MacBook Update
It was a year or so ago that the MacBook hype first started. Since? I’ve become a MASSIVE fan of ‘em. Speedy, shiny and small, the MacBook is my all-time favourite portable device. Much as I love the MacBook though, I find it hard to justify with Apple, how slapping a $400 extra price-tag onto a product and changing its colour is fair, in the slightest. Sure - you’re getting yourself an extra 40GB harddrive space, but at the cost of what? That’s $100 per 10GB. When you think you can pick up a 320GB HDD for the same price, it kinda makes you wonder…
^^ I’m lazy. 
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May 15th, 2007 at 10:39 pm
300gb internal ata for 70 bucks with shipping at fry’s, plus 20 dollars shipped for an external enclosure, means you can get over a terabyte for the same price as that shiny mac
Or you can pick up a 500gb SATA external for $130 or so. Might be a Bit more in England, but I can’t imagine it’s more then 90 pounds.
Either way, come back to the light side of the force and get the same thing for 600 bucks on a pc.
p.s. The exchange rate is bleeping crazy now man, I was going to say a 100 pounds, figuring that was like $150 bucks, but it’s basically $200 now!
May 16th, 2007 at 7:43 am
You’re totally right, Craig. But then again - I’m still a massive fan of Apple. And Vista.
Call me crazy, but all I’m after is an easy way to run OS X on my super-powered PC, not Vista on a Mac.
As for the exchange rate - I feel totally ripped off. I get paid in dollars and when it’s converted to pounds, guess who loses out?
May 16th, 2007 at 3:26 am
They’re doing sort of the same thing with the XBox Elite, it’s amazing what people will pay for. I just provisioned a Macbook Pro at work, they’re ok, but feel kinda like a toy
Keep on geekin’
May 16th, 2007 at 7:44 am
Then again - the 360 Elite does have HDMI. That’s worth the extra money - right?
But I see what you’re getting at. Nice comparisson…
As for the MacBook Pro - sweet stuff! Me likes metal. Me likes shiny white more though. Shiny black even better.
May 16th, 2007 at 5:23 am
it’s $200AU cheaper than it was before. That’s something.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:45 am
Really? The international shops must be being shaken up still. All the same - interesting to know. Keep us posted.
May 16th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I would be more than happy to buy an Apple but their way too expensive. You can make a regular PC with the same if not even better insides as an Apple for less than half of the cost of one. I believe that Apple is working on looks and popular demand and just charging even more for them.
I wish they were cheaper so I could actually afford it.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Apples have nice creative software bundled however, which in my mind, makes up for the overpriced hardware.
Where else can you get a quad-core PC with 16GB of ram, though? Even Alienware, Voodoo and Vadim (premium PC manufacturers) can’t quite spec a PC that high.
May 16th, 2007 at 2:24 pm
I don’t care for looks very much, I will buy one once they lower their prices. Their so expensive, $200 just scratches the surface.
May 16th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
Exactly the same as what techtwins said.
Macs are simply way too expensive. If they were higher specced and had a lower price then I would definitely buy one and then use Vista with Bootcamp so that I can take the advantages of Mac OSX and Windows Vista.
Until then its the good ol’ PC for me.
Although a MacBook is very very tempting
May 17th, 2007 at 7:54 am
Higher specced? Quad-core PCs with up to 16GB of ram? Sure - for the price it costs, it’s pricey, but Macs can be got far more powerful than their PC variants.
On the bang for buck scale - Macs win. On the ‘without software’ scale? PCs all the way. I couldn’t live without the likes of iLife, though.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:16 am
How many of you have actually used a Mac for a long period of time? The extra costs will save you the pain of viruses, crashing, and the cost also includes the OS X software.
I haven’t bought a PC in years, but don’t you have to pay extra for Vista? And if it comes with it which edition will it be? OS X is always one version, the best they can offer at the time.
If you like to mod your PCs often and fiddle around, then I suppose its better to go with a PC over a mac. When I buy a mac I leave it as is for 2-3 years, then sell and upgrade.
24″ iMac and 17″ Macbook Pro Owner.
Rick
May 17th, 2007 at 1:33 am
Vista is just the next version of Windows, comparable to Mac OS 9 to X (leopard). Although personally I think OS X is a much bigger leap then XP to Vista. On the other hand, I like XP better then I like OS X or Vista.
Virtually all new PC’s come with Vista (although, due to customer demand, some OEM’s are back to selling XP on select models, i.e. Dell).
The entire reason I prefer Windows to Apple, is exactly as you said, I like to “fiddle” around, edit the registry, play with the boot files, etc
It makes me a happy geek.
May 17th, 2007 at 7:57 am
I’m with Craig - I like to ‘fiddle’ and ‘tweak’ my PC. Sure - Macs are great for photo editing, movie making, etc, but when it comes to customization and third party apps? Windows all the way!
May 17th, 2007 at 7:56 am
You raise some great points, Rick. Of course most PCs (unless you build your own) DO come with an OS.
Of course - I had to shell out $200 extra to get the ‘Vista Ultimate’ upgrade as opposed to Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, Basic, or any of the other packs. I must admit - it’s a tad confusing, but once you get your head round it, it’s really not all that difficult.
Nate over in Arizona has himself a grat big 30″ Mac - I’m after one myself.
Rather expensive, though.