Apple Computer

[madmike]

My daughter has a pretty ancient iphone 9. She needs to have a proper computer for emails, storing and and viewing on line documents and web browsing with a proper readable screen. I now nothing about Apple computers and her budget is small. I have read that Apple gear becomes unusable if it is too old so I want something resonably priced and usable...could an Apple user point me in the right direction ? I'm looking to buy something pre-loved. Thanks

 

[CarrotMan]

Does it need to be portable? A (not too old) MacMini and a cheap second hand monitor would be my suggestion.

 

[madmike]

No...a desktop would be better. There are lots for sale around me but I wouldnt know where to start.

 

[Tony L]

There is no iPhone 9, Apple jumped that number to go to 10 (X). As such worth identifying exactly what she has.

Almost all email services these days are IMAP, so her content is on the server, not the phone. Setting the account up on anything will access the content assume she didn’t go to real effort to save stuff locally.

 

[madmike]

Ah..so I dont need an apple computer to access apple emails?

 

[CarrotMan]

No, just this: https://www.icloud.com/

 

[madmike]

Oh ok...so I'll just set my daughter up as a user on a normal pc and install the icloud....

Easy peasy and no need to buy an Apple computer...great

 

[tiggers]

Just FYI Apple computers become no less usable when they get old than their PC counterparts, in fact they stay usable for longer in my experience. I have an M2 Macbook Pro as my main computer (it is set up with dual monitors etc.) but also have a 2015 Macbook Pro as a back up/for watching TV/next to the bed/next to the TV etc. (as I can't be fagged unplugging the M2) and this is working perfectly adequately for streaming/emails/internet/Word/Excel etc. - it's slower than the M2 obviously but it works just fine and is now 9 years old... I paid £1200 for it so another 3 years and it'll have cost £100 per year... can't complain at that IMO. It also still looks and works as it did when it was new, no chips, dents, dead pixels, dodgy keys etc.

 

[CarrotMan]

No need to install anything. She should have an Apple ID (= Apple email address) from setting up the iPhone and then you just log into iCloud like any other web-based email service.

 

[martin_b]

Just FYI Apple computers become no less usable when they get old than their PC counterparts, in fact they stay usable for longer in my experience. I have an M2 Macbook Pro as my main computer (it is set up with dual monitors etc.) but also have a 2015 Macbook Pro as a back up/for watching TV/next to the bed/next to the TV etc. (as I can't be fagged unplugging the M2) and this is working perfectly adequately for streaming/emails/internet/Word/Excel etc. - it's slower than the M2 obviously but it works just fine and is now 9 years old... I paid £1200 for it so another 3 years and it'll have cost £100 per year... can't complain at that IMO. It also still looks and works as it did when it was new, no chips, dents, dead pixels, dodgy keys etc.

Ive just paid £150 for a late 2013 macbook pro, does absolutely everything I need and has all the ports I need built in (SD card reader and HDMI)

 

[tuga]

No...a desktop would be better. There are lots for sale around me but I wouldnt know where to start.

The mini is a desktop without monitor.

The iMac is sort of a mini inside a monitor case.

 

[tuga]

My daughter has a pretty ancient iphone 9. She needs to have a proper computer for emails, storing and and viewing on line documents and web browsing with a proper readable screen. I now nothing about Apple computers and her budget is small. I have read that Apple gear becomes unusable if it is too old so I want something resonably priced and usable...could an Apple user point me in the right direction ? I'm looking to buy something pre-loved. Thanks

iPhone 8 here, going strong, and typing on a 2012 MacBook Pro.

 

[les24preludes]

Mac Mini used off ebay. Cheap ones from late 2012 on will run recent OS operating systems, but to be bang up to date get a M1.

I love Mac computers, wouldn't use anything else. Better security is also a big factor.

 

[Mick P]

I went from a Windows 10 PC to a MacBook Pro on the advice of the great one of this forum. It was actually very good advice. Apple is just light years ahead of Windows and a lot more reliable. A super piece of kit.

 

[NeilR]

Regarding longevity of Apple kit, I have a 27” imac with the 5k retina screen that i bought in 2014. It has been working perfectly until last week when it became unbearably slow to boot and then impossible to boot. I was reluctant to bin the imac with its beautiful 27” screen, especially as the new imacs are only 24”.

A quick bit of reading around suggested that the fusion drive was on it’s way out and it would be possible to use a bootable external ssd drive as a replacement. So I bought a 2TB external USB SSD drive, and followed the instructions I read on the web (boot the imac into the recovery mode, format the drive, downloaded a copy of the OS onto the new drive and set it to boot from that drive). Dead easy.

I even managed to copy the all of the data and settings from the dodgy fusion drive onto the new drive so it is set up exactly the same as before.

Hopefully this should see me through a few more years as my use pattern is very non demanding ( web surfing, document generation, music streaming, but no video editing or gaming).

 

[dweezil]

Oh ok...so I'll just set my daughter up as a user on a normal pc and install the icloud....

Easy peasy and no need to buy an Apple computer...great

That's what we used to do when we had Apple stuff. If you have a PC with HDMI out any old HDTV will do for a monitor too.

Bigger screen makes working with two programs easier too.

 

[madmike]

All set up now on our second home PC..thanks guys

 

[Bodhi]

I have an even more ancient Iphone 6 which no longer supports the Outlook/hotmail app, so I can't access my emails on my phone anymore & have to wait till i'm on my computer. That is a minor inconvenience in my case. Longer term I plan to buy a privacy (de-googled) phone and get an encrypted proton email account, as any Apple or Microsoft product is 100% spyware.

 

[tuga]

Regarding longevity of Apple kit, I have a 27” imac with the 5k retina screen that i bought in 2014. It has been working perfectly until last week when it became unbearably slow to boot and then impossible to boot. I was reluctant to bin the imac with its beautiful 27” screen, especially as the new imacs are only 24”.

A quick bit of reading around suggested that the fusion drive was on it’s way out and it would be possible to use a bootable external ssd drive as a replacement. So I bought a 2TB external USB SSD drive, and followed the instructions I read on the web (boot the imac into the recovery mode, format the drive, downloaded a copy of the OS onto the new drive and set it to boot from that drive). Dead easy.

I even managed to copy the all of the data and settings from the dodgy fusion drive onto the new drive so it is set up exactly the same as before.

Hopefully this should see me through a few more years as my use pattern is very non demanding ( web surfing, document generation, music streaming, but no video editing or gaming).

I'm using my 2013 27" iMac with an external SSD. Works brilliantly and I am able to run MacOS 10.15 which didn't work on the internal HDD (painfully slow).
I'm using CAD and rendering software with no issues.