Macbook, 1st impressions

— Topic: review

Update: I have posted one photo of the Macbook on Flickr: My Desktop.

If you breathe oxygen and are looking to upgrade or try something new, go get yourself a MacBook.

— Greg Storey, Airbag Industries.

So, I got my shiney new Macbook in the mail yesterday from FedEx. Actually, I had to go pick it up from their office, since they tried to deliver it to my home while I was at work. I ended up getting the white one, even though the black is cool and looks very retro. I just couldn't justify the extra cost simply for a change in color. I put that towards getting the full 2Ghz / 2GB of RAM.

Since my wife is visiting her family in Estonia, and has our camera, I won't be posting photos of the laptop or the cool packaging. Besides, there are already enough pictures of, and articles written about it. Peruse these links if you want to read other opinions and see pictures…

I just wanted to share briefly my initial impressions. So far, I have loved everything about it. It all seems very intuitive, even from the initial setup. Airport found my wireless network right away, and recognized my Bluetooth mouse without any problems. I actually chuckled while setting things up, when iSight prompted me to take a picture to represent my user account. Little did I know, this photo is used quite a bit, and ended up showing on AIM / iChat.

Another thing I like is the hardware. Call it overpriced, but Apple sure knows how to make a good computer. I went to plug in the power cord, and MagSafe snapped that puppy right into place. The sound quality of the speakers is very crisp and clear. For the life of me, I can't figure out where it's coming from, as there are not the typical perforated audio panels like most laptops have.

The keyboard is nicely laid out, and I have no complaints. Of course, having not used previous Apple laptops I have no frame of reference, but I like it. The screen, though glossy, is nowhere near as reflective as my R4000 Athlon 64 laptop. My only complaint is that it seems to have more of a reddish tint to it, but that is easily tweaked in the color profile display setting.

The Macbook is also very quiet. I had both laptops running for awhile, copying over settings for various accounts. When I shut down the Athlon, the room was unfamiliarly quiet. The tradeoff is a little more heat. I put my hand on the underside of my glass-top desk and it was noticably wamer than the PC.

While I haven't yet played around with programs, let me just say that Adium is the best instant message software on any platform, bar-none. I've got it set up running AIM, MSN, G-talk and Yahoo. The closest I found for PC in terms of simplicity and minimalism was Miranda IM. Adium blows it outta the water. Plus, the Junior Mint widget for Dashboard is a must-have. Being able to press F12 and instantly see visitor stats is so addicting. The futuristic chess program in the Big Bang set is also quite a time waster, and is very well done.

Well, I guess that wraps it up for me. I will post more on my impressions of Textmate and Studio 8 later. I'll try not to become one of those people who drools over every little Apple detail, but I'm not making any promises.

Me, elsewhere