[kingalpaca]

Hi all

Very long time lurker, even more occasional poster...

I've been stuck with PCs all my life, and have been considering making the switch on and off for the last couple of years. I started uni last year, and was looking to buy a laptop. Apple was too expensive and then PC World (this is in the UK, btw), had an excellent offer on a Toshiba laptop. Long story short, I went against my gut feelings and bought it, had annoying problems (that were fixed quite quickly, to be fair), and ever since then have often wondered "what might have been."

Fast forward a year, and I'm on exchange that means I'm halfway through spending a semester at college in the US. It just so happens that they have a ridiculously generous student computer initiative that cuts down the price of a 15" TiBook (867) with 512 RAM, Airport and loaded with software, including Office (which is my mainstay on the laptop - I'm a history major), and AppleCare to the equivalent of under £1000 ($1599). It's so tempting that I'm thinking of ditching this monstrosity of a Toshiba and getting the TiBook - I've already got an iPod and am very impressed with iTunes for Windows. I want more...

My concern is getting the puppy to work in the UK. It would be my full time machine, and after I head back I won't be coming back to work here in the US for...a while (certainly longer than the lifetime of the TiBook). How easy would it be to get it setup to UK specs? As simple as buying a UK power adapter from Apple and changing the localisation on X? Or are there minute electrical things that a history major wouldn't spot but would stop it from working? Does AppleCare have international coverage? Anything else that I should be aware of?

It would be even better if the price is the same but it reflects the updated AluBook....then I'm not sure if my credit card would last...here's hoping!

With thanks

KA

[thirsty]

I Purchased my Ti 550 in the US back in October 2001. where i used it for 3 Months before returning home to Australia. Where it has worked faultlessly ever since. All i had to do was change my localization setting IE: the clock and thats it. Plus bend the powersocket plugs on the Power Adaptor ( it's Multi-Voltage) to 30 degrees to fit ( in the UK you would have to get the Travel adaptor KIT ) and that was it. So go get the Ti and join this awesome world of the MAC.

To the best of my knowledge as I was told Applecare is International. and can be purchased upto a year from the Original purchase date of the Hardware. ( before the expiration of the original warranty )so maybe you can get that when you return to the UK.

[ngrundy]

Buy a new power adaptor when you get home, so you have the correct pin outs and it should all be good.

[Person Man]

The power supply does voltages from 110 volts to 240 volts, so all you need is a plug adapter. I bought a cheap set from Radio Shack for under $5.00 when I took my Lombard (1999 PowerBook G3) to Greece and Germany about 2 years ago.

I ran OS X 10.0.2 (!) on it for the most part over there, and my aunts and uncles in Greece were really impressed with looking at pictures from my digital camera on the TV screen. (Did I mention that the U.S. bought PowerBook was able to handle PAL output to my aunt's VCR?)

[Freeflyer]

I have a US Tibook and so far this year have used it in the UK, New Zealand, Thailand, Nepal and the US. The only thing you need is a set of adapter plugs, and a suitable modem cable for whichever country.

Works a treat. Powerbook warranties are also worldwide, as is applecare.

Cheers,

J.

[kingalpaca]

Excellent stuff, thanks a lot. I think this is a purchase that should be made. One other thing - if I get the TiBook here, I'll get a US keyboard, with the @ being on the number 2 key, and " being on the ' key (if that makes sense!). Presumably they'll be remapped with the UK localisation (where they would swap), and I'll just have to live with the odd keys? No biggie, to be honest, and certainly not enough to stop me from buying...

KA

[Thorin]

My housemate has just bought a 12" rev B Powerbook (mine should arrive tomorrow - apparently it's been sitting in a depot just outside London for 4 days for no good reason), and the @ and " keys are the wrong way around on that, and haven't been remapped by the localisation settings. It was something I was hoping to look into, to see if I could swap them somehow, as it'll really annoy me when I get mine I suspect.

[St.John]

Originally posted by Thorin:
My housemate has just bought a 12" rev B Powerbook (mine should arrive tomorrow - apparently it's been sitting in a depot just outside London for 4 days for no good reason), and the @ and " keys are the wrong way around on that, and haven't been remapped by the localisation settings. It was something I was hoping to look into, to see if I could swap them somehow, as it'll really annoy me when I get mine I suspect.

Mine has been sitting in Luxembourg for 6 days, which has peed me right off.

[Thorin]

Ah, using the online tracking, mine is still listed as being in Luxembourg, when I phoned them though they said it was in the UK. My housemate's is listed as having gone from Luxembourg to the Netherlands where it was apparently delivered. Well last I checked we weren't in the Netherlands!

The online tracking thing is FUBAR, phone them up.

[hillcrest]

a 15" al book @1 Ghz is 1799 for students.

[exca1ibur]

This is all you need.

[removed link to Apple store -- their links are NOT portable, they expire in short order]

I bought one when I went to Australia, no problems at all. Had a few great LAN parties there too Plan to go back soon as possible.

[St.John]

Thorin - I would do, but I'm a little sick of sitting on hold for about 20 mins on a mobile. During office hours I'm out and about "learning", so I use my mob - I shudder to think how much it'll have cost me so far phoning them and getting precisely no useful information out of them.

Having thrown a grand total of £1276.05 at them ( and that's with Edu pricing ) I have to say I'm frankly disgusted with the service. A rounded up figure of 0/10 for Apple thus far. Considering I'm a switcher with this purchase ( my first Apple ) after being a Windows/Linux boy, first impressions are they are a disgrace. It's no surprise they nearly went tits up a few years back.

To add insult to injury, they were on my case phoning constantly and leaving messages when THEY screwed up my address and so the bank wouldn't authorise the money to go through to them when I ordered. After that, I've had jack-all help, support or contact from them. Here's an example:

"Dear Customer,

Thank you for placing your order on the Apple Store.

We need to request the following documentation from you, as we received a decline from the bank on your address details.

Please fax (00 353 21 428 4663) or email in jpeg format by Wednesday, 22.10.2003, 12 o'clock:

A copy of card holders
1) Driving license or passport and
2) Recent credit card/bank statement showing card holders name,
address and card number

If document are not received by Wednesday, 22.10.2003, 12 o'clock , the order will be cancelled.

If you have any questions regarding this request please do not hesitate to contact free phone number (from within U.K. 0800 039 1010 ) choose option 2

Alternatively if you refer to our web site under method of payment
section You will notice we will require documentation.

Awaiting your reply

Klaudia Kregel
Apple Computer"

So I did. Despite the fact that I had been extremely explicit concerning the address details and they had screwed it up and wasted a week of my life before ringing me in a rush. It was sorted out there and then. Klaudia said if I had any further problems to email her.

Shortley after that, I couldn't get through to the helplines ( hold for about 40 mins before cut off! ) and the online order tracker didn't work. I phoned them up and they assured me it was working. I tried when I got in and still nothing. So I sent this to Klaudia, as she encouraged me to:

"I still can't get the online order tracker to work!

John."

In response I got:

"Hi John

It's not me who's holding your order anymore.....

Regards
Klaudia"

And that was it. No further contact at all. Bloody charming.

So I persevered, and finally got through to the helplines. They told me the long id numbers on the order tracking system ( NOT the one starting Wxxxxx ) could be fed into Kuehne & Nagel or TNTs websites for tracking info. I have tried every possible permutation of every seperate shipment-related number in both websites, and they never work. I sometimes get interesting information on other peoples shipment details, but never anything relating to me.

I am NOT happy about this. I have never been messed around so much in my life over ANY purchase, let alone one costing well over a grand.

[Link]

Well the only problem you should have is:

1. It will make fun of the royalty and probably leak nasty facts to the tabloids

2. It'll keep giving you yankee dialog boxes

3. It's american. We don't make anything good over here.

</humor>

[Thorin]

That sucks, and sounds like things have taken even longer for your order than they have for mine. I've spent over £1700 on my order (edu prices again) - put a bigger hard drive and more ram in my powerbook, and bought a 20gig ipod as well. If it's not shipped with Panther, I'm going to go spare .

What number are you calling? I've been using an 0800 number, so although it's a pain in the arse having to sit on hold listening to Enya, at least it's not costing me anything.

Oh, after our discussion about your campus the other day, I was over there on Sunday to see Tommy Tiernan doing stand-up. One thing you definately have going for your campus is the arts centre, you have some great stuff on there!

[St.John]

Originally posted by Thorin:
That sucks, and sounds like things have taken even longer for your order than they have for mine. I've spent over £1700 on my order (edu prices again) - put a bigger hard drive and more ram in my powerbook, and bought a 20gig ipod as well. If it's not shipped with Panther, I'm going to go spare .

What number are you calling? I've been using an 0800 number, so although it's a pain in the arse having to sit on hold listening to Enya, at least it's not costing me anything.

Oh, after our discussion about your campus the other day, I was over there on Sunday to see Tommy Tiernan doing stand-up. One thing you definately have going for your campus is the arts centre, you have some great stuff on there!

Yeah, but I have to use a mobile, as I'm not in my place in office hours, I'm out pushing back the boundaries of computational biology ( honest!). Hence, £££ on phone calls in a queue. You're right about bloody Enya though; they've changed it now and a good job too. It was like some freaky mind control experiment where they annoyed you as much as possible while playing soothing music to attempt to calm you down. Weird.
I was at the last comedy night ( the Paramount channel tours, right? ) with my gf who was up visiting. We had a good laugh, that's for sure - was the compere the tall thin bloke? I really rate him, he dealt with hecklers superbly and took the p!ss out of the drunks on the front row. All pretty good fun, but i bet you had to queue for at least 20 mins before even getting past the doors. Did you see some of our unique ( read: shite ) installation art? I'm thinking specifically of the big metal sculpture by the bus stop outside the arts centre. It's supposed to signify East meesting West, but looks like an enormous pair of handcuffs or penguins kissing depending on which angle you see it from. I'll not even go into that rotating cone thing with the fairy lights aroung it. It looks like a 15 foot Wizbit at a rave.

[bobgray]

Kingalpaca says "...a US keyboard, with the @ being on the number 2 key, and " being on the ' key ..."

The apple "British" keyboard has these keys (@ and ") in the same place as the US but it does have the (£)pound key as shift+3 and the Euro key (Alt+2) is labelled. You can select any keyboard layout under System preferences/International/Input but you'd have to change the key tops (presumably available as a spare???) Otherwise £ and Û are available on the US layout but not so coveniently.

[PER3]

Freeflyer said

Works a treat. Powerbook warranties are also worldwide, as is applecare.

In my experience this in not true and is simply up to the whims of the Apple Company in whichever country you are dealing with.

In my experience, apart from leaving my PowerBook into their hands and letting them screw the NumLock key, I was told that I was all on my own. They told me to go back to Europe or Australia or wherever I came from and fix it there.

I found another Moscow outlet who replaced my buggerred PSU, charged me $130 and gave me a PowerBoook as good as new,

Just be sure to remember that the international warranty is very conditional. So read the conditons.

Things don't work the same in the real world.


PER2

[Freeflyer]

Originally posted by PER3:
Freeflyer said

Works a treat. Powerbook warranties are also worldwide, as is applecare.

In my experience this in not true and is simply up to the whims of the Apple Company in whichever country you are dealing with.

In my experience, apart from leaving my PowerBook into their hands and letting them screw the NumLock key, I was told that I was all on my own. They told me to go back to Europe or Australia or wherever I came from and fix it there.

I found another Moscow outlet who replaced my buggerred PSU, charged me $130 and gave me a PowerBoook as good as new,

Just be sure to remember that the international warranty is very conditional. So read the conditons.

Things don't work the same in the real world.


PER2

Per2, that's interesting and good/bad to hear. Good to hear someones real experience, bad to hear it wasn't as good as hoped.

I've not had to use my warranty outside the us, but will be moving countries in the spring. Hope not to need it, but will have to check the fine print carefully.

Cheers,

J.

[chris.p]

The '@' is and always has been key '2' on Macs- I always thought it was a Mac thing, not a localisation thing- ops. I'm in the UK too.

[haifischjunge]

its a "localisation" thing. for example with german keyboard layout the @ is on the "L"