Unchartered Waters........(and I forgot my swim fins) ;-)

S

Scroatdog

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Mar 17, 2003
Messages
1,432
Well,

Now that I have your attention........... I think I'm going to need a laptop for school. My handwriting isnt worth crap, and I can type faster than I can write. I'm thinking something light, small, that wont be a burden carrying to/from class/library.

Only thing is, besides an Ipod, I own no other Apple products. Operating system? Clueless. Filetpyes?? Drawing a blank. You get the idea. I was looking at the iBook and the Powerbooks in the 12 inch variety. I have also been eyeing the Dell Insprion 700m as well. I think 12 inch is the way to go, but man that widescreen is nice.

Anyhow, would you guys recommend one of these notebooks as a first foray into Apple land??? I read they have Airport Extreme installed, which I am equating to wireless. I have a Linksys wirless router at home so that would be perfect, though I wouldnt know how to go about configuring it. Remember, know NOTHING about Apple computers. Last Apple Computer I worked on was an Apple II E

The Dell can probably be had for around $750.00 with coupons sometimes. I noticed the iBook & Powerbooks are more expensive. If I DID go with the Apple, I would need that Micro$oft Office so I can work on files on the laptop and then be able to use them on my PC. I had NO idea you could do that until someone told me that two weeks ago.

Anyhow, your thoughts???
 
Buy yourself a 12" iBook and spend the money you saved on more RAM (I have 1.5 gigs in mine; it's awesome) and some beer.

You shouldn't need to configure your wireless network. It'll detect any networks automatically, and you can just join it. You don't technically need Microsoft Office, since even the lowly TextEdit in Mac OS X is fairly compatible with Word files. Most of the time, I use Pages. iWork (Pages + Keynote) is only $50, a lot less than MS Office, and it's also compatible with Word files.
 
even a 12" PB is not that ridiculously pricy, a 1.5GHz with at least 1gb of ram shouldnt be unrealistic in price.
 
Sir,

I love my 14' iBook. It may be a little big for what you need, so I recommend the 12. I wouldnt spend the extra money on a powerbook over the ibook if its just for what you want to do. They are very powerful capable machines, I was pretty supprised when i got mine. :) Just make sure you get as much ram for it as you can
 
go with an iBook, I love mac os x > windows xp... My iBook connected to my network out of the box as soon as it was setting up. You can also use Open Office or AbiWord if you dont want to spend the money on Microsoft office. Or you can get that apple iWorks for 50 bucks.
 
Sounds interesting. I've always "wondered" about the Apple OS, as it is completely foreign to me.

It would seem the best thing to do would be configure with the lowest amount of memory & buy extra from Crucial or someone, to save some bucks.

Here's a question........ The iBook comes with a 40 gig 4200RPM drive standard, and from the looks of it, you can only upgrade the size and not the speed. Buying a notebook hard drive seperately would be cheaper, maybe a 60 or 80 gig 5400 RPM. How would I mirror the notebook drive in the iBook in order to get it onto the new one? Apple disk imaging programs like Ghost, Acronis, etc???
 
You could image the drive but apple comes with restore cds so just do a fresh install. I will say that upgrading a hd in an ibook is not a easy thing to do. If you take your time and are careful it is not that hard but does take a good deal more work then a desktop or even most notebooks.
 
Really?

Wow. I've swapped out notebook hard drives before and it didn't seem like a big deal. I didn't give thought to the fact that Apple might make it hard!1 HAHA.

I'm kind of leaving away from the Dell and starting to really conisder the iBook. The new Powerbooks came out today, but nothing really major for the 12 inch version.
 
The new 15" and 17" make the 12" PowerBook look very sad indeed. Anyway, installing more memory in the iBook is a piece of cake. Replacing the hard drive is much more work, and if you screw anything up, your warranty is voided.
 
Black Morty Rackham said:
The new 15" and 17" make the 12" PowerBook look very sad indeed. Anyway, installing more memory in the iBook is a piece of cake. Replacing the hard drive is much more work, and if you screw anything up, your warranty is voided.
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Very good to know. Thanks.

I don't know, though. I think the better of the two is obviously the Powerbook. Much more feature rich than the iBook.

It then becomes a question of cost. Remember, the Dell 700m can be had for around 750, depending on the coupons out at the time. Powerbook is about twice the price.

I'm gonna have to get down to an Apple Store and get a feel for it, and maybe ask to use someone's 700m at school.

Thanks for the comments though, guys. Given me alot to think about. :D
 
It should be added that the 12" iBook has excellent performance for a computer in its class (a Radeon 9550 beats the pants off an integrated video solution, like most cheap 12" have). It doesn't cost much, really. It's small and light, and has ok battery time. Also, Mac OS X rocks when it comes to wireless. It detects and connects automagically. When your Windows friends are setting stuff up, you're already at the [H] boards, posting away. ;)
 
I'm kinda leaning a little toward the Powerbook. Seems to be a bit more feature-rich. Hell, all those Apple notebooks seem more feature-rich than the Dell's. Unless you configure a Dell laptop with every option there is, but then the price goes into the stratosphere. Powerbook is kinda pricy for what I want to do, but at the same time it seems like you are getting alot for your money.

.........still have some pondering to do.
 
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