apple laptops

[maritimer]

Do any students use/plan on bringing mac laptops?

[MissCrabette]

My husband does but Mac users are in the minority here. Be prepared to solve your own computer problems.

[wizard629]

i agree....i was plannin on bringin an apple down to Saba but I read (i think in the student handbook) that at SABA, help to fix any prob with ur apple is limited and they do advice not to use apple at Saba.
Personally, I am NOT gettin an apple just to be on a safer side....
Hope it helps....

[Boulderunner]

i have an apple. its fine..there are some who have even switched from a Pc..actually now that i think about it. there are a lot of people with pc's especially dells that have had to get new computers. none of them were macs. its personal preference. and man that new macbook air is so freaking nice....the biggest problem people seem to have is their power cord breaking. i have two. i leave one in the class and one at home. there has been a couple of instances where my mac wouldnt display an image or something but then again, our path prof uses a mac and me and the other mac people have images that nobody else can see. its all preference.

[maritimer]

Boulderunner- thanks for the reply. good to here ppl are using mac's. Yeah the macbook air is sweet looking. think it would do the trick at saba...?

[min3birdie]

you'll be fine if you have Powerpoint. That's what all the lectures are created on. The hard part is sharing files with other students, everyone seems to have a flash-drive and they have to be reformatted every time you go between a Mac and a PC. This makes sharing files difficult.

In my opinion, bring a cheaper computer (PC) to the island to get by. The humidity tends to damage computers over time (yes, even the short time you will be there.) Plus, you wont have problems with file sharing and the presentations.

Tip: Leave your computer on as much as possible, the fans and heat helps to prevent the humidity damage. Also, when you aren't using it and it's off, keep is in a bag or even an oversize airtight ziplock to keep out the moisture.

[maritimer]

re-formatting after sharing a file?
thats a first for me.

[argazul]

just use bootcamp and dual install windows and OSX. best of both worlds on a mac.

[TravisB]

Macs are fine here.

As mentioned, you'll want a copy of Powerpoint, though Keynote will work as well, if not perfectly. There are also a lot of video clips that may require the installation of additional software to view, but the software is typically free. When the time comes you can get recommendations from upperclassmen or the IT department.

Flash drives can be used freely between Windows and OS X without issue.

As mentioned, power cords are a problem for any brand of laptop. This is usually due to bending the cord too sharply when wrapping it up. Bring a spare regardless.

Apple laptops are no more or less 'durable' than any other brand... all of the key components are made by other manufacturers. (CPU, hard drive, CD/DVD drive, RAM, LCD, GPU, etc.)

There is an Apple authorized service center on Sint Maarten, but you'll have to take it to them.

All network shares are accessible by Macs.

All wireless network access points are accessible by Macs.

Regards,

-Travis (Posting with a 17" Macbook Pro.)

[Boulderunner]

Macs are fine here.


Apple laptops are no more or less 'durable' than any other brand..

Actually I did a stupid thing that really impressed me on the strength of the aluminum casing of the macbook pro. I left mine on top of my car and got in and drove off. When i hit my brakes it flew off the top and smashed in to the concrete. This was here on Saba too. It has a big dent in the aluminium and now it wont latch but other then that it is completely fine. pretty impressive.

[TravisB]

Regarding the Macbook Air, please consider the following information before considering the SSD version or any other laptop fitted with a solid state hard drive:

Quoted from PCWorld.com

Avian, a brokerage firm whose research covers the high-tech and aerospace industries, said that an unnamed large manufacturer is seeing return rates of 20 to 30 percent on SSD-based notebooks, thanks to failures and performance issues.

Laptops with flash memory-based solid state drives (SSDs) are being returned at an alarming rate because of technical failures and performance shortcomings, according to a study released this week by Avian Securities.

Returns due to technical failure ran at 10 to 20 percent, 10 times higher than failure rates for conventional drives, the report said.

Consider how *any* loss of the functionality of your laptop would effect your day to day school experience. An outright drive failure is effectively as bad as it gets.

Regards,

-Travis

[TravisB]

Another note on the "PC or Mac?" issue: Viruses

Students constantly share files via flash drives.

As a result of this, I have a constant flow of students coming to my office with virus infected Windows-based laptops in need of rescue. (As I write this, I have a virtual version of Windows running on this Macbook so that I can use the antivirus software on it to clean someone's drive.)

If you have a Mac, you will very likely never have to deal with this.

-Travis