On May 16, 2006, the seven-year production run of the iBook line of laptop computers was coming to an end. Taking its place was the MacBook, which signaled the transition of manufacturer Apple to a different semiconductor company for its central processing units. Although the transition was the main highlight in the press release announcing the computer's arrival, processor technology was not the only difference between the MacBook and iBook.
Processor and Operating System
At the time Apple discontinued the iBook, the computer was sold as the iBook G4. The model is named after its single-core PowerPC G4 processor, which has a clock speed of 1.33 GHz or 1.42 GHz. The MacBook that replaced the iBook has a processor from Intel, the world's foremost CPU manufacturer. The brand is named Intel Core Duo, due to its dual-core manufacture. Because it has two processors on one chip, the Core Duo has twice the processing power of the G4. It also has a faster clock speed, at 1.83 GHz or 2 GHz. Although both computers run the Mac OS X software, the iBook G4 uses 10.4 Tiger, while the original MacBook uses the newer 10.6 Snow Leopard.
Manufacture and Measurements
The original MacBook carried over the polycarbonate and fiberglass casing Apple used on the iBook G4. However, the MacBook is thinner, wider and heavier. Weighing 5.2 pounds, it has a width of 12.78 inches, height of 8.92 inches and a thickness of 1.08 inches. The iBook is 11.2 inches wide, 9.06 inches high and 1.35 inches thick, and it has a weight of 4.9 pounds. The iBook is available as a 12- or 14-inch model, while the MacBook only comes as a 13-inch model.
Memory and Drives
Although the iBook and MacBook have 512MB of pre-installed RAM, the former uses the first-generation DDR SDRAM standard, while the latter uses the faster DDR2 SDRAM specification. Also, while the iBook can accomodate up to 1.5GB in memory expansion, the MacBook accommodates up to 2GB. Hard drive configuration on the iBook is 40GB on the 12-inch and 60GB on the 14-inch, with a spindle speed of 4,200 rpm. The MacBook comes with 60GB or 80GB of storage; the hard drive spins at 5,400 rpm.
Apple introduced the iSight video camera to the MacBook for video conferencing and recording. Also, for connecting a monitor, Apple gave the MacBook a Mini-DVI digital port instead of the analog VGA port on the iBook. As part of the transition to Intel, Apple replaced the iBook's ATI Mobility Radeon graphics processor with the Intel GMA 950, which uses twice as much RAM. The iBook can support up to 1,024 by 768 pixels in display resolution; the widescreen display of the MacBook surpasses it with 1,280 by 800 pixels.
The MacBook retains the wired and wireless networking capabilities of the iBook. Connectivity on both computers consist of an Ethernet card for wired networking, and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR technology and built-in AirPort Extreme card for wireless networking. However, while iBook Ethernet peaks at 100 megabits per second in data transfer, MacBook Ethernet has a maximum rate of 1,000 Mbps.
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