Fuffy ,'Storyteller'
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Susan, the regular Macbook starts at $1099 brand new, and there's a refurb on the site for $949 right now.
I'm more than a little biased myself, granted, but I just don't think you can beat Mac for reliability and ease of use. It weighs about 5 lbs., so no MacBook Air, but it's pretty great.
Hmm...is there much of a learning curve for someone who hasn't used a Mac since 1995?
I've had miserable luck with Dells and Gateways. Good luck Toshiba and Apple, moderate luck with eMachines.
A very quick one. When I switched back from PC to Mac three years ago, it took me about a week to get used to the new OS. I haven't looked back since.
And if you need/want all current Macs can now run windows. I have both OSes installed on all of my machines. I need to upgrade at least one of them to Vista.
I think if you find yourself wedded to a mac, the refurbs are a deal when available. This 15 inch macbook pro came in at $1500. They currently have the 13 inch macbooks under $1K.
That said, were I not, I'd probably could have gotten a comparable pc new for less. (Just guessing, because I didn't even look because I'm really not as comfortable on that platform.)
The conventional wisdom on pricing is that Macs have a higher initial cost, but lower cost of ownership over time -- you can do more with what comes in the box, fewer repairs, longer life overall, etc. and so on. Mileage (and actual use patterns) may vary, of course.
(But I should also note that I really don't know PC pricing -- I do either Mac laptops or build-your-own-Frankenboxes with lots of baling twine and duct tape and Linux.)
The magsafe does appeal...I've been snarling at our current laptop on a daily basis over the stupid plug thing. This is the third time it's gone bad, and now it's not under warranty anymore.
Sounds like a visit to the UW Bookstore is in order. It looks like they're offering a rebate if you purchase a MacBook and an iPod together...
When I'm buying if I actual purchase truly comparable machines, I usually end up within about $200. Sometimes this favors the PC, sometimes it favors the Mac. While I have a couple of pretty old Toshibas this are still running great, typically I get about 2 years more use out of my long term macs.
Yeah, you can basically get a Nano for free. I did this last year I think, I've got a little 8 GB Nano that lives in the work truck due to it.