I need something to browse the web on and I was looking at Macbook Air or the iPad. I want it mainly for web browsing but I also want to play music on it, watch movies on it on the plane, view pictures, take notes and download a couple of apps (and don’t tell me that you can’t have any apps on mac because i know and i also know that the mac app store is coming out). So do you think I should get the iPad or the MacBook Air?
Pjay: I dont think you are an IT proffessional because if you were then you would know that the Mac App Store has actually been announced
4 Responses
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elbarto1621 Says:
It seems like you have looked into it quite a bit so I won’t dumb it down.
Honestly, in my opinion, you should be thinking more about getting either a MacBook air or an iPod touch not the iPad. The reason why I say this is because the iPod touch does exactly the same as the iPad plus it takes pictures and video, and is much smaller to where it fits in your pocket, having one less thing to carry.
Now to your question, I would go for a MacBook. The reason why is because they take up the same space(about), and the MacBook does more things. You can’t really use all websites on iPad but you can on MacBook. Hope I helped. -
Scotty Says:
If price is a concern for you I would go with the iPad because it fills your needs listed here and has 3g capabilities. However in my own opinion I think mac products are overpriced and overrated, but that’s just me.
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Pjay Says:
Anybody who told you you can’t put apps on a Mac is an idiot. You can get millions of apps from many, many sources for Mac. As many as for PC, and commercial, software, freeware, shareware, and open source. In fact, part of the Mac operating system is open source UNIX with a BSD license. I will say, that Macs aren’t great for serious gamers. Other than that, Macs beat the crap out of Windows PCs. iPad can use almost every app in the iTunes app store–no need to wait for anything. There will never be a Mac app store as one isn’t needed. Macs are serious computers and there are plenty of apps already available.
iPad might meet your needs. Understand that it’s not a computer and you should have another computer for real computer needs. It’s a content consumption device. It’s okay for light web surfing, though it has difficulty resolving some web sites, even those without Flash animation. It’s great for movies and other media from the iTunes store, and you can convert some other video for use with it, but that requires some technical expertise. It’s good for music, but not as portable as an iPod. It’s great for magazines and books, though not in bright sunlight. I love mine, but it doesn’t replace my Macbook Pro.
As to the Macbook Air, it’s a really great second laptop for the business traveler. You should consider that the 13″ Macbook Air (standard configuration) is only a pound and a half lighter than the 13″ Macbook Pro (standard configuration) and is $100 more. It also lacks an optical drive and discreet video, has half the RAM of the Macbook Pro and it’s solid state drive (SSD) is half the size of the hard disk drive (HDD) in the Macbook Pro. And, for the record, my 13″ Macbook Pro (solid aluminum) slides easily into the size envelope used in the original Macbook Air commercials. It’s just not that much bigger.
My recommendation is to buy the 13″ Macbook Pro if you need a full featured laptop. If you have a fully functional laptop already, the iPad is a lot of fun, but it wouldn’t replace my Macbook Pro.
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Almasy A Says:
never ever buy the macbook air its more expensive than the macbook pro and you get less power from it.
as to what i’d recommend, given your uses i’d say install linux mint on a cheap laptop or something, linux and mac are both unix derivatives anyway you can set things up to be pretty much the same if you know where to look[I.E google it]. if you have any problems then you can just ask on their forums, if you have a major OS problem you can just reinstall it (from a backup disc if you’ve made one which is recommended after you have it set up how you like it)web browsing is handled by firefox or you can download chrome (by checking the respoitory which functions like an app store except all the stuff is free and open source) linuxmint also comes with media codecs pre-installed to handle mp3 playback and other major formats
notes are simple enough to just type into any old word processor.best part is its free so you can test it out on your computer now to see if you could use it
PS – the ipad has a touch screen keyboard and not a physical keyboard and with the weight of the thing can fatigue a lot of peoples fingers, test it at the store for a few hours before you consider buying it or your fingers may hate you.
