G3 ibook - general information

by Katlaw Feb 21, 2006 11:01PM PST

This may sound redundant to all you computer literarte out there. However, here goes: I purchased an ibook g3.
This is my first expereience with mac. They say try it and you'll never go back. We'll see. I would like to know beside the airport card is there anything else I need to go online and what happens when I travel with my notebook. Will I be able to tap into hot spot thru the airport card. If I'm traveling on train or plane what will I need. Finally where can I access a manual for the g3 ibook. As I have no earthly idea what garage or safari is. Again thank you for your patience with a newbe to the world of MAC. If needed my OS is OS X Tiger. Thanks!!!

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Welcome to the Mac

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Feb 21, 2006 11:44PM PST

As your machine is an older one, it will not be as sprightly as the newer iBooks. This is not a problem but you might find Tiger a little slow. If I am wrong in my assumption as to the age of the machine, please correct me as it makes a difference to any further questions about your machine.
Take a look at the System Profiler. Under the Apple menu (top left of the screen) click on About this Mac.
In the next window, choose More Info.
This will display everything about your machine. Let us know how much memory you have, how big the hard drive is and what type and speed the processor is.

To get online, at the house, you will need an Internet Service Provider, ISP, who will provide access to the internet via Cable, DSL or regular phone lines in exactly the same way as you would for a Windows machine. Your Airport (Wireless) card needs to have something to "talk" to and from the information you have provided, I guess there is nothing at your house for it to do that. Contrary to the commercials you see on the TV, it is really not possible to sit in an amphitheatre in Greece and send emails from your laptop.
You will be able to tap into Hot Spots using the Airport card but when travelling on a train or plane you are out of luck. The wireless capabilities of your iBook, its not a NoteBook, extend out to about 150 feet on a good day.

Garage is a place that you put your motor vehicle but Garage Band is a piece of software that allows you to create music on your machine. It comes bundled on all Macs but, given the age of your machine, you may not have it. It is part of the iLife suite of programs which include iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD. You probably do not have the last one as it is only instlled on machines that have DVD burners installed. Safari is the Mac web browser of choice. Although Microsoft Internet Explorer is probably installed on your machine, it is very old and is no longer produced by MS. The icon for Safari appears in the dock and looks like a compass.
You can find a small manual for the iBook at Apple.com
Did you get any disks with this machine?

P

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Thank you for the info

by Katlaw Feb 22, 2006 8:48AM PST

First let me begin by thanking you for such a prompt reply. That information shed a lot of light. 1st off I was a little disappointed to hear that the wifi range is only 150 ft. My primary purpose for purchasing a ibook was for the portability of it. I will basically be using it for school. I work as well, and it involves travel from time to time. Since the majority of my classes are online I thought that an ibook would be ideal for that purpose. Granted if I'd had been better informed I would have been able to make a better decision. In any case, these are the specs my ibook has: 700mhz, 128mb, built in ethernet, 20gb, DVD-ROM with CD - r/rw/burner, as well with the bundled package with all except, as you stated, idvd.
The only disc that were included are:Mac OS X Tiger and
iLife '04. Any suggestions you could offer in terms of add ons to increase the performance for memory , speed, just whatever. Or and additional disc I may need to purchase that were not included, would be more than appreciated.
Finally, after doing all of the above, for the purpose of school, should I just sell this and upgrade or will I be able to work with what I have. I understand this is just an opinion.

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More Ram would be a good idea

by damasta55r Feb 22, 2006 3:17PM PST

if only for surfing the internet, it should do fine.

Roger

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More RAM

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Feb 22, 2006 8:45PM PST

is always a good idea.
To be fair, I have to point out that the relatively short range of the wireless networking is NOT just an Apple thing, it applies to all wireless cards. Some go a little further than others but, in general, the distance is about average for all of them. There are a lot of factors playing on the range of a wireless signal but they all have one thing in common, they need another Wireless device to talk to.
The extra RAM will help your machine tremendously, 128 MB is the bare minimum for running any version of OS X.
Given you stated use for the machine, it will do everything that you want it to. Check with your school to see if there is anything that they require you to do that "needs" Windows software.

Try the RAM, you'll be surprised at the result

P

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Reply to More Ram

by Katlaw Feb 22, 2006 10:26PM PST

Thank you all for the input. As far as Windows is concerned, I need a word program and I know I need excel. If at all possible, if not I can do those operations from my desktop.

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Word and Excel

by mrmacfixit Forum moderator Feb 22, 2006 10:34PM PST

are both available for the Mac.
In your case, the Student & Teacher edition of Office 2004:Mac, for about $135 will do nicely

P

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Excel for Mac

by Katlaw Feb 23, 2006 2:39AM PST

Wonderful! Thank you!

G3 ibook - general information

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