01-11-2006, 05:43 AM

I am buying my first laptop. I am MAC and PC efficient.
I've narrowed it to these two:

Powerbook G4
ibook G4

They seem very similiar to me and I can't make up my mind. Afraid I'm going to have buyers remorse!

Also are the titanium's less sturdy?

J

01-11-2006, 06:15 AM

I own an iBook G4, and it's very nice, however I understand it's not as powerful as the Powerbook. I think the iBook is more for email, surfing, office apps, light video and image editing, but nothing too stressful.

01-11-2006, 08:47 AM

Originally Posted by chuckalicious

I own an iBook G4, and it's very nice, however I understand it's not as powerful as the Powerbook. I think the iBook is more for email, surfing, office apps, light video and image editing, but nothing too stressful.

I agree with Chuckalicious.....---- BUT as u probably already know the powerbook is FINALLLY updated to something worth mentioning. The Macbook Is using Intel technology, and it boasts to be 4x more powerful as the powerbookG4.

But it all depends what you want to use it for. I use my computers for graphics and such so I generally stay away from the apple laptop alltogether, but if your not someone who uses heavy-duty programs, than the ibook is more than effiecient, and the price isn't bad.

01-11-2006, 08:55 AM

livebig, that is true, however....

as many people have pointed out, at the moment, pretty much all software for the new Intel Macs is emulated, so won't be harnessing the full power of the new notebook. Chances are it'll be many many months, or longer, before Intel specific apps come out that can use the full power of the MacBook. Plus, as has been proven quite a few times, the first revisions of Mac hardware seem to be buggy/faulty. Maybe this will be different.

If you can afford the MacBook and want to take the risk of getting in first, then go for it, I think it will have a long lifespan.

However there is suggestion that the iBooks won't be getting updated until nearer 2007, so as usual, buy now and it'll be out of date soon enough, buy later, and it may be worth it, but it may not, there still may be something better by that time.....

01-15-2006, 01:19 PM

I use my ibook G3 for photo editing and for cinema 4d. It works fine apart from slow render times, so i usually do that on the imac G5. All being said the ibook G3 is fast enough for most things so the G4 should be fine.

So far as what I've read the titanium's aren't less sturdy and a powerbook is faster than an ibook. I would have got a Powerbook if I'd had the money.

What size screen are you thinking of getting ? and which programs are you likely to run ?

01-15-2006, 01:44 PM

Give us more information.

01-15-2006, 02:32 PM

I have a powerbook and love it. I have a quad g5 powermac, and yet still find myself using my powerbook g4 most of the time.
Just the way it feels, how well it does things, and it portability to allow me to lay on the couch and relax (as i am doing now). It is great.
I know people who have iBooks and I am not going to say they are bad, but I do know that every time I am around with my powerbook they say something like I wish I could have afforded that system as appose to this, even though they are only doing basic things like e-mail and browsing, the powerbook makes it more enjoyable... not only that the neutral grey around the side of the screen as apposed the the white makes it easy to look at the screen and never notices the framing of the screen.
So my vote is for the powerbook.. hope you make the rigth choice for you and enjoy your choice.. either way going for a mac is the best way to go.

01-22-2006, 06:24 AM

I too have the PowerBook G4 and use it for GarageBand and other apps. I just switched to Mac from PC and I haven't looked back. In fact I had to get Virtual PC to use some programs from work and when it booted XP Pro with the old familiar startup music I shivered at the sound. The PowerBook does everything I need it to and it does it with simplicity and elegance. I love it.

01-22-2006, 03:22 PM

Originally Posted by chuckalicious

livebig, that is true, however....

as many people have pointed out, at the moment, pretty much all software for the new Intel Macs is emulated, so won't be harnessing the full power of the new notebook. Chances are it'll be many many months, or longer, before Intel specific apps come out that can use the full power of the MacBook. Plus, as has been proven quite a few times, the first revisions of Mac hardware seem to be buggy/faulty. Maybe this will be different.

If you can afford the MacBook and want to take the risk of getting in first, then go for it, I think it will have a long lifespan.

However there is suggestion that the iBooks won't be getting updated until nearer 2007, so as usual, buy now and it'll be out of date soon enough, buy later, and it may be worth it, but it may not, there still may be something better by that time.....

There's also the whole "Universal Binary" thing. So even if apps are Intel compatible, the majority will also support the PowerPC.

01-22-2006, 06:40 PM

i use my ibook for everything but games i have xbox for that but my ibook has not had a problem doing what i wanted to do but i have 1gig of ram and a 500gig external hdd my bro bought.

01-22-2006, 07:29 PM

Get the PowerBook unless you have your heart set on a 12-inch laptop, in which case the iBook is a much better buy (almost as powerful as the 12" PowerBook in every way and larger RAM capacity for $500 less, not to mention better battery life).

01-22-2006, 07:33 PM

If you have the money, get the powerbook