Decision time for iPod +/- portable
Greetings all - I need some advice.
The dilemma: Whether to take advantage of the iPod rebates due to expire on 9/27. I want a 20 GB iPod, and am merrily and laboriously converting lots of vinyl LPs (think hundreds) to AAC using my iMac 800 Superdrive. I will be happy with my iMac for a while longer (I hope), but would also like to get a portable computer for, well, portability. Actually I expect I would use the portable for standard MS Office work, web surfing via wireless, some AIFF-editing work using Sound Studio, and AAC encoding via iTunes. I'm not likely to want to play graphics intensive games, with the possible exception of Open GL-enabled golf games. I would also use the portable for Powerpoint or Keynote presentations containing fairly large inserted "pictures" (scientific graphs and the like).
My choices span two states (one with sales tax of 8.25% and one without sales tax), and all choices enjoy educational discounts tailored to the respective universities.
1) 12" PB G4 (rev
$1399 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) plus 8.25% sales tax minus $200 iPod rebate = $2073. I assume that orders placed on-line before 9/27 qualify for the iPod rebate.
2) 12" PB G4 (revB) $1399 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) (no applicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1900. Problem is the university computer store may not have 12" PB G4 (rev in stock in time for iPod special pricing.
3) 12" PB G4 (867 rev A) $1299 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) (no applicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1781.
4) 12"iBook 900 CD-RW/DVD with included applecare ($1199) plus airport card ($74) plus iPod ($369) (no appicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1442.
5) Forget the portable at least until new iBooks come out (soon after 9/27 is quite possible given Apple's iBook revision history). Forget the rebate. Get the iPod $369 (no applicable sales tax) = $369, and get my boss to buy a portable for me (he'll say OK if it's a Windows portable - not really an option).
I know I'll add a 512 MB stick to any of the computers, so I didn't include it in the deliberations.
Any advice is appreciated.
BTW Does anyone know how well (how poorly) the math programming language S-Plus would run in Virtual PC on a Mac?
Wanderer
The dilemma: Whether to take advantage of the iPod rebates due to expire on 9/27. I want a 20 GB iPod, and am merrily and laboriously converting lots of vinyl LPs (think hundreds) to AAC using my iMac 800 Superdrive. I will be happy with my iMac for a while longer (I hope), but would also like to get a portable computer for, well, portability. Actually I expect I would use the portable for standard MS Office work, web surfing via wireless, some AIFF-editing work using Sound Studio, and AAC encoding via iTunes. I'm not likely to want to play graphics intensive games, with the possible exception of Open GL-enabled golf games. I would also use the portable for Powerpoint or Keynote presentations containing fairly large inserted "pictures" (scientific graphs and the like).
My choices span two states (one with sales tax of 8.25% and one without sales tax), and all choices enjoy educational discounts tailored to the respective universities.
1) 12" PB G4 (rev
$1399 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) plus 8.25% sales tax minus $200 iPod rebate = $2073. I assume that orders placed on-line before 9/27 qualify for the iPod rebate.2) 12" PB G4 (revB) $1399 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) (no applicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1900. Problem is the university computer store may not have 12" PB G4 (rev
in stock in time for iPod special pricing.3) 12" PB G4 (867 rev A) $1299 plus airport extreme card ($93) plus applecare ($239) plus iPod ($369) (no applicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1781.
4) 12"iBook 900 CD-RW/DVD with included applecare ($1199) plus airport card ($74) plus iPod ($369) (no appicable sales tax) minus $200 iPod rebate = $1442.
5) Forget the portable at least until new iBooks come out (soon after 9/27 is quite possible given Apple's iBook revision history). Forget the rebate. Get the iPod $369 (no applicable sales tax) = $369, and get my boss to buy a portable for me (he'll say OK if it's a Windows portable - not really an option).
I know I'll add a 512 MB stick to any of the computers, so I didn't include it in the deliberations.
Any advice is appreciated.
BTW Does anyone know how well (how poorly) the math programming language S-Plus would run in Virtual PC on a Mac?
Wanderer