[muglo] Re: laptop
- From: Eric Dunbar <eric.dunbar@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: muglo@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 09:58:30 -0400
> On 23-Aug-05, at 8:54 AM, Eric Dunbar wrote:
> > The best Mac? One which upgrades itself, never requires trouble
> > shooting and stays current in perpituity.
> >
> > But, a good Mac. It depends!
> >
> > Are you used to the consumer <ahem crapsumer> Macs like the iMac or
> > eMac? If so, then you may find yourself to be quite happy with the
> > iBook series. They're fairly fast (vs. what you'll be used to) and
> > quite functional but are definitely competing with the low-end
> > offerings from Dell and IBM.
>=20
> If you cast your mind back to previous posts he is using a G4 G/W,
> basically for emails & word processing!
In that case, you will be disappointed if you go with the iBooks! I
have been spoiled with the pro machines (with the exception of a brief
stint on an iCrap) and really appreciate the difference (that said, I
am contemplating an iBook b/c they are damned cheap... though a PC
desktop is also an option since they're much cheaper and, unlike PPC,
also damned fast and actually run software).
What I would suggest as a good alternative to buying an iBook is to
upgrade the CPU of the tower. A G4 tower with a CPU upgrade (G/W is a
new acronym to me... Grey and White? What speed were they?) will be
quite competitive with the base model iBooks, and offers far more in
the way of RAM and disk space (especially disk space... you can get a
120+ GB drive for under $100 for a desktop).
> > Major drawbacks to the iBooks:
> >
> > 1. SMALL screens, and, I'm talking SMALL! They're running screen sizes
> > which were standard 6 or 7 years ago (1024*768), and they offer little
> > extra in return for the small screens (something like the Sony Viao at
> > least is *tiny*).
> 12" & 15" is hardly small!
The iBooks only offer 12" and 14" at 1024*768 (and 800*600 and
640*480). That is *damned* small by modern standards (especially when
the budget PC laptops come with 15" standard).
I still have 1024*768 on my PowerBook G3 but really find that
constrained (the only thing it has going for it is that it's still a
much more attractive (albeit slower) computer than the iBook 14"...
plus they haven't changed the hardware in the PB G3 vs. the whole
iBook series in the past 6 years so all the iBook G4 is is a faster PB
G3 Pismo ;-).
> > 2. No video out (yeah, some of them can do video mirroring but no
> > monitor spanning).
>=20
> All of them do video out, icl. to TVs!
I don't count video mirroring as "video out". Why bother?
> > 3. Pretty gaudy looking beasts with less than perfect construction
> > (Idon't like the cheap white look of the iMac/iBook).
>=20
> I'd hardly call white "Gaudy".
They do look pretty cheap (especially the "new" iMacs... the lamp Macs
were alright since, well, you expect the Ikea look from a lamp ;-).
But, Apple has also dropped the ball with the new super-sized LCDs...
they look pretty damned ugly.
Eric.
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