From what I've read the last thirty days, the powerbook would probably be a great computer for me, as well as anyone who can treat it with kid gloves. However, it seems its durabilityand airport range in real world situations is definitely lacking. That said, the ibook will have to be my choice. My question is thus, switching from win 98 with a PIII 1ghz, will I notice any slowdown? Applications would include word, web surfing and I would like to do some home digital photo editing (photoshop). Any comments would be appreciated. thanks.
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switching to mac
- Thread starter ron dunn
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ron dunn:
First of all, I have used both the Titanium Powerbook and the iBook; a colleague has the TiBook and I own a 700MHZ iBook; we both have AirPort cards and the range is the same (we hate tested this at airports, hotels, coffee shops as we often travel together for work). And while I LOVE my iBook i must admit that even my friend's 1 year old TiBook outperforms my iBook is some high-end apps as Photoshop and Vectorworks... normal use: e-mail, word processing, web... they're about the same.
As far as comparing your PIII Win98 experience to the G3 700MHZ or G4 800MHZ running OS 10.2... you will definitely NOT notice a speed decrease, and in my opinion your Photoshop use will be much more responsive on an iBook or TiBook (I would recommend Photoshop 7). Just my opinion! Good luck.
First of all, I have used both the Titanium Powerbook and the iBook; a colleague has the TiBook and I own a 700MHZ iBook; we both have AirPort cards and the range is the same (we hate tested this at airports, hotels, coffee shops as we often travel together for work). And while I LOVE my iBook i must admit that even my friend's 1 year old TiBook outperforms my iBook is some high-end apps as Photoshop and Vectorworks... normal use: e-mail, word processing, web... they're about the same.
As far as comparing your PIII Win98 experience to the G3 700MHZ or G4 800MHZ running OS 10.2... you will definitely NOT notice a speed decrease, and in my opinion your Photoshop use will be much more responsive on an iBook or TiBook (I would recommend Photoshop 7). Just my opinion! Good luck.
iBook slowness?
Hi Ron,
I have a 500Mhz iBook with 66Mhz bus (OS 10.2, 384MB RAM). This machine is great for daily use, but is noticably slower than my Pentium III 600 Mhz desktop machine in almost every task. (In fairness, I should note that the PIII is Dell's top-of-the-line "Precision" model with SCSI disk and RAMBUS memory.)
The newer iBooks are at 600 and 700Mhz with a 100Mhz bus. I suspect that the newer iBooks are a good bit quicker than this one, but will probably not feel faster than your PIII, especially for Web browsing. It might be tougher to notice the difference in Word (or even Photoshop).
The biggest advantage of the TiBook, in my opinion, is the size of the screen and the ability to drive a second, external monitor.
Besides the inherent portability of a laptop, the best points of this machine are:
1) Quality and stability
- It is built tough!
- Excellent screen
--12" at 1024x768 may seem a little tight, but it's super-sharp and bright
2) Excellent value
- It is an extremely good value given the quality and standard ports
- Includes, Dual USB/Firewire/56K Modem/Ethernet/Video Out/Sound out
3) OS 10.2!
- Need I say more?
- Extremely stable (16 months of use with 1? Maybe 2 crashes?)
4) Excellent Power Management
- Apple's power management is the best
- Close the lid and it goes to sleep (will go more than a week in this mode)
- Open it up and it's awake in less than 2 seconds - where I left off
Hi Ron,
I have a 500Mhz iBook with 66Mhz bus (OS 10.2, 384MB RAM). This machine is great for daily use, but is noticably slower than my Pentium III 600 Mhz desktop machine in almost every task. (In fairness, I should note that the PIII is Dell's top-of-the-line "Precision" model with SCSI disk and RAMBUS memory.)
The newer iBooks are at 600 and 700Mhz with a 100Mhz bus. I suspect that the newer iBooks are a good bit quicker than this one, but will probably not feel faster than your PIII, especially for Web browsing. It might be tougher to notice the difference in Word (or even Photoshop).
The biggest advantage of the TiBook, in my opinion, is the size of the screen and the ability to drive a second, external monitor.
Besides the inherent portability of a laptop, the best points of this machine are:
1) Quality and stability
- It is built tough!
- Excellent screen
--12" at 1024x768 may seem a little tight, but it's super-sharp and bright
2) Excellent value
- It is an extremely good value given the quality and standard ports
- Includes, Dual USB/Firewire/56K Modem/Ethernet/Video Out/Sound out
3) OS 10.2!
- Need I say more?
- Extremely stable (16 months of use with 1? Maybe 2 crashes?)
4) Excellent Power Management
- Apple's power management is the best
- Close the lid and it goes to sleep (will go more than a week in this mode)
- Open it up and it's awake in less than 2 seconds - where I left off
Its possible you may notice a speed increase! The TiBook probably has a better graphics card then your old laptop so you will get a crisper more responsive screen, also I own a 700mhz G3 iMac and I have a friend who owns a 800mhz P3, the iMac perfoms much faster then his computer. Believe me you will see a speed increase cause the TiBook can hold it own against very fast P4s!
And of course you won't have windows crashing every 3 hours so that will make a big difference in your life.
And of course you won't have windows crashing every 3 hours so that will make a big difference in your life.
I have a PowerBook G4 550Mhz and I have to say to you that it is very durable! Not a single scratch for a 10 month old Laptop. Please dont think that the Ti will break in your hands. If you have the option to go for the Ti, well, as a proud owner of one I can say to you... GO AHEAD AND BUY IT!
Check it out at your local Apple store
Hopefully, there is an store near you that sells Apple computers
where you can actually gauge for yourself how an iBook or TiBook
compares with your current setup.
Hopefully, there is an store near you that sells Apple computers
where you can actually gauge for yourself how an iBook or TiBook
compares with your current setup.
I own a TiBook, and I'm extrememly happy with it. It has been extremely durable.
You may notice a slight speed decrease in web-surfing. Especially in Flash performance. Web surfing tends to be slower due mostly to lack of a good browser on the Mac. But there are some really nice stripped down browsers out there that will fly on either an iBook or TiBook.
Good luck!!
You may notice a slight speed decrease in web-surfing. Especially in Flash performance. Web surfing tends to be slower due mostly to lack of a good browser on the Mac. But there are some really nice stripped down browsers out there that will fly on either an iBook or TiBook.
Good luck!!
One thing to note about the Titanium, the keyboard often touches the screen and one's own skin oil can rub off on the screen. A cheap inexpensive solution exists for that. Put a sheet of paper on top of the keyboard before closing the screen. Some companies would have you believe you need to spend $20 on a screen protector, when it just isn't true!
Oh and another word of note, no matter what notebook you get, it is best not to travel in sleep mode inside the case if you are doing any amount of driving or transportation riding. The shaking from the potholes alone can cause wear and tear on the hard drive much quicker than if the machine is shut down and the drive is parked. You have some control though if you have it on your lap while you are travelling.
The iBook is indeed more durable than the Powerbook. Covering the Powerbook in a paper towel might be best if worried about small things in your bag scratching its surface. Cheap solutions to expensive problems, but they work.
Speed, Explorer may feel slower on a Mac than a PC, but that's because it is. Microsoft deliberately didn't follow Java standards causing big headaches for all of us. Still, I highly recommend instead using http://www.mozilla.org/ Mozilla as the Mac OS X browser of choice using the pinstripe theme http://www.kmgerich.com/pinstripe/pinstripe.html for a more natural Mac OS X look.
Oh and another word of note, no matter what notebook you get, it is best not to travel in sleep mode inside the case if you are doing any amount of driving or transportation riding. The shaking from the potholes alone can cause wear and tear on the hard drive much quicker than if the machine is shut down and the drive is parked. You have some control though if you have it on your lap while you are travelling.
The iBook is indeed more durable than the Powerbook. Covering the Powerbook in a paper towel might be best if worried about small things in your bag scratching its surface. Cheap solutions to expensive problems, but they work.
Speed, Explorer may feel slower on a Mac than a PC, but that's because it is. Microsoft deliberately didn't follow Java standards causing big headaches for all of us. Still, I highly recommend instead using http://www.mozilla.org/ Mozilla as the Mac OS X browser of choice using the pinstripe theme http://www.kmgerich.com/pinstripe/pinstripe.html for a more natural Mac OS X look.
I'm a recent switcher who traded his PIII 850 MHz Dell laptop for a 550 MHz TiBook back in January. In my honest opinion, you will probably notice a significant speed decrease if you are running IE or Word on OS X. Jaguar has improved OS X's performance, but it still lags behind a P III. Webpages load much faster on a PC, although as other reviewers have pointed out, it may have more to do with the browsers. If you run it on OS 9, however, web surfing and processing is pretty fast.
Nevertheless, I have few regrets in switching. My TiBook has handled many tasks for me without greeting me with a blue screen of death. You can plug in any hardware with full confidence that it will work on a Mac (I was reminded of this when I had spent a frustrating hour trying to get my PC at work to read the external zip drive). PC users have come to expect crashes as much as humans expect the rain--a natural occurrence. Rather than "Think Different," I think the new Apple slogan should be something like "Mac: It just works."
Here are some of the programs I run: Office X, AOL IM, Mozilla, IE, REALbasic, iTunes, iPhoto, and FileMaker Pro. I have Photoshop 7 but I can't compare the speed between P7 on a Mac and PC since I had never used it on a PC. It runs fast enough for my purposes.
In my direct experience, I have found PCs to be faster than Macs, but far less stable and compatible with 3rd party hardware.
Nevertheless, I have few regrets in switching. My TiBook has handled many tasks for me without greeting me with a blue screen of death. You can plug in any hardware with full confidence that it will work on a Mac (I was reminded of this when I had spent a frustrating hour trying to get my PC at work to read the external zip drive). PC users have come to expect crashes as much as humans expect the rain--a natural occurrence. Rather than "Think Different," I think the new Apple slogan should be something like "Mac: It just works."
Here are some of the programs I run: Office X, AOL IM, Mozilla, IE, REALbasic, iTunes, iPhoto, and FileMaker Pro. I have Photoshop 7 but I can't compare the speed between P7 on a Mac and PC since I had never used it on a PC. It runs fast enough for my purposes.
In my direct experience, I have found PCs to be faster than Macs, but far less stable and compatible with 3rd party hardware.
Mactheknife has it about correct, although you might not notice as much of a speed decrease if you go for the faster TiBook. Web surfing under OS X will be your biggest complaint (both speed and stability). While this is definately a problem with the browsers more than the OS, it's a problem with ALL the browsers right now. Major pain. Apple should really light a fire under the browser developers as this is a major drawback to the Mac right now.
i'm pretty sure that drives are spinned down & their heads parked when a sleep command is issued...
at least that's the case with my BW/350, so i would expect the portables to behave the same.
plus, modern 2.5" hds are amazingly robust. most can handle operational shocks of some 100 to 200 g/ms
i doubt that travelling with sleeping laptops can cause any harm to the drives.
noht
HD and sleep mode
Yeah, but after spending so much for the computer (either the TiBook or the iBook) and considering that the HD's are hard to replace, I wouldn't want to risk ruining one of the essential components of my computer. I would just go ahead and shut down if move around a lot, just in case.
Also, from what I hear about the TiBook, I think that the limitations of it are overrated. I have a friend who has one and has no trouble with wireless network here on campus. He said that the only problem he really had was heat, but it never really got that bad. Thought you would like to know.
Yeah, but after spending so much for the computer (either the TiBook or the iBook) and considering that the HD's are hard to replace, I wouldn't want to risk ruining one of the essential components of my computer. I would just go ahead and shut down if move around a lot, just in case.
Also, from what I hear about the TiBook, I think that the limitations of it are overrated. I have a friend who has one and has no trouble with wireless network here on campus. He said that the only problem he really had was heat, but it never really got that bad. Thought you would like to know.
i'd say go for the iBook and max out the RAM. I have an iBook 600 from late 2001, and there is really nothing I cant do with it. It may be slow at certain tasks, but that is very specialized and the iBook is generally considered an allaround computer.
You'd be at an advantage over me anyways, because you get the extra 100MHz, the extra 256k cache, and QuartzExtreme capabilities.
The iBook, as always, is a solid buy.
You'd be at an advantage over me anyways, because you get the extra 100MHz, the extra 256k cache, and QuartzExtreme capabilities.
The iBook, as always, is a solid buy.
Question for iBook users:
I noticed iBooks in a few different computer stores that had damaged keyboards. Those particular ones were beyond repair. Because it was with more than one, it made me wonder about how well the things are put together. Has this been an issue with iBooks? Maybe the original iBooks? Or are store customers just overly hard on them?
Still thinking on whether to get a new Powermac or a portable. I'll probably just get an upgrade card and wait another year.
I noticed iBooks in a few different computer stores that had damaged keyboards. Those particular ones were beyond repair. Because it was with more than one, it made me wonder about how well the things are put together. Has this been an issue with iBooks? Maybe the original iBooks? Or are store customers just overly hard on them?
Still thinking on whether to get a new Powermac or a portable. I'll probably just get an upgrade card and wait another year.
There is a technique to upgrading the RAM of the computer that often goes amiss for those who do it themselves. There is a flathead plastic screw between the function keys that if it isn't turned back right, the keys get loose. To add to the confusion there is another screw underneath a magnet that needs to be placed back the right direction when finishing the job. The magnet is under the keyboard. Better to let an authorized technician do the RAM update than anybody else.