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Our PC is starting to get less and less reliable (even after a fresh install of Windows!) so I almost have my wife convinced that we need to go out and buy a new computer ... obviously an iMac is the preference (the new 2.66GHz 20" model with 2Gig of memory would seem to be the best option).

But once again a couple of questions about peripheral/hardware support : we have an Epson Stylus Photo R210 printer which I would love to be able to use with the Mac (and print on DVD/CD printable media), will it work?

I also have an iPaq 1930 PocketPC that I would like to use with the iMac - is this possible?

My 5.1 speaker system will be a little redundant now though I guess as the Mac wouldn't support it I guess - oh well I can always just use it as a 2.1 system.

I just got a new MS Natural 4000 keyboard and I know that it will work as M$ even provide Mac software for it, so that's a good start.

I hope that I can retire the PC to a back room somewhere where it will just be some network disk and may be used on occasion to do things I haven't found the software for on the Mac... but then again I guess thats where Parallels could come in handy!

Would welcome any suggestions here and also welcome any ideas on Mac dealers that are best to deal with (will will most likely have to finance our purchase), or warnings on Mac dealers not to deal with.

Cheers

Jamie

Leap!! Go on!!

Jamie, sorry really swamped and way behind with an assignment...but have you looked up the vendors sites for these systems? Such as going to the Epson site and looking up that model to see if it works on a Mac? (Not forgetting that Macs also run Windows these days, so if worse got to worse, you could just reboot into Windows).

Re the iPaq...check out http://www.markspace.com/ although I can't get the site to load tonight? MissingSync is well known and may have an iPaq solution.

Re dealers...I'll leave that to others...but you could also buy direct from Apple (like I just did) and support the site at no extra cost to you...just start your shopping by clicking on the link in my forum signature.

Cheers, Phil

Great move, the only regret will be that you should have made the move earlier

Looks like your printer will be fine as it is USB and Epson says is works with OSX - http://www.epson.com.au/products/inkjet/stylusPhotoR210_specs.asp

Drivers are accessible on a link from the above page. Not sure about CD/DVD media printing, but if Epson sells it as Mac OS X compatible chances are you'll be fine.

I'm in a similar situation. I used Macs for years back in the days when they were called Macintoshes (Mac Plus I think), and only reverted to PC about 5 years ago when I need programs the Mac didn't have. That's changed with Parallels etc, and so I'm sorely tempted again.

I bought my 86 yr-old mother an iMac a year ago, and she still raves about how elegant it is, and how easy the computer world has become with these models.

The main problem is that I use five 19" screens - 4 from one PC and 1 from another PC - and use UltraMon to flow between them all. It's very liberating and I couldn't go back to using even a dual monitor setup again.

I believe it's only possible to get 2 screens running from one Mac unit, though I remember seeing a photo of Al Gore in his office with what looks like three 24" Mac screens. Is this right?

Printer should work. I've yet to find a problem with Epson printers on Macs. I have an Epson Stylus CX4700 and it is a dream to use, especially on Leopard. Of course this is dependent on whether or not your printer has USB. You may not need a driver disc. My Epson installs without the disc as the drivers are built into Leopard.

I agree with Phil about using MarkSpace's MissingSync. I have the Palm version and it is a perfect app in my opinion.

The Mac's digital audio is fully Dolby 5.1 compatible. QuickTime is also Dolby 5.1 compatible so it should filter down to the DVD Player, FrontRow, and iTunes.

Parallels and VMWare Fusion are great apps and fully recommended. I like the idea behind CrossOver but the big issue is that it's not feature for feature with the latest Wine which it was built on and updates seem pretty thin. I kind of think I wasted my money buying it but it does have potential.

I have just seen this

Apple hasn’t changed the iMac’s glossy screen. While the 24-inch iMac has an 8-bit wide-screen TFT active-matrix LCD that displays millions of colors, the 20-inch iMacs use 6-bit wide-screen TFT active-matrix LCDs, achieving millions of colors by dithering. And like the previous 20-inch iMac, the new 20-inch iMacs show strong color and contrast shifts when viewed at an angle instead of straight on.

(as part of this review http://www.macworld.com/article/133332/2008/05/alumimac2008.html)

The way I read this the picture on the 24" screens should be substantially better than the 20" screens making it well worth the extra money... does anyone care to comment who has a better knowledge of such things than me (ie., anyone who has used both machines for any substantial period of time!)

Cheers

Jamie