What problems can I expect if I buy an Apple laptop

[Mimen]

People always ask me to help them choose which Smart Phone to buy. This one I find difficult as a colleague asked me if he should buy an iMac or Windows PC.

I know there is no other product on the market, like Apple, that can seamlessly integrate between you devices, only an Apple can. You don't have to tinker to connect Apple Time-capsule, TV etc. It just works.

These are sone of the problems he could have when buying an iMac, or am I wrong on all counts:

- He will have to replace his very expensive Adobe Suite Software for the Apple version
- will be locked into their ecosystem, iTunes, Apple TV, Apple backup drive etc.
- Big earning curve for the iOS, Word, PPT version etc. (If you don't have the money to buy Windows for Apple.
- At work your email (Exchange equivalent) can be problematic to work, look up addresses, connect with LAN, using calendar etc.
- Stream to TV you have to buy and Apple TV unless you have WiFi
- Time Capsule is needed for Backups

 

[Rickster]

Apple + BootCamp = Win.

 

[$m@Rt@$$]

People always ask me to help them choose which Smart Phone to buy. This one I find difficult as a colleague asked me if he should buy an iMac or Windows PC.

I know there is no other product on the market, like Apple, that can seamlessly integrate between you devices, only an Apple can. You don't have to tinker to connect Apple Time-capsule, TV etc. It just works.

These are sone of the problems he could have when buying an iMac, or am I wrong on all counts:

- He will have to replace his very expensive Adobe Suite Software for the Apple version
- will be locked into their ecosystem, iTunes, Apple TV, Apple backup drive etc.
- Big earning curve for the iOS, Word, PPT version etc. (If you don't have the money to buy Windows for Apple.
- At work your email (Exchange equivalent) can be problematic to work, look up addresses, connect with LAN, using calendar etc.
- Stream to TV you have to buy and Apple TV unless you have WiFi
- Time Capsule is needed for Backups

Adobe has a full range of mac apps. So if he as paid for licenses for his Adobe software he will be able to download the mac versions.

iTunes is rather slow on windows, but works great on mac. And you don't HAVE to buy music and movies from them just as you don't HAVE to download music and movies from the MS Xbox Music and Movies stores.

Apple's iWork suite (Word, PowerPoint and Excel) is very easy and powerful to use. There is some learning since the layout is different but if he knows MS's suite of productivity apps well the changeover shouldn't take too long.

I use my Mac in a Windows environment (mail and calendar) with the stock Mail and Calendar apps and they work just fine.

Depends on his current setup at home how he will stream. Remember iTunes can also make a shared library just as Windows media player can.

Time Capsule is BOSS. Period.

 

[Rickster]

iTunes is probably the most useless program ever made.

 

[SauRoNZA]

- He will have to replace his very expensive Adobe Suite Software for the Apple version

Depends which version. The latest cloud powered one I *think* works on both.

- will be locked into their ecosystem, iTunes, Apple TV, Apple backup drive etc.

It's completely optional. Most apps still have direct download versions but generally everything is on the Appstore. However he is going to be locked in by the hardware either way so whether he gets it from them or directly it will only work on Apple so it doesn't matter.

Plenty of third party Time Machine and other backup solutions available. Apple TV is an extension IF you volunteer to use their ecosystem, you aren't forced to.

- Big earning curve for the iOS, Word, PPT version etc. (If you don't have the money to buy Windows for Apple.

I don't understand the question here? If you don't have the money to buy the extras...then you shouldn't be going Apple.

I assume you meant "learning" curve. The free iWork stuff is easily enough to figure out with a little bit of time and many people actually find it much easier than Office. Alternatively Office for Mac is quite cheap for a home user...but it's ****.

- At work your email (Exchange equivalent) can be problematic to work, look up addresses, connect with LAN, using calendar etc.

Use Outlook if you need to do Work stuff. You can use Apple Mail with Exchange as well but I can't comment on what works and what doesn't.

- Stream to TV you have to buy and Apple TV unless you have WiFi

Again you don't make sense. Wifi doesn't automatically give you streaming...the Apple TV uses Wifi. And no there are many other ways to go about it all depending on your needs and other hardware available. Plex being one of them.

- Time Capsule is needed for Backups

No.

 

[Mimen]

Ok thanks SauRoNZA for the help. I've forwarded it to him!

 

[lupedelupe]

- He will have to replace his very expensive Adobe Suite Software for the Apple version

The current Adobe Creative Suite will run on either system. It also allows you to run it on two machines (and yes one can be PC and one Mac).

- will be locked into their ecosystem, iTunes, Apple TV, Apple backup drive etc.

There are alternatives to iTunes (and the current version is much, much better than it used to be years ago). Apple TV is relatively inexpensive and works very well, not sure about other options (I happily use ATV). Apple backup? No (see below).

- Big earning curve for the iOS, Word, PPT version etc. (If you don't have the money to buy Windows for Apple.

Office for Mac: almost identical to Office for PC (minor toolbar differences). The files are platform compatible (the majority of the publishing industry in SA uses Office on Macs). iOS is a breeze ... it gives you only a handful of choices, but only the good ones. It is simple and easy to use.

- At work your email (Exchange equivalent) can be problematic to work, look up addresses, connect with LAN, using calendar etc.

No experience with that at all. But I do know that Outlook (Office for Mac) integrates just as it would if it were on a PC. I use the native Mail app and that works just fine.

- Stream to TV you have to buy and Apple TV unless you have WiFi

You can hardwire it.

- Time Capsule is needed for Backups

Time Capsule (hardware) not needed: run backups to any external hard drive via USB. Time Machine (software) is part of OS X, but there are alternatives apps available as well.

The native OS X apps are, for the most part, pretty good. Lots of very reasonably priced apps available for other needs. Pages, Numbers and Keynote (Apple equivalents of Word, Excel and PowerPoint) are included in new Mac purchases.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[dunkyd]

Worst problem is he will always want to be at his desk. So easy to operate

 

[Mimen]

Thank for blowing my fears out of the water. I sent the link to the guy thinking of getting one.

 

[zippy]

People always ask me to help them choose which Smart Phone to buy. This one I find difficult as a colleague asked me if he should buy an iMac or Windows PC.

I know there is no other product on the market, like Apple, that can seamlessly integrate between you devices, only an Apple can. You don't have to tinker to connect Apple Time-capsule, TV etc. It just works.

These are sone of the problems he could have when buying an iMac, or am I wrong on all counts:

- He will have to replace his very expensive Adobe Suite Software for the Apple version
- will be locked into their ecosystem, iTunes, Apple TV, Apple backup drive etc.
- Big earning curve for the iOS, Word, PPT version etc. (If you don't have the money to buy Windows for Apple.
- At work your email (Exchange equivalent) can be problematic to work, look up addresses, connect with LAN, using calendar etc.
- Stream to TV you have to buy and Apple TV unless you have WiFi
- Time Capsule is needed for Backups

Your router can still foul everything up.

The argument about being "locked" into the Apple ecosystem is overplayed. At home I have a macbook, ipad, apple tv, Windows 7 pc, another PC running Solaris(my media server). I have Rasberry Pi with linux to turn my older non-smart tv into a smart tv. My macbook runs Windows 8.1 using Parallels.

I have no problems shifting files around between OS X, Windows and Solaris unix.

Btw, you can stream to a tv from a mackbook. I used some media server software. I cant remember. I have more disk space on my solaris machine so I moved everything to Solaris running Media Tomb.

As for MS Office, you can buy the mac versions. With Office 365 you can download the mac versions at no extra cost as long you have devices available. VBA becomes a bit painful especially if you want to write to files because of switch between forward and backslash and because you wont have access to the windows specific dll's.

I think the main issue is just getting accustomed to OS X and Mac way of doing things.

At some point you will begin to wonder why on earth you ever needed to click the Start button to shutdown

 

[Cassady]

It's far easier to be far more productive on OSX than on Windows, imo. Win X might change that - but currently, the word 'workflow' has a meaning all of its own in the Mac world, that is simply not as easy to replicate over in Windows.

Or you can just do whatever you did on your Win machine, on your Mac. Seriously not much of an issue anymore. Might take a while to get used to it - but thereafter, stable as anything, with very few problems.

 

[$m@Rt@$$]

It's far easier to be far more productive on OSX than on Windows, imo. Win X might change that - but currently, the word 'workflow' has a meaning all of its own in the Mac world, that is simply not as easy to replicate over in Windows.

Or you can just do whatever you did on your Win machine, on your Mac. Seriously not much of an issue anymore. Might take a while to get used to it - but thereafter, stable as anything, with very few problems.

I agree. Macs are just as fast and responsive as their iOS counterparts with the openness one expects of a computer.

 

[Bryn]

"It just works" is not necessarily true when it comes to Macs. My uncle bought a last-gen iMac (when it was still new) and he's had quite a few issues with it.

I would advise against buying a Mac in SA purely because it's such poor value for money. Our local prices are atrocious. You could buy a far superior PC for the same money.

 

[satanboy]

I would advise against buying a Mac in SA purely because it's such poor value for money. Our local prices are atrocious. You could buy a far superior PC for the same money.

This

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

Biggest problem owning an Apple? A ton of people calling you a fan-boy (but secretly being jealous). The eco-system on Apple is really open - once you install Homebrew you have the best of both worlds (solid hardware and OS and the flexibility of Linux-addons).

Go with Office:Mac - I have never been able to use Pages/Numbers for anything but very,very basic tasks (I know there are people out there which put my Excel skills to shame via Pages).

 

[$m@Rt@$$]

"It just works" is not necessarily true when it comes to Macs. My uncle bought a last-gen iMac (when it was still new) and he's had quite a few issues with it.

I would advise against buying a Mac in SA purely because it's such poor value for money. Our local prices are atrocious. You could buy a far superior PC for the same money.

You don't pay the price for their hardware. Because they don't make the hardware. You pay the price for their build quality and their software.

E.g. You want a Mini Cooper, yes it is terrible value for money. Yes you can buy a much cheaper car that has more performance but it won't be as refined and drive as well as the Mini...

 

[Bryn]

You don't pay the price for their hardware. Because they don't make the hardware. You pay the price for their build quality and their software.

E.g. You want a Mini Cooper, yes it is terrible value for money. Yes you can buy a much cheaper car that has more performance but it won't be as refined and drive as well as the Mini...

I didn't say Macs are bad value for money. I said Macs in SA are bad value for money.

 

[noxibox]

You don't pay the price for their hardware. Because they don't make the hardware. You pay the price for their build quality and their software.

E.g. You want a Mini Cooper, yes it is terrible value for money. Yes you can buy a much cheaper car that has more performance but it won't be as refined and drive as well as the Mini...

Well their software quality has been suffering a bit and their hardware is not as solid or functional as it should be.

I didn't say Macs are bad value for money. I said Macs in SA are bad value for money.

Most of the time the prices are comparable to other EMEA countries. Other brands similar form computers aren't usually much cheaper either.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Only problem he's going to have with Apple is the hole in his pocket afterwards.

I would find it very difficult if I had to go back to a PC now.

 

[Bryn]

Well their software quality has been suffering a bit and their hardware is not as solid or functional as it should be.


Most of the time the prices are comparable to other EMEA countries. Other brands similar form computers aren't usually much cheaper either.

So? They're just bad value too. R17k gets you nothing special with Apple, whereas that money will buy a seriously kickass PC.