[Review] Apple MacBook

[madmatt]

Pictures?

 

[sean.ferguson]

just ordered the 1.83 Duo with 1GB of RAM

 

[Geffy]

I've had a 2.0GHz white one with 2GB of RAM for just over two weeks now. Its really nice.

Improvements I have noticed over the iBooks:
Screen is far sharper than any of the TFT screens I have on anything else
The speakers are actually pretty good for what they are. The sound bounces off the screen and towards you quite well.
We finally have a microphone jack
Wireless is much better, I think this partly because the WiFi card is now a more integrated component with the system, it seems to pick up the wireless just about everywhere in my house. The iBook wouldn't. I have two wireless points covering my house, but all the walls are insulated which really kills its ability to propagate through my house.

I've also got Parallels installed on it, two virtual windows installations, Windows 2003 Server Enterprise and Windows XP SP2. They are both very responsive and pleasant to use, though the Apple key gets mapped to the Windows key which means whenever you task switch in OS X you pull up the start menu in the virtualisation.

Am not sure where the CPUPalette app is that was mentioned, I have installed XCode so not sure.

The MacBook can run quite hot, it doesnt really help that at the moment its quite warm air wise as well where I am, but keeping it on my iLap seems to be fine.

 

[SPeedY_B]

Horribly tempted to buy one now, as thankfully the notebook range no longer would let my desktop LCD go to waste, but I think I still need more re-assurance that it's not going to melt my face off after a quick game of Doom3

(i.e. Rev.B for me \o/)

 

[Perris Calderon]

That's great. I've been extra careful to let the battery rundown completely and then do a full charge for at least the first few times. Not sure if it's necessary with these batteries, but better safe than sorry.

this strategy is only good on nicads which I seriously doubt your laptop has, if it has lithium the battery goes all of a sudden after something over a year

lithiums get hurt not helped when they are deep discharged, but I don't think the laptop's power management allows deep discharge...recalibrating a lithium in my experience has ruined them the two times I did it since a complete discharge is neccessary to recalibrate the battery...off topic, sorry

 

[Perris Calderon]

MacBook Specs:
[The screen itself seems to have drawn some strong opinions. It is glossy coated so there is some glare. My opinion on this so far is that I don't have a strong feeling about it either way. The glossy makes for a great picture, and the glare can be avoided for the most part. Besides, most TVs have glass screens and you learn to look past the glare -- this is the case with the MacBook as well. I have not tried to use it in direct sunlight, but in all other cases I've been able to avoid the glare.
[*]

I have the shiny screen and I ilike it but I'm afraid to apply anymaterial at all to clean it.

I wonder why they DON'T use a thin glass layer...technology now, judging from eyglasses, this can be so thin the weight wouldn't be a factor.

I think it's just a case of "nobody thought of it"...turning optical eyeglass technology into laptop technology

anyone have any suggestions how to clean this shiny screen?...I am under the impression even optical paper or cloth will scratch the finish

 

[SPeedY_B]

Lithium Ion batteries still require a full discharge and recharge once a month, or so.

 

[melon]

You should try this: Fast OS Switching
You'd need to pop in some more RAM first though. The machine in the video is loaded with 2GB.

Very cool. I'm hoping that the MacBook Pros adopt the upcoming Merom chips by 2007, because if they do, I'm definitely getting one.

Melon

 

[Perris Calderon]

Lithium Ion batteries still require a full discharge and recharge once a month, or so.

going a little off topic, my fault, sorry

lithium care

1. Charge often. Don't try to fully discharge the battery packs frequently. This only adds strain. Several partial discharges (regular use) with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one total discharge.

Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion battery pack does not cause any harm because it has no "memory".

from wikipedia;

If the battery is used and fully depleted to 0%, this is called a "deep discharge" cycle, and this decreases its capacity. Approximately 100 deep discharge cycles leave the battery with about 75% to 85% capacity. When used in laptop computers or cellular phones, this rate of deterioration means that after three to five years the battery will have capacities that are too low to be usable.

don't fully discharge your lithium battery

full discharge of lithiums is not good for them and you can only do that about 100 times...they have an aging problem not a memory problem.

I've been extra careful to let the battery rundown completely and then do a full charge for at least the first few times. Not sure if it's necessary with these batteries, but better safe than sorry.

not to worry though, you almost definately didn't fully discharge your battery so I wouldn't kick myself for doing it

most power management software probably recognizes a full discharge is bad for lithiums and they don't deep cycle on discharge.

in other words, it's probably not possible to fully discharge a lithium battery unless you short the battery manually...also if you're not using the battery for a good period of time it's going to deep discharge on it's own...if that's the case then you need to give it a charge every so often since you don't want the full discharge...better to leave it in the charger with full charge then letting it discharge from sitting around doing nothing

for further reading

 

[muzikool]

Everything Apple wants you to know about Lithium Ions.

 

[saeltmarae2k]

I have the shiny screen and I ilike it but I'm afraid to apply anymaterial at all to clean it.

I wonder why they DON'T use a thin glass layer...technology now, judging from eyglasses, this can be so thin the weight wouldn't be a factor.

I think it's just a case of "nobody thought of it"...turning eyeware technology into laptop technology

anyone have any suggestions how to clean this shiny screen?...I am under the impression even optical paper or cloth will scratch the finish

I always use this stuff:

http://klearscreen.com/

Works great on my laptops and plasma screens. Its a little on the expensive side, but well worth it IMO.

 

[muzikool]

I always use this stuff:

http://klearscreen.com/

Works great on my laptops and plasma screens. Its a little on the expensive side, but well worth it IMO.

Good suggestion. Thanks.

 

[Techno Child]

Originally Posted by perris
I have the shiny screen and I ilike it but I'm afraid to apply anymaterial at all to clean it.

I wonder why they DON'T use a thin glass layer...technology now, judging from eyglasses, this can be so thin the weight wouldn't be a factor.

I think it's just a case of "nobody thought of it"...turning eyeware technology into laptop technology

anyone have any suggestions how to clean this shiny screen?...I am under the impression even optical paper or cloth will scratch the finish

hehe, use your shirt

I always use those optical cleaners at wallyworld's visioncenter. The new ones are meant for use on the plastic lenses, I never had a problem with cleaning lcds yet.- I didn't try it on the new macbook though because I don't own one. Just spray the stuff onto the microfiber cloth that comes in the kit and wipe the screen directly.

 

[melon]

I wonder why they DON'T use a thin glass layer...technology now, judging from eyglasses, this can be so thin the weight wouldn't be a factor.

Just imagine the number of people who would break their glass screen. It would probably end up being a nightmare, and, inevitably, there'd be some kind of class-action lawsuit.

But I'd be curious to know if people like the glossy screens more than the standard finish. My concern is that there'd be glare, and who would want that?

Melon

 

[Perris Calderon]

Just imagine the number of people who would break their glass screen. It would probably end up being a nightmare, and, inevitably, there'd be some kind of class-action lawsuit.

But I'd be curious to know if people like the glossy screens more than the standard finish. My concern is that there'd be glare, and who would want that?

Melon

I love the screen and I don't have a glare issue....I will try the suggestions on this thread for care, you just get very reluctant to even touch the screen...I suppose an air gun to blow off the dirt which might scratch the screen is a good idea

also, I don't think there'd be too many cases of the screen breaking, but you are right, there might be a law suit...I think the liability would be lower then those wearing eyeware though and I don't think it woud be a real cost concern over all

if there were a civil action it wouldn't be a "class" action suit, it would be a "glass" action suit

I'm just sayin

 

[Luna]

I know I'm not the only one who suffers from the CPU whine and heat issues.

Did some looking around and Apple may have finally fixed the problem
http://digg.com/apple/Apple_s_new_whine-free_MacBook_Pro_logic_board



I'll be taking mine in tomorrow to have them replace the logic board and see if they can correct their thermal paste mess up.

 

[Luna]

Just as an update to the above, in case anyone else is annoyed by the CPU whine.

I took my Macbook Pro into my local Apple Store and sent it out for repair. Came back and they replaced the Logic Board and a few other items. The laptop no longer suffers from CPU whine, and they threw in a copy of the latest version of OSX on DVD. I also received a letter saying the Logic Board had been replaced.

 

[X-Istence]

Good to know, hopefully new units won't have the defects.

 

[muzikool]

Interesting info, Luna. My MacBook (not Pro) has the whine and it goes away when I launch Photobooth. Obviously I don't want to run Photobooth all the time so I'll have to watch the developments with this.

Any changes on the heat issue since the replacement?

 

[Luna]

Interesting info, Luna. My MacBook (not Pro) has the whine and it goes away when I launch Photobooth. Obviously I don't want to run Photobooth all the time so I'll have to watch the developments with this.

Any changes on the heat issue since the replacement?

The heat is still an issue for me even though I complained about it before sending it off. They did replace my heat pipe but the thing still gets warm. I do have the Pro which has a metal case so I feel that is partially to blame. It does not get hot to the point where it burns but it's warm enough to make me want to take it off my lap. This is a dual core monster after all so I assume heat is normal.

As for the whine, you are hearing the CPU whine. It will go away if you run Photobooth or disable the second core on the CPU. There are also widgets that do the same thing. Apple will fix it though if you choose to send it off for repair.