<p>Apple just announced a new $100 rebate program for students buying a new laptop... this goes on top of their current educational pricing scheme.</p>
<p>Well, the claim was they would give you the cd and a key. I'll find the posts...</p>
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Apple just announced a new $100 rebate program for students buying a new laptop... this goes on top of their current educational pricing scheme.</p>
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<p>For me this wouldn't matter. They're still selling top of the line tech from 2-3 years ago, but still selling it at top-of-the-line prices (3k for a notebook?).</p>
<p>I don't think the sleek design justifies the price.</p>
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Well, the claim was they would give you the cd and a key. I'll find the posts...
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<p>There are soem sophisticated algorithms that generate those cd keys, but there are people with far too much time on their hands that sometimes crack them for some companies. I know microsoft had their original xp serial key algorithm hacked, but I don't know about the newer stuff (you'd likely get a SP2 cd). </p>
<p>If they're just handing out CD keys they may be either </p>
<p>1) Generated by use of aforementioned algorithms, stolen, borrowed or otherwise illegally obtained (is it a studnet run group giving them out?)</p>
<p>or</p>
<p>2) Paid for by the group, school, etc. </p>
<p>In other words - MS isn't giving away their stuff for free.</p>
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For me this wouldn't matter. They're still selling top of the line tech from 2-3 years ago, but still selling it at top-of-the-line prices (3k for a notebook?).
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<p>From 2-3 years ago?</p>
<p>$3k for a notebook? Their line tops out at $2399 education, which would be $2299 with this discount.</p>
<p>You might want to check Apple's site; both of these statements are wrong.</p>
<p>the jolt really needs a search tool....its so frustrating! There was an offsite search, but I forget where it was.....oh well.</p>
<p>The ones under 2.5k are the 15 inch or less versions (with even less tech than the 17 inch).</p>
<p>and...</p>
<p>The $2.7k (closer to 3k when you factor in tax/disposal fee/case/necessary extended battery/etc) 17 inch one (the one I see most commonly walking around cmapus) has only 1.6gb processor, and 512 MB of ram. </p>
<p>...and like I said before they have been putting that amount of tech in laptops for three years now. Maybe when it was brand spanking new it could warrant that pricetag, but now you can get more cpu, ram (and faster), HD space, and screensize and resolution for less than half the price when you go with a PC.</p>
<p>So my original comment stands.</p>
<p>First, which PC are you referring to?</p>
<p>Second, you're not taking in to account Apple's substancial student discount.</p>
<p>Third, a 1.67 GHz G4 is a very viable processor; clockspeed is ********. In terms of performance, it does great.</p>
<p>Finally, Macs don't run Windows. They won't crash. Windows XP is outdated, while OS X Tiger is the best consumer operating system on the market. iLife '05 is amazing.</p>
<p>Show me a PC that will run neck and neck with the 17" stock PowerBook. It offers the most advanced consumer OS, a great suite for managing your digital life, 1.67 GHz G4, 1" thin design, 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0, 512 MB DDR RAM, 100 GB HD, Radeon 9700, DVI, FireWire 400/800, DVD burning, Gigabit ethernet, a backlit keyboard, with digital audio support. Then, find one that costs $2,299 for students.</p>
<p>I tried on Dell's website. Theirs is $2,700.</p>
<p>I dont know where pete gets all the money for his apple equipment, but most people aren't willing to spend that much on something that is semi-disposable. Computers dont last long term--maybe a few years if you are lucky. Imagine that computer you had back in early high school.....its probably a piece of junk now. Anyways, plopping down sevaral thousand dollars for electronics is not the best investment.....</p>
<p>And lets face it. Most people do not use macs. Maybe at brown you get a decent proportion, but overall, pcs are far more common. Perhaps the exhorbitant pricing on macs has something to do with it....I sure wouldnt pay triple or quadruple price for a less compatabile and fixable machine just because it was a little more streamlined.</p>
<p>I don't see Apple charging 3x or 4x the price than PC manufacturers, and I'm not saying to plop down thousands of dollars -- most people don't need that.</p>
<p>In general students will do great with a stock iBook G4 12". At $849, its hardly 3x or 4x a comparable PC.</p>
<p>Oh, and response to computers being useless in a few years, that tends to not be true with Macs at all. Not only do they hold their resale value, but they work. I still run a Power Mac G4 as my "TiVo" -- it's a gorgeous machine, it runs the latest OS great, and was made in 2000.</p>
<p>Here's an article I came across earlier today talking about why a Mac laptop from 7 years ago still will work for some people:</p>
<p><a href="http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0503.html%5B/url%5D">http://lowendmac.com/musings/05/0503.html</a></p>
<p>Yeah thats not bad at all for a laptop. Point well taken. </p>
<p>Im still stuck in desktop land :-(</p>
<p>Actually I think os x is counter intuitive - it isn't what most people are used to -and 99% of it's best features the average user will never see, know of, or use.</p>
<p>Why spend 800 on the bottom of the line mac? Now you're wading into truly obsolete tech (as opposed to just overpriced).</p>
<p>You say a comparable dell will cost 2700? Dell's are notoriously expensive, but that's just not true.</p>
<p>take that cpu base - (35% more cpu than the 17 inch 2700$ powerbook). Add 1 gig ram (more than 2700$ powerbook), add 100 gb hard disk (more than 2700$ powerbook), add a 256m video card (twice that of the 2700$ powerbook). The 17 inch screen is the same as the 2700$ powerbook, but offers higher resolution.</p>
<p>Comes to 1300$ and change.</p>
<p>I mean I know you mac guys are loyal, but at times you need to face facts:</p>
<p>apple either needs to upgrade its tech or lower its prices. Hell, the powerbooks themselves have had the same tech and price for two years. No pc maker would ever get away with that!</p>
<p>CPU speed doesnt scale like that though Maize.</p>
<p>Sure it does - if the operating systems and vital system processes combined are consuming the same amount.</p>
<p>That's not an argument you want to undertake, either, because OS X is a hog.</p>
<p>Anyway, it's not just cpu speed - it's the fact that it's getting outclassed in every, single, solitary measurement by a machine that costs half as much that is the killer.</p>
<p>The PowerBooks have not had the same price and technology for the last two years.</p>
<p>They have progressively been upgrading the G4 processor, been installing faster burners, higher base RAM, higher base hard drives, upped to Bluetooth 2.0, added drop protection (if you drop the unit, it stops the hard drive, peopel have even written scripts to use the technology to control iTunes -- tip the laptop to the right and it goes to the next track), an innovative technology to let you scroll with a trackpad using two fingers, brighter backlit keyboards.</p>
<p>Yes, the processor family has remained the same -- though the type of chip itself has changed. The technology has hardly stayed the same.</p>
<p>Drop protection sounds like IBMs similar technology, wonder who came up with it first</p>
<p>OS X is a hog? Of what?</p>
<p>The mach kernel (the UNIX kernel that underlies the OS) is phenomenal -- pre-emptive multitasking means every process gets what it needs. You never need to go through and force quit tons of processes like you do on Windows -- Macs can run 100s of background processes and never even flinch.</p>
<p>When you turn on a Dell laptop, you hear a huge fan power up (I've sat next to tons of them in class lectures). When I hear my fan turn on, I know I'm actually starting to use the power my processor offers (and I feel pretty embarrassed that my mac has to use a fan).</p>
<p>Actually, GH, they both developed it together.</p>
<p>IBM develops all of Apple's processors (Moto does produce the G4s, but they are based off IBM's stuff)... the companies have a lot more in common than you think. A great relationship.</p>
<p>Apple used to use tons of IBM's hard drives before they sold the division.</p>
<p>Haha. Thats amusing actually.</p>
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been installing faster burners
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<p>The Dell I quoted (Dells are one of the most expensive PC's - you could probably find the same specs cheaper) had an 8x DVD+-R. That's the same as the superdrive.</p>
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higher base RAM
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<p>That's <em>still</em> less than half of the 1gb offered in PC's half the price of a powerbook.</p>
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higher base hard drives
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<p>one again, still smaller than PC's @ half the price</p>
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upped to Bluetooth 2.0
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<p>Wasn't the difference between BT 1 and 2 just a firmware upgrade? Either way, 99% of people aren't using it and the pc I quoted had it, as well.</p>
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added drop protection (if you drop the unit, it stops the hard drive, peopel have even written scripts to use the technology to control iTunes -- tip the laptop to the right and it goes to the next track), an innovative technology to let you scroll with a trackpad using two fingers, brighter backlit keyboards.
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<p>I hardly see how a brighter keyboard or better scrolling is worth 1300 dollars.</p>
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Yes, the processor family has remained the same -- though the type of chip itself has changed. The technology has hardly stayed the same
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<p>Yes, a g4 that runs substantially slower than a half-priced PC.</p>
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You never need to go through and force quit tons of processes like you do on Windows
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<p>Umm, I've never done that. Even for a total rookie, SP2 makes it virtually impossibly to accidently install the spyware/adware that plagued SP1 users and caused 90% of the unwated processes.</p>
<p>Also XP doesn't crash - ever. You talk about OS flexibility, but will a mac let you run true unix or linux? Nope, you're held hostage by apple. Yet another reason why people who use their cpu's for more than the standard "e-machines" type email, aim, and web browsing don't own macs.</p>
<p>Alright. This is just dumb. I declare this thread officially over.</p>