Why It's a Great Time to Buy a New Mac

Let's face it, these are not the best economic times and buying a new computer may not be in the cards for you right now. But, if you do find yourself in the position to get a new Mac, now is a particularly good time to do so. Here are a couple of reasons why.

The new Macs are here.

Apple recently released new versions of the iMac, MacBook and Mac mini models. The new iMacs, starting at $1199, are particularly stunning and, most likely, my next Mac purchase. The new MacBook has been greatly upgraded and is a solid buy at $999. Or, if your budget is even tighter, but you have access to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, the Mac mini starts at $599.

New Macs also mean new Apple refurbished products. Apple refurbs have the same warranty as the new ones and you can sometime save quite a bit on the price. New, previous generation Mac are also sometimes available. Check out what is available here.

In any case, getting a new Mac will insure a long computing life with a machine capable of handling anything that you can throw at it. Plus, you get the latest operating system and all of the newest iLife software (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand and iTunes).

As far as you PowerBook users are concerned, you may want to wait on your purchase of a MacBook Pro. There are strong rumors that new models with much faster processors, including a possibility of a quad-core (four processors on one chip) will be coming out very soon. As always, my advice is to get what you need when you need it. It's your call.

If you still can't see yourself affording a new or refurbished Mac, there are still more options. Try checking Craigslist for a fairly recent used Mac. Just be sure that the machine that you are interested in has at least a an "Intel Core 2 Duo" processor. If you're not sure what kind of chip the computer has, go to the Apple Menu and choose "About this Mac". It will say what kind of processor the machine uses. If you can, have someone check it out for you.

Also, a great source for the lowest Mac prices is dealmac.com. They scour the web for the best Mac deals around.

The G4/G5 is dead.

If you have a Mac with a G4 or G5 processor, the good news is that, if you are using Mac OS 10.5 "Leopard", you will never have to upgrade your system software again…because you can't.

Apple's newest operating system, 10.6 "Snow Leopard", will only run on computers with an Intel processor, as opposed to the earlier PowerPC processors. If you're not sure what kind of chip your Mac has, see "About This Mac" above.

This is not to say that "Leopard" isn't a good operating system. It's perfectly fine and will be for years to come. So, if your PowerPC Mac is doing everything you need it to do, you should be in pretty good shape. However, there will still be issues that you won't be able to fix without upgrading your computer. Most of them involve the internet.

The G4 PowerPC processors and the video cards used in the MacBook, PowerBook and some iMac models don't handle Flash video well. Flash is used for many video sites, including YouTube. As computers get faster, web developers raise the bar as to what hardware is required to display video well. In this case, the G4 Mac is no longer enough. Have you noticed videos playback getting choppy to unwatchable on some websites? This maybe the reason.

Another example is Skype. Although you can use Skype with a 800 MHz G4 processor or better, in order to use the video feature, you need an Intel processor. As time goes by, more and more internet-related issues will arise for the PowerPC Macs.

So, if you can swing it, go ahead and pull the trigger on that shiny new iMac. As scary as that might be, I can almost guarantee that you will have a big smile on your face the first time you fire it up. You will enjoy the computer more, so you will use the computer more. You will become more productive and you might find that, in a year or so, the computer has paid for itself.

And, if you need help choosing a new Mac, setting it up, transferring/backing up your data or anything else, feel free to contact me.

Thanks for the read.

Your Genius.

Talking Points: New Mac minis

The Mac mini line has been upgraded, with a new model added. The Mac mini is a basically a MacBook without a keyboard, mouse or display. Here's the rundown:

There are three models.

The $600 entry level model has a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo processor (up from 2GHz), 2GB RAM (up from 1GB), and has 160GB of storage (up from 120GB).

The next step up bumps the processor speed to 2.53GHz, the ram to 4GB and storage to 320GB for $800.

The third model is a Mac mini server also has the 2.53HGz chip, two 500GB hard disks (and no optical drive), 4GB of RAM, and Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard. It sells for $999.

Your Genius

Apple releases new Safari 4 Beta and it's a good one...

Earlier this week, Apple released a new version of their Safari web browser. I've been trying in out for a few days and I'm a happy camper.

This is actually a beta version of the fourth version of Safari, so there may be a few bugs to be worked out in it. However, I haven't come across any yet. What I have come across is one very noticeably faster internet experience, and I'm not the only one.

The Safari 4 beta is available for both Mac and Windows, so it has been examined by experts on both sides of the platform aisle and the reviews have been almost unanimous. Most agree that the Safari 4 beta is now the fastest web browser on earth, almost three times faster that it's closest competitor, Firefox 3. For someone who spends as much time on the internet as I do, I love the fact that I have a new tool which is saving me time every time I use it. And, it's free!

In addition to a big speed boost, Apple had added several new features that seem borrowed from iTunes and the iPhone/iPod Touch. The Top Sites feature lets you enjoy an at-a-glance preview of your favorite websites. Safari 4 Beta tracks the sites you browse and ranks your favorites, presenting up to 24 thumbnails on a single page.

As it does with iTunes, Cover Flow offers a highly visual way of reviewing your site history and bookmarked sites, presenting full-page previews of the websites that look exactly as they did when you last visited them.

Cover Flow also partners with Full History Search, giving you a dramatic new way to revisit sites, letting you flip through full-page previews of the sites you visited in the past. Safari automatically stores all the text and a thumbnail of every page in your history. Just type a word or phrase in the History Search field in Top Sites, and Safari quickly presents you with a list of possibilities. In fact, you can search for anything that was on a page you visited, even photo captions. To jog your memory, Safari presents the sites it finds in Cover Flow, giving you the opportunity to spot the right site on sight.

The Safari 4 beta takes the tabbed browsing up a notch...literally. The tabs have now been moved to the top of the browser window to allow more room to view pages. I don't use tabs that much myself, so I can't really speak to the improvement.

All in all, I am very happy with the changes Apple has made to there web browser. Even though this is a beta release, I'm going to suggest that you download it and give it a spin yourself.

Mac OS Update 10.5.6

This just in, as noted by MacFixIt

Mac OS X 10.5.6 released: better AirPort, gaming performance, more

Apple has released Mac OS X 10.5.6, which resolves a slew of bugs, and increases performance and stablity for a number of system components. Among the enhancements purported in this update:

AirPort Improves the reliability of AirPort connections, including improvements when roaming in large wireless networks with an Intel-based Mac.
Graphics Includes general improvements to gaming performance; includes fixes for possible graphics distortion issues with certain ATI graphics cards.
MobileMe Contacts, calendars, and bookmarks on a Mac automatically sync within a minute of the change being made on the computer, another device, or the web at me.com.
Time Machine Fixes issues that could cause Time Machine to state the backup volume could not be found.
Safari Improves compatibility with web proxy servers.
Networking Improves Apple File Service performance, especially when using a home directory hosted on an AFP server; improves reliability and performance for AT&T 3G cards.
The relatively large release is available in the following types:

Mac OS X 10.5.6 Update (delta) [372MB]
Mac OS X 10.5.6 Combo Update [883MB]
Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 [469MB]
Problems after updating? Please let us know.

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New Dr. Bobby iPodcast: "Unfaithful"

Greetings, brothers and sisters. Here is my latest iPodacast. It's a called "Unfaithful". 

By the way, make sure that you join the "The Church of Mac" group on Facebook. Here's the link.

Dr. Bobby

How to Survive the 17 Worst Mac Disasters

I ran across this article on Maclife.com. It's a really nice, thick chunk of good advice. Read it, then bookmark it.

How to Survive the 17 Worst Mac Disasters

Dr. Bobby Returns to MacDayLA

I will be making a return appearance at MacDayLA this Saturday, July 26th, at 2:30pm.

For those of you who may have witnessed my delivery of the "Good News" at previous events, this instance will be different. My sermon will be smaller, and yet, even more astounding. Kind of like a MacBook Air. In any case, come out to MacDayLA and meet me. And, although my message is sure to touch your Apple spirit, due to a recent court order, there will be no laying on of hands.

Saturday, July 26, 10am - 6pm

Busby's
5364 Wilshire Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90036
(2 blocks west of LaBrea)

Go to MacDayLA for tickets and more information.