Apple Mac

[Hollu$]

I am looking at buying a Mac next week from John Lewis.
Does anyone have any recommondations?

I have never had a Mac, but I hear great reviews about them. Not looking at spending over £2000 for one. I will be using it for: trading, internet, word documents, music and so on. Not for gaming or anything like that. Just general day-to-day useage.

Also not sure whether to get an iMac 24 inch desktop or a laptop...?

I have a HP laptop right now which I bought as I thought being at University I would take into lectures...which I don't. So can have either desktop or laptop.

Any help would be great...thanks!
Oh...and has anyone had any problems with a Mac or anything I should be aware of before buying?

Holly

 

[BSD]

I'm on a Mac and love it, can't even remember what a crash, freeze frame or virus is.

On top of that it is also extremely intuitive.

Handbook ?

What's that.

You definitely won't need one.

That said, there are certain problems if you want to trade with a Mac.

Most brokers / software packages don't support us, however some industry leaders like Interactivebrokers or Oanda or Thinkorswim do support us MACies, and chart providers like prorealtime do too.

On top of that there are also certain software solutions that will simulate a windows environment allowing you to use programs that will only run on windows, this is just one out of several such offers:

Heresy: Windows XP performance on a Mac - Alpha Blog - alpha.cnet.com

Don't ask me any questions though please as I'm no techie and have no idea how these things all work, including my Mac lol, I just know that it does work.

Re laptop / desktop, no idea, I#d say if you don't need to take it around with you a desktop would be better as it offers a bigger bang for your buck in most respects including bigger screen which is definitely a big advantage I find.

You definitely won't go wrong with a Mac.

 

[Technically Fundamental]

apple desktop

 

[arabianights]

I'd go for a laptop if only for the intuitive gestures you can make on the taskpad...

 

[Skill Leverage]

The AirBook is pretty pimping

 

[karl6666]

Macbook pro 15"

The AirBook is pretty pimping

Is 1 of my computers, takes a bit of getting used to but runs like a rolls royce. Remember you are working off pull downs from the top menu- there is no right clip on the mouse. £1500 its a lot for a laptop though, do it if you have money to burn and you want to pose on the bus with it. Its a luxury gadget

K

 

[blackbox]

After 12-18 months of hemming and hawing about compatibility and transfer issues, I finally got the 15in laptop (2.16 Ghz intel core 2, originally with 2GB ram though I increased this to 4GB) 2 years ago. I've had about 4 PCs now (Sony, Dell, Dell, and a generic brand) and this is hands down the best machine I have ever had. I hated it for 6 months while I got used to it but now I cannot fathom using a non-Mac PC outside the office; yes, it's a pretty machine but the selling point for me is the OS. No more freezing, hangs or wondering why, despite installing a programme several times, it still isn't working properly. i.e. no headaches.

That said, as BSD mentioned, there are issues with trading platforms though Prorealtime is nice and I'll be demo'ing Sharescope on my partitioned drive (using Windows XP on Boot Camp) in a couple of weeks. It's a personal issue but I like screen space, especially when dealing with multiple windows, my next PC will be the 24in iMac. At times I think the processor is too powerful for the laptop too, as sometimes it sounds like my laptop is about to take off. (And to simulate the right click you just press the apple key while you click).

Jen

 

[karl6666]

After 12-18 months of hemming and hawing about compatibility and transfer issues, I finally got the 15in laptop (2.16 Ghz intel core 2, originally with 2GB ram though I increased this to 4GB) 2 years ago. I've had about 4 PCs now (Sony, Dell, Dell, and a generic brand) and this is hands down the best machine I have ever had. I hated it for 6 months while I got used to it but now I cannot fathom using a non-Mac PC outside the office; yes, it's a pretty machine but the selling point for me is the OS. No more freezing, hangs or wondering why, despite installing a programme several times, it still isn't working properly. i.e. no headaches.

That said, as BSD mentioned, there are issues with trading platforms though Prorealtime is nice and I'll be demo'ing Sharescope on my partitioned drive (using Windows XP on Boot Camp) in a couple of weeks. It's a personal issue but I like screen space, especially when dealing with multiple windows, my next PC will be the 24in iMac. At times I think the processor is too powerful for the laptop too, as sometimes it sounds like my laptop is about to take off. (And to simulate the right click you just press the apple key while you click).

Jen

Oh I forgot, my MB pro gets that hot it will burn my leg in shorts.
I installed (almost) windows on mine last year. If you use all the correct legal software it cost me £400 almost -- I gave up.... i was running on the old OS tiger ? i had to upgrade to leopard, any windows stuff i do on a different machine. Apple will not help you with any warranty / TQs if you have tampered with the machine

K

 

[karl6666]

After 12-18 months of hemming and hawing about compatibility and transfer issues, I finally got the 15in laptop (2.16 Ghz intel core 2, originally with 2GB ram though I increased this to 4GB) 2 years ago. I've had about 4 PCs now (Sony, Dell, Dell, and a generic brand) and this is hands down the best machine I have ever had. I hated it for 6 months while I got used to it but now I cannot fathom using a non-Mac PC outside the office; yes, it's a pretty machine but the selling point for me is the OS. No more freezing, hangs or wondering why, despite installing a programme several times, it still isn't working properly. i.e. no headaches.

That said, as BSD mentioned, there are issues with trading platforms though Prorealtime is nice and I'll be demo'ing Sharescope on my partitioned drive (using Windows XP on Boot Camp) in a couple of weeks. It's a personal issue but I like screen space, especially when dealing with multiple windows, my next PC will be the 24in iMac. At times I think the processor is too powerful for the laptop too, as sometimes it sounds like my laptop is about to take off. (And to simulate the right click you just press the apple key while you click).

Jen

Sharescope pro is an awesome tool, but i ditched it because the downloading of the real time data is a pain in the @rse, insanely slow on a daily basis. And thats on my ultra fast gaming PC i use only for trading, it will be totally useless on a laptop

(i use prorealtime now, considered MT4 but looks a bit of an over kill for what i want)

K