just a quick Q. (so its in waffle, not elsewhere)

if I bought a Mac Mini (the only one thats not a complete ripoff, and I didnt add applecare because I didnt want to fork out an additional 129 quid, could I add applecare later on (i.e. about a year down the road, when the standard guarantee that comes with it, runs out )

ta

basically I need a new PC as my current one is dead after 3 / 4 yrs. im currently using an Ubuntu liveCD as nothing will install anymore or work from the hard drives (think the controllers on the mobo are shafted or something)

:edit:

oh, and how good is Parallels desktop? worth the 45 quid? I now have a nokia phone and want to use the PC Suite stuff, theres no Mac (and certainly no *nix) version currently syncing its photies, msgs etc etc etc to the Xpee box in the house...

Quote from: snellgrovejust a quick Q. (so its in waffle, not elsewhere)

if I bought a Mac Mini (the only one thats not a complete ripoff, and I didnt add applecare because I didnt want to fork out an additional 129 quid, could I add applecare later on (i.e. about a year down the road, when the standard guarantee that comes with it, runs out )

ta

basically I need a new PC as my current one is dead after 3 / 4 yrs. im currently using an Ubuntu liveCD as nothing will install anymore or work from the hard drives (think the controllers on the mobo are shafted or something)

:edit:

oh, and how good is Parallels desktop? worth the 45 quid? I now have a nokia phone and want to use the PC Suite stuff, theres no Mac (and certainly no *nix) version currently syncing its photies, msgs etc etc etc to the Xpee box in the house...

its far more prudent to e-mail apple and ask about their applecare stuff... to be honest.

sack parallels and get boot camp for nowt...

parallels lets you use XP within Mac OS X, a bit like a virtual machine i think whereas with BC, its a stand alone setup and with linux you can run linux too.

Id rather load it with 2GB RAM I think, and run both at once

rebooting all the time isnt my cuppa tea - My current PC has 2GB of RAM, and I used VMWare quite extensively.

Whether Parallels is even half as good remains to be seen though, reviews arent too handy from what Ive read so far.

Wonder if VMWare will release VMWare Server for the Mac.

I think ill wait a while, and maybe go to PCWorld tomorrow and have a play with one

:edit:

just looking on the apple site and it does indeed look like you can purchase AppleCare after you got the thing, at any point during the 1st year to extend it. So thats ok then

Now, I wonder are they going to put Core 2 Duos in the Mini at any point, as they seem to be a fair bit better than the Core Duo

paralels is simply excellent and worth every penny if you want to go apple.

That said the new osx will run windows apps natively anyway when released but for now its a real solution and bootcamp is just a novelty and kinda pointless.

Quote from: SteveFparalels is simply excellent and worth every penny if you want to go apple.

That said the new osx will run windows apps natively anyway when released but for now its a real solution and bootcamp is just a novelty and kinda pointless.

kinda pointless...?

ive no idea what youre on about... its free and allows you to boot into XP (if ive got the whole thing straight), whats pointless about that? and its hardly a novelty, is it?

also parallels from what i heard doesnt necessarily support certain devices... and it costs you Ã,£45...

EDIT: furthermore, you need more RAM to run Parallels, so in effect, youve upgraded the RAM and spent Ã,£45 to run windows in a non-native environment, which may proclude the running of certain devices... instead of just rebooting, which from what i head takes less than 30 seconds in order to get XP going....

Yeah, but rebooting SUCKS!

I think the value of having both O/Ses going at the same time is definately worth Ã,£45 & possibly ram. means if I want to sync my phone.. I just go ahead and do it, instead of closing my work & pics / music / vids etc etc and then rebooting, sync phone do whatever and go back to Mac again with another reboot

hmmm!

I would be going for 1GB minimum anyway (Windows 2000/XP would only need ~256 as Id only use it for Nokia PC Suite, PDA etc)

I doubt parallels causes that much problem with certain devices, I run VMWare on my PC @ work - an XP machine with 2k3 server, variety of linux & the like all in VM never encountered a problem, I think its a fantastic piece of software for testing things - USB is fully supported etc.. only thing you dont get is OpenGL / flashy graphics.

I need to determine if parallels is as good as VM before I fork out. its an add-on after I get the Mac.. no biggie if it turns out to be lame - Ill keep using the XP PC in the house for my phone-ey bits and pieces

The new OS X is due Qtr 1 2007, and my current PC is broken NOW! i think it is kinda stupid to buy a Mac now really, with probably better H/W and S/W looming but hey ho, thats computers isnt it.. !!

:edit:

wow this isnt so much of a waffle thread anymore

Quote from: snellgroveYeah, but rebooting SUCKS!

I would be going for 1GB minimum anyway (Windows 2000/XP would only need ~256 as Id only use it for Nokia PC Suite, PDA etc)

I doubt parallels causes that much problem with certain devices, I run VMWare on my PC @ work - an XP machine with 2k3 server, variety of linux & the like all in VM never encountered a problem,

1) it doesnt really suck, you just like the novelty of having two OS running at one, admit it..

2) youve mentioned youve had VMWare on  your PC with a variety of OS running within Windoze, unless youve run the PC suite via a virtual machine, you cant say that its going to work... - its a good chance it wont..

im arguing the toss here because i resent having to pay 50 quid+ for something you can do for nowt!

stop being a flash harry and put your wallet away!!!  

Is your phone not compatible with iSync

Sounds like an awful lot of hassle to synch up a phone - is it really that important?