to iBook or not to iBook

[Chris Volpe]

Paula wrote: You know...there is no such thing as having too many 
computers in the house.

Sorry I'm late to this post, but I have to weigh in. I have to agree 
with Paula and the others who recommend keeping the 800 iBook ... 
unless you want to wait until after January's macworld, because it's 
very possible there will be an update - but the kicker is this is 
always going to be the case, no matter when you buy! So it doesn't pay 
to sweat it - and maybe in the iBook's case even less so, since as I 
see it, the great thing about the 'Book is portability and not having 
to worry so much about breaking it or getting it stolen - so in the 
iBook's case, at least for me, there's less pressure to always have the 
latest and greatest - this is a practical 
writing/communication/Web/music/game machine for me. I own a Ti 400, 
bought it a couple months after they were first announced and loved it 
so much that I ended up taking it everywhere - and paying a price- 
because the Ti is a gorgeous powerhouse and the screen real estate is 
unreal, but they are somewhat more fragile than you'd think. I had 
numerous repairs under AppleCare, mostly for cracked plastics, damaged 
paint, a broken latch ... and Apple fixed all with minimal hassles 
under warranty, but even though I had the entire bottom casing replaced 
two months ago, already it has two new dings where paint has flaked 
off, and it really mars the look of the machine and makes me feel like 
I have to walk on eggshells around it. I finally bought an iBook last 
month after obsessing about it for too long - and I just love it. I 
took it on a mini vacation to NYC this weekend and bounced it all 
around the car, used it to play MP3s through the stereo as it sat on 
the floor, dropped it off a hotel bed, flung it in and out of taxi cabs 
inside my briefcase ... it's a trooper. The wireless capability of 
Airport in the Book is so much better than the Ti's, I had three 
different open wireless nodes to surf from in my hotel room, which 
wasn't supposed to have any! I never would have even brought the Ti to 
NY for fear or theft, and certainly would have had a coronary if I'd 
dropped it even off the bed onto a carpeted floor. These iBooks are 
relatively rugged, fully capable machines, and since i take my laptop 
everywhere I go, literally, I need that. When I first bought the iBook 
I fretted and wavered, thinking I should take it back because what the 
hell am I doing buying another laptop?? But it's been amazing to have 
two computers in the house - my girlfriend and I can both be online at 
the same time, shooting files back and forth wirelessly, playing games 
and music and having a ball with the 2 macs. Anyway, sorry for the big 
post, mostly I just wanted to announce to the world how much I love my 
iBook over my Ti. Feel free to flame me for the babble :)

Chris