06-16-2004, 02:54 PM

Here's the story. Last week i purchased an iBook G4 12" from the online Applestore. The machine seemed to be working fine, however after installing an AE card i was getting very poor signal strength even within inches of the base station.

After much discussion with Apple technical support making sure i had installed it correctly, reinstalling software, replacement AE card, etc, it now appears i may have a faulty internal antenna.

I live in Ireland where Apple has a simple 10 working days returns policy (their american policy is much more complicated, it seems). This means i'm still entitled to a replacement or complete refund.

Even without this problem, I'm now beginning to regret my iBook choice. I originally bought the ibook (my first laptop) with the plan to get a new desktop (to replace my aging iMac 600) a few months later. the ibook would have been my secondary machine.

However, i now realise that i don't really need 2 macs. One is enough, laptop or desktop regardless. So i'm now considering returning my (likely faulty) ibook for a refund and getting a Powerbook 12" instead. This would mean not getting a desktop; I would be using the PB as my primary machine.

Are PBs good desktop replacements? I may get an external monitor. Should i be happier with the PB? I found the ibook's build quality to be a bit disappointing.

Any advice? Suggestions? thanks

06-16-2004, 03:03 PM

My 15' works fine as a primary machine. I am sure any Mac OSX system model will be fine as a primary as long as you have good RAM and Hard drive space. Depends on your preferences for screen size though.

06-16-2004, 06:03 PM

I used to have an iBook G4 800 with an AE card and reception was really poor. At first, I thought I installed it wrong, but it's just the laptop. I got my new Powerbook and the reception is about 1000 times better than my old iBook.

06-30-2004, 07:21 PM

I have a 15" model and is certainly a desktop replacement. Go for the 15 or 17" with better graphics than the 12". You'll have options to drive dual displays or on an external at higher resolutions.

PS. Even so the 15" is tiny.