Thinking of getting a Macbook Pro (Canada)

I am thinking of getting a Macbook Pro and well I came across (I haven't bought it yet) that I'm not seeing that "Tax" part of the Apple notebooks...

do they charge tax??? (this seems like a really stupid question where everything charges taxes...or do they??? )

If they don't...then they are so d@mn worth it...woot~~ hehe...

PS oh btw, is it worth upgrading the ram to 4GB on the Mac OS X Leopard ???
(and I'm using this for my engineering program at a university...) or would I need to upgrade it???

 

Yes they charge tax.
Do not buy ram from apple it's a rip off. Buy from NCIX.com or tigerdirect.ca

 

Well just ordered another MBP today actually. Yes they charge tax's it gets tacked on before order completes.

2 Gb's is fine for most non-power users decide what you fall into, but if you do decide to do, order from a site like macsales.com or anything else really cause it'll be cheaper.

If your a student you can get a Ipod touch + a canon printer FREE after rebates + about 200$ off. I saved a BUNCH today!

 

Ah yes thank you...I just noticed that they do...I went searching through their website...

and btw, they do Tax-exemptions...well the thing is that my parents owns a business and they have a tax-exemption thinger mobober...and well...would that work??? (btw it's a PST exempt)...I would have to contact them to varify right?

oh and is macsale.com in canada???

and is it worth it to buy??? like normal life of a Macbook Pro and the Battery life...cuz I don't want to spend a whole lot on a notebook which I can only use for 2 to 3 years only...

now another question... would it play an old game that we still love to play ??? It's called Starcraft...haha...I still love that game~~
now basically I'm going to turn on the laptop frequently and play very little game (probably only StarCraft) and mostly on-the-go...

On the starcraft CD the requirements are: Mac OS 7.6 or higher, 16MB of RAM, 105MB hard disk space, 4X CD-ROM, and monitor support for 256 colours (640X480 res)...wow, that is really really old~~...so I would assume it can...lol

 

Well my old Macbook Pro (August 07's gen) played StarCraft just fine... and btw it's my FAVORITE game ever... That's why i'm getting the new macbook pro to play part "2" when it comes out.

Anyway I heard that 10.5.4 update doesn't work well on the MBP's with StarCraft so if you don't get it with that update pre-installed then you should be okay. But if not then best step would be to install Windows XP on boot camp and you'll be able to play it fine.

They say battery life is 4.5 Hrs.. Count it more like 3 to 3 1/2 I'd, not sure how much more drastic penryn is but my previous laptop topped out there on medium workload.

Also not sure on the normal life but people have used previous mac notebook for upwards of 5 years, get applecare and you'll be set for 3


Also macsales is american I believe. I am canadian and I use them though cause some us cheap ram companies won't ship to us! but they will. Let me know if you have any more questions bud

As for the tax thing... sorry i don't know really. I'm assuming your a student I'd go that route

 

The MacBook Pro can slaughter Starcraft, its 8600M GT is far beyond the 1998 game's requirements, LOL. It'll handle Starcraft 2 for sure as well, we just don't know if it will be enough for top settings or anything, Blizzard hasn't given out the specifications.

Apple does charge sales tax for its Macs, that's shown in the end. It corresponds with the province you're ordering from!

If you can afford it, there is no real reason not to get 4 GB of RAM. Of course, like others have said, you will save yourself some money by buying the RAM elsewhere from places such as NCIX.com and installing it yourself. It is easy and doesn't void the warranty. And there's no need to get "Mac RAM" either, as long as you get the right type of RAM (200-pin DDR2 667 MHz) it'll work!

Batteries, you can replace in the long run. Most batteries will last about 3 years under normal usage. Notebooks in general have a life of about 2-6 years, depending on the treatment and build quality. There are people out there still running 4-year-old Powerbooks, no problems. I wouldn't worry about it!

 

Yeah in terms of requirement it would slaughter it, but you need the OS X installer from blizzard and the forums were saying that there's a problem with the latest Mac OS X patch that is preventing people from playing it. Not so much the requirements but the software. As I mentioned above he'll have to be weary if he doesn't have XP if the machine comes pre-loaded with the current patch. I'm personally not overly concerned cause I"ll just install windows but I can't go over a week without StarCraft..... adict!

 

phew~~ thank you for the relief...well do Macbook pro can detach batteries??? if so, would it be better to detach it when you are going to use the AC power most of the time???

And about what Durious said "I heard that 10.5.4 update doesn't work well on the MBP's with StarCraft so if you don't get it with that update pre-installed then you should be okay. " huh??? is that just rumours??? or do they frequently happen??? :S

mmm...now would it be better to use the MAC OS X (disregarding the StarCraft...) on the Macbook Pro than using the Windows XP???
well I'll get use to using the Mac OS X...but wouldn't it interfer let say, a friend (who uses a Windows Vista) wants to send a file to my Macbook and well won't that cause a .extension error??? or can that be fixed with a touch of a button??? (well as you would of guessed, I never used full time with a Mac before, only time I used it is when I was playing around with my friend's Macbook's Photobooth...=P )

 

according to the message boards blizzard had said about a month ago that it was in apples court to resolve. I have not read anything since then. Tomorrow morning more people with the MBP will be on here and can confirm / deny my posting for us. Or at the very worst I can let you know by next weekend when I try it out

 

Not sure but.... http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=274444 check out that posting from a forum user. Awesome deal. I'd recommend that in case you don't wanna buy new

 

hehe, that would be great (you can PM me back if SC works on the new update)...=)...now I can't wait till I buy my Macbook Pro...hehe, I'm prolly gonna buy it from my uni's campus tech-shop (and it is called that too~)...well by anychance anyone who is reading this is currently attending or going to be attending the Uni of Waterloo??? You never know y'know...lol

 

I actually work full-time for a energy company however I do part-time university hence my student discount. But I live in N.B. not ontario.

 

Energy company! Petro Canada?

I'm sorry, I don't know why I've been going so off topic lately on threads .

 

Yes, nearly all notebooks now (MacBook Air is an exception) have detachable batteries so you can swap them out, no problems at all. In fact all you need is a quarter to "unlock" the hatch!

There's no need to take out the battery while you're on AC. You can if you want, but there's no real need.

Most files are cross-platform compatible. So if your friend wants to send you a JPEG of him singing, you can open and edit that photo, just as you can on Windows. Same with the common formats like MP3, AVI, JPEG, PSD, Word Document, Excel Document, PowerPoint Document, etc.

 

mmm... one more odd question:

Why are MBP so expensive??? hehe~ sorry, but like ASUS M50SV-A1 and F8Sn-C1 are only like 1400 dollars...and well mmm I should be asking more like "what makes Macbooks so much better than PCs???" well first of all I like the exterior of the Macbook...it feels so d@mn stylish...hehe
but then what else??? both window and Mac laptops fulfills my want of a laptop for uni, but the price tag of it is getting a hit...(cuz I'm getting a definite disencouragment from my older sister who dispises me for even thinking of getting a laptop...*curse you sis~* lol, and let alone when she hears about when I'm gonna get a MBP, she'll flip...haha)

 

Build quality, the superior OS, quality parts, etc. It's really the example do you want a beetle or a ferrari?

 

ah...haha I see...well then

just a memory question, which is better? Two 1GB RAM on the Macbook Pro? or One 2GB RAM on a Macbook Pro??

Cuz I heard from somewhere long time ago that one thing of RAM is better than two things of RAM (which they both equal the same memory)

And another question...
how much RAM does Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard utilize???
like Vista 32-bit only utilizes up to 3.5GB and 64-bit utilizes 4GB or more...

 

One 2gb ram is better. It leaves more room for upgrading to 4gb, saving you money later on.

 

Mac OS X Leopard is fully 64-bit, so it will read 4 GB of RAM fine!

If you're going to go 2 GB, then its best to do 1x2 GB (so a single RAM stick of 2 GB), so when you do decide you want 4 GB all you need to do is add another 2 GB stick instead of taking both 1 GB sticks out!

 

ok...one stick is better than two...ok got it =)

oh and I was looking youtube for "Macbook Pro Unboxing" vids...hehe
well all of them came with the Apple Remote...now is that optional or included??? (and do you have to have them to access the "Front Row" application??)

 

It's optional now for new machines. Prior to february they were included in the pre-penryn processor machines. 19$ roughly now

 

wwwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittttttttttttt a moment...

From my University forum, some ppl said that Macbooks are incompatible with some of the programs that will be used for the courses...

huh?!?!??!?!????? I'm going into Systems Design Engineering and that isn't [email protected]~~~~~~~~ OH NO~~

 

Guess that's your problem to deal with, macbook pro can run windows as well natively.