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risc said:
Like is enough reason to buy 1 if you can afford it. If you bought 1 of the current PowerBooks you would be very happy, as you pointed out the screen is better than the iBook, the 15" you are looking at has great resolution now and would be very nice for your use of Photoshop and video editing. The PowerBook also has FW800 support so if you ever need to get an external HDD for your computer the PowerBook has the iBook beat again.

I say go for it, you'll be more than happy!

Welcome to the cult. ;)
DO I Really need a Powerbook? Maybe I should just settle wiht a 2.0 ghz pentium M notebook?

THe only thing I really love about the PB is the style, lightness and case. I don't even know how to use a mac, so maybe I should wait for a Dell notebook that is light and titanium case like the PB in the future.
 
BlizzardWolf said:
DO I Really need a Powerbook? Maybe I should just settle wiht a 2.0 ghz pentium M notebook?

You are on a Mac forum, and you posted "Buy powerbook now or later?" what has that got to do with Dell notebooks? You should buy whatever you want, if the only reason you like the PowerBook is the case I suggest you go to an Apple store and actually use 1 for a while. It's your money do what you want.

Damn this whole thread was a waste of time. :rolleyes:
 
BlizzardWolf said:
I'm a junior in high school and going off to college in about a year and a half.... I'm saving up for a Powerbook for college... But, should I buy the updated Powerbook now?

Or should I wait and get the Intel based Powerbook probably in a year?

I hope that the Intel based Powerbook isn't around $3000 since I can only afford a notebook that's around $2000. Will PowerBooks ever get cheaper?

Dude if you can wait a year till buying see what happens and what they release in the off chance they release a second intel revolution PowerBook and you have the cash for and genuinely think you want that or will use it then buy that(Run on, but anyway i mean PowerBook). Otherwise if you want something now get an iBook because that will still last you many years and by the time you graduate college(as long as you decide not to become a supersenior such as myself) you could then pick up that Quad Core Quad Processor Intel Powerbook with a 30 inch foldout/projection screen and 3D keyboard.

At least thats what i would do.
 
Are Macs difficult to use? I've been using Intel... Windows for 10 years and don't think i'll ever get used to macs... will I?
 
BlizzardWolf said:
Maybe I should just settle wiht a 2.0 ghz pentium M notebook?

If you buy a Dell you will be doing exactly what you said, "settling," what if William Wallace decided to just settle and let England rule over him, what if George Bush decided to just settle and believe what all of his school teachers since first grade told him, ok well that last one was a bad example but my point is if you get a Dell you will be settling for an inferior product prone to degradation quicker and you will always wonder what if.......this is a dare to be great situation if i have ever heard one.
 
BlizzardWolf said:
Are Macs difficult to use? I've been using Intel... Windows for 10 years and don't think i'll ever get used to macs... will I?

I don't own a Mac yet, but my friend has an iBook (that I convinced him to get) and I was over at his house on the weekend and was using it. I had the whole thing figured out in about ten minutes.

It's disappointing to come back to Windows after that.
 
This thread is uncharacteristically unhelpful. I will do what I can to give you some advice as a long-time windows-users (and linux and VMS and every other OS under-the-sun).

The situation is this:

Powerbooks have just been updated for the first time since last January. That means that the PBs currently available are as good as they're going to get for at least a few months, and probably longer.

The current PBs (and iBooks) are powered by the Motorola G4 proc. (they didn't get the Freescale 7448s into the latest revs, much to my disappointment). The G4 is now a pretty old CPU, and the Pentium M is unquestionably superior. Nonetheless, the current PBs (and iBooks) are very nice systems. 'System' is the key word here. To use the well-worn 'car' analogy, a corvette has a much more powerful engine than a porsche, but a porsche is generally a better car because all of the components are well-designed to work together as a system (chassis, suspension, breaks, steering, engine, etc.). The PB is like a Porsche. It may not be the fastest machine on the quarter mile, but it handles very well overall. And it is priced accordingly.

Sometime next year new PBs will come out with Intel CPUs (probably Yonahs, maybe Memroms) that will be seriously fast. If you can wait, wait. If you need something now, the current PBs are more than fast enough (although they aren't the fastest) and they are very well-made and well-designed. I just ordered one myself.

But WRT computers, waiting always gets you more bang-for-your-buck. On the other hand, what does waiting cost you?

And with respect to your concern about switching to Mac OS, I wouldn't worry about it. After considerably more than 10 years using windows and other OSes, it took me about 15 minutes to get comfortable with OS X, and about two weeks to feel totally at home with it. OS X is by far the best operating system I have ever used (having started with a PDP-11 in 1968) and is still way ahead of anything Microsoft has planned for Vista. You'll love it.

Cheers
 
I'm typing this on my ibook (most recent update). It only has the stock 512mg of RAM, but it's still a hell of a lot faster than my school's Dells (which I considered fast until my ibook arrived). Web pages load almost instantly when I'm getting full airport reception, and everything else comes up faster than I can think what I'm going to do next, except when I'm downloading. As for OSX and all the good things about macs generally, this site and others are filled with info so I won't get into it. (I'm trying to get out of the habit of listing off all the things that make macs better for my poor pc bound roomate's sake.) Suffice to say that the current ibook is a fantastic machine, more than capable of handling the average college student's needs, and with educational pricing, well worth the money. Every time I have to use a pc at school I am reminded how frustrating, ugly, and yes (at least as far as these Dells are concerned) slow they are. I am so glad that mac exists and I don't have to deal with pcs on a regular basis!
 
iDM said:
Otherwise if you want something now get an iBook because that will still last you many years and by the time you graduate college(as long as you decide not to become a supersenior such as myself) you could then pick up that Quad Core Quad Processor Intel Powerbook with a 30 inch foldout/projection screen and 3D keyboard.
I like that! :eek:
Hopefully we get it soon... :p
 
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