Convince me to buy an Apple ibook :-)

[steven_9709]

I'm off to the States next week, so want to take advantage of the weakish dollar and get a new laptop. I want something small (12" screen max), lightweight and must have wifi.

Was originally looking at the ultra-mobile Sony Viao with the 10" screen but can't really justify the £1500ish price tag, so after seeing a friends ibook I'm now very tempted to get one of these instead....

So, all you Apple people out there - convince me! What's so special about the ibooks compared to a normal windows machine? Come on, arm's are here to be twisted :)

[PlexShaw]

So, all you Apple people out there - convince me! What's so special about the ibooks compared to a normal windows machine? Come on, arm's are here to be twisted :)
I don't own an Apple machine (yet, but am planning to get a Mac mini - as a gamer, I won't be dumping Windows XP though), but I believe most people will answer with this:

http://www.apple.com/uk/macosx/

[ohood]

I'd definately hold off for as long as possible as Apple are due to make a reasonably large announcement about something or other next week. Possibly new machines, maybe even widescreen iBooks, etc. www.appleinsider.com and www.thinksecret.com might be worth a look.

[Er1c_C4RtM4N]

I think the general thoughts are that Apple will be releasing new PowerMac and possibly new PowerBooks on the 12th October. There have also been rumours that there may be a Video iPod, however it may be too soon after the release of the iPod nano.

Getting back on track, the iBook is a nice notebook. They are well known for their WiFi range and are good value machines. They do have their drawbacks as they tend to get statched very easily, but you can by plastic coatings that protect the outside of the unit.

Apple notebooks tend to be quite well made and, touch wood, I have never had a minutes bother with my G4 PowerBook that im on right now. The choice of software is probably going to be the only limiting factor for you. There arent as many Mac Application titles available, however the software out there is generally good.

Go ahead and buy it, and if you decide you dont like it then you should be able to get a fairly good price for it on eBay as long as you look after it and get a good exchange rate on your initial purchase.

HTH

[KeyserSoze]

Is it true apps only install to one folder. No messy files installed to unknown places, registry etc ?

I really want an Apple laptop, but it would also mean i have to rebuy all the apps which would be expensive (music recording apps). Seeing as I can get a decent enough PC laptop for around £400 its hard decision for me.

[AWaite]

Yeah, with most apps it's just a case of downloading the disk image file (.dmg), which then get's automatically mounted by Finder, then just drag the application to wherever you want (normally the Applications folder). When you run the app for the first time it will create whatever files it needs in your /Library/Preferences folder.

[cervaro]

I really want to go ahead and buy the Imac 20" model, but am concerned at the imminent arrival of the Intel based machines. The old dilemma of buy now or wait.

[sjg1]

I owned a G3 iBook (same style, older processor) for about a year and really liked it. However at the time it was the only option for a light 12" notebook with 4hr battery life and internal optical drive. These days with the Intel Centrino notebooks you can get the good battery life, neat internal wireless and WinXP suspends and wakes much, much quicker than 2000 and previous. So while they're still really nice bits of kit, they don't seem that much more special than most Intel/Windows laptops these days.

What I do like is the finish (they're made of white polycarbonate) which may scratch a little on the surface but doesn't use any paint or coating which wears off. We have Dells at work that look awful after a year or so as the silver colouring just disintegrates. There's neat non-obvious stuff like the network port auto-changing so if you plug a crossover lead in when you shouldn't (or want to connect directly to another PC and only have a straight-through lead), it just works. Lots of good design detail that just makes it pleasant to use - plus they're one of the few that seem to be designed to be used on your lap. There's no vents or fan outlets underneath to clog up, and they run pretty cool anyway. They're also excellent value IMO next to the Powerbooks and equivalent size/weight/battery PC laptops.

As for OSX, it's just nice to use, especially if you're using Windows all day at work. Very intuitive and you should find software out there to meet your needs.

I wouldn't worry too much about a new version - they got the traditional summer update (in time for back-to-school) with more speed and capacity, so another one before feb/march is incredibly unlikely.

[KeyserSoze]

I owned a G3 iBook (same style, older processor) for about a year and really liked it. However at the time it was the only option for a light 12" notebook with 4hr battery life and internal optical drive. These days with the Intel Centrino notebooks you can get the good battery life, neat internal wireless and WinXP suspends and wakes much, much quicker than 2000 and previous. So while they're still really nice bits of kit, they don't seem that much more special than most Intel/Windows laptops these days.


I think thats the way to go for me then. Thanks for the info.

[Hoskas]

i was just going to answer no to the original question :)

[MrSpoons]

I've been playing round with one of the ibooks at work and although it does indeed look nice and the operating system seems ok, it doesnt really do anything that windows doesnt do