You can use your office computer, but it's definitely more convenient to use your home machine, so you can load your music and videos and what not on from home. You can possibly upgrade your Mac at home to 10.5 so you're compatible at home too.
You are not missing anything, the iPad works just like an iPhone or iPod and needs a computer to be unbricked, backed up and upgraded.
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Alex
Community Manager @ RiverdaleMac & BeachMac
@alexflint
@RiverdaleMac
@beachmacto
I agree with Alexlint, you can definitely manage with just syncing at work... but I would suggest an upgrade of your home computer to sync to it, assuming you have much of a media library... plus the added connivence factor... I would suggest going right to Snow Leopard if your system is intel based... it's WELL worth the $35 upgrade cost.
Not to hijack your thread, but I've always wondered why so many users seem to be so reluctant to upgrading their OS, I had thought this was more of a windows thing prior to switching, but after being on the forums for a while I get the feeling a fairly significant minority never upgrade their OS. Other than system spec incompatibles I've never really understood why.
I recommended 10.5 because if you're running 10.4 right now, chances are your computer won't take 10.6 without some hardware upgrades as well, if it will take it at all. 10.6 requires an Intel processor and 1GB RAM. If you can take 10.6 Snow Leopard, I 100% agree that you should do that.
PS it's only $29 now! Definitely a worth while upgrade!
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Alex
Community Manager @ RiverdaleMac & BeachMac
@alexflint
@RiverdaleMac
@beachmacto
Well, first of all thank you both Alexflint and Paul 82 for your advice.
As for upgrading, even though I've used Macs forever, for some of us, there's a built in fear about upgrading...not knowing what to expect or, for that matter, the worries of losing files, apps, etc. I don't know how to back up our stuff on our iMac or where to back it up to, or if it's even necessary when upgrading to a newer system. It's not like using Migration Assistant to move stuff from an old to a new...in that case there's actually somewhere that things are and a place where they're going.
Not to beat a dead horse, but If I sync at the office, other than possibly not having the music from home, what else would be affected. And, could I not bring our tunes from home to my office computer and do it that way? I really feel I'm not understanding this sync thing. Does it simply allow you to use the iPad from then on anywhere, once it's sync'd?
I'm starting to feel really dense about this!
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You can definitely sync at work. Everything will work fine. You can also take some music to your work computer and do it that way. You only need access to your syncing computer once in a while, to plug in and update iOS, your media files and to back up all your content.
On the other hand, if you do decide to upgrade, back up your important files, and bring your baby to an authorized service centre. The upgrade to 10.5 for example is only $90 with labor generally and the 10.6 upgrade is $30 and labour at a service centre should be cheap, like $25 range. There are options for you.
No matter what you do, I'd recommend having some sort of back-up solution in place though. Especially with an aging Mac, you're playing with fire by not having a back-up!
__________________
Alex
Community Manager @ RiverdaleMac & BeachMac
@alexflint
@RiverdaleMac
@beachmacto
Thanks so much, once again. Advice well given and taken...any suggestions for back-up? I know the pitfalls of not having...we've lost a lot over the years.
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The Truth is Out There...
and it's all about endorphins!
... I don't know how to back up our stuff on our iMac or where to back it up to, or if it's even necessary when upgrading to a newer system. ...
HARD DRIVES FAIL. Sorry to shout, but all hard drives die eventually. Set up a backup routine BEFORE that happens. The easiest way is to connect an external hard drive, such as:
Since you're on 10.4, use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to duplicate your iMac's hard drive to the newly connected external drive. Don't use the external for anything else. They take a long time to run the first time but then they can be set up to only copy changed files on subsequent runs which will go very quickly. I believe both can be set up to run automatically (daily).
One big advantage of moving to 10.5 is that Time Machine comes with it. By default it runs hourly backups with minimal fuss.
I'd echo the sentiment that backups are critical if you don't want to lose your stuff. In my opinion this is one of the big benefits of upgrading as I prefer time machine to superduper or carbon copy cloner though they are both great for bootable backups.
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