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Technology Questions

 
Old 04-02-2017 at 01:32 PM   #1
Tev11
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Technology Questions
Hello everyone.

I am soon to be a student here at Mac for Life Sciences I. I am just wondering what piece of technology I should buy. Should I get an iPad Pro 12.9" and Apple Pencil/keyboard or a MacBook Pro 13" (2015). As I plan to stay home (I live in Hamilton), I have an iMac at home I can use. I like both platforms, MacOS and iOS but having problem which one I should get for my program.

Thanks.
Old 04-02-2017 at 01:59 PM   #2
Imperious
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I would recommend something with Windows. You don't really need anything fancy for life sciences but there are a lot of instances where certain courses require you to download certain applications to do some questions on assignments/projects and sometimes the mac version of these programs may be buggier than their Windows version. To avoid the hassle, it's much easier to just use a windows computer.

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Old 04-02-2017 at 09:27 PM   #3
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Would the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 suffice?
Old 04-02-2017 at 10:23 PM   #4
MovingTarget
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I would recommend the MacBook Pro. I'm in Biology myself (very similar to life sci) and I've yet to take a course in 4 years that requires a program that's only available on Windows. You mentioned you have an iMac at home and I think this is all the more reason to stay within Apple. You can simply use AirDrop to transfer files between your computers and you're probably already comfortable with MacOS. So why bother transferring between one OS at school and a different one at home.

I realize that MacBooks are significantly more expensive than Windows laptops but in your original question you seemed to be deciding between a iPad and a Macbook anyways so I assume you have the money to get it. Also, If i'm being completely honest I just like the way how everything on Mac 'just works' and the user-friendly aspect of the whole OS

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Old 04-03-2017 at 01:23 PM   #5
GeorgeLucas
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lol, hipster problems.

After 4 years of using a 13 inch screen, your eyes will be pop out of your eye sockets....

.... hmm, but then again, your ruined eye sight will definitely allow you to buy those big hipster glasses.


Get a real computer for half the price. You really don't need an overpriced piece of hardware with tiny screen to write reports.
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Old 04-04-2017 at 08:53 AM   #6
UnicornRainbo
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I have a HP Spectre costing near 1700 hard earned money, brand new but overheating in class. So many defective laptop in online stores. What next?? I am wondering, how a Chromebook behaves, I need AutoCAD to run...
Old 04-04-2017 at 05:02 PM   #7
GeorgeLucas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by UnicornRainbo View Post
I have a HP Spectre costing near 1700 hard earned money, brand new but overheating in class. So many defective laptop in online stores. What next?? I am wondering, how a Chromebook behaves, I need AutoCAD to run...
Maybe because you bought an overpriced turd that is every HP product.


I bought a Lenovo Y-series laptop a few years ago. When I got it, it had the same specs as the latest apple macbook pro except without the retina display (which I couldnt care less about), and I bought it for 1100 dollars, whereas the macbook would cost twice as much or more. It had weaker battery, which I could live with, if I do hardware intensive computations I will be at a desk with power socket. Even today Lenovo easily beats into the ground anything American manufacturers can come up with. Lenovo is also extremely generous with the holiday sales, removing 300+ dollars from the price tag.


What I'm getting to is, do your research, the quality of your buy depends only on you and not the stores. You can go the easy route, buy an Apple for 3000 dollars, then be unable to run any Windows applications natively at full speed without doing magic (which if you by apple, chances are you don't know how to do). You will also pay a few hundred bucks whenever there's a minor hardware issue, because Apple is know for throwing things out and charging customers for new parts, instead of doing repairs that take fraction of the cost.


But hey, you will have slick aluminum design, and an Apple logo on your laptop, so it's all worth it, right?.... Except that's not why you buy a laptop, is it?


PS. Just looked up HP Spectre... your taste is manifestation of vanity. People like you are Apple's prime customers.
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Old 04-04-2017 at 05:12 PM   #8
Imperious
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I should probably be more specific with regards to the courses:

Bio 2B03: pyMOL works for both pc and mac so that's fine
Bio 2EE3: We had an "intro to bioinformatics" assignment in our year where we had to download a VirtualBox to run Ubuntu on our computers and a lot of students with Macs were complaining that they couldn't even get VirtualBox to run and as such couldn't even do the assignment. So depending on who teaches whatever in the future, you may or may not have this assignment but it is much less of a hassle if you know for sure everything will "work" on your computer for any course any assignment.
Biochem 2BB3: You have "biochemistry and biomedical sciences" as your program so I assume you're interested in going into that stream. It was helpful to have a windows computer for the inquiry project because our group had to download a lot of random software off the internet for molecular docking and some programs are windows only. Not saying that you will be downloading these exact programs for your inquiry project but it's nice to know that every program you come across on the internet will work on your computer and you don't have to rely on someone or find someone who has a windows computer or run to a computer lab just to run some software for 5 minutes.

So what I'm trying to say is that Windows is best since it's unpredictable what kinds of software you will need and what assignments you may end up doing but at least you won't be panicking because you can't do an assignment because you can't even get the software working.

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Old 04-06-2017 at 09:37 AM   #9
Tev11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GeorgeLucas View Post
Maybe because you bought an overpriced turd that is every HP product.


I bought a Lenovo Y-series laptop a few years ago. When I got it, it had the same specs as the latest apple macbook pro except without the retina display (which I couldnt care less about), and I bought it for 1100 dollars, whereas the macbook would cost twice as much or more. It had weaker battery, which I could live with, if I do hardware intensive computations I will be at a desk with power socket. Even today Lenovo easily beats into the ground anything American manufacturers can come up with. Lenovo is also extremely generous with the holiday sales, removing 300+ dollars from the price tag.


What I'm getting to is, do your research, the quality of your buy depends only on you and not the stores. You can go the easy route, buy an Apple for 3000 dollars, then be unable to run any Windows applications natively at full speed without doing magic (which if you by apple, chances are you don't know how to do). You will also pay a few hundred bucks whenever there's a minor hardware issue, because Apple is know for throwing things out and charging customers for new parts, instead of doing repairs that take fraction of the cost.


But hey, you will have slick aluminum design, and an Apple logo on your laptop, so it's all worth it, right?.... Except that's not why you buy a laptop, is it?


PS. Just looked up HP Spectre... your taste is manifestation of vanity. People like you are Apple's prime customers.
An Apple laptop or desktop cost no where near $3000 (unless you're exaggerating), unless of course, you go buy the highest end of technology they offer, and it's not that hard to run full Windows, while maintaining high speeds (via boot camp). A 2016-version MacBook Pro cost $1800, and the 2015 costs $1500... the MacBook Air is only $1100, the same price you mentioned for the Lenovo laptop that you bought.
Old 04-06-2017 at 05:00 PM   #10
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Well big thanks to GLucas. More I information than I can chew. Thanks,by the way, I was following intuition rather than instinct. Lol. Why being skinny, when I can be enterprising.lol
Old 04-06-2017 at 10:15 PM   #11
GeorgeLucas
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tev11 View Post
An Apple laptop or desktop cost no where near $3000 (unless you're exaggerating), unless of course, you go buy the highest end of technology they offer, and it's not that hard to run full Windows, while maintaining high speeds (via boot camp). A 2016-version MacBook Pro cost $1800, and the 2015 costs $1500... the MacBook Air is only $1100, the same price you mentioned for the Lenovo laptop that you bought.
Yeah, and the difference will be in quality. You will be buying old 1-2 year old hardware for more than you would spend buying a current non-Apple product of the compared quality, that would also have a bunch of other benefits (low repair cost).

Also the 13inch Macbook Pro costs 1800, a normal 15inch screen version costs 3000-3500, more than twice the cost of the non-Apple produce with the same power.

Also the 13inch version usually has weaker specs than the 15inch one, because of size limitations. So even new its not as good as a full-size laptops.

Also buying both 13inch MacBook and Macbook Air is the same as above, you will be paying same price as a top of the line non-Apple product, except you will be forced to use 13inch inch screen and slowly but surely killing your eye sight. Doing a lot of work in a reasonable amount of time using a screen under 14inches wide is impossible, you will need a desktop or at least a huge monitor.

Also yeah, it was the same price, except it had full size screen, it had much faster processor, a discrete video hard, a bay for various expansions like hardrive or another video card, 3 times as many peripheral ports and ability to connect any of my peripherals without buying bullshit apple adapters that again costs 3 times the typical no-name analogs.

I mean, if all you are after is the Apple logo, then spend the money. I just think your parents would rather spend it on something useful.

Quote:
Originally Posted by UnicornRainbo View Post
Well big thanks to GLucas. More I information than I can chew. Thanks,by the way, I was following intuition rather than instinct. Lol. Why being skinny, when I can be enterprising.lol
You can do both. Top of the line laptops were getting skinnier and skinnier. Even the laptops that are specifically marketed to gamers are no longer 2inch thick bricks.
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Last edited by GeorgeLucas : 04-06-2017 at 10:22 PM.



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