12" Powerbook

[Gordy]

Right I'm seriously thinking about getting a laptop in the next month or two. I dont want to spend too much so I'm hoping for major bargins on the 12" PB front when the new models come out.

I have a few questions, I've seen the cost of office for the mac at £450 and this is ridiculous last time I checked there was an offer of £125 with a new mac. Is there anyway of getting it cheaper?

I would need the machine for web use as well as a bit of web design. So I would need some software for the mac.

Is there a free firewall /antivirus scanner for the mac as I'm used to not paying for these? Also does the PB come with some cd writing software as standard.

I use dreamweaver MX on my PC but would need a mac copy but they are asking for £450 are there any other cheaper alternatives for the mac?

One option is to get Virtual PC 6.0 and just my pc versions is this possible?

I would want wireless networking so is the extreme card a good option? I would want to use a netgear wireless router?

Have the battery problems been sorted in the latest versions of OSX?

lastly does the 12 pb still suffer from the keyboard being imprinted on the screen problem of the earlier models?


Thanks

[CocoPops]

You won't need AV, there really aren't many virii for MAC platforms, remember they are really a form of Linux.

I believe you can use "Limewire" which is a Mac P2P client for evaluating software.

As for Airport Extreme cards, one of the deffo accessories to buy. They will connect to any 802a,b and g wireless network access points.

I know many peeps are hoping that the 12" powerbook refresh will contain a DVI port as the existing 12" does not have one.

I've not seen many reports of key marks on the 12"PB, it seems to be the ibooks and the old 15"PB that suffers from this problem. There are a number of companies that sell leather sheets that sit between screen and keyboard preventing the marks.

Virtual PC works well, but it's never as good as using a proper PC or proper MAC software etc. Whether I'd want it just to run a few apps, not sure.

HTH, I'm sure headbrace will be along with some more info.

[headbrace]

Originally posted by Gordy
I have a few questions, I've seen the cost of office for the mac at £450 and this is ridiculous last time I checked there was an offer of £125 with a new mac. Is there anyway of getting it cheaper?

I doubt that there is, but it is a great piece of software, much nicer to use than the pc version, but the price is just a joke. I have it, and it is very good. If your just gonna use word dics, TextEdit will edit them, which is bundled with the machine

Originally posted by Gordy
Is there a free firewall /antivirus scanner for the mac as I'm used to not paying for these? Also does the PB come with some cd writing software as standard.

The Firewall built into Os X is very good, and as Coco said, you wont be affected by many viruses. OS X has burning built into it, so you can bun files and copy cds or cd images. Also, iTunes has burning in it for music cds. For 3rd party software, thebest you will find is Toast, Which does video as well as music, data, and direct cd copying

Originally posted by Gordy
I use dreamweaver MX on my PC but would need a mac copy but they are asking for £450 are there any other cheaper alternatives for the mac?

Erm, the only other i can think off the top of my head is Adobe GoLive, but thats only about £50 cheaper. If you just wanna do html then a program like BBEdit is good. As for FTP, the one i use is fetch, whichi s pretty good

Originally posted by Gordy
One option is to get Virtual PC 6.0 and just my pc versions is this possible?

Virtual PC is good, but quite slow. It might be worth investigating Unix versions that work with fink

Originally posted by Gordy
I would want wireless networking so is the extreme card a good option? I would want to use a netgear wireless router?

The airport cards are great, good value and work excellently

Originally posted by Gordy
Have the battery problems been sorted in the latest versions of OSX?

I havent experienced any battery problems, it lasts about 3.5 hours or so just surfing.

Originally posted by Gordy
lastly does the 12 pb still suffer from the keyboard being imprinted on the screen problem of the earlier models?

I havent had any problems, but if im gonna put it in a case, then i put the little foam sheet inbetween that it shipped with.

Oh, and Uplink is out now for macintosh

[Gordy]

I will just need word an occasionally excel, I couldn't justify it just for that really £450 takes the pish.

I've found one site that has it at £225 with a mac.

Is bbedit included in OSX as I can easily do stuff via text editors if neccessary.

Is the unix version of virt pc free?

Cheers for the help

I think I've used limewire before on my pc. I may go have a look and see what I can find

[headbrace]

BBedit is not free, and aint included with Mac OS X

I dont know about the UNIX version of Virtual PC.

Aside from Limewrire, there is also DC and Bittorent

[Gordy]

Does the mac come with a good text editor? Sorry not played with OSx much?

[headbrace]

Text Edit is fairly good, but lacks any of the advanced of word.

[Gordy]

Originally posted by headbrace
Text Edit is fairly good, but lacks any of the advanced of word.

It wil, do the job I'm sure

Any recommendations on the cheap image editing side of things? I use paint shop pro on my pc?

last question honest

[headbrace]

photoshop elements is good, about £75

[Gordy]

Originally posted by headbrace
photoshop elements is good, about £75

Thanks For all the help

[XiXora]

i thougth staroffice was out for mac too? or openoffice?

[Gordy]

Openoffice is delayed according to the reg

[fathazza]

MS Office v.X for Mac-Academic

= £116.33
from the apple education store.
so find urself a student!

also, u might wanna check out education prices on the whole as they are cheaper. + as of very recently apple are offering £120 rebate if u buy an ipod at the same time as a lappy + and extra 60 quid back if u buy an hp printer!

[Gigglebyte]

an even better option for you gordy (and all) is think free office from www.thinkfree.com as it works just the same as OfficeX but is Java based, made by a 3rd party but does not have Entourage...other than that it is a great application and reads and writes to native word/excel/powerpoint files

[Gordy]

Oh that sounds good

[daverobev]

Don't new macs come with umm...thing, the Apple productivity (read "Office") suite any more? Appleworks, thats it.

My iBook did, bought just over a year ago....?