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Apple iBook Notebook (600-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 15 GB hard drive)

Apple iBook Notebook (600-MHz PowerPC G3, 128 MB RAM, 15 GB hard drive)

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful, Spectacular, Sexy
Review: This is by far the best toy I have ever bought. It's absolutely beautiful, both the hardware and the operating system (OS X). I bought it primarily to edit digital video of my new baby. It's elegantly simple to download the video into iMovie and extremely intuitive to edit the video. I upgraded the hard drive to 30 gigs and the RAM to 256 Megs in order to give myself some head room. I thought I might not like the small screen but it seems not much less viewing area than my 17" desktop monitor. I bought the iBook instead of the Titanium PowerBook because the PowerBook does not offer the DVD/CD-RW combo drive. I wanted to be able to burn the videos I made to CD as well as backup and archive files on my hard drive. I bought a mouse (Apple's optical mouse) beacuse I generally don't like trackpads. The single complaint I have is that the USB port is on the left side of the machine and I have to run the cord for the mouse under the computer to use it with my right hand. Otherwise I am extremely satisfied with my purchase.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: iBook on order
Review: Small, powerful, capable--and with free shipping and (the) rebates AND RAM added. Hard to pass up such an option.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Basic 500 MHz iBook
Review: I bought the one with a 20 GB hard drive, and I have since put an extra 256 MB memory in it. This machine is wonderful because it is so light, and yet it is powerful enough to run OS X, and just about any software you want to throw at it. It is dynamite on airport networks. I move mine between home and work i.e. between two airport networks, and that is really easy and convenient. The screen is just the right size for a portable, and really easy to read, and clear as crystal. If you want speed, go for the higher CPU speeds and the higher bus speed, but I have been very happy with the 66 MHz bus and 500 MHz processor. It is fine for everyday work. If you really want to move fast, use your desktop. I use a dual processor G4 with two screens when I really need to move fast during the day. However, my ibook is always on, in use for my calendar and for backups, resting by the side of my desktop screens. I would not be without it. At home it is my main machine, where I do all my work stuff. What amazes me is how many applications I can keep open and in use for hours under OS X. No crashes, lots of flexibililty to keep many things going at once. Absolute magic! The really neat thing is when you meet a PC maven, or even a G4 Powerbook, the other machines are so BIG! This ibook is wonderful on the road. I have carried my ibook around in a ordinary bag, not a padded computer bag, for a week at at time, bumping about, with no ill effects, either on the computer or on my shoulder!
I add this comment over a year later. I stand by what I said above, except that the hinge on the screen is giving me trouble now. The computer needs to warm up for a while before I can put the screen in its fully opened position. Eventually, I am going to have it fixed.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: 500 MHz ibook
Review: I bought a 500 MHz ibook.

While it's true that the 10 GB model does fill up rather quickly - be realistic - a laptop is a toy, unless you're truly using it as a total desktop replacement. I actually do more of my daily work on my ibook now than my regular Pentium 4 station - and that's a good thing. My ibook rocks.. now I just need an ipod. Granted, you will need to up the ram. I'm maxing mine out at 640 MB. I read one reviewer saying it was hard to exchange files between PC's & Macs... but exchanging files between pc & mac platforms isn't hard. Some programs haven't come to mac yet, but I seem to like the programs that mac has better - for example, itunes rules...

Anyway, I'm not gonna ramble anymore - just face the facts. Apple builds an excellent laptop (it's really eye-catching, and sturdy), and when you compare the two, there's no reason to get a PC laptop, in my view (though tons of people still do). :)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Pretty Box, Overhyped
Review: I use both Windows PCs and Macs, and found this to be a real disappointment. It's a very pretty, physically well engineered machine, yet pricey, like most Apple products. Be sure to order it with more than the recommended RAM--OS X is very slow to load, even version 10.1 which Apple will charge you an extra (...) to upgrade to (mine arrived with v10.0.3).

Major shortcomings are in the software.

OS X is very pretty to look at, with some really nice new (for Apple) features, but it is no easier than the old Mac to find and launch applications. Still, it has few new navigation tools, but nothing like the Windows Start button or right mouse click capability.

With an Airport Card installed ((...) extra), the much hyped wireless capability is supposed to be compatible with the 802.11b standard (also known as known as Wi-Fi), but it only works with the pricey Apple Airport base station, not most other 802.11b networks. Apple support says simply that they only support their own Airport base station. So if you want a Wi-Fi network that works with both PCs and Macs, you are outta luck. Big disappointment from a company attempting to penetrate a market dominated by Intel PCs.

The legacy capability is also way oversold: there are very few apps for OS X, and shifting into Classic Mode (OS 9) is not really automatic. It's tricky and clumsy.

Finally, the iBook comes with very little application software installed, unlike most far less expensive PCs.

Sorry, guys, you need to deliver on your promises.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Durable, Easy, Powerful, and a minor glitch
Review: We bought the iBook because we needed something to get us online to do banking while on a two-month long trip across Europe. We decided to get the combo drive because we wanted to watch DVDs while on the train and back up data.

Before we left, I put some things on it such as auto-complete forms in Internet Explorer and some other things in programs. Well when we got to London (first place on our journey) I was annoyed to find out that these items had dissapeared, both in OS-9 and OS-X. But that was no big loss.

We also found ourselves using the cd-burner drive for a few other uses. We made a few audio CDs while in the car because we needed something to listen to, and while the built-in speakers are of high quality, they weren't good enough to allow all 3 passengers to hear it.

The DVD drive worked flawlessly right out of the box. The CD Burner drive also worked. I had a few problems in OS-X with iTunes but it was easilly solved by downloading iTunes for OS-X for free from Apple's website.

Another great feature on the iBook is it's 5-hour battery lifespan. We used it on the plane, on the train, and in the car (even cd-burning and dvd reading) and it never ran out. The included power adapter makes travel easy since the cord winds up in itself.

As my first Macintosh computer, I was very fond of it, although some features that I use in Windows will keep me away from an apple in the future, but my mother would say otherwise.

I give it 4 stars because while I thought it was great and easy and had no major problems, I still need to use programs that are native to the Windows platform, and also sometimes I find it a bit hard to navigate the Macintosh platform. Oh well, that's just me though, go figure.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Love it!
Review: My first Mac after using PCs for years. I see the light now.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I WANT THIS!
Review: This thing is the best, I checked one out latly...IT ROCKS!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Shockingly fabulous...
Review: An exceptional product and an excellent deal. I recommend getting some extra RAM anywhere online, very easy to install yourself. Fabulous graphics, the screen is perfection, great sound, wonderful word processing, iTunes, iMovie, the greatest two operating systems, 9.2 and X. It's beautiful and useful to anyone. Perfect in every way. And weighs less than five pounds. Surpasses all of it's price and tech counterparts.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fast, beautiful and light
Review: The latest iBooks are pretty much the opposite of the very first Blueberry and Tangerine iBooks. They have a faster system bus, much more RAM, much bigger hard drives and they've lost the garish colors. Perhaps most importantly, they've trimmed all the fat off making the iBook almost a sub-notebook. Despite this, they're loaded with features and are the perfect laptops for student or business person wanting to travel light.


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