After doing some searching, I found that Asante makes a 3rd party card that can be used instead of the Airport card. The Asante card is about forty dollars cheaper (shame on you Apple for gouging your loyal followers). Yet, everything I find says it's compatible with the power book.<br>Did everyone forget us iBook people? I got my G3 earlier this year and love it because nobody can come close to the battery life on this puppy. <br><br>So what's the deal? Will my search for a 3 party Airport card be in vain?<br><br>The thread killer

II think the airport card is the only solution for the ibook.<br><br><br>My Stuff

If you think those cards are overly expensive look at the airport station itself. $200?? That's more than double the competition.<br><br>

Apple has a lot of features that the competition doesn't. (Mostly for remote authentication and making big networks out of multiple stations). Also, the wireless print server is handy. The Apple Airport is definitely worth the extra money if you use those features.<br><br>

All I can say that the Airport base station is really beautiful <br><br>"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman."

I was so excited when you talked about the wireless printer feature. I downloaded the software for it....and then I see it's for the Airport Extreme. I don't gots it. <br><br>

There's no question that Apple is the one taking a bite out of us. They are way overpriced and only priming Mac users for when 3rd party stuff comes out, Apple will tank. <br><br>The thread killer

I don't know about "a lot" of features? If you have a computer on the network plugged into a printer (nearly everyone does) then the printer sharing is pretty much unnecessary. Just turn it on in the sharing preference of the wired computer. <br><br>As far as making big networks out of multiple stations, nice, but not for consumers. I'm sure its a quality item, but for people who want one for their house its way overpriced for what it does. (IMO)<br><br>

You're right. Apple should offer an Airport base station with the minimal options for cheap. Like an "eMac" base station.<br><br>"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman."

I can't say I agree with where this line of thinking is going. Apple stuff is expensive but if the product is good and it makes it through several iterations the price does come down eventually. But until then you and I are carrying the whole load.<br><br>What do you expect. Apple's total market share (less than 5 percent) is also their customer base.<br><br><blockquote><font size=1>In reply to:</font><hr><p>Apple should offer an Airport base station with the minimal options for cheap. Like an "eMac" base station.<p><hr></blockquote><p>See? I don't subscribe to thinking like this. I hear this same comment for a number of Apple products and it's flawed thinking. <br><br>First you never dumb down your products to justify lowering the price. It takes that much longer to recoup the investment. Which also means other programs stall or get double-tracked awaiting signatures or funding.<br><br>We know we pay a premium for Apple products but I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't mind paying for Apple's R&D. <br><br>I have owned a ][, ][e, Mac128, the SE, the SE/30, IIvx, the 9600, the beige G3, and now the Dualie, and everyone cost in excess of 2500-3100 dollars or more. <br><br>I bought the first color printer ever manufactured. An apple dot-matrix product that cost me 600 dollars! Expensive? Definitely! Was I justified in buying it? My customers thought so. Back in 1986 I was creating color signage on a black & white Mac and no one within 200 miles could duplicate what I could with my Apple products.<br><br>My point is is that in each case I was accomplishing more with my Apple products than anyone I knew. Nobody had a feature set that came close to my computers; the first color computer, the first floppy, the first hard drive, the first CDROM, and even today with my Dualie that is already a year old I'm still miles ahead of the nearest PC. That's not to say that PC's aren't equipped with state-of-the-art products, 'cause they are, but they're after market additions and not factory equipped.<br><br>Admit it, you all have stories about your shining moments where you were allowed to show off your work or how smart you were because you bought the best computer on the planet.<br><br>What do PC folks have to brag about? The largest selection of games, M$, the largest selection of games, Dell, the largest selection of games, oh, and the largest selection of games.<br><br>Did I mention the largest selection of games?<br><br><br><br>"640K ought to be enough for anybody." - Bill Gates