I want to take the plunge.....what's the best way?

Family of four, 3 iPhones (2-iPhone4, 1-3GS). Family wants iPad for Christmas; I'm tired of Windows, I want to be total convert, but I'm a little scared based on my background.

I'm a very experienced windows user having spent 7 years in network administration. So, I have a good idea what I'm getting into and know that it could be a total PITA, that being said here's how I want to try this, and am looking for thoughts and advice......here goes.

Ok, so we all have iPhones and we use 1 account to download from iTunes. We all have separate IDs for iCloud, though I'm the only one utilizing it at the moment. I'm not a big fan of iTunes on my PC, or should I say I don't like the way it handles the different users. It's just clunky. I have a NAS drive that I use to backup to. Can I use that with a MacBook? Can I utilize it with 4 users and a MacBook and all the iDevices that I get?

To get my feet wet here is the way I would like to try this, but not knowing OS X that well I'm not sure if this is the way to go or not, but how I'd like to try it. I

I want to purchase an iPad for Christmas. I have access to an older MacBook that I would like to use to get my switchover going. I would probably also purchase an AppleTV unit to utilize all that business. Does any of this sound feasible. Can this setup utilize my NAS drive? I have a slingbox. How would this integrate with AppleTV or at all. I would potentially consider switching to Time Machine, but if I can get some use out of the NAS drive that would be nice.

I'm ready to buy an iMac, but due to an iPad and the rest of the Santa Clausing I've already done an iMac is gonna be a few months. That's where that MacBook would come in. Can I upgrade the OS on it? This is one of those that was on 1saleaday for a couple hundred bucks. A buddy of mine bought one and hates Mac OS, so I was planning on buying that to get started.

I'm relatively familiar with a Mac, however it was for support in a windows environment.

Feasible????

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

Lots of questions.

New iPad (version 3) is rumored for March or April release. However, no one knows for sure. The iPad 2 was released last March so the timing may be correct.

The iMac was last updated in May - June of 2011 and will probably see another update sometime in Mid Spring 2012. Again, that's just a guess.

As far as updating a MacBook to the latest version of OS X (Lion) it would depend on which model MacBook it is. The older MacBook Core Duo can not be updated to Lion because it's only a 32 bit machine. The Core 2 Duo, however, can be updated to Lion since it's a 64 bit machine.

Keep lurking and reading these forums to learn more about using a Mac and switching from Windows. I draw your attention to the Sticky Notices at the top of each forum. They contain a wealth of information which you will find useful.

Would I be limited with what I could do with the older OS in terms of what I described above? For the most part I'm looking to get iDevices migrated then buy the iMac so I can chunk my pc.

If you're going to be working with iDevices, then I would have to recommend going with the latest OS version your machines can handle, and the latest iTunes version as well.

So here are the specs on the Mac....

iBook G4
1.07GHz processor
256mb Memory ( I would increase this to max). How much would that be?
Mac OS X. 10.4.6

Can I upgrade this as much as possible and do what I want to do above?

Going to get iPad and Apple tv today I think.

gilldawg79 said:

So here are the specs on the Mac....

iBook G4
1.07GHz processor
256mb Memory ( I would increase this to max). How much would that be?
Mac OS X. 10.4.6

Can I upgrade this as much as possible and do what I want to do above?

Going to get iPad and Apple tv today I think.

Click to expand...

No it would have to be an Intel C2D model with at least IMHO 4GB of ram and running SL at least but Lion would be better for future upgrades.