Another Possible Switcher Looking for Laptop Advice

[wordmunger]

Re: Another Option

Originally posted by stevietheb
A friend of mine pointed this option out to me: iBook + eMac

Two big problems:

1. Syncing--which computer has the latest version of your projects?

2. You lose the 2-monitor option without a hack of the iBook--eMac doesn't support 2 monitors.

If I'm spending $2500, I'm getting the 15-incher with the superdrive.

 

[joker2]

True, I just put a 512MB upgrade into my powerbook. I expect the 1GB sticks to come down in price over the next year or so... $400-500 is a little much!

You might be able to make iDVD/iMovie jump through the hoops you want it to, as pdrayton is saying. FCE isn't a bad deal though

 

[stevietheb]

I shouldn't have said "maxin' out RAM" since I find the cost of the 1gb sticks to be ridiculous...I would be goin' with the 512s.

Has anyone out there run FCE on an emac or an ibook? Even if it doesn't power through it as fast as a powerbook would, I'm effectively spending only $50 more (after pricin' it all out, that's $50 more than the 15" pb super) to get two computers. Plus, there's the wife factor, she'd love to have an emac that we call "her's," hehe.

As for looks, I think I personally prefer the look of the iBook to the pb. The aluminum looks sleek, but I've talked to three people now who have cracked or scratched their cases. This doesn't seem to be as much of a problem on iBooks. The primary purpose is to be totin' it around school, this seems to be what the iBooks is geared for, no?

Still undecided. Here's a question though (since I'm pretty much a mac novice). How easy/difficult would it be to sync up these two comps? Would it be as easy as connecting firewire to each or cat5 to each? I know that with PCs, at least with Windows 2K, it's fairly easy to get the two comps to recognize each other. How well does Mac do with these sorts of things?

Thanks for all the help, this is a great community!

 

[TheBunnellFarm]

Make sure you buy nothing before the 24th of this month.

Your iBook and eMac Superdrive is a real winner.

Read all the pluses and minus`s being given to you here.

Isn`t this a gold mine.

Tom

 

[stevietheb]

why nothing before the 24th?

 

[TheBunnellFarm]

We are expecting new configurations on the 20th anniversery the 24 of this month of the famous 84 superbowl add. You can look at it on the Apple site, Hot News, upper left. zombies and the woman athalete

Tom

 

[solitarycow]

Student Developer

What's up with this student developer thing?

I was just randomly clicking around at the developer part of the Apple site and I ended up having a 15" PB Superdrive ready for check out at $2,099!

What's going on here? If I were to check out, would they ask me for some sort of verification or would it just ship out and I can say "Woohoo I saved approx. $500 on my PB"???

 

[Grimace]

The student Developer discount is a "one-time" hardware discount for student developers - or those who claim to be.

There is a $99 fee for joining - and, you have to submit proof (faxed ID card and current higher ed transcript) that shows you are a student.

 

[Grimace]

So to answer your question - no, you can't just check out.

You have to sign up through ADC - they verify you, and then authorize you one hardware purchase.

 

[Engagebot]

it takes about a week to get verified. but then again im a senior in computer science at LSU... May not be so easy if you're not actually a student developer.

all they asked for was a copy of my LSU id, and a printed copy of my schedule this semester with my computer science classes listed. but this semester hasnt even started yet, so you could just add classes online, print it out, and drop them i guess.

 

[pdrayton]

Are you sure the scratched and cracked cases are on Aluminum PowerBooks and not Titanium? I've heard lots of people talk about how fragile the titanium PB's are, but my aluminum PB goes everywhere and not a scratch to be seen.

Also, I've heard lots of comments about the "plastic" iBooks and how easily they get dirty and scratched. Other users can opine about the scratching/cracking of aluminum.

And, last but not least, the wife factor. So, an iBook + eMac means you can satisfy your wife's itch for a Mac, too.

That's a new wrinkle, and I'm not even gonna go there!

 

[wordmunger]

Originally posted by stevietheb
How easy/difficult would it be to sync up these two comps? Would it be as easy as connecting firewire to each or cat5 to each? I know that with PCs, at least with Windows 2K, it's fairly easy to get the two comps to recognize each other. How well does Mac do with these sorts of things?

A mac does just fine with these things--you can do it either way, with firewire or an ethernet cable (though I think you might need a crossover cable for those models). You can even do it via airport extreme--the speed is theoretically up to half as fast as 100 base T ethernet. The difficulty isn't technological, it's organizational--coming up with a system for remembering what your most up to date files are. I'm a graduate student myself, and more than once I've deleted or copied over the more up to date version of a paper. Anyone know if there are any automated tools for this sort of versioning/syncing?

 

[stevietheb]

The current theory would be that the iBook belongs to me, and the eMac belongs to my wife. Organizationally-speaking, in order to avoid such a problem, I would do what I currently do, which is to keep a copy on my computer (which would be the iBook now) and then upload backups to a webpage every night. I do this now so that if I'm in the library and I see something I want to get into my thesis right away, I can just go over to the comp center, download the Word file, add what I needed to add...and then upload it--this is because I don't have a laptop. With a laptop, perhaps I don't need to worry about this.

The eMac, since I would be thinking about the 160gb hard drive, would be used mainly for video, photo, and garage band/soundtrack jammin'. Whereas I would use the iBook almost exclusively for school-related stuff (such as the thesis), even when I'm at home...since I can always hook up my 19" if my eyes get tired of the tiny iBook screen.

So I think I have the school organiztion figured out. What might be difficult would be the video stuff, since I would like to be able to use the iBook as a Final Cut sketchpad, perhaps when I'm out on a shoot and I want to see how things look together (wow, I'd never actually thought about capturing video on site like that--because normally I'm using DV or Beta decks rather than a camcorder feeding into the computer...that could be really neat). Of course, I would never be using this as a final product, mainly because I trust the playback on a DV deck moreso than a DV cam--it just seems more solid.

I don't know...I really think this is gonna work. The question then becomes when to purchase what (I'd like to have the iBook ASAP, I can hold off a bit on the eMac), and how much to upgrade these guys (in terms of RAM and how much HD space to buy...). ALSO, I need to figure out what I'm going to need to really make garage band hum, though I doubt I'll make any purchases before just trying it out--definitely gonna get a USB keyboard though.

Kudoes to Mac! I really feel like I'm being empowered to create, whereas all the years that I used PCs I felt like I was just running behind everyone and didn't have the ability to do anything creative like edit audio and video! I'm really pumped!

 

[rlhubley]

Stevie,
I like the 2 computer idea. Sounds like you have the organizational stuff undercontrol. It is incredibly simple to connect the two computers together. A single ethernet cord is cheap and works great. You will not need to get a crossover either. Just connect the two and then turn on file sharing on both computers, and you're up! Easy as pie. I think a 6-6 firewire is faster, although it requires a more expensive cable and setup is a tiny bit trickier.

As for buying time, sure, you can wait until the previously mentioned 24th, but i don't think you will see much. I seriosly doubt that ibooks will be updated, unless powerbooks are updated. and if that happens, you might consider an updated powerbook instead. The emac is probably due for update, but i doubt it will be anything too major. My advice, wait until the 25, just for grins, and then order them both.

You know, i have my ibook(which i seem to like a little more with each use!) and my G3 B&W 400 mhz(both running Panther). My wife generally uses the G3 at home and iBook when on the road, and stick with the laptop for the most part. It is very simple, even w/out iSync to keep the calendars synced up as well as addresses. Let me know if you need some tips on those. Those programs are really the only things that go back and forth for us. If I am working on a file on the laptop and want to work on the G3 for some reason, I just send it over via ethernet work on it, and save as needed. This way the file never really left the machine it actually resides on. If you find you do this very often, I would advise getting an external firewire drive.

Wait, if you are doing this too often, I would advise .mac instead(never really thought I would offer that adivice!)

 

[pdrayton]

Originally posted by rlhubley
Wait, if you are doing this too often, I would advise .mac instead(never really thought I would offer that adivice!)

That's an excellent idea. I let my .Mac trial period expire, but there will be times when you'll say to yourself, "The file I need is on the eMac!". .Mac's 100MB storage would be perfect for your grad school work, and with Panther the synched iDisk goes with you... you won't need to connect to the internet to access those files.

Also, have you thought about getting a refurbished eMac to save money? There's an 80GB SuperDrive version available now that's $70 less than the education discounted price. It's located here:
Apple Store Deals

Stevie, you've really thought through how 2 computers could work for you... sounds like you've got a good plan!

 

[stevietheb]

I haven't looked at .mac just yet (I'm about to though).

I think the iBook+eMac is a winning combination for me. So long as these comps last me at least through my masters and hopefully up to/through my dissertation, which I fully expect they will, then I think i'm on the right track.

As for eMac, according to MacDeal I can get a 1ghz, 80gb, superdrive emac from MacConnection (via a phone offer) for $849. That seems to be the best price that I've found. So, I think I'll do either that or get the refurb from the Apple Store. Also, rather than spending the $90 at Apple Store to upgrade to a 160GB hard drive, I think I'm going to keep the 80gb, and attempt to find an affordable external firewire drive with 120gb (giving me 80gb eMac+120gb external+60gb on the iBook)...and that 120gb hard drive will work well as a scratch disk. As I sit here, I'm typing on a comp with a 12gb hard drive...so 260gb seems like CRAZY storage between the two computers.

 

[TheBunnellFarm]

You are only making one mistake and it is a very big one,

Your expectations for the life of this equipment.

All, virtually all, computers have a life of two years, period.

Three years max...

four years, stretched much farther than they should have....

The computers themselves may be perfect and fully funchional.

A non-professional can still dable with them if his time, money and interests have no meaning.

If you will divide your total outlay by 100 for the weeks in two years, in this case $2500 you will come up with $25 a week.

Then pass them on and do the same thing again, you will always be cutting edge and state-of-the-art.

Which is moocho time and money in your pocket.

and capability.

This is a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow.

A thousand arguments follow, none that hold water, there is no other way.

This is the frugal intelligent way.

Tom-----TheBunnellFarm.com

You will have operated 100% for the two years and actually gotten your $25 a week back in time, effort and capability, so your net cost is zero. This is fact.

Then do it again.

 

[stevietheb]

That's certainly food for thought.

Unfortunately $25/wk is not easy to do on a college and grad school budget. But I have no idea what my budget will be like in 2 years when some new awesome application is announced that won't run on my G4s.

I certainly understand that these machines will not be state of the art--heck, they aren't state of the art now. But I don't foresee having a problem running MS Office 3 years from now.

Further, if this purchase was going to pay the rent--for instance if I started doing editing work from home, then I could definitely see spending the money on a G5, and then buying another every two years. But video-editing is not what I want to do for a living, I intend to teach and remain a video hobbyist (albeit, a fairly well-informed, formerly professional, hobbyist).

Thanks for the advice though...I've already contacted "Franklin" at Apple, he assures me that iLife 04 will ship (not pre-installed but CDs) with my iBook and/or eMac. Sooo, now I'm just deciding on whether or not I think iBooks will see a bump in the next week with the 20th anniversary business...waiting is no fun.

 

[TheBunnellFarm]

I am waiting too...

Tom

 

[stevietheb]

UPDATE

For those who have been following my saga (I'm surprised, with all the posts I have on these boards that I'm still a "newbie"...haha):

I purchased the iBook today. I decided that it is plenty powerful and that time is of the essence (I need to really get goin' on this thesis!). If I keep waiting, I may wait forever! It's BTO, so hopefully it will be here next week. The Apple site says I can get a refund for the difference if a price drop happens within 10 days of shipping...so if something happens this week, I can get the difference, but since it's BTO I can't send it back for a full refund.

I decided to hold off on the eMac, save my money for now and I see what happens when the next generation of comps comes out....perhaps I'll purchase it next semester, at which time I will be totally PC free. As for now, my wife will continue using the PC at home.

THANKS FOR THE HELP FROM EVERYONE!!!

 

[kasei]

I just went through the decision process myself and like you I posted here to get some guidance. Which was excellent I must add. I am typing this reply right now on a new 17" Powerboook. It was kind of tough deciding between a 15" and a 17" Powerbook. I decided to stretch my dollar as far as it would go. Use your student discount for sure and buy your RAM elsewhere. I looked at all of the Powerbooks before I made my decision. I even went so far as to work at an Apple store for a few months before I started my MBA program to learn more about the systems and the company.

Stretch your dollar as far as it will go. Don't forget tax puts a major dent in low prices so do the math. Also make sure you figure in good bag to carry your new system in. Just last week I was on the plane to Arizona and thankfully my bag could provide ample protection for my system.


Good luck in your search.