Why I ordered a MacBook Pro
If you haven't heard about the MacBookPro by now, let me be the first to ask "How was it under that rock for the last week ?"
If you've been reading the flurry of forum postings, blog entries and general e-pinions that have hit the web in the days since Steve took the stage and announced the first Intel Mac laptop, a full six months ahead of schedule, you be aware that its caused something of a controversy.
Let me address some of these, point by point, and explain why I ordered a MacBook Pro for myself.
1) The Name
'MacBook Pro' - well, it doesn't exactly trip off the tongue, especially not one use to saying 'Powerbook' for fifteen years. But then again, is it really that bad ? From reading some of the reaction to it over the last week you'd have though they'd call it "ThinkPad" or something equally disturbing.
For a start, is "Powerbook" really any better ? I mean, I certainly doesn't scream "Mac" to me, and the "Power" part is erring on the verbal equivalent of go-faster stripes. At least "MacBook" lets you know it's a Mac, and that's a damned fine thing - not that anyone would be in any doubt with a great big glowing Apple on the lid.
Can you imagine the furore that would occur these days if the Apple logo was the wrong way up ? (yes, that's how they used to be)2) Firewire 800, or lack thereof
Firewire 800 ? Never used it. I have a nice shiny (unused) Firewire 800 port on the back of my G5 and nary a thing to plug into it. And, honestly, after the hassles I've had with Firewire 400 I'm not likely to be going out of my way to buy anything to keep it happy.
Firewire - with which I've used mostly disks and cameras - has never lived up to the promise for me. Too often disks on a daisy chain unmount when another device on that chain is removed, never to return until after a reboot.
No, I wont be missing Firewire 800
3) modem, again in the sense of it being missing
Modems ? Didn't they, like, die out with the dinosaurs or something ? OK, I'm being facetious, but I honestly can't remember the last time I used dialup, and I know for a fact that I definitely don't have a dialup account that I could use, even if I had the hardware.
If I need to get on the net when I'm out of the ever expanding reach of broadband, I use my bluetooth mobile. Even that's a damned sight faster than a modem.
4) dual layer dvd - yet again, it's negative presence
Quite frankly, I don't think I've ever had the desire to burn a disk on my laptop in more years of use than I care to remember. In fact, I'd quite like to have an option to remove the optical drive entirely. The fact that the "Powerbook" has dropped from a dual layer burner to a single layer burner is of no concern to me. Next !
5) iSight - this time, about it's inclusion
Ok - some places I've worked have had a ban on mobile phone cameras. Not that anybody took the slightest bit of notice. I just don't see the comparison to having a built in video-conferencing tool. It's not like you're going to creep around the premises cradling your MacBook Pro like a ninja secretary, snapping top secret pre-production prototypes of the latest McGuffin in it's grainy, fixed-focus iSight.
If some companies really ban the use of laptops with built in cameras, then it really is proof of the idiotic blindness of the corporate world, unable to see the potential benefits of free, multiparty, wireless video-conferencing.
6) The design. Or lack thereof.
Rule #1 of product design - you don't fix what ain't broken !
The Powerbook chassis is just plain gorgeous, as well as functional - especially when compared to the clunky, twinked out efforts that WinTel uses have to put up with. I love the design, especially that stunning drop-hinge. My old Powerbook still get admiring glances and comments even after all these years. I am so glad the MacBook Pro looks just like a Powerbook !
Sometimes, reading too many blog and forum posts from over-opinionated and under-informed geeks can be the most depressing experience. Apple have clearly busted a gut here - just a couple of months ago the very idea of being able to buy an Intel Mac in January was inconceivable. And yet what was sensational yesterday, becomes mundane today, thanks to the incredible instant-gratification culture of the internet. Here we are, January 2006, and you can buy an Intel Mac ferchrissakes ! Quit the bitching because Apple forgot to include a toasted sandwich maker in the specs, or didn't redesign the case.
So, like I said - I ordered one. No matter how contrived the performance statistics on Apple's web site, it's a sure bet that it's going to eat my three year old 867MHz 12" G4 Powerbook for breakfast, and probably eye up my Dual 1.8GHz G5 when it gets peckish by mid-morning.
I'll keep you posted !
Technorati Tags: Mac, MacBook Pro
posted by Andy @ 10:43 PM
4 Comments:
OK, so let me get this straight. You're going to upgrade to a more expensive, newer machine that will, at first anyway, have the ability to run less (native) software because it has less connectivity options, a worse dvd burner than previous models and because the design hasn't changed one iota though it does have a (hold me down before I get too excited) new name?
Are you for real? In fact the only real positive you've given for buying one is that it has a free webcam included and you perceive Apple has worked so very hard to make this product for you.
Come on. If you readily admit that you don't care how contrived the performance stats are then Apple might have just as easily released the new PileOfCompleteKakkBook (with Intel) and it seems to me you'd be queueing up to swipe your credit card.
Did I say that ? I don't think so. The MacBook Pro is, without a doubt, going to roundly beat my current laptop in any performance criteria you care to test. I'm just saying that I don't necessarily expect to see the kind of numbers that Apple claims.
It's also hugely more future proof than the outgoing Powerbooks - which are still for sale. The only way in which it runs less software than the current Macs is in the fact it doesn't support Classic - but as I haven't had a working Classic instal on my current machines for well over a year, I can't see how that's going to effect me.
I didn't mention the overwhelming positive reason for buying the MacBook Pro - the fact that it's running on Intel - because strangely that doesn't seem to have been a topic of discussion. Almost all the software that I use regularly is already Intel native, and will, by all accounts, see a real speed boost.
It's funny to see such a controversy over this product. The last time the Mac community got this hot under the collar - and was this wrong about something - was when the iPod launched. History repeating itself ? I think so.
I was simply pointing out that it seemed odd to start with "...why I ordered a MacBook Pro for myself." and then go on to list all the things (with the exception of an iSight) it doesn't have.
And then go on to admit that its performance statistics might be "contrived".
Seems to me you're grasping at straws to justify it to yourself....
Your right, but the point of the article was that it was a response to the criticism that I've been reading about the MacBook Pro on the internet in recent days. The criticism has been squarely aimed at what the MBP is lacking - Firewire, Dual Layer DVD, etc - not what it actually featured.
Maybe I should have linked to some of the criticisms, but I assumed the reader had some familiarity with them.
I"m certainly not clutching at straws - I need a new Powerbook, and the MBP makes much more sense to me then buying an obsolescent Powerbook. Yeah - maybe the next revision will be even better - but isn't that always the case ?
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