Which MacBook? (mainly for NoCo)

I'm thinking of getting my wife a MacBook to replace her old Dell Windows machine. Would you suggest the MacBook Pro or the MacBook Air? Are there any irritating factors with either one of these?

The Air. The light weight but sturdy construction is darn near incredible. It's comfortable to use and looks great. It's probably more power than she'll ever need (unless she starts doing video animation.)

Don't overlook the iPad however. Unless she's writing a book, the lack of a keyboard is actually a big advantage.

Turns out she wants something really small, like an iPad Mini.
But she needs to read and edit Microsoft Word documents. Does the Mini handle such a task?

With aplomb.

I *love* my mini.

Do you have to buy Microsoft Office to edit rad and edit Word documents, or does the software that comes with the iPad do it?

OpenOffice, it's free

Basic notepad software that comes with will open.read.edit Word docs but doesn't have all the bells & whistles -- formatting, fonts, tables, graphs

I've read a lot of complaints about the Mini being slow because of the slow processor and small amount of RAM. How would you compare the speed of your Mini with the other Apple devices you have?

No speed problems.

Lots of Apple haters post lies.

These were not Apple haters. They were people who have Apple devices, and they were comparing the Mini to their other Apples.

I do know that after a few updates of the OS, my iPad now has to reload programs which it used to be able to retain in RAM. Apparently the later OS version uses more RAM.

Have you ever compared the operating speed of the Mini with your other Apples?

Never had that problem. My mini is the cheapest model -- 16gb no 3G wifi only.

NoCoPilot wrote:

With aplomb..

You mean a Plomb like this?

At least you could have expressed some appreciation for the trouble I went through to take a picture of an old wrench (probably older than either of us).

I cheated, anyway. The brand of the wrench is actually Plumb. But, clever as they were, they used a picture of a plumb bob for the 'u'.

Let me rephrase the question.

In an earlier thread you noted that you had, among others, these Apple devices:

Macbook
iPad mini
iPad Air

If you were going to use one of these to read large amounts of email and to read and edit MS Word documents, which of them do you think would be most satisfying? That is, which device would have the memory and processor power to do the job better than the others? Please rate them in descending order.

_Howard wrote:

In an earlier thread you noted that you had, among others, these Apple devices:
Macbook
iPad mini
iPad Air
If you were going to use one of these to read large amounts of email and to read and edit MS Word documents, which of them do you think would be most satisfying? That is, which device would have the memory and processor power to do the job better than the others? Please rate them in descending order.

In descending order of capability have the following:

* 27" iMac - this is my main computer, it has the fastest processor (2.16 Ghz dual core, slow by today's standards), the most RAM (3 Gb, the max for this model), a 250 GB internal hard-drive (with both a 2 TB and a 100 GB external hard drive attached) and the biggest screen. I use it for almost everything (mail, internet, making CDs, watching movies, scanning/copying, you name it). I plan to replace it as soon as the iMac line makes a big jump, or something goes wrong with this one. Or I find something it can't do.
* 13" MacBook (2 GHz 2 GB RAM 500 GB HDD with 1TB external) - bought when I was traveling for work. Mainly use it for portable computing, loading CDs onto the external drive, databasing movies, occasionally doing some spreadsheet or letter away from my office. Used it a lot more before the iPads.
* iPad mini (wifi only, 16 GB) - I use this every day for many things: reading mail on the can, playing music at work or while exercising, as a TV remote, to play Scrabble, looking up stuff like phone numbers or to settle arguments, a million things. I carry it every day to work, but it doesn't connect on the bus of course.
* iPad Air (wifi 16 GB) - got this free for taking a $3500 class (which work paid for) -- it has a gorgeous screen but unlike the mini I can't pop it into my pocket. Since I was already in love with the mini I gave the Air to Mrs. NoCo who had started using my mini for games. I don't want games on my iPad (well, except for Scrabble). She doesn't do much else on it, and doesn't take it to work. She has steadfastly refused to have a home e-mail account -- says work e-mail is enough for her. So it sits on her nightstand most of the time (tho lately she's started house shopping on it!)
* iPhone (16 GB 3G Verizon) - all of the above in miniature, with the 3G it can connect anywhere (theoretically -- there are dead zones!) It's possible to do mail and Unintelligible Debate on it but it's a pain. Handy for logging grocery lists and to-do lists, handy for accessing my DVD database so I don't accidentally buy something I already have, handy for calendar. I have noted before the plethora of great apps. Occasionally it even rings (not quite sure what that means?)

Everything is networked together through the cloud. Changes made to one device are reflected on all the others: mail, documents, calendars. Everybody can wirelessly print to my network printer, even if not on *my* wifi network at the time. Everything can stream music to my TV or stereo.

Now, to your question. Reading "large amounts of e-mail" and "reading and editing MS Word documents" are neither one of them difficult processor-wise. These are the equivalent of treading water for a computer. The questions you need to ask are: WHERE does your wife plan to read, write & edit? On the back deck? On the bus? In her office? Portability will be the first factor. How are her eyes? How big are the documents she edits -- 10 pages? A hundred? A thousand? I edited two books (800 p & 300 p) on my iMac and really appreciated the bigger screen for doing 1:1 proofreading. How long will she work at a stretch? Apple battery devices are good for 8-10 hours of hard use, will go a week between charges with lite use, but all day/everyday should probably be power corded. (When using a portable device at a stationary spot I leave them plugged into the charger.)

Will she be watching movies/listening to CDs? iPads don't have CD-ROM drives (built-in) -- come to think of it the MacBook Air might not either (it's awfully thin)? When Steve Jobs first did away with the floppy drive on the original clear-case iMac everybody thought he was crazy. But these days everything is transferred electronically, as e-mail attachments or DropBox files. I don't even own any physical media.

For me, I'm on the go so much that being able to work remotely is important. I like starting a document at home, working on it on the bus and completing it on the iPad once I get to work.

Your mileage may vary.

_Howard wrote:

I've read a lot of complaints about the Mini being slow because of the slow processor and small amount of RAM.

I keep coming back to this. I have had up to 20 things open at once on my iPhone and iPad, and NEVER ONCE have I had to wait for anything to open. I just can't fathom what your correspondents are talking about.

I can't be just lucky. It isn't in my nature.

When a wi-fi device first attaches to a wi-fi network, there is a lot of protocol negotiation. Packets have to be passed back and forth setting the security, capability and speed, and this process has to be performed every time you connect to the network, even if it's a network you've seen before. This process can take 20-60 seconds, depending on the network. Those of us who move from network-to-network frequently -- work, home, Starbucks -- are used to waiting a bit when first establishing connection.

I wonder if your complainers don't understand basic Networks 101?

NoCoPilot wrote:

OpenOffice, it's free

But it's not available for IOS.

NoCoPilot wrote:

_Howard wrote:

I've read a lot of complaints about the Mini being slow because of the slow processor and small amount of RAM.

I keep coming back to this. I have had up to 20 things open at once on my iPhone and iPad, and NEVER ONCE have I had to wait for anything to open. I just can't fathom what your correspondents are talking about.

I can't be just lucky. It isn't in my nature.

I suppose it depends on how much RAM the applications are using.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I wonder if your complainers don't understand basic Networks 101?

I can't comment on the posters' knowledge of networking, as the net was not a concern and was never mentioned in any of their posts.

_Howard wrote:

NoCoPilot wrote:

OpenOffice, it's free

But it's not available for IOS.

Try Pages then.

https://www.apple.com/ios/pages/

It's not free, but I think you can afford $10. It's dynamite software.

And OpenOffice might be coming for iPad.

I downloaded Microsoft Word (free) to her old iPad and it worked fine for reading Word files I attached to email. (To edit a Word file, you have to subscribe to a Microsoft service). Oddly, the files I opened never show up in Word's "Recent Files" tab, nor can I delete the files without hooking the iPad up to my computer and using iTunes to delete the files. That is some real shit.

I guess I'll never get used to these tiny devices.

The problem with using something other than Word is that many of the files she deals with are legal documents and must be formatted absolutely perfectly.

Thank you Microsoft. You might be stuck buying Word for Mac.

A friend of mine, a graphic designer, caused a small stir a few years ago when somebody looked at the file properties on the MS annual report he had produced, and discovered the file had been created on a Mac.

Oops.

Okay, I ordered an iPad Mini with the retina display and 32GB. I think that should do it okay. I'm surprised the bank won't supply these devices. They are still giving out BlackBerries, which everyone hates. For christ's sake, she was just promoted to Executive Vice President (one of nine in the whole corporation) and they are giving her a car. You'd think they could spring for a fucking iPad!

Different subject: For grins, I activated Siri on my iPhone (I've not done that before). To test it, I asked where I could buy used railroad ties around here, and the god damn thing came up with three valid links, two of which don't show up when I google it on my computer. Holy shit - Siri might be worthwhile.

I may actually buy myself an Apple computer (but I don't think I will live long enough to become a FanBoy like NoCo )

Oh, a half dozen more "holy shit" moments and you'll change your mind.