A Baby Story
Jan 29th, 2006 at 9:43 pm by Susie
My best friend breaks into a cold sweat at the very thought of purchasing a computer, and though she did recently bring herself to order a Dell online, she ended up cancelling because they sent her the wrong one.
So I volunteered to go with her to the Microcenter in St. David’s this morning. “But I need to know your budget, and you have to decide whether you want a laptop or desktop,” I warned. (We had, shall we say, an ugly experience at the computer show a few months ago where she ended up kind of, well, screaming at sweet little old me by the cash machine. She’s a Scorpio and has the usual emotional issues with letting go of large sums.)
“Let’s look at both,” she said as we were entering the store. (Argghhh…) We’d just started wandering through the PC department when it occurred to me she’d be a good candidate for a Mac mini. So I dragged her into the Apple pavilion.
There was a yuppie couple in there looking at the high-end laptops and my friend started to drool. “That’s too much money. Let’s look over here,” I said, pulling her in the other direction. I zeroed in on the 12 inch iBook G4.
“This is more than you wanted to spend,” I pointed out, while she looked on with interest.
“Yeah, well, by the time I got done with buying the monitor and all for the other one, it would be the same,” she said with a shrug. (Which is not exactly true, but she was ready to make a decision and I wasn’t going to ruin the moment.)
The Mac specialist was still with the yuppie couple and she was ready to buy. I caught the eye of the other sales rep: “Don’t you have any questions for the specialist?” he said.
“No,” we said in unison. Then we both laughed; I knew she was starting to hyperventilate, and it was time to get out of there.
“I just have this one last question,” I told him. “What’s involved in hooking this up to Comcast?”
“You just plug it in,” he said.
“That’s it? That’s all it takes?” my friend said.
“That’s all it takes.”
She threw her arms around him and gave him a hug. (He looked absolutely horrified.) “Thank you!” she said.
***
“You know what?” I said as we carried the Mac and her new laser printer to the car. “These things are guy magnets. When you take it on the train, I guarantee you: You’ll have guys asking about it. Maybe you’ll meet someone cute.”
“Really?” she said, brightening. (She was still recovering from the pain of parting with all that cash.)
As everyone always told me, the Mac was a cinch to set up. And by the time I left her apartment, she was cooing over her new toy like a mother with her newborn. Awww!
Make sure she knows that she gets 90 days complimentary AppleCare phone support direct from Apple. It’s support for her and her new iBook, not just for when things go wrong.
So if she has a question about the iBook, the operating system, how to work any of the iLife apps (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, GarageBand, iWeb) or just how to add a name into the address book…they’re there to help, and they’re great.
Excellent choice. I love my Apple.
I have just one Apple, an iBook G4, that I use for about 95-percent of my leisure computing.
I can’t tell you how many Windows systems I have, which I need for work.
With Apple, once you’re comfortable with it, most of the time, it just works.
Upon reading your first paragraph, I thought, “why don’t they look at an Apple?” I was ready to buy a Dell but after researching within my price range, the Apple was a few hundred more. Further, I couldn’t see nor feel a Dell to ensure I was buying what I wanted.
I then bought my first Apple desktop G5. Even when minor glitches occur, you can’t screw things up. Even when software is not compatible, you can make it compatible over the Internet.
And, it runs smooth and fast.
Dell has been involved with large donations to the Bush/co for some time.
Gateway is a not only a blue company, they rank high in other green -like issues concerning envirionment and employees. I have been voting with my pocketbook for years, long before they had produced convient lists to refer to.
If every progressive/liberal got on the same page concerning this issue, these crooked political machines would have much less power then they have aquired.Mac is OK also, most folks know that…but if you have to go PC, Gateway is the company to support.
Good choice, I love my g4, 2 years and no problems and the tech support is great. Get the David Pogue “Missing Manual” book, it’s the bible for macs
congratulations to your friend! I am the happy owner of 3 Macs: a Graphite iMac SE; a Graphite clamshell (currently used by my husband for wifi surfing); and my Christmas present — a 12″ G4 iBook. I’ve been a Mac user since the late 80s, and while I’ve had to use Windows at various jobs, I love my Macs for my own use.
I’m surprised that you went to a MicroCenter. I would’nt just from my experiances with them. They use rebates for everything. What a major pain!