[B]decision about iBook/powerbook[/B]

[Nybombers142]

I decided to wait intill the new version of powerbook comes out. By the it should be clear to what buy- 12" G4 iBook, 12" G4 PB (ver. B), or 12"G4 PB (ver. C). Is long as it gets a 200 Mhz booat, more ram/ Vram, more L2 cache would be great, and MABEY a lighted keyboard. Others ways, probaly the ver B PB. It should be about $1299- 1399. Plus a student discount.

But I was wondering, will all this drain the battery faster? How important is battery life to students carring it around all day?

Anything else that you hear apple might update for the PB? -I'm talking 12" here.

 

[26139]

But I was wondering, will all this drain the battery faster? How important is battery life to students carring it around all day?

Anything else that you hear apple might update for the PB? -I'm talking 12" here.

Is that a rhetorical question about battery life? How important is it to you...?
And...no one "hears" anything about apple updates. They just guess based on historical precedents.

 

[jsw]

Battery life seldom increases these days (battery technology is stagnant, and system power demands tend to increase), so look for it to be worse with the next line if they bump the speed. However, it's not all that expensive to get a 2nd battery, which, if you use the laptop all day long, you'll need.

 

[Nybombers142]

No, that was a real question. I was wondering how far some students tend to streach their battery life. so maby that 1 hour i lose will come back to hurt me. Another question. how long does it take to charge from near dead to full charge? ibook or powerbook.

 

[thirteen1031]

iBook for Battery

No, that was a real question. I was wondering how far some students tend to streach their battery life. so maby that 1 hour i lose will come back to hurt me. Another question. how long does it take to charge from near dead to full charge? ibook or powerbook.

If battery life is important to you, go for an iBook--they have a longer battery life.

How far do students stretch their battery life?...well, that depends. If this is High School, you're in trouble, because that's class after class where you might be using the laptop and usually no plugs. So we're talking 3-5 hours straight of classes where you might need/want your laptop (lunch included!) with little chance to re-charge.

If this is College, then you may have better luck. You have an hour-long lecture in the morning, then a break before your next class--that's time to recharge. And some college classrooms now have plugs.

Of course, it also depends on what you do on the laptop while you're on battery. Watching a DVD takes a lot of battery power. Jotting down lecture notes in Word doesn't take much battery power. Generally speaking, you can expect about 3 hours on the powerbook, about 4 on the ibook--if you're not running a lot of programs at once. Long enough to get you through a 1 hour lecture, or give you time to start writing up an essay at a table out in the quad.

However, if you really want to extend that battery life, you can re-calibrate the battery once a day for something like a week. It's not a good thing to do to the battery, but I've heard tell that it will lengthen the minimum time you get by about an hour.

 

[Opteron]

Li-ion batteries tend to work better if you constantly use them. So the more you use the battery the longer it should last, in regards to it's overall life time.

 

[KershMan]

Another way to extend your battery life is to turn off everything you don't need. So, turn off Airport, Bluetooth, etc. if you don't need it. Crank you screen brightness down to whatever is comfortable, below 50% and you will get a good increase on your battery.

Also, in the Energy Saver preferences, go to battery, and then options and select Reduced for processor performance. This will give you plenty of processor for Word processing, etc.

 

[mkrishnan]

Another way to extend your battery life is to turn off everything you don't need. So, turn off Airport, Bluetooth, etc. if you don't need it. Crank you screen brightness down to whatever is comfortable, below 50% and you will get a good increase on your battery.

Also, in the Energy Saver preferences, go to battery, and then options and select Reduced for processor performance. This will give you plenty of processor for Word processing, etc.

When I moved from PC to Mac laptops, one thing that surprised me is that I do not see an option to set separate default values for screen brightness with the battery vs outlet power.

Is there any mod or util to do this? It would also be nice to automatically power on with BT and AE turned off if the iBook is not plugged in....