If your high school graduate is about to head off to college, it is important to properly equip them with a PC (oops I meant a Mac) that is easy to use and that will work reliably and not require any assistance. We made the shift for our kids back in 2006 and the long term road test indicates that occasionally running disk utility is the only maintenance needed on these machines.
The laptop of choice for a lot of students is shifting to the Apple MacBook and the reasons are now self-explanatory (they easy to use and just work, all the time). I'm going to share some brief thoughts on which MacBook to choose and the reasons why.
Platform - 13 inch vs 15 inch MacBook Pro
This is a personal preference, but a bigger screen often means more productivity. The only reason not to buy one from the University Store (UCLA offers both) is because you DO want to order online and get the 500 GB 7200 RPM hard disk. It is much faster than the standard drive (5400 RPM) and that also means more productivity for your student. Check out this link from MacRumors.com. Having had a glossy 13" MacBook for a while, I might now opt for the Anti-Glare Option.
Support
Don't forget Apple Care. Don't skip this option, as it provides three years of support and repair service for your Mac.
Office Suite
Microsoft Office 2008 is the office suite of choice. Note that a key feature in MS Word is the Note taking feature and it allows for audio recordings of the professor's lecture.
Online File, Content Access and Backup
Mobile Me from Apple is one option, so is Google Docs. Some friends are using Mobile Me more often and for a student, it also backs up contacts. Before you sign-up though, check out what the University is offering. Also, send along some food sized USB memory sticks for file sharing etc.
Accessories
An extra power cord can be a life saver, as sometimes a power cord can be left in the library and you need power for an all nighter... Some dorm rooms won't fit an extra display but that is your choice.
Transporting and Protecting your laptop
A number of providers, including Speck provide skins and backpacks/bags to protect and transport your Mac...Solar backpacks, while not for everyone, do work.
The printer to pick will be a separate post, as picking the right printer is easier said than done. So, have fun picking your Mac and start using it now, so you get used to it before heading to school.
Showing posts with label Microsoft Office. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Microsoft Office. Show all posts
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Setting the Record Straight on Apple Macs vs PCs. User Experience Trumps all
While at Gartner, in December 2006, I started talking about the shift I made on the home front from Dell PCs to Macs. There was a simple reason I made the shift. My Dell PCs were great, but I was spending too much time maintaining them. Too much tinkering. Another reason was that I wanted an easier way to manage photos and videos of our kids without going to the extreme of Photoshop.
The home shift to Macs was easy and we never looked back. Of course, I have many friends that just love to tinker with PCs and Windows. They won't admit it, but it is a borderline hobby. For many IT people, they have made it a career of keeping PCs tweaked and running.
Jump ahead to 2010 and why are so many Apple Macs showing up in Corporate settings, often paid for by the employee? There must be a reason for it and there is. It is called user experience. In fact, the user experience on a Mac is so good and relatively trouble free, that when faced with the need to support Apple Macs, most IT Departments only offer a user supported Wiki (community support). What, no dedicated IT people to tinker with the MacOS? Nope. The latest generations of Macs just work. No tinkering required.
For the most part, Windows requires lots of tinkering (note, this is an opinion). Windows 7 may fix that, but right now that is still an unknown. It is also important to point out that Microsoft knows all about user experience. Just look at MS Office and Outlook, both gold standards on user experience. Ask any Mac user what they run on their machine for creating documents and presentations and 9 out of 10 will quickly answer "Microsoft Office".
Going forward, users will decide how they want to consume information and what types of devices they want to use to do so. This will go far beyond the current Mac vs PC discussion. Tablets appear poised to make a comeback and a majority of end-users around the world have a mobile device, not a PC. There too, it is about a positive user experience.
If you have any doubt about the importance of User experience, let's talk about the device that has taken the world by storm: the Apple iPhone.
The home shift to Macs was easy and we never looked back. Of course, I have many friends that just love to tinker with PCs and Windows. They won't admit it, but it is a borderline hobby. For many IT people, they have made it a career of keeping PCs tweaked and running.
Jump ahead to 2010 and why are so many Apple Macs showing up in Corporate settings, often paid for by the employee? There must be a reason for it and there is. It is called user experience. In fact, the user experience on a Mac is so good and relatively trouble free, that when faced with the need to support Apple Macs, most IT Departments only offer a user supported Wiki (community support). What, no dedicated IT people to tinker with the MacOS? Nope. The latest generations of Macs just work. No tinkering required.
For the most part, Windows requires lots of tinkering (note, this is an opinion). Windows 7 may fix that, but right now that is still an unknown. It is also important to point out that Microsoft knows all about user experience. Just look at MS Office and Outlook, both gold standards on user experience. Ask any Mac user what they run on their machine for creating documents and presentations and 9 out of 10 will quickly answer "Microsoft Office".
Going forward, users will decide how they want to consume information and what types of devices they want to use to do so. This will go far beyond the current Mac vs PC discussion. Tablets appear poised to make a comeback and a majority of end-users around the world have a mobile device, not a PC. There too, it is about a positive user experience.
If you have any doubt about the importance of User experience, let's talk about the device that has taken the world by storm: the Apple iPhone.
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