Possible iBook Replacements
My counterpart’s iBook’s display has had a couple of ominous backlight flickers recently. Her backlight has failed before (just like my old iBook’s did—damn you, Apple) but that was when the machine was still covered by AppleCare, so she was able to get it repaired free of charge. It’s out of that coverage now, so there is some concern as to what the best course of action should be, in the event of another backlight failure.
She’s been looking forward to getting a new machine, but as there was no pressing need, we were waiting for a couple of things—better financial circumstances, and the Intel switch.
But the purchasing schedule may be pushed forward by hardware failure. We have a few options:
- Pay Apple to fix it.
- Pay someone else to fix it.
- Try to fix it ourselves.
- Hook it up to a monitor and use it as a sort of ghetto desktop.
- Buy a new iBook.
- Buy a new something else.
The “something else” would almost certainly be a Mac Mini, in the interest of cost savings. Miss J tends not to move her computer around a lot (unlike my rather nomadic tendencies), so a desktop is theoretically feasible, but she really likes using a portable. Also, her desk is very small, and there’s concern over where she would put a desktop machine with its attendant keyboard, monitor, and mouse. Still, the cost makes it attractive. (Also, I think Minis are really cool.)
So I’m soliciting thoughts. What do you, the viewers at home, think?
This is a good opportunity to point out that not only are comments back on, you can now register if you want to receive email updates when someone replies to your comment, LiveJournal-style. Additionally, I may enable user icons and other such boons for registered users. Registration is completely optional, and you can still comment without registering.