Tangerine Fusion's Fun Facts: FireWire iBooks

The new iBook SE now has a feature called processor speed-stepping. Working similarly to the technology that allows Mobile Pentium IIIs from running down notebook PC batteries too quickly, it allows you to slow down the processor from 466 to 366 MHz, the same speed as the base model. Say, for example, you're listening to a CD on an airplane: you won't need the extra 100 MHz, and you'll save battery life. In the energy saver control panel's Advanced Settings, it's called "Reduce Processor Speed."

All new iBooks sport a new snow color for the white portions of the plastic. It's far less transparent: you can no longer see the AirPort antenna, and the keyboard scissor-switches are very hard to see. The trackpad is also snow, instead of the mylar color, and the trackpad button, which is now glossy and transparent, loses the stiffness characteristic to the older models. The snow plastic on the top surface of the iBook is glossy as well.

The iBook SE, with its A/V cable and special A/V jack, is Apple's first computer with the built-in ability to be a stand-alone DVD player for your home theater system. Even the newer PowerBooks, which come with an S-video to composite video adaptor, require a stereo-miniplug to stereo RCA audio adaptor to hook up to a TV or home theater system.

With the new iBook SE, simply hook up the AV cable to the audio-in and video-in jacks on your TV, VCR, or reciever, and you're good to go. You can, of course, use the base-model iBook to play VCDs the same way, since both come with the A/V jack and cable. The A/V jack behaves like a standard audio-out or headphone jack when the A/V cable is not used.

All new iBooks accept the same PC100 SO-DIMMs used in the new PowerBooks, provided they're 1.25 inches long or shorter. These are 100 MHz modules, compared to the 66MHz ones the old iBook was limited to. However, since the iBook's logic board speed is the same, they'll only run at 66 MHz.

The new iBook battery is now rated at 50 watts (actually 48 - Apple rounds off the number). To give it the extra capacity, it now has a long, thin lump protruding on one side. Old iBook batteries cannot be used because of their higher voltage. Like the iMac has been for quite some time, the iBook is now losing color-specific plastic with each subsequent revision. On the new iBooks, the battery cover loses its silk-screened desktop background images, Quantum Foam (Graphite), Blueberry Union, and Tangerine Fusion, in favor of a plain Snow cover. Here's a chart of both computers' trends:

The iBook's graphics performance is exemplary, especially for a portable computer, not to mention one that starts at US$1,499. The Rage Mobility 128 is still the fastest GPU (graphics processing unit) in the notebook industry, despite being about eight months old. Performance is faster than the new PowerBook. The graphics chip comes with 8 MB of video memory, and since the iBook has SVGA screen, you'll always have at least 6 MBs left over for 3D game and Photoshop acceleration.

Both new iBook models have a single FireWire port, which means you can now connect any FireWire device, including bus-powered ones, with full compatibility. However, since there is only one FireWire port, you'll have to connect, say, a DV camcorder into, say, a FireWire hard drive. You'll still get full control of the DV camcorder from iMovie. Since all Apple systems have their FireWire ports running from a single FireWire bus, performance will be similar to other Apple systems with both devices plugged into the computer.

Like the new PowerBooks, you can mount the iBook's hard drive on another Apple system, including another iBook, using a FireWire cable to connect the two computers and FireWire Target Disk Mode. Simply hold down the "T" key as the iBook boots up, and that iBook's hard disk icon will appear on the other computer.

The new Key Lime color, which has been a surprisingly popular color, is restricted to built-to-order sales from the Apple Store and authorized resellers. Other BTO options include a 20 GB hard drive, which is sold only with an extra 64 MB of RAM, which uses the iBook's sole RAM slot, for a whopping $500. Still, 128 MB of RAM and a 20 GB hard drive is the exact same as the PowerBook/500, which costs $3499. You can have an iBook configured like this for as little as $1999.

What's the same? Same Dvorak-unfriendly industrial design, same 66 MHz system bus, same lack of a backup battery, same mouse-restricting left-mounted USB port, same keyboard-venting design that precludes running the system with the case closed, same dinky speaker, same cool color-specific embedded keypad, same beefy 6 hours of battery life, same external charging indicator, and the same rubber and polycarbonate plastics that allow an iBook to be safely used as a toy guitar and survive a two-story fall while running (don't try this at home).