Ok:
I have been holding off on buying a powerbook till this summer, hoping and crossing fingers that the G5's will be out in them. But I have been getting impatient, and I have been having my doubts that we'll see the powerbook g5 update until 4Q 04 - 1Q 05. So I have been thinking, with Apple laptops holding their value as well as they do, I could get my self a nice little ibook (12 inch), add a little ram and the wireless card to hold me for about 10-11 months, then I could sell it. It seems that ibook's do hold their value great (for a computer), so I figure if I am spending around $1,200 on the computer, I could get 700-800 (maybe more?) out of it in 10 months. I wouldn't bother to pick up apple care for it, and if I sell it with-in 12 months, I can transfer the regular warranty, plus the new person could buy the applecare if they wanted.
Another question is though, can the ibook do what I need in the meantime? The real reason I want to go with a powerbook over the ibook is the DVD burner, I really would like to make some video for the grandparents. But luckily we have some Macs at work that have the burner, so if I buy an ibook now, does it come with the iDVD, so I can build the DVD on my ibook and then transfer it at work (work is getting the ilife 04 update)? Also Would a ibook @ 800 be enough for doing this? I would also be capturing the video from a sony TRV-22. I mean if I have to go with a little beefer ibook.
Also can iDVD/iMovie make VCD's ?
Just a few more questions, I want to max my return value (VS original cost) on the ibook, which model/level do you think I should get? I figure I can save some money myself by upping the RAM to 640 myself (maybe I'll have apple do it, I dunno). This should also help my overall return costs. The built in network would be a must for me in any case. What about bluetooth? And I wouldn't mind having the bigger screen if it helps keep up that return on my investment. I just don't want to spend more than 1300-1500 with the education discount.
Thanks for any advice!
--Randy
ps please excuse the double post, I posted a similar document over at macworld, but when I started reading this forum today I releaized the volume of more traffic these discussions see.
I have been holding off on buying a powerbook till this summer, hoping and crossing fingers that the G5's will be out in them. But I have been getting impatient, and I have been having my doubts that we'll see the powerbook g5 update until 4Q 04 - 1Q 05. So I have been thinking, with Apple laptops holding their value as well as they do, I could get my self a nice little ibook (12 inch), add a little ram and the wireless card to hold me for about 10-11 months, then I could sell it. It seems that ibook's do hold their value great (for a computer), so I figure if I am spending around $1,200 on the computer, I could get 700-800 (maybe more?) out of it in 10 months. I wouldn't bother to pick up apple care for it, and if I sell it with-in 12 months, I can transfer the regular warranty, plus the new person could buy the applecare if they wanted.
Another question is though, can the ibook do what I need in the meantime? The real reason I want to go with a powerbook over the ibook is the DVD burner, I really would like to make some video for the grandparents. But luckily we have some Macs at work that have the burner, so if I buy an ibook now, does it come with the iDVD, so I can build the DVD on my ibook and then transfer it at work (work is getting the ilife 04 update)? Also Would a ibook @ 800 be enough for doing this? I would also be capturing the video from a sony TRV-22. I mean if I have to go with a little beefer ibook.
Also can iDVD/iMovie make VCD's ?
Just a few more questions, I want to max my return value (VS original cost) on the ibook, which model/level do you think I should get? I figure I can save some money myself by upping the RAM to 640 myself (maybe I'll have apple do it, I dunno). This should also help my overall return costs. The built in network would be a must for me in any case. What about bluetooth? And I wouldn't mind having the bigger screen if it helps keep up that return on my investment. I just don't want to spend more than 1300-1500 with the education discount.
Thanks for any advice!
--Randy
ps please excuse the double post, I posted a similar document over at macworld, but when I started reading this forum today I releaized the volume of more traffic these discussions see.
