Rating: 
Summary: iBook not so great
Review: ...P>Previously: I bought an iBook just recently and realized I've been using the wrong OS and computer for years. The iBook is simple to use. There were no awkward searches for drivers to get my HP printer to work on it. Other than setting the phone #, server settings and my username and password, getting onto the Internet was simplicity itself. I still have my Windows 98SE desktop, but its relegated to the catalog of Windows-based games I own. I use my iBook for burning CDs and writing. It's a good tool. It's thinner and lighter than comparable Windows laptops.After four months of use, this computer has worked exceptionally well. The OS is stable. Battery life, however, is running just over three hours. The display is sharp. I've put OS 10.2 on it and have had no problems, other than updating a couple pieces of third-party software. Yeah, a larger screen would have been nice, but the low weight makes up for that. I've had no problems opening Windows documents in Appleworks and have been able to network the machine with my Windows 98SE computer via a direct connection. The iBook can see the drives on the Windows machine, but the Windows machine can't locate the iBook in the Network Neighborhood. 1/28/03 This laptop has been sent back to Apple 2x in the last two months for the same problem, a bad display. ...I am very dissatisfied with this laptop.
Rating: 
Summary: Purposeful Joy
Review: A recent "switcher" from the PC platform, my admiration for the OS X / Apple hardware experience blossomed after just a few weeks. Why so long? For me, the "click-flow" for tasking took a little getting used to; however, I am beginning to experience the simplicity of usage much touted over the years. I upgraded the memory in my iBook to 600K+ and the processor is @ 700MHZ with the 12" screen. This change was initially a challenge as my last laptop was an IBM with 15" screen and 850 P3;the transition was easier while gazing at the beautiful display, the ability to run the Mac version of Office Pro (for file sharing and seamlessness with the remainder of my PC crowd company)and the still to be mastered features such as ical,imovie etc.,(all of which i enjoy more as I learn). So, the switch is fun, new and has come for me with a limited amount of excess stomach acid.
Rating:
Summary: Purposeful Joy
Review: A recent "switcher" from the PC platform, my admiration for the OS X / Apple hardware experience blossomed after just a few weeks. Why so long? For me, the "click-flow" for tasking took a little getting used to; however, I am beginning to experience the simplicity of usage much touted over the years. I upgraded the memory in my iBook to 600K+ and the processor is @ 700MHZ with the 12" screen. This change was initially a challenge as my last laptop was an IBM with 15" screen and 850 P3;the transition was easier while gazing at the beautiful display, the ability to run the Mac version of Office Pro (for file sharing and seamlessness with the remainder of my PC crowd company)and the still to be mastered features such as ical,imovie etc.,(all of which i enjoy more as I learn). So, the switch is fun, new and has come for me with a limited amount of excess stomach acid.
Rating:
Summary: Purposeful Joy
Review: A recent "switcher" from the PC platform, my admiration for the OS X / Apple hardware experience blossomed after just a few weeks. Why so long? For me, the "click-flow" for tasking took a little getting used to; however, I am beginning to experience the simplicity of usage much touted over the years. I upgraded the memory in my iBook to 600K+ and the processor is @ 700MHZ with the 12" screen. This change was initially a challenge as my last laptop was an IBM with 15" screen and 850 P3;the transition was easier while gazing at the beautiful display, the ability to run the Mac version of Office Pro (for file sharing and seamlessness with the remainder of my PC crowd company)and the still to be mastered features such as ical,imovie etc.,(all of which i enjoy more as I learn). So, the switch is fun, new and has come for me with a limited amount of excess stomach acid.
Rating: 
Summary: The perfect Reporter's or student's notebook...
Review: Almost all of the SPECs on this baby are just what you want in a laptop -- just over 1 inch thick case, less than 5 pounds, 5-hour battery. In person, you won't believe how small and truly portable this machine is. It's great for reporters on the go such as myself, or for students in a cramped dorm room. It has all the right ports, and appears to be made with quality in mind.
The screen is exceptionally bright as well. That said, I have a few complaints. 1) The low-end model skimps horribly on the memory (128 MB). You can upgrade the memory easily enough aftermarket cheaply, but that's an annoyance (128MB is the MINIMUM required for OS X, BTW). 2) The 600Mhz and 700 Mhz processors in these models are extremely long in the tooth. While that will not prevent you from taking advantage of productivity programs and Apple's free iSuite (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie), these processors are essentially two years out of date and will crimp your style if you are a gamer. Keep in mind that the lower speeds help preserve battery power, but it's hard not to get a case of Mhz envy when the person next to you is toting a 2Ghz Pentium4 notebook (even if it does weigh 8 pounds and crashes all the time).
Memo to Apple: you will keep losing market share until all of your computers have a Ghz, not Mhz! 3) The screen is a fairly miserly 12.1 inches, although it is active-matrix and high-resolution. Now, keep in mind that this contributes to the low-cost, svelte form factor and long battery life, but I wouldn't mind having a 13-14 inch screen when I'm squinting at text all day. I generally solve this problem by upping the size of the fonts, but still, this screen is rather small. If you buy one of the higher-end models, say the one with the Combo drive, you may find that watching a DVD on this small screen is not exactly the cinematic dream that you find on the amazing Titanium Powerbook G4 (with its glorious ultrawide 15.3" screen.) The 14-inch iBook is good, and superior to the PC equivalents, but it looks and feels too bulky for daily portability needs. 4. The low-end model comes with just a CD-Rom at a time when cheaper PC models are coming standard with Combo drives. A CD burner or DVD drive should be the minimum offered on an Apple machine. The parts only cost them a few bucks more! 5. This is a minor quibble, but the bottom left handrest can get quite warm. A little better insulation/heat dissipation is needed here. Hopefully Apple will fix these issues soon. What consumers want: A 1Ghz processor (!) (G4 anyone?)
256MB standard on all models (They charge [price] for the upgrade, but an extra 128 MB costs them about [price]!).
A 13-14 inch screen.
Same 5-pound form factor.
Standard CD burner or Combo Drive.
Under [price]. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: I can't believe Apple still sells this
Review: Having been a Macintosh user for 12 years, I found it difficult to abandon Apple as I was purchasing a computer for college. This gem was by far a good buy. For its price, the iBook is powerful enough to do all standard work on the go - wordprocessing, e-mailing, browsing the internet, listening to music, and really any non-gaming task. The built-in 128 megs of RAM was not enough memory, so I upgraded the RAM to 384 Megs (OS X is RAM-hungry). My experiences on-the-go have all been really good. The sleek, light design of the iBook makes it easy to take with me while travelling. Its battery life is very good - especially running OS 9. Speaking of which, OS 9 runs awesome on it! If it wasn't for the fact that OS X is much more stable, I would definitely be using 9. The gaming power is all that limits the iBook. Partially this is because the processor isn't high end. Also, the 16 meg ATI Radeon Mobility video card leaves a bit to be desired. However,the new editions of the iBook have 16 and 32 meg ATI Radeon 8500 Mobility cards which probably help speed up gaming. All in all, the iBook is a great value for a laptop. With the new lower prices, they are an even better value for somewhat powerful, portable computing.
Rating:
Summary: Great Laptop For Portable Work
Review: Having been a Macintosh user for 12 years, I found it difficult to abandon Apple as I was purchasing a computer for college. This gem was by far a good buy. For its price, the iBook is powerful enough to do all standard work on the go - wordprocessing, e-mailing, browsing the internet, listening to music, and really any non-gaming task. The built-in 128 megs of RAM was not enough memory, so I upgraded the RAM to 384 Megs (OS X is RAM-hungry). My experiences on-the-go have all been really good. The sleek, light design of the iBook makes it easy to take with me while travelling. Its battery life is very good - especially running OS 9. Speaking of which, OS 9 runs awesome on it! If it wasn't for the fact that OS X is much more stable, I would definitely be using 9. The gaming power is all that limits the iBook. Partially this is because the processor isn't high end. Also, the 16 meg ATI Radeon Mobility video card leaves a bit to be desired. However,the new editions of the iBook have 16 and 32 meg ATI Radeon 8500 Mobility cards which probably help speed up gaming. All in all, the iBook is a great value for a laptop. With the new lower prices, they are an even better value for somewhat powerful, portable computing.
Rating:
Summary: Great for its price
Review: Here are the pros: Great design, sleek look, beautiful screen, great software (I love i tunes-put all of your cd's on the hard drive), appleworks word processing, lightweight. Here are the cons: no manual, slow processor, the cd door gets stuck, very difficult to use netscape as your browser as it is set up for explorer and doesn't seem to accept netscape, no way to back up your data (!) unless you buy space on the web, difficult to use mac software set up for os 9 as this is os x. I tried to load up some mac games and spent all day trying as the ibook wouldn't accept the software because it was written in OS 9 and the ibook is Os X. It also gets hot if you have it on for more than 20 minutes. Still, I am very happy with it and think it is a great deal for the price.
Rating:
Summary: DON'T DO IT!!!
Review: I bought this product in Febuary. It comes with no
manual and no help. If something goes wrong with
it Apple will not help you, they will just try and get you to buy more service protection for $.... The simplest function, the date and time has malfunctioned since the day I purchased it and will never keep probably due to a bad internal battery ... Mac has sacrificed fancy lil design for their service. When I asked for helpthey said the online service would have the solution and of course it did not. ...
Rating:
Summary: A well built reasonable priced notebook
Review: I don't understand the negative comments posted about the processor speed and screen size. For the cost of this notebook the processor is more than adequate. If you shop around for a Windows based laptop you will get a Celeron processor in the same price range as this notebook. I wouldn't rank the Celeron in the powerful chip category. For what most people will be looking to use the laptop for (Email, web browsing, and word processing), the processor is more than adequate. I'm sure everyone would love to have a G4 or Pentium IV in their notebook but considering the different prices this one is just fine for the average home user or student. The same goes for the screen size. Sure we would all love a 15 inch screen but there are weight and price negatives to that choice. If you are looking for ulta portable, which this notebook targets, then 12.1 inch is the standard. You can get a 14.1 inch on a Windows based PC in the same price range but you won't get the quality that you will get with this notebook. Apple is rated in the top for customer satisfaction and quality for their notebooks. So don't listen that you are getting taken by a slower notebook with a small screen. That is exactly what this notebook calls for, if you are looking for a ultra portable 4.9 lbs notebook at a resonable price. If not, check out the G4 Powerbook but make sure to open up your pocket book to pay for the difference.
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