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Loving my iBook G4!

redhatcode29 said:
U obtained both at the same time...that should be fun.... U must be all over both of em. Figuring out which one u should tweak first :p have fun.
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Actually I've had the iBook Clamshell for a while now, in fact it was my first PPC Mac. It's good to get another laptop after so long and I am excited to get it working.

There were also a couple 12" PowerBook G4s in that store but I turned those down because of condition.
 
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I just picked up a 12" iBook G4 1GHz. I did a quick format and loaded Tiger . I looked around and found a 512 SODIMM and installed that. Went through the optimizations and installed TenFourFox. It seems a bit faster than my 17" imac G4 1Ghz. Loving it so far. Unfortunately it came with a bad battery and has lots of wear and tear.
 
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Gamer9430 said:
yesterday I got my beautiful iBook G4 from LowEndMac for $45, and boy was it a good buy. The computer arrived slightly dirty, but a little while of cleaning went a long way, because it looked really nice after. This is the 12in model and it has a 1.33GHz processor and 1GB of RAM, which at some point I'll upgrade to 1.5. Currently it has 10.4.11 Tiger installed, and will be upgraded to 10.5.8 Leopard at some point, but for now, Tiger serves it's purpose. This computer will serve as taking notes in class along side my iPad, thus I will use the iBook when I need a little more power. There is one major issue with this computer though and that is the battery life. The battery has 296 cycles on it, is 105 months old, and holds about 55% of its original capacity. Thus I'm left with about 2~2:30 of battery time. If anyone can find a cheap battery on Amazon/eBay please let me know so I can get it. I'm not aiming to dump a lot into this computer, so the cheaper the better.

I can already tell this computer is going to be fun!
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That is a great computer and one of my favorites. I LOVE iBooks. I love working on them, getting into them and just using them. Your machine specifically is my second favorite machine just due to how versatile it is.

Even though Tiger is great, the iBook G4 from mid 2005 really shines on Leopard. It was my main machine for a time in 2012 when I was getting my degree at ASU. It streamed all of my media to my AppleTV (and awesomely even the ones that it couldn't natively play), I burned movies on it with Handbrake, even had it as my main torrent client for a while…etc.

This computer is well worth the investment in it. I would buy a good battery from OWC and definitely pay for the RAM. Overall, an additional $25 for the right RAM and $80 for the battery is worth it. When I got a a NewerTech battery for my iBook, I would get easily 6 hours of battery life .

And yes, it seems silly to spend so much money on an iBook, but it can still do plenty of things and still be very useable and even still work as a primary machine depending on your uses. Get a 802.11n adapter and now you can connect even faster; get a SSD for it an increase the R/W rates by 40%, install screen spanning doctor and actually extend your display, use airplay, connect to WPA2 networks, use it as a troubleshooting machine for other PPC Macs and even Intel Macs ( once I had to diagnose a problem with a friend's iMac, of course my other Macs, and I even used it to burn bootable Windows OS discs). They are great machines and still worth the money.
 
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RedCroissant said:
That is a grab computer and one of my favorites. I LOVE iBooks. I love working on them, getting into them and just using them. Your machine specifically is my second favorite just due to how versatile it is.

Even though Tiger is great, the iBook G4 from mid 2005 really shines on Leopard. It was my main machine for a time in 2012 when I was getting my degree at ASU. It streamed all of my media to my AppleTV (and awesomely even the ones that it couldn't natively play), I burned movies on it with Handbrake, even had it as my main torrent client for a while…etc.

This computer is well worth the investment in it. I would buy a good battery from OWC and definitely pay for the RAM. Overall, an additional $25 for the right RAM and $80 for the battery is worth it. When I got a a NewerTech battery for my iBook, I would get easily 6 hours of battery life .

And yes, it seems silly to spend so much money on an iBook, but it can still do plenty of things and still be very useable and even still work as a primary machine depending on your uses. Get a 802.11n adapter and use can connect even faster; get a SSD for it an increase the R/W rates by 40%, install screen spanning doctor and actually extend your display, use airplay, connect to WPA2 networks, use it as a troubleshooting machine for other PPC Macs and even Intel Macs ( once I had to diagnose a problem with a friend's iMac, of course my other Macs, an I even used it to burn bootable Windows OS discs). They are great machines and still worth the money.
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Wow, much has changed since i started this thread a year ago. I did get a 3rd party battery pretty cheaply, and I have since gotten multiple apple chargers. I could max out the ram if I wanted to. Sadly, the machine doesn't get used much anymore since I got multiple PBG4s. All of my PBG4s have dead batteries accept for my 12in 1.5GHz. Since the iBook and 12in are virtually the same machine, accept for the 12in having a 1.5GHz CPU vs 1.33GHz, I find myself using the 12in more often (I've been using it daily for school until I fix my Dell that broke). I was using the iBook daily last year for school, but I found it to become slower and slower as I used it. I actually bought the Dell to replace the iBook because it was an extremely good price for a really good machine. I have changed my optimizations significantly (especially thanks to @eyoungren's TFF tweaks), so I find my PBs to be still very fast. I have formatted the iBook and cloned over the install from one of my PBs, so now it has all my software and optimizations. If I wanted to, I could easily switch back to the iBook any day since it's optimized now, but I like the sleek metal of the 12in as well as the slight speed improvement over the plastic iBook. It doesn't see much use these days sadly. I hope to give it to my sister at some point, however, her trust relations with my parents aren't exactly strong, so I don't know if that will be happening anytime soon...
 
Gamer9430 said:
Wow, much has changed since i started this thread a year ago. I did get a 3rd party battery pretty cheaply, and I have since gotten multiple apple chargers. I could max out the ram if I wanted to. Sadly, the machine doesn't get used much anymore since I got multiple PBG4s. All of my PBG4s have dead batteries accept for my 12in 1.5GHz. Since the iBook and 12in are virtually the same machine, accept for the 12in having a 1.5GHz CPU vs 1.33GHz, I find myself using the 12in more often (I've been using it daily for school until I fix my Dell that broke). I was using the iBook daily last year for school, but I found it to become slower and slower as I used it. I actually bought the Dell to replace the iBook because it was an extremely good price for a really good machine. I have changed my optimizations significantly (especially thanks to @eyoungren's TFF tweaks), so I find my PBs to be still very fast. I have formatted the iBook and cloned over the install from one of my PBs, so now it has all my software and optimizations. If I wanted to, I could easily switch back to the iBook any day since it's optimized now, but I like the sleek metal of the 12in as well as the slight speed improvement over the plastic iBook. It doesn't see much use these days sadly. I hope to give it to my sister at some point, however, her trust relations with my parents aren't exactly strong, so I don't know if that will be happening anytime soon...
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You see? This is why people should read the dates that things are posted! Well, fine then!

I had that same iBook and have gone through so many computers that I know what's great( for me at any rate) and what should not be gotten rid of or taken lightly. Now that I recently acquired my Mac Pro though, I see my "collection" of computers soon decreasing. Now I can actually see myself going down to one desktop and one laptop. That would be nice.
 
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RedCroissant said:
You see? This is why people should read the dates that things are posted! Well, fine then!

I had that same iBook and have gone through so many computers that I know what's great( for me at any rate) and what should not be gotten rid of or taken lightly. Now that I recently acquired my Mac Pro though, I see my "collection" of computers soon decreasing. Now I can actually see myself going down to one desktop and one laptop. That would be nice.
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Well being that I'm a collector, the more the merrier!
 
You guys inclined me to turn it on ;)
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1454173780.130316.jpg
 
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The 12" 'Books are where it's at. They're the perfect size to tote around, and still pack just as much of a punch as their larger brethren. Hence why a 12" PowerBook still travels back and forth between my classroom and home with me each and every day :)

Looks like your iBook is in beautiful shape for its age!

powerbook.png
 
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MultiFinder17 said:
The 12" 'Books are where it's at. They're the perfect size to tote around, and still pack just as much of a punch as their larger brethren. Hence why a 12" PowerBook still travels back and forth between my classroom and home with me each and every day :)

Looks like your iBook is in beautiful shape for its age!

View attachment 613381
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I love using mine in school since it's so compact (and because everyone is amazed that a laptop of that age can still do most modern tasks I toss at it, as well as how old it is in general). I still love the edge-to-edge design on the keyboard.

My iBook is indeed in very good condition. It's sadly missing the screen feet as well as bottom feet. Other than that and some scratches on the bottom and lid exterior, it's in really good condition.

I'm actually bringing both my 12in PBG4 and iBook with me to school today so I can do an iMac rescue mission with the iBook and still do work on my 12in.
 
Gamer9430 said:
I love using mine in school since it's so compact (and because everyone is amazed that a laptop of that age can still do most modern tasks I toss at it, as well as how old it is in general). I still love the edge-to-edge design on the keyboard.

My iBook is indeed in very good condition. It's sadly missing the screen feet as well as bottom feet. Other than that and some scratches on the bottom and lid exterior, it's in really good condition.

I'm actually bringing both my 12in PBG4 and iBook with me to school today so I can do an iMac rescue mission with the iBook and still do work on my 12in.
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@MultiFinder17 actually uses his at school too. :D

He just sits at a different desk than you do. :D
 
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