A Friend Wants a Mac

I would say the Macbook Pro. It is a great machine that would do anything that you need. You just dont need a secondary iPad that cant do as much.

Only your friend can really answer this question, does he need to do work out and about, then the Mac pro is going to be more useful, does he work mainly at home and use laptop mainly for email internet when out and about then mini + iPad option is a winner. By the way the ipad is insanely good (writing this answer on my new iPad now) :-)

You've summarized his options quite well, but it really does come down to which config will give him the most utility and enjoyment.

If he needs to do hardcore computing when he's away from home, then the laptop option's optimal, otherwise I'd say go with the Mac Mini + iPad combo. The battery life on the iPad is awesome and it's an ideal form factor for consuming media (videos, social media, music, games, books, etc.) and participating online. Where the iPad falls short is if you need specialized apps and/or an optical drive (and more storage space) to create media (videos, high res huge photos, audio, etc.)

hink of this when you buy that $600 computer for windows 7 and your H.D dies guess what you have to buy a DVD to even get back on track yep windows 7 rocks huh its all bull shit money making assholes who you all back and support because someone might be out there finding a way around it i say fuck you fuck this place and fuck all you stupid fucking nerds who bitch and moan about someone having something your too stupid avoid paying money for. apple is the most bullshit company out there they don't even want people who have macs to have what they have you think its so great and nothing is better well actually apple suck and most of there users do as well macs are good for media and that's it fuck you if your think different you can build a computer that will be ten fold a mac for 2000 dollars cheaper and put anything you want for an o.s on it even OsX so my point is build your own

If he has the money, go for the mac book pro.

and after he saves up again, he can buy a good monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers then when he wants to get a nice desktop experience, he can simply connect it to the rest of the equipment and he will have a good desktop experience.

The mac book pro may be really expensive but trust me, it is just ad fast as a decent desktop system.

Avoid the mac mini as it is overpriced for what you get. The ipad is also a ripoff for the hardware and on top of that the OS is very limited.

Also even though the mac book pro is larger than a ipad, it pretty much has the same portability.

You cant put a mac book pro in your pocket and you also cant put an ipad in a pocket.

PS the mac book pro is quieter than the mac mini

Depends on what your friends needs are, but I'd just like to say that he shouldn't get the mac mini solely because of the iPad.