Forums | MacLife

Here's my take.  Add or correct as you will, forumites.  I would wait until WWDC  June 6th as the iBooks are due for an upgrade and that would be an natural place to make the announcement.

"Can you use it like a home computer, as Duos with Duo docks did years ago? That is, hook it up to a monitor and maybe a keyboard and mouse and would I be able to get the resolution on the monitor above 1024x768?"

You can hook an external monitor to it.  It will mirror your iBook or you can span both monitors with a hack called, I think, Screen Spanning Doctor.  You can cable or bluetooth a keyboard and mouse as far as I know.

"I can hook it up to a TV easily, right?"

I don't know

"How often should I expect to replace the battery, once every few years?"

Yes, I think.

"If I don't get the bluetooth option, I could install it later on, right? It isn't as though they would never sell the means to do it?"

USB bluetooth dongle about $40

"Airport is completely compatible with virtually every wireless router, right?"

I believe so.

"Is the graphics card bad for playing games? That's not my main concern, but I hear complaints about it and I don't want to find it useless for new games released two years later."

I have no idea.

it is similar to a duo in that there are a full range of ports so you can connect just about everything available to a desktop to your new ibook. (gross oversimplification, i know) however, there is no docking station. there are third party solutions for a dedicated dock.

you can connect to a tv with an apple av cable, thats extra.

i would recommend getting bluetooth installed from the beginning since adding it in later means having an external thing hang off one of your usb ports. to me, $40 is worth avoiding possible clunkyness later on, especially because its a laptop.

airport is compatible with 802.11b, 802.11g, but not 802.11a. the g and g variants are by far the most common available.

no idea about the graphics card, but i think its a good rule that anything you buy now will be practically worthless in two years as far as games go.

Last edited by fizzwinkus (2005-05-24 12:33 am)

Thanks for all the posts folks! I'll very likely be placing an order for an iBook a week from now, after the WWDC, of course.

I'll be a Mac-Addict for a while yet

btw- are the VGA and S-Video cables free with it?

reh wrote:

I wouldn't think they'd release a consumer portable at a conference for developers. But I imagine iBooks will be released soon.

Really? It seemed a few years ago, all the changes in the Apple line came during Jobs' keynote addresses. Have they ever bumped a line outside of a keynote?

I'm not thinking or suggesting they absolutely would, but it seems like the WWDC would be a good time to order, just to make sure.

gradient wrote:

Have they ever bumped a line outside of a keynote?

Quite a few times, actually. Keynotes usually bring the big announcements. I wouldn't buy an iBook right now, though. They are (over)due for an upgrade.

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