Macbooks?

gfog

Does anyone no if theres anyshops in Dublin that have Apples macbooks on display, am thinking of getting one but want to see the keyboard and screen before making my mind up.

steveland?

3G store in Stephen's Green had one on display the other day. Looked pretty funky

CuLT

Mmm, I gave up on my idea of getting a Vaio, I'll be getting a macbook next month. I hear only good things

wheresthebeef

what a co-incidence, i gave up my idea of getting a macbook, i'm now getting a vaio!

CuLT

wheresthebeef wrote:

what a co-incidence, i gave up my idea of getting a macbook, i'm now getting a vaio!

Oddly enough I decided several months ago to ditch the idea of getting a macbook pro in favour of getting a vaio!

But then the macbook came out, and after reviewing lots of vaio stuff I didn't really want to go through driver hell with a laptop or worry about build quality.

condra

Im getting a Macbook in the next week or two. Hopefully. They rather kick ass IMO.

DadaKopf

What about all this Mac-PC compatability, dual-booting etc? Anyone got any decent info on all that and the MacBook. Seriously considering getting one if a job comes along.

condra

Dada,
I dont know much about it but this is what I think is goin on with the Macbooks [and all intel macs] :
You can use a thing called parallels to switch between windows and osx instantly. It runs windows in some sort of virtual way which means windows performance is poor for more intensive tasks.
Using boot camp you can partition your hard drive and boot up either operating system at start up. Appearantly XP runs like a dream on the macbook.
You will need an origional Windows SP2 install disk AFIK.

Appearantly the new version of OSX - Leopard, will have better support for dual booting, with something like Boot Camp [currently beta] built in.

Get one man. Chances are you wont be using windows much when you get used to OSX.

condra

got it. love it. fell in love with it when playing around with it in the shop.

CuLT

womoma wrote:

got it. love it. fell in love with it when playing around with it in the shop.

Heh, was in the shop yesterday myself playing around with it, which sealed the deal

It's so damn responsive.

Plan to get it beginning of next week.

JuncoPartner

My brother bought a MacBook and it arrived yesterday.
Used it for about an hour or so and was really blown away.
Unfortunatly for work I really need a Windows machine and a damn powerful one at that so a MacBook aint that much use to me.
But I am instead gonna buy an iMac for my gaff. Just for the day to day stuff like web browsing. Hook her up to my sound system and use it as a stereo too, Front Row is the dogs danglies.

condra

need a Windows machine and a damn powerful one at that so a MacBook aint that much use to me.

Allegedly the macbook runs Windows superbly.
Do you need an outstanding graphics card?

JuncoPartner

no graphics card is not an issue at all for me.
yeah ive heard great things about macbooks/pro running windows.
ive yet to hear anyone running a couple of visual studio's and a couple of sql servers on them tho. so im waiting to hear how well it handles them.
also im after a new laptop with 4GB RAM but u cant get that in a macbook yet anyway. however ive heard that macbooks with 512MB RAM are out performing similar spec'd laptops with 1GB RAM running windows.

condra

I think its definatly worth looking into. Ive still only got 512 but its performing very well. Tiger is a massive ram whore though. Id love to check out Windows with a gig or 2 of ram in a macbook. carnage me thinks.

forbairt

womoma wrote:

I think its definatly worth looking into. Ive still only got 512 but its performing very well. Tiger is a massive ram whore though. Id love to check out Windows with a gig or 2 of ram in a macbook. carnage me thinks.

cheap enough to upgrade so long as you don't buy it from apple

crucial...

elvis hicks

Yeah. I agree, if its 2 gigs of ram but if you just wnana put in 1 gig, apples prices are ok... for a change

CuLT

Meh, went in to a couple of Apple stores today, and they made absolutely no effort to try to sell the damn thing to me, and were pretty fecking unhelpful.

So Apple can bite me, I'm getting a Vaio.

JuncoPartner

CuLT wrote:

Meh, went in to a couple of Apple stores today, and they made absolutely no effort to try to sell the damn thing to me, and were pretty fecking unhelpful.

So Apple can bite me, I'm getting a Vaio.

Apple Stores?Where?

CuLT

Well "Apple Reseller" technically, there's the O2 Experience store on grafton street, there's one just down from grafton street in a photo shop, and there's the eircom 3G stores.

JuncoPartner

Ah I see! I thought(hoped) maybe theyd opened a new store. That last one was a sham.
As for the resellers after going to the 3G store in Blanch to check out the iMacs I decided Id never buy anything from them. Absolutely terrible service, the girls in the shop were too busy talking and browsing the web to even let me the customer use the machines.

condra

Cult

I recently wrote in the osx forum about my harrowing experience with Apple resellers in Dublin City Centre.

I was particulary not impressed by the cocky git in Spectra who claimed to have never heard about any macbook staining issue, whilst slagging off O2 Experience shop for their lack of mac know-how.

Heres what I wrote:

I bought a sexy macbook today in Spectra/Apple Store. But went on a little apple adventure afterwards....

Didnt make much of the reps in Spectra or 3G, but O2 was nice and the place on merrion square seemed kool


My story starts in Spectra...

******************

womoma:
Have you had any problems with the macbook staining issue?

ian:
Staining? Ive never heard about any staining?

womoma:
you serious?
its all over the internet, a good deal of people are having problems with their white macbooks plastic turning orangey colour in the more used places after only a couple of weeks.

ian:
naaah, its gonna get dirty, its white plastic, the ibooks got dirty too, you just have to clean your hands and clean your laptop.

womoma:
so nobody has brought any back here then?

ian:
Ive sold like 50 macbooks in the last couple of weeks and none of them have been returned.
....
....

womoma:
so I guess the price is the same here as in O2 up the road?

ian:
same price, just that we know what were talkin about.

......

womoma:
do you have a mini dvi adapter so I can hook it up to a monitor?

ian:
ehhhh.... no. Ive ordered a LOAD of stuff off Apple so we should have them one of the days

*********************

So I buy the macbook and head on up to O2 Experience.

*********

womoma:
Hey do you have a mini dvi to vga or dvi adapter for the macbook?

sound Scottish rep guy:
No Im afraid not, we might be getting some in soon, but I couldnt tell you for sure. You could always try 3G up in Stephens green.

womoma:
OK will do, cheers.

sound Scottish rep guy:
No problem, good luck.

***********

So I ramble up to 3G Stephens green, sweating.

*********

womoma:
Hi would you happen to have a mini DVI adapter to hook up a macbook to a monitor.

spotty teenage rep:
Ehhh... a what?

womoma:
A mini dvi to vga adapter so I can hook up my macbook to my monitor.

spotty teenage rep:
Ehhh... ask him

confused looking rep with better skin:
A what?

womoma:
You know the macbook you sell here?, it has a mini DVI connection for an external monitor. What I need is an adapter to use it with my VGA monitor.

tumbleweed goes by ... a cloud appears above confused looking rep with better skins head.. inside the cloud is a dancing chicken. He looks at the chicken and the chicken shouts "just send him to spectra, that works on them all"....

confused looking rep with better skin:
Nah we dont have them, you should try Spectra, its just down the bottom of Grafton Street.

womoma:
Ok. Thanks. Cya.

********

So I get on the fone, 11811...

Mary:
11811 Mary speaking how can I help you?

womoma:
Hi can you put me through to the mac shop on Merrion Square please?

Mary:
Certainly

11811 robot woman:
Would you like to be connected directly, please say yes after the...

womoma:
yes

Mary Kate with the kinda but sexy voice:
Hello the mac shop?, Mary Kate speaking.

womoma:
Hi. Would you happen to have a mini DVI to VGA adapter for the macbook?

Mary Kate with the kind but sexy voice:
Hmm let me just check .... ruh ruh raa reaaa rudda macbook rudda monitor raa bleea blaaa.... oh? ok... right... ok...

No Im afraid not, If you call again during the week we'll hopefully have some in by then.

womoma:
Ok will do. Thanks.

Mary Kate with the sexy voice:
No problem.. Bhyyee.

***********

So the moral of my story is, from now on I buy my mac equipment from the internet shop.

Sparky

Im thinking of buying a mac, but that staining issue did put me off.
I seen a nice 10" vaio on ebay for a decent price.

gfog

the staining issue doesnt seem to be wide spread

Will

Just curious because im debating whether to get a macbook or just a windows laptop. Are people happy that they purchased a mac? any pros or cons?
Il be using it for college, i do computer applications