My Life on a Mac

[happywonton]

I just got it today. Overall it's a nice system. A few annoyances such as no delete button and no right click on the trackpad. I'm a chronic right clicker and since I ordered the wrong mouse, I had to suck it up and use the trackpad today.

Everything just seems opposite from windows. File extensions that I'm used to seeing such as .exe files aren't able to open. There's a program that allows .rar files to open but I have to go find that.

For now, I'm going to hate on my mbp because everything is slow as shit with a trackpad. TOmorrow will be a different story, I'll go ahead and get the mighty mouse since its a few stores down from starbucks. Also, VMware's Fusion program works great with Win XP.

[zaphodz]

Save your money on the mighty mouse and just use whatever you have for your pc. At least test the mighty mouse before you buy it b/c I think you'll find it sucks.

[fnln00]

Happywonton,

There's a great Mac forum called macserialjunkie.com, where you can, uh, "find" lots of goodies ... It's been down for about a week but should be back soon. Check it out, you won't regret it.

This isn't spam, by the way - I only recently found it myself and am a big fan, that's all.

[happywonton]

I went ahead and got the mighty mouse and it works well. It was pricey but anything will do as long as I don't have to use a trackpad.

So far, my only complaint is that the mbp gets pretty hot. It's comfortable to put on your lap as long as it's not bare skin. I am currently using iSkin in case I spill my drink that I usually have by the computer.

Adobe's products aren't really liking my computer so far so I can't really review those.

-----------------------

Mighty Mouse Review!

PROS:
- Lightweight
- I have the ability to turn it off and save battery power.
- Great Range
- Operates on two or ONE battery.
- Bluetooth!

Cons:
- Awkward Nipple Scroll Ball
- Slow cursor movement (even on the max speed)
- Pricey
- No forward/back button for web pages :(

-----

Enjoy!

[happywonton]

And so, the lights are off and my laptop is on.

Battery Review:
I am not familiar with laptops but my laptop lasts about 2.5-3 hours after continuous use. It kind of blows that I recharge it once a day but it seems similar to my sisters laptop that lasted about 2 hours after watching a dvd.

Keyboard:
It automatically illuminates under dark settings. Even on the lowest setting, its bright as shit right now. It's really useful since the only light in the room right now is from the laptop,

One major problem is no delete key. The backspace key is renamed as the delete key but other than that, the keyboard is pretty solid.

Bootup time is about 1.5-2 minutes. Quick on loading up versus my 6 year old PC that took 5 minutes.

More updates tomorrow!

[happywonton]

The MBP is great laptop, but one thing does annoy the fuck out of me. I can't manually turn off the damn monitor without sleeping it. I have a torrent that's running and even with broadband, it'll take a few days to a week because it's about 16 gigs. Anyway, I found a widget that does this for you. In order to cancel it, just move your mouse and bam it's back up!

Source: http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboar ... splay.html
Type: Freeware
Size: 61kb

Great App!

Also I started using smcFanControl which controls the speed of my fan so that it won't be as hot. I converted the temperature reading from Celsius to Farenheit (sp.?) and it turned out to be 160 degrees F. WTF?

I think the main problem that's causing my mbp to heat up that much is because of iskin. Iskin is basically a silicon piece that you stick over the keyboard to prevent dust and other debris from getting clogged into the keyboard. It's great because I've seen debris filling on it already and to see that it kept all of it out of my keyboard, makes me value it much more.

More updates soon!

[AYHJA]

I'll pretty much never buy a Mac, but this is a great thread for those that might be considering it...That backlit keys seems amazing...

[zaphodz]

How do you like the matte screen as against the shiny one? Did you get the opportunity to test them out beforehand?

[happywonton]

I went ahead with matte. For some reason, the areas around where I live are filled with lights. No matter where I go, there's going to some sort of light shining on it. For that reason, the mac guy recommended me getting matte because there have been issues with the glossy in bright areas. I bring my laptop outside sometimes and it's easy to read. It was basically a spontaneous decision, but the matte version is a definite plus for me.

Even though the iSkin helps, I am starting to question if I really need it. It makes my laptop hot as shit and I am not really sure if that's going to be a problem in the future or if it might possibly be damaging or waring down some hardware. I don't know that much about hardware but it looks like a possibility.

cs3 is a bitch. I haven't been able to find a proper file that works in my home OS X and I don't want to open up windows using vmware because it's just another application I have to load.

Also, the sound on my mbp is wonderful. I messed with my itunes equalizer to fit what I like from winamp. Since winamp isn't supported on mac, itunes was the best option for me. The bass response is great and it's not too overwhelming. I can't wait to get a new set of speakers because on my headphones, the sound is amazing.

[happywonton]

As an update.. I would like to say that I have upgraded to Leopard. Overall.. it's not as stable as Tiger (10.4). Everything looks nice and the options sound great but it still seems a bit buggy and that it was released a little too early. Time machine KICKS ASS. I downloaded this great "video" and I accidentally deleted it. Well fuck me cause I clicked time machine and got it back.

Also.. my mighty mouse just stays right next to my mb.. but it's off. It's been off for a good two months now. Trackpad and keyboard shortcuts does everything I want and I don't really see the purpose of having a mouse. Although when I start using the adobe programs.. I guess that'll be when I'm going to need to turn it on.

It's almost been 4 months since I got it and I have to say.. everything works great. I'm not sure if I'd recommend anyone buying any other Apple product (i.e. mighty mouse) unless they're getting the Apple Extreme base station. I've never used any other router so my response might be a little biased. Also.. all the programs I used from Windows, I found those same applications for Mac. Although some of them look ugly as shit, it still gets the job done.

Alright! Now for my annoyances...
- NO FUCKING DELETE BUTTON.
- HARD TO FIND SERIALS.
- iChat is a great messaging client but what happens if I accidentally deleted my buddy list? In aim I can save it but I can't figure out how to do so in iChat. Adium was alright but I can only video chat on iChat.
- In the end.. it was pretty expensive. I'd be happy with a regular macbook if I didn't need a graphics card.

Yeah.