buying an iBook today
 

Hey,

After reading over a bit in the forums here and more research on other forums [as well as going to the apple store by my house twice and played around with them a bit] , I've decided to take the plunge and buy an ibook for college. It's going to be my first apple computer, and have used them just a little in school.
I'm a bit nervous, but I'm just that way whenever I purchase anything [make an investment in] over $100...

A couple last-minute questions that I have:
- Can an ipod double as a sort of USB key ? [there's an offer for college kids to get a free 4gb ipod after rebate] could it store both music and data at the same time ? I don't really like the ipod interface at all, I'd prefer a creative zen/iriver, but if it doubles as a data transfer I might keep the ipod....which leads to another q:

- does OS X play well with other mp3 players besides Ipods ? Ultimately, I'm thinking of selling the ipod and using that money towards another player.

- While at the store, the ibook outer casing seems quite flimsy and fragile - is this a legit concern ? I know the powerbook has a better casing, but I don't want to upgrade to that. [IMHO, the small upgrades of the powerbook doesn't warrant the price diff. between it and the ibook.]

Anything else I should know about to help me rid myself of having irrational thoughts of being ripped-off ?!?!

Thanks guys and gals,
will.

storage is storage, so ofcourse you will beable to store music on your icrook as well as school data. now i dont know if you can use it for regular files but i think that there is a creative model that can (not 100% sure)

i dont see why a i crook would be dumb and only work with an ipod. check the box of the mp3 players you are thinking of getting

no idea about your last question.... i dont like macs yet ;) not enough games for em:-P

maybe whith mactel ill be able to play games pon an apple, then it might warrent the switch

hopefuly this helps u a bit before you have to leave and hopefully someone who likes mac can hook you up with some more answers

Well, I don't know how much I can help you, but here's a fact:

Although the casing makes the powerbook smaller, it's a certain alloy that blocks out a certain percent of it's wifi compatibility. Like, if you're at the edge of a wireless network, it wont pick it up. With the ibook, it'll pick it up, since the case is plastic.

OS X recognized my Creative Nomad Jukebox just fine. I'm not sure if <i>all</i> other mp3 players will work, but most should at least appear as an external storage device.

first off, congratulations.

Ok, I'll try to answer your questions.

The free iPod mini could be used as either a hard drive or a music player. I would suggest using it with the supplied Firewire cable, as that will give you a faster 2 way transfer.

I've had my iBook for a year. I toss it into a backpack every day. Sometimes I drop my backpack. It bounces around with my books, PSP in hard case, and DS.

I would say they are pretty durable.

I used to use MiniDisc for my portable music, but sony makes no software to connect it with a mac. I have had no success connecting it to use long play. I now have an iPod 20 gig and iPod Shuffle.

Feel free to IM me about any questions you may have.

Wait, you have two ipods???