My Mac Conundrum
I’ve had my old clamshell iBook for a while now, and it was used when I got it. rt_hon_rackman acquired it for me from eBay so that I could work while I was breastfeeding, and now when it isn’t in my lap it sits ensconced on the tray of Gillian’s outgrown high chair, which has wheels and makes a great work station. It pulled its weight, but using OS 9 is starting to be a real pain in the ass. I’m being rejected by some web sites because they don’t like my browser. And I’m doing more work on the computer again, so . . . time to get a new laptop! Whoo hoo!
My budget puts me in the 14” iBook/12” Power Book range. I asked my Mac-savvy friends for their advice, which they gave (thanks guys). The main piece of advice was, “Go to the Apple store and look for yourself.” Well, I know wisdom when I hear it, so we went to our local Apple store at the Mall at Millenia, which for you Chicagoans is like Woodfield Mall married to Midway Airport.
Mmm, Apple Store. I’ve only been in one once before, and it wasn’t as cool as they are these days. And I was only going to buy a cord, which is lame. This time I was going to look at computers! Cool, new computers! And I looked, and yea verily, did drool. rt_hon_rackman Helped me out by taking Gillian to play a Dora the Explorer video game while I comparison shopped. A very helpful Apple employee filled me in on the various merits of the two machines vying for my favor.
My knee-jerk reaction: I like the iBook better. It feels friendlier to me. The screen resolution is the same for both, but because the iBook screen is bigger, it’s easier to see. I like the feel and the color better. Both machines have all the most recent updates; bluetooth, drop-protected hard drives, DVD read/write, etc. They weigh about the same. The Apple guy said that they basically do all the same stuff, including video editing, and the difference in memory and speed probably won’t be noticeable for the kinds of things I would be doing.
That said, rt_hon_rackman pointed out that the Power Book could be hooked to an external monitor so that I could use two screens, the laptop’s and the monitor’s, more than doubling my screen space. The iBook can only project its own screen onto the external monitor, so I wouldn’t get any increase in screen size, it would just look bigger. Since I sometimes work with multiple documents, I like to have a larger screen (like my 17” desktop).
The iBook is slightly cheaper, which would give me the edge in beginning to buy some software for it.
So my conclusion is: I still don’t know which one I want, but I’m leaning toward the iBook. Anyone who can help break the stalemate is welcome to comment.
Hopefully I can figure this out before I have another baby to breastfeed.
My budget puts me in the 14” iBook/12” Power Book range. I asked my Mac-savvy friends for their advice, which they gave (thanks guys). The main piece of advice was, “Go to the Apple store and look for yourself.” Well, I know wisdom when I hear it, so we went to our local Apple store at the Mall at Millenia, which for you Chicagoans is like Woodfield Mall married to Midway Airport.
Mmm, Apple Store. I’ve only been in one once before, and it wasn’t as cool as they are these days. And I was only going to buy a cord, which is lame. This time I was going to look at computers! Cool, new computers! And I looked, and yea verily, did drool. rt_hon_rackman Helped me out by taking Gillian to play a Dora the Explorer video game while I comparison shopped. A very helpful Apple employee filled me in on the various merits of the two machines vying for my favor.
My knee-jerk reaction: I like the iBook better. It feels friendlier to me. The screen resolution is the same for both, but because the iBook screen is bigger, it’s easier to see. I like the feel and the color better. Both machines have all the most recent updates; bluetooth, drop-protected hard drives, DVD read/write, etc. They weigh about the same. The Apple guy said that they basically do all the same stuff, including video editing, and the difference in memory and speed probably won’t be noticeable for the kinds of things I would be doing.
That said, rt_hon_rackman pointed out that the Power Book could be hooked to an external monitor so that I could use two screens, the laptop’s and the monitor’s, more than doubling my screen space. The iBook can only project its own screen onto the external monitor, so I wouldn’t get any increase in screen size, it would just look bigger. Since I sometimes work with multiple documents, I like to have a larger screen (like my 17” desktop).
The iBook is slightly cheaper, which would give me the edge in beginning to buy some software for it.
So my conclusion is: I still don’t know which one I want, but I’m leaning toward the iBook. Anyone who can help break the stalemate is welcome to comment.
Hopefully I can figure this out before I have another baby to breastfeed.