Advice from the MAC crowd

I'll fairly new to the MAC world. Currently I have a G3 Powerbook running OS X Panther edition. I absolutly love it. I am considering buying a new notebook. Either iBook or Powerbook. I haven't decided. Which should I go for?

Thats not my question really. My question is, I see Steve Jobs will be introducing OS X "Tiger" at a convention at the end of June. Will this be just a information type thing or will "Tiger" be available soon after that date? Basically I want your opinion on whether to wait for "Tiger" to buy or just buy now. I don't know what history tells about Apple releasing new OS's. What do you think?

Thanks for any advise.

I'd expect Tiger prereleased floating around if so, and I've heard of none. Buy it.

Tiger won't likely be out until late this year, or even possibly early 2005. Basicially Steve will premiere it at WWDC in June, giving developers time to see the new features, and begin writing new programs that can take advantage of them.

Hardware wise, now is a good time to buy an Apple laptop. Both the iBook and Powerbook lines got upgraded, so they won't be upgraded again for probably another 6-9 months.

As for what system, thats a tough call. It really depends on what you want to do with the new system, and how much you can afford. Powerbooks offer better graphics cards, more expandibility via external ports, and higher resolution screens on the 15 and 17 inch models. The iBooks are going to be more affordable, by sacrificing a few things like processor speed and built in wireless. You can add features to the iBook, but it may bring the price close to a Powerbook.

Also take a look at the deals on older model systems and refurbs. Click the Apple store then the Special deals link with the red tag on either the right or left bars (they move it around from time to time). Smalldog also tends to have a decent refurb selection.

Wow,

A lot of stuff in those links. Thanks for the lowdown on Tiger. That answers my question perfectly. Now I have to go through and see what I want to do. iBook or Powerbook.

From Apple's store I could pick a 14" iBook with wireless, bluetooth, 60 gig. drive, 1.2 ghz, etc. That would be ~$2000. If I got a Powerbook with everything I wanted it would cost ~$2600 - $2700. I have to decide if the extra $$ is worth it to me. The backlit keyboard seems pretty handy. Are the iBook screens as good as the Powerbooks? What about durability? One better than the other?

The powerbooks can dual head which is in my eyes brilliant means i have a tiny wee 12" powerbook

I take it out and about i have tiny machine, i take it home plug in the external machine i have huge screen for most stuff and laptop scren for mail or something else i want to keep open but not bothering me on the main screen. i also have the bluetooth keyboard and a microsoft bluetooth mouse which is great as you just put the laptop down and it instantly picks up the keyboard and almost instantly the mouse dependant on how playful mouse is feeling

I agree with Drakino. I wouldn't expect Tiger to be released any time soon. 2005 would be about right based on when they announced Panther at WWDC, and then released it commercially. In fact, based on circulating rumors, Tiger is going to be so significantly different that I wouldn't be surprised if the release were delayed beyond that. Based on how delayed Longhorn's release date is goign to be, I don't think Apple is in any huge hurry.

Traditionally none of Apple's upgrades were based on any type of strategy that factored MS' own plans for Windows. Tiger, as reported, however, will mark Apple's last release as part of their current year-over year major version bump.

Their release strategy has been extremely unfavourable to those in IT - trying to administer even a single machine with a critical role has been a pain in the ass when an update to a new major version is practically forced. The risk of introducing bugs and other problems being balanced against the availability of other fixes for usability and/or security - fixes that are often not re-built using the older code-base and therefore not ever released for older major versions. This has been seen numerous times when comparing 10.2.x to 10.1.x and more recently with 10.3.x and 10.2.x (Panther to Jaguar).

We have every build Apple ever makes at work. Tiger will definitely not be out this summer. I seem to recall this has also been reported on. A ballpark date might even be mentioned in the article about their new release schedules.

I don't expect the changes in Tiger to be as much of a departure from Panther as Longhorn is from XP. Longhorn is VERY different.

Bruno

I don't expect the changes in Tiger to be as much of a departure from Panther as Longhorn is from XP.

Me neither - I wasn't suggesting that. I was just going off of what the press releases from Apple have been calling "the highly evolved Mac OS X 'Tiger'."

OK,

I've decided against the iBook. So Powerbook it is. Now, should I go with the 12" Powerbook or 15" Powerbook. Specs, I know about but are the 12" Powerbooks good? I've read many reviews but they seem to be from last years model. The reviews aren't to great. Is the new Powerbook better? My main concern is the quality of the screen. From reviews I've read they aren't up to par with the 15" and 17". I like the idea of having a small Laptop. It will be my main machine however. I'm wondering if the smaller screen will annoy me in the long run. Does anyone have thoughts or recommendations on what I should get?

What resolution do you normally like to work at? My gf has a 12" PB and I have a 15". She absolutely loves her 12" and I like it a great deal, too. The reason I went with the 15 over the 12, was because 1024 x 768 wasn't a high enough resolution for me. I like to work at 1280 wide. But if you normally work at a resolution no higher than 1024x768, then I have a feeling you'd love the 12". Of course, you could also always hook up an external monitor if you needed a higher resolution.

Generally, 1024 x 768 works well for me. I currently have a G3 14" Powerbook and this is the setting I use. I think maybe for me anything more would make the stuff to small for me to see. Is the 12" screen a big enough surface to work for on a regular basis, IYO? Yes, I could hook it up to a external display.

How is the quality of the screen? Like I said, past reviews don't do it justice. It appears thst the newest models have a better screen as well as other features past models don't have. But, I don't know that for sure. Again, I'm new to the Mac's so my knowledge is very limited.

Is the 12" too small IYO in general to work with on a regular basis?

Thanks,

There's an Apple Store in Salem, NH, so you might want to go play with one, if that's close. (And how can it be far away? NH is like a total of 50 acres, right?) Usually, the Apple Store folks are happy for you to fiddle with the display models all you want.

I didn't realize that Bitt. Salem is about 20 minutes from me. I'll try to head down there. Anyway, I'd still like to here others' options.

Thanks.

It really depends. I went with the 15 inch due to wanting the higher screen resolution, since the Powerbook has become my main computer. But the 12 inch might be right for you. Best thing as Bitt said would be to play with them at the Apple store. Screen size is a personal preference, one that you should make standing in front of the real machines.

As far as preformance on the 12 inch, the first version did have some issues. They put too little cache into the CPU, and ran the bus slower. This ended up causing the Powerbook to be slower in some things then the iBook. Newer revisions fixed this by using the same CPUs as the bigger Powerbooks. The first revision also put out a lot of heat, something that also has been corrected in the newest revisions.