anyway, one thing I've learned is that chicks dig apple notebooks. My mother used a desktop(s) for a long time until I got her a Titanium. she's in love with it, and I don't think she'll get a desktop again.
If you buy her an iBook, she love you for it. trust me. Females are attracted to the white plastic.
If you don't think I'm serious, you're gravely mistaken.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'm sure you're serious. My wife is not bad with computers, but by no means an expert. The problem is that she can't see the screen on an iBook. Her vision is around 20/400 with correction (although those numbers stop having meaning at some point). With our 22" Cinema Display running at 800x512, she sits around 6 inches from the screen. The iBook would be useless from that perspective.
You are looking at the wrong Mac for your wife if you think she needs a powerMac to do the above. Any Mac at all is totally competent in this field - even the classic G3 iMac. You shouldn't consider anything more powerful than the eMac for those needs - and it will last for years.</strong>
(snip)
<strong>You mentioned though that XP has far better accommodation for your wife's visual challenges and in that case you should absolutely buy her a PC and make her life easier rather than stick with a brand you love which would make her life harder.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The problem with the all-in-one Macs is that we wouldn't be using the built in screen at all -- they're much too small, so we'd be taking up desk space with a monitor that's not in use.
With respect to adaptive technology, it's really a shame that Apple has entirely ceded this field to Microsoft. When Windows '95 first came out, I told my brother, who's been there since the mid-'80s, that we were very impressed with what MS had built in to the OS. Since that time, MS has continued to improve and make sure their applications are accessible while Apple has given up and hard-coded their applications to suit Steve Jobs' aesthetic needs and exclude people who don't see well.
For example, just for kicks, try making iCal use a bigger font. I asked an Apple representative at MWNY '02 at the iCal rollout how to change the font size. He thought for sure there would be a way to do that. He tried to do it himself, couldn't, then tracked down the product manager and came back to me saying it couldn't be done.
Well, I went ahead and sprang for the Dell. Grand total charged to my card (i.e., including shipping and tax) was $1147. For that, I got a Dimension 4550 with 2.40 GHz processor, 640 MB of RAM, 60 GB hard drive, 16X DVD ROM drive, Radeon 9700 (not pro, but still jaw-dropping), one year on-site warranty, "express tech support" for a year, speakers with subwoofer, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, Windows XP Pro, Logitech optical mouse, USB 802.11 adapter, and a bunch of basic software. Ordering from Dell was somewhat of a pain, but well worth it for the savings.
The computer doesn't have the fit and finish of a Mac (my wife says it's ugly), but it also does exactly what we want for $500 less than the bottom-end PowerMac and at least $1000 less than a comparably-performing PowerMac. We've got our music files from the downstairs computer available via a SAMBA share and the upstairs computer can pull them just fine over the AirPort link. E-mail addresses went over just fine. Both computers pull from the same e-mail account just fine. Instant messaging on both computers works just fine. Fast user switching (where two users can be logged in at the same time and you can switch from one workspace to another without logging out) works incredibly well (the login screen even shows you how many programs are running in each session and how many unread e-mail messages there are in each session).
The most interesting thing is that I can now go into a computer store and not feel like a second-class citizen. There is a whole range of products that I had basically ignored because they were totally irrelevant to me, but now are interesting. The Radeon 9700 has features that actually work system-wide (such as FSAA) that tend to be advertised on product boxes, but not actually enabled on the Mac because of poor driver support. Apple has all these ads about how switching from PC to Mac is like leaving a dysfunctional relationship; I'm wondering if it isn't the other way around.
I'm not planning on ditching my PowerMac, and if a 970-based machine comes out, I'll probably buy one, but I've been pleasantly surprised by this machine.
I love my Powermac which I worked on last night, but I also love my new Sony Vaio PC.
I have the 9700 Pro and the Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card, video and music are a real pleasure.
Want to make Windows XP more enjoyable? Go to themesxp.org, they have some gorgeous themes that make XP look fantastic! I'm using it and it's rock stable and there is no hit in performance, they render their themes the same way Microsoft does in Windows.
Like I said, I think the Mac is great and I will also replace my current Powermac when the new IBM chips are released in them.
You bought a Dell? Trust me, in 6 months, you'll be sorry. If you were going to go PC, you should have bought from a company that does quality control.
Decent parts make a difference. But you're about to learn that the hard way...
<strong>You bought a Dell? Trust me, in 6 months, you'll be sorry. If you were going to go PC, you should have bought from a company that does quality control.
Decent parts make a difference. But you're about to learn that the hard way...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Which part of the Intel 2.40 GHz processor, Radeon 9700 (not pro, but still jaw-dropping), one year on-site warranty, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, Logitech optical mouse, etc is indecent? Sure, we all have anectodal stories of companies that use cheap parts and break on you but overall, Dell has pretty good QC and customer service satisfaction. We are nto talking about eMachines here.
So stop knocking Osakans unless you are willing to stand behind what you say i.e. what if the Dell is happily chugging along after 6 months?
<strong>You do know about the Universal access control panel under OS X though, do you?
You also know about the zoom function that works like nothing else I have ever seen in that departement.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
It works fine for what it is, but it's basically a slightly nicer looking screen enlarger -- Windows has had excelleny software that does this for many years (although the first in the field, InLarge, was a Mac-first program by Berkeley Systems, the people who made the Flying Toasters and You Don't Know Jack! (little known fact: the company was founded with government funding to make that program and one called OutSpoken)).
What we'd really like is a program that makes the menu font size and other font sizes and the cursor size bigger (I know about PinPoint and CursorZoom) while keeping everything on the screen. The problem with the zoom feature is that you can't see the whole screen at once. Apple has decided that one size (no pun intended) fits all, and that having the zoom and invert feature in Universal Access basically does it for people with visual impairments.
<strong>Of course you can set the OS font to something huge, it's just going to look ugly.
I don't have any visual impairments so I guess it's hard to know what is needed and what not.
G-News</strong><hr></blockquote>
G-News: You know of a way to change the menu font size and the size of fonts in window title bars? If you could let me know, I'd really, really, really appreciate it. Seriously. After having looked on and off for over a year, I can't find one.
Which part of the Intel 2.40 GHz processor, Radeon 9700 (not pro, but still jaw-dropping), one year on-site warranty, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, Logitech optical mouse, etc is indecent? Sure, we all have anectodal stories of companies that use cheap parts and break on you but overall, Dell has pretty good QC and customer service satisfaction. We are nto talking about eMachines here.
So stop knocking Osakans unless you are willing to stand behind what you say i.e. what if the Dell is happily chugging along after 6 months?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Guess what, I was a PC tech for almost 2 years, and I saw Dells more than any other machine besides Compaq. I would sooner buy an eMachines.
On paper, the specs might look okay...but don't forget, Dell ships with their own custom motherboard and BIOS. We had to replace 30+ Dells at my old place of employment because their BIOS wasn't compatible with Adobe apps like Photoshop and Premiere. How could a BIOS cause photoshop not to work? I dunno, but Dell did it somehow (to their credit, they acknowledged the problem and sent us replacements quickly).
The Dells in our media labs were incredibly cranky with several different video capture boards. But because some upper-level VP signed a deal that mandated Dells everywhere, we were forced to use them. The Dell server that was supposed to do radio station automation routinely crashed, leaving corrupted files across the hard disk, and a horrible screeching noise on the air. (Every time this happened, which was about twice a month, the station manager would have to come up to the station in the middle of the night and initiate a 4-hour rescue process).
The company that made the automation software also sells their own custom built PCs which have "four nines" of uptime, guaranteed...but we couldn't buy their PC because of the f**king Dell contract! So we had them retrofit a Dell, and surprise, it didn't work worth a s**t.
Right now I'm typing this on a Dell which crashes if I try to use the Zip drive, and slows to a crawl if I go 8 hours without rebooting. It's a 2 year old machine, and it's always had these problems. Dell tech support blames Windows, and tells me to download the latest upgrades.
I live about 1 hour away from Dell HQ in Round Rock, and I have a few friends who work their (or used to work there). They confirm that Dell doesn't do much in the way of quality control, especially for new product lines. In fact, if you buy a Dimension within three months of its announcement, you are officially a guinea pig for Dell.
Where else to go? Their case design, while it has improved over the years, it's still excreble. I have a Dell instruction manual diagram from 1998 pinned up over my desk. The illustration shows how to open a Dimension tower; two hands on the locks, one hand sliding down. That's right, THREE HANDS to open the computer. For those of us with two hands, it's a little more difficult .
I don't hate PCs. I own two of them which I built myself. In general, they don't give me problems. I've had good experiences with PCs by Micron and IBM (two vendors that actually do quality control). I use my Mac for video editing, but I will readily admit that PCs are better for some tasks.
But I'd sooner face a firing squad than buy a Dell. I wouldn't even use one for spare parts.
Guess what, I was a PC tech for almost 2 years, and I saw Dells more than any other machine besides Compaq. I would sooner buy an eMachines.
(snip)
The Dells in our media labs were incredibly cranky with several different video capture boards. But because some upper-level VP signed a deal that mandated Dells everywhere, we were forced to use them.
(snip)
In fact, if you buy a Dimension within three months of its announcement, you are officially a guinea pig for Dell.
(snip)
But I'd sooner face a firing squad than buy a Dell. I wouldn't even use one for spare parts.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Just out of curiousity (and not trying to be a pain), but when you were a tech, was it at the "all Dell" company? That would, of course, explain why you ran across more Dells than anything else. Also, since Dell and HP/Compaq are #1 and #2 in market share for PCs (by a decent stretch), I suppose I'd be surprised if you saw some other brand more frequently (unless you backed out market share) even if drawing from a random sampling of the market.
I also thoroughly agree with the notion of waiting until a product has been on the market for several months (or even years, if appropriate) before buying it. This is true of Apple as well (speaking as a person who ordered a Dual 800 Quicksilver on the week it was announced and lived to regret it). That's why I got the Dimension 4550 with solid, "sweet spot" components where I figured the bugs had worked themselves out (except the 9700 on which I splurged).
If I was going to push the machine hard (installing and uninstalling a ton of programs, doing media work, etc.) there's no question my decision would have been different, but my experience has been that Windows XP machines tend to stay pretty stable if you don't change things around a lot. In addition, my office has around 1000-1500 Dell desktops and I don't see them being carted out of my colleagues' offices on a regular basis which I suppose is a good sign.
<strong>Apple has all these ads about how switching from PC to Mac is like leaving a dysfunctional relationship; I'm wondering if it isn't the other way around.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, anecdotes can certainly vary, but you really haven't entered into relationship with this machine yet. It's a first date, and PCs can clean up pretty nicely for a first date.
No I don't know how to increase the text size in the menus, I think it was possible in OS 9, and I'm certain it's possible in OS X too, but aparently not via a control panel, but certainly via some third party app or via the console, if you know how:P
Gizzmonic, it seems your experience with Dell PC's has been older Dell PCs. You don't think anything could have changed during that time or your experience could be isolated (among the tens of thousands of Dell sold)? In any case, your statement of 'you'll be sorry in six months' is still a hyperbole, which was my original point.
For someone who wants to be able to do everything, nothing beats a nice Mac in the same house as a very fast PC. The Mac can sit there and grow three generations old before it really starts groaning. The PC can have it's innards swapped out for next to nothing. I recently had my P3-600 turned into a P4-2400 for under $400. That was a totally painless upgrade, and it's the major advantage of having a custom-built PC.
That's the major reason not to go with a major name brand, although I don't know if they're still using their non-standard cases. I don't buy computers that aren't in a standard case anymore because I never know what I might want to do with them in the future. I was kicked in the teeth twice by NEC in the 90's by daughterboard architecture.
Gizzmonic, it seems your experience with Dell PC's has been older Dell PCs. You don't think anything could have changed during that time or your experience could be isolated (among the tens of thousands of Dell sold)?
I can corroborate it, though: Dell is, and has always been, thoroughly mediocre when it comes to quality and compatibility. We've had some real nightmares with their service, too, which looks good on paper (and if you're wondering, we have the absolute best service level they offer). More frequently, though, is the Dell guy showing up to figure out what's wrong with one of our machines, sitting their all day with a baffled look on his face, throwing up his hands and leaving.
Quote:
In any case, your statement of 'you'll be sorry in six months' is still a hyperbole, which was my original point.
It's hyperbolic, but not baseless. Dell's QC leaves a lot to be desired, and that's a simple fact.
However, if it does what Osakans's wife needs it to do, more power to it. I honestly hope that it works flawlessly for them, unlike every single Dell I've ever worked on. You have to buy what you need, but you get what you pay for.
Osakans, it might help to fire off a (polite!) note to either the OS X feedback page or Steve himself (his first name at mac dot com — he reads the email sent there) explaining what you need from a computer and how the Mac fell short. Apple is taking accessibility far more seriously than they have before, and I'm sure they'd be interested to know that they're falling short somewhere. I know a lot of people who make use of the large fonts feature in Windows, so I know it satisfies a real need.
Comments
<strong>How good with computers is your wife?
anyway, one thing I've learned is that chicks dig apple notebooks. My mother used a desktop(s) for a long time until I got her a Titanium. she's in love with it, and I don't think she'll get a desktop again.
If you buy her an iBook, she love you for it. trust me. Females are attracted to the white plastic.
If you don't think I'm serious, you're gravely mistaken.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'm sure you're serious. My wife is not bad with computers, but by no means an expert. The problem is that she can't see the screen on an iBook. Her vision is around 20/400 with correction (although those numbers stop having meaning at some point). With our 22" Cinema Display running at 800x512, she sits around 6 inches from the screen. The iBook would be useless from that perspective.
<strong>
You are looking at the wrong Mac for your wife if you think she needs a powerMac to do the above. Any Mac at all is totally competent in this field - even the classic G3 iMac. You shouldn't consider anything more powerful than the eMac for those needs - and it will last for years.</strong>
(snip)
<strong>You mentioned though that XP has far better accommodation for your wife's visual challenges and in that case you should absolutely buy her a PC and make her life easier rather than stick with a brand you love which would make her life harder.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The problem with the all-in-one Macs is that we wouldn't be using the built in screen at all -- they're much too small, so we'd be taking up desk space with a monitor that's not in use.
With respect to adaptive technology, it's really a shame that Apple has entirely ceded this field to Microsoft. When Windows '95 first came out, I told my brother, who's been there since the mid-'80s, that we were very impressed with what MS had built in to the OS. Since that time, MS has continued to improve and make sure their applications are accessible while Apple has given up and hard-coded their applications to suit Steve Jobs' aesthetic needs and exclude people who don't see well.
For example, just for kicks, try making iCal use a bigger font. I asked an Apple representative at MWNY '02 at the iCal rollout how to change the font size. He thought for sure there would be a way to do that. He tried to do it himself, couldn't, then tracked down the product manager and came back to me saying it couldn't be done.
The computer doesn't have the fit and finish of a Mac (my wife says it's ugly), but it also does exactly what we want for $500 less than the bottom-end PowerMac and at least $1000 less than a comparably-performing PowerMac. We've got our music files from the downstairs computer available via a SAMBA share and the upstairs computer can pull them just fine over the AirPort link. E-mail addresses went over just fine. Both computers pull from the same e-mail account just fine. Instant messaging on both computers works just fine. Fast user switching (where two users can be logged in at the same time and you can switch from one workspace to another without logging out) works incredibly well (the login screen even shows you how many programs are running in each session and how many unread e-mail messages there are in each session).
The most interesting thing is that I can now go into a computer store and not feel like a second-class citizen. There is a whole range of products that I had basically ignored because they were totally irrelevant to me, but now are interesting. The Radeon 9700 has features that actually work system-wide (such as FSAA) that tend to be advertised on product boxes, but not actually enabled on the Mac because of poor driver support. Apple has all these ads about how switching from PC to Mac is like leaving a dysfunctional relationship; I'm wondering if it isn't the other way around.
I'm not planning on ditching my PowerMac, and if a 970-based machine comes out, I'll probably buy one, but I've been pleasantly surprised by this machine.
I love my Powermac which I worked on last night, but I also love my new Sony Vaio PC.
I have the 9700 Pro and the Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card, video and music are a real pleasure.
Want to make Windows XP more enjoyable? Go to themesxp.org, they have some gorgeous themes that make XP look fantastic! I'm using it and it's rock stable and there is no hit in performance, they render their themes the same way Microsoft does in Windows.
Like I said, I think the Mac is great and I will also replace my current Powermac when the new IBM chips are released in them.
Decent parts make a difference. But you're about to learn that the hard way...
You also know about the zoom function that works like nothing else I have ever seen in that departement.
I mean you can blow it up to a degree that a single letter fills a screen! and that works in every 2D app too!
I just hope you're not going to be sorry over that Dellcision.
<strong>You bought a Dell? Trust me, in 6 months, you'll be sorry. If you were going to go PC, you should have bought from a company that does quality control.
Decent parts make a difference. But you're about to learn that the hard way...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Which part of the Intel 2.40 GHz processor, Radeon 9700 (not pro, but still jaw-dropping), one year on-site warranty, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, Logitech optical mouse, etc is indecent? Sure, we all have anectodal stories of companies that use cheap parts and break on you but overall, Dell has pretty good QC and customer service satisfaction. We are nto talking about eMachines here.
So stop knocking Osakans unless you are willing to stand behind what you say i.e. what if the Dell is happily chugging along after 6 months?
<strong>You do know about the Universal access control panel under OS X though, do you?
You also know about the zoom function that works like nothing else I have ever seen in that departement.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
It works fine for what it is, but it's basically a slightly nicer looking screen enlarger -- Windows has had excelleny software that does this for many years (although the first in the field, InLarge, was a Mac-first program by Berkeley Systems, the people who made the Flying Toasters and You Don't Know Jack! (little known fact: the company was founded with government funding to make that program and one called OutSpoken)).
What we'd really like is a program that makes the menu font size and other font sizes and the cursor size bigger (I know about PinPoint and CursorZoom) while keeping everything on the screen. The problem with the zoom feature is that you can't see the whole screen at once. Apple has decided that one size (no pun intended) fits all, and that having the zoom and invert feature in Universal Access basically does it for people with visual impairments.
Of course you can set the OS font to something huge, it's just going to look ugly.
I don't have any visual impairments so I guess it's hard to know what is needed and what not.
G-News
<strong>Of course you can set the OS font to something huge, it's just going to look ugly.
I don't have any visual impairments so I guess it's hard to know what is needed and what not.
G-News</strong><hr></blockquote>
G-News: You know of a way to change the menu font size and the size of fonts in window title bars? If you could let me know, I'd really, really, really appreciate it. Seriously. After having looked on and off for over a year, I can't find one.
Thanks.
<strong>
Which part of the Intel 2.40 GHz processor, Radeon 9700 (not pro, but still jaw-dropping), one year on-site warranty, SoundBlaster Live! 5.1, Logitech optical mouse, etc is indecent? Sure, we all have anectodal stories of companies that use cheap parts and break on you but overall, Dell has pretty good QC and customer service satisfaction. We are nto talking about eMachines here.
So stop knocking Osakans unless you are willing to stand behind what you say i.e. what if the Dell is happily chugging along after 6 months?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Guess what, I was a PC tech for almost 2 years, and I saw Dells more than any other machine besides Compaq. I would sooner buy an eMachines.
On paper, the specs might look okay...but don't forget, Dell ships with their own custom motherboard and BIOS. We had to replace 30+ Dells at my old place of employment because their BIOS wasn't compatible with Adobe apps like Photoshop and Premiere. How could a BIOS cause photoshop not to work? I dunno, but Dell did it somehow (to their credit, they acknowledged the problem and sent us replacements quickly).
The Dells in our media labs were incredibly cranky with several different video capture boards. But because some upper-level VP signed a deal that mandated Dells everywhere, we were forced to use them. The Dell server that was supposed to do radio station automation routinely crashed, leaving corrupted files across the hard disk, and a horrible screeching noise on the air. (Every time this happened, which was about twice a month, the station manager would have to come up to the station in the middle of the night and initiate a 4-hour rescue process).
The company that made the automation software also sells their own custom built PCs which have "four nines" of uptime, guaranteed...but we couldn't buy their PC because of the f**king Dell contract! So we had them retrofit a Dell, and surprise, it didn't work worth a s**t.
Right now I'm typing this on a Dell which crashes if I try to use the Zip drive, and slows to a crawl if I go 8 hours without rebooting. It's a 2 year old machine, and it's always had these problems. Dell tech support blames Windows, and tells me to download the latest upgrades.
I live about 1 hour away from Dell HQ in Round Rock, and I have a few friends who work their (or used to work there). They confirm that Dell doesn't do much in the way of quality control, especially for new product lines. In fact, if you buy a Dimension within three months of its announcement, you are officially a guinea pig for Dell.
Where else to go? Their case design, while it has improved over the years, it's still excreble. I have a Dell instruction manual diagram from 1998 pinned up over my desk. The illustration shows how to open a Dimension tower; two hands on the locks, one hand sliding down. That's right, THREE HANDS to open the computer. For those of us with two hands, it's a little more difficult
I don't hate PCs. I own two of them which I built myself. In general, they don't give me problems. I've had good experiences with PCs by Micron and IBM (two vendors that actually do quality control). I use my Mac for video editing, but I will readily admit that PCs are better for some tasks.
But I'd sooner face a firing squad than buy a Dell. I wouldn't even use one for spare parts.
[ 03-17-2003: Message edited by: Gizzmonic ]</p>
<strong>
Guess what, I was a PC tech for almost 2 years, and I saw Dells more than any other machine besides Compaq. I would sooner buy an eMachines.
(snip)
The Dells in our media labs were incredibly cranky with several different video capture boards. But because some upper-level VP signed a deal that mandated Dells everywhere, we were forced to use them.
(snip)
In fact, if you buy a Dimension within three months of its announcement, you are officially a guinea pig for Dell.
(snip)
But I'd sooner face a firing squad than buy a Dell. I wouldn't even use one for spare parts.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Just out of curiousity (and not trying to be a pain), but when you were a tech, was it at the "all Dell" company? That would, of course, explain why you ran across more Dells than anything else. Also, since Dell and HP/Compaq are #1 and #2 in market share for PCs (by a decent stretch), I suppose I'd be surprised if you saw some other brand more frequently (unless you backed out market share) even if drawing from a random sampling of the market.
I also thoroughly agree with the notion of waiting until a product has been on the market for several months (or even years, if appropriate) before buying it. This is true of Apple as well (speaking as a person who ordered a Dual 800 Quicksilver on the week it was announced and lived to regret it). That's why I got the Dimension 4550 with solid, "sweet spot" components where I figured the bugs had worked themselves out (except the 9700 on which I splurged).
If I was going to push the machine hard (installing and uninstalling a ton of programs, doing media work, etc.) there's no question my decision would have been different, but my experience has been that Windows XP machines tend to stay pretty stable if you don't change things around a lot. In addition, my office has around 1000-1500 Dell desktops and I don't see them being carted out of my colleagues' offices on a regular basis which I suppose is a good sign.
<strong>Apple has all these ads about how switching from PC to Mac is like leaving a dysfunctional relationship; I'm wondering if it isn't the other way around.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, anecdotes can certainly vary, but you really haven't entered into relationship with this machine yet. It's a first date, and PCs can clean up pretty nicely for a first date.
Good luck.
I'm afraid I can't help you with that.
G-News
That's the major reason not to go with a major name brand, although I don't know if they're still using their non-standard cases. I don't buy computers that aren't in a standard case anymore because I never know what I might want to do with them in the future. I was kicked in the teeth twice by NEC in the 90's by daughterboard architecture.
Originally posted by klinux
Gizzmonic, it seems your experience with Dell PC's has been older Dell PCs. You don't think anything could have changed during that time or your experience could be isolated (among the tens of thousands of Dell sold)?
I can corroborate it, though: Dell is, and has always been, thoroughly mediocre when it comes to quality and compatibility. We've had some real nightmares with their service, too, which looks good on paper (and if you're wondering, we have the absolute best service level they offer). More frequently, though, is the Dell guy showing up to figure out what's wrong with one of our machines, sitting their all day with a baffled look on his face, throwing up his hands and leaving.
In any case, your statement of 'you'll be sorry in six months' is still a hyperbole, which was my original point.
It's hyperbolic, but not baseless. Dell's QC leaves a lot to be desired, and that's a simple fact.
However, if it does what Osakans's wife needs it to do, more power to it. I honestly hope that it works flawlessly for them, unlike every single Dell I've ever worked on. You have to buy what you need, but you get what you pay for.
Osakans, it might help to fire off a (polite!) note to either the OS X feedback page or Steve himself (his first name at mac dot com — he reads the email sent there) explaining what you need from a computer and how the Mac fell short. Apple is taking accessibility far more seriously than they have before, and I'm sure they'd be interested to know that they're falling short somewhere. I know a lot of people who make use of the large fonts feature in Windows, so I know it satisfies a real need.
Again, good luck.