr for gameplay capture was not compatible with mac. hauppage did not offer a patch or anything for compatibility
-no mac freeware for compatibility, had to purchase a $30 application
-said $30 application worked well but...
-imovie, a staple of advertising for mac was not compatible with hauppage video recording format: m2ts
-purchased $30 file converter "featured by apple btw" from apple appstore to convert to imovies preferred format: AIC
-said file converter crashed thrice and left no option but to restart my computer

take my experience and consider that you may run into a similar compatibility issues.
Basically what I'm saying is that the problem is not necessarily with the hardware or software, but rather with the lack of support for OSX among software developers.

Sorry to kind of put a damper on it all, and again, I'm not trying to hate on apple, but what I am saying is that my personal experience was unpleasant with my personal hobbies and interests that I wanted to use my imac for. You may or may not run into the same problems due to dissimilar interests and hobbies.

I liked how smoothly imovie DID run mind you, and garage band came preloaded with some great loops that had me slappin together songs straight out of the box! The resolution of the screen was fantastic and all apple products are extemely aesthetically beautiful, and they emanate a statement of affluence just by having them in the household.

The integrated email consolidation thing was pretty sweet too. You just register your email addresses, and similar to your iphone, all your email is consolidated into one handy, easy to navigate application, which is pretty sweet.

Your choice OP, but my personal suggestion is to stick with windows for better OS compatibility support from software developers. Otherwise, you may find yourself doing a lot of shopping on the appstore, searching the web for third party applications, etc etc that windows would likely offer support for with much less hassle. At least thats how it was for me

apple has imovie for the home users and 2 products for the Pro/wannabe pro market

 

[master7045]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I hadn't checked this in a couple of days and didn't realize all the posts! alent, I appreciate your concern and you laid out your problems without soundling like a fanboy, althrough, I think you are attempting to perform tasks that I will never do. IE, I don't capture my gameplay (I game on consoles). The only video editing we would be doing would be from our Pentax DLSR and would be home movie types. Same with photo editing, we take tons of pictures of our son & family (non professionally) and my wife likes to touch them up (remove red-eye, acne, crop, change color, etc) nothing fancy, just a quick touch up. We still need to head to either BBY or an apple store and mess around w/ the form factor and see which one we prefer. Or we could always buy a new big screen... decisions decisions.

 

[alent1234]

bought the 13" MBP last night. was thinking about the refurb but ended up buying new. once i saw the MBP and MBA in the store side by side i lost all interest in the MBA.

 

[sourceninja]

When buying Apple, keep in mind that it is kind of a walled in garden.

It's not kinda a walled garden at all. It's a open platform that anyone can write software for. The lack of software does not equal walled garden.

IPad/Iphone = walled garden (requires apples approval to offer software)
OSX = not walled garden (Anyone can release any garbage they want and apple can't do squat).

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

It's not kinda a walled garden at all. It's a open platform that anyone can write software for. The lack of software does not equal walled garden.

IPad/Iphone = walled garden (requires apples approval to offer software)
OSX = not walled garden (Anyone can release any garbage they want and apple can't do squat).

You can also run web apps which are completely open.

 

[TheStu]

n/m

 

[Oyeve]

So, you had a problem with your one device and one piece of software and from that you drew the conclusion that OS X is a walled garden with no software support from developers?

OK then, based on the $0.38 in my pocket, extrapolate my net worth.

Relax dude, he gave his opinion and he said it maturely.

 

[master7045]

...based on the $0.38 in my pocket, extrapolate my net worth.

You're net worth isn't worth crap, especially in Naperville, I know, as I graduated from NCHS in '02. Anyway, just saying "hi" since were (originally for me anyway) from the same town.

 

[TheStu]

Relax dude, he gave his opinion and he said it maturely.

Yea, you're right. I edited it. Crap at work leaked over to here.

You're net worth isn't worth crap, especially in Naperville, I know, as I graduated from NCHS in '02. Anyway, just saying "hi" since were (originally for me anyway) from the same town.

I just moved here about 9 months ago actually. But I hear ya about the net worth thing in naperville.

 

[AGENT_P6]

OP considering your needs I would say a Mac would probably be great for you and the Mrs.

Maybe I spoke prematurely and perhaps the options would have been there for my issues if I grinned and bore the learning curve.

For the amount that u have to pay for a MacBook pro I would suggest considering the iMac. It's not much more expensive and will grant you better performance, albeit at the cost of lack of portability of course.

Sorry if I offended anybody with my post...didn't mean to really, just wanted to say how I felt using it as an average guy that doesn't know a heck of a lot about the ins and outs of different OS'

@TheStu: no worries dude, I understand how ppl might've taken my post as a little harsh towards apple and/or naively spoken. I never was good at extrapolating from a given set a data

 

[master7045]

I'm locked in w/ portability as a top request. I don't need a powerful static workstation as I have my home-built PC which has been rock solid for several years. Maybe once this craps out, I'll go 100% Mac and grab an iMac. But at this point, not needed. I'm strongly considering a MBP w/ a SSD. Just need to get out and play with the devices themselves. Thanks again everyone who has made suggestions, tips, etc.

 

[master7045]

Well I just picked up a MBA 13" 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. Only used it for a quick Facebook post and this really. So far so good. I have no idea how to do anything though , will take some time to become a apple geek. I went with the Air after realizing that it had an i5 and 4GB of RAM. To me, this is a full fledged laptop, not a netbook/laptop hybrid. The most intensive work that it will see is some photo editing and maybe some video editing of home movies as I stated earlier. Also, apparently there is a decent chance that down the road I can upgrade the SSD if I want to get crazy. The good news is that I have the samsung SSD which according to Anand is the better one to have, yay for me. The trackpad is awesome too, I love the scrolling ability of it and I'm sure thats only scratching the surface. I've already contemplating going with the 27" iMac for my home office use....Must shred the credit card.

 

[Patranus]

Well I just picked up a MBA 13" 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. Only used it for a quick Facebook post and this really. So far so good. I have no idea how to do anything though , will take some time to become a apple geek. I went with the Air after realizing that it had an i5 and 4GB of RAM. To me, this is a full fledged laptop, not a netbook/laptop hybrid. The most intensive work that it will see is some photo editing and maybe some video editing of home movies as I stated earlier. Also, apparently there is a decent chance that down the road I can upgrade the SSD if I want to get crazy. The good news is that I have the samsung SSD which according to Anand is the better one to have, yay for me. The trackpad is awesome too, I love the scrolling ability of it and I'm sure thats only scratching the surface. I've already contemplating going with the 27" iMac for my home office use....Must shred the credit card.

Heh, thats usually how Apple products work.

 

[Kadarin]

Well I just picked up a MBA 13" 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. Only used it for a quick Facebook post and this really. So far so good. I have no idea how to do anything though , will take some time to become a apple geek. I went with the Air after realizing that it had an i5 and 4GB of RAM. To me, this is a full fledged laptop, not a netbook/laptop hybrid. The most intensive work that it will see is some photo editing and maybe some video editing of home movies as I stated earlier. Also, apparently there is a decent chance that down the road I can upgrade the SSD if I want to get crazy. The good news is that I have the samsung SSD which according to Anand is the better one to have, yay for me. The trackpad is awesome too, I love the scrolling ability of it and I'm sure thats only scratching the surface. I've already contemplating going with the 27" iMac for my home office use....Must shred the credit card.

Congrats, and enjoy! :thumbsup: