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Say hello to iBook.


Now that iBooks (from the Apple Store at least) are shipping like crazy, we’d like to take a minute to note readers’ first impressions with their newfound friend:

Reader 1:

First impression: Oh… wow.

I am happy with the size, it even fits in my Kensington saddlebag,though it is a little tight getting it into and out of the bag rightaround the bulge on the sides of the iBook.

I do wish that the “guts” weren’t so visible through the white plastic.On the lid you can actually see the tabs that hold the blue lip to thewhite plastic.

The silver tracked looks very cool with blue plastic beneath it and ablue button. The track pad works very smoothly.

The whole machine feels very sturdy and well made. The only hard cornersare inside above the keyboard, though I can’t see these ever beingbumped into or broken.

I installed my 126mb memory module. The iBook instruction bookrecommended removing the battery first, which was very easy. All I hadto do was turn to screens, not even removing them. And lifting up thekeyboard was a synch. Two more screws were removed so that I could liftup the Airport plate, and the memory chip just slipped in.

The screen is nice and clear. Like someone mentioned earlier, 640x480doesn’t look very good on this screen, actually its blurry. But 800x600looks very nice. It is also very nice to be able to control the screenbrightness from the keyboard.

I haven’t assigned any applications to the function keys yet. I’ll dothis when I got more programs installed on here. The iBook even comeswith a sheet of little stickers that look like various program icons. Iguess these go over your assigned function keys.

I do wish there was another “fn” key on the right side so that I coulddo page up and down with one hand, or maybe a “fn” lock key so I could10-key without having to hold the “fn” key down. But hey… this is justa little complaint.

Reader 2:

Got my iBook (tangerine) ordered on 7/22 today. A few initial observations:

– Like the Lombard, the apple glows. It’s not as noticable as with the translucent white apple, but still pretty cool in the dark.

– The sleep light doesn’t just blink, it fades in and out. Also pretty cool.

– The keyboard is quite nice, except that there’s a lack of support under the keyboard in the upper right corner so it flexes a little when the delete key is pressed.

– The latchless lid works fairly well. When closed it’s not as secure as the latched lids on the PowerBooks, but when carried by the handle it doesn’t flop around.

– The screen is nice and bright. A little small, but much nicer than the 12.1″ passive matrix screen on the PowerBook G3 I use at work.

Now we can all hold our breath and wait for reports of the arrival of AirPort!

By Jason O'Grady

Founded the PowerPage in 1995.