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"The nicest computer I've ever used" on by blandthrax
Pros: Small, good keyboard, long battery life, powerful wireless, stunning display, fantastic software
Cons: Computer bottom gets hot after extended use. A little on the heavy side.
Summary: I bought this computer for travel/work purposes. I don't need it for anything else other than word processing, e-mail, and watching movies on the plane.
One week later and my desktop PC sits mostly unused. This is one well designed piece of technology and I absolutely love OS X. Windows? Eh, who needs it? I don't ever want to go back. I finally understand the Cult of Mac.
I'm also impressed by how good the networking is on this computer. The keyboard is comfortable to work on, and I can stare at the screen for hours without feeling any eye strain.
If you're looking for an inexpensive, moderately powered, well-equipped laptop. You might want to consider talking a walk on the Apple side. -
"Made switching from MS very easy" on by dericklarson
Pros: Very portable, easy to use, setup is a breeze, love the network setup
Cons: Having to share with family
Summary: I have always been impressed with Apple, and their laptops, but felt I could never afford one. The enhanced specs and a little extra finally made this a comparable choice to a Dell 700M.
My only concern was the small screen, but after seeing it in person, and comparing it to the 14" - I had no complaints.
Also, hats off to the salespeople at the Apple store in the Mall of America. They patiently explained/demoed features to my wife.
My favorite feature so far is the wireless connection both the wifi and Bluetooth work flawlessly. -
"Nice Little Package, Needs Stronger Arrow Keys" on by freakonguitar
Pros: Good Battery Life, Bright Screen, Strong Wireless, Wakes up and goes to sleep quick
Cons: Poor quality arrow keys, bad printer setup interface, tiny speakers, iLife and OS X, take up 10GB
Summary: I had been searching around for a suitable notebook computer to replace my desktop for the last six months and had spent many hours researching notebooks. At first being so familiar to windows I was just going to get a $1000 (cdn) notebook for using at school and home. As I decided to give Apple a look, as to the recomendations of a number of friends. I did my research and found a lot of happy reports.
When I got it running, the setup wizard was simple and in about five minutes I was using it. When installing applications, most of them I just copy and paste to the hard drive and they were installed. This amazed me, a long time windows user, and I was quite used to long setup wizards. It right away connected to the network but wasn't quite compatable with the windows network, the key was turning off the Windows Firewall, the stupid thing that cost me so many hours trying to network the compouters so i could print! I loved the simple interface for opening applications, and immediately caught onto the apple idea of using all the keyboard shortcuts in about two weeks.
I've now had it for about three weeks and am very happy with it. It has only crashed once and runs quite swiftly, a whole lot faster than my fathers 2.8GHZ Celeron! I was disapointed to find that once i installed a number of applications and loaded my 7GB Documents File, including music, that I was left with only 15GB of space left due to Mac os X 10.4 taking up 10GB with iLife! Fifteen gigabytes may sound like a lot but when you tart doing a bit of music recording, take more photos, and try editing a movie, it would disapeer instantly. Thus I recommend upgrading to a 60GB drive, when ordering from Apple. You can get that for about $60 (cdn).
About three days ago i discovered to my dismay that I had some markings on my keyboard arrow keys. Later I discovered that they were actually cracks. I phoned apple and they are sending me a free replacement keyboard, which they didn't ask any questions and just sent it. Now that is decent service, but I'm concerned that it will crack again just from playing those simple games like Nanosaur 2 and Pac Man. It could be a faulty keyboard but either way those tiny arrow keys are fragile!
The speakers are very tiny and quite in an environment with a little bit of noise, but not to worry if you just hook them up to a system at home. Beware of their printer wizard though, it doesn't set up that easy and makes little sense. When i tried plugging in a compatable USB printer it didn't detect it and wouldn't work no matter what I did. That is why I am printing through a home network with a address to the printer. Who on earth knows what a Hp socket printer is or a LPD printer, I am a switching Windows user, like why not have a harware detect wizard or something??
Anyways, overall, aside from my few challenges, the iBook works excellent! It is very quiet an rarely turns on its fan. Unlike other notebooks, I can lie on my bed and work on it without it overheating like a compaq or dell. The handrest heats up overtime, but that is from moving parts. It goes to sleep and wakes up in seconds and is really sturdy. It doesn't creak when you move it and looks gourgeous with the nice little apple lit on the back in low light. Overall an excellent purchase for your money, apple definately spends some time designing these much thinner than most, packages!
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"Too expensive to be disposable" on by slythersci
Pros: Great combination of initial price and features
Cons: Horrible reliability, support is not helpful, AppleCare is an overpriced must
Summary: I was looking for a small laptop with a built-in optical drive and wireless capabilities. I chose the iBook because it was offering a system that would suit my needs (reading documents, giving presentations, etc.) for just under $1,000. AppleCare for the iBook would have run $250. I think 25% of the purchase price for an extended warranty is obscene. Silly me.
For the first year, my iBook was fantastic. The power adapter has a combination of pretty and functional, the small size made it ideal for travel, and I appreciated the brightness and clarity of the display. About a month after my one year warranty was up, my adapter ceased to function. I tried resetting the PMU, I tried plugging it into a different wall, nothing. I could buy a replacement adapter from Apple for $80, but the reviews on Apple's site gave it 2 stars, poor reliability, and mentions of fire hazards. I went with an iGo adapter instead, which was rated at 65 W and supposed to be compatible with the iBook. I went through three of these, and not a single one lasted more than a week. iGo's customer support was superior to Apple's however, and I ended up with an adapter that was rated for 90 W. Problem solved. At least, the problem of my dead adapter was solved.
I frequently leave my laptop asleep when I'm traveling from work to home. One day, I opened my laptop up and I was greeted with a white flash, a small popping noise, and the iBook powering off. I then followed Apple's support routine of checking the battery (60% power), plugging it into the wall, resetting the PMU, etc. to get my laptop to turn on. Nothing. Apple's support was not helpful, save for the suggestion that I look into buying a new computer. I removed and replaced the Airport card and RAM, tried the power button again, and had success.
My laptop worked for another two weeks before the same sequence repeated itself. This time I tried booting with each component. It turned out that my second DIMM spontaneously will unseat itself, which causes the rest of the system to erp. For a computer that is meant to be portable, I find this unacceptable. Not to mention, I'm not always going to have the tools and space to take apart the iBook, reseat everything, and try to restart it when I'm greeted with the pop & flash.
The final straw came when the tip of my adapter broke off inside the notebook. The q-tip + superglue failed, as did the small pair of forceps, or even trying to shake it out. I brought it to Apple's authorized repair center (there are no Apple stores in my state) for assistance. They told me that a repair would involve soldering work and that they wouldn't do it, but they could give me the number of someone who could. The fix was to replace the DC housing, a $10 part, with a $150 minimum labor surcharge.
As far as I can tell, Apple support is synonymous with product replacement. If you paid for the AppleCare, you're in the clear for a number of years. If not, tough luck. I think I'm finally going to take Apple up on their recommendation and buy a new computer. Unfortunately for them, it's not going to be another Apple product. The iBook may have been inexpensive in the short term compared to comperable PCs of the same size, but it's not worth it in the long run. -
"simply incredible" on by a37dragonman
Pros: light, fast, great looking, and most important, a mac
Cons: none whatsoever
Summary: I looked at a lot of laptops from dell to avis to toshiba. Apple was by far the best. I was worried about swiching from a PC to a mac and other pc notebooks where cheaper and had more Ghz. Turns out when i got this thing. It dosent matter! this is at least 10x faster then my pc desktop when it was brand new. By the way, dont worry about the screens size, you can buy some a/v cords for 31$ at comp usa that work fine. The only problem i have is i cant do my hobbies as much because when i had a pc, i had to entertain myself when it was loading and malfunctioning, now, i cant do those things any more because it is so fast!
Updated
i am 12 and i do programing video editing, 3d desine, web desine and work with macromedia studio. My specs are 60 gig and 768 ram. Imovie is really slow on this but the effects are way better on it. I did a report in class with a four minute video project. I hooked it up to the classes tv with the monster itv and got the best grade in the class.
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