ibook questions - specifics

[vogooch]

thanks for all that replied to my last post. i had a few more quesitons.
someone told me that the memory from mac was pretty expensive, and that i should just buy the lowest memory available at 256 MB, and then just order more RAM from an online reseller. would you suggest that? Is that easy to install for anyone?

Also, i heard that the screen resolution is kind of poor at 1024x768 pixels. therefore buying the 14inch ibook is the same as buying the 12 " ibook because the resolution is the same. Supposedly all they did was make the screen physically larger, so youwill be looking at bigger pixels, but fitting exactly the same amount of stuff on your screen. what would you suggest? is the 12" good enough? i was confused however, that the 12" only has 800 MHz, versus the 14 inch ibooks that have 933 MHz and 1GHz. What does this mean and does that make a difference?

Also, I am currently teaching as an Assistant English Teacher in Japan, and am from Canada. Is it better for me to purchase my laptop through the Canada website or through the Japanese website? I know that I can get the educational discount if i order through the Japan website, but my friend who bought one here, sometimes still gets things that pop up in japanese and i definitely don:t want that. will the canada online store mail my ibook to me in japan, and at no fee? Will they also give me the discount even though i am not at a Provincial school? Anyone know of the methods of payment?

Any advice would be great!
Vanessa

 

[mac_mogul]

RAM: Very easy to install, but very cheap to have it installed for you.

Screen: The resolution of the two sizes is the same and images on the 12 will be just as crisp and sharp as images on the 14

Mhz: 800 is good; 933 is better, but 1ghz is best.

Discounts and shipping: Not really sure about Japan's or Canda's purchasing/shipping fees or how they would do something like what you're needing, but I'm sure that Apple could get you an educational discount anywhere in the world.

Friends laptop: Is it a Mac? or a PC? Because annoying pop-ups are usually related to PC's.

 

[Total Immortal]

One thing about the ram, I read in an earlier post (you can see it at http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11353&pagenumber=1 , scroll down to confusedSQL's reponse, a little past halfway down the page) that apple supposedly has had conflicts with 3rd party (non apple) hardware. That being the case, i would spend the extra money on getting however much ram that you want when you order the computer. That's what I plan on doing.

 

[g5orbust]

One thing about the ram, I read in an earlier post (you can see it at http://www.techist.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=11353&pagenumber=1 , scroll down to confusedSQL's reponse, a little past halfway down the page) that apple supposedly has had conflicts with 3rd party (non apple) hardware. That being the case, i would spend the extra money on getting however much ram that you want when you order the computer. That's what I plan on doing.

Good catch but thats not true at all. Apple uses generic Samsung RAM in their machines. Identical in performance to all other RAM types. I do suggest getting the least amount of RAM you can and upgrading third party. Apple RAM is damn expensive.

RAM in Apple computers is simple to install. Unscrew a small bottom cover (hardest part of the whole operation - see, simple...), *skip if no RAM is in the second slot* pop out the RAM inside the slot, pull aside the tabs, pop in the RAM, give it a firm push into the slot, push it flat and rescrew the cover. Easy.
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As for the screen, the 14 inch's screen is 1024x768, same as the 12 inch. This means that the pixels are a bit larger, so the image on the screen may appear minutely grainy to some users. Most dont even notice this at all. I use a 12 inch screen for my powerbook and I enjoy it very, very much. I think 12 inches is the perfect size for portability, though if I were to use a laptop as my main machine, Id definitely go for the 14 inch iBook with whatever processor speed level you can afford.

I believe that Apple will only grant educational discounts to persons who are ordering from the designated Apple page for that country. Therefore you should go through the Japanese Apple website. Don't worry, all of Apple's websites are the same, this is just country specific.