[zen]

Finally got my 12" iBook, complete with 640MB RAM. Going from a 333 Mhz iMac to this is totally mindblowing!

Anyway, did all the chores like erased hard drive and installed 10.3.2 from scratch, installed all the software updates (now running 10.3.3), fixed the f12 eject button bug, calibrated the battery and did the advanced setup on the screen. Then did the important stuff like install Warcraft III and Neverwinter Nights

I'm a total newbie to the iBook (although a Mac user) so I have a few qs...

1. Battery/power
Although I've calibrated the battery, for the most part the iBook is just going to be used at a table, and occassionally moved to the couch. Is it ok to run the iBook off the mains power when it's at the table (eg 90% of the time)? Is the battery ok, sitting there fully charged? Or do I need to unplug it now and again and let the battery get some use?

2. Screen
I did the advanced options in the screen calibration so now it's looking a lot better than it did out of the box, but it's still bright down the bottom (where the lamp is I guess) and darker at the top. I guess this is just what you get with a 12" screen? Does anybody have the "perfect" calibration?

3. Sleep/disconnect
When not in use I just close the lid and it goes to sleep (light pulses). I noticed that this disconnects the modem (just on a dial-up here). Does sleep HAVE to disconnect? I sometimes leave stuff downloading overnight and have just left the lid open and let the screen turn off after 10 mins. Can I close it and keep downloading?

That's it. Apologies if these have been covered ad nauseum but being the proud new owner of an iBook G4 is rather exciting!

Cheers

Zen

[biscool]

Not sure on the first two, but you cannot have the computer be asleep and still be online/downloading. I would do just as you have been doing and have the screen sleep...

[wataru]

To expand on the above post, the whole idea of sleep is that everything but the memory is "off," as in getting no power. Obviously, then, the modem isn't getting power, nor is the CPU or hard disk. In order for you to download anything, all of those need to be powered, but that would defeat the purpose of sleep.

[zen]

Cool, thanks for the sleep info guys! Yeah, that all makes sense now I think about it!

Cheers,

Zen

[ebsidohw]

On the battery bit... most people will tell u not to keep charging the battery unless its drained. SOmethign about how it ends up holding less of a charge (someone else feel free to expand on this b/c I dont understand it full).

HOwever, in my own personal experience... I always plug in my iBook when I'm at a desk, which is about 70% of the time. The rest of the time I'm running on battery. My battery still lasts the same 3.5 hours it lasted when I first opened my package from Apple.

[solaris]

For a long battery life the WORST conditions are storing it at 100% charge in a high temperature environment.

With the mains plugged in the battery will always be at 100% and the temperature of the running ibook will be reasonably high too.

This combo killed my powerbook battery in under a year. My wife's new ibook battery is stored in a drawer on 40% charge.

Check out Battery University.

[typoon]

Originally posted by zen:
1. Battery/power
Although I've calibrated the battery, for the most part the iBook is just going to be used at a table, and occassionally moved to the couch. Is it ok to run the iBook off the mains power when it's at the table (eg 90% of the time)? Is the battery ok, sitting there fully charged? Or do I need to unplug it now and again and let the battery get some use?

2. Screen
I did the advanced options in the screen calibration so now it's looking a lot better than it did out of the box, but it's still bright down the bottom (where the lamp is I guess) and darker at the top. I guess this is just what you get with a 12" screen? Does anybody have the "perfect" calibration?

3. Sleep/disconnect
When not in use I just close the lid and it goes to sleep (light pulses). I noticed that this disconnects the modem (just on a dial-up here). Does sleep HAVE to disconnect? I sometimes leave stuff downloading overnight and have just left the lid open and let the screen turn off after 10 mins. Can I close it and keep downloading?

That's it. Apologies if these have been covered ad nauseum but being the proud new owner of an iBook G4 is rather exciting!

Cheers

Zen

To Answer them in order:
1. You can leave it plugged in and. As you probably notice the battery doesn't stay at 100% charge. This is done so that it doesn't damage these Lithium Ion Batteries. The batter will drop itself to 94% before starting to charge again. Once again this is something with the Lithium Ion batteries.

2. No there really isn't any perfect calibration. It is mostly personal preference.

3. Yes Sleep does have to disconnect. What you can do if you want to leave it to download overnight is to lower the screen til it goes black or enable the screeneffects.

[SupahCoolX]

You could also just set the display to automatically go to sleep in the Energy Saver Preferences, leaving everything else (modem, hard drive, etc) to run as needed.