Help me come out of the jurassic age... tech savvy needed

[Annabel Lee]

I'll admit it: I'm on a very old, slow, large desktop PC complete with a cubesque, clunky monitor. Most of my hs stuff is on it. I've also got an HP laptop that thoroughly died over a year ago, got it fixed once, then got infected again... ran out of repair money. A little bit of homeschool stuff is held hostage on it.

 

Q. about Mac/Apple: I have the opportunity to get a new computer - most likely a laptop - for our homeschool. I envision it being a computer my kids can use for online classes, for hs downloads, etc. BUT, I want to be able to put the hs files/info from this PC to the new one - can I do that with a Mac? I need a LOT of storage on it, or maybe I need to learn what an external hard drive is. Would you get a PC or a MAC? I have a friend who swears by her little Acer.

 

I'd like to have something (whether it's part of a computer or somthing that hooks up to one) that can burn copies from downloads or from other discs. What would that be? Do most new computers have that feature?

 

Music: I don't know how to work this whole digital music thing. I've ignored it so far. Now I want to have an MP3 player to get some music back in my family's lives, but I need one that hooks up to speakers to play in the home like a radio/boombox would. If you're young enough to ask "What's a boombox?", just don't. ;) Mine needs room for a lot of music. I also want smaller-capacity, low-cost MP3 players for my boys (my dd already has her own iPod) for audio-books and memory work, and for them to enjoy some music, too. I don't want to get Fisher-Price toy-grade ones, though. I don't need a screen on any of them that plays videos, but I would like to see the title of the recording on the display (not like the old Shuffle). What do you recommend?

 

Thanks for helping. Change comes slowly for me. :D

[Mama Geek]

The easy expensive answer is a Mac and IPODs. The mac store will help move all your stuff from 1 computer over to a Mac. (I don't know if they would do the second computer or not.

 

I just looked and you can now buy a 3 Terabite external hard drive. That is huge and the price I was seeing was about $130.

 

There are multiple iPods, the cheapest one starting at $50. You will want to look at how much you want loaded onto an MP3 player to determine what is enough for you and for your kids.

 

There is a major learning curve in switching from a pc to a mac. They do tend to last longer and there are less problems with viruses.

 

Will a PC work? Yes it absolutely will. You can get Itunes (MP3 software for the computer) for a PC and still use an iPod. We have both a PC and a Mac. Lots of engineering companies still use PCs and we wanted to be able to have Word and Excel available for work. There are ways to set up Microsoft products on a Mac, but we decided against that.

 

I really like the mac for pictures and video. That in my opinion is where they are so much better than PCs.

 

I hope this helps some.

[Annabel Lee]

Hmm, well I want Word & Excel on whatever I get. Is it difficult to set those up on a Mac? Do they simply run better on PCs?

 

I totally forgot to ask about e-readers. Kindle, Nook, or Sony? I don't want a bright screen like a computer screen; it doesn't have to do anything except be an electronic bookshelf; I want to be able to read online books (such as free ones on Project Gutenberg) and be linked to my library, that way I can check out books directly to my e-reader. Ability to increase font size for kids would be good, too. Does this narrow it down between the three?