Ibook or Powerbook?

In my opinion, if the vast majority of what you plan on doing is going to be internet, chat, and email, and you plan on taking it to school a lot. Get an iBook. iBook's tend to be cheaper, lighter, more durable, and they have a better battery life. However, like you said, they are less powerful. If you are going to be using it for heavy photoediting, some video editing?, or possibly audio editing / composing. I would probably say to get a Powerbook but that completely depends on how much you actually plan on doing. My recommendation to you would probably get your 12" iBook with as much memory as you can afford and i'm sure it will do everything you want it to. Don't forget, no matter waht you decide, it's an Apple, it will work great!

Well to be honest what you're asking for is an iBook, which can handle everything u want to do with it. Both 12" has 1024x768 screen so there's no difference there, apart from dvi out to an external screen (ibook uses analog).

For just playing around with music editing software, an iBook should be fine.

As you're looking at both of the 12" models, there isnt too much of a difference, really, apart from the looks and the price (plus optional dvd burner on the pb)

Whatever you like more, go for it. Both are excellent laptops.

I personally bought the 12" iBook, its cheap enough to get me by until the rev B intel powerbooks come out

I'm still awaiting the bluetooth mighty mouse

It all depends on what you see yourself actually doing with this computer. In the end all it is is one persons opinion over the other.

depending on looks, i say the ibook looks way better than powerbook. the polish on the ibook is like a mirror

I prefer the powerbooks looks over the ibook. If the ibook isn't kept clean, or cleaned regularly, then there tends to be a lot of dirt build-up. But, that is just my opinion.

In my opinion, the iBook looks a bit cheap to me. I much prefer the look of a powerbook, don't get me wrong, the iBook is a great machine.

The iBook would do what you need, and I have over the years found it to be a more durable machine than the powerbook.

then i will clean it a lot when i get it

Kizzat, go with what you like. get the ibook. I've bought a 14" but ever since i started university, i was mesmorized by the smallness of the 12". so i sold my 14" asus and i'm going to buy a 12" ibook.

Since u're a student, u can get a free ipod + student discount! That beats any HP.

As for ibook vs. powerbook? Most people say ibook, and i'm not going to differ in this thread.

Since u're a student, u need the more durable ibook!

as for power? I will also say the same thing as a poster above, upgrade to as much memory as you can .

The max memory right now is 1.5 gigs. so you can buy a 1 gig memory (or 512 if you want 1 gig memory total)!

as for where to buy the ram chips...
this thread *stickied* will do nicely
http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=83146

the 512 ram chips aren't too expensive! ~

the 256 ram chips are really cheap, but i would recommend getting 512 becuase you only get 1 slot to upgrade ur ram. so if you wanna upgrade in the future, u'll have to throw away your 256

if your gonna get an ibook might as well get a 400dollar dell or something around that price range. I would go for powerbook, but i wouldnt go for apple now since the intel thing. But if your desperate i say ibook since is cheaper.

That has to be one of the most idiotic comments I've seen.

also, keep in mind that the iBooks don't have a direct line-in. i don't know if u were meaning to just record w/ the built in mic or to do direct digital recordings, but the PB would allow for your needs out of the box. w/ the iBook u'd need a USB or firewire audio-in device to get the high quality stuff.

yah, i've had the same impression..my sister's ibook does not look very well built.....

i agree

I don't know what he's talking about. The quality of your sound input depends on:
- your sound input hardware / sound card
- the quality of your mic

It won't be laggy unless something is REALLY slowing down your computer. Anyways, with the new iBook refresh, the 12" iBook is running a 1.33GHz G4, while the 12" Powerbook is running a 1.5GHz G4, granted, with faster memory and a faster HD. Anyways, that's just a marginal performance difference, I would think.

Now, if you used your built-in iBook microphone, then yes, the audio quality would suck. But you wouldn't do that if you were going for music recordings, anyways, cause that's just for convenience and things like webcam chatting. One difference between the iBook and the Powerbook is that the iBook doesn't have an analog input for a microphone; it just has 2 USB ports. I think the Powerbook doesn't have the built-in mic, which is why it DOES have an analog input for microphones. Anyways, you can always get the iMic from iGriffin, which provides a USB device that offers high quality analog inputs for a microphone. Otherwise, you can get a USB microphone, which can be really good, too. I've seen the micFlex, also offered by iGriffin, I believe, which "looks" good. It's trumpeted as a high quality USB mic (the HIGHEST quality, apparently), and it's about $40 USD or thereabouts?

If you want really high quality audio, then you'd probably want to get an external USB sound device / sound card, or an XLR to USB converter or something.

Anyways, I'm interested in what you're going to choose, because I'm looking around for inexpensive microphone options for an iBook, in case my music student friend decides to get one.

you don't seem to understand a thing about the intel switch or mac os x...