New Macbook Pro

Synlor · Post by **Synlor** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:43 pm

Well, the laptop I had been using for a few years, a Dell Inspiron 8200, finally was too much of a hassle to put up with. The power connector inside was loose so I had to open it up every 2 or 3 weeks to resolder it. The battery would die after about 10 minutes, and the last straw was the screen. It got stepped on.... long story, and so there were black streaks all across the screen making it quite fun to try and read something.So my parents gave me my graduation present a bit early, a brand new Macbook Pro. It was the lowest end model of the Pro Series, but I upped the memory to a gig and the hard drive to 100 gigs, and using the student discount it was still slightly less than $2000, plus a free ipod for my mom to use.

I defiantly am loving it now though. Its taking a bit to get used to the new interface and such, but its defiantly a lot easier to use than any windows box. Everything just worked straight out of the box, no configurations, no hassles, only easy computing. So now I am in the process of getting all my music and such copied over, but its definatly a great experiance. So far I would have to recommend to anyone looking for a new laptop to get a Mac.

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 5:53 pm

OMG N00B MACS SUCK

KTHNX

Smurph · Post by **Smurph** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:36 pm

I built my 3GHz P4 w/ 2GB DDR2-667 & ATi RX800GT for about $700.

Oh wait. We're talking about laptops, aren't we?

Nemesis · Post by **Nemesis** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 6:53 pm

MulletMan13 wrote:OMG N00B MACS SUCK

KTHNX

MKE · Post by **MKE** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:05 pm

i really want a mac, but i wont get a laptop. i'm still very please with mine (check sig for specs)

and i wont be useing it as a "hard core" mac user, i want one so i can get familiar with it and stuff. i've tried installing it on my laptop, but that's as far as that went. ill probably end up with a mac mini or something...

but if all the reviews are right, that's one hell of a machine you gots there.

are you going to dual boot windows?

Post by **|darc|** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:15 pm

Same experience here with my MacBook. Really, with Macs being on Intel nowadays, I don't see any reason to buy a normal PC unless you need to buy a sub-$1000 machine more powerful than the mini.

DaMadFiddler · Post by **DaMadFiddler** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:17 pm

Welcome to the club. The MacBook Pro, while a bit overpriced, is a very nice piece of hardware. Respectable specs, good design, and a lot of smart little features you wouldn't even think of (like the external battery meter, magnetic power connector, and spring-loaded latch) that just make it that much nicer.

If I wanted a desktop, I'd build it myself from components...but if you want a laptop, the MacBook Pro is one of the best you can get. Apple knows how to make a good laptop.

And if you ever decide you've made a mistake by switching, there's always BootCamp.

As a longtime PC user (since MS-DOS 5, in fact), I'm very very happy with it. It's not as customizable as a PC, either on the hardware or the OS end, but the trade-off is that it runs very very smoothly and without most of the hiccups you're used to on a PC.

Two things that might take some adjusting at first:
- a lot of hotkeys are the same as Windows, but you use the Apple key instead of CTRL in the button combo
- copying works differently. If you copy a folder to a location where a folder with that name already exists, it doesn't merge them the way Windows does. It replaces the old folder with the new one. Beware of that one.

DaMadFiddler · Post by **DaMadFiddler** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:21 pm

Also, sad as it is to admit, Intel has finally put itself legitimately back in front of AMD. The Core Duo and Core2 Duo are both excellent products, both in terms of performance and in power consumption. The new Intel chips absolutely spank the Athlon 64x2, and AMD is (sadly) fast losing ground on the price-to-performance value as well.

It'll be interesting to see what the future holds.

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:44 pm

DaMadFiddler wrote: As a longtime PC user (since MS-DOS 5, in fact), I'm very very happy with it. It's not as customizable as a PC, either on the hardware or the OS end, but the trade-off is that it runs very very smoothly and without most of the hiccups you're used to on a PC.

Really? I find it so much easier to automate and customize certain things and activities with Automator, Applescripts and various other sudo commands... if you're talking GUI modification there are also options for that too... please explain?

Oh and I was kidding in my earlier post. So the person that quoted me is a douchebag.

Congratulations, and it's always a good thing to see another Mac user pop up =)

Feel free to ask any questions or for advice in the Mac forum.[/b]

Synlor · Post by **Synlor** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:03 pm

I don't know if I am going to dual boot yet, I may have to for some of my PIC mcu stuff. I did see an article on slashdot for a wine like piece of software for OS X thats in a beta now, so I'll look into that first.

The hardest part is not having a right click option, but I think those are easily replaced from hotkeys from what I can see. I very rarely used them in Windows so I'll have to learn some soon here.

My favorite little feature is the little mini remote or whatever they call it. Thats gonna be great just to set up some background music easily. Plus its pretty cool just to see it swirl in and out and mess around... I'm easily amused...

Post by **|darc|** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:11 pm

Synlor wrote:The hardest part is not having a right click option, but I think those are easily replaced from hotkeys from what I can see. I very rarely used them in Windows so I'll have to learn some soon here.

People criticise Apple for only having a single button on the laptops, but really, you don't need that single button *at all*.

Go to Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard and Mouse > Trackpad. Check off "Use two fingers to scroll," "Allow horizontal scrolling," "Clicking," "Dragging," and "Tap trackpad using two fingers for secondary click."

After doing that, single-finger tap clicks of course, but two-finger tap right-clicks. This makes it super easy to do things. Two finger dragging scrolls horizontally and vertically. These gestures make using the laptop so much easier and smoother it's incredible.

Also, a huge advantage in multitasking can be had from hot corners. Go to Apple > System Preferences > Dashboard & Expose and set the bottom left corner to "All Windows" and the bottom right to "Desktop" (or however you like--that's how I do it). That way if you put the cursor in the bottom left corner pixel, all windows appear, and if you put the cursor in the bottom right corner pixel, the windows scatter to show the desktop. It's great.

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:25 pm

I've never been a fan of hot corners (I've had Expos? buttons mapped to my mouse), but I imagine if they would be easier to use with a trackpad... Mmmm...

And yes, there is a program out there right now (forgot the name of it) that is in beta (CrossOver I want to say?). It runs certain programs perfectly, and compatibility keeps going up. Also if you would use Windows just for programs and not 3-D Gaming, Parallels is a great alternative.... runs MUCH faster than I thought it would.

Post by **|darc|** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 8:42 pm

Yes, CrossOver Mac, a commercial WINE-based project, is in public beta. I hear it plays Half-Life fine... Hmm...

And Parallels runs at a near-native level, thought it doesn't run games.

And if all-else fails, Boot Camp isn't bad at all either.

It seems soon all Windows-on-Mac solutions (API translation, virtualization, and native dual-booting) will be near-perfected.

APE · Post by **APE** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 11:19 pm

DaMadFiddler wrote:Also, sad as it is to admit, Intel has finally put itself legitimately back in front of AMD. The Core Duo and Core2 Duo are both excellent products, both in terms of performance and in power consumption. The new Intel chips absolutely spank the Athlon 64x2, and AMD is (sadly) fast losing ground on the price-to-performance value as well.

It'll be interesting to see what the future holds.

Cut AMD some slack, the x2s are tech thats been out for quite a while where as the Intel chips are brand spankin new. Only a matter of time before they catch up or at least push Intel further again.

JellyWarrior · Post by **JellyWarrior** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 4:57 am

Wow, lucky you.

I'd really love a Mac as a new laptop but my $$$ doesn't permit, I'll probably end up going to a cheap Windows machine and invest in a Mac later on.

That scrolling / right click system sounds brilliant, if I got used to that I don't think that I'd be able to go back.

Post by **|darc|** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 9:31 am

JellyWarrior wrote:That scrolling / right click system sounds brilliant, if I got used to that I don't think that I'd be able to go back.

Yeah, it's so hard to use someone else's laptop after I'm used to the MacBook....

MulletMan13 · Post by **MulletMan13** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 11:59 am

I was under the impression that PC laptops had those trackpad features for years before Apple implemented them... am I wrong in that assumption?

Covar · Post by **Covar** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 2:42 pm

MulletMan13 wrote:I was under the impression that PC laptops had those trackpad features for years before Apple implemented them... am I wrong in that assumption?

mine doesn't. it has special sections on the touch pad for scolling, but they don't even work on a regular basis.

Post by **|darc|** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:48 pm

MulletMan13 wrote:I was under the impression that PC laptops had those trackpad features for years before Apple implemented them... am I wrong in that assumption?

I don't really keep up with the laptop market, but all I've seen are special regions of the trackpad that are specifically for scrolling (this is available too on old iBooks/PowerBooks with a 3rd party app).

CupNoodle · Post by **CupNoodle** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 3:51 pm

DEFINITELY