[Memphis_Mac]

I've got a Graphite DVSE iMac, but I want to add a portable to my Apple stable.

I'm very excited about the new iBook releases, but I've a PowerBook vs. iBook question.

I know the iBook doesn't have a SuperDrive, and I've read that you can't use iDVD without it. But are there new patches for iDVD3 that would allow me to edit with iDVD and burn with a 3rd party burner?

I was really considering the 15" Powerbook with a Superdrive. I want to be able to burn DVDs of home movies (not today, but maybe in a year or two). But the $1000 difference between 15"pb and new 14"ib could buy a lot of other stuff (like a 3rd party burner).

Oh, and the 12"pb is just too small a screen for me.

Somebody offer some advice to this notebook newbie,

Brian

p.s.
I'll be using it mostly for Internet/word/excel/iTunes, but I'd also like to do some iMovie and iPhoto editing. I'll save the old iMac for the heavier Photoshop stuff.

[awcopus]

Memphis,

I've had a 12" iBook 600 pretty much since it came out. I have used it on an almost daily basis over the last two years, especially when I'm travelling, on planes across the country and back and forth to Europe, in some pretty rugged shoots in wild areas...and sometimes I simply didn't have the optimal protection for it.

I love this thing. It's my baby. Old reliable. No dead pixels even with the battering it's taken.

Believe me, when you buy a portable you're thinking about how amazing it would be to do A-Z on the thing. But in reality, you end up using it more and more for a relatively limited number of things. iTunes, Word, Excel, and the DVD Player (Mail, Safari when you're lucky enough to get a connection) will be your core apps when you're on the road. Yes, it will run Photoshop and you almost certainly will run it and other high-end apps for a while, just because it's a rite of passage to dump everything you own on a portable.

But for what you'll end up using it for, really, the iBook is absolutely kick-ass. IMO.

The PowerBooks are wonderful but overpriced.