Contemplating a new laptop. I've never had one, just the netbook I use while traveling. Using it right now actually, hooked up to a full size screen and keyboard. It's always worked well and I have no complaints with it.

However, the TV station we work with has given us Flip cameras to record our own video 'B' roll footage. The netbook stores the videos well enough, but not so much on playback. Audio comes thru, then the video is about 15 seconds behind and in slow motion. Just not enough memory I guess. I haven't even tried to do any editing and such.

So anyway, my question is this; are the Apples pretty much compatible with windows based products now or are they still a completely different animal? I keep hearing good things about Apples, but everything we have is Windows based. Before I go and spend any money on a laptop, I wanna know ALL the facts!

 

apple and PC are different animals.
That said, data is data to an extent. the apple should be able to capture video in a sharable format.
the flip camera, is it USB connection and stores directly to the computer or does it save to a memory card? if its USB, as long as there is an apple driver, the device will work too.
Apples are a bit pricey, but they are the preferred computer for the artsy type...

 

Apple has great marketing and advertising, but if it breaks, it's going to be your fault because their products are faultless. They're also overpriced by about 30%. My opinion and experience; others will vary.

If you're interested in just trying a different OS, you might check out Debain Linux or Ubuntu. You can actually run Ubuntu from a CD-R to decide if you like it or not. It's a bit slower that way, but you get an idea of how it operates. They're also free.

If everything you currently have is Windows-based, I'd be reluctant to swap simply for the cost of buying new software...I don't know of any that work on both OS X (Mac) and Windows.

If it were me, I'd look for a something with 4-8 GB of DDR 3 RAM; an Intel Core 5 or Core 7 processor, and a GT550M Nvidia graphics card. If you're transferring a lot of data, you'll also want a dual-band 802.11n wireless card and a compatible wireless router like the Cisco WRSV4410N. My OS of choice would be Win 7 X64 Professional.

 

I run an IT dept and am a 'puter guy by trade. Have been a Windows guy for 20 years . Wife told me last fall she really wanted a laptop for X-Mas. She wanted it mostly for multimedia stuff - pictures, movies etc. I got her a Mac. BEST decision I have ever made. It worked perfectly straight out of the box. Neither of us had done much with a Mac before and after spending about an hour using the built in tutorials, we wer good to go. As for moving stuff between Mac and PC, we bought MS Office for Mac from Microsoft. We move docs etc back and forth from PC to Mac all the time with no issues. As mentioned above, the Mac is more expensive. If you want a laptop that just works, spend the little extra and get the Mac. If you want to save some money but don't mind doing your own drivers installations etc every time you add a new device, stick with the PC. I still use PC at work but it is so nice that I don't have to do any tech support for wife's Mac. It is so easy that what little support has to be done, she can do herself.

 

I think his biggest problem is the atom processor and lack of memory in the netbook.
There are some new dual and quad core atom processors on and hitting the market that might speed things up.

Personally, Im trading in my dual core Dell D820 for a Dell 4500, i7 8 core with 8 gig of ram. Its a work computer so I dont get much choice.
If I was looking for personal hardware, I would go with the mac with the amount of flying I do. if I was mostly grounded, I would go with a dell.

 

Why does the flying steer you towards a Mac?

 

mainly the macbook air.
2.9 lbs vs 6.0 lbs for my dell

there is computing power loss there, but the air will do what I need most of the time...
speaking of which, I gotta fly soon, I should probably clean out my pack...

 

My wifes new hp laptop runs circles around my Mac on video and games. Its not a fair comparison because the Mac is over 3 years old. However, the Mac's battery will run it longer than the hp but its slower.
Not going into a debate but Tallguy67, a couple of years ago I was ranting about the 3 times we had to send the Mac back because of problems.
For what we do, a W-7 machine out of the box works great.
Anyway back to The only reason I wouldnt buy a Mac (at a decent price) would be if you use a LOREX (and a few other brands) security system. They didnt make their software with Apple in mind so their remote viewing software really required some work arounds to get it to work and made it really slow. Supposedly that issue has recently changed with the newest Mac's running Safari but I just remember the problems I had.
So, chaikwa, as normal I cant help you at all because I like them both.

 

As you know I am now a mac guy. Have to use windows at the rig. Transferring files is easy and pretty seamless. I do all my reports and such on my mac, then transfer them over when I am done, so other guys have access to them. First thing I do with the 'work' computer is turn it off and set it in the corner. Audi/Video is a snap and very straight forward. I've had mine for three years and never had a problem. Had many windows laptops with no hardware problems, just software and typical OS issues with windows. There are similar or compatible programs for mac similar to windows. When I changed over, I never skipped a beat. Email, internet, spreadsheets, word processing is all pretty much the same so it really does not matter what the name of the program is. At least I don't think so. The biggest thing is that you just don't have to worry about them, no viruses, no registry garbage, no 'speed up my pc' issues, it just works no muss no fuss.

Mac's just work, they are more expensive, but you get what you pay for. My cousin has a mac book pro titanium still. bought it about 10 or 12 years ago, and it is still running strong. I think he had to replace a hard drive, but that was due to space not failure. He did have a CD rom fail on him after about 5 years, but he went to DVD so not a real big issue. He has upgraded the processors, and obviously he updated the OS as they have been released. Cool thing about that is they are cheap ($20) and you mac will actually run faster when updated.

The best advise I can give you is to go to an apple store with the files,video, data you are expecting to use and mess around with them. You already have an idea of how windows works so you can compare which works better to you, and then make a judgment as far as price/value for your needs.

Based on my experiences with both systems hardware and software, I would highly recommend a mac. Any price difference will be quickly overcome by longevity of the equipment, ease of use, and lack of trouble shooting headaches leading to down time.

 

thing that keeps me tied to windows besides that what the company buys for me, quite a bit of the software I use for PLCs are windows only.

 

You can get software to run window's based programs on a Mac and Mac's do have a decent amount of battery life. I would still chose a PC over a Mac because of the learning curve associated with learning new programs. My advice is shop for the features you want. If media editing is going to be the highest priority then you need a the processing power, graphics and ram to support those operations. Once you figure out what you want to do, double what you think you need, then shop it for price.

 

Everything Jeff said +1.....

Most everything a PC can do a Mac can do. As far as user experience, nothing PC can some close. Use a Mac for a month and try to argue with me.

Macs are expensive, but, they are worth it.

The customer support, worth it double.

I recommend if you do go mac, get the apple care. I had it, give you a total of three years of warranty.

Here is my Apple care experience. Had several dead pixels on my screen. Two months past 12 month warranty, AppleCare picked up the tab. Brought my MBP (MacBook Pro) in to an Apple store in Houston. Was notified that afternoon that they would not be able to make the repair in house and it would have to be shipped to a repair center. Got a call from the repair center early the next day. They had no units of my screen in stock. They opted, as their policy, to replace my screen with a higher resolution unit. Outstanding! My MBP was shipped back to me. Shipping both ways was done via overnight carriers. My MBP was returned CLEAN and packaged in near retail packaging.

Every person I spoke with concerning this repair was courteous, polite, genuinely helpful, and spoke fluent ENGLISH!

All of this service was done without a penny cost to me.

Another small customer support experience I had with Apple. Couple of weeks after receiving my MBP and accompanying Magic Mouse new, I dropped my mouse, causing damage to the clicking mechanism. I was going to purchase another mouse, but wanted to call up Apple to see if it could be fixed anyway, I fully intending to pay for the repair. The support guy, said, "Sir, you just spent over 2400 dollars on a computer with us, we are not concerned with a 60 dollar mouse, you as a customer are more important to us than that" He over nighted me a brand new mouse, free of charge, even though I had broke it myself.

Service like that is rare now a days.

 

I can't say much for compatibility for what you'll be using it for, but we've had a mac book for 5 years. Yes, it is overpriced, but the things are tough. I've dropped it, thrown it, spilled coffe/beer/cereal on the thing more times than I can count. Finally one lucky fall broke the screen a few weeks ago, but a cord over to the TV makes it all good as new. With all of the "risky" websites and email I've viewed with it it still started up and ran the same as when it was brand new. I can not say the same for any of my friends/relatives that have a windows based laptop/PC, even though I do think they are easier to use in general. Good luck.

 

I love my Macbook, and hate to say this but if you are using your computer for work purposes and most of your programs are windows based I would stick with a PC based unit. You will be able to save some money not having to buy the Apple versions of software that you are currently running. Although you can save a lot of money on not needing anti-virus software. Around 95%+ of malicious viruses are aimed towards windows operations.

 

See what you did!! You are worse than Stan about stirring the pot. You created yet another PC vs Apple debate and did it in a way that you could pretend you werent starting it. You even have me arguing with myself since I own both. Shame on you.