childBook
Written: Apr 17 '01
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Pros: Look and feel, Quality, Bright Screen
Cons: Soft keys, little heavy, screen may get dirt, only 56 K internal modem
The Bottom Line: Can't be better, unless you must have more then its specifications.
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| susi250's Full Review: Apple iBook Key Lime Special Edition 12.1 in. (M82... |
I have the Ibook for more then a year now. Before I had an LC and traded it for LC575 which is still working.
I have a 300 MHz power pc with 128 MB of memory, 56K internal Modem and x24 CD-ROM running apple system 9. I don't need to use Connectix Ram Doubler.
I bought a notebook because I can work anywhere and it has the flat screen. I can take it to travels and its easy to operate with no connecting cable. I don't have to carry heavy boxes every time I want to move the computer.
The screen is very bright. I like the looks of the computer and the round charger. It easy to carry them in a bag or suitcase.
There are some limitations since it has no floppy and only one USB port and not the biggest screen. But I prefer the low price and have the ability to save staff on the internet. I have it for more then a year with only one or 2 minor problems. One is that one key fell of the keyboard with no reason and apple demanded to take the whole computer just to fix it.
Now it is used mostly by my little children for games. I use it mostly for Internet. With virtual PC, it can run many PC games for my children. Nevertheless, some games didn't work with virtual pc, although, they ran OK on a regular desktop PC with the same windows 95.
I like it because its nice. It stays usually in the living room and looks much like a toy. I can put it anywhere and I like that I don't have to sit always on the same place as with the desktop computer. Usually I use it in front of the television or on the sofa.
Connecting it to the internet with Netscape, I think that it works very fast. I didn't have speed problems yet, but I don't do heavy work on it.
We take it to our family vacations for the children. My 3 year old child had some time to get used to the pad but now he plays for hours with it every day.
The batteries are enough for reasonable time even with the modem. Something like 3 to 4 hours on full load. And the computer will not shut off immediately when the batteries are empty. It displays their situation very nicely. And the light at the electricity connection shows clearly when its being charged and when its not charging.
It goes to sleep immediately when closing the screen, but some games prevent it from sleeping. When it sleeps, it shows with a nicely pulsating green light.
Its pretty tough. It overcame falling down once from few feet high, and worked OK inside a running car.
The most frustrating problem with this computer used to happen to my small children. After working a while with the computer, the pointer stopped obeying the finger. It went anywhere on the screen or on the reverse direction. Probably it happened because of some static electricity. But I couldn't fix it and it was fine after 5 to 10 minutes. It didn't happen to myself though. Lately it didn't happen at all, probably because the children learned to use the pad properly with one finger.
Apart from those minor problems, it was required to teach the children not to touch the screen. Also to be gentle with the charger cable that connect to the computer because the isolation tend to go out at the end of the charger side.
Another frustrating thing for the children is that I don't have a printer connected and on some games that require a printer, pressing the printer button in the game, stalls the computer or the game.
The children easily select their correct user by their icon at the login window. The desktop picture can be set easily for each user differently. Sometimes, the desktop pictures get back to the default setting or picture from one user is displayed for another user. I think that it happens after the computer is shutting down improperly for one or more times. My children tend to do this as a regular procedure to get out from a stalled game or any other reason.
The new Ibooks have faster processor, DVD and bigger hard drive. I like to wait as long as I can between computer purchase because they are getting better all the time and immediately after getting one, an improved model is sold for the same or less price. I had my previous LC computers for 3 to 5 years before getting this one.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1800$
Operating System: Macintosh
Processor: PowerPC G3
Processor speed: 201-300
Screen Size: 12
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-ROM
Hard Drive (GB): Under 4
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Epinions.com ID:
susi250
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Location: Tel-Aviv, Israel
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
Riding KLR 250 from 1999.
Working as computer programmer and Oracle DBA.
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