Well, since I’m sitting here waiting for more “Blueberry Repeat” and wide awake I might as well clear up a few details about my Macbook.
As reported earlier, I was waiting for my glacial “expedited” delivery and none too happy about the pace. Despite what the delivery projection stated, the Macbook arrived on the 30th at about 9:00AM. I was almost too sick to answer the door, and if Michelle hadn’t alerted me, I wouldn’t have even heard them.
As it was, I hauled it into my office and left it there. It was over an hour before I had the energy to take it out of the box (and dutifully photograph the process.) Even then, the best I could manage was to boot it, hook it to the iBook and start the transfer.
Point one: I’ve never done a complete Mac to Mac firewire transfer before. It worked really well. The most I’ve done in the past is to just transfer user accounts and network settings and such. This technique certainly makes it simple to upgrade from one Mac to the next. When completed, this Macbook was virtually identical to my iBook.
Apart from booting and verifying that it connected to my network, I did nothing else with the computer. I must say, in terms of speed, it seemed like a real dog. Later that same day, my 2GB memory upgrade from Mac Ram Direct arrived. Late in the evening, I made a half-hearted attempt to install the memory, but, despite the new, easy to upgrade Macbook I couldn’t find a single philips-head screwdriver small enough to open the easy-access panel.
I figured if I couldn’t go visit my son in the hospital, I wasn’t going to go to the hardware store and buy a screwdriver. (I couldn’t have driven a car if I’d wanted to, anyway.)
Wednesday morning was quite different. I felt almost alive, and more importantly, hungry. We’d exhausted most of the food in the house over the weekend and never got to go shopping due to the medical emergency, so I foraged out for food… and a screwdriver.
Both accomplished, I came home to wait news about my boy, see if my breakfast “stayed put” and upgrade the memory. My boy is getting better, breakfast stayed down and the memory upgrade is a snap – although you do have to push the memory in quite hard before it properly snaps into place.
Point two: 512mb isn’t enough. This should come as no surprise to anybody. Once the upgrade was in place, this machine flies!
Point three: I saved enough money by not buying a black Macbook that I paid for more than half a third-party memory upgrade to 2GB.
Point four: Intel Macs are a bit disappointing. Yes. It’s fast, but, lots of my apps aren’t universal yet, and quite a few of them explode. I’ve had more app crashes today than I’ve had ever on my iBook. Yes, things will get better, but this might not present the best user experience to a new switcher.
I’ve taken my Applications folder and used label colors to indicate which apps are PowerPc only, plus I’ve created a new folder where I’ve placed programs that just don’t play at all. I’m still searching for universal or intel versions of everything I’ve got. Some apps, like Ecto (which I’m using for blogging) work just fine under Rosetta and I notice no difference over my iBook, but I also detect no improvement, either.
So, after one day’s use, here are my random observations:
Hot! This will be great in Greenland, but not so good in Arizona in July. Luckily, I don’t actually put a laptop on my lap very often.
Front Row. That’s kinda cool, but that remote is destined to be lost. I know there’s no room, but they really should have built a dock inside the case for it. It clips to the magnetic latches, but no matter how I move it, it slides over some of the screen. That’s also useless for taking it with you. I never take my camcorder remote with me for the same reason I’ll never take the Macbook remote with me, either.
Built in iSight. Wonderful. What a great idea.
Keyboard. I like it. It feels good to me, but I’ve noticed a little sore on my right index finger. I’m not sure if that’s from the new keyboard, or just a coincidence.
Size: It’s a smidgen heavier than my iBook, but smaller in virtually every other respect. It feels lighter, even if it isn’t.
Screen. Oooooo, pretty colors. And some glare, although it hasn’t bothered me yet. Nice resolution and widescreen format.
Mooooo. Yes, it moos. My initial reaction was that, if I took the computer out into the desert, at night, far, far from the sounds of any human activity and I put my ear to the keyboard, I could just hear the cow inside. (I shall hence-force call the cow, “Intelly”.) That’s not quite correct, though. I do once in a while hear it over the background noise.
“Right” clicking? Heck yes, you can finally Ctrl-click without the control key, but you have to enable to option in preferences. Holding two fingers on the trackpad and clicking does the trick.
Trackpad: Wider and rougher than the iBook. So far, I think I like it better, although, maybe that’s why my index finger is developing a sore!
BZFLAG: BZflag blows up. š The coolest game ever and I cannot run it. Come on guys! Somebody out there compile that thing for Intel!
Eject key: Dedicated eject key for the optical drive, yeah!
Battery life: Seems comparable to the iBook, but too early to tell.
I’ll post more as it occurs to me…
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