New iBooks out of left field

Apple today released new iBooks, equipped with G4 chips instead of the pokey G3s. Hmmm. That is very interesting, as Wintermute, my current Mobile Headquarters, is an old 2001 iBook with a blistering 600MHz G3 and no Quartz Extreme. Tech specs look okay–800MHz G4, no FireWire 800, which is okay; combo drive, which is fine on a laptop. Bluetooth is external. Urgh.

I’ll have to give some thought to this for my next laptop purchase, which hopefully won’t be too far in the future, as Wintermute is suffering from what is most likely a bad inverter board. The screen intermittently goes black when adjusting the display angle. This happens to a lot of iBooks, although Apple has not admitted a problem. Cough assholes cough. (I don’t have the time to dig up a link of people complaining about this, but just go to Apple’s discussion boards and you’ll get an eyeful.)

So it breaks down like this:

iBook G4 pros: Cheap, sturdy, smalliBook G4 cons: Slow, no internal Bluetooth, no video mirroring. So-so keyboard. Not a Cool Rig™

AlBook 15 pros: Fast, internal bluetooth, larger screen, excellent keyboard (oh, with backlighting!); most definitely a Cool Rig™AlBook 15 cons: Moolah intensive, larger to haul around

Incidentally, I already have a name for my next laptop. Does that make me a geek? [Trumpet fanfare] Its name shall be … Gunhead–the name of Berry Rydell’s rent-a-cop cruiser in Virtual Light.

Music: Soldier Of The Line by Magnum

Posted Wednesday, 22 October, 2003 by Nic Lindh

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