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anyone have an iBook?

post #1 of 25
4/7/04 at 12:12am
Thread Starter 
Anyone have the 12.1 inch iBook with the G4 processor they can comment on? Im looking to get this cheap laptop and upgrading my desktop so as to avoid buying one of those expensive desktop replacements which you all love. CNet seems to like it but id like user opinions, particularly on battery life.
Thanks
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post #2 of 25
4/7/04 at 2:58am
i don't have one, but i have had a bit of experience with ibooks. My only complaint about the 12.1 inch is that it's uncomfortable to type on due to the small keyboard.
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post #3 of 25
4/7/04 at 4:02am
And they're pretty damn heavy for the size, have you noticed?
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post #4 of 25
4/7/04 at 10:59am

rugged

All Apple notebooks have the same size keyboard, even the 17" PowerBook.

The iBook has a rugged design that is perfect for carying around wherever you go. They are pretty reliable and have good battery life. I don't have one of the new ones, but I had a G3 600 about 2 years ago and it never had any issues in the year that I owned it.

I'd recommend it, as long as you don't expect to game on it and 1024x768 is a good resolution for you. I need more screen real estate myself.

cheers,
Merlin
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post #5 of 25
4/7/04 at 8:24pm
totally depends on what you want to do .. for web surfing, email, unix work.. and general usage, it's a great machine..

as far as it being heavy.. it is not heavy considering it has the optical drive inside it.

they are very durable and os x rocks.

battery life is 4.5-5 hrs
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post #6 of 25
4/7/04 at 9:52pm
hey since we're on the subject, i'm an illustrator that uses a pc at home and a mac at work. I do a lot of digital paintings... i need a notebook and am considering the aluminim g4 or a hypersonic cx6 (because it's cheaper and supports better hardware) - i need light weight and slim because i'm always on teh go.

i'm at crossroads: 1) i would like the g4, but the cost of it is much more than the cx6. are macs good for longterm investments? 2) industry people tell me to get a mac, engineers and gamers tell me to get a PC - i figured this would answer my question alone, but i have too many pc friends telling me macs are bad?
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post #7 of 25
4/8/04 at 12:49am
Thread Starter 
Thanks a lot guys. Yeah, id only use it for email, word processer, music etc., so it might be a good choice. I have to admit though, the main reason im looking into the ibook is its amazing looks, i guess im just looking for something to justify me buying it. lol.
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post #8 of 25
1/31/05 at 4:10pm
I have a g3 i-book, love it, does all I need.
Battery life, well aat home I always had it plugged in, but when in the car with GPS linked to it, I got about 2hrs or so.
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post #9 of 25
2/1/05 at 1:48pm

iBook, X2

I've got two of these, and I love them. I think I managed to get them (two 1GHz lappys) right after the upgrade, so they were about $600 each at my local Mac store. Can't beat that price with a stick.

My feelings about them is that they are great little machines -- but you have to have appropriate expectations for these. They are not the fastest Macs I've ever used or owned, but they're durable, they run everything I need them too, and they're compact/mobile.

I'm about to add 512MB of RAM on each in an effort to make them a bit more responsive.

I'm also not keen on the 1024x768 resolution -- that's little or no real estate.

I've been running them both for 3 months now -- no problems as yet.

On the plus side, these things have something like 4 hours of battery life. As a mobile web browser and word processor, I am very pleased. I've even been able to run Civ3 and Warcraft 3 w/ little or no problems. Surprising for a box with little or no video power.

These lappys (one for me and one for my wife) are fine for what I use them for (amusements during commercials, &c) and will hold me till the PowerBook G5 comes out ....
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post #10 of 25
2/1/05 at 2:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by abraxas
Thanks a lot guys. Yeah, id only use it for email, word processer, music etc., so it might be a good choice. I have to admit though, the main reason im looking into the ibook is its amazing looks, i guess im just looking for something to justify me buying it. lol.
If thats all you are using it for, then it's a great choice. Personally, I am a pc person because I do a lot more than I could on that machine, but I have spent lots of time on 12inch ibook as well as the g4 powerbook. Since I do more than what you mention there, I would go for the powerbook if I got a mac, but when I used the ibook (I had one I used all throughout my last year of school, I conned the tech guy to let me use it when I was there) I used it for exactly what you described, internet through wireless, word processing, and listening to music. It is actually better than the powerbook in this case because it lasts so much longer and is a lot more convenient to carry around. I do have one suggestion though, if you get it and want to listen to a cd, copy it to the hd 1st (itunes works fine), just trust me on that. As for the keyboard, it's a pain at 1st, but you get quickly used to it so it's no big deal. And lastly, sorry Socrates7, but apple just announced the new powerbooks and there is no g5 yet http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005...powerbook.html so you will have to wait longer, but on the bright side, the prices are lower.
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post #11 of 25
2/1/05 at 2:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lithiumcharles
And lastly, sorry Socrates7, but apple just announced the new powerbooks and there is no g5 yet http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005...powerbook.html so you will have to wait longer, but on the bright side, the prices are lower.
Sad, isn't it? I'm just a slave to fashion, I guess ....

I just hope they manage to release that bad boy before the G6 comes out. We'll see, I suppose.
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post #12 of 25
2/1/05 at 11:56pm
I bought a g4 14 inch ibook about a month ago. i use it all the time. the batt. lasts about 5+ hours doing normal stuff. i can watch 3+ hours of dvd. for durablity, i put my without a case in my bag almost everyday, no problem. os x is alot better. if your only experience with mac is at a school, or on a large network, you cant base your opinion on that situation fairly.
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post #13 of 25
2/2/05 at 12:25am
i dont have it. but one of my friends has 12" iBook, and 2 of my other friends have a 14" iBook (all G4). the guy with the 12" is pretty happy. The guy with the 14" is semi happy. Gaming is nearly impossible but does other stuff well, and he got it for free, so shouldn't complain. The chick (my best friend btw) with the ibook has logicboard related issues just about every other month, so not very happy at all.

I'd say...BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK
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post #14 of 25
2/2/05 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Socrates7
Sad, isn't it? I'm just a slave to fashion, I guess ....

I just hope they manage to release that bad boy before the G6 comes out. We'll see, I suppose.
Yeah, that would be nice if they could find a way to release it soon, maybe even implement the 1st watercooling setup in a laptop

And for Abraxas, I forgot to mention this in my 1st post, make sure you get OSX, I completely forgot about that, OS9 is horrible and runs like crap compared to OSX, just make sure you have 512mb of ram (that is the sweetspot for osx, you don't really need over 512, but you definitely need at least 512.
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post #15 of 25
2/3/05 at 4:29am
Apple doesn't support OS 9 anymore, no Apple computer has come with OS 9 support—other than Classic mode inside of OS X—for a few years now.
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post #16 of 25
2/3/05 at 5:19am
hey abraxis, read my review!!! i get 3.75hrs of battery life doing the usual stuff. w/ airport turned off i get around 4:20. it's a great little multitasker. i've found i can do some pretty intense stuff on it and use the rest of the OS, that usually would make my desktop (windows xp) mostly unusable until it was done. i'm talking about video encoding, something which hogs 100% of your system resources if it can. the g4 and os x handle this kind of work beautifully, and as noted, if u were to throw this kind of work at it, u'd still be able to check your email, surf the net, write a paper, and listen to itunes. 4.9lbs is heavy for a 12" machine? the sony s series weighs 4.3lbs, and u know what? u can tell why it weighs that much! it feels flimsy! if u breath on the palmrest it flexes, not cool. the ibook is a solidly built machine. if u get sick of the 12" screen every now and again, just plug it into your monitor, and hook up your kb and mouse and there u go!
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post #17 of 25
2/5/05 at 12:10am

768 is great

Quote:
Originally Posted by lithiumcharles
just make sure you have 512mb of ram (that is the sweetspot for osx, you don't really need over 512, but you definitely need at least 512.
Just upgraded to 768 -- and it's a big difference. Highly recommended.

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post #18 of 25
2/5/05 at 12:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by triadone
if u get sick of the 12" screen every now and again, just plug it into your monitor, and hook up your kb and mouse and there u go!
can't you do that with EVERY laptop not like its an apple exclusive
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post #19 of 25
2/5/05 at 1:45am
um yeah abf, actually u can, u think u could re-state the obvious? the comment was in re: to screen size (of any machine), not in re: to some proprietary relationship that apple has to vga connection technology. get with it!
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post #20 of 25
2/5/05 at 2:06am
i was being sarcastic
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