Tech advice

[danaeris]

Mac vs. Mac with Windows vs. Dual Boot Mac vs. PC

I may be getting a new laptop. I've heard one person say that their Mac running Windows was not performing to the level one would expect from "that much machine." Too slow, etc.

A PC would be much cheaper, but I've noticed that while my iBook seems none the worse for the wear when being dropped or knocked over, most of my friends' PCs seem to not be able to cope with even a little rough handling.

Printers/multifunction machines

If I stick with a Mac, any recommendations for printers, especially ones for which the cartridges aren't too expensive?

And, I'm told that the fax function on a multifunction is useless to me unless I have a landline... is that accurate?

Digital Voice Recorders

I'm also in the market for some kind of digital voice recorder; my impression is that Olympus is the way to go. I'd get an add-on mike for my iPod, except that the battery would not last the day at a conference.

Comments

[lady-sodayah.livejournal.com]

as for the laptop issue, although I love macs I have a Dell laptop with a 3 year warranty that covers everything form it being dropped to having things spilled on it no questions asked it's covered. I also chose the on-site repair option so I have my laptop fixed withing 48 hours of a service call. This is my second Dell laptop (the last one was totally replaced top to bottom several times), we have 4 Dell machines in the house and have never had a problem with service.

As for Digital voice recorders I have a Sony IDC-BP150 recorder (has 5:39 hours recording time 16mb internal mem), I also have a multi-directional external mic for it and a purchased their wireless mic system that works with it great. My sister has the Sony ICD SX 46 (has 11:15 hours recording time, up to 47 hours in LP mode, 128MB internal mem) which is the unit that Sony brought out to replace mine.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

If I stick with a Mac, any recommendations for printers, especially ones for which the cartridges aren't too expensive?

The *only* recommendation that I can make with any real authority is pick a printer that is A) laser, not inkjet, B) is network-attached. Optional item is C) device speaks Postscript or a functional equivelent. A) makes the cost reasonable and solves myriad problems with cleaning jets and fussy cartridges. B) means that it will be (generally) usable with nearly any computer running nearly any OS, all the way back to DOS and MacOS System 8, and hands-down WILL be compatible with any unix-like OS. It will also be usable by anyone on the network without fussing around with printer-sharing software and won't depend on your machine being turned on or home. I've been Very Happy with Brother's HL line. You can identify the network-attached ones by the N near the back of the model: HL-5170DN is a network-attached, duplexing printer, for example. (And, also, the model I've got about 30 feet away from where I'm sitting.) Expect to pay about CA$550 for one of those, and about CA$100 for replacement toner cartriges. You'll only need to do that after about two CASES of paper have been run through it, though.

And, I'm told that the fax function on a multifunction is useless to me unless I have a landline... is that accurate?

Generally, this is true. Skype/Vonage can *sometimes* use a good enough codec to run a modem through them via a bridge jack, but you won't always have that, which means faxing may or may not work at more or less random. If your voice calls *all* go through a mobile phone, you're pretty much done right there, as you'll have no way to plug the thing in. Also, many multifunction boxes are inkjets (which fail A) above), and have pretty poor scanning capacity, since it's mainly there to support the faxing function.

Consumer vs Corporate...

[radven.livejournal.com]

Cheap consumer-targeted PC laptops tend to be junk, and will break when sneezed upon. But the corporate-oriented lines from the same companies tend to be built like bricks. And of course, they cost more.

The Dell Inspirion (consumer) is best avoided if you intend to take your laptop on the go. But the Dell Latitude (Cherie just got a D820) is built rock solid.

The Lenovo laptops are cheaply made, the IBM (owned / made my Lenovo) Thinkpads on the other hand are tanks that even have drain holes to shrug off direct coffee spills.

The Panasonic ToughBooks are also really solidly made PC laptops.

The extra cost is worth in for a better built laptop.

Personally - I love my MacBook Pro. But if I had to go PC, I'd get a Latitude or a Thinkpad.

Good luck!

- chris

Windows on a mac

[admiralthrawn.livejournal.com]

I've been running a mac with "parallels", a program that lets you run windows on your mac in a window, so that you don't have to reboot to swap. It's available from parallels.com, which is also a good source for what it can and can't do.

It's reasonably fast (though I've got an amazingly fast mac, so maybe that's not surprising). The two big caveats are that you need a lot of memory (since you've still got the MacOS running, the windows version is seeing that much less memory), and windows is going to have poor graphics performance (which they've promised to fix in the next release of parallels).

The graphics issues make the windows partition not useful for running games; I'm not sure if you'd be running anything heavy enough on the graphics performance to notice . The memory may be an issue on a laptop, since laptop memory is expensive. And you'll probably want to get windows XP for it, since that's less of a memory hog than vista.

The multifunction fax/etc will need to plug into something that gives it a dialtone. If you use skype or similar, there are boxes that you can attach to your computer that will do that; I imagine there exist cell phones that can do it, though I've never seen one.

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

my advice, from years of doing end-user support:

1) stick with a mac, save yourself from the annoyance of viruses and spyware

2) run windows in parallels for whatever you need to do with windows (in my experience, for anything but super specialized applications, this includes very few things)

3) vista is AWFUL, stay far far away. it makes my eyes bleed.

4) laser printers are awesome. i have a brother HL-2040 which works on mac, windows, and linux. it's about $99 on College street. if you feel like sticking with an inkjet, i highly recommend Canon, they have the cheapest ink and work great with macs.

apple runs a promotion in the fall where you get a mail-in rebate on the value of an ipod with your mac; if you have no need for an ipod, get the deal anyway, sell your mac on ebay, and reduce the cost by $229. they are also running a $100 mail-in-rebate on a printer at the moment.

heck, i almost want to do that myself now :)

[secretsoflife.livejournal.com]

oh, one last thing, unless you're planning on doing serious design / illustration / video editing work, a Macbook will be plenty powerful enough, no need to go for the Pro.