Shown running iTunes in OSX 10.3 with some peripherals connected.

The hard drive on my Powerbook 3400 crashed earlier this year. I took the thing in to one of our local Mac stores to have it fixed and the people there laughed at me. They also convinced me to upgrade to a newer model.... so I did... Bought a used iBook G3 700 computer from them. You can see it in the photo above (taken at my parent's place on the Big Island of Hawaii).

The iBook is a very capable G3 based, 700 mhz computer. It is good for doing all of the basic stuff I did with the Powerbook 3400 and more. The iBook is used to run word processing programs in Word and AppleWorks. It is dual booting, with both OSX 10.3.8 on it as well as OS 9.2.1.

Being a big Adobe Pagemaker fan, I occasionally use it to run Pagemaker on its 9.2 partition. Pagemaker is about the only time I use the iBook in OS 9.2 mode or through emulation within OSX's "Classic Mode".

All other programs I run in OSX. These include the following:

iTunes: Good for listening to my 500 or so songs that I keep on the iBook. I also download the free Apple track of the week with iTunes. This program is also used for synching with my iPod Shuffle.

iPhoto and Image Capture: Use these 2 programs for image storage and editing whenever I am on the road (which is not too often). These came in very handy while I was recently on the Big Island of Hawaii. Synchs with the 3 digital cameras that I own. iPhoto is pretty good for making slideshows and exporting them to Quicktime, and for making photo album webpages.

I am not the biggest Microsoft Word fan around. However this is the only computer that I have the most current version of Word installed. This comes in handy when I have to exchange files with the Dell PC I have to use at work. We do a lot of word processing with Word at work, all on the PC unless I have to be out of the immediate office and elsewhere, in which case I use this iBook.

One of the best things about the iBook is that it has a built in Airport wireless card. This means I can access the internet wherever there may be an airport or other wi-fi access point or "hotspot". Comes in handy when I am on the road. The iBook is also connected to my ethernet network at home where I now have broadband access. I also use it for dial-up access when neither broadband or wifi is available.

There is more I could write about the iBook, but this gives you a brief idea of what you can do with this slightly older Macintosh.

Quick Specs:

Model: iBook
CPU Type: Power PC 750 (G3)
CPU Speed: 700 mhz
L2 Cache: 512 KB
Memory: 640 MB
Bus Speed: 100 mhz
Bus: ATA-4
Hard Drive: Toshiba MK4019
Hard Drive Size: 40 GB
Optical Drive: Sony CD RW / DVD
System Software: Mac OS X 10.3.8
System Software: Mac OS 9.2.1
Dual Booting System
Network: Built-in Ethernet, Airport, Internal Modem