<p>*Sons only use iMacs…happily…so I would like to get one too, however we have no apple store within 2 hours of my city. isn’t that ridiculous? *</p>
<p>I used macs years before they opened any apple stores- but I bet if you live in a city, there is a store that sells and services macs. But if it needs to be serviced- they are usually very quick to get it picked up and back to you.</p>
<p>( I don’t use Outlook- nothing Microsoft actually 
)</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, I think there are parts of the country where getting to an Apple store is difficult. It’s especially hard for college students without cars to get to a city that is an hour away by car. But the phone tech support is outstanding and Apple will send you a box to ship the computer in if they can’t fix it on the phone. Also, sometimes there are authorized third party repair shops you can go to – just make sure they are authorized by Apple. They are sometimes less expensive. And whatever you do, get the AppleCare protection plan.</p>
<p>Wow. All this info is great. The Apple Store is ten minutes from my house, so that seems too good to dither much more. And oldfort, you got me. As did the many posters who said: just do it. Oops, wrong brand. I’m taking serious note of the anti-v software and the Little Machines OM2… sound just right for what I’m about to do. </p>
<p>Next question–I’ve heard a hint here and there about student discounts on Macbooks and purchasing online. Can we use our student’s discount? Is that the best price? Is buying refurbished better? </p>
<p>Thank you all so much for jumping in here.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that the best discounts are for colleges that have an on-campus Apple Store. Next are the standard educational discounts for educators, school board members, homeschoolers and college students. You need documentation to get the discount at a physical store. In general, you bring the college student with you or need documentation (license, tuition bill, etc.). I’ve purchased from the online Apple Store as a homeschooler and it was just a checkoff to affirm that I’m a homeschooler. They supposedly do spot audits but I’ve never been audited on it.</p>
<p>You could get educational discount just by entering your kid’s school name, you could easily see the price difference. It could be from elementary to college. Now, D1’s college gives even a better discount than Apple’s educational discount, so we’ve bought few macs through her college.</p>
<p>I know some people have said that it’s just as good to buy refurbished. I maybe wrong, but I always believed that if a machine (may it be a car or a laptop) would break, then there is a higher likelihood that it would break again. I am also not a big believer of maintenance contract because if it’s not going to break in the first 90 days then most likely it’s not going to break.</p>
<p>I would use AmEx to buy your laptop. You could get 1 year guarantee from AmEx for replacement. D1 thought she lost her iPhone on 360 day of purchased. When I reported it to AmEx they were perfectly willing to replace it. But she found it in front of a frat house’s lawn (didn’t ask why it was there).</p>
<p>Cross posted with BCEagle.</p>
<p>Yes, there are student discounts and, if you are buying over the phone, you just need to give the name and school, I believe.</p>
<p>A notable exception to the 90 day rule was nVidia’s graphics cards. The generally failed after about a year of use. Apple did the right thing and extended the warranty to three years. I just bought the extended warranty on my first computer yesterday on an Apple system. It was well-discounted with the Apple discount.</p>
<p>If you get a Mac and decide you need to run windows or linux or some other OS, you can. You can also share files between the different os’s that you have on your machine.</p>
<p>apple also usually runs deals in the summer to get a free ipod with a computer purchase (targeted at the college kids)</p>
<p>I’m no techie, but am typing this on my 2 day old Asus with Win7. Can’t afford a Mac, but this feels like my kid’s mac. </p>
<p>One thing that did sway me while shopping-I was looking for an extended mac type warranty, which adds a good bit to the purchase price. A sales person said that components are reasonable enough for a PC so extended warranty is less essential. Maybe that was just a line? Anyhow, I bought it. Two of mine have made good use of their Mac warranties.</p>
<p>I LOVE my MacBook. I am a 50-something (ok, 58) teacher, and we switched from PC to Mac a few years ago. I, too, would never switch back. I never have any problems with it. Here is a good resource to read which will help with the switch:</p>
<p>[Apple</a> - Support - Switch 101](<a href=“Mac - Official Apple Support”>Mac - Official Apple Support)</p>