I hope this guy who loves Dell computers so much will have to pay with higher taxes to support unemployment for the soon to be laid off 3000 Dell employees. Often my friends tell me there is no difference between my M3 bimmer than their Mustangs. Oh those who comment about Apple who havn't a clue...

Please. The iBook II blows away anything else the education market can get its hands on - I re-priced sell etc., and the iBook still comes out on top. Plus the simplicity of wireless? You now have a killer portable for just over $1K. It'll last 5 years, and that means $200 per pupil expenditure increase to give every kid a 'book. Sheesh. Get real, I've been teaching with computers since the PDP-11, and this is tops so far. Steve - go run the numbers again and realize that you now have a TiBook for $1500 less and all you lost was the wide screen, G4 acceleration and a PC card slot... Keripes.

School computers are being purchased by the wrong people for the wrong reasons so it's no surprise that Dell's and Microsoft's slick marketing is successful. School children do NOT need to learn Windows, MS Office, AppleWorks, or any other computer software. They need to learn how to think in both logical and creative ways.
The saddest thing about the increased prevalence of computers in the classroom is that many children are learning less than they did when there were only 10 computers in the whole school. In the early 1980s students were taught how to use organized thinking and technology to accomplish a goal. Students learned simple programming concepts like taking a structured approach to problem solving and then applied those concepts in producing HyperCard stacks or BASIC programs. With HyperCard in particular students were free to express themselves creatively with layout, graphics and font choices. Today there are school districts with very low student to computer ratios who use the machines for nothing more intellectually stimulating than Microsoft Word. That's pathetic.
Any parent, teacher or school executive who thinks that children need to learn Microsoft products in order to function in the 21st Century needs his or her head examined. What children need is somebody to help them learn how to think for themselves, to express themselves and to use their brains to solve problems. A computer is merely a tool.

This is a rough quantification of the specs review on smalldog.com... 43% better, 14% cheaper!

Processor was 366 or 466 MHz is 500 MHz +20%
RAM installed was 64MB is 64 0%
Expansion RAM max was 256MB is 512MB +100%
Total RAM max was 320MB is 576 or 640MB +100%
Optical drive 6X DVD-ROM is 8X DVD-ROM +33%
Display was 12.1-inch is 12.1-inch 0%
USB ports was 1 is 2 +100%
Built-in speakers was 1 is 2 +100%
Built-in microphone was No is Yes +100%
Video out was Composite is Composite 0%
RGB "VGA" connector 0%
Li-ion battery was 50-watt is 42-watt -16%
Weight---was avg 6.7 lbs is 4.9 lbs +27%

Average feature change? 43% INCREASE
Price was $1499 is $1299 14% DROP

Why is MacNN giving him page 1 coverage?

Where else would they put him?

It's the price that matters.

The unfortunate reality of today's world is that, although people will care a great deal about style, features, and usability, price always comes first.

Schools have limited budgets. Even if Apple's prices are at an all time low, it still doesn't excuse the fact that PCs in general are priced lower. Although Macs are exponentially better, PCs are more affordable. We all have our wants and needs. A school may want Macs, but in the end, they need computers, and you can't discount the PC as an option. For example, if you're a cash strapped college student who needs a new bed, you may want the nice bed, but are only able to afford the barely usable bed. But remember, you need a bed. Of course, you have to buy the "economy" bed.




Biases aside, Steve Wood has made a point. Price matters, and Apple should remember that. As a business, Apple needs sell their products to as many people they can, and that includes education. Maybe Wood is implying that Apple should make another Mac LC. Yes, the LC lacked several features, but it was cheap. That's why there are so many LCs in schools today.

whatever the pricing is, there will be some narrow sighted 50-plus ones who would complain about the price.

what, Apple should have given those iBooks for free? even then, those people would have found something. makes me laugh...

(*snip*) What good is a computer if the teacher can't use it and the walls around it are crumbling?

Who needs walls when you have Airport ...?

--gdw

If we are to follow the logic of Steve Wood, all of education is so poor, that now computer companies must lower their prices to levels where you can barely buy a color Palm PDA. Maybe that is what Steve Wood needs! A color Palm PDA to run Accererated Reader - a program by the way with plenty of faults all its own.

Some educators think a stripped down version of a computer that has no wireless, no Firewire type connectivity, no networking, but runs Windows is going to save schools. Or that on the Dell web site, you can configure a comparable laptop to the iBook. Hey, I just spent hours as technology coordinator trying to build a comparable machine to the old iBook, and when I was done, the Dell cost just as much. The new iBook simply can NOT be beat for value when you put the features all together in one box.

Steve Wood may want more for his money, but no other laptop manufacturer is doing better than Apple. Steve needs to retire and get our of education; his opinions as published on the web really do a disservice to teachers as a whole.

...until retirement day. Then he can whine about the bad service at Wal-Mart. Things were better in his day, y'know.

He's a waste of electrons. So's this.