T-Man

I've been going thru Apples store and there's the iBook and the PowerBook. The iBooks are cheaper, is it because they dont have a G4/G5 chip/proccessor, whateveritis? I've seen the G5 iMacs but no G5 PowerBooks. I read somewhere awhile ago that a G5 laptop would be like 5inches thick, so does anyone know if there will be one w/in a year? I dont have a Mac right now(a sorry PC user )but I'm doing my homework. I will be getting one within the next 2 years though. I'm mainly looking at mobility, although I like the iMacs, a Mac Mini might also do well for my needs. Are the prices of iMacs and Apple laptops bound to come down any in a year or two? I really dont like the iBooks as much as the PBs, but right now the the cheapes laptop is the iBook for $1000. Are the iBooks on the edge of being discontinued or will there be more in the series? A Mini would be nice but then I'd have to bring a screen+accessories along if I need it for a trip, so the more expensive laptops would work well, but I like the iMacs...I guess I'll worry about this stuff when my laptop goes or is at least 1 year old on December 2, '05. No offense to PC users or anything but I'm tired of them. Billy G. has done a good job and I love pretty much everything else Microsoft makes but Windows. Who is Chairman of Apple?

PS(I'll mainly be using a computer for school, documents, media, the Mac-compatible game I can find here and there, and to sync w/ my Palm. I wont do a lot of gaming though.)

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Rampax

I beleive that the ibooks just dont stand up in the market anymore. To me, the ibooks are overpriced low end laptops (I actually perfer pc over them). Powerbooks on the other hand are both powerful and stylish. But they also cost a bit more than a similar pc. If it was me, if I had the money, I would go powerbook. If I was on a budget, I would go pc. You might also want to consider whether your school supports mac formats for files. I also think that until apple switches to intel processors, the macs will always be higher priced than a similar pc. So in 2 years, you might want to consider a mac notebook with an intel processor.

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T-Man

Thnx Rampax. I'm still looking into it. In 2 years I'll be out of the school I'm currently at. So if Apple goes Intel, how much could the price of Powerbooks and iMacs come down? What will the Intel chips be replaciing, the G-chips?

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oz-nom

Wow T-Man - you ask a lot of questions!
Many of them require crystal ball gazing so, as Apple keep their cards pretty close (and sue those that get a sneak peek or guess too well!), questions about the future of any particular Mac line are hard to answer. But one thing we DO know is that Apple is changing to Intel processors over the next 2 years (we don't know, but most people assume, that they will be pentiums - although that's my guess too!). The one thing that is not changing is the operating system, so it really doesn't have that much impact on most of us "day to day" users. The one thing that people sometimes overlook in the price/speed comparison between Macs & PCs is the operating system. OSX, in my opinion, easily beats Windows in (almost) every category. Stable, easy to use and, this may sound odd, beautiful.

A mac you buy today will still do the same stuff in 2 years time, and new software will still be able to run on it. So while Intel Macs represents the bright & shiny future, they really don't have that much impact on most of us home users.

As for what to buy, well I think the same rules apply when buying any computer: what do you need it for, when do you need it, what's your budget? My computer budget is lean, and my upgrade path is irregular, so I want my computer to last as long as possible - one of the (many) reasons I think a Mac is a good choice. So for that reason, I'd delay buying until you think you need (or at least really really want ) to upgrade. That way you get the most bangs for your buck. When my PC was my Macs age, it was already beginning to struggle to keep up with modern applications. I have vivid memories of Windows crashing several times daily. My iMac doesn't. It's running Panther fine and I'll probably upgrade to Tiger in a few weeks.

As for what type of Mac? Well, it's hard to know what will be on the market in 2 years, but of the models available now I personally like the G5 iMac. If you'll mainly be doing text based work and listening to iTunes etc then the iBook should be more than fine, especially as portability is important. The powerbooks have a faster processor, more high powered communication options, better graphics capabilities and the capacity to run dual screens, but do you need all that? If you are into gaming, processor intensive graphics, heavy duty scientific applications or giving large powerbook presentations, I'd say it was worthwhile, otherwise go the iBook.

As for supporting different file formats, the only "files" that don't open on my mac are windows applications. Which is a good thing. And if it's really important then I can run Virtual PC. At my university, most of the communication is via email, PDF's, Word documents and flash animations - with the occasional Quicktime movie. An iBook could handle all of those with ease. However, in making the switch from PC to Mac, make sure you budget for new software (Microsoft Office for the Mac in particular). One hint though, purchase while you're still a student and get the academic discounts on both software and hardware - you can save hundreds of dollars!

Personally, I use a flat panel iMac at home, and PalmOne T5 with Universal Wireless Keyboard at university. It does me just fine. And fits in my pocket too!

Good luck,
Tim

T-Man

Thnx for the details oz-nom. I've got a lot of questions on Macs. When you compare the Mac OS to XP, especially 95/98/2k, it is beautiful. There are two main reasons right now for me wanting a Mac, 1) I'm tired of Windows, the only way I'll keep it is if 'Longhorn' is nicer than previous OS's or its more like OSX 2)I have a lot of problems with keeping my anti-virus up-to-date, I hardly ever scan my computer, I dont even know if my firewall is on 1/2 the time. W/ a Mac, I dont have to worry about these things as much, if at all. I gues there could be a number three, 3)I like how the OSs are anmed after cats because I'm a cat lover. OSX Tiger is the one I really love, because my cat's name is Tiger

[I saw the campus discounts, but I'll have to wait a while as I'm not there yet]
T-Man

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[size=1]From my head, to my palm

T-Man

Another question , Did you have to install anything other than Palm Desktop on your iMac? I noticed on my LD's box it says

Dsktp Requirements:Windows etc... or Mac OSX v10.2.6, or 10.3

Does Palmdsktp work out of the box w/ OSX 10.4 Tiger?(It is v10.4 right?--Panther was v10.3...)

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firedog341

I have had an iBook for about 3 years now and just last week upgraded to Tiger 10.4. I installed the same Palm desktop that I had for Jaguar and my TH55 synced fine. Tiger comes with iSync 2.0 which has a Palm iSync conduit built in. Once activated, my TH55 synced with iCal, Address Book, etc. flawlessly. If you want to use Missing Sync to mount you Memory Stick with Data Import, you have to upgrade it to 4.x because 3.x crashes Tiger. By the way, Tiger rocks....

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Current PDA: Treo 650
Retired: Handsping Deluxe, TH55

sdsdsd

iBooks are considered Apple's "consumer" line, while PowerBooks are the "professional" line. iBooks are considerably less expensive, not quite as compact, and come with more consumer-oriented bits (bytes?), like AppleWorks and a version of Quicken (IIRC). PowerBooks have several features the iBooks do not, like lighted keyboards, Gigabit Ethernet, smarter trackpads, faster FireWire, etc. My experience is that the PowerBooks also are more solid-feeling than the iBooks. But that's a personal thing. Some folks feel more solid buying an iBook and keeping the $$ they save in a bank.

As for price, I would argue with those who claim PCs are cheaper. If you're buying a laptop from a tier-1 manufacturer (Dell, Toshiba, IBM), feature-for-feature, the price is not all that different. I don't think the iBooks are going away any time soon, either. Most of Apple's sales is laptops, so I don't think they're going to kill their presence in the consumer market.

I use a high-line ThinkPad all day at work. When I go home, it's to a G4 PowerBook. They're both good boxes, though there is a smoothness to the Mac with OS X (Tiger on mine) that the ThinkPad just doesn't have. I think you'll enjoy it.

T-Man

Thnx for the all the more details. Uhh...this one just popped in my head, can you open a .zip file AT ALL on a Mac? I download a lot of Palm software, its usually all .zip files. I know I'll like Mac, I've been using a lot of Stardock's products on my desktop. Right now my PC looks like its running Panther or Tiger(I think Panther) Aqua, dock and everything. If I cant open zip files, I dont care, I can download them on the computer downstairs. I think its worth getting rid of a lot Windows-only compatible files for the elegant OSX. (thats a good word to descibe OSX, no? Elegant....) BTW Which cat started the series? I've never heard of Jaguar before.

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[size=1]From my head, to my palm

Sacharissa

I made the switch from Windows to Mac about a year ago - mainly because I was tired of having to figure out what antivirus/anti-spyware/firewall etc hoops I'd have to jump through just to keep my beloved Sony Viao from the dreaded "blue screen of death."

I wanted to have as much versatility as possible, so I knew I wanted a laptop with the option of hooking up an external monitor for those times I needed more screen real-estate. While both the iBook and the PowerBook offered this, only the PowerBook offered the option of being able to use a "dual monitor" mode. (The iBook only allows for mirroring.) Dual Monitoring was important to me because I do a lot of work with Web-based design and Photoshop, so the ability to place the palettes on the smaller PowerBook monitor while using a larger monitor for the main work area was important to me.

Another factor was portability...It needed to be small enough to easily schlep around, so I opted for the 12-inch PowerBook, even though the 15-inch had some better features, such as the lighted keyboard and some better specs. However, all of that would be no good to me if I left the laptop home because it was too big to carry! The small screen was less of a concern because my intention was to hook it up to a monitor while at home.

As it turned out, the screen is really pretty good, so even at home I don't use the monitor as much as I thought I would...which is good, since I wasn't able to afford the monitor I wanted until this year. I picked up one of the Apple Cinema Displays. (Unfortunately, it was BEFORE the most recent price drop!)

At any rate, I have been completely happy with my choices. Panther supported my Sony Clie almost out of the box (I just had to download the latest Palm Desktop), and when I recently switched to Tiger, the transition was painless. I even decided to use the iSync 2.0 to sync with the Mac iCal and Contacts instead of Palm Desktop (though I still need that for Notes and other maintenance things.)

The main point I'm trying to make (as have others before me) is to really think about how you are going to use your laptop, and what you are going to use it for...Do you envision yourself taking it to class and using it to take notes, or maybe hanging out at the local coffee shop, checking your e-mail and catching up on homework? Will you mostly be using it for word processing, e-mail and maybe iTunes? Or do you think you'll need something more powerful, and with a larger hard drive, for more intensive digital imaging work? Only you can make those determinations. One piece of advice, though - get as MUCH RAM as you can afford!

Whatever you decide on, I believe you will NOT be disappointed with switching to the Mac. After 18 months on this platform, all I can say is "Once a Mac, never back!"

PS - As far as ZIP files go, I've never had a problem. If they offer you the option of a ZIP or a SIT file, I usually take the SIT as that is the actual Mac compatible format.

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T-Man

I like your motto, I'll probably use my LifeDirve for taking note and I doubt my laptop will be at school until college. I have a 60GB HDD right now w/ 24GB used, so I'm not worried about HDD since the smallest I've seen is 40Gig. I'm sure I'll start doing homework on it quite soon. I'll use it for email and iTunes here and there. Probably not a lot of Word processing, but if I need to I can do that on my Palm. I am a techie but not much of a programmer or anything. I heard about the RAM issue, if you dont get enough its slow, right? My main concern right now is the screen size. I'm on a 15 or 16" VAIO, the cheapest iBook is 12" for $1000. The 12" PB is $1500, I could get the 14" iB for $1300, it will probably be an iBook. If I'm still looking for screen size I'll get an iMac 'cause I really love those too, that is, if I can put my portable needs in my Palm, which is mostly sitting outside while surfing the web, viewing pics, or looking at a doc here and there. Like I said in my first post I'm still doing my homework. It will be awhile before I choose and an even longer while before I buy one. I'll probably wait til I can get the discounts. Later today I'm buying Stardock's Object Desktop for $50($200 worth of software!!!), that should help me cope until I get OSX.

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[size=1]From my head, to my palm

Rampax

I heard that apple has a deal where students can buy both a laptop and a ipod for a huge discount. I may be wrong though (or its not available anymore). As for the laptop, I would personally invest in a 15" powerbook. Although you have to spend more money, when you are a college/university student, unless you rely on your parents, who happen to be rich, for money, you are likely to be close to dirt poor. Getting a powerbook would most likely allow you to go through 4 or more years of school (enough to get a degree). Of course, it is still your choice to get an ibook if it suits your needs. You must also consider what you will be taking. For a someone who is going into an english major, virtually any computer should be sufficient enough to take them through post secondary education. If you are taking something like computer programming, a more powerful (and maybe even a pc) may be needed. You should also consider what you will be doing with your computer. I will be getting a toshiba satellite m40-yp3 for university next year since it is powerful enough to play games and do analytical emperimentation with it.

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T-Man

Thanks for the heads up Rampax. BTW, the Toshibas are quite nice. My brother's girlfriend has one, its like a blueish-gray color, dont remember the model, well, any way, good luck!

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[size=1]From my head, to my palm

firedog341

To post #9, yes, Macs can open .zip files. Tiger comes with stuffit Expander by default, only good for unzipping but you can buy stuffit deluxe which can handle multiple archive types for both zipping and unzipping. By the way, FYI.

10.0 : Puma, 10.1 : Cheetah, 10.2 : Jaguar, 10.3 : Panther, 10.4 : Tiger, 10.5 : Leopard

__________________
Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.

Current PDA: Treo 650
Retired: Handsping Deluxe, TH55