New ibook G4 owner with questions

[bowdeni]

Hello everyone! Last October I switched with the purchase of a G5 imac, and now I've just added to the family with a 12" G4 ibook. But I was wondering, what can I do with it?

Obviously I will take it to lectures, seminars and the libary, but what features should I know about?

1) Syncronising. Is it possible to sync it with my imac?

2) Airport. Can I share the internet from my airport extreme on my imac, and then use it wirelessly on the ibook?

3) Cleaning. Any tips for cleaning the screen and inside the laptop?

4) When the ibook is closed, there is a gap of just a couple of mm between the screen and the keyboard. this is normal right?

5) Other tips. Anyone got any?

Thanks all! & I look forward to the responses.

 

[mad jew]

Congratulations.

1) Syncronising. Is it possible to sync it with my imac?

I use .Mac to synchronise my iBook G4 with my iMac G5. There are alternatives, but I find this is the easiest.

2) Airport. Can I share the internet from my airport extreme on my imac, and then use it wirelessly on the ibook?

Most likely. It depends how your current network is arranged as to how you should best get the internet onto your new iBook. Ad hoc networks (wireless network between two machines without a router or bridge) are unreliable and a pain to set up. Do you have a wireless router? If you don't they're pretty cheap and it'll make the connection easier to set up, easier to use and give you a better range.

3) Cleaning. Any tips for cleaning the screen and inside the laptop?

I use Windex and old underwear but people always yell at me about the ammonia in the Windex ruining the screen. I've been doing this on my iBook since October, 2003, and it's still a good lookin' little girl.

4) When the ibook is closed, there is a gap of just a couple of mm between the screen and the keyboard. this is normal right?

Yeah, that's normal.

5) Other tips. Anyone got any?

Get that router, if you don't already have one. Calibrate the battery once a month or so too.

 

[dmw007]

Since Mad Jew has done a fine job answering your questions, congrats on the purchase of your iBook G4. I loved my 12" 1.33GHz iBook G4 (sold it for my 2GHz MacBook Pro) it was/is a really fine machine.

My only tip is to max out the RAM, when I went from 512MB to 1GB in mine I noticed a good jump in performance. If you have the $$$, then go for 1.5GB- you will enjoy the performance boost.

 

[bowdeni]

Thanks for your replies.

I'm going to try the ad hoc Internet now. I'm living at home at the moment where I do not have a wireless router, but in two weeks time I'll be living with my brother for 3 months, and after that at my new house for uni. Both of the latter have wireless routers so this is a makeshift job.

I don't think I'll upgrade the RAM for the time being, I've got my 1gb G5 desktop machine for anything heavy, and this ibook is purelly for word processing and web surfing on campus.

Got one more question though, the start up noise. Not very pleasant, but I was wondering if there was a way to turn it off?

Thanks again.

 

[mad jew]

You can mute the sound at startup by pressing the appropriate F key. I forget which and have a feeling it changes depending on keyboard layout, but it should have the speaker symbol on it with no bars radiating out. Press this early in the startup process and your computer won't make the noise (called POST incidentally).