I love my MacBook. I love it more than my previous Compaq laptop. It’s so much lighter, thinner, and well, OSX is much better than Windows. The reason I went with a MacBook and not a MacBook Pro was because I didn’t want a laptop that was as large as my old one. I wanted it lightweight and compact. The problem I see now, and it’s not so much a problem as a minor annoyance, is that I miss the larger screen. My old laptop had a 17 inch widescreen. My desktop has a 21 inch widescreen, and the MacBook has a 13 inch. The only time I really need it is when I’m working on website stuff. I like to have multiple windows open, along with IRC and instant messenger, and be able to move stuff around. More screen space equals more productivity for me. With a 13 inch screen Firefox or Smultron or Transmit take up the entire screen. Oh well, I still prefer working on my MacBook to my Windows Vista machine 99% of the time and I have no regrets in buying this over the MacBook Pro. I really can’t wait for my next desktop. I do believe that will be a Mac too.
Tag Archive for: Apple
Let me start this post by saying I love my MacBook. I use it every single day and am not disappointed in my purchase in the least. In fact, unless the next Windows blows me away (or the current version of Linux out there) my next desktop computer will probably be a Mac. That being said, I just love how Apple’s mantra is (or was) It just works. I’ll give you an example that I came across yesterday of it not working.
We all know that OSX Leopard update 10.5.2 came out on Monday. I upgraded, welcoming all the new fixes and updates. They changed Stacks a bit, which is good, but I still wish they would make Stacks how it was originally supposed to be. I want to create a stack on the dock for, say, all my communication apps: Adium, iChat, Colloquy. I want to click on that stack and have it expand to show those apps. The video for stacks before Leopard came out did exactly that, then the feature was removed. This post isn’t about that though. Stacks worked for me, even if it isn’t how I want it to work. My problem was with Time Machine.
I don’t keep my MacBook hooked up to the external drive at all times. In fact, I only hook it up when I want to make a backup. After updating to 10.5.2 on Monday I decided to make a Time Machine backup. The only changes that really occurred since the last Time Machine backup were adding maybe two files to the Documents folder. So I run Time Machine and it said Preparing backup. 30 minutes later, it still said the same thing. After about 45 minutes I decide to cancel the backup and try again later. Tuesday (on my snow day) I try again. It sat at Preparing backup for an hour before I canceled it. I go do some searching on the Apple forums and find numerous other people having problems backing up since 10.5.2. One solution that a user found was erasing the drive and starting over. I figured, why not, everything is still on here, it won’t hurt to erase the disk so I can backup again. So, I do it and what do you know? Time Machine works again. So, Apple, you release updates to fix the broken and you wind up breaking more stuff. Seems like a lot of Apple things don’t just work lately. Keep it up and I’m going to start calling you Microsoft. ;)
I am by no means an Apple fanboy. I only have one Apple product, and that’s my MacBook. I will say that since I’ve gotten my MacBook, I now think all my future computer purchases will be Macs and not PCs. This has nothing to do with me being a fanboy. I just really enjoy using my MacBook and Windows Vista drives me nuts more and more each day. That being said, I have to say I was disappointed in this year’s Macworld. I was expecting much more from Apple. While I didn’t think they would actually release a tablet portable device, the thought was cool. Instead they release the MacBook Air. Excuse me while I yawn.
iPhone and iPod updates were surprising. First, the lack of a 3G 16gb iPhone upset me. I was expecting this to debut at Macworld. At least I was hoping it would. My current contract is up in April and I was hoping to maybe get an iPhone when it ended. I doubt that’s going to happen now. Especially since AT&T promised a 3G iPhone in 2008. Why would I buy one when a new one will be coming out later in the year? The only thing they did was update the firmware for the iPhone and iPod. Those were good upgrades but I can’t believe they expect people to pay $20 to update the iPod touch. That seems a bit ridiculous to be, but this is the Apple culture. The fanboys are known to pay anything that Jobs pushes, so Apple will get their $20 from thousands of fanboys.
A new Apple TV came out, but that gets another yawn from me. I’ll stick to Netflix or Blockbuster Online thank you. Overall, I thought the expo was disappointing. The one big announcement was the MacBook air. I like my MacBook as is. I don’t want to sacrifice an extra USB port and user-replaceable battery for extra thin body. Besides, I use my optical drive. No thank you to that product, especially at it’s hefty price. Oh well, there’s always next year.
More and more I find myself browsing the net using Safari. I used to loathe Safari, and on Windows I still do, but it’s starting to grow on me a bit on the MacBook. On several Windows systems I found it to be much slower than Firefox, despite Apple’s claims. In fact, Opera and Firefox were faster at launching and loading websites. The only major browser it did beat in my experiences was the horror that is known as IE7. It does run faster than Firefox on the MacBook. The things I hated about Safari before still exist; the lack of an address drop-down until you type, the lack of extension support, etc. I still use Firefox for 99% of my web browsing, but I am slowly moving to Safari for more and more casual browsing (I’m writing this in Safari now). If I am doing web work or more heavy-duty browsing, Firefox is still my number one choice, and probably will be until Apple decides to add extension support. There are a few I can’t live without.
So, I have my new MacBook, and one thing I notice about Apple users is they are just as passionate about the apps they use as they are about using Apple products. What’s funny is they will argue over what text editor is better just as fervently as they do when arguing over why a Mac is better than a PC. Based on recommendations by fellow Mac users in the #habari IRC channel, I have already begun collecting applications. So far I have Menuet, Adium, Transmit, Quicksilver, Colloquy, Firefox (of course), Smultron, and Transmission. What other applications for the Mac do I need (or you think I should have)?