Answers...

to commonly asked questions.

What hard drive do you recommend?

Scotty-
As mentioned, I am going to get wife a laptop for Mother's Day (what she wants).  I am leaning toward the 15" Mac Book Pro.  Would you recommend the Intel core i5 or i7 chip?  Is there a reason to have that given our standard uses?  Although I would like to plan for a machine I could keep functional for several years, not sure the difference between those chips will matter even in 12 mos.
 
Also, is there any additional (non-standard) software that you think I should add that you find particularly useful or that you think wife would enjoy?
Thanks and see you next week.

_______

If you want to save some money I would just go with the i5 chip. Those things are way more than enough power for your general use. The i7 is really only going to be attractive to video/graphics guys and people who just have to brag about having the absolute best even though most of them don’t need it. It’s plenty of power and the i5 chip, being so new, has plenty of shelf life ahead of it. You’ve definitely gotten your money’s worth out of that PowerBook G4 you’re replacing!

As far as software goes that she may enjoy, the
iWork suite is really nice. It’s Apple’s version of Microsoft Office. Easy to use and could be a nice lead in to your kids as they begin to start creating on the computer.
This image is a theme.plist hack