Some pics of my new 12" iBook G4 
They are a bit grainy because they were taken at night with a flash:
(pics no longer available)
Please don't post the above link elsewhere, as I have a limited bandwidth allowance.
Now my impressions of the new iBook. Firstly, I'm neither a laptop or Mac user, so I've nothing to compare it to. That said, it doesn't feel as sturdy as I expected--the iBook has a reputation for being rugged, but I wouldn't want to drop it. The latch that holds the display when the iBook is closed is tiny, and there is a gap betwen the display and base along the edges, with some give when you press down on the top. I was expecting a more solid, clamped-shut feel to it when closed.
The most pleasing thing about it is the noise--or lack of it. In a room without air conditioning, in this warm late spring Australian climate, I haven't heard its fan come on at all during the past two days of use. This is with the default power management settings, and with or without the AC adaptor connected. And the hard disk (a 40GB Fujitsu) is virtually silent whether idle or active, the latter being slightly annoying. Since there's neither a aural for visual reference, it's hard to tell when the hard disk is doing something.
One thing that isn't silent is the combo drive. For such a small and delicate device, the slot mechanism is surprisingly noisy when inserting and ejecting discs. At full spin, the noise and vibration is a bit ridiculous. It runs too fast when playing audio CDs--it needs to be slowed down here to 1X or something. During DVD playback, it runs much slower and quieter, but still makes enough noise to be at least slightly annoying.
The 12" screen is good, but not spectacular. In particular, its colour reproduction appears inferior to my hp 17" LCD monitor (which itself is inferior to my CRT monitors). I've run the display calibration and it improved a little by switching to "television" mode. Thankfully, I haven't spotted any of the dreaded dead or stuck pixels.
My favourite feature is definitely the way it sleeps, with its white light pulsating at the front from beneath the chassis. Dropping its power consumption down to 1-5W, then being able to resume your work within a couple of seconds, is brilliant.
So that's about it. Overall, I'm a pretty happy camper. Now I just have to see if I can get Linux working on it
They are a bit grainy because they were taken at night with a flash:(pics no longer available)
Please don't post the above link elsewhere, as I have a limited bandwidth allowance.
Now my impressions of the new iBook. Firstly, I'm neither a laptop or Mac user, so I've nothing to compare it to. That said, it doesn't feel as sturdy as I expected--the iBook has a reputation for being rugged, but I wouldn't want to drop it. The latch that holds the display when the iBook is closed is tiny, and there is a gap betwen the display and base along the edges, with some give when you press down on the top. I was expecting a more solid, clamped-shut feel to it when closed.
The most pleasing thing about it is the noise--or lack of it. In a room without air conditioning, in this warm late spring Australian climate, I haven't heard its fan come on at all during the past two days of use. This is with the default power management settings, and with or without the AC adaptor connected. And the hard disk (a 40GB Fujitsu) is virtually silent whether idle or active, the latter being slightly annoying. Since there's neither a aural for visual reference, it's hard to tell when the hard disk is doing something.
One thing that isn't silent is the combo drive. For such a small and delicate device, the slot mechanism is surprisingly noisy when inserting and ejecting discs. At full spin, the noise and vibration is a bit ridiculous. It runs too fast when playing audio CDs--it needs to be slowed down here to 1X or something. During DVD playback, it runs much slower and quieter, but still makes enough noise to be at least slightly annoying.
The 12" screen is good, but not spectacular. In particular, its colour reproduction appears inferior to my hp 17" LCD monitor (which itself is inferior to my CRT monitors). I've run the display calibration and it improved a little by switching to "television" mode. Thankfully, I haven't spotted any of the dreaded dead or stuck pixels.
My favourite feature is definitely the way it sleeps, with its white light pulsating at the front from beneath the chassis. Dropping its power consumption down to 1-5W, then being able to resume your work within a couple of seconds, is brilliant.
So that's about it. Overall, I'm a pretty happy camper. Now I just have to see if I can get Linux working on it
