I am the Apple Campus Rep at Penn. Ask me any questions about getting a Mac here

<p>thanks, johnnyK, lol, but do we still get any discounts, if not from the "back-to-school" discount, if we buy the macbook in october?</p>

<p>The only guaranteed discount is the educational discount and back-to-school discount. Whether Penn will still be offering any discounts beyond that cannot be guaranteed.</p>

<p>PS I'm interning with Apple in Beijing right now, i rule! :D</p>

<p>I see that the new macbooks have posted to the store. Can you tell me if it is possible to upgrade the memory since they are only shipping with 1 GB of memory?</p>

<p>the pre-configured macbooks on campus express are so expensive.. i'm bummed.</p>

<p>You can get them upgraded for the price of RAM and a $35 service fee. check crucial.com for current memory prices to get an idea as that is the computer connection's memory supplier.</p>

<p>and gopumas they are probably expensive because they bundled AppleCare with them. While AppleCare is great, you can certainly live without it and that knocks around 200 bucks off the price.</p>

<p>I just ordered the MAC for my son- starting as a freshman at Penn in the fall. Any specific software or "extras" that you recommend along with this. We have been a PC family and the apple is new to us. Also, do you know if there is any backup service available- through the Penn campus or otherwise- or do you recommend an external hard drive to back up to in the event of a hard drive crash or that a laptop get stolen? Thanks!</p>

<p>Congratulations, metzmom. I of course recommend buying MS Office as it is the standard. There are also a hundred other programs i could recommend depending on his wants and needs.</p>

<p>As for backup, I would recommend an external hard drive. The next version of Mac OS X (v10.5 "Leopard") will have a built-in automated backup component called "Time Machine." Very cool. Until then, however, there is a wide variety of free backup software you can use.</p>

<p>The university doesn't offer any online backup service, but if you want online backup, you can buy Apple's own .mac which gives you a gig of storage (not enough for your iTunes collection, but certainly more than enough for your Word documents, etc). It costs $99 for one year. But that works out to less than $10 a month for backup space and some other goodies. I don't know why they insist on billing per year instead of per month...</p>

<p>i was going to get a mac, until i got a new computer as a graduation present... luckily, this isn't going to last very long, not to mention the fact that it's like 9,000 pounds, and so my grandmother has decided to still get me the mac i want.</p>

<p>Heyoh JohnnyK,
I was wondering if there'd be a special promo this year for buying an apple laptop. I think I remember it was like a free printer and ipod. Also, if there is a promotion of any kind, can that be combined with the discount Penn gives? </p>

<p>Also, I read that you said MS office is $99, is the windows os around the same (about 100 bucks)?</p>

<p>What exactly does an AppleCare warranty cover? Is it necessary? Because I'm not buying the computer, and I would like to save my grandmother as much money as possible.</p>

<p>And is there any way to get a computer from the Computer Connection that doesn't have the AppleCare warranty?</p>

<p>Thanks for the help.</p>

<p>AppleCare covers faulty parts and gives you 3 years of phone support. It does NOT cover accidental damage. You are not required to get AppleCare with the MacBook. if the online site doesnt let you deselect it, then you can call them ad order it over the phone.</p>

<p>Hope that helps!</p>

<p>This means that if you spill your coffee, bump into your computer, or if it falls off of your bed, etc. then Dell has you covered with Complete Care.</p>

<p>Right, but given that it's a Dell you'll probably be happier with it when it is broken ;)</p>

<p>After spending so much money on an Apple laptop, I would hope that a mistake wouldn't be the end all be all for my new laptop. Most college students accidentally damage their computers every year. ONLY DELL saves you from having to explain to your parents why you need them to purchase a new computer.</p>

<p>You can get accidental damage coverage on any computer at circuit city if you buy the service plan that covers it.</p>

<p>Cost not a major factor. Major probably math. So whatever database, statistical, math, finance software packages are commonly used plus word and excel. Is MacBook substantial enough to handle all of this? Does not play any video games, or plan to do extensive video/film stuff at this time.
Battery life looks to be the same. I would think an LCD monitor and docking station set up would be nice but that s not one of her objectives at this point (otherwise would need the Pro for larger LCD capability). What you recommend?</p>

<p>I know Maple, SPSS and JMP have Mac versions. If there is no Mac version for something you need, you can use a computer lab or just throw Windows on your Mac.</p>

<p>The MacBook has the same 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo that powers the MacBook Pro, so if I were you I'd get the smaller and less expensive MacBook and then get a big fat LCD monitor for use in your room.</p>

<p>I sort of wanna stick with Windows, so would an IBM Thinkpad T61 be worth the money?</p>

<p>Also, for computer science classes, can I do the stuff with a Mac or would I need Windows/PC?</p>

<p>23, 28 30? Does it differ if Apple or other brand? Thanks</p>

<p>For the purposes of weaning yourself off of Windows ;) you can install Windows on your Mac.</p>

<p>While I am not very familiar with the computer science courses, I remember that the CSE 110 professor used a Mac, and everything was done with a cross-platform Java thingy.</p>

<p>And again, if you ever run across something that needs Windows, well, you can put Windows on it ;)</p>