Wednesday, December 12, 2012

A ragbag of questions needing answers

No preamble – time is short – it’s less than two weeks to Christmas and this year at Hepworth Towers, Christmas is ON, so:

  1. If I organise a Blog Christmas Quiz (with a prize) will any of you take part?
  2. Is anyone else sick to the back teeth of of the UK media’s obsession with food and cooking? Or is it just me?
  3. Have any of you swapped a PC for an Apple? I need a new laptop and have been advised to get an Apple, but they are SO EXPENSIVE and it would mean learning to work in a new environment and if I don’t actually yearn for an Apple, is it worth it?

Look, I know that very few of you like coming out of the woodwork and commenting on my blog, but it would be helpful if this time you could be brave.

14 comments:

lyn said...

I'd have a go at a quiz if you want to put one on the blog - & I won't even expect you to send me the prize if I win. Australia's a long way away. The media here is just as obsessed with food & I try to avoid the hype as much as possible. Sorry, I know nothing about Apple computers. Everyone I know who has one loves it & would never go back to a PC but I don't know why, they just get that dewy-eyed expression of the true fanatic & I give up trying to work it out.

Sue Hepworth said...

Yay! Lyn! You should get a prize for answering so quickly! Only 21 minutes after I posted! Of course you will get a prize, even if you do live in Oz. Thanks for answering all three questions. My son lends me an Apple when i am in the USA, and although it is physically very lovely, I don't get why it is superior in any other way.

marmee said...

Yes thanks...would take part but am in South Africa
Have to say...I enjoy the christmas foodie shows!
Got a macbook few years ago and it quite literally changed my life...just love it. There is an Apple ad that says: We all speak Apple. And that is the thing ... macbook uses a lovely simple direct language that works intuitively.

Sue Hepworth said...

1. Thanks, Marmee, prizes can be posted to anywhere.
2. It's not the Christmas foodie shows - i can forgive those - it is all the year round over here - magazines, newspapers, Sunday supplements, telly.
3. I know that people who have Apples love them, but is it worth the switch when it will cost 4 times as much? If I am happy with working in the PC environment, how will I gain from getting an Apple?

Anonymous said...

It's the operating system -super fast, non- clunky - and the graphics are great. We swapped over for home computing , somewhat reluctantly and expensively 4 years ago. That MacBook is still going strong. Everyone I know finds the 'user experience' noticeably superior.

As for the quiz - yes of course - but the challenge is to elude the smarter readers and give the rest of us time to have a go!

Happy ON Christmas - you've cheered my year.

Thea

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks for the info on the apple question, Thea. Nice to hear from you!
yes, the quiz needs to be different this year, Before, I had single questions. e.g. what is this mystery object? It won't be like that.

Jean said...

Just gone through the 'will I won't I' issue with PC or Apple , in the end I went for a cheap and cheerful Acer Aspire 8GB Memory and 750GB HDD .......my decision was based on the fact that each week there seems to be something new, so I did not feel like spending so much money when , who knows what the device to access the internet will be .

Food programmes, apart from the comfortable Nigel Slater , are not welcome here.

Your Quiz looks good , I am sure many will have a go.
Jean

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks for your info on the computer question, Jean.
I hope you'll have a go at the quiz, too.

ndenim said...

I switched to Apple a little over five years ago after well over 20 years working in a Windows environment. Love Mr iMac. Two years later we added a MacBook Pro to the family. And then there is the iPad and iPhone. You just fall in love with them and they all talk to each other. In all seriousness, the transition is way easier than I anticipated at the time. At this point, I can still use a Windows computer, but I wouldn't want to go back to one full time. The Mac's spoil you! I also bought the extended Apple Care for mine. I never buy extended warranties, but Apple has a great reputation for customer service. At least here in the US. I was not disappointed. Of course I am now because they're both out of warranty.

Sue Hepworth said...

Hi there! It's so nice to hear from Thanks for commenting on the computer question. Could you be a bit more specific? Why do Apples spoil you? I know they LOOK lovely, but what is it about the way they actually work that makes everyone say nice things about them?

ndenim said...

Hi Sue, Sorry it has taken me a while to respond. I've not been on the computer. The iPad, but not the laptop. For some reason, I never have good luck posting a comment on the iPad. Usually freezes and that's all she wrote. Yes, they are lovely. That's pretty much why I bought our iMac. No separate drive and bunches of wires. You will, of course, still have a few wires, but very tidy it is. I cannot put into words why I'm such a fan. Ease of use, very intuitive. Incredibly user friendly. People that do graphics and photography seem to love them. Does your SF son have one? If he has one, talk to him, too. It is difficult to find folks that have worked with both systems (well, it was for me) but, again, the transition was very smooth. I did get one of those manuals that should have come in the box (honest, that's sort of the name of the series) for the OS system and one for iPhoto. Have a few pages flagged in each, but have seldom used them. I did get the Microsoft (is it Word, Excel and something else?) set with the iMac and was sorry I did. The little text program that comes with the Mac will read all your Word files. I did eventually add the Apple Pages program, but I seldom do anything fancy, so stick with the text program for the most part.

Hope this helps a little bit! It's a big decision deciding on a new system and my good thoughts are with you whichever system you get.

Sue Hepworth said...

Thanks again. This is helpful. Isaac in SF has nothing but Apples now. The problem for me is that the Apple laptop I would want (I don't have a desktop computer) with a 15 inch screen to match this dying PC laptop, would cost easily three times the price of a new PC laptop. If they were the same price I would go with the Apple. i need to know that the extra money is worth spending.

ndenim said...

Hi Sue, got our desktop a little over five years ago. Just last month had Snow Leopard installed to match the laptop. That's as far as I'll take the Mac's as I think (could be wrong) you can go a step too far with software updates and at a certain point the computer isn't able to handle it. I'm two behind the most current version. I replaced an eight year old Gateway with Mr iMac. We stopped at the Apple store in SF and I fell in love. Before I bought it, I compared pricing with a Gateway all-in-one. I don't think they make them anymore, but the pricing was so close that it was not an issue. I figured I could either learn the Apple Operating System or Vista. Apple won. Two years later we got a 13 inch laptop at that same SF store.

I can't begin to tell you which is the better value for 'your' money. For me it's the Mac's but you'll need to get out to an Apple store, look, touch, feel and play and then compare them with the Windows machines. I would wonder if a PC laptop that was 1/3 the cost of a MacBook Pro is a reliable computer, but I've been known to be wrong! A lot.

Happy shopping and best wishes for the holidays!

Peggy & the Mac's

Sue Hepworth said...

Hi Peggy, Thanks again for sending more info. It is very helpful to hear from an ordinary computer user like me. The price of Apples over here does not equate to the price in the USA. If I got a 15 inch screen (which I have on this current ailing PC laptop) the Apple would be 3 times as much as the laptop. Is it tax? I have no idea, but it hurts!