Congrats on Your New 'Book
From Elaine:
Will be interested to see your response to your new MacBook. Like you, I
just upgraded but to a Black 13" Feb 2009 MacBook because I wasn't
willing to give up FireWire, which I'm happy to have if only to
troubleshoot with Target Disk Mode. I also wanted a smaller monitor to
tuck into my purse and connect at home to a 26" HDTV as my monitor when
it wasn't functioning as a TV in our family room.
I was really unhappy about the glossy monitor and planned to affix a
matte screen filter to reduce the glare. However, within a few days I
learned to tune out the visual noise of reflected images and love the
depth of color and perspective that the glossy monitor creates
. . . a very pleasant surprise.
Best of all, however, is that I love being able to use the
trackpad as a static trackball. I've become quickly hooked on tracking
just by dragging a finger in whatever direction I want to go without
having to hit the "button". In fact, when I launched my old G4
PowerBook, which my husband is now using as his iTunes radio tuner with
a complex sound system, I was frustrated the I couldn't use that
trackpad similarly. (I know there is software that allows the same
option on older 'Books, but I didn't have luck with the app.) Also
surprised at how slow the PPC 'Book is - even with 1.5 Gigs of RAM and
1.5 GHz processor.
Recently booted my WallStreet that you and I
"shared" and was dismayed to see how clunky that trackpad is by
comparison. It is still usable for browsing and correspondence but way
too slow now that I'm accustomed to better.
Bottom line, enjoy your new Mac, and may it serve you as well as
your others.
Best regards,
Elaine
Hi Elaine,
Thanks for your comments.
I'm liking the MacBook a lot so far. Still getting it
configured and set up for production use. The glossy display is easy to
like. I think I would still prefer matte given my 'druthers, but this
one will be no hardship as far as the glossy goes, although going down
to a 13" 1280 x 800 with take some getting used to. On the other hand,
I used a 12" iBook
for production for three years before switching up to the 17" PowerBook, and Leopard
Spaces makes working on smaller monitors much more convenient and
livable.
I'm still partial to the responsiveness of my Pismo's (and the old
WallStreet's) trackpads compared with the 17" PowerBook's or this
newfangled one in the MacBook. I'm not enchanted with the buttonless
idea, but I'm getting on to it. I expect I may get used to the gestures
as well, although I'm inclined to use a mouse and external keyboard for
production work anyway, with the 'Book on a laptop stand, so it may
take me a while.
It is hard to go back after getting used to more
speed, although I love the feel of the Pismos so much I'm fairly
content to live with the slower performance for light-medium duty stuff
and portable work.
Charles
Forgot that the newer MacBooks have the buttonless trackpad, which I
didn't much like when I tried it either.
However, give yourself some time with two fingers on the trackpad,
and you'll find yourself doing something like what I did last week at
the Apple Store: trying to give a two-finger stroke on the table below
the keyboard to move down the open window on the monitor. When I use my
old G4 'Book now, I get irritated that I can't scroll vertically and
horizontally on its trackpad.
Love My Refurb iMac
From Ken:
Charles,
I can't believe you'll finally have an Intel Mac, and one of the
current models even....
I bought an Apple Store refurb myself about one year ago, Feb.
2008.
My first Intel Mac. But it's a white 17" Intel iMac
released in 2006. It's has Core 2 Duo at 2.0 GHz with discreet
graphics, so it should remain viable for many years. It was quite an
excellent buy for $849. I actually wanted the smallest iMac, because I
have a favorite 1600 x 1200 display attached to it as my main display;
I use the iMac's display as secondary. I suppose I use my iMac same way
you might use your MacBook if you connected it to an external display.
It was my way to get around the lack of a BYOD Mac model between the
Mac mini and Mac Pro. In terms of bang-for-buck, it's the best Mac I
have ever owned (by far).
Anyways, I hope your refurb works as well as mine has for the past
year.
- Ken
Hi Ken,
Thanks for the good wishes.
So far, so good. I'm gradually getting it set up and
configured as time permits. It's a gorgeous machine. Glad I went for
the Unibody.
Charles
Sound Problem with Unibody MacBook Pro
From Chris:
Hello Charles,
I read your
article on LEM and saw you had ordered a Unibody MacBook.
These MacBooks are amazing little machines, and they're mighty
quick. You dodged quite the bullet by not going to the plastic
MacBooks. They aren't very durable, as my old MacBook's palmrest kept
cracking.
But the point of my email is that I wanted to drop a warning about
the Unibody MacBooks/Pros. I just bought a 15'' MacBook Pro (of
the unibody variety), and it's been nothing short of amazing, but a day
after I bought it, it suffered from a strange problem. After I had
plugged my iPhone's earbuds into the headphone connector, it had gotten
stuck into Digital Out mode! The internal speakers were completely
dead, and the MBP would only output to whatever was connected to the
headphone jack. Nothing plugged in? No sound at all. Volume controls
disabled completely. (If you're a YouTube kind of person, I did make
a video of the
whole thing.)
Apple replaced my computer twice for this same exact problem. I'm
now on my third replacement MBP, and so far, all is well.
I'm pretty sure your MacBook will perform admirably and will
probably not suffer from this problem. But I thought I'd just like to
point it out. The headphone jacks on the MBP's are quite flimsy. I'm
not so sure about the MacBooks, but since they are built very
similarly, I wouldn't imagine there'd be much difference between the
two.
I hope you enjoy your MacBook! May it be free from any problems that
I have experienced.
-Chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the report. Something to look out for. It
would be good to hear if others have had the same issue or if you've
had a run of exceptional bad luck (doubtful).
I imagine the same jack is in the MacBooks. Shades of
the wretched AC adapter jacks that kept coming adrift from the PowerBook 5300 logic board. plus ca
change, plus c'est la meme chose. I'll try to be gentle plugging in
earphones.
I'm enjoying the MacBook so far, but of course it's
early days yet.
Charles
Welcome to Macintel
From Craig
Saw the "great unveiling" of the Unibody refurb. Hope you enjoy the
new system, and welcome to the Mac-Intel camp. My Black MacBook is my
workhorse, and it works well even with the "vampire video". With more
and more time being done with non-CAD related info, a netbook is my
likely next machine. Even if it is a "hackintosh".
Grace and Peace
Craig
Hi Craig,
Thanks! It's a lovely little machine.
Can't argue with your reasoning on the netbook. Apple
really needs a machine like that. I'll be discussing the prospects in
my 'Book Mystique column on PBCentral today.
Best,
Charles
Pismo 1 GB RAM Question
From Christopher:
Hello, Mr. Moore,
In your recent Compleat Guide to the
PowerBook G3 Pismo, when referring to the Pismo's maximum RAM
specs, you made a statement to the effect that "there are some minor
limitations that adhere with 1 GB of RAM installed." Would you
elaborate on this, please? I've never heard of any issues with that
configuration, and several Google searches turned up no problems or
limitations that I could find.
Having another 512 MB module already on the way from a reputable
vendor to match the other one in my Pismo which works beautifully, I'd
sure like to know!
Thank you, and I always enjoy reading your columns.
Sincerely,
Christopher
Hi Christopher,
The limitation, and it's a relatively minor one, is
that Apple declined to officially recommend more than 512 MB of RAM due
to concern that the internal PRAM battery would not be up to supporting
more live memory than that during battery swaps.
I've been running 640 MB in my Pismo for years and
have been able to swap batteries just fine, but your mileage may vary.
I've never heard this cited as a serious problems by Pismo users, many
of whom are running 1 GB of RAM.
Thanks for reading.
Charles
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