Apple iMac

[bmyers]

Apple's eco system offers the "Apple TV" which plays movies, picts, etc to the TV. LOML does this all the time. Not sure how it does with the iPad but she does it with her MacBook Air (small thin laptop.) It plays her movies in hi-def VERY clear and sharp on her 60 inch screen.

The latest TVs (Smart TVs) allow playing direct to the TV (my understanding) but we have not tried it.

One (maybe both) Mac Mini's (computer, not iPad) have an HDMI output built in.

Thats the way I went. I already had nice screen and apple keyboard for my macbook so I just got the mini. Works great with my HDMI TV. I got an Apple TV for Christmas and as expected, it works quite well with all the other Apple stuff.

For the record, I have been a windows user and consultant since there has been windows, 3.11. Finally after XP, I just needed stuff to work so I could do my job, I went Mac and didnt look back. I still run various Windows systems in Parallels on the Mini, also works pretty good if you need to run Windows for a while. But you'll use it less and less and time goes on.

The other selling point for me was GarageBand. I love that app and I have it on my iPhone for mobile recording also. Great stuff..

iTunes on the other hand, I despise.

B

[TB Roye]

Here is something funny. We our Granddaughter here is Sacramento a Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 Android for here 9th Birthday last month. I let here download books from my Amazon account when she is over here, only after she reads the one on the table first. Yesterday afternoon while she was here before going to Karate she down loaded 3 more books, they are downloaded wirelessly to here table using my window desktop. Open my Kindle app on my iPad mini last night and all 5 books she has downloaded are on my mini also.

After looking at the finances and the summers activities I have decided not to purchase the iMac until this fall. I will still research all the info I can on the machine as I know there are many different things to consider as options and accessories and software. I have always found the research prior to making a purchase fun, drive car dealers nuts. When I had a HP Netbook prior to my full size laptop there was a thing go around where you put the Apple Snow Leopard OP system on to the netbook as a second choice at boot up never finished as it was getting to time consuming.

I would like to keep my 24" monitor I now have and use it with the iMac when I get it. Don't know about Apple tv but that is a possibility will have to look into it. Then I could use my 36" flat screen in my den/office for my monitor.

I haven't given up Woodworking I am still in the process of some major remodeling in the house but have to take breakes because of my back and getting mean every thing seems to take longer. Need to get a couple of things done this summer before the rain return in the fall so I can finish projects when the weather is bad.



Tom

[frumper64]

I switched from XP to an IMac last November and wouldn't even think of going back. It sounds like a cliche, but the Apple operating system is just so intuitive. The Apple word processor and spreadsheet (Pages and Numbers, respectively) both will read and write MS formats and are only around $20 each from the Apple store. I loaded the Mac version of Office when I first converted to the IMac and have been trying to talk myself into converting the the Apple equivalents, but after 25 years of using Microsoft stuff it's hard to make the change. One thing to think about with new IMacs is ease of repair if needed. The newest IMacs (with the super thin edges) are supposed to be MUCH more difficult to repair (hard drive, etc) than the older versions. The older ones had the front of the machine attached basically with magnets. On the newest ones, I have read that the front of the case is epoxied in place. So if there is a problem it will probably have to go back to Apple for servicing. With that said, mine is around 5 years old and still functions just like new and has never had a problem.

Jim

[Raffi]

Let me ask a stupid question about the Ipad and the Ipad mini. Do they have HDMI out? What about Bluetooh (or a way to use an external keyboard, like a USB one)?

If so, just plugging into your larger monitor and using an external keyboard, may make it easier to use your tablets for those uses.

Not a stupid question at all. Apple sells a HDMI adapter:

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MD098ZM/A/apple-digital-av-adapter

And bluetooth is standard for both, so you can use an external keyboard etc.

[Cochese]

I've always dismissed Macs as overpriced and not worth the money. As I'm growing up and moving up though, I am consistently intrigued by them. I've been debating making my current machine a Hackintosh. There was a laptop that's now discontinued that is basically a Macbook Pro without the cost (can't find locally now, unfortunately).

I'm still not completely sold on iMacs. I think you could do pretty well with a Mac Mini and roll-your-own monitor, but that's just me. I've been tempted on a Mac Mini as well. Mount it to the VESA mount on the back and it's just as good. Wish they didn't get rid of the optical drive built-in.

I'm starting to think though that if you're going to spend more than $500 on a laptop, you might as well go grab a MBA or MBP. I'm currently researching to see if I could do my work on one. If it weren't for SSL VPN, I'd get a Chromebook.

[LinuxRandal]

My last experience with Mac's, was the first Bondi Blue Imac in KC. We got it from a friends company, that was one of the authorized clone makers, before Apple pulled the plug on that. I never understood how these were "intuitive" and some of the terms were so different from Windows to Mac, it was like a language switch.

But when I was growing up, there really wasn't a standard (Apple II, Timex Sinclair, Tandy's, Atari's and the GEM OS, etc). Spent time with them all.
Since the current Mac's are just BSD, with a shell wrapper, and that is a sister of Linux (POSIX compliant and something I cringly mentioned Window's could and should do some years ago), it might be a different experience now.

For those mentioining the Mac Mini to him, is it powerful enough to run MS OFFICE for Mac? (I don't know if it is Intel based or Arm based, etc)
That seemed to be the major hurdle he listed, to not being able to use the tablet with a keyboard and mouse. (there are a lot of people who only have simple computer needs, and we power users, tend to complicate things for them)

[Cochese]

My last experience with Mac's, was the first Bondi Blue Imac in KC. We got it from a friends company, that was one of the authorized clone makers, before Apple pulled the plug on that. I never understood how these were "intuitive" and some of the terms were so different from Windows to Mac, it was like a language switch.

But when I was growing up, there really wasn't a standard (Apple II, Timex Sinclair, Tandy's, Atari's and the GEM OS, etc). Spent time with them all.
Since the current Mac's are just BSD, with a shell wrapper, and that is a sister of Linux (POSIX compliant and something I cringly mentioned Window's could and should do some years ago), it might be a different experience now.

For those mentioining the Mac Mini to him, is it powerful enough to run MS OFFICE for Mac? (I don't know if it is Intel based or Arm based, etc)
That seemed to be the major hurdle he listed, to not being able to use the tablet with a keyboard and mouse. (there are a lot of people who only have simple computer needs, and we power users, tend to complicate things for them)

From what I've been told, the Mac Mini is basically the guts of a Macbook Pro stuffed inside a little chassis. Even the cheap one is an i5 with 4GB of memory. Plenty, I'd think.

[gsmittle]

For those mentioining the Mac Mini to him, is it powerful enough to run MS OFFICE for Mac? (I don't know if it is Intel based or Arm based, etc)

Current Macs are Intel based.

g.

[LinuxRandal]

Thanks, I wasn't sure about the Mini's (or even if they are, or aren't the same thing as Apple TV). My brain was thinking they were a cross between the tiny Imac's (cube's that broke), and a Roku.

[TB Roye]

My first computer was a Tandy 1000 with 2 floppy drives 640K of memory and a color monitor. OP system DOS 2.11. I also got the Dot Matrix printer, wow that was big time. There HD available 10K for $600, 20K for $800. I paid $2800 for every thing including a desk, stool different manuals, later I bought 900 bps modem. If I would have bought the Hard dive I would have had to upgrade the Eprom(I think that's what it was) for $18. Learned to program in Basic and also to program the modem. The first month I had the modem I ran up a $300 long distance bill, stopped that real quick. Can't believe how far we have come. I had that thing until the mid 90's when I bought my first window box from my son. The OP system was what ever came at DOS 2.11 I can remember. From then on I built my own Computers and had fun getting them to work.
Apples were always considered Geeky and not really a computer like the IBM Clones. Have times changed.

Tom

[leehljp]

Apples were always considered Geeky and not really a computer like the IBM Clones. Have times changed.

Tom

Nawww, you have changed and most of it is called "aging"!

I used to love "building" a computer from parts back before it was commercially common. I used to "hack" a game and change MY scores (upward) to make my girls envious. Back in the '90s, created web pages using nothing but HTML code.

TODAY, the highest tech, most bells and whistles - take a long back seat to convenience and ease. I have lost my "tech" curiosity, the ability to see or figure out what the creator of the machine or software intended. Bells and whistles, limitless configureability - its not for me anymore - too complex or intimidating. I said that a few weeks ago to someone and LOML overheard and said "Welcome to my world!"

Aging has changed me.