With the iPhone and iPod gaining popularity in campuses, there is a fair chance th e Apple fever extends on to your next computer purchase as well. Apple’s latest line of desktops and laptops offer excellent hardware and class-leading form factors, not to mention their gorgeous user interface and timeless elegance. But for most of us, the bigger challenge is switching from years, if not decades, of Windows use. If you’re looking to make the switch to a Mac, read on…
Making the Hardware Purchase…
There’s no denying the fact that an Apple Mac costs most upfront from purely a hardware perspective, but in my experience, the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ rings very true in this case. If you start factoring in the total cost of ownership — Macs come bundled with an excellent media (photos, videos, music) management software — then the equation makes a little more sense. At the entry level, you can start with a Mac mini for as low as Rs 33,900. But bear in mind that you will have to use your own monitor, keyboard and mouse. This is something you can possibly salvage from your older PC as well. Add a little flexibility to your budget and you can choose between the Macbook Air ultra-portable and the iMac allin-one desktop. Personally, I recommend the flexibility of the MacBook Air which packs in the power of a regular laptop in an impossibly thin form factor (more details at http://www.apple.co.in/store/)..
If you travel abroad frequently, you can well pick up a Mac on the way back. The difference between buying in India and buying abroad can be significant, depending on which model you purchase. The good news is that Apple covers all purchases with an international warranty, so your investment is well protected whether you buy in India or abroad. If any of your students are interested in buying Macs, they’re even luckier, as Indian Apple resellers offer discounts on both the software and hardware. While making the purchase, I would strongly recommend picking up the three-year ‘AppleCare Protection Plan’ extended warranty, since out of warranty repairs tend to be prohibitive.
…and the Software
For first-time Mac users, the bad news (or the good news, depending on how tired you are of your current PC) is that the Mac operating system software is not ‘like Windows’. It is critical to understand that while Macs are intuitive to use, switching to a Mac takes some getting used to. So give it some time and consider it an investment. If you already use an iPad, you will notice features like Launchpad which are very similar to how applications are organised on the iPad. Do ask your Apple vendor to walk you through most of the regular everyday tasks even before you make the purchase, so you start understanding the minor nuances of using a Mac. Apple has a number of very handy tutorials at http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/and http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ to ease the transition and the benefits of spending some time with these tutorials is immense.
With the iPhone and iPod gaining popularity in campuses, there is a fair chance th e Apple fever extends on to your next computer purchase as well. Apple’s latest line of desktops and laptops offer excellent hardware and class-leading form factors, not to mention their gorgeous user interface and timeless elegance. But for most of us, the bigger challenge is switching from years, if not decades, of Windows use. If you’re looking to make the switch to a Mac, read on…
Making the Hardware Purchase…
There’s no denying the fact that an Apple Mac costs most upfront from purely a hardware perspective, but in my experience, the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ rings very true in this case. If you start factoring in the total cost of ownership — Macs come bundled with an excellent media (photos, videos, music) management software — then the equation makes a little more sense. At the entry level, you can start with a Mac mini for as low as Rs 33,900. But bear in mind that you will have to use your own monitor, keyboard and mouse. This is something you can possibly salvage from your older PC as well. Add a little flexibility to your budget and you can choose between the Macbook Air ultra-portable and the iMac allin-one desktop. Personally, I recommend the flexibility of the MacBook Air which packs in the power of a regular laptop in an impossibly thin form factor (more details at http://www.apple.co.in/store/)..
If you travel abroad frequently, you can well pick up a Mac on the way back. The difference between buying in India and buying abroad can be significant, depending on which model you purchase. The good news is that Apple covers all purchases with an international warranty, so your investment is well protected whether you buy in India or abroad. If any of your students are interested in buying Macs, they’re even luckier, as Indian Apple resellers offer discounts on both the software and hardware. While making the purchase, I would strongly recommend picking up the three-year ‘AppleCare Protection Plan’ extended warranty, since out of warranty repairs tend to be prohibitive.
…and the Software
For first-time Mac users, the bad news (or the good news, depending on how tired you are of your current PC) is that the Mac operating system software is not ‘like Windows’. It is critical to understand that while Macs are intuitive to use, switching to a Mac takes some getting used to. So give it some time and consider it an investment. If you already use an iPad, you will notice features like Launchpad which are very similar to how applications are organised on the iPad. Do ask your Apple vendor to walk you through most of the regular everyday tasks even before you make the purchase, so you start understanding the minor nuances of using a Mac. Apple has a number of very handy tutorials at http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/and http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/ to ease the transition and the benefits of spending some time with these tutorials is immense.
Once you begin to find your way around your Mac, getting the same (or similar) software to do what you are used to doing in Windows is a fairly easy task, with many free and paid alternatives existing to do the job. Sample these: the Preview application will open your PDFs and image/media formats; iCal will handle your calendaring activities; and Time Machine will automatically back up your data and applications to an external drive. The iLife suite, with iPhoto for photo management, iMovie for movie editing, iWeb for simple web publishing, iDVD for DVD creation etc., comes free with your Mac. Your next best bet is the Mac App Store, Apple’s online application store that lets you choose applications and shows you recommendations and ratings for each application under a variety of categories. Microsoft even has a version of Office for Mac, so all your work related documents are fully supported. Beyond that, get started with apps like VLC for multimedia playback, and browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Opera, and soon you will be wondering how you could have managed all these years with your Windows machine!
Of course, it needs to be mentioned that if you really need to use Windows for some proprietary application that is not available on the Mac platform, you can choose to run Windows on a Mac as well, either using the built-in utility called Boot Camp or third party software like VMware or Parallels.
Once you begin to find your way around your Mac, getting the same (or similar) software to do what you are used to doing in Windows is a fairly easy task, with many free and paid alternatives existing to do the job. Sample these: the Preview application will open your PDFs and image/media formats; iCal will handle your calendaring activities; and Time Machine will automatically back up your data and applications to an external drive. The iLife suite, with iPhoto for photo management, iMovie for movie editing, iWeb for simple web publishing, iDVD for DVD creation etc., comes free with your Mac. Your next best bet is the Mac App Store, Apple’s online application store that lets you choose applications and shows you recommendations and ratings for each application under a variety of categories. Microsoft even has a version of Office for Mac, so all your work related documents are fully supported. Beyond that, get started with apps like VLC for multimedia playback, and browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Opera, and soon you will be wondering how you could have managed all these years with your Windows machine!
Of course, it needs to be mentioned that if you really need to use Windows for some proprietary application that is not available on the Mac platform, you can choose to run Windows on a Mac as well, either using the built-in utility called Boot Camp or third party software like VMware or Parallels.
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