[hornsofglass]

okay, so i've finally decided to get an iBook, and after much debate, i'm going with the 12" model for the portability of it. I test drove a 14" iBook at compUSA as well, and while it's nice, i have to think about where and how i'll actually be using this thing.

I had initially wanted something with a superdrive, but i figured i have a DVD burner on my PC and rarely use it, other than for backing up data.

with a student discount, a 12" with a 60GB hd and bluetooth added is going to run me just over $1100. I figure that i can save some money and add a 512K ram module from crucial for less than apple.com and add the airport extreme card when i need it.

just a few questions 'tho if anyone can help:

1. i know that the stock 256 ram is puny, but will it, coupled with the G4 processor show me a performance increase over my current p3 667mhz xp desktop machine?

2. can i put my HP dvd300i dvd burning drive in a firewire enclosure and use it with my new iBook?

3. can the firewire port on the iBook charge/power my iPod?

that's all i can think of off hand. any recommendations on a cheap bluetooth mouse with a scrollwheel.

this will be my first mac, any software/hardware reccomendations?

r.

[psk-ele]

Congrats on your new iBook!!!

I can't answer all your questions, but I think I have a couple down.

1.) You should notice the operating system is a bit snappier than XP on your P3 667. I had a PIII 800 with 512MB ram and that thing was pretty slow at most everything. That being said, MacOSX loves ram and I would say that upgrading to 768MB or even just to 512MB will make a pretty big difference in performance. (I have 640MB in mine, and it runs extremely smooth).

2.) The firewire port on your iBook will charge and power your iPod.

Hope this helps!!

Software recommendations:
-DiscBlaze http://www.radicalbreeze.com/blaze/index.html
This is an excellent cheap cd/dvd burner program, akin to Roxio Toast

-Backlight 2 http://www.freshlysqueezedsoftware.com/
This allows you to run screensavers as your wallpaper, pretty cool, I use it sometimes.

-Gimp (an open source PhotoShop program), MacBoot (allows you to change your boot-up image from the apple to anything you want), HandBrake (allows you to rip DVD's to your HDD with various encoding options).
You'll have to look these up, I don't have the URLs on hand

-I would also recommend a utility like Drive 10 or TechTool Pro for disk maint.

- I also like iPulse (a visual Task Manager) and CandyBar (allows you to change the icons to whatever you want)
http://iconfactory.com

There are plenty more, but that's a pretty good start for some boring functional stuff. Just keep poking around at MacNN and Maccentral. That's where I learn about most of the software I have. And check once a week or so on Apple's website in the downloads section. Sometimes they have some neat stuff too.

If you are into games, I suggest Unreal Tournament 2004, Alien vs. Predator, and Halo.

I also recommend OpenOffice (for basic typing stuff) or Microsoft Office 2004 (yes, this really is a damn good program) and Keynote from Apple if you do alot of presentations (MS Office still can't touch the usability of this program, so easy and quick, and tons of sites with extra add-ins for it) If you are a math or science student, then I suggest Curvus Pro X ($39 http://store2.esellerate.net/store/c...9983418986&pc=) or Maple 9.

[Applefreak01]

Welcome to the Mac.

1. Let me say that there are two ways processors handle instructions, RISC and CISC. Comparing a RISC processor (What Apple uses) and a CISC processor (Intel/AMD) is like comparing apples and oranges. The two are completely different from each other and handle information in a different way. Overall RISC is better because it processes information in a shorter amount of time than CISC. I would say the iBook's G4 would outperform your Intel P3 processor easily. Microsoft Windows is built to make the computer feel faster. For example windows, menus and other things seem to load faster. But hands down the G4 is far better than a P3.

2. I'm not sure. Rumor has it that Apple is set to include SuperDrives (Apple's name for DVD burners) in the iBook G4. If you want to wait and see if they make a 12" iBook with SuperDrive you can do that. Or you can get an external firewire DVD burner with Mac support also. But note only the Apple SuperDrives work with iDVD (Apple's application to create your own DVD movies).

3. Yes the firewire port on the iBook can and will charge your iPod. The iBooks firewire port has 6 pins 2 for power and 4 for data. Whereas firewire ports that only have the 4 pins for data can't supply power because they don't have the 2 extra pins to do so.

As far as a bluetooth mouse I would suggest the Logitech MX900 it's not cheap cheap but not expensive either. It works the best with Mac OS X, better than any other bluetooth mouse I've used on my iBook or heard out.

I would suggest getting Airport Extreme (Apple's wireless internet products). I've found that I can't live without Airport on my iBook. You'll have to have the Airport Extreme Base Station (or 3rd party 802.11g 54mbps base station) and Apple's Airport Extreme card for your iBook (the only card that will work) to go wireless. It's up to you, but surfing, doing email and chatting from outside on a nice summer day or laying in bed is priceless at least for me

I hope that helps. Again welcome to the Mac. If you have any more questions please feel free to post on the MacNN forums again, we hear on the forums will do our best to help you.

[hornsofglass]

thanks for the nice and helpfull replies. i'm really excited about this new ibook.

i do plan to add more ram, i think crucial (i've heard good things about their RAM with macs) has a 512 sodimm for $116. that seems a better deal than the $90 apple charges to bring the system up to 512 total.

also, while initially i'm thinking of holding off on the aiport extreme card, because at least untill i start back to university in the fall, i'll have little use for it, as i'm not planning to invest in a base station for home until at least then, and i'll be able to take advantage of the wireless points on campus.

apple wants $89 for the card installed, but the local compUSA has them for $79. how difficult is it to self install? (i'm getting bluetooth, because i know i can't add it in later myself). and for that matter, how difficult is it to self install the ram?

also, just to make sure, will i be able to hook my iBook up to my current PC LCD screen at home? it has the standard (analog?)connection. is the VGA connector what i'd need?

do you think that this PC will be a good investment for me longterm (as in the remainder of my college career), as it's primary uses will be mobile internet surfing, word processing (i plan on picking up office at the bookstore) and digital media stuff, mostly using iTunes for my music/iPod and as a digital photo storage/manager?

i'm thinking of also getting an emac as an affordable desktop in the fall maybe, so that i can have a superdrive there, a lager screen, and i can give my current pc to my girlfriend to take to post-grad school with her in the spring.

would an emac/ibook combo (with aiportX) be a nice affordable combo?

thanks again, and sorry for all the questions, i'm just cautious about spending all this money, and very curious about the mac experience.

rick

[davidflas]

Hello, I am the owner of a 12" iBook G4 and I love it. Let me respond to a few of your quesitons:

As for ram, it is a good idea to buy it third party and install it yourself, it isn't too hard if your carefull.

As for airport, be sure that the card you buy at Compusa is the extreme version, not the older regular airport card, as the older one won't work. If your talking about this card, that is the old style airport card. Airport extreme cards usually sell for $99 retail.

You will find that your new iBook will be faster than your PC even with only 256MB ram, but you will see much much of a speed increase with more ram.

The eMac/ibook combo would be a great way to have both a desktop and portable system. The eMac and 12"iBook G4 are the two best deals for the money in Apple's entire product line.

Hope this helps you.

[Applefreak01]

Make sure the airport card compUSA has is the Airport Extreme version and not the old card called Airport. $85 is the going price around most stores and online stores for Airport Extreme cards and $79 is the going price in stores and online stores for the older Airport card.

If your compUSA has the Airport Extreme for less go for it, every dollar saved helps.

[Luca Rescigno]

You can connect your iBook to an external monitor, however, Apple has a software block to prevent you from using the screen spanning feature of the video card. This is easily bypassed using a little utility called Spanning Doctor or something like that. By default, it can only mirror to an external monitor at the same resolution, so you'll only be able to do 1024x768 on both screens, or 800x600 on both screens, etc.

You'll need a tiny Phillips screwdriver (I think a 00 size) to open up the iBook and install the RAM and Airport Extreme card. Since you're buying the RAM third-party and installing it yourself, you may as well buy the Airport Extreme card from another place for cheaper as well rather than getting it factory installed.

eMacs are great. I've owned one (a 1 GHz) and despite being large and, some would say, clunky, I liked it. It was much, MUCH faster than an 800 MHz G3 iBook I owned a while back. They're great deals, really cheap considering what you get. Put Airport Extreme in both and you can network them wirelessly. One option is to have the eMac connected to the internet through the ethernet jack, and then have it act as a software base station for the iBook. The Airport Extreme card in the eMac will actually transmit the signal so your iBook can pick it up. Another option is to just get a separate 802.11g base station so you don't have to leave the eMac on to get internet on the iBook. Either way it'll rock. Wireless internet rules.

[hornsofglass]

Originally posted by Luca Rescigno:

eMacs are great. I've owned one (a 1 GHz) and despite being large and, some would say, clunky, I liked it. It was much, MUCH faster than an 800 MHz G3 iBook I owned a while back. They're great deals, really cheap considering what you get. Put Airport Extreme in both and you can network them wirelessly. One option is to have the eMac connected to the internet through the ethernet jack, and then have it act as a software base station for the iBook. The Airport Extreme card in the eMac will actually transmit the signal so your iBook can pick it up. Another option is to just get a separate 802.11g base station so you don't have to leave the eMac on to get internet on the iBook. Either way it'll rock. Wireless internet rules.

really? this i didn't know. so i wouldn't have to buy a base station, i could just use the emac w/airportX card? i hadn't heard of that, is it difficult to set up?

and along that line, i've never used a wireless connection, will i have to reconfigure something on my iBook when i go to school or the airport/cafe and want to pick up a signal there?
also, how exactly does that work at cafes or school and such to use the internet, do i have to have my own ISP and connect with that, or is it as simple as launching safari or mozilla once in the wireless area?

rick

[babble]

It's really easy, if your using cable high speed internet. I wasn't able to do it with dial up...?

Anyhow, as soon as you've got internet in your eMac, you just install the two airport cards (one in the eMac and one in your iBook) and the Airport software, And voil�, you only have to tell your eMac to use itself as a base station and you got a wireless network without a physical base station.

As from hoping from one wireless network to the next. I've never done it. But, it shoudn't be that hard. From what I saw. Your iBook we'll see all networks in your area, and from the apple menu bar, under your Airport Icon, you simply choose the name of the network you wan't to connect to.