TechNewOld: Apple iBook G4 1.33Ghz (2005) review in 2018

[@jeremyt2374]

Great to see this. I have the 2003 version which I bought in Penang, Malaysia 2004. I traveled all over Asia with it and gave it a beating, and yet it still goes! It has a few cracks on the case and some extra feet under it for cooling in tropical temperatures, but this computer is/was a great little machine, even with the 27GB of memory! If I had a good battery I'd still be using it for writing. I have 2 batteries but both last about 5 minutes. I now use it as a second computer for scanning slides at 4000dpi (100GB Tiff files) and it works fine, although not very fast. My current computer in 2009 iMac which is close to being replaced with an M1 Mac Mini. The screen blanks out so I have to use a secondary screen! Cheers and greetings from New Zealand.

[@TechNewOld]

A great testimony for this machine and the fact that you are still using the iBook in some capacity long after it’s natural shelf life is brilliant. I agree, if you needed something to write on (with no distraction) the iBook would be a good choice! Thank you for sharing your story! Good luck with your new machine, I have been running a Mac mini 2012 and Mac air 2015 (recently purchased).

[@yuhenry1427]

same as you, jeremy, 2003 verion, bought in hk 2004, now still work fine except super-drive doesn't work and short battery life, all i can say is proud to have this little white classic. cheers from Hong Kong

[@ww21943]

These are still very useful as long as you have managed expectations. Finding working batteries is getting tough. I just finished upgrading a friends 900mhz iBook G3. It natively boots into OS 9 and OS X 10.4. Ram is limited to around 650mb. Still, it surfed the web really well in Arctic Fox. Office 2008 still has a lot of compatibility with newer versions and even Docs, as long as the file is saved as DocX. I was so impressed with the performance of that iBook, that I want to find one like yours. He bought this for vintage gaming, which it does well. My Power Mac G5 can access OneDrive and iCloud for my files. I think this G4 should be able to as well. The two modern websites I use the most that really do not work well on PowerPC is Facebook and KZbin. Yes, there are work arounds, but at the end of the day, my phone is a whole lot easier to use. iTunes no longer works on a lot of older version of Mac OS X including Leopard. You can listen to internet radio and NPR podcasts (they must still use an older protocol). I found a podcast player extension for InterWebPPC (FireFox) that works well. It is easier to download your podcasts and then play them through iTunes or some other players. You can listen to Pandora commercial free (even without a premium subscription) using PianoPPC (I think that is the name). At the end of the day, using a PowerPC Mac is a novelty more than anything. I have so many modern computers (work laptop, personal Windows laptop, M1 MBA, Surface Go) that even if I was in a pinch, I wouldn't have to resort to using one of my PPC machines. Though, there is something undeniably neat about knowing that I could get by using my PPC machines. It is too bad Zoom and Skype, even the browser versions, no longer work.

[@TechNewOld]

Sorry late reply: great post. I'm glad you are making good use of the old tech. One good thing is less distraction: you are working in word and there is no web browsing to distract, just choosing your music (if you are running iTunes). On the subject of iTunes I think the older version is better for just playing your music. Hopefuly there is a die hard community out there who keeps these going. The concern is a Raspberry pi 0 may now be more powerful ...

[@santibressan1445]

And what about installing lubuntu?. I think it still supported PowerPC processors. Maybe an older version of it or a different distro like Debian? Might have issues with low ram, but I think it would work and be more useful than the current state. Cheers

[@TechNewOld]

I think you are right: a linux distro probably would give this machine more life or at least better functionality. I actually don't have the machine anymore, and I think I would keep it running MacOs just to see what can be done. I reckon today no more than an electronic typewriter ;-)

[@RodrigoVazquez91]

Mine has the exact same latch issue as the one you have, I've tried everything to fix it but nothing worked out.

[@David_JA_Noble]

Old computers !

[@TechNewOld]

how did you get on?

[@DeeSnutts24]

idk why I'm watching reviews of apple laptops that are older than me lol 😂😂

[@TechNewOld]

Hahaha. You are getting into retro computing

[@itsnegi39]

I love this model than the new model👀

[@TechNewOld]

It certainly has a different feel to it. They just don’t make computers like this anymore.

[@MusicLover-dx7cq]

Hi,i have that same macbook but it shuts down without warn and the keyboard won't work (not all) what could i do? Haha

[@David_JA_Noble]

You certainly don't waste any money fixing it! Oh well. But if you need to retrieve some old files, you could plug in a USB keyboard and mouse then you could access your files / photos and move onto a USB stick or something.

[@MusicLover-dx7cq]

I want to fix it I'm still a student and don't want to use money haha

[@MusicLover-dx7cq]

It doesn't have anything I could do?

[@David_JA_Noble]

@@MusicLover-dx7cq buy a cheap 2nd hand chromebook $50 ....

[@TechNewOld]

How did you get on? Gave up or still have it?

[@MIjprodz]

Hi I don't really speak English but. I want you to help me with my laptop ibook G4 it's very difficult used

[@TechNewOld]

Hi , I also speak French if that helps. Look , the g4 is now very old, so these computers will start to fail. It sounds like you use yours a lot ? What is the problem?

[@SalzigeMeinung.]

Is it still a good laptop for 2021?

[@TechNewOld]

That’s a good question: I am actually looking to acquire a new g4 laptop to see how it is doing now (I sold the old one). Watch this space !

[@TechNewOld]

Realistically it’s use will be no more than an electronic typewriter. You may still have some basic email functionality . Anything on the web will be limited and very slow. But you should be able to burn your CDs (if the CD player still works) , so it has some use ! You may have old MacOS software that needs power PC architecture… this then would be a solution .

[@erasmosanchezuser]

Can I use the 12 " screen from this onto a 15.1 screen Ibook g4 of the same year? I dont care if is shorter. thanks.

[@TechNewOld]

I don't know . Probably has the same connector. However, don't know what you would achieve. Better, you can take the screen off altogether, and use the monitor display port to attach to a monitor, and you will have a slim line retro looking desktop set up .

[@berlin3636]

ich habe die selbe gefunden für 60 € soll ich kaufen ?

[@TechNewOld]

Nur um Spaß zu haben und vielleicht, wenn Sie möchten, dass ein Computer nur Textverarbeitung oder Tabellenkalkulationen durchführt. Sonst ist es nicht mehr so ​​gut. Es sieht gut aus! Thank you Google Translate

[@vincentbrunet7929]

1.33Mhz ? are you sure ?

[@oliversakic5907]

I think it's more like Ghz

[@TechNewOld]

@@oliversakic5907 hahah, good spot. That made me laugh.

[@TechNewOld]

Ha! Thank you

[@TechNewOld]

have corrected .

[@oliversakic5907]

NobleD TechNewOld okay :)

[@manoisderrie6427]

Blache book

[@bamboo7569]

Try android os

[@TechNewOld]

Android OS on an Apple iBook G4 with power pc architecture .... would never work

[@TechNewOld]

On a Power PC? that possible ?

[@oliversakic5907]

NobleD TechNewOld no

[@WantBadtime]

Use reactOS or probably an older version of Linux that has PPC capability

[@MIjprodz]

Please help me.

[@TechNewOld]

How can I help you, please tell me the issue