My grandad and I went to PC World in Blanchardstown earlier this afternoon, after getting pretty confusticated by the atrocious signage along the M50 (come on people, hasn’t anybody got a basic grasp on the concept of semiotics?). We were there to browse, to see what kind of range they had. I don’t really feel ready to commit to a purchase just yet, you see.

They had some pretty nice desktop PCs in stock, the broadest range I’ve seen so far, but I dunno, they all seemed so bulky, over-stylised. I really don’t need the bulk - I’m not going to be doing any hefty video editing or games playing. Any computer can handle web design and basic image editing - but I do want something that can handle basic music production: track mixing, sound design, etc.; I’m not planning to start a recording studio here, I just want something emulating a 4-track I can mess around with, I’m a musical hobbyist (and besides, who else would want to hear sub-ten-second blasts of electro-grindcore?).

So I wandered over to the laptop section, and I was quite impressed, particularly with a Packard Bell with an Athlon processor, DVD playback and CD burning capability at an affordable price for me. It seems like it could handle everything I’d be likely to throw at it and then some. It’s certainly more powerful than this one I’ve been using for almost four years now.

But then I turned a corner, and found the iBook.

Wow.

Forget what I said on Tuesday.

I want one.

I’d get one right now, but there are two specific stumbing blocks: a) how to transfer my music, photo and website files from my PC and b) whether an iBook is suitable for very basic sound engineering. From what I’ve read on the Apple site, the latter should not be a problem, but regarding the former, there’s a system called Move2Mac that will enable a direct USB to connect the desktop to the laptop and transfer everything in a matter of hours, but it’s not available yet. I could get an external hard disk or Zip drive, which would do the job even quicker, but that would add a couple of hundred onto my bill (if I could borrow or rent one, that would be perfect - Dave has a Zip drive, but it’s internal).

But regardless, after today, I’m willing to make the switch.

Late Night Update: It’s a toss-up between the iBook and the PC. The PC is cheaper and has slightly more going for it in terms of peripheral attachment, but the Mac is just better, although quite expensive.

The other alternative would be to take dg’s advice and go with the eMac. I’d be sacrificing portability, but it is pretty swanky, and quite powerful too for the price. Plus, it would still be a huge space saver.

I’ll pop into Compustore tomorrow to see everything in the flesh. So to speak.

Sun 15 Sep 2002 at 20:08   ·