Easily Swayed by Steve

I think I’ve written here before about needing a new laptop. My PowerBook is pretty ragged after three years, although I attribute this to its design rather than any excessive punishment by me. The screen connection is faulty at the hinge, and half the display goes black if the lid is opened at a certain angle; the backlit keyboard hasn’t worked for a couple years; the case is warped and in one place completely bent; the aluminum is black and pitted at the wrist rest where my obviously corrosive wrist… well, rests. And the top of the case (where the keyboard is) is separated from the body.
I had hoped to pick up a new iBook by now, but Apple still hasn’t released one. I’m kind of stuck at a crossroads here — the only “new” technology they’ve released in their laptop line since I bought mine (when it was first introduced) is the MacBook Pro, which I’ve not been a huge booster of.
Nevertheless, I was talked into buying one. It was a tough decision, but I realized that I do need a new one, and I do use it for business more than I thought now that I travel more. I got a decent developer discount, so that helped me; I also decided on the low end model rather than the top of the line… to help the bottom line, of course.
Just as an aside, because of some problems with an Apple rebate program that didn’t get solved, I walked away with a free iPod HiFi in the deal, which was nice — mostly because it’s something I wouldn’t have bought for myself in the first place.
Anyway. My impressions of the MacBook Pro (aside from its harsh-sounding and inelegant name — I still call it my PowerBook) after 6 hours:

Pro

• It seems a bit lighter and thinner than my original 15″ Aluminum PowerBook. (My PowerBook is an original model.)
• The screen has significantly more real estate; although I gather that it has less than the immediately preceding PowerBook version.
• The infrared sensor on the front is smaller and less intrusive than it appears in the product photos.
• Front Row is amusing for a few moments.
• Battery life seems to be a bit better than my original PowerBook. I haven’t timed it precisely, but I’d say that during my first use, the battery lasted about 4 hours. Of course, the original was supposed to last that long, but mine only lasts 3 at best.
• The magnetic power cord is brilliant! Since I trip over the cord a few dozen times per day, this should be perfect — plus, you no longer need to peer at the side of the laptop to connect the cord — just hold the plug near the side, and the magnets seize it and attach it.
• The trackpad is wider, and I like it. I don’t know why.
• The two-finger scrolling function is already like second nature after a few hours. I used to keep my finger on the down arrow key to scroll through web pages; now using two fingers to scroll is ingrained. It sort of feels like a trackpad version of the Mighty Mouse. I wouldn’t be surprised if a future software update adds right-click capability in the same way.

Cons

• Again, that case design. So many people call it beautiful, but I am not a big fan. I think that moving from the ultra-thin Titanium with its lack of ornamentation to the more complicated aluminum case was a mistake. I’ve had nothing but trouble with the aluminum case, the worst being the warping of the lid and the pitting of the aluminum. Yes, this MacBook has a warped lid as well; like the PowerBook, the right side sits higher than the left — enough that the rubber feet on that side of the screen never come in contact with the main body. It is not as pronounced as the warp on my PowerBook, but then again, it wasn’t that bad when I first got it years ago, either. I feel sure that this is because of the latch in the middle and the tension on the hinge. Still, if they had used a more rigid material to build it, this wouldn’t be an issue. As for the pitting, I’m afraid that my body chemistry isn’t likely to change so I may need to cover the wrist rests with some kind of plastic or something. The very rounded corners of this case make it appear thicker — more bulbous — than it really is; the magic of the Titanium was its thinness which was accentuated by its sharp corners.
• I always buy into the “blazing speed” claims, and then get disappointed. I don’t perceive any speed increase on the MacBook Pro (1.8ghz dual core) over my PowerBook (1.25 ghz single core). And I’m talking about system responsiveness, Finder work, and Universal applications. On the plus side, so far it doesn’t seem like PowerPC apps running in Rosetta are any slower than the previous PowerBook. So, we’re status quo on that.
• I can’t seem to get Windows Media and Real Player Safari plugins to work. Do plugins have to be Universal?
• The sound is terrible. The sound out of the right speaker is too loud and distorted. It sounds broken.
• There is a high frequency whine coming from the thing, and I can’t figure out what it is. If you’re in a quiet room working with no music or TV it will give you a headache. Or at least, it gives me a headache. I’ve read lots of complaints about this, with various fixes including turning on and off the built-in camera. This didn’t seem to work for me. I think it might be the processor, because the whine stops for a moment when you move the mouse or update a window — like, scrolling in Safari. If you stop working for a minute or so, the sound stops… until you interact with the laptop again, and it comes back. I really hope Apple comes up with a fix for this soon, and that it doesn’t require every MacBook owner to box it up and send it back.
• Now that I do a bit more traveling than I used to, I wish this had a modem. I don’t want to spend yet another $50 for an add-on that I have to carry around. True, a lot of places now have wi-fi and Airport is a built-in feature now (no longer optional)… still, why would I pay $30 a day to get highspeed in a hotel room when all I want to do is check my email?
• Lastly, and I’m not sure if this is a pro or a con, it’s not distinctive. It is exactly like my original PowerBook from the case on down, with just little tweaks. Like most Mac fans, I look forward to a completely new design every once in a while. Still, I suppose that Apple made this decision to ease people through the Intel transition — it certainly keeps your mind away from the fact that there is a completely new architecture inside the computer when the outside and the interface is exactly the same.

So, what do we have? Seven cons, eight pros. All in all, getting a MacBook Pro was not a big, exciting event. It feels pretty lackluster and utilitarian to me, and the switch has been made with little fanfare or excitement in my house. I do admit that the price was much better than when I bought the last one — I spent about $700 less than three years ago, so that’s progress.

iPod HiFi
I’ve only just plugged this in in the last hour, but of course I have some complaints. First off, it is huge and heavy. I can’t fit this thing on my living room shelves as it is, but with an iPod dock on the top you need to have another five inches of clearance. It is way too bassy, turns out it doesn’t even have a tweeter. And disappointingly, the remote doesn’t have new capabilities with this device — you still can’t control the iPod other than volume and next/previous song. You can’t navigate to another playlist. So, you must get up and go over the iPod and control it manually.
This said, since I didn’t have to pay for it, it was a bargain and I’ll use it here and there. It was pointed out to me that this would be great to use in the backyard when loaded up with batteries. Judging from the volume, people will be able to hear it up and down the street. Party!

[Update, March 5: I have discovered the source of the high-pitched whine. It is the processor. Using Apple’s developer tools to turn off the second core in the processor eliminates the sound entirely; it comes back when the second core is turned on. This accounts for the fact that the sound goes away when the computer is left idle because the power-saving features of the processor deactivate the second core when it is idle. I don’t know if this can be fixed in software, but its worth noting that my dual-processor G5 has the same kind of issue and it was fixed a while ago by a firmware update, I think. It still has a small high-pitched whine but it is much less noticeable.]

[Another update, March 5: Put this in the pros AND cons — last night, following the instructions for conditioning the new battery, I let the MacBook run on battery until it shut itself down. I let it sit overnight then charged it today. When I pressed the power button to start it back up, I was surprised to see that it saved its state! When power came back, the last screen image appeared grayed out with a progress bar; it loaded in and brought me back to where I was when it shut down. Definitely PRO. And the con? Well, the keyboard stopped working, and I had to restart it.]