Thanks to all those who emailed in with laptop advice and thoughts. I had about 50/50 Mac and PC recommendations.
So, aware of all the pros and cons and asking myself what I really wanted on a gut level (or indeed, a lap level), I decided to take the plunge and invest in a brand new Mac laptop.
I definitely wanted a cute, stylish laptop per se, and I’m so fed up with my PCs crashing and freezing all the time. I think the limit of my Windows prowess has been well and truly reached after ten years, and it’s about time I at least had a go at learning the ways of the Mac world.
The iconic affordable Mac laptop is the 12″ G4 iBook. The latest version was revised last July with extra sturdiness and memory and so forth. I ordered it on Saturday, and it’s due to arrive tomorrow.
In that short limbo of days (and Mac fans know what I’m about to say), Apple pulled the iBook from its shelves. From today, the iBook has ceased to be, replaced by a Cyberman controlled by Roger Lloyd Pack. Sorry, I mean the all-new singing and dancing MacBook.
But I was aware of this. Although I could send the thing right back and exchange for a hot-off-the-press MacBook, I’d actually rather have the snowy soap-like iBook, at least as a first Mac machine. I saw a louche young man using one in Muswell Hill Library today, and frankly it was lust on first sight. (insert innuendo here, firmly)
The way I see it, it’s preferable to have the last generation of a tried and tested model than the first version of a new machine altogether. It’s never a good idea to get the first release of any gadget, I find. People act as if new equals final, forgetting that the upgrade after that is just around the corner. After the Christmas-like rush of the first kids on the block dies down, there’s usually a few kinks to be ironed out, for the next revision. There might be a whining noise that manifests itself after a month, or the unit could burst into flames if you look at it in just the wrong way. Or there could be an experimental substance in the battery that leaks out and gives the user a disease that turns them into a parody of Celia Johnson.
My priority is to get used to the Mac world per se, and I think it’s better to do that on something other people are more likely to have had experience of. And then I’ll see about graduating cautiously to the MacBook, if and when.
