The Hip Newbie 
Whether you’re a stay-at-home mom or a recent retiree, being new
to tech doesn’t mean you can’t join the digital revolution in style.
The Basics.
For years, computers have been marketed on technical specs, but the reality is that for average computer users, processor speeds and other technical measurements are largely irrelevant. When you’re using a Mac to check email, create text docs, store photos, and manage the music collection on your iPod, any Mac would do the trick, and some of the more expensive models like the Mac Pro and the MacBook Air are overkill. For most day-to-day tasks, better technical specs don’t translate into a better user experience, and in fact for people who are a bit new to the whole technology thing—but still care about design and a streamlined interface—simpler is probably better.
Ease of use is probably the key feature to look for in a Mac. For that reason, the all-in-one nature of the iMac makes it perfect for people new to the platform, as well as for users looking for a general-purpose family computer. Straight from the box, the iMac has almost everything you’ll need for day-to-day tech tasks, and with a few extras, the iMac becomes your hub for family photos, music collections, and other personal data.
As the core of a home Mac setup, the entry-level 24-inch iMac is a great value at $1,799 (www.apple.com). The 24-inch model represents a slight performance bump over the lower-priced 20-inch models, but—more importantly— the larger screen offers more flexibility, especially when using your iMac with iPhoto or to watch videos. To that, we’d add a few accessories, including a digital camera and photo printer, an external drive for backup, an iPod (of course!), and a small, ultra-portable video camera.
There are tons of photo printers on the market, and in recent years the print quality of even low-priced color printers has increased dramatically. In keeping with the simplicity theme, we like compact photo printers like the Canon CP760 ($99, www .usa.canon.com). A compact dye-sub printer, the CP760 will print images up to 4 by 8 inches. It’s not the fastest printer on the market, but for printing snapshots to share with friends and family, it gets the job done at a great price.
For a photographer more interested in capturing moments than the art and science of photography, a simple point-and-shoot model is the way to go. Nikon’s Coolpix S210 ($179.95, www.nikon.com) is an 8-megapixel camera with plenty of automatic options and electronic image stabilization, perfect for low-light situations, including indoor shots. And while the Nikon also shoots 640-by-480-pixel video, for ease of use and portability, you can’t beat the Flip Video Mino ($179.99, www.theflip.com) a completely self-contained video camera that weighs half what even the smallest still cameras do, and captures up to an hour of video between trips to offload the footage to your computer. And the plug-and-play nature of the Flip can’t be beat, which is one of the reasons the Flip family of cameras have recently become the best-selling video cameras in the United States.
Of course, no starter Mac rig would be complete without an iPod. For new users, the iPod nano ($149 for 4GB; $199 for 8GB; www.apple.com) represents a good balance between price and capacity. For less than 200 bucks, you can carry around 200 or more of your favorite albums, and it even plays videos.
As our lives become increasingly digitized, the need to back up data becomes even more important. While storing all your family photos, videos, music, and personal documents all in one place is incredibly convenient, it’s also extremely dangerous. Hard drives fail, which is why making frequent backups of all your data is a crucial part of your computer setup. Since the iMac’s form factor doesn’t allow for secondary internal drives, a high-capacity external drive is a must-have. Western Digital’s My Book line of drives ($99.99 to $299.99, www.wdc.com) combines ease-of-use with simple case designs that blend in with the rest of your home decor.
Name: Miriam Goodman
Occupation: Stay-at-home mom/volunteer
Gear: iMac, iPod, AirPort Express, HP all-in-one photo printer 
Miriam Goodman knows what she wants for Mother’s Day: an iPhone 3G or a MacBook Air.
When she’s not attending a volunteer meeting or shuttling one of her daughters somewhere, Miriam Goodman, a stay-at-home mom and volunteer from Thousand Oaks, California, is glued to the family iMac, firing off emails or working in iPhoto to create photo albums, while she enjoys her favorite iTunes music piped through several rooms of their home, courtesy of an AirPort Express. Her volunteer efforts focus on a project affiliated with her synagogue called Re-Imagine, which assists synagogues throughout the country in restructuring their religious education programs from the ground up.
A mother of two, Goodman says her iMac is an indispensable part of her digital toolkit. Apple’s bundled apps come in handy, although she wishes the company made software for managing her family’s finances (psst, Miriam, check out Quicken for Mac). “I cannot live without iPhoto, iMovie, and iTunes,” she says. “At the moment there is far too much on my Desktop…I should probably figure out how to tend to that.” Maybe she should check out Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog.
benet
November 10, 2009 at 7:01pm
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pegasusbsb27
October 12, 2008 at 5:58pm
Yeah...They are expensive in Brazil (Don't ask me why but Apple products here are more expensive than in neighbour Argentina, for exemple!), but never mind...this year was my Apple year! I bought my first iMac 20'' 2,4 GHz and my first iPod 160Gb. Thank God the dolar started to up after my shops!!!
cdnair
September 27, 2008 at 5:16pm
I've noticed that this article seems to be pimping out the Western Digital hard drives quite a bit. I just wanted to make it clear to anyone in the market for an external HD, that, though the value may be there, these are absolutely horrendous machines. If all you're using it for is to plug into a desktop computer and leave it there, you may be alright- if you don't bump the desk... walk around the desk too heavily... blow on it too hard...
I'm a film student and have heard endless horror stories that almost always route back to the failure of their MyBook. Footage for final short film projects, important interviews, footy for demo reels; gone. And this is with proper plug/unplug (power downs, disconnecting from the computer) and transport ever so delicately in the original packaging.
I can strongly recommend LaCie drives myself. Yes, you may pay a bit more, but you do get what you pay for, and sometimes can find some great deals on certain models. Bought one a year ago and have been known to cram it, cables and all, into the bottom of my backpack and go. Needless to say it's got a few surface scratches, but it's given me no problems whatsoever.
nightshrill
September 27, 2008 at 1:54pm
Mr. Reeee, I think you are a tad confused about the overall point of my and others comments. I, at least, was not arguing against the overall price of a mac (although I feel as though I could make an argument against it, as I can build a custom pc for about 800 dollars that compares equally or better to an iMac). The point is that the editors of MacLife for whatever reason put a computer that is more than 1,000 dollars in category recommended for "Starving Students", which is absurd in its own way. As Brendan had also mentioned, pc magazines do this all the time to, if you're a starving student the only thing I'd recommend aside from possibly a real "budget" pc is go build one yourself on the cheap. Yes it'll be underpowered (for example, an intel pentium dual-core processor, not a core2duo) but it'll serve the average user well.
Mr. Reeee
September 27, 2008 at 8:57am
Why complain about the cost of a new Mac, when you can buy a used machine?
You can get a 1 or 2 generation old Mac for 1/2 (or less) the cost of a new machine. If it needs more RAM, that can be bought and installed easily.Macs hold their value well and remain useful years longer than your typical generic Dell or HP DOSBox running Windows.
I generally sell my Macs on craigslist when they're 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
I'm happy, because I've paid for half my new Mac.
The person who buys it is happy, because they get a good, well cared for machine for half price.
It's a win-win!
gmsquires
September 26, 2008 at 3:05pm
Yes depending on what "your" budget is will determine what you can afford and what kind of pc you will be able to get. If you are stuck for something under $500 then you may be rather limited and have to settle for a rather udner powered no name brand unless you can find a refurb or used machine. As to the Macmini not having a fan, it does have a fan and it has a temp sensor to activate the fan only when needed. I have a mini and have been very happy with it. It is generally over the $500 amount unless you can get a refurb and if you add memory it boosts the price. A bare bones system adding in Ubuntu linux may be an option depending on if the video card will work with it.
njdevilsfan
September 26, 2008 at 1:19pm
i agree completely hopefully apples new products or updates on oct 14 send the price back a few hundred dollars
Brendan Bartholomew
September 26, 2008 at 12:47pm
Nightshrill, I feel you dude. For what it's worth, the Windows PC-oriented magazines and sites are just as guilty when it comes to having some sort of gross disconnect between what they imagine we can afford and what we can actually afford. I could maybe afford a bit more if I had a dime for every time I've paged through some PC publication whose cover story was something to the effect of "We Build up a Blazing Budget Bare-Bones Kit that won't Break the Bank!" or "How Low is the Low End? We Look at Eight Entry-Level Laptops that Won't Loot Your Life's Savings!" or maybe "Fiscally Frugal Frag-Fests with Five Affordable Form Factors to Prevent your Piggy Bank from being Pwned!" If I'm foolhardy enough to delve into these articles in search of any kind of bottom line, I will inevitably find myself in a state of shock when confronted with the jaw-dropping price of what they're calling a "budget" system. I seem to recall more than one of these publications recently pitting "affordable" mini-towers from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and all the usual companies against each other in order to determine whether any of them were really adequate for meeting a computing dilettante's basic needs. Affordable to them meant computers that cost at least $650, with most of them retailing for around $850 or more. At that just-under-a-thousand-dollars (!) price point, they tend to conclude, you can, in fact, purchase a system for your grandmother that will be up to the task of meeting her basic e-mailing and Web browsing needs. At which point I want to reach into the page or through the Internet so I can grab the editors by their shoulders, shake them vigorously, and shout in their faces, "HELLLOOOO, Earth calling! Down here in the real world, a budget PC is that loss leader in the Office Depot ad that's $299 after the alleged rebate! It's that refurbished, de-branded HP mini-tower that Geeks.com is selling for under $200 with no OS but a dual core processor and plenty of expansion slots! That's what a cheap PC looks like out here in the real world, and if it's gonna cost $850, it had better be equipped to perform sexual favors for its owner, or it'd better be a fully loaded Mac Mini!" Both would be good, but the Mini has no internal fan, and you wouldn't want it to overheat, you know? But.... I digress...
nightshrill
September 26, 2008 at 5:15am
I know that this is clearly a mac publication/website, however I think it is worthwhile to point out as a "starving student" who happens to work + go to school full-time that blowing 1,099 dollars on a computer is not "budget" what-so-ever, especially compared to Asus' epc (or however they spell it), or even your standard run-of-the-mill dell/hp/toshiba, sure you don't get as nice hardware with any of those options but it is by fear cheaper than 1,099 dollars. I think to call this the "starving student" option is absurd. If you're a starving student get a cheap laptop and slap linux on it.
