OT: New iBook

[illiria]

Seems like the new iBook is almost a TiBook...basically as fast, just a bit smaller screen?! looks great!

[Flomper]

Makes me wish I had 1200 bucks

[illiria]

Yeah, almost better than a TiBook: cheaper (so I dont have to replace my desktop machine), VGA and TV out, FireWire (for the burner) and USB for everything else...now the big question is: do I need DVD or not? (the 64 MB Ram are not a problem, since I would add 256 anyhow)...
Also: It should run OSX at an acceptable speed, right?

[-Ashman-]

I just ordered the high-end model with the DVD/CDRW combo drive. I'll probably buy one for my wife too.

[Rue]

You will of course give us a thorough and prompt review upon receiving your ibook, won't you Ash?

[illiria]

Yeah, I was thinking about the CDRW model, too, but it is quite expensive, and I do have an external firewire burner, so I dont really need to burn CDs on the road...still the big question is: to DVD or not to DVD...and the price difference here would mean 256 MB Ram and a CDROM or a DVD... the 64 MB base RAM is no problem I think ... hope to get one soon!

[-Ashman-]

Well... I'm still waiting for my new iBook to ship from the Apple store. I've heard that stock CDROM and DVD iBooks have already been shipping. The CDRW and Combo drive machines should ship sometime in the next two weeks.

I decided on the DVD/CDRW combo drive because I often find myself wishing I had a portable CDRW to back stuff up when I'm providing "Mac support" for friends and family. Having a DVD player along for the ride is a bonus.

[Rue]

I'm on pins and needles just waiting for you to receive your ibook.

[illiria]

I wish they would be shipping the CD units in germany as well, but apple store people keep telling me the "standard" 3-5 weeks...oh well. There must be some really weird things in the production process, after all I am getting a "german" iBook, maybe they have to denazify the power adaptor first

[illiria]

correction: it shipped today. Yahoo!

[Flomper]

Excellent!

Just today I was thinking maybe I should trade in my G4 for one. That would actually be dumb, but not very. Those things are so great, and I would love to be able to walk out the door with it.

I could keep my big monitor and plug it in when I came home. Mmmmmm now I want to do it again! Well, I'll wait until the Fall at least. I shouldn't be buying a computer when I don't have a job

[illiria]

Well DHL is supposed to deliver the iBook today...any wishes for testing specific things?

[illiria]

It is here. finally nice, white, not heavy at all, the screen is great to look at, although a bit small, but I knew that before.
When you start it up the first time you are supposed to insert the "software restore CD" and pre-load the harddisk image they ship it with. Wonder what happened to pre-loading the harddrive before shipping it? Oh well, the CDROM is quite noisy.
The first thing I did was to re-install 9.1 with the supplied CD and put the software (iTunes, AppleWorks, FaxSTF and Acrobat on it.) funny: there is a CD called "Applications" in the box, but all that is on it are games
Right now I am installing OSX over the 9.1 I installed...and I hate to say it, but OSX looks great on the display! So much for now...

[Killjoy]

:drooling with envy:

More, tell us more...

:just drooling:

Edit: bloody smilies

[illiria]

right now I am shoveling apps and data from my desktop machine to the iBook. I tried firewiredisk mode, but somehow I had 2 crashes so I am not going to do this again. AppleShare seems to be better/more stable on 9.1 than on X so the iBook is back in 9.1 world. I havent partitioned the drive but I would love to somehow select a secon system folder for classic...anyone know if this is possible?
The trackpad needs some getting used to...I will probably take my Intellimouse with me when I go to England this summer, there is no real replacement for a great mouse
The speakers seem to be OK, havent played any mp3s yet, they need to be copied over first the 10 GB harddrive seem to be sufficient, although it does need a bit of consideration what to put on the disk. I thought: 1 GB 9.1, 1 GB OSX, 1 GB Apps, 2GB MP3, 2 GB games should be enough.
I noticed the case of the iBook does like dirt and fingerprints...too bad it is so shiny and not like the old iBooks. but the form factor is nice. Its size is about the size of an issue of wired..