iBook or PowerBook?

[hansen]

Besides speed what are the pros and cons of the iBook vs the PowerBook? I'm going to use it at home to surf the Internet, mail, iTunes w. iPod, maybe a little programming - though I probably will never have the time for it, a game like Sims2, writing, dreaming...

- Which one gets the least scratches?
- Does the weight difference matter in daily use - say lying on the bed, sitting outside etc.
- What is the most annoying thing about either?
- Are there differences in battery life?
- If I buy a new thing there is often a thing I didn't knew about that should have been in it. What would that be here?

 

[MacFan26]

For the things you would be doing, like Internet etc. I'd recommend the iBook. You'll be able to save some money and still do all the things you probably need/want to do. As far as the scratches, I think the white plastic of the iBook scratches easier, but it's not bad at all. There's polishers and cleaners that can fix it if it bugs you. As far as weight, I don't think there's much of a difference. If you're going to be carrying it around all the time like at work or something, it may be noticable, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure about the battery life differences
As far as the most annoying thing? Physically nothing annoys me

 

[hansen]

For the things you would be doing, like Internet etc. I'd recommend the iBook. You'll be able to save some money and still do all the things you probably need/want to do. As far as the scratches, I think the white plastic of the iBook scratches easier, but it's not bad at all. There's polishers and cleaners that can fix it if it bugs you. As far as weight, I don't think there's much of a difference. If you're going to be carrying it around all the time like at work or something, it may be noticable, but otherwise it shouldn't be a problem. I'm not sure about the battery life differences
As far as the most annoying thing? Physically nothing annoys me

What about heat? Is that a problem with any of them?

 

[MacFan26]

The heat isn't bad, but the PowerBooks are generally a little hotter than the iBooks mostly because the iBooks don't have as much power.

 

[matt459]

I just bought a new ibook (1.2, 768 ram, BT...) and it works great!! Like stated before, it already has some light scratches on it. I keep my ibook in a sleeve all the time so you can imagine that it is pretty easy to scratch. But, it is very hard to notice and i can only see them when i turn it in different ways in the light. Besides that, the speakers are really small. They are the same ones on the 12 inch im pretty sure. Could'nt Apple have fit larger ones in there? This sort of ties in the previous (complaint? but not really).. The space inside the ibook when its open. To me it looks kind of plain. There is about 3 inches up front and an inch all around that its just-plain-white. I dont think it needs anyhitng else, but it looks a little boring to me.
Speed wise, it is wonderful. I do the exact things on it as you. I surf the web, listen to music, run most of the ibook apps, and edit some pictures i take. Don't spend more for the powerbook. I'm sure it is worth the extra money, but i dont think it will benefit you with your needs as listed.

 

[hansen]

I currently have a pc. Has anybody experienced compatibility problems with Safari/Internet Explorer on Mac, surfing the web?

Is open office/star office a workable alternative to Microsoft Office?

 

[netytan]

If you talking about how easy it is to get used to each application then i have to state this for the record "its a web browser" and since they all have basically the same layout .

You can actually test star office/open office on your PC if your really worried about this but its not something i'd really worry about. After all, you'll be learning a whole new OS. Just accept that things are going to be different and take everything as it comes.

Good luck,

Mark.

 

[MacFan26]

I currently have a pc. Has anybody experienced compatibility problems with Safari/Internet Explorer on Mac, surfing the web?

Is open office/star office a workable alternative to Microsoft Office?

I've only had a few things that I couldn't do in Safari, and those I could just switch to IE and they would work fine. I rarely use IE since Safari is such a great app and every website I've been to except a couple work.

Open Office isn't too bad, it's definitely gotten better in the updates. For me, it was just worth it to get the student edition of Office and not have to worry about it. Office seems to work better on Macs than PC's, so I like using it. But there's definitely other stuff out there if you don't want it.