Why should I buy a MacBook Air?!

[Pep]

Right can we sumarise.

When (if) I buy one tonight, I should be able to:

Get it out of the box, be able to charge it and turn it on.
I will be able to connect to the wireless network I have and look at stuff.
I can download Itunes and just transfer music from my old laptop with an external hard drive.
I can download files from the internet (not music though, obviously).
I can transfer old pictures/movies etc from current laptop.
I can tell people that I own one and feel superior.
I can sleep better at night.

Anything else?!

Edit, revels, would be no good for work because it's the wrong spec, so would just flog it on I reckon.

 

[Munson]

So the general consensus is if I don't buy one then I might regret it when I die next month

That's about the nuts and bolts of it. Yeah.

I don't really have a valid opinion of Applecare, but personally I roll commando on all my devices. I'm not a believer in paying for extended care on a product that should not need it. So far I've not had my fingers burned, but even when I do, I'll have saved loads anyway. I see Applecare as no different to any other extended warranty. If something breaks I'll just replace it.

 

[DB.]

JP - This is getting slightly feminine now. Just buy it already!

 

[Revels]

How does the student ordering work?

I would rather pay upfront and save £300. Is it just a case of getting someone I trust who is connected to a university to order through their .ac.uk address?

How does it then work with apple care etc?

Dave63 - Any clues?

Either go into a store with said Uni person. Show them a Uni letter/ID.

Or do it via a campus internet connection.

Right can we sumarise.

When (if) I buy one tonight, I should be able to:

Get it out of the box, be able to charge it and turn it on.
I will be able to connect to the wireless network I have and look at stuff.
I can download Itunes and just transfer music from my old laptop with an external hard drive.
I can download files from the internet (not music though, obviously).
I can transfer old pictures/movies etc from current laptop.
I can tell people that I own one and feel superior.
I can sleep better at night.

Anything else?!

Edit, revels, would be no good for work because it's the wrong spec, so would just flog it on I reckon.

Yes too all (But iTunes is pre-installed)

As Dave says, you're being a girl now. A man would have ordered it already.

 

[Pep]

Roy, I see your point, but for £200 is it not just worth it?
What would be likely to break? Surely most things are going to cost me £200 as I would have to pay someone to do it, so even 1 problem would pay for itself?

Dave, bare with me, it's a lot of money to spend on an impulse to replace a 6 month old laptop that serves me perfectly well......

An Ipad would suffice really...

 

[Munson]

Roy, I see your point, but for £200 is it not just worth it?

Personal choice. I don't bother. It's only worth it if you need it. A gamble really.

 

[DB.]

Students are covered with free applecare if you buy through the link, you only have to pay extra as a student if you want the telephone support or something like that

Also remember you have standard warranty, and apple are known to cover things out of warranty.

 

[Pep]

Well since I will finance it it's only £20 a month for peace of mind I guess, and should get that back for my Laptop so I guess I will just stand still.

I'm not a techniology ***** who knows how to fix this kind of thing and the last thing I want to do is spend £1k on something that breaks and I'm left in the s**t!

Also, got plenty of student friends but can't be arsed with the hassle for them or me if somehting goes wrong and they have to sort it out as it's their name. Especially as they now live all over the country!

 

[ChrisR]

How does the student ordering work?

I would rather pay upfront and save £300. Is it just a case of getting someone I trust who is connected to a university to order through their .ac.uk address?

How does it then work with apple care etc?

Dave63 - Any clues?

I ordered mine start of the year using one of the edu links (one a friend gave me from their education establishment, but it's on that big list that's knocking around) from my home connection and it all went through fine so I'd just do that really.

 

[Deeg]

Either go into a store with said Uni person. Show them a Uni letter/ID.

Or do it via a campus internet connection.

Cool, will have to investigate that.

I don't think I know any students these days. Hella gay.

 

[Munson]

One thing to keep in mind for people switching to Mac, is the file system. If you have external hard drives, the odds are they will be NTFS file systems. Mac can read these volumes, but cannot natively write to them. You would be unable to copy files to those discs, or rename any files on them. However, there are third party NTFS drivers you can use that allow read & write. I use Paragon NTFS and it's a flawless victory.

It's sometimes important to keep your external drives Windows friendly for media player devices and such, so a third party NTFS driver might be a necessity. It is for me. Apparently you can make OSX able to natively write to NTFS via terminal commands, but I've read that it's super buggy.

 

[Pep]

Right, last question:

13" MBA for £1100
13" MBP for £1000

What's the difference between the 2?! Hard drive is bigger on the MBP but that doesn't bother me, which will be better for my useage?

Thanks for that Roy. That does still mean I can transfer music etc to the Laptop thought doesn't it, using my external hard drive?

 

[Deeg]

I ordered mine start of the year using one of the edu links (one a friend gave me from their education establishment, but it's on that big list that's knocking around) from my home connection and it all went through fine so I'd just do that really.

Interesting.

Thank you.

 

[jenic]

Did you decide between the MBA/MBP?

MBA if you are carrying it around a lot. I use my 15" MBP for college, at the start of the day I park up, walk 1/2 mile to the college and between lectures and then back to the car and my shoulder is then killing at the end of the day. I'd rather a MBA.

But today I needed it for work, parked outside the office, no walking around all day, MBP was perfect in this situation.

So basically, if you do a lot of walking about - MBA, if you park outside your office and dont move around all day MBP.

Oh and applecare is woth it imo.

Finding you a student and ordering online would save you £150-£200 on the computer plus free 3 year warranty. So upto £400 saving. Well worth doing!

 

[Munson]

Right, last question:

13" MBA for £1100
13" MBP for £1000

What's the difference between the 2?! Hard drive is bigger on the MBP but that doesn't bother me, which will be better for my useage?

Thanks for that Roy. That does still mean I can transfer music etc to the Laptop thought doesn't it, using my external hard drive?

MBA for the higher res screen. The 13" MBP screen is rubbish IMO. I have one so my opinion is valid.

Yes you will be able to transfer stuff to the Mac from an external disc, but if that disc is an NTFS volume, you will need a third party driver to to able to write TO that disc.

 

[Pep]

Excellent, thanks Roy.

Jenic, I'm just nervous of doing that, having a problem, going to try and sort it and get told that it should be the students laptop and then I'm in the s**t.

 

[Adam.]

You don't need to do it via a campus connection and you don't need any student details.

That link that dave posted will be fine.

Jenic, I'm just nervous of doing that, having a problem, going to try and sort it and get told that it should be the students laptop and then I'm in the s**t.

They don't give a fk, it's either covered or it's not.

 

[Deeg]

MBA for the higher res screen. The 13" MBP screen is rubbish IMO. I have one so my opinion is valid.

Yes you will be able to transfer stuff to the Mac from an external disc, but if that disc is an NTFS volume, you will need a third party driver to to able to write TO that disc.

But you can transfer FROM that disc without issue?

 

[jenic]

Excellent, thanks Roy.

Jenic, I'm just nervous of doing that, having a problem, going to try and sort it and get told that it should be the students laptop and then I'm in the s**t.

I took mine in and they didn't ask for any ID or anything, I was the student but they didnt know that.

 

[Munson]

But you can transfer FROM that disc without issue?

Yesh.

 

[Deeg]

Yesh.

Cool, PC to external drive, external drive to Mac.

But not the other way.

 

[Pep]

You don't need to do it via a campus connection and you don't need any student details.

That link that dave posted will be fine.



They don't give a fk, it's either covered or it's not.

So I can order it through that and not have any problems with regards to delivery?
No need for student numbers / NUS etc?

 

[Deeg]

Oh, and thanks to everyone for their help.

Going to investigate the educational discount, and if not, will get it on the interest free.

Fcuking expensive week. Winter tyres getting fitted on Saturday and possibly a MBP. Easy way to drop £1500, lol.

 

[AK]

LOL I can't wait for Deeg's MBP help thread .

 

[Deeg]

LOL I can't wait for Deeg's MBP help thread .

I'm already dreading that side of it.

I have a few people who will also get some horrible texts, lol.

 

[Munson]

Cool, PC to external drive, external drive to Mac.

But not the other way.

Out of the box yeah, but a simple install of a third party NTFS driver allows write access as well. There are free ones, but I paid for Paragon NTFS because it gives native write speeds. Plus, my previous free version wasn't working properly when Lion was released.

Of course, once everything is on your Mac, you could format the external drive to Mac OSXJ, and not need NTFS, but if you then expected other non-Apple media player devices to read that disc, you might be out of luck.

 

[Adam.]

So I can order it through that and not have any problems with regards to delivery?

Correct.

No need for student numbers / NUS etc?

Nope.

 

[Deeg]

Out of the box yeah, but a simple install of a third party NTFS driver allows write access as well. There are free ones, but I paid for Paragon NTFS because it gives native write speeds. Plus, my previous free version wasn't working properly when Lion was released.

I don't really know what most of those words mean.

Paragon = routing and route optimisation software in my world.

 

[Munson]

I don't really know what most of those words mean.

Paragon = routing and route optimisation software in my world.

Put simply, if you want to be able to write files to a disc that you will plug into non-Apple devices, that disc will need to be NTFS. To write to that NTFS disc, you will need a 3rd party driver such as Paragon. You could of course use a FAT format, which will pose no problems for any likely devices, but that limits your file sizes to 4GB. No good for HD.

Basically, don't concern yourself with it for now. All will become clear, and if it doesn't you have Google and CS to help.

EDIT: IMO it's about time Apple started supporting native NTFS write. It would be one step further in their Windows pwning integration plans, as these posts prove.

 

[Deeg]

Put simply, if you want to be able to write files to a disc that you will plug into non-Apple devices, that disc will need to be NTFS. To write to that NTFS disc, you will need a 3rd party driver such as Paragon. You could of course use a FAT format, which will pose no problems for any likely devices, but that limits your file sizes to 4GB. No good for HD.

Basically, don't concern yourself with it for now. All will become clear, and if it doesn't you have Google and CS to help.

Ah, I'm with you.

That explains why I couldn't copy something from a Mac in the past, lol.

 

[Munson]

Indeed. They need to fix this if they truly want to take over. Right now people see it as a hurdle.

 

[Pep]

Right I just bought one, kind of.

Been provisionally accepted by Barclays finance, says they may contact me for more info.
Does that mean they'll ring up and ask if I'm a student?!

 

[AK]

No. It'll be proof of address etc. normal finance questions.

 

[Pep]

OK, it now says:

Awaiting Payment. Despatched: 1-3 business days Delivers 21st-23rd December.

What?! I don't want to wait that long!
I paiud extra for next day delivery!

 

[Will.]

I remember te excitement I had when I ordered my MBP.

 

[Revels]

That's because you went via finance.

Once you're accepted you'll get it next day.

 

[AK]

I remember te excitement I had when I ordered my MBP.

Ordered an iPhone yet?

 

[jenic]

They will cross reference your employment status on the finance app with the student store and the police will come around and arrest you.

Or, it will just go through in the next few days, might be worth ringing them (the finance) when they open to get it pushed through or it could be a couple of days.

 

[Will.]

It's in the basket waiting for me to push de button.

 

[AK]

Do it.