What is the best apple product for my wife?

Question

Hello all,
I recently broke our Windows laptop (stepped on it and cracked the screen).  The price on replacing this screen makes me feel, that I should go the extra mile and just replace the thing since it was sort of up there in age anyway.
So here is where I need you guys.  I have heard that Macs are excellent products, but I know VERY little.  My wife and I have been with windows our entire lives.  I sincerely apologize for the "noob" questions, but googling for a couple hours has left me with little first hand experience that fits us well. With that being said...First question:
Is there anything a typical Windows user will have trouble adjusting to?
For example, I know the iphone/ipod touch don't use flash.  Are the macs the same?  I read that they dumped flash in 2010?  Can you still use it if you wanted to?  Is there an alternative?  But what I'm really getting at is, how hard will it be for us to transition?  Are there typical windows features we may lose?  Is it true that I'll no longer need anti-virus software?
Is the MacBook Air right for us?  Ipad 2?  MacBook Pro?
One reason I want a Mac, as I've said, is that I've heard that they are the best.  I want to give my wife a very good gift.  She never gets anything top of the line for herself and I want to spoil her with this surprise without her being able to tell me "no".  Therfore, I want this new item to tailor to her more than me.
She mainly uses the laptop for pleasure.  She loves to browse sites...read articles...and most of all, check up with friends on facebook.  She is also really really into pictures and editing.  She loves to take pictures and create little videos with music and whatever and I've heard that the Macs have pretty good software for this (Does it come standard?). 
Anyway, while this will be pleasure over business 95% of the time, she may need word processing capability.  This is likely to be extremely light work.  Example would be listing DVDs we own.  Possibly touching up a resume...  She's been interested in writing a book though, so maybe this has the potential to upgrade to more business (I guess I may have just eliminated the ipad, huh?). 
So is there a type of apple product that seems to scream out for my wife?
Also, If it has any weighing in this decision, we both own ipods.
I very sincerely thank you guys for reading my wall of text.  I am happy to read links if you have any good ones to share instead of writing yourselves.  I know I've overwhelmed you guys with a ton of questions.  And I'm sorry if this is a topic you get all the time, but I figured I'd give it a try to make the best decision I can!
Thanks so much,
Danny

Answer 1

Hi Danny,
These are some great questions, hopefully I can answer them appropriately for you.
MacBook Pro vs. MacBook Air vs. iPad 2
The good news, outside of an optical drive, those first two are pretty similar in terms of functionality and features. Throw the iPad 2 into the sequence and it changes things significantly.
While the iPad 2 is an exceptional product with near limitless features, thanks to the App Store, it still requires a computer. It can wirelessly print, but how did that printer get setup? It can stream over AirPlay to your Apple TV, but how did that AppleTV get setup? Not to mention, having your media backed up is always a good idea.
There are two big differences between the MacBook Air & MacBook Pro and it's something to consider.
1.) How often do you need peripheral ports?
The MacBook Air has 2 USB ports, a MiniDisplay Port and a headphone jack. It does not have a FireWire port, it does not have an Ethernet port, it only has an SD card slot on the 13" model, it also does not have an optical drive.
Are these important to your wife? Will she routinely be burning, writing to or reading from CDs/DVDs? If so, you'll need to purchase an external drive and tie up one of your USB ports or purchase a hub. It also does not have an Ethernet port and in order to gain access to one you need to buy an external adapter that again ties up a USB port. It also only supports 10/100 connections, not 10/100/1000.
There's no doubt that CD/DVD media is in a decline, soon just about everything is going to be available via direct downloads and many things already are so maybe that's not important. Given the device's portability and how many places have WiFi you could justify not needing an Ethernet port. Most manufacturers default their peripheral connection for external media to USB, FireWire is very Mac specific and often times adds a premium price onto the accessory. Gigabit Ethernet is negligible for day-to-day usage, unless you're moving multi-GB files on a routine basis.
2.) What sort of potential growth opportunities do you need?
One glaring limitation to the MacBook Air is that you cannot upgrade the RAM or HD capacity, something that you can do on the MacBook Pro. OWC does make 3rd party flash storage but it's very expensive, especially when you compare it against platter drives.
Storage will vary from user-to-user. I have probably 50GB worth of media between photos, music, videos, etc. My wife on the other hand? Well over 1TB of content and although she doesn't access it daily, it's frequent enough where it prompted us to get a NAS solution for our apartment.
RAM is one of those things that you can never have enough of in computing. You won't hear someone way: "Wow, this computer is way too fast." Unless you're trying to install a computer game from the early 90s.
I encourage you, if you end up with the MBA, to consider the upgrade to 4GB of RAM. I question how relevant 2GB of RAM will be on a computer in 2 or 3 years and what the demands of programs will require then.
Get to an Apple Store
Go early in the morning during the week or late one weeknight an hour or so before the store closes. Spend 20-30 minutes with each of the three products you're considering. They're all preloaded with software, games, productivity applications, sample galleries, etc. Ask the people on the floor to let you discover uninterrupted but be nearby when you're done and have some Q&A. Don't let them dry to "drive" your experience or prattle about how awesome and magical it is. They don't know exactly what you'll be using it for and if you tell them you're brand new Apple they'll usual try to show you what they like, not what you might like by blind discovery.
Macromedia Flash & Applications
Flash does not work on iOS devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPhone) but it works just fine on the MacBook Pro & MacBook Air. Every new Mac will come with iLife which includes: iPhoto, Garageband, iMovie, iDVD and iWeb. They're fantastic programs and are "gateway" products to Apple's next tier of products:
iPhoto -> Aperture
Garageband -> Logic
iMovie & iDVD -> Final Cut
iWeb is the red-headed stepchild in this equation. You'd graduate to an Adobe product like Dreamweaver if you suddenly became interested in web-design.
Good luck in your decision making process!