We admit it-- we were pretty skeptical about the iBook the first few times we played around with it. See, despite its curves and translucency and Bomb Pop/Creamsicle coloring, it was easy to get the impression that all we were holding was a stripped-down PowerBook in iMac clothing. While we were impressed with Apple's continuing ability to crank out consumer designs that just scream "Buy Me," we weren't sure there was anything all that revolutionary going on under the hood. After all, when you read the specs, there's nothing all that great to shout about: 300 MHz G3, 32 MB of RAM, a 3.2 GB hard drive, a 12.1" active-matrix screen, yadda yadda yadda-- a great deal at $1599, but somehow there was some sparkle missing. When we first encountered the iMac, for instance, we could look past the specifications completely because we were witnessing the dawning of a system much greater than the sum of its parts. We just didn't catch quite the same vibe off of the iBook...

...But as usual with Apple, the magic's in the details. The iBook won't be shipping for a couple of months yet, but that hasn't stopped the gnomes in Cupertino from updating the Tech Info Library with a whole slew of documents related to the laptop formerly known as P1-- just search for "iBook" and you'll uncover a virtual treasure trove of nifty facts about the system, including a wealth of details that set the iBook apart from all PowerBooks, past and present. For one thing, Apple's finally made the function keys along the top edge of the keyboard programmable. No longer are they just wasted buttons in search of a use; according to one TIL note, with the iBook, you can assign actual functions to those function keys, making them-- well, functional. F1 could launch Quicken. F5 could open a new word processor document using your company letterhead stationery. And through the magic of AppleScript, F11 could connect you to your ISP, grab your email, launch your web browser and load up your stock portfolio, and start playing a random selection of MP3s as background music so you can groove while you read.

There's plenty of other new stuff to like about the iBook, but the only other one we want to mention right now is the new way that it handles sleep and shutdown. See, one of the rumors we'd heard about the P1 was that it would have an "instant on" feature that would allow the unit to hit the ground running, becoming awake and usable in far less time than it takes a sleeping PowerBook to wake up. Based on our deliciously unscientific tests at the Expo, we don't think the iBook actually wakes from sleep any faster than a PowerBook does (though Apple claims it does), but there's one thing noted in a TIL article that we never noticed when playing around with the machine: you can actually save the state of the iBook's RAM to disk when sleeping or shutting down. What's neat about this is that the iBook can then start up and restore its state from the save file-- putting you right back into the thick of things without having to wait for extensions to load, applications to launch, etc. See? More happy improvements from the sleepless soldiers in Apple's labs. With all these fun new details to explore, we're a lot more confident about the iBook's future as an innovation, rather than just another prettied-up laptop.