The Apple iBook has become a de facto institution. The new Apple iBook G4 comes with a 12 inch screen, features the sleek Apple styling, and performs wonderfully in all kinds of conditions. The battery life for the G4 is very impressive; you can play a three-hour movie and still retain enough battery life to write a full term paper on the computer. Students and educators can get the new G4 for about $1,000 through Apple's education discounts.

Inside the G4, you'll find an ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 graphics card, the so-called Tiger operating system, and a host of other exciting programs, including QuickTime, iDVD, iTunes, Apple Works, and iPhoto. Reviewers suggest that G4 buyers should upgrade to higher RAM. Spend an extra hundred dollars to get 512 MB standard, so you can run programs simultaneously.

The G4 also shines under the hood. The system comes standard with a FireWire port, two USB ports, an Ethernet port, a modem, and a DVD CD-RW drive. In addition, the standard wireless card--the Extreme 802.11 g.--can create a PAN of at least 150 feet. Thus, if you're playing in an LAN game tournament or you just want to access your e-mail while at Starbucks, the iBook should more than do the trick.

Best of all, this iBook is simple to tote around. It's lightweight, and you don't have to worry about changing the battery every few hours, like you do with some notebooks (even old Apple iBooks). Bear in mind that the G4 is a practical machine--it's not meant as a hard-core gaming notebook or as a presenter's laptop.