Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with laptop and apple

An impossible Apple

BadMiker — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:15:03 -0800

What's the best Apple laptop for £500? I am, of course, looking for the impossible; something modern, with a big screen, reliable and, of course, cheap...

My wife is an acolyte of the dark side; she uses Apples and is looking for a laptop. We've got about £500 to spend and are, basically, looking for something with a 15" screen.

Being used to PCs I am absolutely horrified at the price of Apples. £500 seems a reasonable ammount but I'm having to look at second hand older machines. I dont know anything about Apples so would really appreciate any pointers about what machines I should be looking at and where I should be looking to buy one.

There are no particularly demanding applications which it would have to run; it'd be a general workhorse maching. Reasonable performance would be useful but there's no need for it to be super quick, likewise a reasonable hard drive would be useful (is min 50Gb reasonable?).

I dont want to buy privately; I've had problems before and it's too much of a risk for something like this. Given how in demand and how expensive these things are, there seems to be a real dearth of reliable re-sellers. Any suggestions about what I could afford and where I could be looking would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

I just accidentally broke my friend's ridiculously fragile brand new laptop. Please help me fix it.

iamkimiam — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 02:14:58 -0800

My good friend just purchased a $3k Apple laptop, which she received today. I spent four hours this afternoon installing software and setting it up for her. Once we were all done, and ready to go out and celebrate good times, new laptops, and Friday nights, we high fived, and I shut the laptop gently...with the tiny, clear, flexible, plastic charger cap unknowingly inside. Now the screen is completely cracked, fractalled, damaged, and very sadly colorful. What can I do? I am planning on going to the Apple store first thing tomorrow morning. What should I say? How can I make this right?

Additional info: I have been a loooong time Apple customer and purchaser. I am also currently extremely poor, but I will do whatever it takes to make sure my friend is good to go and happy. Please help me!

WHYOHWHY aren't the charger caps, A) fluorescent-colored, and B) attached to the cord!?!?

Pick the Perfect Mac Laptop

misha — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:52:16 -0800

Which Mac laptop should I buy? Needs and specs inside. So I need a new laptop, and serendipity is on my side, as the Apple store has just updated! Well and good. Which model should I get, though, that's the question.

I am replacing this:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 2 MB
Memory: 512 MB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz

What I use it for: blogging, word processing, some photoshop creation (illustrations for the blog, mostly), saving pics from the digital camera, social media, lots and lots of email, light gaming of the Flo's Diner and Tower Defense variety.

What I liked: speed, powerhouse of a laptop.
What I didn't like: heavy, bulky, heats up fast.

I'm thinking that I could go down to the 13", but are the new 15" versions significantly lighter than my version?

Is the Macbook Air a bad buy (meaning not cost-effective) because of the one-piece construction? In other words, does pretty much any repair mean the whole thing has to be taken apart, thus costing more in the end?

Is it significantly slower or less powerful than the Macbook Pro that I would notice it with my modest needs?

I DO want Apple Care, right?

Thanks in advance, hive mind!

Stolen macbook - hard drive data safe?

shivohum — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:58:54 -0800

Someone stole my 2009 macbook pro. I doubt they can guess my password. Given that, how likely is it that they can access my hard drive's data (I didn't do anything special beyond the default to encrypt it or anything)? Can my Applecare plan transfer to a new laptop? Anything else I can do to help destroy the value of the computer? I don't need any advice about police reports, etc. - but Apple-specific advice welcome.

DHCP giving clients addresses with prior DNS record

jmd82 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:47:26 -0800

DHCP giving out IP address leases with pre-existing DNS entries for the wrong machine causing network chaos on a mixed windows & mac environment, and it's the macs who are having the problems. We have DHCP & DNS on a Windows 2003 server. Apple laptops (leopard) are bound to AD. The clients get a DHCP lease easily enough, but then at some point in the future (usually a few weeks, maybe less), they cannot log in or won't get settings from the server.

Have Apple support, and their response is the machine account is not authenticating with AD, so no log in. OK, so...

Upon investigation into DNS, it turns out that these client's DNS entry is actually tied to another PC's IP address. For instance, maclaptop.mydomain.com gets 192.168.1.1. However, the DNS record for 192.168.1.1 on the network is actually pc.mydomain.com. This is causing maclaptop.mydomain.com to try authenticating as pc.mydomain.com, which they are not and getting rejected. I am led to believe this from Console messages stating pc@mydomain.com cannot authenticate with kerberos.

Any thoughts or ideas on how to prevent this from happening? I can delete those individual DNS records and the clients can log in then properly, but at some point in the future, it'll loose its lease and get the address with a wrong DNS entry at some point.

MacBook Unibody Floppy-Hinge Hacks?

lonefrontranger — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 07:50:26 -0800

The hinge on my partner's new unibody MacBook Pro is just-loose-enough to make using it in bed annoying. Solutions, cases or a hack welcomed. O hive mind, please help us comfortably enjoy our weekend morning lazy-surfing, emailing bliss with a new unibody MBP!

So, after searching Google and finding this as the first hit, and this as the second, I'm not feeling very optimistic.

The new unibody MBP that mr. lfr. just bought is amazing. Really amazing. Photo processing has taken on new life, the screen is gorgeous, it doesn't get scaryhot when running video for extended periods of time, and last but not least, he's now able to run his heavy duty protein modelling software for work seamlessly on it now.

The only glitch is that he can't comfortably lie down in bed (or on the couch) with the laptop above his head because the new unibody has a seemingly "looser" hinge design than both his and my first-gen intel MBP did/do. The challenge with this is that we both tend to do a fair bit of lying around being creative (or lazy, your pick) either on the sofa or in bed, with the laptops above our heads, and the fact that he can't do that with his new one is actually fairly annoying. In fact, I am typing this question from a supine position right now on my older MBP. Also, I had planned to replace my own MBP with a new unibody soon, and this (seemingly quite minor) issue has suddenly become very important to me. Yes, I'm that lazy.

Has anyone here found a solution to this "floppy screen" issue on their new unibody? Since he already mentioned that he would like to find a case, is there potentially a (light, slim) case out on the market there that adds a little more tension/stability to the open clamshell design, to allow the screen to stay up/open when gravity takes over?

um, also please note: "get out of bed" is not really a helpful answer. He's already discovered that piling pillows to sit up and look at/down at the screen (rather than up at it) is much less comfortable and seems to put more strain on his neck.

Which MacBook?

joshuaconner — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:10:07 -0800

Which MacBook should I get? I've saved up a bit of money working so far this summer and I'd like to buy a new Apple laptop. Right now I pretty much use my current computer (a 2002 Dell) for basic stuff - internet, word processing, DVD's, Hulu, etc. - and I don't really see that changing.

But I feel like I made a mistake when I bought the Dell of not getting enough computer; I went for a pretty basic model, and it started to feel pretty slow after just a year of having it. As the internet got more complex and you could do more stuff with a computer, using my computer became more and more of an exercise in patience.

So one of my primary objectives is to buy something that's still going to feel relatively snappy for basic computing in 2-3 years.

Looking at probably a 13" (though I might be able to be talked into the 15") and I really like the look of the unibody design, so I've kind of narrowed it down to the two models of the new 13" MacBook, a refurb 15" of the last gen MacBooks, or (splurge!) a new 15" Macbook.

Does this sound about right? And if it does, which do you think will fit my needs best?

Reselecting local wireless network

diode — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:35:14 -0800

A friend of mine has a 1 Ghz Apple TiBook. He has to reselect his local wireless router in the wireless menu each time the laptop sleeps or is rebooted. What's the fix for this? The problem mentioned is a bit of a nuisance. The Airport connection to the local 2wire router doesn't stay set. The connection in OS X 10.4 keeps getting lost somehow, so the user has to go to the wireless menu and reselect his local network each time the system sleeps or reboots.

We fiddled with it a bit to no great success. What else could I try or look at to get this working right?

Get coffee out of a Macbook keyboard?

Orb2069 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:56:20 -0800

Just spilled coffee into a 13" macbook. Remediation tips? Splenda and cream, no sugar. Any ideas on stuff that can be done to mitigate the damage while it's still wet?

Other good gaming laptops under $1000?

wastelands — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:14:30 -0800

Under $1000 laptop: I have my eye on a particular model; am I missing any others in my research? I'm finally replacing a Dell desktop that is truly too slow, noisy, etc. I've been doing the research and I like this model: MSI GX620-001US.

Things I like about it / criteria:

It's within my $1000 budget

Decent graphics card so I can use it as a gaming system

Has a fairly trim/thin body

Plain/not overly colorful or curvy body. I love those Lenovo laptops for the same reason; they're minimalist and not flashy. (I don't think Lenovo has gaming capable lappies, though, at least not in my price range.)

Decent reputation/reviews overall. Second-best rating on NewEgg.

15.4" screen size is perfect for me. I need to fit it side-by-side on a table at home that holds a big monitor (I'll be using both displays at once with VGA out) as well as have enough useable screen space for doing stuff like Ableton Live on the go.

I've looked at Dells. They're thicker and more expensive than the MSI on a specs basis. Buuut... they do have that nice LED backlighting.

I took a serious look at Apple stuff. That aluminum unibody is hot. But paying an extra $150 for a even refurb 13" screen model, and getting used to new UI and programs (I'm used to Windows)... meh.

Are there any stores and/or particular laptop models that I'm overlooking that fit my criteria?

I've heard Sager notebooks can be good, I and found I could get a $900 model that has a bigger battery but slower processor compared to the MSI. But there aren't a ton of reviews out there on Sagers, so that plus the slower CPU makes me want to pass.

My computer is having some difficulties.

Brachiosaurus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:16:26 -0800

Is my iBook G4 dying? The most pressing problem is that, while working on it, without the power cord, the computer will abruptly turn off, with no warning. It can even be when the battery indicator on the top of the screen isn't even that low, maybe a quarter left. Afterwards I can just plug it in and turn it back on with no problems. This is happening more and more regularly.

The next biggest problem is that the front (closest to me) left corner gets super hot sometimes. I'm guessing that this is hard drive. I've backed up my data recently but I should probably again- maybe right after I'm done typing this.

Also, the wires within the power adapter may be starting to fray. It isn't too touchy but to keep the indicator light illuminated I have to keep it still. Also the box thingy that goes to the wall will get really, really hot while it's charging- but not if it's just plugged in. I don't know if it's always done this.

The only other problem is that four keys no longer work on the keyboard thanks to my cat spilling a martini on the computer about 2 years ago. I should have replaced it then because I can do it myself and I've heard that the replacement keyboard would only be about 50$. All of the letters still work (though I imagine that it would be funny if I had to avoid words with certain letters) and only one of the keys that I tend to use has been effected. I called Apple to ask them once but they said they don't sell just the keyboard.

So I'm looking at about 300 in replacement parts (outside of the hot hard drive problem, 'cause I don't know what that's about) and I'm thinking that even if I repair these and the thing lasts 8 months my utility per dollar wouldn't improve that much because I'm spending 20% of the cost to get another ~15% of life from it.

I choose 8 months because it would be awesome if I could get this thing to last until I finish school in Dec.

So it sounds like I should just replace it but I don't think I'd be able to swing that for another 2 or so months and I kind of need it (what I mean by need is that my roommate lets me use his spiffy iMac but having a laptop [and my own computer] improves my productivity).

So I guess my questions are, can this thing last 2-3 months without putting money into it? 8+ months without repairs? 8+ month with the repairs listed above? And how much would a new 100gb HD cost? Has anyone had this battery problem before? I know that none of you can predict the future but I just need some reasonable advice.

PowerPC seeks Intel based Mac workaround

alice ayres — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:18:06 -0800

Can I run an Intel based Mac application on my PowerPC mac laptop? I would like to buy MacSpeech Dictate. I would not like to buy a new laptop or computer. The system requirements state Intel based Macs. I am running 10.5.1 on a G4 Powerbook (Power PC). Does anyone have any experience with this kind of dilemma or suggestions for a workaround?

As a last resort, I have thought of renting an Intel Mac laptop, as this is for a short term project I am working on. Does anyone have experience with laptop rentals in NYC?

I haz a Macbook, now what?

nmaster64 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 09:56:36 -0800

Got a new Macbook, but not sure where to go from here... So I just purchased a new Macbook, as I'm planning to go into iPhone application development soon. However, I am completely new to Macs. It's really strange, because for years I've always had a sort of filter on my brain to ignore any stories and articles I see about Mac stuff (and jeez is there a ton of it), and now all of a sudden I start to care. So after years of blocking out all of the Mac stuff on Digg, Lifehacker, and other tech sites and whatnot, I feel I'm kind of behind. I was wondering if anybody had some suggestions for things to look at for helping me get started with it, learn some of the helpful tips and tricks, and point me to some of the great free software available for it. Thanks for any help.

(Also, if it's helpful for any reason, I own a XP desktop and Vista laptop as well. I'm just finishing up my degree in Computer Science, so I'm pretty tech-savvy, just not-so-much with Macs.)

PB G4 17in Display: Am I really screwed, or just kinda screwed?

fontophilic — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 18:45:57 -0800

My PowerBook G4 17in, with the dreaded W85 serial number is displaying (or rather not) a white 1.25in vertical block down the left side. Turned on my PowerBook G4 this morning, checked email, closed the lid and then went out for the rest of the day. Came back, opened it up and I've got this 1.25 inch dead while line down the left side of my screen. Doing a screen capture of this area reveals what should be there, and problem persists after restarting, leaving me to conclude hardware problem. It's about 4 years old, even extended apple care is long gone. It could be much worse, as this laptop is currently my livelihood, and I have access to an external monitor.

Doing some research I found that there is a known problem with serials that start with W85 for this model. Allegedly due to shoddy assembly in China. Apple censors it at every turn.

However, this is my question. These cases tend to look like a few lines, scattered around, but mine [1, 2] is a solid white vertical block Is there any chance that when I got my new hard drive installed at best buy a month ago, they pulled a monitor pin out or something along those lines?

Wishful thinking, or am I going to say good by to $300?

(the old hard drive was working fine, just too small)

Should I downgrade to a laptop or keep the 8-core?

phaedon — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:55:15 -0800

Can I edit in HD on the latest Macbook Pro without losing my mind? Strapped for cash, I decided to put my 8-core macpro up for sale. The idea was to use part of the money to buy a middle-of-the-road macbook pro and save the rest. I still need a computer and value the added mobility, but don't really need all that processing power.

So right when I find a buyer for my macpro system at a really good price, somebody offers me an editing gig.

Here's my question: do I have wildly optimistic expectations of what can be done on a laptop? Can I edit HD without going absolutely nuts? I am a relatively impatient person, and I have to say, part of me is embarassed at the thought of having a producer come over and find me working off a laptop.

If I decide to use all the proceeds from selling the macpro and get the top-of-the-line macbook pro, am I going to have an editing system that I can be reasonably happy with? Or should I back away from my decision to sell my 8core?

I work on Final Cut Studio 2.

What's a good female-specific purse/laptop bag for a 13" Macbook?

thewalrus — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 04:58:40 -0800

I bought my wife a unibody aluminum 13" Macbook for Christmas. She loves the laptop a lot but only has an old fashioned clamshell briefcase style carrying case for laptops, which was designed for 8 pound, 15.4" screen lap monsters. Can anyone recommend a female specific purse/laptop bag that is stylish and designed specifically for the 13" Macbook, or a vendor of an assortment of different styles of such bags?

Comparing Apples And Ubuntus.

2oh1 — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:16:29 -0800

How does the Macbook Air with OS X compare to the Dell Mini 12 running XP or Ubuntu? I've been buying Macs since 1994 and work exclusively with them, mostly because I'm a freelancer (thus, I work from home). I'd like to buy a netbook-ish laptop for surfing the web and writing on the go. This would be a secondary computer, so I don't need bells and whistles. I don't even need a CD/DVD drive.

I have poor vision, so I'm looking for one that's just a bit bigger than the 7 to 10 inch netbooks, but I'd still like it to be light and small. I'm thinking 13 inch screen max with a resolution no larger than 1280 X 800-ish.

That led me to the Macbook Air, refurbished, for $999, or a Dell Mini 12, which can be had for a lot less. Or, should I be looking at something else entirely? I fear the 10 inch Eee might be a bit too small of a screen.

How do they really compare?
Would I prefer Ubuntu to XP?
Is it worth it to spend more for the refurbished Air?

I'm having trouble comparing apples to apples since only one of them is, in fact, an Apple.

Help me get the most Mac for my buck.

kimdog — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:02:57 -0800

I'm buying a new Mac iBook, iPhone, and accessories in a couple of weeks. How can I get the best deal(s)? I'm a Mac loyalist, but not super tech savvy. I buy them and use them until they (nearly) croak. With my tax return, I am looking at buying the new 13 inch MacBook 2.4GHz with Apple Care, Airport Express, an iPhone 3G, and phone accessories. So far it looks like my best bet is to get a refurb Macbook from Apple ($200 off plus free shipping) and a refurb iPhone from AT&T for $150. Are there any better deals or freebies out there that I am missing?

One cheap laptop with everything, please.

lunasol — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:10:34 -0800

Cheap, lightweight(ish) PC laptop with an optical drive? Or should I just spring for a MacBook? Yes, this is another cheap laptop question. And it might be that what I'm looking for is unreasonable. But here goes:

I need a new laptop. A small one. I don't want to spend more than $600. Normally I would just buy a MacBook, because I prefer OSX to Windows, but the budget is pretty tight and so I'm exploring my other options.

I was all set to buy a netbook (an eee PC 1000 or Samsung NC10), until I realized that they don't have optical drives, which is important to me (I like to watch DVDs on my laptop). Boo.

Other than that, I'm your standard Word/Excel/internet/mp3 computer user. Nothing fancy.

So here's what I'm looking for:

- Under 6 lbs
- Screen under 14"
- Optical drive
- at least: 120 GB Hard drive
- Under $600 (under $500 would be even better - I really don't want to go any higher unless it's a Mac)
- Long battery life would be nice but is not essential.
- No Dells, unless I can be persuaded their machines and support have improved drastically since 2004, when I had a disastrous Dell experience.

I've been stalking fatwallet, slickdeals, etc etc and I have found lots of computers with some of these things under this price point: Netbooks that are small and light but have no optical drive, larger notebooks with all the bells and whistles but weighing closer to 10 lbs. The closest thing I've found (from this question) is this HP dv5t, but it's a bit big for my purposes.

If it turns out it's impossible to find a small, light, fully-functional notebook for under $600, I will just suck it up and buy the MacBook, but if it's possible to save some money, that would be great!

And if you want to say, "it sounds like you really want a Mac," you're right, but $1000 is pretty steep on my current budget.

Turn John Hodgman into Justin Long

lukemeister — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 15:39:51 -0800

What are the Mac equivalents of great Windows software? This was a great question about what a Mac person should install on a Windows box. I'm going the other way, as my office kindly bought me a new MacBook Pro. I'm a scientist and haven't used a Mac since OS 7.5. For the past decade my machines have been Windows, Linux, or dual-boot. Freeware/shareware programs I use a lot under Windows: Cygwin, Essential PIM, FLVplayer, IrfanView, Maxima, Openoffice.org, Scilab, Winamp, Xemacs, Xplorer2 pro. Commercial software: Mathematica, IDL, occasionally Microsoft Office. I'm mostly interested in freeware or shareware such as great text and image editors, tex/latex, and other nerdware. Thanks! Naturally, the new laptop runs Leopard.

I'm a PC

jak68 — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:04:58 -0800

mac purchase advice: I'd like to pick up a used mac laptop on ebay for under $400. What specs or models should I look for that will give me the least buyers regret? ie, how fast a processor do i need? Should I choose a g3? g4? intel processors? how much memory do i need? etc.

I dont need usb 2.0, i dont need pc card slot, just wireless and a cdrom drive.

Mainly my concern is to not pick up something that is dog slow. I guess i'd like it to be able to run the latest OS (is that possible on older macs?)

I dont know diddly about macs by the way. I"m a pc guy all the way (and will remains so ;) but I want to experiment with macs a bit to prepare for a school-related project that will involve some macs.

mac? pc?

mustcatchmooseandsquirrel — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:48:54 -0800

When and where should I buy a laptop (also: what kind?!)? I'm leaving the US for France for about a year on September 16. I want/need a laptop for my job and entertainment. I can't think clearly about this anymore (stressed out about 10000 other things!) so I thought I'd consult AskMe.

I was planning on buying a MacBook when the product line was refreshed. Current rumor on that, though, is around October 14thish and I really wanted a laptop sooner than that. If I buy a Mac now, I can take advantage of their education discount which will give me a "free" iPod Touch (after rebate). If I wait until mid-October to buy a newer release Mac I will have to pay more for it because they cost more in France (also no iPod Touch). I really like Macs because Apple fixes anything that's wrong with them and I find them to be really well-made and happy (my last two computers were Macs). I was looking forward to a new Mac because aluminum casing is really desirable to me.

I am also considering getting a netbook/ultraportable laptop (MSI Wind or Inspiron Mini or Eee PC 1000 or ???) and running Linux on it because the price tag isn't as bad as Macs and I like the idea of being able to shove the laptop in a large purse and wander around. I do not, however, want Windows, because it frustrates the hell out of me.

I want whatever I get to have a built-in webcam and microphone so that I can Skype, I don't play games on my computer, I don't program, I like full-sized keyboards, I don't particularly like glossy screens, I don't like heavy laptops, I am sort of attached to my optical drive, and I am annoyed that the base MacBook only comes with a combo drive rather than super drive.

So, should I buy a laptop in the US and get a "free" iPod Touch and old MacBook, should I wait until mid-October and buy a new MacBook for $300ish more, or should I buy a cheaper PC? (money both is and isn't an issue because if I am convinced that I am making the BEST choice I will buy it within reason but I don't want to spend money on something too frivolous (ie: dropping $1,700 on a MacBook Air)).

Aaak, what should I do (sorry for the rambly-ness of this question, I have a lot on my mind right now)?

When will we see new MacBook Pros? When should I buy mine?

nokry56 — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 13:19:34 -0800

I will have $3000 saved by the end of this month. I am hoping to spend it on a high-end 15" MBP. I am currently a high school senior, and am looking to replace my aging P4 desktop with a laptop that will last me into college. When is it likely that Apple will release new MBPs? If they release them within the month should I go ahead and get one, or should I wait until closer to when I am starting school next year? (Fall 2009)

Is it likely that Apple releases new MBPs before Christmas? If they do will they likely release another new model before next fall?

I have read the macrumors Buyer's Guide, but am looking for more info. Such as where do quad-core mobile processors fit into the scheme of things, and where does Nehalem come in?

Will we see new graphics cards?

I realize these are questions without definitive answers, but am just looking for some advice/thoughts.

my macbook is driving me insane

god particle — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:38:38 -0800

My macbook, running OSX 10.5.4, has been working really poorly lately It has trouble booting up (if I try to restart, I can end up with a blank screen), applications constantly crash or get glitchy, and my two external hard drives keep getting "improperly disconnected" even though they remain plugged in. Safari runs slow, always freezing things up, and there seems to be a general decrease in performance. This onset of problems is driving me insane. Could my hard drive be dying? Do I have some kind of virus? Should I start looking for a new computer?

Low-end laptop

mccarty.tim — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:48:08 -0800

What's a good netbook or netbook-like computer for my mom and sister? 4 years ago, I built an Athlon XP 2500+ computer for my family. Back then, it was a $550 gaming machine (All in Wonder 9400+, which died a few months ago and was replaced by a $30 cheapie card), but after 4 years of use, it's beginning to be slow and cumbersome. I don't have the time to do a full system reinstall, and I'm not sure it's what the system needs. It's loud, slow to boot, slow to run, and takes up a lot of space, and the hardware is starting to show some quirks which flashes won't fix (BIOS does not always boot, needs a hard reset by flipping the back switch, network card drops connections, computer turns itself on when shut off). Being at home with my laptop makes me realize how much my mom and sister hate it, because they're always asking me to look stuff up on my MacBook Pro.

Lately, netbooks have entered the market and look like a good option, because about 90% of what they do is web browsing and basic text editing. The other 10% can be satisfied by the old Windows machine. However, for what they are, they seem expensive compared to the older Apple laptops on sale on Ebay. They don't really need a sub-10 inch laptop. What they really need is just something less cumbersome than the old desktop I built.

I think an old Apple laptop may be better for them, since I'm familiar with OSX and I think they would have an easier time with it than Windows or a Linux derivative.

Our house has an 802.11G network running from a hacked WRT54G router, which reaches pretty much every room. I'd be okay with the computer running 802.11B, but if the difference were $20 between G and B, I'd go for it. As for the laptop, I'd like one that is fairly user-serviceable (IE, RAM and hard drive are easy to replace/upgrade, CD drive replaceable would be nice, but not crucial), since these would be fairly old machines. I know that Boot Camp and Parallels are impossible on that setup, but they don't need that, so it's moot. If the machine could run Leopard decently, that would be useful, but just Tiger is acceptable. Also, are replacement batteries hard to find for old machines?

Is there any model that satisfies or comes close to what I said, or would I be better off getting them a netbook or certain model of old PC laptop? My budget would probably be from $200-300, so it would have to expand for a netbook. I'd expect the machine to be sturdy, but not very. I wouldn't expect them to take it out of the house much. Would they really benefit from the added speed/build quality of a Powerbook over an iBook for what I described?