Flower or Lime? The Portable Computing Premium by Remy Davison "What would I want an iMac for?" said the Chief Household Financial Officer. "I need an iBook." "What for?" (said your beloved author). "What for? Portability. That's what for. I'm not gonna be tied to a desk." (File Chapter 11 here). Would you buy an iBook over an iMac? The release of the new iMacs at MacWorld Expo Tokyo has delivered even better value entry-level machines to the Mac market. Meanwhile, the iBook 366 is now the lowest-powered Mac you can buy. Of course, the iBooks will be updated this year; the question is when. If I were a betting man, I'd say New York in July or Paris in the spring (but I'm not, so I won't). The new iMacs raise the bar considerably in the power and storage stakes. Clock speeds up to 600MHz. Hard drives up to 40GB. And FireWire and video out on every model, yes, even the low-end one. Room for up to 1 GB of RAM. Put it this way: the iMacs are now much faster and can fly through tasks more rapidly than your Blue & White G3 tower could (expansion slots notwithstanding). Even the $899 entry-level iMac 400 should seriously challenge the iBook SE 466. Half the price, double the VRAM, real VGA out (not just composite video), 15" monitor and a much faster hard drive than the iBook's. Plus the RAM is a bit cheaper and more expandable. Oh, and that 100MHz system bus doesn't hurt. What's more, even your old Bondi iMac is upgradeable to G4 and it's entirely possible that fast G4 upgrades will be available for the current iMac in future. At the same time, no one's quite figured out how to do an iBook CPU upgrade yet. Which means that the new iMacs will be more OS X-ready than the iBooks, as OS X has fairly considerable CPU and memory requirements for optimum performance. Spend an extra few hundred bucks and you can have an iMac DV with - yes, a choice of dubious colors - a built-in CDRW, giving you instant access to Finder-level CD burning with Disc Burner, a 500MHz G3 processor and 20GB of storage (and you'll need it for those iMovies. DV is not small). The premium model, the iMac DV SE, ups the ante to 40GB and 600MHz. All three US models (and Australia, Apple Oz reliably assures me, is part of the United States) feature the PowerPC 750cx, with the slightly faster 256K on-chip L2 cache. So, now that the iMac 600 is probably faster than your expensive Pismo (and you can always wrap plastic wallpaper flowers around your PowerBook if you really want to; or lay your Titanium down on the driveway, call your Dalmation and throw the pickup in reverse), what are the rational arguments behind buying a consumer portable? How much of a premium should you pay for the privilege of toting around a Key Lime iBook? Portability at a price Now portables have always been more expensive - sometimes much more expensive - than their desktop counterparts. Accept it. Fact of life. You can buy about three iMac DVs for the cost of a single Titanium 500. Going way back to the early 100-series PowerBooks and the Duo 200s, even entry-level PowerBooks (like the 140, which was about LCII speed) and Duos with Docks cost piles more folding greenbacks than their desktop equivalents. And the RAM and hard drive prices were horrendous, while choices were extremely limited. But times have changed. You now pay virtually nothing for opting for notebook RAM over desktop memory. External FireWire storage costs the same regardless of whether you're using it with a portable or a desktop. USB peripherals aren't fussy about what they're attached to (unless it's a Wintel machine). Everyone's got 10/100bT ethernet and a 56K modem, regardless of which Mac they buy. You might decide you don't want Apple's fairly pedestrian 8x CDRW. Fine. Go buy yourself a 12x or 16x FireWire one. Your iBook doesn't care. Hard drives? Well, there's still a price gap between desktop and notebook drives, but that difference has narrowed considerably. The point here is that while sales of desktop systems have recently stalled, the reverse applies to portables. Indeed, notebook sales are demonstrating perhaps the fastest levels of growth in the hardware industry. That means three things: first, that portables have largely caught up to desktops in terms of outright performance; second, that people are in fact prepared to spend more on computers, not less; and third, that consumers and business are increasingly choosing portables as their sole computer. Not so many years ago, it was a pretty sure bet that your PowerBook was merely an adjunct to your desktop, or your work Thinkpad complemented your office PC. No longer. Cheaper LCD displays and economies of scale - whereby even Apple eschews proprietary technologies for industry-standard RAM, hard drives and video cards and, yes, even Airport cards, means that Apple can deliver the iBook at a competitive price. The iBook 366 is faster and better-equipped, as well as $100 cheaper than the iBook 300 it replaced, for instance. So what're you paying $1,499 (or $1,799) for when you purchase an iBook? Portability, that's what. If you're doing fieldwork research, on-site engineering or digital video on location, that iMac is going to be about as much use to you as a lump of lard (if you think I'm dreaming about Macs-in-science, you wouldn't believe the number of iMacs and Power Macs I've seen in genetics research labs lately). And of course you're going to be needing full-time AC power, when it's just you peddling the mountain bike with the iMac strapped to your back and all you have is a dynamo. Great way to get in shape for the Tour de France. But not very practical. Arguably, the iBook comes comparably equipped to the iMac. It cuts the number of FireWire and USB ports from two to one, but that's no big deal. 10GB is a fairly sizeable notebook hard drive. It also supports external displays like TVs and projectors (although not VGA monitors like the iMac). 10/100bT ethernet, 56K modem and 16-bit sound are still there. Move up to the iBook SE at $1,799 and you not only get an extra 100MHz in speed, but also something you can't get on an iMac now: a DVD-ROM player, although whether this is a big deal is another question. Maybe a CDRW is more useful to you, but I'm betting that most computer owners who've any interest in backing up large files or making audio CDs have already invested in a CDRW. Useful to have it built in to the package at no extra cost, of course, but there's nothing stopping you plugging a fast FireWire burner into your iBook (or a USB one if you're desperate). As even name brand CDRWs are pretty cheap these days, I like the fact that you can pick and choose between burners. Sure, consumers like pre-packaged systems (the success of CDRWs in Wintels proves that), but I don't want to be locked into an 8x/4x burner. And I don't want it on all the time; the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of CDRWs is much lower than that of CD ROMs (I bought my Teac home CD player in 1984 and it hasn't had a day of downtime. I think Teac will want to tear down this baby and make sure it never happens again). Power to Choose But to return to the point, I'd be buying one of those 16x/12x burners right now if I was in the market. The iMac gives you a choice of burner: one. Any speed you like, so long as it's 8x. Conversely, I can buy SCSI, FireWire, USB or any IDE burner and dump it in a FireWire case (for an extra $99). Want to try plugging your iMac's burner into your friend's PC? On the other hand, buy your iBook a FireWire or USB burner and you can easily lug it around to your buddy's place and they'll have USB. Or they can buy a cheap FireWire card. Or your workplace can share a burner or three. Simply put, the all-in-one iMac doesn't give you that flexibility. Flexibility. That's the key point here. The iBook can be many things the iMac can't, including on your lap in a hammock or surfing wirelessly from the jacuzzi (on reflection, don't try that second one at home without adult supervision, kids). Want more reasons? Take your data with you. The number of times I've had a Zip disk a PC wouldn't/couldn't read; the bum floppy disk. Etcetera. Etcetera. Okay. You have your iBook with you. Copy the file onto fresh removable media again. Burn a CD on the spot. Attach a floppy. Hook up to the network. Mail the file over. You couldn't do that if you left all your stuff on that hulking great iMac at home now, could you? And what if you want to take a big slab of data home with you? And your colleague's got no writable/removable storage other than a floppy? Or, if they're on a Mac, possibly none at all. No problem: hook up to them via an ethernet crossover cable. Need to print or access PCs? Keep a copy of Connectix's Double-Talk on your iBook. Putting an Airport card into your iMac doesn't make much sense either, unless you're running a home, school or office network. Conversely, Airport lets an iBook do what it was designed for: wirelessly roaming around the house or garden while remotely attached to the net or another Mac. The iBook also features an ATI Rage 128 graphics card with 8MB VRAM. The top two iMac models best this with 16MB on what is effectively the same card. Bottom line: you won't see dramatic improvements in the frame rate when playing 2 or 3D-intensive games. You probably won't see any improvements at all. You'll need a Cube or G4 for that. Or invest in a GeForce. Speaking of graphics, how do the iMac and iBook displays compare? The iMac's 13.8" viewable is slightly larger than the iBook's 12.1" TFT. Since the original Bondi Blue, the iMac's screen has improved incrementally - it's way better than any SVGA you'll get with a budget PC system, for instance. But it's not a flat-screen Trinitron. Quite acceptable for daily use though. And it does XGA (1024x768) resolution a lot better than the Bondi one did. But PowerBook and iBook owners - with active matrix displays - have long been spoilt by the quality of their LCD monitors. While TFTs have limited viewing angles and can be unacceptable for color-critical work, they are superior in virtually every other department to CRTs, with the possible exception of when they're in strong, direct sun-lit areas. I spent years in front of a Trinitron and woke up every morning with a headache, feeling dehydrated (which took several beers to work off). No longer. You can work for hours with a TFT (or a passive HPA, but Apple doesn't make them) and experience little eye tiredness or headaches. It's a critical consideration if you're planning on spending considerable time in front of a computer. And if I had to spend all day in front of a contemptible PC-standard S/VGA, I'd probably be blind by now. A negative for the iBook is that it won't do XGA, only 800x600 or 640x480. If 800x600 is insufficient for your work, you should probably be looking a Titanium PowerBook or a G4, preferably with an additional LCD monitor, like the 15" Apple display. But if your budget is restricted, then you should give the iBook real consideration, if only for the lack of electromagnetic emissions it's aiming at your eyes. At least one area where the iMac beats the iBook hands down is in the stereo system department. No content. The iMac's Harmon Kardon speakers make the iBook's single mixed-stereo speaker sound...well, like a Model T. Not that the guts of the iBook's sound system is lousy; like every other Mac since about 1994, it sports 16-bit sound. But a pair of Cozo speakers will fix the iBook's problems. Or a decent pair of headphones. Of course, this all costs a bit of extra moolah, whereas the iMac's giving you all this for free. Sorta. What key(board) is this in? Notebooks typically have lousy ergonomics and the iBook, by dint of its design, can't overcome this. But Apple portables rate far better than their competitors in this category as far as I'm concerned. iBooks share their keyboards with the fondly-remembered, recently-departed Pismo and Lombard PowerBooks. The trackpad - well, the Titanium pinched that idea from the iBook. Big and wide, smooth and metallic, the iBook's trackpad is gives good pointer feedback. But you either like or hate trackpads and, by all means, go ahead and plug in a USB mouse. Keyboards are inherently personal things as well. Stick the owners of a dozen PowerBook models in one room and each one will swear their model has the best one. I like Lombard/Pismo/Titanium/iBook keyboards, and the Wallstreet one is my next favorite. The 2400's is good, but I can't type for toffee on small keys. The rest (1400 owners, prepare to flame me), frankly, suck. Big time. But it's a personal preference, that's all. Again, the iBook limits your choices. One keyboard fits all. If don't like it, you're forced to attach an external USB (or ADB via a converter if that's your preference - like the old Apple Extended Keyboard II I use) and have the iBook a fair distance away from you. That essentially defeats the purpose of a laptop. So try the iBook keyboard and determine whether you like it. iMacs ship with the Apple Pro Mouse and Keyboard standard. Nice. Optical, very smooth (and good-looking) mouse. The keyboard, to me, is like the old Extended II in a translucent enclosure (and, strangely, where I come from, Apple still sells Extended IIs for more than the new Pro Keyboard. I wonder why?). But if you don't like them, head downtown and pick up a Microsoft keyboard and mouse. Or a MacAlly. Or a Kensington trackball mouse. Whatever. The point is, you have a choice of input peripherals. The iBook SE 466 also gives you stuff you can't get on an iMac anymore: a DVD-ROM drive. If watching a DVD on your iBook or attached to TV is your thing, the SE is the way to go. No matter how much you spend on an iMac, you wind up with a CDRW. Another 100MHz of clock speed doesn't hurt either. And, for most real-world tasks, you'd be hard pressed to notice the speed difference between a 466MHz iBook and a 500 or 600MHz iMac. On location So we know the iBook offers considerable convenience at home. What about in the class room, lab or on site? For schools, colleges and workplaces where charcoal or silver notebooks aren't de rigeur, iBooks make a great deal more sense than iMacs. While the initial cost of equipping users with iBooks is higher than the iMac, moving computers from room to room as demand requires makes more sense than a lab of iMacs locked in place. Airport Base Stations can move with them. Most likely chances of theft or vandalism are minimised by users having their own portable; while an iMac itself might not be stolen, it's more difficult to protect RAM or hard drives from being stolen, unless you install protective shields on every computer. Moreover, notebooks can - and should - hold the user's personal information and work. This is far preferable to setting up multiple users on a fixed bunch of iMacs - and the savings on administering a lab of Macs could be considerable. And of course iBook users can simply plug into a pre-existing Airport or ethernet network wherever they happen to be. Alternatively, if you're, say, a surveyer using GIS software, you're more than likely to be out in the field a lot where a notebook is indispensible. And a desktop is worse than useless. Getting your desk(top) back So, to sum up, what do you pay the portable computing premium for when you choose iBook over iMac? Portability Convenience Flexibility Display quality Compactness We've come a long way. In the value/features/power equation, that is. In 1994/95, when you compared a PowerBook 540c with its comparably-equipped desktop cousin, the LC575 (okay, so I had one), the 575 sold for the price of a '67 Dodge and the 540 cost more than the deposit on your house. And the feature set was more or less the same. The top-of-the-line PowerBook didn't outperform the base desktop. Now the low and high-end consumer portables roughly match the performance of entry and mid-range iMacs. And they only cost a few hundred bucks more. And do you really need two computers? It boils down to this: if you're going to buy just one computer - buy a portable. A Mac portable, obviously. Unless you're dead-set keen on a lot of down time. While the iMac represents excellent value, the desktop, ironically, is now the adjunct, the base station to the roaming portable which does all the real work. Maybe you'll just dump some data on the desktop once a day. Or maybe you'll dump the desktop altogether.