[Meemo]

LOL, I seriously doubt it. Whenever I've used friends' Macs I've truly despised the experience. The only reason I want a Mac is to be able to publish direct to iTunes rather than using Smashwords as the middleman. The Mac is literally going to live on my desk for the sake of uploading and making price changes. (And you can't use an iPad, unfortunately, or that's what I would get.)

LOL that's what my DH thought when he got an iMac for digitizing our old home videos. It would live in the guest room for videos only. And syncing with my iPod. Within a month it had moved from the guestroom and displaced our PC, and we never looked back. Using my sister's Mac and having our own for a couple of weeks to really learn it were two different things - danged near everything turned out to be easier on the Mac. Afterwards I tried a Netbook - wanted a small laptop and ignored DH's opinion that I should get a MacBook Air. I was wrong. PCs make me crazy now. And now I have a MacBook Air. (Still have the Netbook for that rare program that requires it - we crank it up maybe twice a year.)

But you may be right about your own case. I'd recommend the refurb with Applecare - Applecare being one of the few extended warranties I've heard "experts" on TV actually recommend. And one of the very few we actually buy.

 

[hsuthard]

I'm a big fan of Apple's refurbs (they come with the full warranty and are eligible for the AppleCare extended warranty) and the Mac mini and MacBook Air. My dh has the brand new Mini and my daughter has the Air and we've been very pleased with both.

 

[Rene Folsom]

Just to resurrect the battery discussion really quick - I want to make sure you don't concern yourself about this.  Regardless of whether the model you get has a built in battery or a removable one, you won't need to worry about replacing a MacBook battery.  They last for-friggen-ever!  I have a 9 year old Apple PowerBook (their old, pre-intel laptop), and the original battery still lasts 1-2 hours... and it's almost a decade old!  The only thing that has gotten tricky with regard to that laptop is the charger connection.  Yes, the battery may still last a few hours, but charging it is a challenge.  However, newer MacBooks have a much better charger connection than the old ones.  My 2009 MacBook Pro model still has a perfect charger (I take care of it though).  And, the battery lasts about 4-8 hours, depending on what I'm doing.  Of course, if you're watching videos and stuff, it uses more battery life.  But, I just wanted to reiterate - don't be concerned with having to replace the battery... ever.  The battery will outlive the computer.  Trust me.

Good luck and let us know what you decide! 

 

[KellyHarper]

Agreed on the point that once I started switching to Apple products I began enjoying them more and more. I've had an iPhone since 2008 and have loved it. In 2012 I got a 2010 Macbook and have slowly transitioned to the Mac being my full time system. I even went so far as to install Mac on my PC (so now it runs Mac AND Windows, though I'll honestly say I have booted Windows a single time since I got Mac up and running).

You said you have an iPad; if you have an iPhone as well you're going to be amazed at some of the features that just play nice with each other. It's so nice to have a one-stop-shop for all media (iTunes) and be able to sync everything between all of you Apple products (iCloud). If I add a contact via my Macbook, it'll appear on my phone before I can even open the phone to find it. Same with the calendar. Mountain Lion integrates facebook & Twitter along with a nice Notification center so it feels as though you can have Safari closed and still be connected via Social Media (you can also turn off these alerts if you need to). The Reading List in Safari is becoming one of my most used features as well. If there's something I want to read but should be doing something else (i.e. writing) I just save it to the reading list. Then one day in the future when I'm sitting in a line somewhere I pull out my phone and pop the reading list open and there's the article!

Sigh, I'll stop ranting on and on. I just wish I had a shiny new 27" iMac to play with in the office. Maybe one day this year

 

[Amanda Brice]

Quick question...

From my admittedly not-terribly-in-depth research it appears I can hook a Mac Mini up to an HDTV to use as the monitor. Does this work only for using it as an entertainment center or also as a computer?

I'm thinking that a Mac Mini is probably my best bet. I don't need a ton of computing power or anything, since I'll only be using it to upload books to iTunes Connect and maybe also stream movies.

 

[Meemo]

I'm a big fan of Apple's refurbs (they come with the full warranty and are eligible for the AppleCare extended warranty) and the Mac mini and MacBook Air. My dh has the brand new Mini and my daughter has the Air and we've been very pleased with both.

We replaced our daughter's iMac (which was our first one, about 5-6 years old) with a Mac Mini for Christmas this year. Got an inexpensive flat-screen TV to use as a monitor, DH was really impressed with it.

Quick question...

From my admittedly not-terribly-in-depth research it appears I can hook a Mac Mini up to an HDTV to use as the monitor. Does this work only for using it as an entertainment center or also as a computer?

I'm thinking that a Mac Mini is probably my best bet. I don't need a ton of computing power or anything, since I'll only be using it to upload books to iTunes Connect and maybe also stream movies.

Yes, it's now our daughter's desktop computer. It does pretty much anything a Mac can do, as far as I can tell. He imported all the stuff that was on their old computer into the Mac Mini. They're happy with it.

 

[hsuthard]

The mini can use a TV with hdmi input as a monitor just fine. Or use your current monitor from your PC (possibly with an adapter depending on what inputs it may have). You can also play movies from iTunes that way. The Mac Mini runs on the standard Mac Mountain Lion OS X, just like any other Mac. So it does what every other Mac does.