Help with Mac software update needed....

[hackneyzoo]

I have a PowerBook G4 which is on it's last legs... I recently got an Iphone 3G and am trying to set it up.

However, I am running OS X 10.4.11, and it won't update automatically to a newer version.

I need it to update to at least 10.5.1 so I can install the latest version of itunes and set up the iphone.

It won't do it automatically for some reason, and I can't find anywhere to download the latest version manually on the apple website.

Any ideas or help would be much appreciated...

10.4 and 10.5 are different operating systems. I'm sure there's a funky name for it which escapes me for the moment but if I was running 10.4.11 I'd have had to shell out around £100 to upgrade to 10.5.1. The latest os is 10.6 (snow leopard). It doesn't sound like your PB is going to cope with that so you need to source a copy of 10.5 which is still looking pricey on ebay, sorry.

I think you have to buy it. Tiger to Panther or some such large cat upgrade.

Leopard :o

A powerbook G4 will struggle a bit with Leopard, will get very sluggish I reckon..

..if you can't afford an upgrade to a Mac with an Intel processor then make sure you have the maximum amount of RAM installed before adding Leopard...

Thanks for clearing that up...thought I might have to buy it!

Much appreciated!

Do you need the latest version of iTunes for the iPhone?

"A powerbook G4 will struggle a bit with Leopard, will get very sluggish I reckon.."

Opinions on this differ and most seem to agree that with a decent amount of memory Leopard (10.5) is a better performer on older PPC (G4) Macs than Tiger (10.4). Apple's OS's generally run counter to the trend of Microsoft's in that new releases generally perform better than old ones on the same hardware.

Memory, as said, is one exception to that and so is the graphics card. But as you've got a PowerBook you should be OK(ish) on that front.

However you might have a bit of a time finding 10.5, 10.6 is that latest release and that no longer supports G4 processors. Perhaps a hunt around on eBay...

Have managed to find a version of itunes (9.2) that will work with the iphone but doesn't need os x 10.5, so problem solved. Thanks for all the help!