However, the reason I put five stars wasn't Apple's beautiful software marketing and design, or CompUSAs ability to move a person to consider programming a video game thats objective is strangling CompUSA employees.

The real reason is that for laptops, and for this price, it is a quality laptop. You see, I can't justify to myself paying over 1500 of a base price for a tool that I'm going to be using out of my home. At any moment it could be stolen and I am much more at peace with a loss of 1500 dollars for a top of the line iBook which can be much more readily replaced than 3000 dollars for a top of the line PowerBook.

My laptop has survived a 2 ft plus drop while open from a bed to a not so plush carpeted floor. There wasn't too much destruction done other than some of the lineing on the left edge of the screen and the battery doesn't fit as smoothly as before. Everything still works, including all the ports I use, like the USB, firewire, 56K Modem, and the Adapter port. It works fine on battery and plugged in, so I really didn't lose any functionality.

The laptop operating system doesn't break down, although it does freeze every once in a while. The software that it comes with is very useful, and handy, and not as annoying as say, windows media player.. The text editing software that it comes with is ahhhhh!!!ggrrr.. when you try to program html initially.. fortunately, after going to the preferences you can fix this loading html pages as a web browser does initial setting. iTunes is fun, and useful, and the only drawback is that it doesn't read the song encoding on CDs that Windows Media Player does. So you have to either manually type the name of the song in by hand, or buy your songs off the internet at a buck a piece. The iPhoto works fine and allows for some adjustment, but if you're into adjusting your photos, use nothing less than Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 . Photoshop might well be a waste of 600 plus dollars if you get good at Elements 2.0 . In fact.. I'd dare say Adobe Illustrator and Elements 2.0 could be a grand combo. Safari is a good browser with annoyances with interpreting java on the web. No joke, web browsers that understand Java well on the web on macs are rare as leopard seals. There is only two of them. One is the Microsoft Internet Explorer(who stopped making new IEs for mac because Safari does everything it does) and the other is Safari. Every other web browser.. say.. mozilla?? like Netscape 7.01, Firebird .7 and Mozilla and Camino seem to all be carbonized. And the problem? Well, for some reason, carbonizing does not like Java or something. No Java, no chatting, or java online gaming. So the only chatting you can do say on Yahoo is on Safari and IE. No problem, they are both free. And Safari is included with all the new macs. But for your daily web browsing, you might want to download Firebird .7 . After you get the tab browsing down and the various keyboard commands, you will find its just the best daily browser out there. It runs secure bank transactions in xml fine and quickly. As a bonus AppleWorks comes with every new iBook, so you definitely have a decent word processor. But don't be fooled with the Microsoft Office that seems to be included, Microsoft wouldn't forgoe a profit that easily. The Microsoft Office on the computer is a 30 day trial. Office X is 500 dollars. Not too much for full licensing for a single user. And well worth it if you're in college or otherwise use it frequently. Look at QuarkXPress for some serious pricing.. oww. The clock is nifty and calendar is useful, and the internet options are easily read in the upper menu bar. And for entertainment, you can talk to the computer and it will do what you say.. if you can speak it well enough for the computer.. you know.. the standard speech recognition flaw. The fun thing about all this is that you talk to the chess game and play an entire chess game by speaking alone. It's actually pretty nifty.

There is enough computer software out there for the mac, especially if you want to get work done and you work with video or images. The Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.2 don't save files quite the same way which can be a touch annoying if you are using old macs at school still. You have to specify the exact program to open this or that file between the two operating systems. This is easy enough.. as long as its only a file or two, come ten or so, and it gets a bit annoying. On the good end, it is more compatable with pcs now. There is a decent software translation of Windows XP for purchase for ultimate compatability. Wasn't too bad, but as always.. anything Microsoft runs as slow as a slug. Try a G5 if you want to run the Windows XP translation a lot. If Windows XP freezes, it doesn't freeze OS X, and thats kinda nice. Adobe has most of there popular software available on the mac, and so does Macromedia. And Living Language has their 9.0 versions of Language Lessons in plenty of European and Asian languages available on Mac. Also, if your into Video, Adobe dropped Premiere because Final Cut Pro was kicking their but in earning the market share. And if your into animation software, Cinema 4D 8.5v and Maya 5 both support mac, as well as Lightwave. So as far as getting something done, the mac is awesome.. it doesn't freeze much if you treat it decent(don't run a zillion programs at once). It simply works, and has better compatability than Linux. Although Linux rocks too, Mac OS X is a Unix base with more compatability. It is simply more compatable with stability than Linux. Microsoft Windows? Well, its compatable with a bonus of being hacked and virus wrecked and blue screened every so often. In other words... Microsoft Windows tends to limit me getting anything done.. particularly in Graphics Design degree which of course is only macs.

As far as games, of course most of the games out there are made for windows. On the other hand, many might argue that if you are a real gamer, you own an XBox or a PS2 already. Besides, Microsoft XP is available for Mac. Like I said, get a G5 for that kind of thing.

The chatting programs? Well, Windows Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and AOL instant messenger, as well as the OS X customized iChat version of AOL instant messenger that comes with any new mac. The Yahoo Messenger can't do as much as it can on Windows.. on the other hand.. it doesn't get hacked like the one on Windows, which doesn't freeze my computer, which makes my life a bit easier.

If you're into video, you should remember two things.. one, VCD format. You know, that old laser disk format that any CD burner can place on a CD-R/RW. two.. if your into business cards, the business card CD-Rs can hold video flash presentations as well. So, basically, if your not looking for 2 hour movies on a dvd, you can easily burn animations as well as edit them from the CD-Rs on the iBooks. The other detail is that 400 firewire is the only thing sold on iBooks. 800 firewire is considered 'professional'. However, although my 400 dollar Olympus digital camera can make short videos, it, like many Digital Cameras on the market, does not have firewire. In fact, that is much more likely to be restricted to digital camcorders. Such as my Digital Camcorder does have. Still, you still have to look for a firewire port, not all camcorders have them.

Hopefully, you found my review helpful. Oh, one more helpful hint. Certain Epson scanners come with Photoshop Elements 2.0 . A good piece of software with a needed accessory. I definitely recommend it. ArcSoftware is the usual accessory. Don't be fooled.. although its fun and useful, for work with multiple photos, nothing beats Elements 2.0 .

Hope you all enjoy this laptop if you buy it. Obviously every business is out to make money and Apple is no different. But Apple OS X and Apple laptops as a combo are better and more useful than nearly anything with Windows on it.

Brian

PROS:
Just 5.9 pounds for a 14.1" laptop
GREAT design
2 usb 2.0, firewire
802.11g (optional airport extreme card)
UP TO 6 HOURS of battery life! That's amazing
Combo drive CD-RW & DVD-ROM
40 GB, Speedy processor (933 MHZ) & LOTS more!

CONS:
does NOT come with bluetooth & airport card (sold optional)
no PCI slot :(
speakers are small, and are not that loud
i can't find another bad thing about it!!