Two weeks ago, Apple refreshed its iBook line so I decided to give it a try. My laptop PC was too old and it was time for change. After having used a Mac for two years I wanted to experience it wirelessly and everywhere.

So I got the smallest iBook, I wanted it to be ultra portable: G4 1,33Ghz, 512Mo RAM, 40Go and an ATI Radeon 9550. That’s a pretty good deal for 1000€. It comes with all the software you might expect: MacOS X Tiger and iLife ‘05. Nothing to worry about. The out of the box experience is really something I love with Apple products. I unpacked the iBook, boot it up, got a very simple wizard and all the configuration was done in few minutes.

The iBook itself is very well manufactured, its surface is smooth and nothing appear on it, only the Apple logo on the top and tiny screws on the bottom. I was worried about its graphics capabilities but the Radeon 9550 is pretty good. It’s a 9600 at a lower frequency so its support the all new fancy effects of MacOS X and Core Image.

I’ll dig in during the coming weeks to experiment its power, I also think about starting some Cocoa projects on it. Making software on the Mac seems to be something worth trying. I’ll keep you posted.