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Macs vs. iPads, Wireless Printers and Thai Websites

Walt answers reader questions on what device to use in college, what printer to use in a home office and what to name a website.

Q. I am a senior in high school right now and have a 13-inch early 2011 MacBook Pro. I love my MacBook but I also have a first-generation iPad mini, and it is amazing, too. I bring my iPad with me to school, and I write all of my papers and presentations on it with Pages and Keynote. So my question is this: For college, would I be better to get a 128 gigabyte iPad mini or a new MacBook?

A. I use my iPad mini a lot, including for productivity, and I’m impressed that you write all of your papers and presentations on it. But I would seriously recommend going with the MacBook for college — either a new one or the one you already have. There are very likely to be some types of college tasks and projects for which a laptop is better suited than a tablet, and some types of software that may be required for which there is no tablet version. Of course, you can still use your iPad when it’s the best choice.

Q. I would be so grateful if you could recommend an excellent wireless home-office printer.

HP Officejet 6500

A. I haven’t tested these in a long time, but I have personally had good luck in my own home office with the Hewlett-Packard Officejet 6500 series. However, setting up the same model printer in a small multi-person office recently, with a network I didn’t control, proved to be a major hassle. But this is an older model, so I’d look for similar successors from HP.

Q. I live in Thailand and I am planning to open my own business website here, to sell electronic products. What is the difference between .co (such as .co.jp , .co.th) and .com? Which would be best for my business?

A. The .com suffix is the most popular top-level domain, or category, for websites. Like .net, it can be used for just about any kind of site, including sites like yours. The .co domain has two meanings. It is the national domain of Colombia. And in some countries or circumstances it is commonly understood to denote a business website. My advice would be to make your choice based on what is most recognizable by your intended customers for your type of site in Thailand.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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