Apple MacBook

stormrider100 · 13th December 2006, 4:36 PM

i want to get a laptop, wat do people think about the Apple MacBook?

levels · 13th December 2006, 6:01 PM

I would also like to hear from people with experience with this laptop

pros/cons, etc

djsherly · 13th December 2006, 7:14 PM

I like it - battery is around 3 and some hours for me. I like the design and the keyboard has a great feel.

The screen is one of those glossy things which some people either love or hate. OSX is great, a little bit of a learning curve but it seems to come a little more intuitively now I've had it few months.

It has six pin firewire which is not a usual feature for a notebook in my travels and built in wireless an bluetooth is a plus at the macbook pricepoint.

Cons: Microsoft don't offer an intel native binary version of Office - the one on offer is a PowerPC version. It's not as quick as I'd like it to be. I know some people will say what's the point, but the reality is that interoperability with an MS dominated office environment is a must for me. To me, Office is a little slow, however the presentation of the product itself looks great in OSX. Bear in mind that the next version of Office for the mac will not include scripting support which is a crazy decision.

The stupid magsafe connector. To me, it's an answer to a question that was never asked. It's prone to disconnect itself when you're working with the laptop on your lap, and I do wonder what it means for the batteries longevity with the more regular power connected/not connected cycles.

The white one can get grubby. I've had the palmrest area replaced under warranty as a result. I also had the logic board replaced under warranty to the random shutdown issue.

Pros: Doesn't seem too much in the way of viruses. The interface is much better to me than Windows. There's a much more analogue feel to it (for want of a better word) and front row is awesome for people who want to work with their itunes libraries, watch dvds etc.

iLife. 90% of the result of using Windows tools, for 10% of the effort. It made me rethink the complexity of tools.

It's BSD underneath and a lot of unix type utilities will run without too much drama. X11 can also be installed which opens a big world of unix based programs.

Wako · 13th December 2006, 7:47 PM

I am also considering getting one.

I would be using parallels for Vista and Linux. Is it easy to do? Vista run fine? and how does it run?

Coil · 13th December 2006, 8:13 PM

I recently switched my main computer to a Macbook Pro - not exactly the same, but might be of interest nonetheless

Some random assorted points

1. Timezone out of whack when booting into OS X/Windows. Both have different ways of reading/setting the clock, and you don't get the right time until it updates itself, or you do it manually.

2. Playing an FPS via Boot Camp, I needed to remap the left Ctrl button as it wasn't in a natural position. It's not a big deal, but hey it's my list and I'll put what I want in it.

3. Fn+Ctrl+two finger slide = whoa! zoom!

4. The fact that I now care about smudges and dust.

5. As above, Office is noticeably slower to open than on Windows.

6. No longer running Folding@Home 100% of the time.

7. Finder sucks. Needed to get a better file manager/explorer. Still do looking actually. Path Finder seems alright at the moment.

8. iSight + PhotoBooth!

9. Widgets

10. Ease of viewing pdfs via Preview, also ease of being able to print to pdf.

11. Unix shell underneath = flexible shell goodness.

12. Everything (usually) just works.

jboles · 13th December 2006, 8:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coil

3. Fn+Ctrl+two finger slide = whoa! zoom!

Hey I just tried that, nice find!

So many times I've wanted to demonstrate the zoom function to mates, only to find I've forgotten the keyboard shortcut (something stupid like control-option-command-8 or something) and I have to go into System Preferences to turn it on :-P

stormrider100 · 14th December 2006, 8:40 AM

i heard it is possible to run Windows OS on the MacBook, is it recommended???

ghostrider · 14th December 2006, 1:36 PM

I bought my Black Mac book a couple of weeks ago and am extremely happy with it.

Ignoring the differences between Mac OS and Windows, I've made the following random observations:

1. Price was comparable to a similar spec non-mac laptop. Perhaps marginally more expensive. This is offset if you can get educational pricing.

2. Build quality is extraordinary. Far and away the best of any laptop i've ever seen.

3. Lots of neat little touches, eg magnetic power and external display connectors.

4. The black mac book comes with white cords and remote. Go figure.

5. Extremely easy to set up and configure. Even with no mac experience, I had wireless and file sharing set up in less than 5 minutes.

maular · 14th December 2006, 2:04 PM

We've got a Macbook and Macbook Pro here - I don't personally use them, but this is what I've been told.

Macbook - integrated graphics are pretty poor. Ok for browsing website and some Youtube, but not great for the Core Animation features of OSX, and when driving an external 20" (1680x1050) screen, everything just feels laggy.

Macbook Pro - graphics are much better, everything feels smooth, no probs with an external monitor.

Windows via bootcamp - Your milage may vary, but in our experience very flaky. Apps on the Macbook crash every few hours, drivers need to be constantly re-installed (almost every boot some driver starts reinstalling).

Windows via parallels - Much more stable than bootcamp. Doesn't support hardware 3d though, so it's not usable for apps like Maya.

As previously mentioned, build quality on both Macbook and Macbook pro are very good - they are sturdy and stylish little machines.

snowman · 14th December 2006, 2:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maular

Windows via bootcamp - Your milage may vary, but in our experience very flaky. Apps on the Macbook crash every few hours, drivers need to be constantly re-installed (almost every boot some driver starts reinstalling).

My 2c on this - I've been using Windows on my Macbook since July, and rarely has anything gone wrong. I use the Windows side at work everyday - I think I've only ever had 2 bsod - one was because I forgot to turn off verify in Nero

renagade · 14th December 2006, 3:19 PM

i used pathfinder for a while. i just found that it was too clunky and eventually went back to just finder.
hoping that in leopard they fix all the problems with finder and make it a little easier to use.

Kharn · 14th December 2006, 4:16 PM

I've been playing games on a macbook pro using bootcamp and no problems so far. I've only had problems with parallels using my bootcamp partion. Its the first release they allow this so i'll give it another go with their next release when they have hopefully ironed out the bugs.

stormrider100 · 14th December 2006, 5:50 PM

i've been readin over forum and stuff about MacBook random shut down would that affect much, or is it just a matter of luck of the draw?

jboles · 14th December 2006, 7:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kharn

I've been playing games on a macbook pro using bootcamp and no problems so far. I've only had problems with parallels using my bootcamp partion. Its the first release they allow this so i'll give it another go with their next release when they have hopefully ironed out the bugs.

Are you getting the "cannot find disk image" error? I'm getting that, apparently it's a bug that occurs when the boot camp partition is FAT32 rather than NTFS.

djsherly · 14th December 2006, 8:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stormrider100

i've been readin over forum and stuff about MacBook random shut down would that affect much, or is it just a matter of luck of the draw?

I wouldn't expect more recent incarnations of Mabook to experience the problem. It was a teething issue with the initial production runs.

13th December 2006, 4:36 PM	#1
stormrider100 Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 8	Apple MacBook i want to get a laptop, wat do people think about the Apple MacBook?

13th December 2006, 7:14 PM	#3
djsherly Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 1,458	I like it - battery is around 3 and some hours for me. I like the design and the keyboard has a great feel. The screen is one of those glossy things which some people either love or hate. OSX is great, a little bit of a learning curve but it seems to come a little more intuitively now I've had it few months. It has six pin firewire which is not a usual feature for a notebook in my travels and built in wireless an bluetooth is a plus at the macbook pricepoint. Cons: Microsoft don't offer an intel native binary version of Office - the one on offer is a PowerPC version. It's not as quick as I'd like it to be. I know some people will say what's the point, but the reality is that interoperability with an MS dominated office environment is a must for me. To me, Office is a little slow, however the presentation of the product itself looks great in OSX. Bear in mind that the next version of Office for the mac will not include scripting support which is a crazy decision. The stupid magsafe connector. To me, it's an answer to a question that was never asked. It's prone to disconnect itself when you're working with the laptop on your lap, and I do wonder what it means for the batteries longevity with the more regular power connected/not connected cycles. The white one can get grubby. I've had the palmrest area replaced under warranty as a result. I also had the logic board replaced under warranty to the random shutdown issue. Pros: Doesn't seem too much in the way of viruses. The interface is much better to me than Windows. There's a much more analogue feel to it (for want of a better word) and front row is awesome for people who want to work with their itunes libraries, watch dvds etc. iLife. 90% of the result of using Windows tools, for 10% of the effort. It made me rethink the complexity of tools. It's BSD underneath and a lot of unix type utilities will run without too much drama. X11 can also be installed which opens a big world of unix based programs. __________________ ______ Chris

13th December 2006, 7:47 PM	#4
Wako Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Posts: 331	I am also considering getting one. I would be using parallels for Vista and Linux. Is it easy to do? Vista run fine? and how does it run? __________________ twitter.com/garylabronz twitter.com/garylabronz twitter.com/garylabronz twitter.com/garylabronz twitter.com/garylabronz

13th December 2006, 8:13 PM	#5
Coil Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Sydney Posts: 94	I recently switched my main computer to a Macbook Pro - not exactly the same, but might be of interest nonetheless Some random assorted points 1. Timezone out of whack when booting into OS X/Windows. Both have different ways of reading/setting the clock, and you don't get the right time until it updates itself, or you do it manually. 2. Playing an FPS via Boot Camp, I needed to remap the left Ctrl button as it wasn't in a natural position. It's not a big deal, but hey it's my list and I'll put what I want in it. 3. Fn+Ctrl+two finger slide = whoa! zoom! 4. The fact that I now care about smudges and dust. 5. As above, Office is noticeably slower to open than on Windows. 6. No longer running Folding@Home 100% of the time. 7. Finder sucks. Needed to get a better file manager/explorer. Still do looking actually. Path Finder seems alright at the moment. 8. iSight + PhotoBooth! 9. Widgets 10. Ease of viewing pdfs via Preview, also ease of being able to print to pdf. 11. Unix shell underneath = flexible shell goodness. 12. Everything (usually) just works. __________________ green

14th December 2006, 3:19 PM	#11
renagade Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Sydney Posts: 1,084	i used pathfinder for a while. i just found that it was too clunky and eventually went back to just finder. hoping that in leopard they fix all the problems with finder and make it a little easier to use. __________________ RIP The Unit

13th December 2006, 6:01 PM	#2
levels Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Brisbane Posts: 278	I would also like to hear from people with experience with this laptop pros/cons, etc

14th December 2006, 8:40 AM	#7
stormrider100 Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 8	i heard it is possible to run Windows OS on the MacBook, is it recommended???

14th December 2006, 1:36 PM	#8
ghostrider Member Join Date: Feb 2003 Location: Vic, Australia. Posts: 371	I bought my Black Mac book a couple of weeks ago and am extremely happy with it. Ignoring the differences between Mac OS and Windows, I've made the following random observations: 1. Price was comparable to a similar spec non-mac laptop. Perhaps marginally more expensive. This is offset if you can get educational pricing. 2. Build quality is extraordinary. Far and away the best of any laptop i've ever seen. 3. Lots of neat little touches, eg magnetic power and external display connectors. 4. The black mac book comes with white cords and remote. Go figure. 5. Extremely easy to set up and configure. Even with no mac experience, I had wireless and file sharing set up in less than 5 minutes.

14th December 2006, 2:04 PM	#9
maular Member Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Brisbane Posts: 454	We've got a Macbook and Macbook Pro here - I don't personally use them, but this is what I've been told. Macbook - integrated graphics are pretty poor. Ok for browsing website and some Youtube, but not great for the Core Animation features of OSX, and when driving an external 20" (1680x1050) screen, everything just feels laggy. Macbook Pro - graphics are much better, everything feels smooth, no probs with an external monitor. Windows via bootcamp - Your milage may vary, but in our experience very flaky. Apps on the Macbook crash every few hours, drivers need to be constantly re-installed (almost every boot some driver starts reinstalling). Windows via parallels - Much more stable than bootcamp. Doesn't support hardware 3d though, so it's not usable for apps like Maya. As previously mentioned, build quality on both Macbook and Macbook pro are very good - they are sturdy and stylish little machines.

14th December 2006, 4:16 PM	#12
Kharn Member Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: See the world they said. So i bought a mac. Posts: 1,781	I've been playing games on a macbook pro using bootcamp and no problems so far. I've only had problems with parallels using my bootcamp partion. Its the first release they allow this so i'll give it another go with their next release when they have hopefully ironed out the bugs.

14th December 2006, 5:50 PM	#13
stormrider100 Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 8	i've been readin over forum and stuff about MacBook random shut down would that affect much, or is it just a matter of luck of the draw?