I've been planning to do this for awhile, to purchase a laptop to compliment my G4 tower, so I can do desktop publishing out in the world as well as at home. Looked at Apple Store and MacMall online. Thinking 15" PowerBook or 14" iBook. Questions:

1) Online stores with good deals?
2) PowerBook vs. iBook?
3) What extras are important to get?
4) Other things to consider?
5) Opinions on refurbished Macs from Apple Store?
6) Ebay?

All help needed

First, I would like to say, that I would wait until intel-based macs hit the market. You might find yourself waiting a year or so for that to happen, but at least you wont be buying a technology which the company is slated to move away from.

That said:

1)I have orderd from
http://www.maczone.com/cgi-bin/zones/si ... l?zone=mac

2)Personally, I like PowerBook, but if iBook is sufficient for what your doing then go for it.

3)
4)
5)I would have no problem ordering a refurbished mac from the mac store
6)I would have no problem ordering a mac on ebay

**Important note: Apple.com has special pricing and packages for facutly, staff and students at universities. If you have any university connection yourself, or know anyone at a university, you should take advantage of it.

...

Heh, I didn't know apple was switching to intel.

We have a powerbook, but I don't have much to compare it to. I have used an ibook once or twice, I like the powerbook better, for what it's worth.

it sounds like from all i've been looking into on this that i will save for a 15-inch powerbook, try to get a deal on a refurbished one from apple.com, and use the student discount if possible...thanks for all the tips...if anyone thinks of anything else, post here

wait a few months for apple to switch to intel chips then buy a cheap ass 2 ghz windows laptop and install a cracked osx on it

save u a lot of money

today i ordered from Apple.com's refurbished page a Mac Book Pro...it should be on the way and arrive by my bday next Friday...so many people advised me on this purchase...i am hoping that it will prove a good one

The intel macs like your MacBook Pro can now run Windows as fast as...well, intel non-macs, and faster than many non-macs. So there's hardly anything to even worry about any more when you buy a mac. The good news is that if/when you have to run Windows, none of the Windows bugs can get into OS X. So if you get Windows viruses, etc., all you have to do is reinstall Windows while leaving OS X alone and bug-free.

I wish I wasn't still "stuck" on this 1.8 Ghz G5, but I can't justify buying a new mac just to run Windows faster whenever I need to make sure my code looks okay in Windows browsers. Virtual PC ..... still.......works...........

Enjoy your new computer. and Happy Birthday!

-TM

mac book pro arrived, it's a perty thing, and laptops do get addictive for work out in the world...

i've been trying to figure out two things...

1) 80 gig hard drive, 57 gigs available...what takes up that much room? i've added very little, and the applications file is like 5 gigs...where's the other 18?

2) I have had endless troubles trying to set up Apple Remote Desktop, so that I could access my home Macs from out in the world...I have learned about VNS but still haven't figured out how to make it work...anyone know the step by step?

otherwise, all good so far

What steps have you taken to get remote desktop to work?
Are your home-based macs behind a router?

The system file and applications included with your laptop take up a lot of space.

Good question about the router. You may need to open up a firewall (maybe even your Mac's built-in firewall) to allow VPN traffic in.

-TM

Being a 'puter 'tard and all; I can still read betwixt the lines of text, so....Happy B-Day Ray ------------- sal