Becoming a Mac

About a month ago I took the family to dinner and it happened that there was a Best Buy adjacent to the restaurant. And knowing that they sell Mac's now I told the kids and spouse that we would go over and check out the Macs ...

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On business in Atlanta I took some time to walk through a Best Buy and drool over technology... I love gadgets and technology in general.  In Best Buy stores they now sell Macintosh Computers and have been doing so for some time.  I took my time looking over the various Mac's in store and took the liberty of pulling up my website on each one.  ;-)

Mac BookMacBook with white polycarbonate shell

Most notable of the computers I looked at was the 24" iMac shown in the picture below.  Unfortunately, the picture does it absolutely no justice at all.  I hadn't seen one in person and I have to admit it is an impressive machine.  

The 24" and 20" were both displayed side by side and although I didn't expect it, the 24" truly seemed to dwarf the 20" version.  I spent a little time familiarizing myself with the navigation and played with some of the settings.  I also opened up 2008 Office for Mac and navigated through some of the menus.  Giving it a little test run.  Everything seemed to run fluidly and the icons can be adjusted in size and position very easily.  Opening multiple programs and switching between them took a moment to figure out because I am very new to the new operating system but once I got the hang of it, it was great.  

The size of the machine, I have to admit, was a bit intimidating.  It was a bit like sitting down in front of a flat screen TV.  But after a few moments I was right at home and could see myself taking full advantage of having multiple programs running and doing my best at "multi-tasking."

 24" iMac at Best Buy

The in-store price for the 24" iMac was $1499.99 compared to $1499.00 as listed on Apple's website.  Hmm?  I didn't see any big sale or bonus software or items thrown into the Best Buy deal either.  Basically, other than the instant gratification of purchasing and walking out the door with a Mac, I see no real reason for purchasing it in-store.  

One item that I must note is that I did not find the Mac Mini on display, and I ran out of time before I could ask around to see if they were offering in-store.  I have seen them on sale at Best Buy online.  

20" HP TouchSmart at Best BuyWhile in the store I also visited the PC section. And it was overwhelming, the variety of PCs feels endless.  I have always felt that way, but now that I'm truly "shopping" for a Mac it seems even more apparent.  This can be seen as a definite plus for someone shopping strictly a for PC.  It means prices amongst PCs will be competitive and that theoretically you should be able to find exactly what you want in a PC.  I took some time to visit with the HP TouchSmart that I described in an earlier post.  It too is an impressive machine.  With a 20" display, touch sensitive screen, and loaded with a pretty nifty interface that allows for navigation of the computer it was pretty cool.  The design is also attractive, jet black with nice lines make it visually appealing.  Unfortunately, I didn't spend too much time with it as the mouse and keyboard were not working.  (Seriously!)  And I didn't want to spend the time trying to track down an associate to help me.  The more I look at the iMac's the more I'll force myself to look at this HP TouchSmart.  If nothing, to make sure I give it a fair shot.  I am shopping for a Mac but the reality of it is that I may end up talking myself into a PC... that would really shoot down the whole concept of "becoming a mac" yikes.  My goodness... I may need to get some prozac before this whole thing is done!  :-)  I swear, I'm not bi-polar.  I don't think I am.  Ok maybe a little.  Not really.  (I'll stop now.)

All in all, this was a good trial run.  I intend to do this at least one more time.  I'll probably visit the Apple store in town and take some more time on both the iMac's as well as to test drive the Mac Mini.