Comments about:

IBook G4 and new eMac

Anyone know what the best bang for the buck would be for music?
1. The top end iBook or 2. the low end Powerbook???

it's probably a push- or close to it.

the 512k L2 cache on the 12" pbook vs 256k on the ibook is one thing to notice. also the stock drive is 60gig on the ibook but only 40 on the pbook (easily changed for $49 though).

both these comps do you the disservice of soldering in one of the ram sticks- and on the pbook it's 256 at least rather than 128 on all the ibooks.

the pbook does monitor spanning and the ibook officially doesn't- but the hack avail to get dual monitor spanning in the later G3 ibooks is tested and said to work on the new G4 ibooks as well- so that's good news.

airport reception will be better with the ibook because it's plastic.

both have 2 usb2 ports and 1 fw400 port.

one other notable thing is that the ibooks still don't seem to have an audio in jack- just the headphone out. so you'll need a soundcard before you can do any recording- but then a real soundcard for a laptop is always a good idea anyway.

Yes, I say use a real audio card for audio in, and don't bother with the lousy built-in hardware. Plus the PCMCIA Echo IO is now shipping! Oh, wait, no PCMCIA port, huh? That's why I use a PBG4.

For those with PC card slots, check out http://www.echoaudio.com

For iBook G4 users, best bet is probably an MAudio Transmit USB interface.

And as for bang for the buck, that's a hard question. The low-end PBG4 is definitely more bang, but the new iBook G4s are so cheap, I think they win out if buck is an issue. (Anyone care to disagree?)

The iBook G4s I expect will have some serious appeal in Europe, where I know your prices are MUCH higher than we get in the US. Viva America.

My iBook G4 sucks! This is my second Apple product that is failing! I leave the Apple platform.

..The more apple can suck... which is totally possible.. it would never suck as hard as any Pc based system....

Now I have a powerbook 1.25 and I'm fine.. but I have made tons of recordings and projects on an Ibook clamshell and it worked great!!!.. most of the music on : www.the89.org , my site,.. is made on a blueberry 300mhz.. clamshell.. including the live stuff...

Are you sure you have your Ibook set allright... sounds like "human failure"...