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Welcome to Macintosh

An Indigo iBook: My First Modern Notebook Mac

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- 2007.12.04

Bong! . . . :-) . . . Welcome to Macintosh!

I hope everyone had a safe and blessed Thanksgiving!

iBook After another hiatus, Welcome to Macintosh is back - this time with Low End Mac's very own Clamshell iBook in hand. Thanks to Dan Knight, LEM's publisher, I've had in my possession the official Indigo Clamshell iBook from LEM's headquarters for about a month now.

I love the little bugger. The hard drive tends to whine, and with 128 MB of RAM, it's not exactly a speed demon under Mac OS X 10.3.9, but it's convenient. Ya just gotta love the thickness and the handle on it. This was one of the more cool and practical designs Apple came up with for a laptop. I'm all for thin, but give me something durable. The Clamshell screams durability.

This iBook is my first modern Mac laptop. I'm very impressed with it so far.

One drawback was that it suffered from the infamous power plug problem. For those who aren't familiar with it, the power plug on the motherboard isn't soldered on very well, and over time one or more of the "legs" will come loose, in which case you'll have to have it resoldered, which is a repair I did on this one. If you have a clamshell that has this problem, it's a somewhat challenging repair, but it can be done. (If you don't feel comfortable doing the repair yourself, email me, and I can do the repair for you. If you'd like replacing a hard drive or CD drive yourself, I can do that for you as well.)

There will be more on the Clamshell as time goes along. In the meantime, if you have any stories about your Clamshell iBook, send them to me at thomas (at) lowendmac (dot) com.

I'll be cranking out more reviews this month as part of the Low End Mac Reviews section, stay tuned for the next Welcome to Macintosh, and stay safe out there this holiday season!

Recent Welcome to Macintosh articles

IBM Model F: A Great Old Keyboard with an Outdated Layout, 11.19. Although it used a different technology than the revered IBM Model M keyboard, the Model F was a great keyboard in its own right.
IBM Model M: The One True Keyboard, 05.12. Many consider the IBM Model M keyboard the finest computer keyboard ever made. Here's why.
I Still Use My LC, 02.20. An interview with Scott Baret, who has been using the same Macintosh LC since 1991.
Hooked on Classics (Classic Macs, That Is), 02.02. An interview with John Meshelany Jr, who has been hooked on Macs since kindergarten.
More in the Welcome to Macintosh index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Mac mini Core Solo, Feb. 2006 - The only Mac to use a Core Solo CPU, this model ran at 1.5 GHz, has integrated graphics, and includes a Combo drive
Group of the Day: SuperMacs is for those using Umax SuperMac clones.
November 24 in LEM history: 98: Microsoft's heavy hand - 00: Looking at the iMac - 04: The best Mac for the holidays - Picking the right replacement for a dead mouse - Better battery for 15" AlBook
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Recent Deals

Best G4 iMac Deals, 11.24. Used 15" 700 MHz CD-RW, $150; 800 MHz Combo, $229; 1 GHz, $289; 17" 1.25 GHz, $200; 20" 1.25 GHz, $509.
Best PowerBook G3 Deals, 11.24. Used 233 MHz WallStreet, $75; 266 MHz, $160; 400 MHz Lombard, $199; 400 MHz Pismo, $289; 500 MHz, $350.
Best MacBook Air Deals, 11.24. Used from $899; refurb from $1,099; new 1.6 GHz/120 HD, $1,150 after rebate; 1.8/64 SSD, $1,150 a/r; 1.86/128 SSD, $1,350 a/r; 2.13/128 SSD, $1,694 a/r.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.23. Used 867 MHz SuperDrive, $348; 1 GHz Combo, $379; SD, $519; 1.33 GHz, $529; 1.5 GHz Combo, $549; SuperDrive, $609.
Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.23. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 4-core. $1,919; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.93 8-core, $4,999; new 2.26 8-core, $2,290.
Best Time Capsule and AirPort Deals, 11.23. Used 802.11g AirPort Extreme, $49; 500 GB Time Capsule, $150; new, $190; 1 TB dual-band, $280; 2 TB, $469; 802.11n AirPort Extreme, $170.
Best eMac Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz Combo, $100; SuperDrive, $269; 1.25 GHz Combo, $119; SD, $319; 1.42 GHz Combo, $289; SD, $498.
Best Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac Box Set Deals, 11.18. "Snow Leopard", single user, $25; 5 users, $45; Mac Box Set, single user, $139; 5 users, $180; Server, $414. Shipping included.
Best Xserve Deals, 11.18. Used 1 GHz dual G4, $649; 2.3 dual G5, $795; 3.0 4-core Xeon, $1,899; refurb 2.26 4-core, $2,499; new, $2,888; refurb 8-core, $2,999; new, $3,449; more.
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