Mac vs. Mac

If you were to ask me, I would tell you that I love my MacBook computer.  I've only had 2 problems with it in the 4 years I've owned it.  (1) Cracked plastic around the screen and keypad and (2) Crashed hard drive.  Granted, a crashed hard drive was frustrating, especially since I lost several papers I had worked ahead on.  But, because it was a faulty hard drive in the first place, Apple replaced it for free - a HUGE bonus to a broke college student! As far as the cracked plastic, I've had it replaced twice now - also for free because it is a "known problem".  Great!  Apple's on a roll here.  They've created a quality product and the service is incredible.

I've always known that Macs and PCs don't talk well, but most of that has been taken care of or made easier over the past few years.  Also, the school district I'm in now is all Mac-based, so I feel like I'm ahead of the curve.

If you were to look at my computer now, you would never be able to tell that it was four years old.  Sure, the design is slightly different and I still have an actual apple on the command key, but it still looks pretty good.  I didn't even realize my computer was getting "old" until I went to have the cracked plastic repaired a couple months ago.  The "genius" from Apple took one look at my computer and said, "Whoa...you've had this a while."  I was thinking to myself "A while?  I've only had it four years...".  I didn't think much about his comment after that until today.

I wanted to video chat with Amanda - my sister - and see what her dorm room looked like and how college was going for her so far.  First we tried Skype, but I couldn't hear her.  She couldn't set up iChat and doesn't have Gmail (shocker, I know!).  I tried to download Facetime...only to find out that I had to have the Mac App Store to do so.  But I can't get the app store because the software on my computer is too old.  To upgrade the software would cost me $29.99.  So, Amanda recommended Oovoo.  I ran into the same problem there - I needed to have Mac OS X 10.6 or newer.  I have Mac OS X 10.5.8.  Really? 5 different video chatting methods, and not a single one was working for us.  I am quickly realizing that my 4 year old computer just isn't up to speed with the brand new technologies that are emerging daily.  The problem is...my MacBook is such a quality product that I don't want to even consider having to replace it anytime in the near future.  I guess I may just have to splurge for the software update.  But that will have to wait for another day and a paycheck...