Topic: Apple iBook

[DJ]

:hi:

I know I shouldn't talk about macs on this forum, as its for PC's but I will...

I'm looking at buying a 12" iBook to replace my laptop - instead of the Sony V505 that I was going to buy - due to price alone

I'm looking at the 12" one with CDRW and 40GB hardisk, either buying from Apples refurb store (On Wed morning) or from the education store.

Anyway does anyone own or use and iBook, if so what are your general comments on them - good / bad, what to you like or hate about them?

I would also like to know:

• I have a wireless PCMCIA card that uses my wirless router - can I still use this or do I need to use it - can I use Macs Airport?
  
• How do you write / read / use microsoft documents on it - is the software expensive?
  
• Is there freeware available as with PC's ?
  
• Finally, does the little apple on the lid light up ?  
  

As you can probably tell, I'm new to macs.

I await your comments  

for all your advice.

DJ

[Clive]

Mrs Clive uses a Powerbook G4 which I would imagine is fairly similar.  She seems to spend half her time using her PC desktop and the other half using the Mac.  She works from home most of the time and her work is computer related so I suppose that adds up to a considerable amount of Mac time each week.  Most of her colleagues are Mac only users and refuse to become involved in PC's at all.  She reckons that she has never seen a Mac crash so I suppose that must be a good point.  

We use a wireless router to connect up both PC's and the Mac Airport system works very well with it.


Microsoft software is compatible with Mac but obviously you have to have the Mac version.  There is absolutely no difference in the appearance of the software or its use and documents are fully transferable between Mac and PC.  She does this all the time.  I don't know how much the software is because she gets it provided by her company, but there is a lot of freeware available including Open Office etc etc.

Of COURSE the apple lights up!  It looks very smart too.  

[DJ]

Of COURSE the apple lights up!  It looks very smart too.  

My plan is, instead of spending  £1300 on a Vaio laptop, I hope to buy an iBook for £700 or so and a desktop PC for around £600 instead.  The iBook would be for internet work, email and word docs etc whilst the desktop would be for other tasks (programming and maybe gaming).

I've always wanted to start using a mac, but never too sure if I should take the leap or not.  I think i'll wait and see what they have offer in their refurb shop before I decide to leap or not!

Clive

DJ

[DJ]

Oh just thought...

What about support for Printers? I have a canon i320 do they have to be specifically mac friendly ?

Also what about powerpoint presentation and pdf files? Most of my lecture notes come this way - can you get a PPT and PDF viewer software.

I'll also mainly be using the laptop on the move - thats why I asked about the wireless aspect, but what about battery life? How does the powerbook do?

So many questions :soz:

DJ

[Clive]

She doesn't connect a printer to it very often as it's easier to send files by e-mail from one machine to the other which has a printer permanently attached.  But you will find that it has full printer support.  Remember that most Mac users are very fanatical about their machines and look down on PC's.    


She uses both Powerpoint and pdf files too.  I think it's a common misconception for we PC users to believe that the software we use was written for the PC originally and then converted for Macs.  I think you will find that in many cases it's the other way around. In academia, Macs are King of the computer world and you will find that everything is available.  

The G4 is coming up to 3 years old I think and is still on its original battery.  She tends to plug in into the mains most of the time though but I will have to ask her how long the battery stays charged for.  She's gone to bed so I'll find out in the morning.

[Clive]

She says that the battery is good for 2 - 4 hours depending on use.  She also says that Appleworks documents are difficult to transfer to a PC and suggests that you avoid using it if you intend to swap files between a Mac and a PC.

[DJ]

Thanks Clive and Mrs Clive (!) that info is very helpful to me.

I'll wait and see what offers there are on the Apple refurb shop when it opens on Wednesday.  If there is a good deal I think I'll purchase one  

Thanks again for your help Clive.

DJ