Comments on: How to Choose the Right Mac for College

By: What Haveyou

What Haveyou — Wed, 25 May 2011 22:43:10 +0000

How are you going to take notes with no keyboard?

iPads are for casual browsing and pushing buttons and taking what you’re given. They’re not for creating anything, and that includes simple notes.

By: Furkat

Furkat — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 23:42:15 +0000

What a good advicers

By: Amory Moreau

Amory Moreau — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:09:03 +0000

Just make sure you DON'T go to the Campus bookstore. You'll get marked up far too much.

Instead, give a discount site a try, like AppleSliced.com (Good) or PriceGrabber (OK). You can at least lose less on your apple purchase.

By: Ailalababy

Ailalababy — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:52:18 +0000

if you are considering storing games and music on your laptop, you should think about the rate and Hard drive capability when purchasing a laptop. You ought to purchase a laptop with a minimum of processor rate for at least 1.46GHz (determines rate of laptop) and 60-70 GB (Gigabites) of Hard drive capability (Hard drive shops info).

PS: Papatek.com provides genuine and replacement Laptop battery, Laptop AC Adapter, Laptop Keyboard, hard drives, AC adapters, DVD/CDRWs, LCD Screensfor Toshiba, Sony, HP, Compaq, IBM, Dell and others.

By: TiredDonkey

TiredDonkey — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:16:26 +0000

A M K's advice is way off base in almost every way conceivable. Any computer you buy today with standard, mid-range components, whether Mac or PC, will last you for four years of college as long as you take proper care of it. I recommend Macs because of the fact that you don't have all the problems that plague Windows machines as they pick up viruses and other junk while surfing the web. But if you have to run Windows, you can do that on a Mac, too.

A little advice. If you are getting a Windows machine, invest in solid anti-virus software and spend some time with the right magazines and websites to learn how to keep it running fast and smooth; having a computer is just like having a car: if you take care of it properly, you will get a lot of miles out of it. But run it without knowing how to care for it and without changing the oil, and you will have a dead machine pretty quickly.

Or you can take AMK's suggestion and buy a crummy jalopy every year and use it until the floorboards rust through.

If you are going to buy a Mac and want some advice on how to get the most out if it in college, check out my post here: http://www.tireddonkey.com/files/MacInCollege.html

By: Wrjols

Wrjols — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 00:38:59 +0000

HI You write “If you are looking for a basic MacBook Pro with an anti-glare screen, you would be better off ordering it online.”
I think you are mistaken, anti glare is not available according to the applestore web page for 13 inch Macbook Pro. It is only an option on 15 inch and higher. I wish anti glare was available as that is the biggest impediment to me buying the macbook pro 13 inch. I really find the glossy screen distracting viewing web pages and concentrating long periods of time on the computer.

By: deasys

deasys — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 23:31:20 +0000

If he paid $300 to replace a MacBook battery, he paid more than twice the going rate. And your comment about games, peripherals, and field-specific software is really off-base no matter how you look at it: Macs can run Windows *natively*.

By the way, the only “tablet PC” worth buying today is the iPad. Even Apple's competitors recognize that.

By: A M K

A M K — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 21:16:58 +0000

Hmmm... I guess I missed the preliminary article title â€œIs a Mac Right for College Students?â€ Apple products have become a premium priced vanity brand. I bought into the Mac=Education myth, and really wish that I had purchased an inexpensive laptop that ran Windows for college instead. The Apple platform is REALLY frustrating if you're cash strapped or NEED to do something normal with your laptop that Apple just isn't ready for you to have yet. My little brother is going through the same thing now. He just paid 300 bucks for a macbook battery. That's cash that he had to borrow from our uncle to buy. All this for a laptop that he now hates because he can't do things like run games, purchase a cheap printer, and run some of the field-specific software (chemistry) that he needs. If you're a college student, then buy the same platform that your professors use. It's probably not an Apple.

Students would be well advised to buy very cheap computers. They're students, and money is scarce. If you're studying computer programming, computer graphics, or another hard science with a strong computational angle, then you're probably going to get a more capable machine (and you'll likely need to have a Linux partition). Otherwise, if you're writing basic papers and accessing information online, then by a used laptop or the cheapest laptop that you can find. The only expensive computer that a student should consider is a Tablet PC. They really can be a difference maker in terms of taking, organizing, and incorporating notes into your work.

Don't be the person who thinks that a $2000 computer will get them through the next four year. Buy a new $500 computer each year and sell the prior year's computer. It's a better way of managing your cash (you can always over-purchase or skip a year), and you'll have a more current, capable computer.

By: spinoza2

spinoza2 — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:55:50 +0000

If I were a student today I would not buy a laptop at all, but rather an iMac and an iPad. This gives me the advantages of having a superior desktop computer with a 22″ display, as well as a highly efficient, powerful mobile computer that is both lighter and more flexible than a laptop. I can have my textbooks on the iPad, and I can take it to class for notetaking and recording lectures. With its 10+ hour battery life I can use it for a wider variety of situations without even thinking of having to plug it in. It's a combination that can't be beat, providing the best of both desktop and mobile computing.