The MacBook From a Purely Consumerist Perspective
May 17th, 2006
fun with PhotoBooth
Had lunch with colleagues near the Apple store today. Couldn’t resist checking out the new MacBook.
The problems:
- The matte black finish must cost Apple a lot of money. As others have pointed out, $149 for a different color laptop is bullshit.
- Not sure I’m digging on the glossy screen. It’s nice and bright, but at certain angles, super reflective. The matte border helped some.
- No dedicated video card. It has a chip on the motherboard that uses available RAM. Not good for the Apple Pro apps and I wonder how good it’s going to be for iLife.
The not problems at all:
- The MacBook will drive larger monitors and does screen-splitting. It will also drive an external monitor in the shut position. Looks like the 2 gig of RAM the MacBook holds will come in handy driving an external monitor.
- The widescreen is shorter than the 14″ iBook and about the same width. It’s 1280 width means more room for palettes and such.
- Digital audio ins and outs. Not sure if it’s TOSLink or what, but it’s a nice touch.
- The price points seem a tad high, but the processor speed is surprising for the money.
- Felt sturdier than my iBook.
I really like having an Apple store nearby for new product launches. o
i have to admit that i enjoy the narcissistic little photobooth app. not as much as my 5-year-old (i’m thinking about wallpapering the bathroom in his photobooth self portraits).
and the processing is amazing for creative suite apps. little nervous about the first-generation chip aspect of it. but blue smoke hasn’t poured out the side yet, nor has satan or bill gates ccome to collect my soul so i guess its so far so good.
Oh that pic is making me giggle like a fool!
Yes the shared RAM thing is double plus un-good.
You really *must* have at least a gig of RAM in one of the new Intel Macs in order to make the machine usable. At least that’s the way it is for our two Intel iMacs and I’m pretty sure it would be the same on the MacBook.
Hopefully, whenever the Pro machines surface they’ll have whiz bang video cards in them.
OUCH! MY EYE!!!! Damn you!
We got one – we got one! My huband and I have a recording studio and he bought it on the spot today…so far it is amazing and we are really enjoying it.
Your eye makes my face hurt.
That is one freaky eyeball you got going on there!
Heh. Love the photos. And? I appreciate the information on the MacBook because my heart instantaneously went pitter-pat when I received the announcement email, and that is always dangerous.
Wow. Apple’s gone with the glossy screen eh? I noticed that all over the place in the windows word and thought what a major pain it would be. Can you imagine designing on that? If the light’s off or inconsistent it’s really hard to see what you’re doing. Maybe it’s just a taste issue…?
Whoa…dude, you really should warn a person before you go making faces like that.
I nearly jumped out of my skin!
Pretty cool though!
I go to Alaska on vacation for 5 days and this is what I miss out on??
I start my Mac Specialist training on June 2. I can’t wait to learn all about this little guy!
Hel-lo discounted MacBook! Or Pro. I’ll decide later.
EYE see you!
For some reason eyeballs often scare me. I can’t look at that pic. It really frightens me and I’m not joking. Weird, huh? Dunno what it is about large eyeballs, but they get me RIGHT HERE.
…Shiver….
I want to know what is up with the incredibly bad new Mac commercial campaign.
Mac has done such an awesome job presenting themselves as the epitome of style, coolness and “all knowing” design, and yet they went ahead with the idea that personifies them as a smug 20-something anyguy conversing with a sweaty 30-something PC dork? To deliver what message, that PCs don’t come with drivers?
Is someone new in charge over there? Because, really…dumb, dumb, and oh yeah, uncool.
Dude. That is so wrong. In a scary, I’ve-had-too-much-coffee kind of way.
Macworld posted a video on their site about how the RAM and hard drive are easily accessed through the battery bay. That is HOT. With previous Apple laptops, major disassembly was required to replace a hard drive, and even replacing RAM was kind of a pain.
That may not be a consumerist issue, but it’s still pretty sweet. (I have no idea if the MacBook Pros have the same feature.)
Thanks! As a pure consumer of electronic devices with little to no knowledge of how and why my computer is slowing down/speeding up/making that noise, I do appreciate it.
I’m also thinking of making the huge switcheroo from PC to Mac, and was wondering if anyone could point me to a website or blog or group that discusses the transition in general, and whether I should just NOT and be happy with my world of Microsoft.
…by the way – gives a whole new meaning to “I can seeeee you.”
We have the iMac with iSight at home (at work I have a kick-ass PowerMac with 21″ screen). I loves me some Macs
I read a review before we received our iMac that mentioned photobooth. Basically it said it was a novelty that users would probably break out once or twice, then forget about.
Apparently, we’re not typical users. We have about 500 photobooth pictures. We insist that anyone who comes into our house spends some time distorting themselves.
Now that I admit that, it sounds pretty lame. But we’ve created some monsters. You can get some pretty disturbing/pornographic looking pictures only using hands, arms and faces.
We’ve considered starting a blog to post our “creations.”
Look what we’re getting tomorrow!
http://tinyurl.com/q6×6x
I also hear those MacBooks run quite hot.
Pantloads of jealousy here. We have no Mac Stores here and Best Buy sucks ass for selection.
I can understand the lack of video card – keeps the cost down, so folks like me who don’t earn a living creating audio/video, buy the MacBook.
Apple wants the creative types to head to the MacBook Pro.
To me, the MacBook feels like the first laptop from Apple that’s well-appointed and priced for consumers, unless you buy the Model T color.
I love that pic of u, so puppydogish
also, please pass de dutchie, Jon. Holding will get you nicknamed “tollbooth”. Jez
No wonder you can’t get insurance.
(Sigh), Apple Mac’s are really pretty, but I’ve never found one that didn’t crash and burn my footage when it comes to doing stopmtotion animation on them. Yet they are meant to be the business when it comes to editing. Can anyone explain this to me?
gingermog,
In order to answer a question like that, more information would be required. Which model of Mac? Which OS? What software are you using?
Generally speaking, like other manufacturers, Apple has a pro line and a consumer line. In my experience, one should invest in the pro line and the pro level of software. I wouldn’t dream of doing serious video on an iBook. But I’d happily throw it on a dual G5.
All manufacturers are like this: Dell, Gateway, Lenovo and Sony all have professional lines and consumer lines. It’s a big hit to the pocket book, but it’s worth it to go pro.