Powerbook Upgrade? Is it possible?

Maybe Deker can help me out on this one. But I just bought a Powerbook from a friend and it was purchased back in June and still has a 3 year Apple Care Warranty. I was wondering if Apple allows an upgrade to the newer powerbooks as it has a higher resolution and you get more space, as in the 17". The site states you get about 36% more space and 1.7 million pixels.

I was just wondering if there's a program by Apple that allows you to upgrade or trade in another unit and pay the difference. Any help on this would be great.

Cheers!

No we don't have a trade-in program on powerbooks. You can recycle an iPod and get 10% off a new one, but there isn't a program like that for Powerbooks. Your best bet would be selling it and using the cash to buy a new one.

Deker, thanks for your reply man. This is my first powerbook purchase and although it's used it was only used for 8 hours of class time and this guy sold it. It's the 17" 1.67Ghz with 1G memory and an 80Gig HD. I'm just wondering if there's that much of a difference to buy a new one considering this is my first.

I've never had a mac before and I was looking at the apple site last night and checking out their training but I think they offer a class at the local store in our area to get used to the system, not sure though, I'll have to check it out.

But this was too good of a deal to pass up and so I took it. I'm just wondering if there's a major difference in how the screen looks and if it's worth selling this one and buying a new one from the store. If I did do that, does the apple care warranty transfer over to the new unit? I have tons of questions on how all this works, from the company to the product, but I'll be researching the web to see what I can find.

Thanks again for your time, I appreciate it.

Cheers!

The new 17" is the same processor speed as the old one, so there is no upgrade there. It does have a 120gb hard drive though, DDR2 RAM, and a dual layer DVD burner though. And of course the new screens, which are definitely a lot higher resolution than the previous one. The new 17" has the same resolution as one of the 20" cinema displays.

Every Apple store has free classes that you can attend, just go to www.apple.com/retail and pick the store close to you and there will be a schedule on there.

Also checkout www.apple.com/support/mac101/

You can't transfer the applecare to another computer, but you can transfer it to another owner, so if you sold it, it would be a big plus for the buyer.

Deker, thanks for the info. I did look up the mac101 online teaching guide, just to get a look at this ahead of time. The powerbook I bought won't get here until Tuesday so until then I'll have time to think about it.

The 120gb hard drive is tempting along with the DDR2 RAM and a dual layer DVD burner. But man, that means I'm going to fork out more cash and I already paid for this one and I've saved over $700 dollars and it has the 3 year apple care warranty on it.

I'm not sure what to do, I'm just pretty excited that I finally got a mac coming and although I have no clue about the OS I'm ready to learn it.

One more thing. How does the warranty transfer to another owner? I mean is it by the serial number or how does it work? Thanks again for your time, I knew you'd have some answers.

Cheers!

To transfer it to another owner you have to send a letter to the Applecare office, with a copy of the original receipt and stuff, and give the name and address of the new owner. It is then stored on file with the serial number of the machine.

If it was me, I would keep what you have. The RAM is DDR2, but it still runs at 333mhz for some reason, so it's not a huge speed increase. The screen is nice, but you can always hook it up to an external monitor and run dual. The 120gb hard drive is nice, but it's much easier and cheaper to just buy an external drive. And you can also get an external Dual Layer DVD burner for less than $200. And those discs are so expensive right now, you probably wouldn't want to use them anyway. Much cheaper to just make 2 regular DVDs.

I'm sure you'll love what you have, and it'll be enough for you. This last upgrade really wasn't that impressive, and you're not missing a lot. I wouldn't worry about upgrading again until the Intel ones come out, whenever that is.

The hardest thing about learning OSX is that you're going to over complicate everything. Trying to do something simple you'll start looking for a dialog box or menu setting, and you'll end up just needing to drag and drop something somewhere.

Deker, thanks for your answer man. I was already wondering what I was going to do, but if you see the PC I'm running now, I'll have more than enough to work with on the mac I'm getting. It will be enough and thanks for your reponse, it's put me at ease.

So now that I've bought this mac and had it shipped, the guy needs to contact Apple about the transfer of the warranty right? Or can I walk into the store and do it?

This is what I got right here, just in case you care to take a look at it:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5829352021

This guy is cool, and he was a student and only used it for 8 hours total time. Now he's sold it and I took it. What do you think? It arrives tomorrow, so I'm waiting for it and I hope I don't go crazy looking for a dialog box or pop up screen :D

But I plan on taking a class at the store to get some hands on with the system, but I'm pretty excited about this one man.

Cheers!

dude, it looks gorgeous, i'm drooling here

enjoy it, and ask away if you've got any q's...

chris

Chris,

You really think it looks that good. Man I really wanted the new one with the higher screen resolution, but I think I was just being picky. Deker set me straight on that pretty much. Considering it's my first mac ever, I'm pretty excited and at the same time wondering if I'm going to like the switch.

It'll be used for graphic design and all that good stuff, but I'm just wondering how to run everything and learning the system.

I'll definitely have questions on this, but I'm going to go through Apple's online "mac 101" course and take a class at the store to get more into this.

And thanks for letting me know I can ask questions on this. This machine gets here tomorrow and I can't wait to open that baby up and start getting used to it. I have a friend who has been on a mac for years and knows how to work the programs as a designer but just not sure if he knows the ins and outs of the OS. He'll teach me a few things as well.

Thanks for your reply, and hopefully it'll be all I've heard it is.

Cheers!

it'll be sweet, no worries. one of my buddies has a 17" that he got about a year ago and it's gorgeous, he actually got rid of his desktop and made this his primary machine. yours will be a little faster than his and he's got no speed issues, and that screen is HUGE so the lack of extra res isn't anything you'll notice.

I've been through OS 9 (which really didn't do it for me) and have been using OS X regularly for over a year now so I'm more than happy to help you get up to speed, dek obviously knows his stuff too. it'll take you about a day to be able to sort of stumble around, after a week you'll be pretty comfortable, and in about three weeks the sun will seem to shine a bit brighter and your morning coffee will taste better ;)

chris