No need to rush at this point, but I’d think hard about at getting any Mac with the Apple BarclayCard that has 12 months deferred interest — basically you get to pay off your computer at 0% interest as long as you do it within a year.

As far as iPhone apps go… the following are all free:

If you like Stanza look at the free ‘Classics’ reader which I like a bit more. It comes with the texts of some wonderful books:

http://www.classicsapp.com/

———— Yep. Got it.

Battery Magic is a free app that tells you exactly how much time you have left on your iPhone for talk/video/audio/etc

============ Bought something similar. It also helps get the most out of the battery.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/battery-magic/id326132785?mt=8

I prefer GoodCalcLite to the calculator that comes with the iPhone:
============ Even the calculator is good enough for me. Remember I was using a blackberry before the iPhone. Ugh.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/goodcalculator-lite-5-percent/id343199260?mt=8

Aside from the NYTimes app, I really like Fluent News:
================== Got it.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=312886230&mt=8
NYCway is a bunch of NYC-related apps/info:

http://www.nycway.com/
Transit Maps does what you think it does:

=============== Have something similar

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/transit-maps-free/id315959904?mt=8

===================== I also have an excellent chess game (most expensive app I bought – it’s $7 and is written by a grandmaster, and can estimate rankings, allow you to play with other players online etc. The real thing is that the interface is absolutely straightfoward and the computer engine is very smart. I used to be good at chess but hadn’t played in a long time. Now I’m addicted.

=============== Stuff for Facebook, Twitter etc. I don’t like any of those social societies but I do it for business reasons, not that I write about business or even photography all the time – it is just another form of reaching out to viewers so that they may keep you in mind when xmas comes around.

Oh, and I have free NPR which works well; and have played around with a bunch of the photo stuff… though haven’t bought anything. Oh, one thing which allows the S3 which doesn’t have video – to have video. Excellent results if you like jumpy grainy stuff. In fact you can take it and turn it easily into old newsreel looking stuff. Something I’d fool around with if I had nothing else to do. The camera on the iPhone is prob. it’s weakest point. I don’t care. But it’s fun sometimes to play with such a low end piece of crap.

db

Tho as you know i’m stubborn and it sometimes takes awhile for me to learn the hard way. C’est la vie.

How long my neighbor tried to convince me to get the iPhone and now it is love at first sight. I play chess on it and even use stanza to keep up with reading. It’s the quality of the apps that make it a breakthrough gadget.

I write and answer most posts and comments with a WP app.

DB

http://www.macminicolo.net/

Here’s a Macworld.com review of the latest Mac Mini:

http://www.macworld.com/article/143611/2009/11/macminilate2009.html

And here’s two reviews of the iMac models:

http://www.macworld.com/article/143970/2009/11/core15_imac.html

http://www.macworld.com/article/143575/2009/11/imacs_oct2009.html

Boot Camp comes with all Macs. It’s free, but it’s a pain in the butt because you have to restart your computer to get into Windows, and because you MUST have all your files on the internal drive (if I remember correctly). That makes things very tight for a relatively small drive like the ones in the Mini.

MUCH BETTER is spending $80 on VMware Fusion. (Caveat: I think your Windows files have to reside on the internal drive here too.) Don’t waste your time with BootCamp when Fusion is so transparent and useful. Here’s a few reviews — the best is ArsTechnica’s 7-pager but the others are good too, and you can see video reviews from users on Youtube if you look around:

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/11/vmware-fusion-3-review.ars

http://www.macworld.com/article/145880/2010/01/fusion301.html

http://www.macnn.com/reviews/vmware-fusion-3.html

Be aware that you can’t really do user upgrades of the Mini. Here’s someone who did. Ugh:

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=81881

It comes with a 320Gb drive, which is NOT much, especially if you wanted to drop in your Windows OS and apps in addition to Mac stuff. And Apple only offers a 500Gb option for the pricey upgrade price of an additional $100. (And because of the small size of the machine the drives used are slowish 5400rpm laptop drives.) It comes with a DVI adapter but a VGA adapter is $30.

FYI, according to the normal replacement cycle of this model it’s about 3-4 months away from upgrades, so it’s not a bad time to buy now. The following (rumor) article suggests that the next iteration of the Mini may include an HDMI port, which would make it even more living-room-friendly, which won’t be of much interest to you, probably.

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/01/apple_prepping_first_macs_with_hdmi_sources.html

OSC invludes Boot Camp just in case I can’t make a swap with Adobe.

Fits my setup with the external drives, I already have 22 inch monitor, etc.

Sure I’d rather have 9gb mem. and lots of bays. but this is a very feasible solution right now for under 1K.

If things change financially then higher end equipment is likely. And it’s a good way for me to get my feet wet without breaking the bank.

Only question I have about the mini’s is – how do they do with heat build up? I mean – I’m sure the Apple engineers have that figured out – but do you think that the mini will last for a few years?

Was looking at it in mac warehouse unless you have better suggestion. And yes, VMWare looks like the better program, looking at the features.

The easiest and least expensive to get into Macs is with one of Apple’s tiny 6″x6″2″ Mac Mini models, with up to 4Gb RAM in up to a 2.66GHz Core 2Duo (relatively low-end chip) with an internal drive between 160Gb-500Gb. Add your own monitor and your own USB keyboard and mouse and Bob’s your uncle. Cost: between $600 and $850 or so, not counting software or extended warranty.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/
http://support.apple.com/kb/SP577

However for pro use I’d tell a photographer to invest in the 27″ iMac (they also come in a 21.5″ version), which is available in 2-core and 4-core versions, comes with keyboard/mouse, and can drive an external monitor up to 2560×1440. The 21.5″ iMac starts at $1200, the 2-core 27″ iMac is $1700, and the quad-core 27″ iMac is $2000 (with 4GB RAM — you can go to your friends at OWC/macsales.com and buy up to 16Gb RAM and install it yourself). The iMacs come with 1Tb internal drives.

http://www.apple.com/imac/features.html

Apple lets you buy it with their credit card and 12 months deferred interest as long as you pay it off within a year.

http://store.apple.com/us/instant_credit

Compared to clonemaker PCs and homebrew systems it’s admittedly an expensive downpayment, but as many people can attest it really does pay for itself in more productivity, less stress, and far less tinkering.

Yes, I know you like tinkering!

I’ve got a 2.5-year-old 24″ iMac (the 24-inchers have since been discontinued) which came with 1Gb RAM and a 750Gb internal drive. I bought a RAM upgrade to 4Gb (this machine’s maximum) for $110 from macsales.com. I have a powered USB hub hanging off it, I’ve got a wireless Logitech mouse, Harmon Kardon speakers, a Wacom tablet, my iPod touch connected for charging, and my Lexar Pro SD/CF card reader. I have several external Firewire drives hanging off the iMac for storage and backup, and I have a 4-year-old 19″ Dell monitor sitting alongside it. There’s nothing more luxurious-feeling that running Lightroom or Photoshop in one whole window and having all your tools sitting in the 2nd window!

FYI, I don’t have a TV and I watch rented DVDs and stream TV and video on this machine. It’s wonderful. At the end of the year I intend to upgrade to the 4-core 27″ iMac I’m recommending for you.

Oh yes, I have Apple’s $99 wireless Airport Express router connected to my cable box. The router has an optical audio-out port, and I connected a cable to my mini stereo’s AUX port. Now anything in iTunes (music, audiobooks, podcasts or streaming radio from around the world) can be streamed from my ofice into my living room and pumped out of my stereo.

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/
http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/features/airtunes.html

I do know several pro photographers who work from (and live out of) their MacBook Pro notebooks. I am not a fan of them for a few basic reasons: (1) you are paying comparatively more for parts miniaturization, (2) notebooks aren’t as powerful as desktops at a given price, (3) I’m not that mobile when I do my work at home, (4) I’m a bit of a klutz and worry about killing a notebook, (5) I’m very hard on my keyboards and replace them every 18 months, and a notebook keyboard would dissolve under my pounding, and (6) if I had one I’d probably end up being one of ‘those’ people at Starbucks, and I don’t want to be one of those people.

Macbook Pros come in 13″, 15″ and 17″ sizes, priced from $1200-$2500, not counting needed RAM upgrades or definitely-needed extended warranty.

I not a wealthy artist. Except for the xmas srason In I struggle from month to month with the rent.