2 weeks with my Macbook; The pretty and the ugly

So this is basically my first Mac. I toyed around with one for a while this summer, but it went back due to the Airport causing kernal panics.

My system: 2.2 Black, upgraded w/ 3gb RAM + 7200 RPM 200gb Drive.

The good:

- It's pretty
- Excellent screen
- It's nicely sized
- OSX (Leopard) is decent. I would put it on par with Vista, not above it, however. Boots like lightening.
- Nice webcam (Photobooth)
- Itunes is native, (Always used iTunes throughout my entire PC life).
- Front Row is great

The bad:

- While OS X has a few nice parts of it, like Spaces, it isn't really revolutionary; and most importantly OS X hasn't changed the speed of my overall workflow. In fact, it's diminished it. This is due to the lack of key customizations; I can't set caps lock to Enter, or ~ (tild) to delete (Will the real delete please stand up? and not the backspace wanna be). (I pretty much work throughout with my left hand, so my right is always on the mouse).
- Bugged out; Safari that is. I've had it crash a couple times, and refuse to load Google (but all other pages). The fastest browser I've used, probably, but does still necessitate Firefox for the few pages it doesn't format properly. To be fair, Vista has a bunch of it's own bugs (that will probably cause bigger headaches).
- iPhoto pales in comparison to Picasa 2. This really sucked.
- I can't tether to my Sprint Mogul anymore. (Not in OSX anyway).
- Lack of ports (USB, real DVI out, Express Card)
- Temps are wonky at best. Sometimes it would spike for *No reason at all*. Fan would go 5k rpm when the computer is totally idling.

All in all, my overall impression has been: Buy a Macbook for the looks and the peace of mind in the components. It really doesn't do anything more than Vista will (and will often do less, requiring a BootCamped XP for instance). It's not a gamer, by any stretch of the word. (Neither is the MBP though). It isn't really faster (actually it's slower by all accounts, for the equivelent $$ you spend). But your getting a quality screen (take your chances at Dell), no headphone/sound issues (Almost guaranteed with Dell), and most importantly your OS X is pretty darned gorgeous to look at. So is the Macbook itself (and it's nice and thin).

For a sucker for pretty things, iTunes, and designer labels/name brands, it was only natural that I went Mac.

 

i agree with many of your Pros/Cons. However USB ports are really not a problem with a hub. Not to mention you bought the machine knowing it doesnt have more than 2USBs, and an expresscard slot. real DVI? im not sure the mini-dvi is any less of a port? it may be, im just not sure.

the main reason i bought the MB is because i was sick of vista. i still run an xp VM inside parallels for stuff that must use windows, but thats maybe once a week. The other main reason i bought the MB was because of the resell value. You cant beat a mac when its time to sell. Also, i missed OSX

Overall im quite satisfied, and i have yet to recieve my upgrade of 4gb ram from Frys. I bet that makes it better. i have the same specs as you otherwise.

 

Right, the lack of ports is a negative, which just seemed prudent to bring up, despite knowing about it before buying it.

Not regretting my purchase at all. There really wasn't anything else that $1500 could buy on the PC end. I really could have gone for the $999 basic white Macbook, but as for most of my things, white is an accent, not a center piece; so I paid $500 for the black paint, slight bump in speed, and Super Drive. I don't even consider the HD upgrade worth anything.

 

Just in case you don't know, if you hold down Command and press Delete, it will actually delete . Just a heads-up, and it is very helpful instead of having to drag files to the Trash all the time .

 

It's inevitable. Windows dominates the market for a reason. With Bootcamp, it's only MORE evident. Microsoft now makes money off Windows and people who buy macs and have to buy windows so they can bootcamp.

The Mac has it's uses. But it comes with it's share of bugs.

 

Windows dominates the market because Apple (back then, not led by Steve) let them. Apple was ahead, but got distracted and let Microsoft catch up and surpass them.

 

Whaaa??? Apple was never ahead of Microsoft in OS market share, except maybe before IBM launched the PC and Apple was selling Apple II computers.

Or if you mean in terms of general OS goodness, I would say that Microsoft was ahead between Windows 95 and OS X, and Apple is ahead by most measures both before and after that. But that's not enough to dominate the market.

Windows dominates the market because of hardware choice -- hardware that businesses actually want to buy (such as desktops that are not all-in-one glossy units), and lower-cost hardware which is what most consumers buy. There are some other reasons too, such as compatibility with the rest of the personal computing world, which is mostly Windows for the reasons I mentioned. These reasons are enough for most people to use Windows, even if Mac OS is a better OS overall. It was the same story with Steve Jobs' Apple in the '80s, except more exaggerated. Apple had a killer OS relative to MS-DOS, but all they sold were all-in-one machines with these awful 7" (or was in 9") black-and-white screens. I know, we had one at home... loved the OS, hated the hardware.

 

Yeah, I was talking about that era . Apple was ahead but let Microsoft pass them, and Microsoft took over nearly completely with Windows 95.

 

Congrats on post 4700

 

yea he gets bored sometimes..... jk

 

Yep, I do that.

Now the one thing I really don't understand is the "option" key. I have yet to find a use for it! Everything is either Control something, or command something, even fn something.

 

Want to find a use for the Option key? Hold down Command + Option + Control + 8 and see what happens .

And thanks AuroraS!

 

The Option key is very useful. Try it with some other keyboard shortcuts that you use regularly. [Command = Open-Apple and none of these shortcuts use the "+" key]. For example, if you have multiple windows/applications open press Command + H to hide the active window. Or you can press Command + H + Option to hide all the inactive windows.

When you drag-and-drop files they will ususally be moved. Hold Option while performing a drag-and-drop to force a copy operation instead.

You can Relaunch finder by holding the Option key and right-clicking the Finder icon in the Dock. Or you can hold Option and right-click an Application's icon in the Dock to Force-Quit. Or press Command + Option + Escape to Force-Quit.

Hold Option while double-clicking a file in Finder. The enclosing window will close.

Command + Option + M will minimize all Finder windows.

Command + Option + W closes all Finder windows.

Command + Spacebar opens "Basic" Spotlight. Command + Option + Spacebar opens "Advanced" Spotlight.

You can empty the trash by pressing Command + Shift + Delete, but you will need to confirm this by selecting OK in the dialog box. To avoid this dialog box press Command + Option + Shift + Delete. Be careful not to delete files by accident. [To send files to the Trash, select the files and press Command + Delete].

Press Control + Command + Option + Eject to immediately Shut Down your Mac.

Command + Option + Eject will put the computer to sleep. [On a similar note, Control + Eject will open the shutdown choices prompt].

Also, I typically use the Option key to select Windows during startup when I want to play a Game.

The Apple Remote has more functionality than you may think. If you hold the Play/Pause button for several seconds it will put your Mac to Sleep. Holding the Menu button during Startup does the same thing as holding the Option key. You can then choose your OS with the remote buttons and press Play to complete the boot process. Now I'm getting off-topic.

That's all I can remember right now. You can find many keyboard shortcuts here, Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts. And Sam has some additional links in the Mac Switcher's Guide Sticky.

 

Thanks for the links with all these shortcuts! I've been really annoyed with the delete button until Sam pointed out that command + delete will move the item to trash instead of dragging it every time.

Thanks again

 

how does the keyboard feel for you? i tried some laptop that has a terrible click feeling and most of the asus seems to be very good but i still prefer a regular keyboard for the amount of depth

 

Not addressed to me (I don't think ), but I have a MacBook too so I'll sound off.

I really like the MacBook keyboard. Its different, that's for sure, but its really nice. It looks nice, feels nice. Keys are kind of loud, but the feel is good. Apple hit it with this one, if you ask me.

 

i like the keyboard feel too on the MacBook. It doesn't seem as flimsy as my Acer. Overall I'm happy with the MacBook. I miss a few features from my Acer like the multi-card reader and Picasa 2.
Also, I need to get this sound problem on the MacBook fixed. Will call their support tomorrow.

 

good to know, i really hate the ones where it feels very light and require almost no pressure to depress.

OT: where did you get your macbook? im also from vancouver, bc

 

Speaking of loud... I had a class with one guy who used a Macbook to take lecture notes. I don't know if it was just him or that's how the Macbook normally sounds... but MAN were his keystrokes annoying. Click Click click all throughout class... I tried to sit as far away from him as possible

 

I didn't pay for my MacBook. I didn't steal it either . It was the prize of a web design contest hosted by the BC Superintendents Association open to high school students across the province, and I won for my category . The prize was a MacBook!

 

Wow. I never knew that. Was that when you started loving Apple, or did you have a Mac before that?

 

I started having a good impression for Apple when I got my first generation iPod Nano back in Christmas 2005 (guess you could call me part of the ones who were affected by the "iPod halo effect". I started getting interested in Macs around last Christmas (2006), but there's no way I could've got one myself (I'm famous for being broke ), but luckily I won this MacBook and got it around April and May 2007 (so really, I've owned a Mac for only about half a year right now). Its my first Mac!

 

Same here! It was a girl with long nails. She was hitting hard the keys...one at a time. I never heard keystrokes so loud before...everybody was disturbed

 

Same with my dad. He never took typing lessons so he has his own way of typing where he bangs the damn Enter key and the Space bar.

Wow your first Mac and you know so much. Haha, yeah I can see you're broke considering the fact that you still didn't get Leopard.

 

Not to mention I'm stuck with only 1 GB of RAM as well .

 

To get even more off topic on my own thread... I now bought 2 iPods in 1 week! Bought a red shuffle for the gym, and now a black Nano from Target (they have a 10% off going right now -> use BABYSALE during checkout). Seems to work for all iPods.

 

Whoa!

How do you like the Nano? I'm still deciding between a Nano or a Touch myself.

 

From your financial status, I'll have to say that you should get a nano. JK JK... The Touch indeed is cool, but I'd say it's mostly eye candy and too distracting. I mean, it's personal preference but I don't have an urge to carry Safari around with me all day long to post in these forums. The only downside to the Nano might be that it's so small you could lose it if you're someone like me.

 

The Touch is like iPhone size .. aka HUGE??!! A totally pointless product IMO, for that price, you might as well get an 8GB iPhone.

I haven't received my Nano yet, but it looks nice. I work right next to a mall with an Apple Store in it, so I get to see them a lot.