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My pretty new Macbook Pro
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:11 pm
by John Cartwright
So here I am sitting on a newly purchased Macbook Pro that I bought for my dad as a Christmas gift. This thing is the freakin' sweetest peice of hardware and am so jealous that I don't have one.
My dad is a retired highschool teacher that currently writes textbooks. His uses for computer are simply email, research, and word processing. It just seems like such a waste to hand this beauty over when I know her potential will never be reached. I'm considering keeping the laptop for myself and giving my dad my dell laptop which is pretty decent and still far more powerful than his requirements.
The devil on my shoulder sais keep it, the angel sais give. What would you do?
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:16 pm
by superdezign
Well, when the angel and devil are on my shoulder, it depends on how sober am I which I would follow. If you're completely sober, I'd say not to hand-up the hand-me-down.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 3:26 pm
by nickvd
Yikes... I wish I could afford to give my dad a $1600+ christmas gift...
How is your dad's expertise when it comes to Mac's?? That may help your decision...
If he's never used it [OSX] you KNOW you'll be doing much more support versus giving him an XP machine.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:03 pm
by John Cartwright
nickvd wrote:Yikes... I wish I could afford to give my dad a $1600+ christmas gift...
It was actually twice that after warranty and peripherals..

I had originally planned on getting a simple macbook but they only offer 13" screens, which is just too tiny for someone with poor eye sight, lol. That was pretty much the only reason I justified upgrading to pro.
How is your dad's expertise when it comes to Mac's?? That may help your decision...
Non-existant, although he is the kind of person that loves to play with new toys.
If he's never used it [OSX] you KNOW you'll be doing much more support versus giving him an XP machine.
I have no experience with OSX either.
Decisions decisions..
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:06 pm
by Kieran Huggins
New MBPs are coming out in Jan - you might want to trade in your Dell for one of those. Give your dad this one

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:10 pm
by John Cartwright
Got a link? I can't seem to find what you are talking about.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 4:13 pm
by feyd
Rumors are flying around of tweaked Macbooks sporting flash-based hard drives (at least in large cache form) for speedier boots. There is also talks of a tablet using the same multitouch technology found in iPhones.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:16 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Give him the Mac. You bought it for him. Give it to him. Sell your dell in a few months and use the proceeds to finance your new Mac.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:20 pm
by John Cartwright
Everah wrote:Give him the Mac. You bought it for him. Give it to him. Sell your dell in a few months and use the proceeds to finance your new Mac.
It's not like I would leave him without a present
For those of you interested it's all wrapped up now with HIS name on it. Going to wait a couple months for all the new goodies coming out
As far as my dell goes, I'd be suprised if I got 300-400$ for it.. even though I paid $2500 about 3-4 years ago.
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:23 pm
by RobertGonzalez
Jcart wrote:Everah wrote:Give him the Mac. You bought it for him. Give it to him. Sell your dell in a few months and use the proceeds to finance your new Mac.
It's not like I would leave him without a present

True. But for that you could go out and buy him a tie and give him that while you talk about your new computer.

Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 10:25 pm
by John Cartwright
Everah wrote:Jcart wrote:Everah wrote:Give him the Mac. You bought it for him. Give it to him. Sell your dell in a few months and use the proceeds to finance your new Mac.
It's not like I would leave him without a present

True. But for that you could go out and buy him a tie and give him that while you talk about your new computer.

Seriously though, Mac's freaking rule. That was the first time that I actually got to play with one for a couple hours. Before that my experience was looking over somebody else's shoulder, etc. However, having the ability not to maximize the window is almost as frustrating as all the windows shortcomings put together

Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:02 am
by matthijs
Wow, that's a nice gift! When is your birthday? Maybe he could do the same for you
Anyway, when he's never used OS X, it'll depend on how much he's used to windows and how adaptive he is how fast he's adjusted. The fact that you can't maximize your window will be annoying at first (I had the same), but after a while you don't know any differently and at some time you'll feel the other way around (being annoyed when a program maximizes the window, covering up all other stuff).
You are either a very generous person (wanna know when my birthday is?) or very rich (wanna be friends?) or both

Serious, I'm sure your dad will appreciate the gift and enjoy it very much.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 3:52 am
by Kieran Huggins
Jcart wrote:Got a link? I can't seem to find what you are talking about.
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/10/app ... r-roundup/
I'm fondling my Visa as we speak! My Thinkpad (while awesome) only has a 2 hour battery, and I would love to finally have Textmate and all those other elitist mac-only apps. The only thing I'll be mourning is the loss of my clit-mouse; an acceptable trade, IMO.
I just hope there's a major design revision, I've never been a big fan of the "fake aluminum" look. With any luck they'll design it after the new iMacs: an aluminum edge with glassy surfaces. That would be HAWT!
edit: Found this link suggesting a "gunmetal" finish, which could also be cool.
http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/13/met ... le-campus/
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 7:58 am
by feyd
There is a maximize-ish button on many windows. It's the green light in the upper left corners of windows. Its function is to basically linearize the data being displayed.
Of course you can also simply drag the window larger from the lower right corner.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 9:22 am
by John Cartwright
matthijs wrote:
You are either a very generous person (wanna know when my birthday is?) or very rich (wanna be friends?) or both Smile
Serious, I'm sure your dad will appreciate the gift and enjoy it very much.
I would say I'm just generous. I'm working on the rich part (I've gone back to school for now). I usually wouldn't buy such an expensive gift in the first place except my mom bought him this Dell 6000 or whatever they are called a couple years ago. They are about 3" thick and are so loud all the time, it's just insane. Even the proper resolutions for widescreens were not supported yet! Ouchy ouch.
feyd wrote:There is a maximize-ish button on many windows. It's the green light in the upper left corners of windows. Its function is to basically linearize the data being displayed.
Of course you can also simply drag the window larger from the lower right corner.
Whenever I clicked the "zoom" button which is what it's called I believe, it would only increase the size of the screen slightly. Never would it come close to maximizing, unfortunantly. After reading
http://shiflett.org/blog/2006/feb/mac-o ... esolutions it seems there isn't an actual maximize button at all
@Kieran: Whoa! Sold!
