Halo effect.

One more question to bug you all with.

Once I get my little bundle of white joy, what is the best way to migrate my files from my PC to my Mac?

Direct ethernet cord connection or by way of my Nano?

Direct ethernet won't work. Crossover ethernet might.

You can't copy files from a PC to a Mac and expect all of them to work. Applications (files that end in .exe) won't work so no point in copying those. You documents will work, like Office documents and stufff. Your emails may not transfer so easily.

There are kits that do these transfers, which will figure out which kinds of files you're moving over.

You could look around apple.com/switch and google something like PC to Mac switch.

Nano would only work if you're copying over a few files.

Looks like regardless of where you buy your Mac, the geniuses at the Apple Retail Stores will help transfer your stuff for free:

http://www.apple.com/switch/howto/genius.html

if you're simply concerned about just the files, why not use a usb memory stick. that's what i do between work (pc) and home (mac) when i want to work at home (saves e-mailing and downloading. usb is cross platform and w/my stick at 256mb it works fine but i did discover that where my "stick" is usb 2.0, my mac is a bit older and has usb 1.0 (blue & white g3) so it either has to be plugged into my mac directly or i have to plug my external hub in to get more power. other than that, it works great.

another option (if you have a lot of data) would be to burn a cd of your "pc stuph" and the mac will read the cd w/no problem-then you can just copy what you need

I just plug all my computers into my ethernet switch, and connect my Mac to my windows computer using the network. Just be sure to enable sharing on whatever folders you need to transfer data.

You'll find that files will transfer fine between Office for Windows and Office for OSX. There may even be an import filter built into Entourage to migrate your email over from windows.

Here's a handy resource among many on the web: http://www.macwindows.com/

Bzzt, but thank you for playing.

All current Macintosh computers have auto-MDIX ethernet ports, which automatically sense whether they need to operate in a cross-over configuration. You never need a cross-over cable with a Mac.

too late for the OP, but I have been happy with Powermax so I would recommend them for future purchases.

Thanks for all of the help. I think I am going to go with the Memory Stick approach since I really only have files. That just seems like it'll be the easiest.

PS. My dell now no longer has a working backspace button. I think it knows it's days are numbered :)

The rumor mill says Apple is preparing a 13" widescreen Powerbook using the Pentium M to replace the 12" model, so I plan to hold off on my G4 15.4" widescreen purchase to see, cause smaller is better for me.

I'm addicted to slim laptops (toshiba R100 replacing my original sony vaio) so it's my only reason for not defecting. I can't wait for what apple might do if they go for a super-slim mac intel laptop!

In the mean time I'm getting by with a Mac Mini as my home desktop. For file transfer I just network using wifi or use a usb device (usually myu 2.5" hard drive caddy I use for portable backups).

Ok- Why doesn't the dock connector to firewire cable work for the Nano to the Mac? Everything at Apple.com says it doesn't work even though it should when the nano is connected to the dock.

It will charge with the FireWire cable, but in order to slim down the designs they have left out the circuitry that allows for file transfer via FireWire. :( Not quite a deal breaker for us getting a Nano, but we are still using Macs that only have USB 1.1, so it'll be slow transfers until upgrade time.

I gave serious thought to a Mac Mini, but I would like something smaller and lighter then my behemoth 17" HP laptop and since all my friends use Macs, I'd like to be able to take mine with me when I see them, so that means PowerBook.

or an iBook. The 12" iBook is a few hundred less than the 12" PowerBook, and makes for a very, very nice machine.