[thelist] Mac advice?

[Meshack]

I would take some time and go into an Apple store. The pricing points are
very standardized for Apple. You generally have two families of systems, a
basic system for price conscious and entry level users (this would be the
iMac[desktop] and MacBook[laptop] family of products), and pro systems for
power users (this would be the Mac Pro[desktop] and the Macbook Pro[laptop]
family of products). 

The current OS is 10.6, or Snow Leopard. I could do without the silly cat
names for the OS, I keep getting confused which is most current.

Buying used is not a bad idea because it's hard to find discounts/sales on
Apple products. Typically the only time this happens is when faster hardware
is about to be released. You can buy refurbished from Apple. But if you buy
from a third party, make sure you get the OS disk, or plan to buy the latest
OS yourself. The OS disk has developer tools that typically aren't installed
by default (not sure if these are necessary for iPhone development, or if
that is a whole different beast).

But buying new wouldn't be a bad investment. My last Apple laptop lasted
about 6 years before a major hardware/software update that made it no longer
useable (Macs started using PC architecture). I can still use it with the
outdated software it has now however, almost 10 years later. Between my
family and friends, the average PC laptop has a lifespan of about 3 years.

Hope this helps.

-Meshack
http://meshack.com
http://pixel8ed.me


-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Simon MacDonald
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 3:12 AM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: Re: [thelist] Mac advice?

Any views guys?

-----Original Message-----
From: thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org
[mailto:thelist-bounces at lists.evolt.org] On Behalf Of Simon MacDonald
Sent: 28 March 2010 6:46 PM
To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
Subject: [thelist] (no subject)

Hi Folks,

I've been using Windows PCs since they started (even used CPM boxes, before
that),- currently on Win 7 Ultimate - and have some *nix experience. I'm now
considering venturing into the dark side (for me) - the Mac.

I want to buy a second hand Mac for two reasons; 
 - doing proper Mac testing for my websites  that I build, 
 - and venturing into the world of iPhone app building - this latter one
being the main reason.

I'm not a coding newby - been building code for about 30 years (latterly PHP
and Javascript) , but I haven't used C in years so a good excuse (?) to
learn Objective C.

However, I haven't got a clue about what level of Mac to buy in terms of OS
and power, and what sort of price in UK pounds I should spend. I guess I
want a laptop  as that is what I use now.

Any help is most welcome and any pointers to good UK second hand sites -
I've looked on ebay but I really don't what I'm looking at  - if it was a PC
yes, Macbook no idea :)

kind regards

Simon
 

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