checked out the 14 and 12 ibook today

[designerguy]

Checked out the 14 and 12 ibook today. I didn't notice the pixelization that everyone was talking about in the 14? I also ran a few trailers on both systems and the powerbook. I will say the powerbook's screen is much brighter as everyone has stated. But the screen on ibooks were not all that bad..i was expecting worse given the comments. The 14" ibook also felt easier to work and more comfortable on the eyes while reading and didn't feel cramped with typing.

The casing was pretty weak on the ibooks though. They changed the wrist pad area to a duller texture then the older ibooks we have at my job. Makes them look cheap....

The 15" Power book just blows the ibooks out the water. The screen is fantastic but so is the price!

Still set on the 12" ibook. Should make a purchase after the revisions come out shortly.

Thanks again for all the help!

[Brad]

I've never heard anyone talk about "pixelization" on the larger one. What people talk about is that they both have the same 1024*768 resolution; so, the 14" model has larger individual pixels. A user gets a larger screen with the 14", but he's not able to fit any more content onto it.

[torifile]

It's that the 14" screen isn't as crisp because they have fewer pixels per inch.

[designerguy]

If tons of people are wanting the ibook screen to be a tad brighter...is there any way a software patch could just bump up the brightness? Or is that a hardware prob only?

[edderkop]

Doubt it. It is a question about how bright the backlighting is. The brighter the backlight the lower the battery life. iBooks are sold among other things on the basis of their long battery life, so I reckon the backlighting is cranked down to eke a few minutes longer out of every charge. The bright backlights on powerbooks are part of the reason you will struggle to get more than 2.5 hours away from the power adaptor.

[Koodari]

I had the last revision 15" Powerbook and I switched to a 12" iBook for price reasons in January. I miss nothing except a little graphics power which would make WoW run smoother, and the DVI out. I recommend 12" iBook as long as you can live without those niceties, and 15" PB if you want to go upwards from there. 12" PB is a bastard child with an iBook screen, almost iBook-caliber graphics and a Powerbook pricetag. Okay, that was a bit harsh and for some people I would still actually recommend it. 14" iBook is just stupid methinks.

What do they have to add to the iBook now? Bluetooth (2.0?) as standard so they can sell wireless keyboards and mice? DVI so they can sell displays? A graphics card for full CoreImage support? If the answer is "all of those", then the end result is 12" PB. Meaning, the PB needs a serious bump. Graphics, FW800, new processor if possible, the works. Then they could at least give iBook what it needs to work with Apple's other products: the input devices, the displays, Tiger.

[designerguy]

What does Tiger offer that the ibook can not use? Not getting what the whole coreimage issue is about? Is coreimage something I need as a graphic designer?

So are you saying that if I get the ibook 12" that it's almost out of date upon arrival? Meaning that the newer programs w/in the next 2 years will perform poorly?

Thanks....

[Stevuh]

Right now the only thing that core image affects is when you add a widget to dashboard it makes a ripple effect. Woo Hoo! </sarcasm>. but in the future as it becomes more used and better supported it may be more important, it also may be important for you though i may be wrong don't know a whole lot about it.

[Koodari]

So are you saying that if I get the ibook 12" that it's almost out of date upon arrival? Meaning that the newer programs w/in the next 2 years will perform poorly?No. The 12" iBook is a great laptop - see how I said I barely miss anything from the 15" PB? - and shares Apple's best value product position with the mini. That in mind, and given how weak the low end Powerbook is, I don't expect much of an update to the iBook at least before the Powerbook is updated. That was my main point with the last post. I'd love to be wrong on this... but don't expect too much from the iBook update, rather be on the lookout for good discounts.

The other thing that was important is that I don't think anyone should buy the 14" iBook, and only few people should buy the 12" Powerbook.

I think you would have reason to be interested in CoreImage if you work with video and moving graphics, but otherwise, it's not important. Wherever it's used, the computer will do the same things in software, it's just a little slower. Beyond a couple years, I don't know, but it usually doesn't pay to buy more features in a computer "just in case". Even if that one thing is necessary at some point, the whole computer will be old by then.

[designerguy]

Thanks for clearing that up. $400 more to save for the ibook!