tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post7586196456903162799..comments2024-03-19T13:29:04.853-04:00Comments on David Alison's Blog: Buying a refurbished MacBook for my wifeDavid Alisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-25998384262336208832011-01-05T21:44:31.683-05:002011-01-05T21:44:31.683-05:00@Computer Repair: Yes, my wife still uses the refu...@Computer Repair: Yes, my wife still uses the refurbished MacBook. Though it spends 99.9% of it's time sitting on her desk too, the occasional time she wants to pull it out to the couch or bring it with her on a trip makes getting it over an iMac a great choice. If your mom will NEVER need to bring it with her some place then an iMac is fine.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-49104900170001423812011-01-05T20:28:52.684-05:002011-01-05T20:28:52.684-05:00So does your wife still use her refurbished MacBoo...So does your wife still use her refurbished MacBook? My mom has an old Powerbook which is still working fairly well; however, we are thinking of upgrading to either a MacBook or an iMac. The MacBook and MacBook pro seem nice; however, since my mom tends to use the computer on her desk I think an iMac may be better suited (and cheaper) :]Computer Repairhttp://computerrepair-directory.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-6925112159777771232010-06-28T07:25:26.186-04:002010-06-28T07:25:26.186-04:00As an alternative to NeoOffice, you might also loo...As an alternative to NeoOffice, you might also look at the OpenOffice 3 beta which now sports a native Mac interface.Fal Bakhttp://www.falbak.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-42450177907227780922010-06-19T18:56:49.806-04:002010-06-19T18:56:49.806-04:00Can you tell me which software do I like to buy on...Can you tell me which software do I like to buy one for professional writer for business management? I still have macbook. I am very lousy writer. But I still have iwork. I cannot find anything what I want to become a great professional writer for my college papers along with english grammar and plagirusm. <br />Can you tell me what can I do getting better professional writer for my college papers on my macbook. Can you help me how to deal with it?<br />I am looking forward to hearing from you soon. <br />ThanksAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-27785348769488417162009-08-07T22:01:40.093-04:002009-08-07T22:01:40.093-04:00Try http://www.computerkingdom.org -- I bought fr...Try http://www.computerkingdom.org -- I bought from them and was a little skeptical because they're a small business but they are actually very helpful and prompt. I got a tracking number the same day I paid. I got my MBP and it was in great condition and just like they described on their site.Davenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-59325563904139676812009-08-06T10:23:22.914-04:002009-08-06T10:23:22.914-04:00@Amy: Thanks! We ended up going with Microsoft Off...@Amy: Thanks! We ended up going with Microsoft Office for her, though the rest of the house is happily using iWork.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-24755456286378008082009-08-06T10:19:27.151-04:002009-08-06T10:19:27.151-04:00So, I'm curious what did u decide to go with i...So, I'm curious what did u decide to go with in the end of it all? You're an awesome guy (that's a great gift)Amyhttp://www.techserious.com/computers/desktops/refurbished-computer.aspxnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-20711596934377589822009-08-02T18:50:11.072-04:002009-08-02T18:50:11.072-04:00I always recommened to buy a new computerI always recommened to buy a new computerComputer repair torontohttp://www.a2zpc.canoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-20415652145405849802009-07-17T06:20:22.118-04:002009-07-17T06:20:22.118-04:00i agree. i guess refurbished computers has its own...i agree. i guess refurbished computers has its own charm and are truly good and cheap.cheap computershttp://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-58239441418166066802009-06-10T00:16:27.447-04:002009-06-10T00:16:27.447-04:00Some surprises loose their charm if they are out i...Some surprises loose their charm if they are out in the open.Refurbished computershttp://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-76578903915541848172008-11-26T17:35:00.000-05:002008-11-26T17:35:00.000-05:00David,I'm trying to make up my mind about buying a...David,<BR/><BR/>I'm trying to make up my mind about buying a MacBook. I'm particularly interested in buying a refurb from Apple like you did here.<BR/><BR/>It has been a couple of months since you made the purchase. Would you mind leaving a comment on my post to let me know your experience so far?<BR/><BR/><A HREF="http://mysuperchargedlife.com/blog/how-are-macbooks-better-than-windows-laptops/" REL="nofollow">How Are MacBooks Better Than Windows Laptops?</A><BR/><BR/>Thanks!<BR/>JeffAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-58529400663585327862008-10-08T19:27:00.000-04:002008-10-08T19:27:00.000-04:00Hi David,I realize that this post is a couple week...Hi David,<BR/><BR/>I realize that this post is a couple weeks old now and that you've probably already made your final decision, but I just came across this and thought I'd throw my two cents in.<BR/><BR/>I've been a Mac user for over twenty years now and as a general rule of thumb - I typically loathe all things Microsoft.<BR/><BR/>With that said, while I find Microsoft's operating systems to be horrible abominations of code and most of their other products to be horribly inefficient and unintuitive, the simple fact of the matter is that when it comes to an office suite of applications, MS Office is THE best choice out there for the Mac, period.<BR/><BR/>MS's Mac Business Unit has done a bang-up job with Office for Mac and I find it thoroughly amusing that the best software they make is written for their long-time rival... mostly because it looks like a Mac app and it works like a Mac app, essentially because it is a Mac app. <BR/><BR/>While I may be an avid Mac user, I'm not going to cut my nose off, so to speak, despite my face in a complete and utter avoidance of all things Microsoft. One of the biggest attributes of the Macintosh is its efficiency and if Microsoft just so happens to produce the most efficient office suite available, then they'll get my business... and they have. <BR/><BR/>Most PC users do two main things with their computers - browse the internet and use Office. If your wife has been a long time Windows user, the last thing you should do is rip MS Office from her fingers... The key to any successful "switch" is to show the end-user that most of their time spent on their computer is spent working in apps, so if you keep them in applications which they are familiar and comfortable with, the quicker they'll realize the beauty of the solid, "no fuss" foundation inherent to the Mac OS. <BR/><BR/>Stick with Office as its your best bet for numerous reasons... Further still, if she's yet to upgrade to Office 2007 and is still using Office 2003, then save some money by buying a copy of Office 2004 for Mac opposed to 2008. There isn't all that much functionality in 2008 and it would be a little closer to what she's used to.<BR/><BR/>Take care!Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04755725640272256882noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-7693083801738630202008-10-03T12:04:00.000-04:002008-10-03T12:04:00.000-04:00I'd go with Office 2008. The Home and Student ver...I'd go with Office 2008. The Home and Student version is a raging bargain at $150 and gives your THREE licenses for that price, so you can put it on two more Macs.<BR/><BR/>Word 2008, now that Microsoft has updated it a few times, is solid and reliable, and when it comes to working with DOC and DOCX files, nothing else comes close to the compatibility of the real thing.<BR/><BR/>I have Nisus Writer Pro that I use for my own creative writing, and since it saves everything in RTF it is very compatible as well, but for professional writing with complex formatting (as a lawyer I do a lot of legal pleadings) I ALWAYS use MS Word. I have never had a single issue in either direction between Word 2008 and Word for Windows (2003 and 2007).<BR/><BR/>Cheers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-14132003730349783902008-09-26T14:00:00.000-04:002008-09-26T14:00:00.000-04:00@Anon: For all the MS bashing that goes on (and Vi...@Anon: For all the MS bashing that goes on (and Vista has deserved a lot of it) I will say that I like the fact that MS is providing multi-user licenses in a home environment for a very good price.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-33878962616431152532008-09-26T13:20:00.000-04:002008-09-26T13:20:00.000-04:00Office 2007 Home & Student is licensed for 3 c...Office 2007 Home & Student is licensed for 3 computers. Should be the same for Office 2008, so its a great deal for a family.<BR/><BR/>If you are a student, the deal for Office 2007 gets even better: http://www.microsoft.com/student/discounts/theultimatesteal-us/default.aspx<BR/>Unfortunately for you I think thats the windows version only...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-17232203341522272492008-09-26T02:28:00.000-04:002008-09-26T02:28:00.000-04:00My friends and I (University of Illinois students)...My friends and I (University of Illinois students) run Microsoft Office 2007 in VMware Fusion. While it sucks to have to run Windows on our macs, it does ensure compatibility with all of the documents we get thrown at us on a daily basis.<BR/><BR/>But it is far from an elegant solution.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-46810437100846179822008-09-26T02:07:00.000-04:002008-09-26T02:07:00.000-04:00My 2 cents ...iWork for Creating and producing nic...My 2 cents ...<BR/><BR/>iWork for Creating and producing nice things in a nice environnement<BR/>NeoOffice or OpenOffice 3 to share .doc with others<BR/><BR/>Pages will "unleash" her creativity<BR/>Keynote will amaze people<BR/>iWork fits pretty well with the rest of the mac stuff (Safari, iPhoto ...)<BR/><BR/>and ... Happy birthdayAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-28941470241268121172008-09-25T23:29:00.000-04:002008-09-25T23:29:00.000-04:00The main problem with using Microsoft formats such...The main problem with using Microsoft formats such as .doc or .ppt or .xls in conjuction with Office for Macs is that it is SLOW and BUGGY. <BR/><BR/>Even compared to Windows, it's atrocious.<BR/><BR/>If I just need to read something without editing, I convert files to PDF using OS X. Acrobat Professional is better because the PDF file sizes can be made smaller and options can be configured.<BR/><BR/>Here's the magic: Once it's in a small PDF format (aka Acrobat compression) I use FileMagnet on my iPhone to view PowerPoints, Word docs, or any other native PDF on the go, while waiting in line, etc.<BR/><BR/>People are amazed out how well PowerPoints are displayed on my iPhone with FileMagnet.<BR/><BR/>When viewed on the Mac, the files can be viewed like lightning without loading bloatware. Again, this is the advantage of using Preview or Skim: SPEED and STABILITY. Even iWork and NeoOffice are very, very bloated.<BR/><BR/>This is totally power user stuff, but maybe one or two readers may find it useful.<BR/><BR/>There's lots of file viewers for the iPhone: Airshare, Datacase, Annotator, etc. They all have their strengths. I like FileMagnet for its crispness and sharpness and easy file transfer.<BR/><BR/>Another trick is you can just use OS X Grab and take a capture of a .doc or .xls file. Even this loads faster than the native MS formats and can be used on the iPhone as well.<BR/><BR/>Truly, power user and iPhone tricks and tips.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-87823127361828010072008-09-25T21:11:00.000-04:002008-09-25T21:11:00.000-04:00@SimpleLife: The power of this blog is really in t...@SimpleLife: The power of this blog is really in the great comments I get from people. I can't tell you how many times since I started this blog that I've found either tips or software that have improved my experience.David Alisonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14134311846576585532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-73749802996383629722008-09-25T21:08:00.000-04:002008-09-25T21:08:00.000-04:00I made a comment earlier about MS Office 2003. I f...I made a comment earlier about MS Office 2003. I forgot to mention that it was for XP.<BR/><BR/>Cheerio.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-21781547022337341772008-09-25T20:50:00.000-04:002008-09-25T20:50:00.000-04:00One last thing, since your wife is in the academic...One last thing, since your wife is in the academic world.<BR/><BR/>PDF's<BR/><BR/>Macs have great PDF support natively.<BR/><BR/>Acrobat Professional can't be beat for PDF creation and options.<BR/><BR/>For actual reading PDFs, Preview works fantastic, but there is an option that you may want to play with: Hit Command Comma and go to preferences, click PDF tab, check/uncheck "Respect screen DPI for scale" and see what gives you or your wife the best font display that's crisp and easiest to read.<BR/><BR/>Also Acrobat has a different viewing/rendering engine. They are not the same as Previews.<BR/><BR/>Another great PDF software for Macs is Skim which is free. Thumbnails look amazing with Skim.<BR/><BR/>Why so many products? Because scrolling is much smoother with Preview and Skim. But Acrobat is powerful for PDF creation, indexing, and searching but it can also be buggy and bloaty.<BR/><BR/>Macs are the best because they are stable. <BR/><BR/>It took me forever to research and find all this stuff out on my own and Googling it and testing it all. Nice to share with all the other Mac users and switchers out there, especially fellow academic writers and collaborators.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-6702566161439400482008-09-25T20:43:00.000-04:002008-09-25T20:43:00.000-04:00What's nice about this blog is the helpful user co...What's nice about this blog is the helpful user comments.<BR/><BR/>It really is an avalance of experiences being shared here.<BR/><BR/>It can take quite a bit of time to test and compare these products.<BR/><BR/>Obviously, I'm not alone in this process. I'm surprised to see that many of us have come to generally the same consensus on a whole, with a few twists and turns based on our workflows and preferences.<BR/><BR/>I basically took about two weeks to thoroughly test most office suites and word processors for the Mac.<BR/><BR/>Scrivener offers some great links for more Mac writing software for writers of all genres:<BR/><BR/>http://tinyurl.com/4xosnq<BR/><BR/>For academic writers, also checkout, Bookends by Sonny Software for bibliography or referencing academic work. Sente is popular too, but Bookends was better for me using APA and my workflow.<BR/><BR/>For journalers and notetakers (personal, academic), try MacJournal. A tiny bit buggy, but simply awesome for journaling, notetaking, and blogging.<BR/><BR/>I got lucky because I got Mellel, Bookends, and MacJournal plus a bunch of other apps as part of the last MacUpdate Bundle Promo.<BR/><BR/>WriteRoom seems neat too, but expensive to me.<BR/><BR/>For being creative and productive (no crashes, few bugs, speed), there's a whole world of Mac writing software out there that most people did not exist.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-36341932058277202222008-09-25T20:27:00.000-04:002008-09-25T20:27:00.000-04:00The Amazon deal is about as good as it gets. For t...The Amazon deal is about as good as it gets. <BR/><BR/>For the California State University system we can get a deal on the full version of Office 2008 for $99 but that is only a license for one computer and one laptop, only one can be used at one time.<BR/><BR/>For $22 more, you get the Home & Student version but I believe you get 3 or 4 licenses.<BR/><BR/>Now I don't know if the educational version allows one to actually install and use it on multiple versions at once (activation issues etc.)<BR/><BR/>My Office 2003 version stated I could only use one one machine at one time, but it was not enforced by the activation.<BR/><BR/>Something to think about.<BR/><BR/>If I were to get Office 2008 (I use 2004), I'd go the Amazon route (no tax too and I get Amazon Prime 2 day shipping anyway).<BR/><BR/>I was going to discuss this issue earlier as I knew your wife was a teacher.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-68361733214575556402008-09-25T19:38:00.001-04:002008-09-25T19:38:00.001-04:00another vote for Bean here. it's free easy to use,...another vote for Bean here. it's free easy to use, does what most people need most of the time without cluttering things up with unnecessary features.<BR/>Heck, TextEdit, which comes with every Mac, is enough for lots of people.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1261161155002888881.post-9106075912852224262008-09-25T19:38:00.000-04:002008-09-25T19:38:00.000-04:00David, I can't read all this discussion about comp...David, I can't read all this discussion about compatibility issues (shades of 1988!) without recommending MacLinkPlus Deluxe. I've used this wonderful program for years and find it invaluable for translating a document from one format to another. And not just Office docs. There are still people using WordPerfect (dearly missed by me), for instance. Anyway, MacLinkPlus is an essential weapon in the war of document transfer!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com