Apple iBook G3 12.1 in. (M9018LL/A) Mac Notebook

SHOULD YOU GET AN APPLE IBOOK, OR A PC??
THIS COMPARES AND CONTRASTS WINDOWS VS MAC KEEPING IN MIND THE DISCUSION OF THE APPLE IBOOK.

.....I've had the iBook for just about 5 months now. I use the wirless internet 802.11g using the airport card and airport base station. I connect to the internet through a standard 56k modem, and use the internet service America Online. I like to create and edit digital movies. Take and store pictures. Play DVDs, and download music. The computer comes with all these services. It also has USB, FireWire, and an internal modem. FireWire used to be the main difference between a PC and Mac. But recently I waltzed into Circuit City and found a lot of PCs with IEEE FireWire ports. Now I knew my iBook mite not have been worth it.

.....MOVIES
I absolutely love making movies. When I got my computer, iMovie came with it (ofcourse) for no extra cost. It was just OK, but it was ne of the reasons I went with mac. Either that or spend an extra hundred dollars on a software for windows. Or up to 600 dollars on other programs. But I movie is very slow to start up, and doesn't have smooth clear movies. Then Windows created Windows Movimaker. I just checked the windows version of iMovie and found it to be more vast with more creative titles, and effects! It started up easy and made clear pictured movies. I say Windows is now a step ahead of Macs iMovie.


.....Music

iTunes is definitly a special part of mac. But the music store does not have ALL the music I like. But it has enough. But now iTunes is available for windows, so it makes no differnce whether you have a mac or not. It is easy to create playlists, but my iBooks CD burner doesn't produce very good quality cds. Skippy and unclear sound made me very dissapointed in the iBooks CD burner. And the earphone port only plays music in one ear of headphones of oppossed to both. It got recked somewhere along the lines of a meager 5 months. I have also encountered keys from the keyboard that just keep popping off.But the keyboard, has a cool, relaxing feel under your fingertips which is enjoyable. The iBook isn't very durable.


.....Power

The say the battery power lasts up to 5 hours. Well, theyre wrong. It lasts 3 at the most. Which is pretty good. The iBook is very small and lightweight. But the screen is very small. Which is not a good idea for playing DVDs. Although all of the DVDs played on my computer have run rather well. Except I don't have Interactual Player (windows based) so i cannot play certain games that require Windows. Which is a pain. If i cannot use some of the special features of the DVD, then why the heck did I buy it.


.....The dreaded wireless interenet

The internet is pathetic. It's very hard maintain, and very hard to get online! Knowing your way around airport takes a long time to learn. It's very diffucult to set up the airport basestation and you have to reset it alot! Sometimes I can't get on the internet because AOL is not working, or the airport is not set correctly. Some of these problems cannot be fixed. Which prevents the user from getting online. iBook features the airport card, and the software. But it is very hard to get a good connection to the internet. And there is way too much maintaince to keep up with! But if you ever get on the internet, and if aol does not "unexpectedly quit" then the internet runs at an OK type speed. The iBook comes with 6 free months of the internet service Ethernet. Frequently I must restart my computer to get the internet to work. I strongly encourage you to try windows wifi built in technology over apples airport. (although they are the same, airport is apples adaptation of "wifi")


....Tech Specs

900 Mhz G3 processor: THATS PRETTY SLOW...most windows range from 2.4 Ghz(2400 mghz) to 3.06 Ghz(3,060 Mhz).

128 MB of memory: Not bad. Good enough memory for such a small computer

100 Mhz bus speed: Pathetic, on a good Windows computer most bus speeds are up to 900 Mhz

512K L2 Cache size: Is pretty good. Compares well with windows.

Can burn and play CDs. Can play DVDs, but cannot burn them.


....Gaming
Although most games don't work for mac, which is very dissapointing, if you happen to find one that works, the graphics on the iBook are decent and games usually run smoothly. The iBook is pretty pricy, and I didn't like it very much. Although it does have a sleek style, looks aren't everything.