Switcher? Yeah I think so ...

UPDATE - 03.16.03
I have since bought a cell phone (Samsung A500 from Sprint) and the compatible SnapSync data cable. I heard that I might be able to use my cell phone as a wireless modem, so I bought the data cable, plugged it in and prayed.

After following some simple configurations, I was up and running. I was in the middle of a park and online!! Gotta love my iBook. Talk about plug and play. No drivers, no install discs, nothing ... just my cell phone and the cable. And to top things off, my connection speed was double that of a 56K modem. Wow!

----------

I've had this baby for about four months and I'm more in love with her now more than ever. I've been a PC user for years and was influenced by my boyfriend who is an avid Mac fan to "switch". So when the time came for me to get a new laptop, I choose the 14.1", 700 Mhz, Combo drive iBook, lovingly renamed "ivBook".

Right out of the box, she worked perfectly and hooked up to the internal network we had at home. No problems whatsoever. This really is what I would call plug and play. I was able to hook up to my existing printer and even the printer we had on the network. The ease of use was what impressed me.

Battery life is about half what Apple reports, I get an average of 3 hours rather than the 6. But I think that's because I'm running a few things at once, not to mention Airport which drains the system like mad.

I also noticed that upgrading the RAM to 640 MB really made a difference. I run graphic intensive programs, so the extra RAM really helped out. It was lagging too much at 128 MB.

Now for the general feel of it all. I love her to bits and pieces. I can take her anywhere and she's as light as can be. Sure it's about a pound heavier than the 12" model, but it's worth the extra screen space and the battery life.

I've found that the 2 USB ports and 1 firewire port are sufficient for the externals I use, an iPod, zip disk, and Palm cradle.

The speakers are about average and are only really useful indoors. If you're under a tree somewhere outside typing away, it's rather hard to hear, even at max volume.

The included software are great! I'm absolutely in love with iPhoto and iTunes! I have at least a 1GB of photos and iPhoto allows me to organize them in any way I want, not to mention gives me the option to make a slideshow with any of my mp3s playing in the background.

As for iTunes, that is great as well. I can have as many playlists as I want and it's so easy to edit and burn tracks, all at a push of a button.

iCal and iChat are also nice little progams. iCal allows me to sync contacts and dates with my Palm and my .mac account. iChat gives the traditional AIM a bit of boost into the 21st century. Same old features, but a fabulous new look.

And the greatest part about the programs? They're all upgradeable for free!!