Questions about the new Macbooks and Leopard?

Question

1- When it is due out?

2- I want the $1300 current Macbook with 1G Ram and 80 GB hard drive and a dvd burner. If i wait for the newer Macbooks will their prices be high cuz they are new? Will i still be able to get a new macbook w/ the specs listed above for around $1300-$1400?

3- Is that enough RAM for Leopard?

4- I will need a student office software but I dont want to spend the $150 if I can avoid it. I heard good things about Neo Office for Mac and I'll consider downloading that for free. But will that be a problem for school? If my professor makes a powerpoint using Microsoft Office can I open it using Neo Office on my Mac? What about word documents? Can I type a paper in Neo office and send it to my professor who has Microsoft Word? Or will he have a problem accessing it correctly?

5- What is new other than Leopard and that time machine thing?

6- Is the processor going to be new? If so, how far advanced beyond the current core 2 duo?

Any comments about leopard or Mac or Macbooks are welcome. Thanks to all who reply!

Answer 1

1. Leopard is supposed to be due out this Spring....there is only speculation to when Apple might update the MacBooks.

2. The MacBook price will most likely not rise, even if Apple chooses to upgrade the components. If new MacBooks are released, you should be able to get the one you want (with the specs listed above) for a little less than what it is selling for now.

3. Probably, but it all depends on what you plan to do with the laptop. If you are going to have a lot of applications open at once, or do intense video or graphics work, more RAM would probably be better.

4. Neo Office should be fine for your needs. To my knowledge, it can open both word and powerpoint documents. If Neo Office is similar to Open Office for Windows, then it should be able to save typed documents in the Word Format.

5. Some of the new things that will be included in Leopard are Spaces (virtual desktops), some improvements to iChat and the Mail application. Apple says that are additional features that they are "planning" for Leopard, but they have not mentioned much about them lately.

6. If the MacBooks are updated, only a small speed bump will occur. The performance gain will probably not be very much, unless other components (such as larger and faster hard drives (or hybrid drives)) are put in as well.

Hope this helps...

Answer 2

1) Leopard is likely to start showing in about a month or perhaps six weeks.

2) I doubt that the price of Macbooks will go up with the new OS.

3) 1G ram is decent

4) While the Office replacements are OKAY, they are not Office. Get the Student version.

5) While Leopard does have a bunch or new things, you might not want to wait. I like to have the latest and greatest myself, but the current Mac OS is still excellent and will continue that way for a while. You can always upgrade later. In fact, if you buy now, you might get the upgrade for next to nothing. Check with Apple on that.

6) Processor upgrades are constant and never stop. If you wait until that happens, you will never get a computer. The current processor is awesome. To wait for Awesome 2.0 does not make sense.

7) Enjoy your MacBook. It is one of the finest computers ever made.

Answer 3

1. Spring. That's all we know.

2. You can get one now, it won't matter.

3. Yes.

4. They should open in NeoOffice, if not, PowerPoint and Word files will open in Keynote and Pages, respectively. You should buy iWork, it's only $70.

5. There will be plenty of new features, I'm sure. We just don't know what they are yet. Tiger had over 200 improvements over Panther.

6. You'll be safe with a Core 2 Duo. I don't foresee any other Intel chips making it into Apple's notebooks. If we were talking about a Mac Pro, I would advise you to hold off, but not on a notebook.

They are excellent notebooks. I have a MacBook Pro, myself. I'm hearing a lot of different rumors about Leopard, but one thing is certain - it will put Vista to absolute shame.