Bad Time to Buy?

[thechemE#CB]

Here is my story. I have never used a mac for more than an hour at a time at say a friends house. However I plan on applying (and re-applying if necessary) to various dev bootcamp type programs (Dev Bootcamp - Learn Ruby on Rails in 9 weeks.) to hopefully kickstart a web development career. When I was majoring in comp sci during college the machines I used were always either linux based or windows. However these bootcamp programs use macs and recommend purchasing one if you want to work at home while enrolled in the program. I wish to get a head start as some require completion of code exercises during the application process so I am thinking about purchasing a mac. Would now be a bad time to buy? When do they usually roll out bumped up specs? and if anyone has any input between purchasing an air or a mbp for web development it would be helpful.

Thanks

Edit: I'd like to add that I have a lenovo laptop that I currently use for everything including some gaming so I don't necessarily need the macbook to be a jack of all trades type laptop

 

[natasftw]

The difference between various models is really up to how you feel comfy coding.

Myself, I prefer the iMac to the MBP for coding just purely for the screen real estate.

I'm still rocking the MBP from 2010 without any issues for xcode. Specs won't be an issue for any mac you're buying now.

I've never used the air, but my understanding is it's a more compact version of the MBP without the DVD drive. If you're looking to use it solely for xcode and keeping your pc for other uses, I'm not sure the extras are really useful for you. Just create a dropbox account and it'll transfer all of your code back and forth so you're able to use the DVD burner on the other comp if you care to deal with that. I use it more so that I can play with xcode in breaks between classes where it's not exactly realistic to bring the iMac with me.

I wouldn't be surprised if a newer update came out over the summer, but is that REALLY a concern for you? If you're more worried about the bootcamps you're looking at, wouldn't the extra time be worth more than the upgrade to specs that you wouldn't be likely to max anyway?

 

[Fausty82]

Here is my story. I have never used a mac for more than an hour at a time at say a friends house. However I plan on applying (and re-applying if necessary) to various dev bootcamp type programs (Dev Bootcamp - Learn Ruby on Rails in 9 weeks.) to hopefully kickstart a web development career. When I was majoring in comp sci during college the machines I used were always either linux based or windows. However these bootcamp programs use macs and recommend purchasing one if you want to work at home while enrolled in the program. I wish to get a head start as some require completion of code exercises during the application process so I am thinking about purchasing a mac. Would now be a bad time to buy? When do they usually roll out bumped up specs? and if anyone has any input between purchasing an air or a mbp for web development it would be helpful.

Thanks

Edit: I'd like to add that I have a lenovo laptop that I currently use for everything including some gaming so I don't necessarily need the macbook to be a jack of all trades type laptop

It tends to be cyclic, and we?re nearing the end of the current cycle... but with that said, there?s really never a bad time to buy a Mac. Here's a site I reference a lot to keep tabs on just how "long in the tooth" a specific Apple product is... it gives you average time (in days) between releases as well as stats as to the current age of the most recent releases.

Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

As natasftw said, the iMac truly does give you plenty of screen real estate, albeit at the price of not being portable.

 

[anon(4698833)]

To be honest, for any kind of development (web or otherwise), i would not get a Macbook Air, mainly because of it's limitations with performance upgrades and pretty small internal storage options. (this is beginning to be true with all of Apple's Macbook's now though, as the Retina display models are also unforgiving in those fields as well, but typically have much better performance out of the box).

Optimally, I'd probably go with one of the 2011/2012 NON-retina display since the i7 was available on both and has plenty of horsepower to run any kind of current developing (even heavy duty film and photo product, which is what my wife uses her iMac and early 2011 MBP for). You can run both SSD and HDD on those for enormous amounts of internal storage and they have the same 16GB RAM limitations as the newer models do anyways so you're not going to find anything higher anyways (plus, RAM on those is easily installed yourself for next to nothing).

As far as it being a bad time to buy...in my opinion, there really isn't a "bad" time to buy because the computers hold their value very well and if/when you decide you need an upgrade, you'll be able to sell the computer for a nice piece of change to apply to the next generation (but my guess, you'll be satisfied with even a 2012 model for many years to come).

 

[thechemE#CB]

The difference between various models is really up to how you feel comfy coding.

Myself, I prefer the iMac to the MBP for coding just purely for the screen real estate.

I'm still rocking the MBP from 2010 without any issues for xcode. Specs won't be an issue for any mac you're buying now.

I've never used the air, but my understanding is it's a more compact version of the MBP without the DVD drive. If you're looking to use it solely for xcode and keeping your pc for other uses, I'm not sure the extras are really useful for you. Just create a dropbox account and it'll transfer all of your code back and forth so you're able to use the DVD burner on the other comp if you care to deal with that. I use it more so that I can play with xcode in breaks between classes where it's not exactly realistic to bring the iMac with me.

I wouldn't be surprised if a newer update came out over the summer, but is that REALLY a concern for you? If you're more worried about the bootcamps you're looking at, wouldn't the extra time be worth more than the upgrade to specs that you wouldn't be likely to max anyway?

I'm not so worried about specs. It looks like they will be able to handle anything I may throw at it. It's more so for a possible battery life improvement. I'm still not too fond of carrying around a surge protector if I am too slow to get to an outlet first.

 

[anon(4698833)]

The Macbook Pro with Retina display and the Macbook Air have near identical battery life...which is pretty awesome when you think about it. Moderate to heavy usage is going to yield about 5-7 hours usage time on a single charge, and as the battery deteriorates, you'll probably fall into a plateau'ed life span of about 4-5 hours on a charge (we're talking if you own it for 2 years +).

 

[thechemE#CB]

just an update. I went into the apple store today with no budget, intending on getting a fully loaded 15 in rMBP. I ended up walking out with a fully loaded 13 in air. Just felt more comfortable and I may be an odd duck, but I am not a fan of the retina display.