New Computer

[SLRdude]

I don't think that I mentioned this before, but a few months ago I literally melted the MacBook Pro that I bought about 16 months ago.

Which sucked big time because I haven't backed it up in ages and I had about a year worth of photos on it, including my sister's wedding pics. So not only was I out $$$, but also a lot of memories of great times, people and places.

My plan was to wait until spring time and use my bonus to buy a replacement, and just use my 6 years old 17'' PowerBook until then. I was finally credit card dept free and I wanted to keep it that way.

Yeah. That did not work. Turn out that a 6 years old machine with a 1.2 GHz PowerPC Motorola processor and only 512 RAM sucks at pretty much everything once you install OS X Leopard on it. Even launching a new browser tab took a monumental supply of patience.

To make a long story short, I could not take it anymore and as a result I am no longer credit card dept free.

[diablojota]

Awesome choice of computer. Well worth going into some debt for. Were you able to save the hard drive on the old MacBook Pro? Or was that what melted?

[Brunotheboxer]

Nice. I just bought the 13 mac pro.

[SLRdude]

Originally Posted by diablojota

Awesome choice of computer. Well worth going into some debt for. Were you able to save the hard drive on the old MacBook Pro? Or was that what melted?

I melted the MB (according to Apple) and the HD seems to be okay.
All I need to do is get off my lazy arse and get one of those enclosures that let you plug in a laptop HD and changes into an external drive.

the new machine is FAST!!!!

I bought the one with the dedicated graphics processor and it is out of this world fast. LOVE IT!!!

[SLRdude]

Originally Posted by Brunotheboxer

Nice. I just bought the 13 mac pro.

Nice choice!

If I had a desktop, that's the one I'd have since it makes a great travel companion.

[idk01]

Very nice Chip I have been eyeing these off a bit lately, you went for the same options I'm looking at, nuts, I think you have me convinced to make the move :-)

[Brunotheboxer]

Originally Posted by SLRdude

Nice choice!

If I had a desktop, that's the one I'd have since it makes a great travel companion.

I have an XP desktop so the 13 is perfect for what I want.

[ErikAalto]

I just bought the $600 Mac Mini on Saturday.

I have a 15" Powerbook G4 1.25 GHz that I bought back in October of 2003. I added a gig of ram (up to 1.25 gb), and the thing ran flawlessly up until April of this year. I started experiencing some pretty weird distortion on the screen, which would change when you put different amounts of pressure on different parts of the aluminum case.

I guess it is a pretty standard problem with that family of Powerbooks, and rather than spend $300-$400 to get it fixed, I opted to just get a new Mac Mini.

[allanofcalifornia]

Ok, I have the old MacBook Pro (the one you melted) and I have some questions:

1. What differences do you notice between the melted MacBook pro and the new one?
2. What do you like about the new MacBook Pro?
3. What do you dislike about the new MacBook Pro?

Allan

[SLRdude]

Originally Posted by allanofcalifornia

Ok, I have the old MacBook Pro (the one you melted) and I have some questions:

1. What differences do you notice between the melted MacBook pro and the new one?
2. What do you like about the new MacBook Pro?
3. What do you dislike about the new MacBook Pro?

Allan

Let's see....

1. Differences. The most obvious change is going to be in the aesthetics of the new one. I really liked the all silver layout of the old design. The black keys and black screen bezel look too... normal almost. Interestingly enough, while I thought that I would hate the new flat key design of the new one, I quite like it!

2. What I like about it. Speed. Speed and more speed.
My old laptop had 2 GB of DDR2 and the dual core Intel processor. The new one has 4 gigs of DDR3 and the quad core Intel, and I bought the one with the separate graphics processor. The dual processor arrangement makes for one mean scary fast machine when you do pretty much anything involving graphics. Photoshop is literally FLYING. I also like the battery life. While most people hate the non removable battery, I have never in my life bought a spare battery for any of my laptops. I only charged them when they needed to and I operated on battery power most of the time to ensure proper use of the cells. The new one lasted me over 6 hours yesterday as compared to about 2.5 to 3 hours I used to get from my old MB Pro. Quite a positive change IMHO. Touchpad. How cool is that?? The glass touchpad is just awesome to use, very accurate and since the whole thing is a giant button, it makes everything sooo easy to use. Mo more yoga for your fingers while trying to reach one corner of the pad while having your thumb on the button.
Having the iPhone gestures on it is great too! I can zoom in and out, rotate etc just by using my fingers. That eliminates all those menu steps that I used to take in PS.
Oh... screen. The LED screen is awesome and it makes for some of the whitest white I have ever seen and some extraordinary contrast ratio. Outstanding. Best screen I have ever seen, bar none.
All in all, I only had it two days but so far I am VERY impressed.

Dislike
Can't say that I dislike anything about it just yet. There are some things I wish were different, but nothing that would be a deal breaker. Take the screen. I would have liked to have a choice between matte and glossy. The 15 is glossy only, while the 17 gets the choice. When I bought my previous 15 I was given the option, and I always pick matte to fight glare. I am getting used to it, and the picture quality is nicer with a glossy screen, but I miss having the anti glare one.

[allanofcalifornia]

Originally Posted by SLRdude

Let's see....

1. Differences. The most obvious change is going to be in the aesthetics of the new one. I really liked the all silver layout of the old design. The black keys and black screen bezel look too... normal almost. Interestingly enough, while I thought that I would hate the new flat key design of the new one, I quite like it!

2. What I like about it. Speed. Speed and more speed.
My old laptop had 2 GB of DDR2 and the dual core Intel processor. The new one has 4 gigs of DDR3 and the quad core Intel, and I bought the one with the separate graphics processor. The dual processor arrangement makes for one mean scary fast machine when you do pretty much anything involving graphics. Photoshop is literally FLYING. I also like the battery life. While most people hate the non removable battery, I have never in my life bought a spare battery for any of my laptops. I only charged them when they needed to and I operated on battery power most of the time to ensure proper use of the cells. The new one lasted me over 6 hours yesterday as compared to about 2.5 to 3 hours I used to get from my old MB Pro. Quite a positive change IMHO. Touchpad. How cool is that?? The glass touchpad is just awesome to use, very accurate and since the whole thing is a giant button, it makes everything sooo easy to use. Mo more yoga for your fingers while trying to reach one corner of the pad while having your thumb on the button.
Having the iPhone gestures on it is great too! I can zoom in and out, rotate etc just by using my fingers. That eliminates all those menu steps that I used to take in PS.
Oh... screen. The LED screen is awesome and it makes for some of the whitest white I have ever seen and some extraordinary contrast ratio. Outstanding. Best screen I have ever seen, bar none.
All in all, I only had it two days but so far I am VERY impressed.

Dislike
Can't say that I dislike anything about it just yet. There are some things I wish were different, but nothing that would be a deal breaker. Take the screen. I would have liked to have a choice between matte and glossy. The 15 is glossy only, while the 17 gets the choice. When I bought my previous 15 I was given the option, and I always pick matte to fight glare. I am getting used to it, and the picture quality is nicer with a glossy screen, but I miss having the anti glare one.

Thanks for the information. I like the look of the old MacBook Pros (silver keys) and the matte screen but it sounds like the new one is much better!


Allan

[sexner]

Hi Chip, we are finally out from under the Bill Gates monopoly too. We bought a 15" Mac Book Pro and freakin' love it. Congratulations.

[SLRdude]

Originally Posted by sexner

Hi Chip, we are finally out from under the Bill Gates monopoly too. We bought a 15" Mac Book Pro and freakin' love it. Congratulations.

Good for you mate!

I'm on my fourth Apple pro level laptop.

[vh_bu98]

Originally Posted by sexner

Hi Chip, we are finally out from under the Bill Gates monopoly too. We bought a 15" Mac Book Pro and freakin' love it. Congratulations.

Out of Bill Gates monopoly and into Steve Job's monopoly.

[2careless]

That's a nice mac Chip
My son built a poor man's mac... a Hackintosh with MSI Wind netbook 6 months ago he takes to university - not as nice as the real Mac but does the job

[sexner]

Originally Posted by vh_bu98

Out of Bill Gates monopoly and into Steve Job's monopoly.

I guess it has to be going into somebody's!!

[iSellJerseyShore]

Originally Posted by Brunotheboxer

Nice. I just bought the 13 mac pro.

Good choice! I almost pulled the trigger on a netbook, but then stumbled across the newly designed 13" macbook pro! Such a sweet machine, but it's not looking to be a good fit for my needs......... It won't run Final Cut Pro since it lack the discrete video card, ugggh which bumps me up to the 15"



-Frankie

[iSellJerseyShore]

Originally Posted by SLRdude

I don't think that I mentioned this before, but a few months ago I literally melted the MacBook Pro that I bought about 16 months ago.

Which sucked big time because I haven't backed it up in ages and I had about a year worth of photos on it, including my sister's wedding pics. So not only was I out $$$, but also a lot of memories of great times, people and places.

My plan was to wait until spring time and use my bonus to buy a replacement, and just use my 6 years old 17'' PowerBook until then. I was finally credit card dept free and I wanted to keep it that way.

Yeah. That did not work. Turn out that a 6 years old machine with a 1.2 GHz PowerPC Motorola processor and only 512 RAM sucks at pretty much everything once you install OS X Leopard on it. Even launching a new browser tab took a monumental supply of patience.

To make a long story short, I could not take it anymore and as a result I am no longer credit card dept free.

So how is your new 17" treating you?


-Frankie

[allanofcalifornia]

So, how bad is it having a glossy screen vs a matte screen? I love my matte screen and this is the one area where I don't know if I would be happy with the new MacBook Pros.


Allan

[mikey]

I have the Macbook Air and I love it. The old Macbook Pro 15 and 17" are still very strong computers by any stretch of the imagination. However, Glossy LED screens will always show better graphics than LCD.

[allanofcalifornia]

Originally Posted by mikey

I have the Macbook Air and I love it. The old Macbook Pro 15 and 17" are still very strong computers by any stretch of the imagination. However, Glossy LED screens will always show better graphics than LCD.

When I got my MacBook Pro almost 2 years ago, I took weeks trying to determine if I wanted the glossy or matte screen. To me, there was no advantage to the glossy screen. It had glare and candy colors. I did not see any better graphics at that time.

Have you seen the MacBook Pro matte screens or is your observation based upon Apple's older models or non-Apple computers?


Allan

[mikey]

Allan, my understanding is the LED screen is new tech for Apple and the updated graphics cards in the intel based macs. It started with the Air and continues up to now. My observation is based on Apple only. LED-Light Emitting Diode and LCD-Liquid Crystal Display. LED shows a much more richer and sharper pictures. This LED Tech will be carried over into our LED flatscreens in a few short years as LCD will become obsolete. My 2 cent predictions.

[Lion]

I really like Apple's products and own a 20" Mac desktop and a 16 GB iPod. Next on the agenda will be the new iPhone 3GS!!!

[meloncap78]

Sigh......ahhhhh to caress the sweeeeeeet uni-body. I have the 2.16GHz core 2 MB Pro with 4GB of DDR2 and love it but I have been motivated to sell it and put the cash towards a refurbed '09 Pro. I too am a fan of the silver keys but I suppose with all of the upgrades I could live with the black seperated keys. Glad you like it and let me tell you.....there is nothing like a MB.

[thelawpimp]

I have a MB Pro 17" with intel chipset. It is an amazing computer. I also have 3 PC based computers....all for work. I can run all PC programs on my mac, but I find that I don't really even like the PC based programs any more, now that I'm used to mac. I have been a Mac user for about two years. Will never go back. As soon as I can convince my business partners to switch, I'll never use another pc based program.

The best thing about Mac is that it just works, right out of the box. Wife gave me Apple tv for christmas....my iphone, macbook and apple tv sync without any problem whatsoever. My mac even syncs with my pc with no problems.

[bodybump]

very nice chip..keep me informed how was it...im changing my black book soon...

[mikey]

Apple has upgraded the white Macbook I would like to mention. I think its bumped up to 2.16 ghz intel core 2 duo etc etc etc. Can anyone add the specs ?

[oneillba]

Very nice! I must admit, I am an Apple fan.

[SLRdude]

This is my fourth MacBook Pro, and the best one by far.
I keep on finding new features every day!

[frostie]

Perfect choice Chip


Enjoy your new laptop