Want to buy Mac, don't know which one

Hi all,

I have all my life owned pc, about a year ago I got an iPhone, and since bought 2 iPads and a second iPhone.

I think what has really impressed me is 1- they just work! And work very well together and 2- they look damn sharp.

I have never had one single issue with these devices and am now convinced I want to get either a Mac laptop or desktop but have no idea what I should get

My main uses are as follows

-downloading movies and videos and streaming to my Xbox or media player when I get one, hell I would love to be able stream a movie to my iPad for those nights when I am laying in better early

-pictures...storing,viewing doing anything with pictures on pc has been a pain and takes hours to backup every time I have to reformat which is easily a few times a year

-keeping work notes, documents

-searching the web a lot

-communicating between our devices (pictures,calendar events, etc) which I can't figure out on pc

-occasional game, use Xbox mainly

So I can't stand always having to download updates, drivers, searching for why something is not working for no apparent reason and how the pc regardless how much I spend always seems to bog down

Question is with what I will be using it for what is the best I would need that will last me hopefully several years without having to purchase another one?

Thanks all

 

There are a few things to think about:

• Macs, just like PCs, do have their occasional issues. They aren't perfect and there are times when they don't "just work."
• Apple releases firmware and software updates pretty regularly. They aren't as frequent as MS updates but don't be surprised if you end up having to download a few updates every month.
• The specs for a Mac aren't any different than specs for Windows notebooks. You can use the same type of judgement when looking at Mac specs as you would any other computer.

Now, the only sticky topic that you listed, without going into detail, was gaming. What level of gaming are you looking at? Portal and Half-Life 2 or do you want to run Crysis? Everything else you listed could be easily handled by a 13" MacBook Air (MBA) or even a 13" MBP. Your requirements for gaming are going to dictate whether or not you need a Mac with a dedicated GPU. You also didn't mention anything about display size or price.

If price is of no concern, I don't think there is any question that you should opt for the 15" RMBP. If you are on a budget, it's hard to go wrong with the 13" MBA. I would go with the MBA over the 13" MBP as you do get a lot more with the MBA. It comes with a higher resolution display, standard SSD, it's really thin and light, it offers the same 7 hour battery life (though that is more like 5.5-6.5 with real world usage), and its processor can generally keep up with the 13" MBP.

To me, even after owning one, the 13" MBP was overpriced for what came with it while the MBA is a lot more competitively priced.

 

Hello,

Gaming really isn't a huge thing as I use Xbox more for that.

Price wise, ya not looking to spend no 2000 or anything. I just don't want to purchase a computer and have to update it as frequently as I do now. I was kind of hoping that maybe that's where I could save some money as now every year or a few times a year I find myself replacing or updating components

Hopefully something that also has enough space that would be hard for me to fill up

 

OSX does not stream to an xbox or PS-3 or many non apple hardware AFIK. Dlna and microsofts streaming system are not available to Macs. you would have to stream to an ipad or apple tv unit.

define lots of space. you can put up to 2 x 1T drives in the MBP 15" and the classic ( not retina ) 15" by putting one drive in the optical bay.

you still should back them up anyways.

 

The "they just work" is largely a comment on the difference between mobile devices and PCs, not a comment on Apple and Microsoft. If you've ever used a WP7 phone, you'd say the same thing. Computers are much more powerful and complex devices with far more "moving parts" (metaphorically-speaking), so whether you're talking about an OSX laptop or a Windows laptop, it likely will have more hiccups than an iOS device.

You will have to download updates for your OSX machine as well. Chrome and Firefox for OSX needs updates just as often as Chrome and Firefox for Windows, for example. And OSX itself gets patches and updates just like Windows does.

That said, since playing with pictures and routinely backing them up are a big deal, I'd go OSX instead of Windows. I personally find iPhoto and Time Machine more pleasant to use than Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows Backup. But I don't want you making the decision for the wrong reason (no patches, "it just works") instead of the right reasons (iPhoto, Time Machine, trackpad, case design, aesthetic tastes).

I can't tell you which model to buy without knowing your budget. The MBA 13 is a good choice if you have a $1200 budget and don't need an optical drive. I think it's the best value of any Apple laptop. The best "price is no object" machine would be the retina MacBook Pro, but it's extremely expensive for a laptop ($2200-$3000 or more, depending on how it's equipped). EDIT: Just saw your comment about price. Go MacBook Air 13. Great machine at a great value.

 

Although those features are not built into OS X (they aren't fully built into Windows either), streaming to an Xbox 360 or PS3 can take place using 3rd party software. Rivet is an example of a program that can do this and it even reads an iTunes library so that playlists and various other aspects are kept in tact.

 

has been built into windows media player since XP
Stream music from your computer to Xbox 360 - Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP

I use the new ( 2009 ) DLNA streaming from an HTPC to 2 360's and a PS3 with no third party addons via media center and media player with win 7 and 8. It was one thing I was rather envious of back 5 years ago.

http://www.techerator.com/2010/11/evolve-your-living-room-with-a-dlna-hdtv-and-windows-media-player/

but yes rivet seems like a good option

 

Can I do this in a sega genesis?

 

dont think so ... the genisis is WAY too old can do 720 off of a first gen x-box though or believe it or not a wii

 

But not built into Windows itself. Windows Media Player and even Media Center have had the abilities for a while but Windows itself doesn't have them, you still have to rely on software for the actual streaming. Hence why the statement of "OS X can't do it" really isn't fair because, in that same sense, Windows itself wouldn't be able to do it either.

 

So, that was my newest console... so no hopes for an atari 2600 I guess.... this makes me terribly sad, Im going to cry in a little corner

 

You can still configure streaming to your 360 without even starting WMP or WMC through the media sharing settings in windows 7. The 360 won't be recognized as a media extender (need to configure in media center for that), but you can still access your libraries without having to tweak anything in WMP or WMC. Sure it does use some features in media player to achieve that, but in a sense, media player is an integral part of windows now.

If iTunes could do it, i would consider the functionality an integral part of OS X too.