Imac Questions

magpiesnest

Hi everyone

i have a couple of questions i'm hoping to get answered.

I have just bought an Ipad for a present for DD, my wife does net know about this either so it's a treat for both really. My PC is on it's last legs now and my wife is getting into photograghy and got a demo of some photo software which blew her away while in the apple store. So having mention that we may need a new PC she wants us to get an Imac. :eek:

so to the questions:

are they realy worth all the extra money?
would it make the Ipad work any better / easier?
i have a laptop and old PC, how easy is it to get the documents / movies and photos from them to the Imac?

all advice would be gratefully recieved.

fwor

magpiesnest wrote: »

are they realy worth all the extra money?

It's not surprising that the in-store demo was impressive - they are there as pure selling tools. But you have to remember that the demo, and the staff to talk to you, and the store itself are all extra costs that go into the price.

The pricing level for Apple product is also generally set for those who are "aspirational", rather than those that require function over aesthetics.

The fact is that photo editing is not a demanding task for PCs these days, and has not been for years. Any half-decent desktop with a good monitor and Photoshop (or even some of the free alternatives) will do just fine for someone taking up photography as a hobby.

Data transfer PC to Mac - no problem. I don't know about the iPad, but I doubt Apple are going to make its use with a PC instead of a Mac in any way difficult - they have to accept the reality of the size of the PC user base!

magpiesnest

I realise that the cost is way more than i can get a regular PC for but i like the idea of an all in one but can't find any reviews of examples which are as good if not better than an Imac.

Any recommendations?

gonzo127

do you know what the photo product was?
as other than iphoto (which i believe is bundled in with the systems) any other softwear will be availible for a PC and is usualy a lot cheaper on a PC.

as to your questions
i personally dont think they are worth the extra money, the main difference is the look and the operating system, to me the look really doesnt matter, and the operating system, well windows 7 is pretty damned good these days, and if you are buying it for the security then Linux is free and even more secure.
i believe the main thing which will make the ipad better is the icloud, which is a 'basic' sync program using online storage to make sure the things you do on one device is reflected on the other
and transfering documents etc should be as easy as pie

Millionaire

I personally don't think they are worth the extra money, not any more.

A few years ago for the first time I converted to Mac from Windows and brought an iMac.

The main reason was because although I initially thought Vista was OK it eventually annoyed the hell out of me.

So I got a iMac for around £680 after discount, £799 normal price (i do think it is worth that much). It was great, the OS was really intuitive and the preloaded software (ilife) was excellent. Also because Apple have control over what software gets put on it it was the first time I didn't have to delete or reformat the drive to get rid of all the junk pre installed. Just turned it on and off I went.

Over the years the price has been boosted to £999 for the base model whilst other manufacturers have brought out their own versions which are now very appealing and sometimes much cheaper.

Also Windows 7 is much better than Vista and is a very good OS and I have now converted back to Windows.

Whilst Apple products have gone up in price the rest have come down with better spec. I few other people I know have also converted back to Windows based machines as they don't find the user experince that much different anymore and save a wad load of cash.

Have a search for All-in-ones on Google. There are some very nice looking machines from Sony, HP and lenovo for around £400+ less than the iMac.