Letters...we get letters
Reader mail fills the space this week after we all survived the coming of 6-6-6 with our hard drives intact.Q. I have been offered a $150 discount on one of the older Apple Ibooks still in the original retail packaging by a local dealer when compared to the pricing of the newer models. Are the newer ones that much better?
A. Answering questions like this are tough because I don’t know the relative value of the 150 bucks to your life. If you really have to reach for the difference, I may offer a different answer. But assuming you’re relatively solvent let’s talk about the differences between the old Apples and the new ones, which should generate at least some new mail.
The new MacBook is much faster (Apple claims 5 times faster) with a 13 inch, brighter screen (the Ibook came in 12-inch and 14-inch flavors.) The new ones come with larger hard drives (60 gigs now is standard) and a host of other improvements.
Would I buy the old model for $150 less? No. Maybe $300 or so, considering you’re making an investment in the future and the Intel-based Macs are the future. There’s nothing wrong with the older Apples (I am writing this column on one) but $150 is not enough of a discount in my opinion.
Q. I need to purchase a laptop for my son to attend college in the fall. The university requires (or I should say “strongly suggests”) that I buy one of these IBM Thinkpads directly from the school. I guess I could buy one someplace else but what do you suggest?
A. According to the literature you sent along, the school is offering sort of a small, medium and large when it comes to laptops. The prices are not out of line when it comes to retail pricing but then again, neither are you getting a great deal, either. You are correct that the school can’t force you to buy this model from them. The compelling part of this offer however is in the fine print; if you buy the IBM model direct from the school, the school will provide technical support free of charge for your student all the while they are attending classes. That’s a huge plus… any time he is having issues with the computer he can take it someplace on campus and have it worked on free.
In your shoes I’d go with one of the IBMs (probably the medium offer) and get a security cable and hope he uses it.
Q. My Adobe Acrobat keeps wanting to connect to the Internet to update itself. My firewall keeps stopping it. Should I allow it?
A. It’s kind of annoying but yes. You can either allow it and let Adobe update or go into the Acrobat preferences and shut off the “feature” that automatically checks for updates to the program.
WEEKLY WEB WONDER: Dogpile, one of the venerable search engines of the World Wide Web, has re-invented itself again as a “best of” search engine. Give it a try at www.dogpile.com and let me know what you think.
James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair firm, and computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim@cyberdads.com
<< Home