|
 9-13-00
Apple's Paris Expo was an event filled one, starting with
the Expo floor being flooded the day before opening when a
sprinkler system was accidentally activated. We'll spare you
the obvious "Aqua" jokes. The main excitement was,
without a doubt, the release of the Mac OS X beta, although
many have found the $30 price tag a little hard to swallow.
Not to be overlooked, however, is Apple's latest incarnation
of the iBook which now sports FireWire, a larger hard drive
and other improvements under the hood. Read of for the full
scoop and be sure to post you thoughts on our forum below.
What's New/What's Not:
Color - The most immediately apparent change is the
color scheme. After the recent shift in iMac colors, many
feared (or in some cases hoped) that the fruity colors would
fade from existence. The new "put-on-your-shades"
Key Lime color looks like Apple's previous Lime with a black
light turned on it. The rich iMac Indigo has found its way
to the iBook and Graphite remains as the most conservative
color choice. The standard iBook can be had in Indigo and
Key Lime, the Special Edition in Graphite and Key Lime. It
would appear that, for the time being anyway, Key Lime iBooks
must be bought through the Apple store.
Processing Power - The processor speed has been bumped
up to 366 and 466 for the iBook and iBook special edition
respectively. The iBook is also the first machine to use IBM's
750CX G3
processor. The 750CX forgoes the external level 2 cache
in favor of a smaller 256K on chip cache. While the cache
size is smaller, it is running at full processor speed.
The external L2 cache on previous iBook ran at a much slower
2.5:1 ratio. It will be interesting to see how this washes
out performance wise. IBM claims that their 366MHz 750CX will
outperform the standard 366MHz 750 chip with a 512K backside
cache. We will add benchmarks here when we can get our hands
on a machine for testing.
Graphics - The new 'Books make use of ATI's
RAGE Mobility 128 graphics chipset with 8MB SDRAM and
2x AGP for improved movie playback and gaming. Previous iBooks
used ATI's RAGE Mobility with 4MB SDRAM. Apple has also added
an "A/V" port to the iBook, allowing you to hook
up external speakers or send composite video to a TV or VCR.
Connectivity - FireWire has finally made its way to
the iBook, leaving the low end iMac the only Apple offering
without this high speed port. Continuing its push to make
Macs the platform of choice for digital video editing, Apple
is also including iMovie 2 with the iBook. Other forms of
connectivity remain unchanged: USB, 56K V.90 modem, 11 Mbps
AirPort and 10/100 Base-T Ethernet.
Drives - The very first iBook sported a rather anemic
3.2 GB hard drive, which was later bumped up to a more respectable
6GB. The newest iBooks all sport 10GB Ultra ATA drives with
20GB as a build to order option. The "Special Edition"
iBooks now come with a 6x DVD-ROM drive as well for your movie
viewing pleasure.
Software - In addition to iMovie 2 mentioned above,
the iBook comes with a healthy selection of software including:
Mac OS 9, AppleWorks 6, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft
Outlook Express, EarthLink, Netscape Communicator, Palm Desktop
Organizer, Adobe Acrobat Reader, FAXstf, Nanosaur & Bugdom.
No word on whether the DVD equipped iBook comes with "A
Bug's Life," but we doubt it!
iBook Specs At A Glance
| Model/Mhz |
Bus Speed
(Mhz) |
RAM
(MAX) |
Graphics Support |
Expansion
Slots |
Hard Drive
Optical Drive |
Connectivity & Communication |
Screen |
|
iBook "Special
Edition"
G3/466/466/256K
"Graphite" & "Key Lime"
(September, 2000)
|
66MHz |
64MB
(320 Max) |
8MB
ATI Rage Mobility 128 - 2x AGP
|
AirPort Ready |
10GB Ultra ATA
6x DVD-ROM
|
56k V.90 modem
10/100 BT Ethernet
One USB Port
One FireWire Port
A/V Port for audio and composite video output.
|
12.1-inch (diagonal) built-in TFT SVGA active-matrix
display, offering 640- by 480-pixel and 800- by 600-pixel
resolution with millions of colors |
| Reviews & Information |
Reader
Reviews | Macworld
| MacAddict
| IGM
| Chronicle
| about.com
| BareFeats
| MacUser
UK | TidBits
| MacOpinion
| CNet
| Wired
| LowendMac
| MacAddict
| LowEndMac
| LowEndMac
|
The iBook.com | ZD
Net | PR
Newswire | Wired
| About
| c|net
| Macworld
| | MacNN
| MacProf
| | MacintoshGuy
| Brad
| |
| |
|
iBook
G3 366/366/256K
"Indigo" & "Key Lime"
|
66MHz |
64MB
(320 Max) |
8MB
ATI Rage Mobility 128 - 2x AGP
|
AirPort Ready |
10GB Ultra ATA
24x CD -ROM
|
56k V.90 modem
10/100 BT Ethernet
One USB Port
One FireWire Port
A/V Port for audio and composite video output.
|
12.1-inch (diagonal) built-in TFT SVGA active-matrix
display, offering 640- by 480-pixel and 800- by 600-pixel
resolution with millions of colors |
| Reviews & Information |
Reader Reviews | Macworld
| TidBits
| MacOpinion
| Wired
| LowEndMac
| LowendMac
| The
iBook.com | Professional
Mac | LowEndMac
| LowEndMac
| ZD
Net | PR
Newswire | Wired
| About
| c|net
| Macworld
| | MacNN
| MacProf
| MacintoshGuy
| Brad
| |
|
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