Apple "back-to-school" deal: free 8GB iPod Touch w/Mac purchase thru 9/15

[smkranz]

Buy a new Mac with Apple's education discount ($100 off MacBook, $200 on MacBook Pro), and get a free 8GB iPod Touch or 8GB iPod Nano (after rebate).

It's pretty easy to get the education discount...real simple online, and in the store you (or your kid) has to have a student ID, something showing acceptance to a school, etc. It just so happens, Joe College needed a replacement for his iBook, so we stopped at the Apple store today. Got him a new MacBook for $100 off, bought the iPod Touch for $299. My $299 rebate check from Apple is already in process.

Here's the conundrum: Spousal Unit has issued an edict (more than a dirty look, less than an ultimatum) that I sell the Touch on eBay (they're going for about $250) to help further reduce the net cost of the MacBook. Problem is, I've seen the iPod Touch, played with the one we gave our youngest kid for a high school graduation gift, and I know first hand just how God-awful cool they are.

Every corpuscle in my body wants to keep the Touch right here. I'm a Palm Man for sure, and promise my TXes and Centro that I will remain loyal to them. But the S.U. and the kids fly off to visit (her) family tomorrow, leaving me alone with my weaknesses.

My middle kid asked me yesterday, "Dad, what're you gonna buy this time while we're gone." (He knows me too well.) Me has a bad feeling that I've already bought it...and I'm not feeling so bad about it, since it was "free".

[berylrb]

just one little correction the offer is only good on all Macs but the mac-mini, I actually bought the iPod with a mini last month, and when i went to cash in the rebate online, no go, went back to store and indeed only good for those listed which did not include the mini, so I promptly got the refund and went home sad and dejected.

[z22 2006 User]

Question about Macs: Is there alot of software for mac? Alot of my family members and friends use macs, so I was wondering how the software selection is.

[smkranz]

Question about Macs: Is there alot of software for mac? Alot of my family members and friends use macs, so I was wondering how the software selection is.

I don't use a Mac, just two of my kids (#3 who's off to college in the fall, was required to use the school's Dell PC program...man, what a gig that must be for Dell). Only complaint I've heard from either of them from a software standpoint is that there doesn't seem to be as wide a selection of games available for the Mac as there is for PC.

[headcronie]

Only complaint I've heard from either of them from a software standpoint is that there doesn't seem to be as wide a selection of games available for the Mac as there is for PC.

The numbers are horrible. I don't know what the ratio is, but if you want to game, get a PC. You more than likely can't get the game you want for Macs. If you want to get into video or graphics, get a Mac. Other software titles outside of this scope, the PC scene has more to offer as well.

[PDA Bach]

Pardon my ignorance, but doesn't the Mac have a PC emulator in the software?

[z22 2006 User]

The numbers are horrible. I don't know what the ratio is, but if you want to game, get a PC. You more than likely can't get the game you want for Macs. If you want to get into video or graphics, get a Mac. Other software titles outside of this scope, the PC scene has more to offer as well.

The only games I play are older ones, i.e. Warcraft 3. Many of the blizzard games are both Windows and Mac Compatable, so I wouldn't have to get any discs.

Would Power Mac software work on the newer ones if the software was designed for OS 7.1?

[questionfear]

The software disparity is godawful for games, but you can always dual boot any current mac into xp or vista for the occasional game.

Except in specialized fields, I can't think of anything that does not have an analogue in Mac OS X. From my perspective, when I switched post-college, I didn't give any major software up, and cannot think of a single time when I've cursed my lack of windows. (Well, once when I thought remoting into my work computer was only available on PCs but they recently made it accessible to Macs, so no more.)

If you just use a computer for average things, you won't notice the difference once you get used to the Mac OS.

[z22 2006 User]

I mostly play console games, so I don't play many games on our PC.

[questionfear]

Then once you got used to a different OS, you probably wouldn't notice the difference.