purchasing an ibook

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as a life long pc user what do i need to know before purchasing an ibook? i plan to get a laptop for portability and i'd like to perform basic internet tasks, watching movies, listening to mp3s and downloading. for example are there widely available codecs for playing back video? what about audio codes like ac3? is bit torrent available on macs?

i already have a netgear wireless router so will the ibook have any issues with compatibility? will i be able to transfer files between my pc and mac without any issues?

are there any other issues i should be aware of?

― sweaty palms, Monday, 13 March 2006 00:45 (twenty years ago)

Video - Quicktime and Windows Media Player are both available; you can get codecs for just about anything free to begin with. If you're gonna do a lot of torrenting, you can download DivX ones too, with little hassle.

BitTorrent is alive and well on Macs, with plenty of clients. I prefer Azureus, but others might have different suggestions.

Router issues shouldn't be a problem to begin with.

Transferring files - what files are we talking about? Media - no problem. Documents - shouldn't be a problem, as long as you either have MS Office for Mac ($) or an OpenOffice program like NeoOffice (free). Specific application files may need some vetting first.

That's my 2%.

― Guru magpie, Monday, 13 March 2006 00:57 (twenty years ago)

VLC runs on Macs, and will play almost anything you download except Real and WMVs, and you can download players for those as well.

Bittorrent, as well as most of your favorite similar programs, is available on Macs. There really aren't any transition difficulties these days, pretty much all the overlapping programs can read each others' files.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 13 March 2006 01:47 (twenty years ago)

VLC plays WM files, too, doesn't it?

I made the same switch last fall. No worries at all. Buy away.

― Mitya (mitya), Monday, 13 March 2006 01:56 (twenty years ago)

You might want to wait until the new ibook comes out (probably next month). It'll have an Intel chip (ie. faster) and some snazzy new features.

― Super Cub (Debito), Monday, 13 March 2006 02:56 (twenty years ago)

Mac VLC does not play WMV mach 3 files. It will play older ones.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 13 March 2006 03:31 (twenty years ago)

Super Cub OTM. While there's always a new Apple product around the corner, and it's never the right time, it's difficult to imagine a worse time to buy an iBook if you can wait a month or two.

― Mike W (caek), Monday, 13 March 2006 08:31 (twenty years ago)

thanks for all the information! has anybody used virtual pc? any opinions?

also are there certain problems with ibooks i need to be aware of? should i plan on purchasing the extended warranty?

― sweaty palms, Wednesday, 15 March 2006 05:04 (twenty years ago)

I would always buy an extended warranty with a laptop, but you don't have to until the end of your standard 1 year warranty. Look out for stores that give them away free, (In the Uk john lewis give an extra year free).

As far as virtual PC goes, don't bother as there are some excellent open source free alternatives or cheap open source based. The best seems to be Q which is a great os x implementation of QEMU, easy to use, nice interface etc. It also runs on intel macs which virtual pc does not do yet. As yet the intel version does not work with XP (Win2000 is fine) but they seem to be hunting down the bugs pretty quickly. I ran a Linux live cd in it yesterday and was impressed by how well it worked.

Won't know about problems with the intel iBooks until they ship.

― Ed (dali), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 06:37 (twenty years ago)

are there certain problems with ibooks i need to be aware of?

only that, as with any mac, you'll end up getting caught in circular arguments on ILE with tombot, jon, stet, fandango etc. which is all part of the fun.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:10 (twenty years ago)

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