Apple Releases PowerBooks and iBooks

[kbonnel]

Well, I'm about to place my order!!

I have a question regarding software... What would others recommend: Office or AppleWorks?

I've been trying to decide, and I'm still not sure which to go for. On one hand, AppleWorks is _much_ cheaper, but on the other hand, I'm familiar with Office (for the PC), and from what I hear, it's a little more robust/feature-filled than AppleWorks.

Can anyone share their own personal experiences/opinions? I'd really appreciate it.

Also, I've been debating whether or not to purchase .Mac. Is it worth the extra money, or should I not bother?


Thanks,
Frank

I would go with Office. I like my student/teacher version, and it is not much more expensive than appleworks (maczone.com has it for 130)

 

[spinko]

Well, I'm about to place my order!!

I have a question regarding software... What would others recommend: Office or AppleWorks?

I've been trying to decide, and I'm still not sure which to go for. On one hand, AppleWorks is _much_ cheaper, but on the other hand, I'm familiar with Office (for the PC), and from what I hear, it's a little more robust/feature-filled than AppleWorks.

Can anyone share their own personal experiences/opinions? I'd really appreciate it.

Also, I've been debating whether or not to purchase .Mac. Is it worth the extra money, or should I not bother?


Thanks,
Frank

Try and get MSOffice through an "Education" chanel which would be much cheaper. The great advantage is its compatability with Win-Office files. Word is still overbloated and does much to many things but it works fine. I think you could get it on its own if you like to. Same for Excel.

 

[andrewm]

Don't buy Office--yet

Well, I'm about to place my order!!

I have a question regarding software... What would others recommend: Office or AppleWorks?

I've been trying to decide, and I'm still not sure which to go for. On one hand, AppleWorks is _much_ cheaper, but on the other hand, I'm familiar with Office (for the PC), and from what I hear, it's a little more robust/feature-filled than AppleWorks.

Can anyone share their own personal experiences/opinions? I'd really appreciate it.

Also, I've been debating whether or not to purchase .Mac. Is it worth the extra money, or should I not bother?


Thanks,
Frank

My advice is that you refrain from a purchase of Office until MS Office Mac 2004 comes out (is that in May? I'm not sure). The current Office is truly a travesty, and most of us who use it do so only because of its powerful features. The new Office will, hopefully, be significantly improved. It's currently clunky and unresponsive, rather finicky, and has that feel that make the Windows version unbearable for me. Wait for the new one so that you won't be stuck paying a $200 (or whatever it is) upgrade fee.

AppleWorks is, in my view, a dead product. Apple probably won't be doing further development with it, save for compatibility updates. It's unstable with regard to clip art, and doesn't even support scroll wheels, for those power-users among us. Apple might be working on a new word processor, but it won't be based on the cheap Carbon core that was AppleWorks.

I don't intend to turn this into an AW vs. Office debate... heaven knows that there may be enough of those. This is simply my advice.

As for .Mac, my Mac needs it, according to Apple, but I don't have it, and my computer doesn't seem lonely. $99 for, basically, a low-feature web site and a special e-mail address. The software, save for the Backup program, doesn't usually sound especially interesting. Unless you're in an environment where Virex might help.

Cheers!

 

[dgoss]

wardriving and AlBooks

I am particularly looking forward to using Macstumbler and maybe istumbler when at conferences and exhibitions looking for free access points and seeing whats out there.

I agree with earlier post: KisMac

http://www.binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren/kismac/

don't be scared with the funky URL

One thing is that only certain (and 802.11b, not g or "Extreme) wireless cards can be put into "passive" mode. Active is cool for basic looking around and works fine with 'g'. Passive mode on cards allows you to sniff all traffic out there and capture it to run through a packet analizer later - allows you to get into some more interesting wifi geekage...

Try out KisMac on your extreme card. If you want more, get a good 'b' card for cheap and a small external patch antenna (8dB gain or so) - with that kind of getup you can get access just about anywhere. I have a small kit for travelling and in the last year have only paid for internet in a hotel once - there is always something out the window, somewhere... but with the built-in antennas sometimes you're dealing with a marginal signal. The antenna and card will go for maybe $150 total.

d.

 

[FrankieShakes]

Thanks for the advice... I've been looking around on the Educational store, and there doesn't seem to be a link for Office. It seems as though the Apple Canada online store doesn't carry/advertise Office. I'll keep looking, although I may be forced to purchase it at my campus store. If I'm not mistaken, I recall the sales person telling me it was around $245/265CDN.

Andrewm: Microsoft (maybe just MS Canada?) is advertising a free upgrade to Office 2004 if you purchase Office X before June 30th.

Can’t wait to start using Office for Mac on Mac OS X? Start right away. If you purchase Office v. X for Mac anytime between now and June 30, 2004, get Office 2004 for free. (Shipping and handling and applicable taxes not included.)

It may be worth the purchase now... What do you think? I wonder if the new version may be cheaper, and they're making it seem as though purchasing it now would be the better deal.

 

[aswitcher]

My advice is that you refrain from a purchase of Office until MS Office Mac 2004 comes out (is that in May? I'm not sure). The current Office is truly a travesty, and most of us who use it do so only because of its powerful features. The new Office will, hopefully, be significantly improved. It's currently clunky and unresponsive, rather finicky, and has that feel that make the Windows version unbearable for me. Wait for the new one so that you won't be stuck paying a $200 (or whatever it is) upgrade fee.

Upgrade fee in Oz is $10, or $110 to upgrade to pro! Pretty good value on a edu copy

As for .Mac, my Mac needs it, according to Apple, but I don't have it, and my computer doesn't seem lonely. $99 for, basically, a low-feature web site and a special e-mail address. The software, save for the Backup program, doesn't usually sound especially interesting. Unless you're in an environment where Virex might help.

Cheers!

If your new to Macs access to all those quicktime movies on using Macs and iLife etc could be pretty valuable. Its one of the reasons I am getting .mac.

 

[aswitcher]

I agree with earlier post: KisMac

http://www.binaervarianz.de/projekte/programmieren/kismac/

don't be scared with the funky URL

One thing is that only certain (and 802.11b, not g or "Extreme) wireless cards can be put into "passive" mode. Active is cool for basic looking around and works fine with 'g'. Passive mode on cards allows you to sniff all traffic out there and capture it to run through a packet analizer later - allows you to get into some more interesting wifi geekage...

Try out KisMac on your extreme card. If you want more, get a good 'b' card for cheap and a small external patch antenna (8dB gain or so) - with that kind of getup you can get access just about anywhere. I have a small kit for travelling and in the last year have only paid for internet in a hotel once - there is always something out the window, somewhere... but with the built-in antennas sometimes you're dealing with a marginal signal. The antenna and card will go for maybe $150 total.

d.

Is KisMac easy to turn off and on, so you can then use your AE normally?

Yeah, I might get a b card with a yagi. Looks like fun.

 

[dnoonan]

.Mac and powerbooks

I got .Mac for myself a year ago--frankly because I'd just finished a big freelance project and had an unusual amount of discretionary income. The iDisk's integration with the Finder is nice if you work on multiple macs, but it's nothing you can't do less conveniently with cheaper server space elsewhere.

But two weeks ago, I dropped my 15" powerbook as I was standing up and moving across the room. I caught the base of the computer with both hands, but the rotation and momentum whipped the screen open to 180 degrees relative to the keyboard, breaking the hinge assembly with a loud pop.

The screen was still working--but I didn't know for how long. For all I knew, if I moved the computer even slightly it would break the connection and I'd be done. So I sat there on the floor, cradled the screen with one hand, and used the other hand to run Backup and save all my critical files on my iDisk. It was fast and easy--exactly when I needed fast and easy.

So yeah, I'm a big fan of .Mac now.

If you're looking for a lower-cost alternative to .Mac, you might take a look at spymac.com. They offer some of the same features (email, web hosting, iCal hosting) for free, and $20 a year gets you a similar backup system and turns off the banner ads. I've used the free part of spymac for a few weeks now, with no complaints.

--dnoonan.

 

[electrolux]

For the 12" powerbook, is it really necessary to get the 5400 rpm drive if I want to capture and edit video in Final Cut Pro? If I were to get the 4200 rpm drive what disadvantages would it have?

 

[gopher]

historically build to order takes longer than a straight order. So don't panic if yours doesn't come right away. Keep an eye on http://www.apple.com/OrderStatus if you ordered direct from Apple to find out the latest on your order.

 

[jetlife2]

Hard Drive Capacity

I got a BTO 12"/1.33/768RAM/80G/Combo which arrived yesterday (in fact using it right now).

For those of you debating over hard drive size you may be interested to know that out of the box the usable available space on this drive was 65GB. The 80G refers to 80E9 bytes, so by the time you convert and then allow for the pre-installed s/w, the actual space available reports as 65GB.

Based on this I would estimate that the 60GB drive would arrive with about 46GB usable (estimate only).

This may be useful info for someone trying to decide which HD to get. Cheers

 

[Apple of my eye]

My 15" 1.5 w/ BTO 128 vram is here

Well almost. It has arrived in Fresno California at 1028 am. I don't know if they deliver on sat. I hope they do!! I can hardly stand the fact that I am a mere 5 miles from my new pb!!

 

[invaLPsion]

Well almost. It has arrived in Fresno California at 1028 am. I don't know if they deliver on sat. I hope they do!! I can hardly stand the fact that I am a mere 5 miles from my new pb!!

15 inch..... pish....

I don't think they deliver on Saturday.

 

[kbonnel]

15 inch..... pish....

I don't think they deliver on Saturday.

I am sure they won't deliver it today. Unless you paid for saturday delivery. But even then, it is probably at the airport, and is now being moved to the FedEx station, where it will leave monday morning.

I wish FedEx would let you pick up a package before they attempt the 1st delivery.

 

[MacRAND]

.Mac and MS Office X OEM are well worth the money

Well, I'm about to place my order!!
I have a question regarding software... What would others recommend:
MS Office or AppleWorks?

I've been trying to decide, and I'm still not sure which to go for.
On one hand, AppleWorks is _much_ cheaper, but on the other hand,
I'm familiar with Office (for the PC), and from what I hear, it's a little more robust/feature-filled than AppleWorks.

Can anyone share their own personal experiences/opinions? I'd really appreciate it.

Also, I've been debating whether or not to purchase .Mac. Is it worth the extra money, or should I not bother? Thanks, Frank

Good questions, Frank.
AppleWorks is provided free on some Macs, so you might want to wait for that until after delivery.
MS Office with Word, Excel and PowerPoint is so cross-platform for receiving and sending docs to others that I could not live in my world without it. I also have become really attached to Word & Excel over the last decade of use. In Word I use the Merge feature constantly to make automated forms with specific variables, and instead of a Word "table" for Merge, I use an Excel spreadsheet (Shhhh, it's a secret trick!)
Otherwise, AppleWorks may have enough for what you need.

Another SECRET is to ask Fry's Electronics or some other store if they have the very CHEAP full box-less OEM version of MS Office X; if so, you'll save a bundle of money.
_________________________________
As a
Switcher from PC, Welcome to the Mac world.
http://www.apple.com/switch/
http://www.mac.com/
http://www.mac.com/1/learningcenter/
.Mac is going to be very much worth it to any Switcher, the
Learning Center itself is FREE

For a new Mac owner, they are priceless and are very well done - you'll love them.
Basic Learning Tools are free. More advanced training is available to .Mac Members only.
There are so many wonderful things about the Mac platform to learn, you will want and need a simple, fun way to absorb all this new information in a friendly form.

For more training online, there is more robust series of training "films" in the --
Apple Online Training (For .Mac Members Only)

• Getting Started with Mac OS X (Panther)
  Welcome to Mac OS X Panther Training,
  a fun and exciting look at Apple’s next-generation operating system.
  Whether you’re an experienced Mac user upgrading to Mac OS X, or
  have used a personal computer but are new to the Mac, this is the guide for you.
  Choose a path below to get started, and enjoy Mac OS X Panther!
  • Mac OS X Fundamentals
  
  SECTIONS IN THIS COURSE
  Customizing Your Mac
  Sharing Your Mac
  Working with Applications
  Managing Multiple Tasks
  Keeping Your Mac Secure
  EXTRAS
  Panther Training Main Page
  About this Course
  Practice Files
  Help
  Provide Feedback on this Course
  Additional Apple Training​
  
  • Mac OS X Daily Productivity

So, FRANK, what do YOU think, is .Mac worth $99 to YOU?

I think a .Mac Membership, especially for the 1st year, is well worth the price.

Special discounts (like $30 off Keynote presentation software - beats the heck out of PowerPoint - essentially pay for the membership)

Members ONLY receive special benefits FREE - check these out
http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/Tools...er&cty=US&lang=en&identifier=q91J7lHMh3X3qcwZ

Once you buy Keynote at a cost of only $69, .Mac members get
• Seven Free Keynote Themes—US$100 value
Offer good through June 16, 2004
Seven Keynote themes created by third-party designers give .Mac members even more options for impressive presentations.
• Free Sound Effects from Skywalker Sound
Offer good through May 31, 2004
Exclusively for .Mac members, 13 iMovie sound effects from the audio wizards at Academy Award-winning Skywalker Sound. You'll find them in the new Members Only folder on iDisk.
• Free Audio Tracks from Freeplay Music
Thousands of professional-quality background music tracks from Freeplay in styles from Techno to Orchestral. These AAC format tracks are available in the iDisk Members Only folder.
• Free VersionTracker Plus Subscription—US$24.95 value
Offer good through June 23, 2004
Now it's easy to keep your software up-to-date. VersionTracker.com tracks more than 36,000 software products. The VersionTracker Plus subscription gives you customized tools so you can track the software you use and download updates.
• Exclusive Apple Training "Going Digital with iPhoto"—US$39.95 value

Apple's online training Going Digital with iPhoto shows you how to take great digital pictures, then organize, edit, and share them using iPhoto and your Mac. Plus create web pages, custom iCards, and more. Includes 56 QuickTime movies.
• Exclusive Apple Training "Going Digital with iTunes"— US$39.95 value
Apple's online training Going Digital with iTunes is available free with full .Mac membership. Practice steps, helpful tips, and 28 QuickTime movies show how to use iTunes 4 and your Mac, including adding an iPod to your digital music system and using the new iTunes Music Store.
• Exclusive Apple Training "Getting Started with Mac OS X v10.2"—US$30 value
Apple's award-winning online training for Mac OS X (Jaguar) is now available free as an exclusive benefit for .Mac members. The modular course covers Mac OS X applications, network and internet access, printing, and more. It also includes practice steps, helpful tips, and 90 QuickTime movies.

 

[dgoss]

more KisMac

Is KisMac easy to turn off and on, so you can then use your AE normally?

Yeah, I might get a b card with a yagi. Looks like fun.

KisMac loads its own driver (wiha, if I remember correctly) - the later builds of KisMac are stable to unload the driver and return the machine to it's defualt state (Apple driver). Some earlier versions would need a reboot to get the driver off - not so great. I think they've resolved that. The software gets frequent builds and is improving steadily.

One caveat is that my experience is with my TiBook and standard (b) cards (built in Airport and PCMCIA slot card for antenna port). I am not sure how it behaves with g, except that I noted that the site now says that g is supported (in active mode, as stated in earlier post). How well it is supported I'm not sure. Again, having the PCMCIA wifi (b) card for experimenting kind of works around all of this.

But by far, KisMac is the best app for wardriving - as far as I know it is the only one that puts supported cards into passive mode. All other apps are active only- also good to have if you just want to take a good snapshot of what is out there without loading drivers. The active apps (MacStumbler, etc.) are still better than dropping down the wifi menu to see what's out there!

As far as antennas, yagis are good but large compared to panel (flat) antennas. Both are directional. While yagis go beyond 10dbi, those are pretty large, at least a couple of feet long. Pretty ominous NSA-looking devices. The panels are around three or four inches diameter, an inch or a bit more thick. Good to travel with. I'd like to see the x-ray guy at the airport checking out a big yagi as it goes through!

Good luck with the wifi stuff - it's a blast and a small portable kit is really good if you want to get internet everywhere without using pay 'hotspots' everywhere.

d.

 

[andrewm]

Thanks for the advice... I've been looking around on the Educational store, and there doesn't seem to be a link for Office. It seems as though the Apple Canada online store doesn't carry/advertise Office. I'll keep looking, although I may be forced to purchase it at my campus store. If I'm not mistaken, I recall the sales person telling me it was around $245/265CDN.

Andrewm: Microsoft (maybe just MS Canada?) is advertising a free upgrade to Office 2004 if you purchase Office X before June 30th.



It may be worth the purchase now... What do you think? I wonder if the new version may be cheaper, and they're making it seem as though purchasing it now would be the better deal.

I had not known about that upgrade offer, but if it's like previous upgrades, they're anxious to get rid of old (soon to be nearly-worthless) supply stock by making a free offer like this one that requires you to install the old version, then the next one on top of it, rather than giving you a full install CD for the new. There is probably little advantage to purchasing now, but if you need the programmes immediately, by all means, as long as they're offering a free upgrade, perhaps you should go for it. Your call.

 

[Grokgod]

Hey
So excited, just got a new pb 15 inch 1.5 with everything to complement my g5 dp tower, wow, no more new computers for me for a while, it is a fast sucker, i am impressed so far, not that it will reach the pinnacles of my other machine, but i definetely have say that my G4 powerbook has no noticable defects yet and the apple store people were pretty reassuring that the defects of the first aluminum pb were fixed and so far it is true, a truly marvelous machine, does anyone have a recommendation for a bag, i bought and am trying out the brenthaven professional 15 for my powerbook, but does anyone think the profile 15 is better(smaller bag)
Thanks

Mmmm now when he says GOT does this mean jsut ordered or just recieved? Cause if its received then I have got to ask for more information about heat, noise and lcd!

 

[simply258]

Microsoft Office Test Drive (trial)

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/microsoftofficetestdrive.html

 

[simply258]

Mmmm now when he says GOT does this mean jsut ordered or just recieved? Cause if its received then I have got to ask for more information about heat, noise and lcd!

I think he means he received it

"it is a fast sucker, i am impressed so far"

 

[mpopkin]

Hey

Mmmm now when he says GOT does this mean jsut ordered or just recieved? Cause if its received then I have got to ask for more information about heat, noise and lcd!

I recieved it yesterday(now). Heat, I have had experience with the last PB aluminum 15inch and this runs a little bit cooler, gets warm with Superdrive use, but not nearly as warm as the 12 inch. So far heating is better than acceptable, i will know more in a bit, however they say that the heating on the 12inch pb is not improved, so i was happy to find that they did improve heating on the 15"(so far).
Noise: Quite as Mouse, the only noise i hear is when i start it up from shut down or sleep, and when i first put a disc in the SD, other than that it is ultra quiet.
LCD: Same as before, however there were Zero dead pixels, white spots or problems with my LCD and it produced crisp, beautiful colors
Overall I definetely recommend this powerbook 15 inch to anyone, so far its performance has been superb(i have a powermac g5 dp 2.0ghz)and its loadup times our on par with it, this does not mean that in sheer processing speed the powerbook is equal, but it is as close as you are going to get with a notebook and this notebook blows any pc book i have used in the past year right out of the water( I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 on Permanent Standby) and have used the Latitude D800 at 2.2 ghz and this is definetely faster and more portable as well

Good Luck
Matt

 

[eazyc10]

I recieved it yesterday(now). Heat, I have had experience with the last PB aluminum 15inch and this runs a little bit cooler, gets warm with Superdrive use, but not nearly as warm as the 12 inch. So far heating is better than acceptable, i will know more in a bit, however they say that the heating on the 12inch pb is not improved, so i was happy to find that they did improve heating on the 15"(so far).
Noise: Quite as Mouse, the only noise i hear is when i start it up from shut down or sleep, and when i first put a disc in the SD, other than that it is ultra quiet.
LCD: Same as before, however there were Zero dead pixels, white spots or problems with my LCD and it produced crisp, beautiful colors
Overall I definetely recommend this powerbook 15 inch to anyone, so far its performance has been superb(i have a powermac g5 dp 2.0ghz)and its loadup times our on par with it, this does not mean that in sheer processing speed the powerbook is equal, but it is as close as you are going to get with a notebook and this notebook blows any pc book i have used in the past year right out of the water( I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 on Permanent Standby) and have used the Latitude D800 at 2.2 ghz and this is definetely faster and more portable as well

Good Luck
Matt

How about battery life?

 

[Grokgod]

Thanks mpopkin!

I really appreciate the information.

Now are you talking about heat in the Palm rest area? I forgot if the Superdrive is over the palm rest like the Ti, i think not.

I find this very interesting especially since you had the last verion of the ALUbook.

I had a ALu for awhile and it was so bad. I am praying that this rev is going to make me happy with Apple again.

My problems were.
White spots ,Cured!
Heat on palm rest, Better

Still concerned about.
>Track pad impossible to disable for typing, it ws TOO sensitve and was constantly moving the I-beam all over the place.
>Wobble or warp on body and lid. On a flat table my old Alu would not sit straight, weird. and the lid when closed was strangely wobbley.


How is the video card? FAST? Screen redraws in Photoshop would be great to hear about, like a 100 meg file moved quickly around, is it all slow squares or fast and smooth.

I really am glad that we have such kind members to help us all out with this very important information.
It actually helps Apple sell their units.

What about the CHIP, is it a 7447a?

What do people think about the 1.33 , would a laptop with that chip run cooler? Than a 1.5, if a 7447a runs 20w @ 1.42 then at 1.5 its hotter but at 1.3 is it noticable cooler?

I am dieing to know these things before i can buy another Alu!

TIA

opps another thing, what about during heavy tasks like SHOP work.
How is the fan then, hot and heavy>?

 

[mattster16]

My 15" BTO PB is being held at the sorting facility in Indianapolis, IN. I live in Duluth, MN. So if things go right I should be getting it by Monday...Should I skip school (High School) and stay home and wait for it!?

 

[eazyc10]

1000 post!!

Anyways Mine is being held in indianpolis as well and I'm in Madison WI. I am tempted to wait as well and not go to class