[jbass]

I am heading back to school for my MBA in January and am currently looking for a suitable laptop. I have a very strong PC background, but very little if any Mac experience. The looks, size, and simplicity are what is drawing me to the ibook (or powerbook). I am not concerned about any type of learning curve as I learn fairly quickly, but I do have a few questions before I make a decision.

Questions in no particular order:

1. I start school in January. What are the chances of Apple releasing a revision of their laptop lines between now and the end of January? Should I buy now or wait till the last minute and hope for an upgrade. (I know I will be kicking myself if any significant changes come about after I buy).

2. I want to record my lectures. I know there are built in microphones, but are there any small external mics that offer improved sound quality? Another question is how long is it viable to record? I will be in class for 6hours a day, but only 4 days a month. Is it possible to record the entire time?

3. Batteries. I don�t see any option for addition batteries on the Apple website. Are there external batteries available for the apple laptops? If it is possible to record ~6 hours of lecture, I am sure battery life will become an issue.

4. Hard drive space. Is the 30gig suitable? Again, referencing the lecture recording dilemma. I will be able to dump each lecture to my file server when I get home, but exactly how much space is needed to record audio?

5. Memory Upgrades. Apple seems to rape people on their memory prices. Will regular laptop memory work? (again, not too familiar with Macs.) Is it better to go with the Apple memory and just pay extra, or would you suggest other brands such as Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston?

6. I saw something mentioned about recording audio with an ipod. Where can i find out details on this. I have a 30gipod that i can use in addition to the ibook if necessary.

I am sure I will have other questions, but this is a good start. Thanks for any advice you may have.

[Forte]

Well, I can't much help with the rest, but I can sort of answer this one;

5. Memory Upgrades. Apple seems to rape people on their memory prices. Will regular laptop memory work? (again, not too familiar with Macs.) Is it better to go with the Apple memory and just pay extra, or would you suggest other brands such as Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston?

Here in the UK, Apple's business centres simply sell Kingston RAM for use in their laptops, and it works fine. iBooks just use regular SODIMMs, IIRC.

[mamamia]

1. Apple may very well release a speed-bumped version of their powerbook line at Macworld San Fransisco in early Janaury. However, the ibook line just received a substantial bump and likely will not be updated for some time. Based on your needs, I believe the ibook will be more than suitable.

2. I do not know.

3. There are no external batteries for apple laptops that I know of. If battery life becomes an issue, there is no reason why you can't swap out the internal battery during a break in the lecture, however. The ibooks have good battery life; even if you are running the hard disk constantly, I would expect that you would get close to four hours on one charge. Also, if it has been a while since you were in school, then you will be surprised how laptop-friendly some schools have become. New desks arrangements almost always have plugs for laptops and sometimes ethernet.

4. Thirty gigs is more than enough to record a six hour lecture, even if you record in .aiff (the mac equivalent of .wav). Although I am not familiar, I remember seeing recording software that converts to .mp3 on the fly, thereby saving a ton of space. A good resource is www.versiontracker.com. Do a search.

5. Regular laptop memory will work. 768 mb should be plenty

6. here

[SSharon]

I use Word 2004 to record my lectures all day on my ibook and the quality is fine and you can adjust it. The settings I use take 22mb for an hour of audio so you can record a ton even at higher settings than me. My battery life is also insane and is something close to 6 hours with no airport and a bit less when its on.

[jaimzedup]

Originally posted by jbass:

1. I start school in January. What are the chances of Apple releasing a revision of their laptop lines between now and the end of January? Should I buy now or wait till the last minute and hope for an upgrade. (I know I will be kicking myself if any significant changes come about after I buy).

2. I want to record my lectures. I know there are built in microphones, but are there any small external mics that offer improved sound quality? Another question is how long is it viable to record? I will be in class for 6hours a day, but only 4 days a month. Is it possible to record the entire time?

3. Batteries. I don�t see any option for addition batteries on the Apple website. Are there external batteries available for the apple laptops? If it is possible to record ~6 hours of lecture, I am sure battery life will become an issue.

4. Hard drive space. Is the 30gig suitable? Again, referencing the lecture recording dilemma. I will be able to dump each lecture to my file server when I get home, but exactly how much space is needed to record audio?

5. Memory Upgrades. Apple seems to rape people on their memory prices. Will regular laptop memory work? (again, not too familiar with Macs.) Is it better to go with the Apple memory and just pay extra, or would you suggest other brands such as Crucial, Corsair, or Kingston?

6. I saw something mentioned about recording audio with an ipod. Where can i find out details on this. I have a 30gipod that i can use in addition to the ibook if necessary.

I am sure I will have other questions, but this is a good start. Thanks for any advice you may have.

1. The powerbooks are due for an update this coming January. Unlikely for the ibook to have any substantial update soon.

2. With you being an experienced PC user, all the specifics for external mics are the same on a Mac (most will be compatible on both).

3. I'm not sure about any external batteries but you can buy extra batteries from Apple.

4. For your uses, 30gb seems workable. Again, it's the same on a PC or a Mac. Depends on how much you record and at what quality.

5. Any compatible memory will work, it doesn't have to be from Apple. www.newegg.com is a good place to look. They have some killer prices. I recently bought 512mb for ~$78.

6. There are mics that you can attach to the ipod, but I'm not sure how sensitive they are. Not sure if they would be best for recording someone speaking in a lecture hall.

[jbass]

Excellent. I will probably pick up a 12" ibook sometime in the next few weeks. Ill grab a 512 stick of memory, and be on my way.

Thanks for your help. i will probably post more questions , but im spending alot of time browsing the forums for now.

[Will C]

Originally posted by jaimzedup:
2. With you being an experienced PC user, all the specifics for external mics are the same on a Mac (most will be compatible on both).

Um, actually iBooks do not have any analogue line level or mic inputs so a USB adaptor such as Griffin's iMic would be needed - I can add though, that it works well.
The powerbooks do have analogue sound in.

Having used a few Windows laptops, I would say I much prefer my iBook for its rapid wake from sleep and go to sleep.

[one sick puppy]

You might be better to get a USB MP3 player to record your lectures. Transcend and Sandisk both have very reasonably priced 256/512/1GB versions that have voice recording capability.

I use my iBook for school and I've just started recording lectures. The first one seemed ok, but I suspect that having a mic that you could direct towards the speaker would record clearer. It really all depends how much white and other noise there is in the room while the lecturer is speaking.

The iBook is the best thing on the market for students. Be sure to get an iSkin so you can quiet down your keystrokes so you don't bother other students, not to mention recording them.

[mac-kerouac]

Do you have an iPod? You could get a mic for that and record lectures on it.

[Phrogman]

Originally posted by jbass:

2. I want to record my lectures. I know there are built in microphones, but are there any small external mics that offer improved sound quality? Another question is how long is it viable to record? I will be in class for 6hours a day, but only 4 days a month. Is it possible to record the entire time?

I use Audio Recorder 1.4 to record audio. You can record directly to mp3 and the bit rate is adjustable, so you can cram a lot of audio in a small space.
Best of all it is FREE!!!

Here is the link:
Audio Recorder 1.4

[brettcamp]

If you're worried about hard disk space, I think you can order a 60 GB disk (instead of the base 30 gig) in your new iBook for around $80. If you have a lot of music or photos, I'd say it's worth it.

Be sure to check for educational discounts on software and hardware at your university before buying.