I fully understand the situation, being in Houma currently myself. Note that you will generally save yourself a good bit of cash getting the RAM from ramseeker.com or possibly crucial.com, rather than Apple’s BTOÛand RAM is a very easy user install. HDs can also be had cheaper 3rd party but having installed both a DVD burner and a HD in a white iBook I can tell you it’s possibly the most difficult to get apart laptop Apple has ever made.

I was just planning on getting the Apple upgrades..I am too scared I would mess up the computer somehow trying to install the RAM myself...It would save me ALOT of money though....*sigh* Like $100

more money than that actually..I am also scared about the low processor speed of the ibook..I am getting the 1.5GB Ram and 100 Gig HD..But I have never had a processor that was only 1.33 GHz..Is it efficient? I don’t want to drop alot of money on a computer that takes 10 minutes to load up a program..

I have a 1GHz 12” PowerBook which works very well for the stuff I do (programming, word processing, iLife). So I have to envy you already. And yes, applications do open quickly (well, mostly at least - I open 10 applications at once when logging in - that takes a bit - but the bottleneck here is rather the HD and not the processor).

In the end, whether your iBook suffices your expectations depends on the applications you run. With you going to a design school, I fear that there are faster Macs around these days for your needs - but the speed of your iBook at least won’t make you jump out of the window.

1.33Ghz will be fine, fairly snappy even. I wouldn’t worry about that too much. And it’s pretty difficult, in general, to screw up a RAM upgrade. Just relax, take your time and follow the instructions. And by take your time I mean take 30-45 seconds rather than the usual 10 to install RAM.

sock, I had one of the original iBooks from 2001-- 600mhz, I think. I gave it to a friend two years later and updated it to Panther, then to Tiger. It runs fine on 640 megs RAM. A little slow, but never crashes. Not bad for almost five years old.

Thank you guys for all of the good advice..I feel more secure now with the iBook..I would get something better if I could..But I am a starving artist right now LOL..But I just want to make sure I am making a good decision and not paying for something that is not worth the money.

And with the money I will save on RAM from a third party site, I will be able to upgrade to the 14 inch 1.42 GHz (not much difference, but still better)

Also, keep in mind you will eventually (if not immediately) find that the iBook’s display is a bit cramped. You may want to plan towards getting an LCD/CRT in the future that will give you more display area. I’m currently sitting at my 17” PowerBook attached to a 22” CRT and it’s very helpful to have the extra screen real estate. On the same token I used to get work done on a 800x600 display, though how is a mystery.

You should be aware that the 14” iBook doesn’t give you any more “real estate” than the 12”, and the speed difference is negligible.  Personally, I find the 14” iBook to be something of an orphan.  It doesn’t offer enough features (high resolution, better video card) to justify carrying something so big and heavy, and its close enough in price to the 12” PowerBook that I’d much rather buy (and I did) the PowerBook, if nothing else for the even smaller (than the 12” iBook) form fact and the MUCH better keyboard.

I had a 12” PowerBook for two years (1.0 GHz model), which was replaced with an all-but-identical 12” PowerBook at 1.5GHz, which I’ve now had for a bit over a year.  Even the 1.0GHz model was plenty fast for my needs, but I did want the SuperDrive and 80GB HD.  I actually got almost what paid for my old PB on eBay, and was still so happy with that one that buying another was about the easiest decision I’ve ever made.

Now I’m starting up my own law firm and bought all new computers for the office.  A 20” iMac G5 for the office manager (to do double duty as a server), a Mac Mini (G4) with a 19” Samsung LCD for my paralegal, and for me, well, my handy-dandy 12” PowerBook still does everything I need it to do.  I thought about upgrading to a 15” PB (don’t want to be an early adopter with the MacBook Pro) and realized that while the increase in screen real estate would be extremely welcome, the increase in size and weight would not. 

In fact, except for the first generation 12” PowerBooks at 867MHz, which ran extremely hot, this has been about the most reliable model in Apple’s lineup, desktops included, for three years running.  The fact that they went from super-hot running machines with lots of problems to perhaps Apple’s best is reason enough for me to wait for Rev B on the Intel Mac.

If it were me going to school, I’d buy the 12” iBook in the lowest configuration I could live with if money was tight, and step up to the 12” PowerBook if it was not.  Add a 100GB hard drive 1.5GB of RAM to an iBook and your spending more than you would for a PowerBook, whcih comes with 512MB (you can upgrade to 768 for cheap) and an 80GB (faster 5400 RPM) drive right out of the box.  The difference between 1.33GHz and 1.5GHz is not worth worrying about, but the fast drive and better video card might keep it current longer.  Of course, the PowerBook keyboard is to die for.

Andrew

Any opinions about the new MacBooks?

I like the specs, and of course the design of the black one (I drink too much coffee and tend to spill, which makes my white Apple equipment always look somewhat messy): but if you max out RAM and HD space, it is $150 more expensive than the equally maxed out white MacBook ($2049 vs. $2199). A hefty price tag just for the color…

$150 for color alone is rather disturbing.  White just looks cheap to me (could be so many years of white iBooks), though black still doesn’t look particularly expensive, just new.  For my money, white wins in this case.

What bothers me far more than the price premium for black (waste of money) is the integrated graphics.  For me, to replace my PowerPC equipment with Intel equipment would, at this stage, be for one reason and one reason only - windows games using Boot Camp.  I run a law office and even with universal apps (we spend a lot of time using Safari), the speed gain of Intel just isn’t enough to matter.  Even on our slowest machine (1.5GHz Mac Mini with 512MB ram) we never have to wait for more than a few seconds for anything.

windows games are the only thing I want and don’t get with my 12” PowerBook, and with integrated graphics, I won’t get them (very well) on a new MacBook either.

Apple is really focusing on being a “consumer” computer company that charges a premium.

As best I can tell, the only difference between the $1,299 MacBook in white and the $1,499 MacBook in black is the $50 extra for the larger hard drive in the latter. Which means the black model costs $150 more for the privilege of being black.

Apple is screwing people with that “feature.”

Another screwing is taking place with the so-called “glossy” screen instead of Apple’s previous matte screens. Matte is better. Less glare, sharper image, less eyestrain.

The difference, of course, is the so-called Kodachrome effect. “Glossy” screens look better on the sales floor initially because of the darker, saturated colors, and the uninitiated prefer them. Initially.

Apple is screwing the customer by offering the glossy screens instead of the higher quality matte screens.

I disagree with the concern about the integrated graphics chip. Every comparison done to date says that the Intel onboard graphics at 64 megs is better than Apple’s old 32 megs on a separate card. In this case, cheaper is better.

Otherwise, Apple is happily poking us a new one with cheaper screens and overpriced colors (or, as in the case of “black”, a lack of color).

Well, not so much into games anymore, I don’t care much about the integrated graphics. I am happy to see that the MacBook is really a great value compared to the MacBook Pro with all the other stuff it is loaded with.

As for gaming: the iBook (or any other PPC Mac notebook) has never been a gaming machine despite separate graphic adapters - and high-quality PC laptop gaming always has been an expensive hobby. So if you really want that, getting a MacBook Pro isn’t at all that much of a bad value. I would dare to say that you will get decent gaming fun with the MacBook nevertheless.

Wrt color: well, Apple does charge people with a irrational premium for the black MacBook, but noone has to buy one or faces any disadvantage in terms of specs of not buying one (even though I probably would). Had Apple released only white MacBooks, noone would have complained. It is somewhat like the U2 iPod.

Wrt displays: before making a judgement myself, I want to take a look at one of the screens in an Apple Store first. Compared to the very “matte” (is that going to be the next hip francocism of the year?) displays of the iBooks that roughly have the luminance of the color of the black MacBooks, they may still have come a long way…

I still do think the white MacBooks have a better value in relation to the Mac Book Pro compared to what we have been offered before (iBook vs. Power Book).

Are there any data about battery life floating arount? The iBook has always had more battery life than the PowerBooks. Is there a similar relationship between MacBooks and MacBook Pros?

Probably better battery life because of the integrated graphics and smaller screen.