Pour a glass of wine and chat

Drinking the Apple kool-aid?


Do you really have to drink the entire glass of kool-aid?

I have the iPhone.  (Love!)

I covet my husband’s iPad.  (Visions of attending meetings with it, casually flipping back its tri-fold cover, jotting down notes and pulling up a website just mentioned in discussion.)

Do I have to get the laptop too?

I often moan and groan that I cannot edit my iPhone calendar from my laptop.  Sometimes it would just be easier to input say the high school softball schedule with a keyboard.  My friend Sharon likes to point out that I would be able to do just that if I had a Mac.  Grrr.

Our department of World Languages and Cultures at The College of Saint Rose recently held an Alumni Symposium.  One presenter inspired us all to make the change to Mac.  He talked of enhanced Power Point style presentations, enhanced eReader capabilities, enhanced electronic textbook options.  Enhanced everything in a Mac?

But the price point issue… why spend $1000 on a laptop, when you can get a great one for $500?  Oh, wait!  There is an educational discount on that AirBook, bringing the price down to $950.  Bargain!

If the lifespan of a laptop is about 4 years (if you are lucky, and if you are not a teenager who might spill coffee on it, or close it with a pen resting on the keyboard, or visit sites that will infect your laptop innards), does it ever really pay off to spend double on a Mac?  Just how enhanced does the browsing experience need to be, in order to justify the additional cost?

I expect I will be setting myself up for a Macintosh/Apple firestorm love fest here.  But please do help me understand the value difference.  Are there others out there like me who have not made the jump?

PS  It is a myth that Macs do not get viruses.

Categories: General
Claire Ziamandanis