buying-a-mac

Buying a Mac

First hurdle; buying the Mac. Now, Apple have an online store for Ireland. They just don’t like admitting to it. You can go to apple.ie; it gives you a mildly customised version of the main page; click on “Store” and it brings you to the US store. Obviously. To get the Irish store, you must go to Apple UK, click on store, then choose “Ireland” off the little map to give you a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT store in a DIFFERENT CURRENCY. Why, precisely, does this make sense?

This wonderful attention to ease of use on their websites doesn’t really fit in with Apple’s reputation, to be honest… Anyway, after running the gauntlet of the website, I managed to order a 12″ iBook G4 and a Mighty Mouse. Yay! I decided on the iBook over the Powerbook mostly on a price basis; the extra cost of the Powerbook just doesn’t seem to be justified by extra features, and I sort of prefer the way the iBook looks anyway. In any case, I’d be getting a 12″ one (I don’t see the point in having a laptop if it requires a small lorry for transport) and the Powerbook series had just been updated, except for the 12″. The 12″ Powerbook is now about a year old; it is quite long in the tooth.