What extras should I consider getting on my Macbook for College?

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I will be purchasing a macbook for college in a few months. Do you suggest a macbook, or a macbook pro? What about the amount of memory I need? Extra programs? Basically, if you were to buy a new macbook, and could customize it to be the perfect college tool, what would you suggest getting? Thanks for your help in advance!

Answer
Let's do a comparison of the Macbook versus the Macbook Pro.

CPU
Core 2 Duo 2.26 Mhz (Macbook)
Core 2 Duo 2.53 Mhz (Macbook Pro)
The Pro edition has a CPU that is a little bit faster but the 2.26 Mhz CPU should be sufficient for running the most demanding software unless it you are working with a large amount of data like in video editing applications.

SCREEN
13.3 inch, 1280 X 800 (Macbook)
13.3 inch, 1280 X 800 (Macbook Pro)
Large enough to work comfortably but not so heavy so that it is a pain to lug it around campus.

HARD DRIVE
250 GB (Macbook)
250 GB (Macbook Pro)
Plenty of storage for all your software. It can store a lot of data too. Unless you have a massive collection of MP3 music, high resolution pictures or video files, this is more then sufficient. If you need more storage, you can always use an external hard drive or USB flash drive.

MEMORY
2 GB (Macbook)
2 GB or 4 GB (Macbook Pro)
The base 2 gigabytes is sufficient to run all Mac OS 10.6 applications I can think of unless once again you are working with very large files or doing a lot of multi tasking. Then you can go with the Pro and opt for the extra memory.

GRAPHICS
nVidia GeForce 9400 (Macbook)
nVidia GeForce 9400 (Macbook Pro)
Good mobile GPU for most games at a 13" monitor resolution. Capable with video & graphics editing. Insufficient for some games which demand a powerful GPU. Games like Crysis for example.

PORTS
2 - USB 2.0 (Macbook)
2 - USB 2.0, 1 - Firewire 800, 1 - SD card slot (Macbook Pro)
The SD card slot comes in handy when you want to take your memory card out of your digital camera and view it right away with the Macbook Pro. If you do not work a lot with digital photos, the Macbook is fine. You can also purchase external memory card readers.


The two systems are very similar as you can see. If you are on a budget, go with the Macbook as the drawbacks are very few. If you want to splurge on a faster system to last longer, go with the Macbook Pro. Both are great choices.


ACCESSORIES
Wireless mouse (does not have to be a Mac mouse)
Laptop bag (get padding + handles + shoulder strap)

SOFTWARE

Microsoft Office (pay)
- includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Entourage
- has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation & organizer/e-mail software
- very powerful
- very popular with Mac & PC users

Apple iWork (pay)
- includes Pages, Numbers, Keynote
- has a word processor, spreadsheet & presentation software
- fairly powerful
- compatible with MS Office formats

OpenOffice (free)
- includes Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Base
- has a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, illustration & database software
- http://www.openoffice.org

Miro (free)
- it can play almost any video format
- very popular video player
- http://www.getmiro.com/

iTunes (free)
- listening to music
- syncing with your iPod/iTouch/iPhone

Burn (free)
- write movies to VCD or DVD
- copy data to CD or DVD
- http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html

Seashore (free)
- user friendly graphics software
- ability to edit, fix, manipulate photos or graphics
- http://seashore.sourceforge.net/

Pencil (free)
- draw on your computer like you draw on paper
- animate your own cartoons
- http://www.pencil-animation.org/

Drawberry (free)
- powerful vector graphics drawing software
- very popular, has lots of downloadable clipart
- http://raphaelbost.free.fr/DrawBerry.html

Xee (free)
- picture viewer & organizer
- http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19978

Skype (free)
- instant message
- free voice chat for computer to computer talk

Adobe Photoshop (pay)
- powerful graphics editor
- many filters and effects

Xtorrent (free)
- bit torrent client for you to share and download files

Dreamweaver (pay)
- powerful web design & creation software
- supports HTML, CSS, javascript, php, flash

Flash (pay)
- create multimedia content for the web
- animation, steaming audio, video
- supports actionscript

Games
- The Sims 3
- Spore
- Civilizations IV
- SimCity 4
- Second Life
- Age of Empires III
- Guitar Hero World Tour

How do I edit my videos that I took on my flip Cam?

KatieCohen

I am going crazy.. there is no way to edit them through the flip cam software.. I want to add effects and things like that (I make youtube videos) I would like to do it for free also..

Answer
Hey itsamystery,

I would recommend trakAxPC Pro, which is a great new audio and video editing software package. It's an all-in-one multimedia editing suite and will allow you to edit your flip camera videos and then directly upload your final video mix to YouTube from the application. You can also save your final video mix to file formats such as wmv, mp4 so you can play it on different media devices such as iPhone, iPod, PSP etc.

It is extremely user-friendly and allows you to be creative using any combination of media, be it audio, video or photos.

New features include direct upload to YouTube, text and credits, automatic crossfading, BlueCat Audio Effects, segment snapping and grouping tracks, as well as exporting and converting media files to popular file formats such as MP3, MPEG-4, M4A, AAC, H264, FLAC, OGG, WMV, WMA, WAV and more.

It's free to try for 30 days and thereafter costs only $24.95. After 30 days the Pro features are disabled and you can continue to use in free mode if you haven't purchased it.

If you want to learn more about the features, click the link below:

http://www.trakax.com/software/pc/

Hope this helps.

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