Some thoughts on the Macbook Pro

Half of the reason I updated this site was to post blogging entries about whatever so now I can! Anyhow last week I got an upgrade to my old TiBook. The TiBook worked out pretty well but like all things it had some issues. During it's life it had about 3 issues: -Bad pixels on the display (which were replaced courtesy of applecare) -An iffy cdrom drive -cracking on the plastic edge of the case -poor wireless reception The iffy cdrom drive wasn't so bad. Writes worked about 50% of the time, and sometimes it would get testy if I inserted media by spitting it back out at me, or it would seem to get "caught" and do the same. The second issue is what really drove me nuts because a new part for this costs $250, it also affected how the latch works causing the computer to magically unlatch itself and wake itself from sleep. Also there was the nortorious wireless reception issue. Apple had unknowingly made a virtual Faraday cage in this laptop design. You'd think they'd tested it more first. Anyhow this issue was apparently worked out in the Albooks. In spite of this I was really happy with my laptop. The first I owned. I've had the Macbook for about a week, I'd read the various reviews about it before hand. They're right in that it's fast. Anyhow here's my mini review of it since I'm probably what most would consider to be an "early adoptor". And I probably should have done the same with the TiBook when I got it as well.

Physical Aspect

The first thing I noticed is that the mac's width is about half an inch more than my old TiBook. This makes the screen look even more "cinema-like" and I'm sure the aspect ratio makes it even more suitable for playing movies on the go. It also seems a bit lighter than my old TiBook. I must say it's very nice having my ports on the side now. I know Apple has been doing this ever since their AlBook design but reaching for ports in the back was such a pain before, so it's a big relief.

MagSafe

I don't quite agree with arstechnica about the new MagSafe connector coming out too easily. Yes it comes out much easier than the previous version, but unless you're say, laying on the couch with the power cable facing the couch back, it's usually not a problem. My cat hasn't happened to unplug mine yet. The whole concept is cool how it just "sucks" the power connector in place is very cool. It also has no "upside down" which I had wondered about. Finally, the LED on the connector displaying if the battery is charged or not (green/amber) is just a pinpoint on the top and bottom of the connector and so it's much less bright than the previous one.

Rosetta vs Universal

I haven't had much of a chance to play with any big apps such as Photoshop (which I don't own anyhow). I will say that Rosetta's startup time on the old apps is just slightly slower than my old powerbook which is not so bad. Universal apps of course tend to start in about a blink's time. I've noticed that many Universal apps have their Intel portion in beta, or are not released yet. Airfoil is one of these in beta. It works great streaming iTunes to my airport, but not so good with other apps. Come to think of it, maybe it's because the other apps are powerpc only. I should do more testing on this. I've been using Firefox's nightly universal build (Deerpark) with no issues. However, Opera Preview 2 which is supposedly a universal build comes up but its networking seems to be non functional. I haven't yet had many problems with Rosetta emulated applications. IPSecuritas works great but has no status mark anymore (which was a red x or a green check mark).

Booting, Shutting Down and Sleep

Like most reviews say, the Macbook does boot up fast. I haven't bothered timing it since everyone else has but I'll be another that says it boots up sickeningly fast, shutdown usually takes some time but I'll blame this on IPSecuritas since it has caused issues shutting down in the past. I've also had a few times where the Mac won't wake from sleep. I'll end up having to shut it down when it's sleeping and boot it back up. This may be because of IPSecuritas since it also has caused issues shutting down in the past. Who knows. This problem seems fairly rare thus far.

Conclusion

This is obviously just from a week's worth of use, and I've admittedly not got much chance to use it yet, but I'm hoping my initial impression helps someone out there trying to decide whether or not to get one. My opinion is that, if you're stuck with a TiBook and have been waiting for the Intel chips, now is the time to get one. This is truely a great little laptop. If you just bought a G4 last year, I'd say wait a bit unless you've got money to burn.