Apple iBook. First impressions.


Apple iBook 12" It has been a couple of days since I collected my iBook from the store. Mind you, it is my first personally owned Mac. And it has been fun exploring a new OS and fiddling with all the options on the machine. In fact it still is fun. ๐Ÿ™‚

Everything I’ve thrown at it so far worked nicely, differently, but nicely. It’s just a matter of getting used to. And I’m already so used to it, that this morning I automatically went for Command+W to close a window on my Windows machine. ๐Ÿ˜‰ (I find Mac OS X more keyboard centric, despite its GUI, than Windows)

But what struck me most was the reactions of family, friends and co-workers. Just a few quotes: “Apple? You weren’t into Mac before…”, “Cool! I want one too!”, “Aaaaaaahhh a Mac!?!?!?! Are you nuts?” and “Yay! He’s one of us now.” I don’t know why, but mentioning you’ve bought a Mac leads to some frowns in a Windows world. Not in a bad sense though. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Anyway, let me clarify things. NO I DID NOT SWITCH!!! I have NOT left the M$ Windows world. Give me one good reason why I should?

It’s just a chain of conclusions that brought me to buy this iBook (not a Mac Mini nor an iMac or a Powerbook for that matter).
First my normal laptop was in repairs for two weeks so I did not have a pc for private use. Which made me realise I was too dependant on one machine.
Enter a second machine: A laptop, I could sit comfortably with, on the couch. Good for some browsing and light-weight image editing and what not.
Enter size: sub 15″. A € 700 notebook is easily bought. But that means a 15″+ notebook these days. Already using a ‘large’ laptop, I wanted something small. You’ll have to look hard to find a small-sized notebook these days. Sure, they’re around. Sony has some, in the range of € 1700 to € 2000. Asus probably too. Dell definitely not. A PDA isn’t an option due to resolution, memory, storage, etc. But you cannot go to a store and expect to walk out with a small notebook shortly after. All the offers are order-only with unknown delivery times.
Enter the Mac store: Say you want a 12″ iBook, now, new generation. They go to their magazine and it’s there. ๐Ÿ™‚ (Well, that’s not really how it went, but it’ll do for the moment.)

I personally find € 1039 for a notebook with the capabilities it has, value for money. 40Gig HD, 1024×768 resolution, 512MB memory, 2.2kg, A4 sized, Wireless G (54MB/s), Bluetooth 2.0, CD-RW/DVD Combo, Ethernet, Modem, Firewire, USB 2.0, Scrollpad, OS X Tiger, iLife ’05, … That ought to keep one busy for a while. And it does, believe me. Again, in a good sense.

I forgot to mention the quality of the product. No protruding parts or poor construction (Are you listening Dell?). Battery life of 6(!!!) hours (4 hours in real life). Snappy reaction of GUI (Are you listening Microsoft?). By the way, this baby IS quiet. Running all day, the bottom isn’t even hot. So no need for loud fans.

The latter bit may have to do with the ‘meagre’ 1.33 MHz CPU. Don’t let this fool you! It compares to an AMD Athlon 1600+ or Intel Pentium 1.6 Mhz. Not the brightest of CPU’s, but look back at my demands… Browsing. Although I must say I’m impressed with the power. I haven’t pushed it yet, but it keeps up with me still. ๐Ÿ™‚

For those who are worried about interoperability. My (NTFS) external HD is recognized without problem. As is my Canon camera. Just plug it in and it’s recognized. Same with networks. It happilies connects to any Windows shared directory. In fact I still have to encounter a complaining message that it won’t do something. Tomorrow I’ll try and hook it up to an Exchange server. ๐Ÿ™‚

To round up this somewhat lengthy post… If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’m just exploring and came across some interesting things already (thanks to Google.)

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3 responses to “Apple iBook. First impressions.”

  1. Is THAT a coincidence!
    Once in a while I’m thinking about buying a Mac too (as additional machine)
    ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. And I definitely recommend a 12″ iBook. ๐Ÿ™‚

    As for the Exchange server… no luck, but that may be the cause of the very old version of Exchange. It seems that Apple uses WebDAV to talk to an Exchange server. It’s just that the server doesn’t know about WebDAV. (Probably)

    Anyway, if you’re looking for an additional Mac. I might suggest a Mac Mini. That is, if you’ve got a spare monitor, USB-mouse and USB-keyboard lying around. They start at E 529,-, they’re just updated and they’re the size of a couple of cd-cases on top of each other…

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