Thinking about switching - powerbook questions

Hi there. The CPU on my laptop recently crapped out, so I'm thinking of just selling it for parts and buying a mac. I've had so many problems with windows laptops in the past; maybe it's time to try something new.

Here are my questions:

1. I have a linksys wireless G router. Will this be compatible with an ibook or powerbook or do I need some kind of Airport Express base?

2. Is there a way to run windows only programs on OS X? Like an emulator or something? I have a few small windows-only programs that I use all the time, and it'd suck to lose them.

3. About Apple Care -- Is it only good from the date of purchase? Can I buy another Apple Care when my first one runs out? (I don't know if I'll want to upgrade or not in 3 years, but my first laptop is still kicking (7 years old) and it's serving me well right now (well, as well as an 8 year old machine can) with my 3ghz laptop on the blitz. If I have a machine that's 3 years old, is it not eligible for Apple Care? Basically, I don't get whether Apple Care is good from the date of purchase of Apple Care or the date of purchase of the product being covered.

4. Is it true that Powerbooks get REALLY hot? Is this a potential problem as far as hardware goes? Someone told me not to get a Powerbook because it'll burn my lap!

5. Why are Mac CPUs so much slower than PC ones? I mean, are they really equal? Which is better? How do I compare them? I assume that they must be comparable considering a 1.5ghz powerbook is priced like a 3.0ghz windows laptop. Can someone explain the speed comparison?

6. Are Powerbooks quiet? I've had some PC laptops in the past that sounded like 747s taking off. I'm going to be using the laptop in class, and I don't want to make ears bleed. Furthermore, are their keyboards quiet? Some laptops have very bouncy/noisey keyboards that sound like torrential downpour... others are barely heard.

7. Do Powerbooks have built-in bluetooth?

8. Is the Powerbook battery life actually what's stated? I know that with iPods, Apple has a tendency to exaggerate the battery life.

9. Do Powerbooks have the same annoying Clear-type blur problem that the iMacs with OS X do? (I use the white iMac with the monitor on the pivot arm at school a good deal, and the **** thing makes me go blind. I've tried to fix the font in every which way to no avail.. it's always blurry).

10. Is the AC adapter of a Powerbook gigantic? Some laptops will weigh like 5lbs but then have a **** 3lb power adapter.

11. And finally, DID YOUR POWERBOOK EVER CRAP OUT ON YOU? WHAT HAPPENED?

One More Question!!

one more question!!

Does anyone have a simple guide they could link me to that explains the Mac file extensions? I'd like to familiarize myself with them.

Thanks!

1. Yes your powerbook/ibook will be able to work with any new wireless product... the airport card in the computer is 801.11 b/g i believe

2. Yes it is called virtual pc, it is made by microsoft, and it allows you to run any version of windows that you woud like, you can buy it at the apple store either you can not buy an operating system with it and use the version of windows you already have, or you can buy an operating system along with it in th box.

3. Apple Care can be bought with in a year of the date of purchase of the product in which you like to protect, you can not extend this after apple care expires, but your computer will most likely keep ticking for alot longer then that.

4. They get rather warm but not hot, and cool down right after you un plug them from the wall. They don't really get nearly as hot when you are running on battery. This does not cause any damage to the hardware.

5. Its called the megahertz myth, the pipe line on the ppc proccessor is alot shorter which allows things to be proccessed by the proccessore alot faster then if the proccessor had a long pipe line such as the intels and there for slows the computer down, that is why the pump the information through there at a higher clock speed.

6. Fans are very quite, and the keyboard is also really quite unless you are a maniac typer.. the fans are rarely to never on when you are just doing basic stuff, the only time i really experience them on is when running final cut pro five or motion.. they do not come on when using live type or sound track pro. and comes on every once in a while when using dvd studio pro.

7. Yes.

8. depends on what you are doing, with dimmed screen, not wireless, and just basic word proccessing.. yes.. but if you have brightness all the way up even though you don't need it that high and then air port on, browsing the internet, using an aim client, and possibly working on a photoshop project.. I notice about a 3 hour battery life..

9. No they do not

10. nope small.. and folds up really tight and compact with the compact adapter in.. and a little larger if you want to put in the larger cord but still weighs really light, both come with the computer.

11. Yes, well not crapped out, i haven't even had it fixed since i don't really notice a difference and I am goingi to wait to get a powermac since it has to go back to apple to get fixed and can't be fixed in the store. I have 1.5 gb worth of ram sticks in my powrebook but the 512 can not be read because of the dimm is broken.. kind of a major problem but not quite that bad..

solarith said:

one more question!!

Does anyone have a simple guide they could link me to that explains the Mac file extensions? I'd like to familiarize myself with them.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Sorry did not see this when i answered the question in my previous post.
I do not know where you could find such a guid but i will run through some of them.
.dmg - Disk image file
.doc - Microsoft office document file (all files from microsoft office are the same as on a pc)
.jpeg .gif .png .pdf .psd - are all the same
.fcp is a final cut pro project

if i remember more i will come back and add them. other people will probably be able to add more later too.

PowerBookG4 said:

Sorry did not see this when i answered the question in my previous post.
I do not know where you could find such a guid but i will run through some of them.
.dmg - Disk image file
.doc - Microsoft office document file (all files from microsoft office are the same as on a pc)
.jpeg .gif .png .pdf .psd - are all the same
.fcp is a final cut pro project

if i remember more i will come back and add them. other people will probably be able to add more later too.

Click to expand...

Thank you so much! You've been a tremendous help. I'm going to head over to the Apple store this weekend and play around..

More on the file extensions: a disk image (.dmg file) is essentially a file made to replicate a Macintosh hard drive disk. Since Mac OS Applications (.app) files cannot exist on FAT32/NTFS file systems, or over e-mails, et cetera, the disk image (.dmg file) "protects" them, so to speak. Other files you'll often run across, compression-wise:

.app = Mac OS application file; it does not function quite like a .exe file does in Windows. newer .app files are typically what's called a 'package' file, with many smaller files inside it. It's essentially a folder, but with a special icon and a file extension, if that makes sense.
.sit = StuffIt Expander compressed file format.
.zip = just like on PCs.
.gz = gunzip; another compressed format. commonly seen as '.tar.gz' .

googled.. searched through all the results.. this looks the most appropriate
http://www.saugus.net/Computer/Extensions/

Meyvn said:

.gz = gunzip; another compressed format. commonly seen as '.tar.gz' .

Click to expand...

Normally a .tar file is know as a tarball. So a file with a .tar.gz extension is a tar archive (tarball - .tar) that has been compress (.gz).