Tech Review: 2008 Macbook Pro

Overview:

Like em, love em or hate em. Apple does not take half measures when it comes to the Macbook line and that goes double for the recent revamp of Macbook and Macbook Pro's. Glo(a)ssy screen, all button glass trackpad, unibody aluminum, dual graphics cards, sparse but essential port list and new display port. Most new laptops do good to break ground in a single area. Most new laptops are doing one ups on tech specs. Apple routinely ignores what 'most' are doing and instead looks to what can be better. At least that is what can be better according to Jobs. Whether or not you are a fan of his particular flavor of Koolaid or not I think it is hard to not find some things to like in these new designs. Granted it is also hard not to find things to not like.

The good:

Solid. This is the third laptop I have personally purchased. I have handled countless others either through browsing or helping folks with their computer problems. This is the first laptop I have ever held that actually matches my expectations in craftsmanship when considering the price of the device. Metal, Glass, no creaks, no mushy keys/keyboard. A Power connection mindful of how expensive it is to have a laptop pulled from a table. With perhaps the sole exception of the display hinges there is no single thing that screams "will die with constant use" as all other laptops I have experience with. My Dell D820 was/is solid even after 2 yeas of use.... and you can read my impressions of that machine. They were and are still very positive. The Macbook Pro is just in a different world.

Pretty Picture. The display cuts both ways. But glare aside the picture is just gorgeous. LED backlighting is all it is cracked up to be and then some. Most times a laptop display is one of the worst compromises when it comes to choosing to use a laptop over a desktop. This is by far the best looking display I have ever had the pleasure to use for any extended period of time. Full stop, end of story. There are certainly some issues but we will deal with them in a bit.

Sound. There is a special circle in hell reserved for naughty audiophiles where they will be subjected to their favorite music played through laptop speakers. If you really love music then the poor tinny excuse for sound reproduction that comes from laptops the world over is somewhat akin to nails on a chalk board. However... while the speakers on this bad boy are not a threat to Bose I think it is safe to say they are one of the first actual 'speakers' to be had on a laptop. Certainly they are the first of which I am aware of on a 15.4 machine. I would presume that there are some 17" plus desktop behemoths that may have had decent sound but I do not really consider them 'laptops'. I had a positive take on my Dell D820 speakers but let me put it in perspective. My positive take on the Dell was essentially rooted in the fact they were loud enough to be useful... ie skype calls, system sounds etc... and were not so excessively tinny at volume as to make you want to rip your ear drums out. They still were not capable of more than the most desperate use for listening to something like music or even a movie. I began using my speakers on this laptop while attempting to tame my Itunes collection and found to my surprise that the sound quality was almost *gasp* good.... circa mid 80's fm with lack of decent base.

Multitouch whole button trackpad. Its different of that there is no doubt. However after two weeks of use all I can say is that trying to go back to my old trackpad on my work Dell (D830) is beyond painful. While I have my thoughts regarding 'right click' I have to say that so long as the system is designed around the concept of a single click mouse it just is not much of an issue. Besides the secondary click in a specific corner works 'good enough'. I used to be of the opinion that multi touch was a gimic not long for this world. All I can say is that it is one of those things you have to live with for a little while to understand it. While not a replacement for a good stand alone mouse this qualifies as a non-hinderance device. To put this into perspective. On my previous two machines if I were to work for any length of time doing anything besides typing notes at a meeting I would automatically connect my external mouse. After two + weeks I have yet to attach an external mouse to this machine. If I start doing some serious coding, or sketch-up work it will get broken out... but probably not otherwise.

Dual Graphics Solution. The Macbook Pro brings an integrated and stand alone Nvidia graphics solution to the table. Integrated for battery life and day to day grind stuff. Dedicated card for some fun and or added grunt when needed during graphics intensive work. Now if only they had made the stand alone upgradeable. Ironically the more interesting of the two is the integrated option as this is the first system with the new Nvidia integrated set. This marks the first real competitor to the Intel integrated solution which became almost ubiquitous after its introduction with Centrino. For those interested in how good it is I can tell you it runs X-plane on default settings. The standalone 256mb card will run it on very high detail settings and default densities... but runs best on high detail with longer fields of view. It is no dual SLI rig but for a 15.4 notebook it is more than respectable.

Port placement. No ports, jacks etc... on the front of the box (I'm looking at you macbook pro 17inch). They are all neatly arranged on the left side. Slot load DVD/Burner on the right and nothing on the back. (display would obstruct the way it is designed). Clean as a whistle in comparison to most Laptops.

The So So:

Integrated Ichat camera/microphone. A surprisingly rare combination still in laptops but one which is definitely growing and already standard fare on all mac laptops. If you don't want to use a webcam fine... but if you ever want to with a laptop then having to drag one around with you is... well a drag. Camera's are so tiny and cheap these days the only reason one should not be on there is if it is a security issue. The microphone is perhaps even more important. This one does its job... nothing special but most importantly nothing bad. It works.

Port count. The mag power connection aside (which is old hat for mac anyway) the ports on the Macbook Pro are sparse. 2 usb, 1 firewire, 1 32mm express card slot, power, mic, headphone/digital out, Gig-E and the new mini display port. All on one side. Very nice touch of a flap on the express card port rather than some annoying blank libel to be lost the first time you use a card. The ports are key and they are definitely 'with it'. No legacy connectors, no 'Dock' connector, no standard VGA/DVI/S or HDMI connection. For the most part I think they nailed it as far as an 'essential' list. I honestly have a hard time deciding if this is a problem or not on the Mac. The biggest crime is probably the mini display port. Granted Mac is fighting a chicken and the egg problem with this port and they have a history of breaking the ground on such things. But really... this port is likely to be a pain in the @$$ to deal with for a road warrior. Baring a PC adoption of this port it will NEVER become a standard and with HDMI or even USB I am just not sure I see this one happening.

Keyboard. Jobs anti-button fetish does occasionally hit snags. First let me make it clear the quality of the keys is not an issue. They are SCHWEET!!!! My complaint is the lack of them. Granted my complaint is longstanding with Apple on this one and I find it is still there after all this time. Home - End - Pg Up - Pg Down and a separated Delete/Backspace option are not negotiable in my opinion. Bravo on giving the function keys jobs to do. This one is definitely a bubble issue with me. The size/spacing etc.. of the keyboard is insanely good and no doubt that in large part drives the lack of additional space for extra function keys as you find on typical laptops. Again love hate.... hate love. Doing typical typing it is not an issue. Bouncing around code and doing other wise odd text selection gymnastics leaves you doing the apple keystroke combination finger yoga.

Integral slot load optical drive. Got to help the construction of the device. But I just cannot bring myself to like a drive that cannot be easily replaced. Optical drives will at some point go the way of the floppy but it is not yet and it is REALLY annoying if one dies on your laptop if you need one on a daily basis. Additionally I really like the component setup on many machines that allow you to swap in a secondary battery when needed if you did not need the drive. I don't place this in the 'bad' category primarily because Mac has been doing these slot loaders for a while now and I am not aware of any real failure issues above and beyond a typical tray device.

Pixel count. The display is gorgeous. But it is also somewhat lacking in real estate. Don't get me wrong, 1440X900 is extremely useable. However, you run out of pixels very quickly if you are used to larger desktop setups. Document reviewing and large complicated work environments like IDE's are less than ideal experiences. On the other hand most GUI design just has not caught up to high resolution but small displays. My last system was a 15.4 inch design with 1920 x 1050 resolution. Awesome in some uses, but OS menus and dialogs were often a problem. On that system the problem was being able to read smaller elements. In this case the biggest problem is vertical space. 1200x1024 is pretty much the assumed minimum these days when it comes to application design. Toss in the OS X dock at the bottom and that 900 runs awful short of your typical display in a lot of instances. This is one area Apple has been lagging behind on. I can only guess, but I would imagine it has something to do with tradeoffs on other pieces of the puzzle... like glass, LED and clarity. There are also considerations for display element size (afore mentioned density issues). Hopefully sooner rather than later someone will be able to separate font size and pixel size. That way you can design things like OS dialog/menu's etc... for a specific size rather than specific amount of display elements. IE smaller dot pitch screens display smaller font point for point.

The Bad:

Glass Gloss Glare Display is certainly hit or miss. The backlight can overpower most any indoor lighting problems but forget dealing with sunshine. It is a mirror under an uncomfortably large range of lighting situations and with the black bezel it will always have at least some reflection. As lovely as this screen is under the right circumstances it is really a problem under the wrong ones. Trade offs on glossy screens are nothing new... but they are new to the 15.4 macbook pro. In the past Apple has offered a choice. A Crucial choice since they are the ONLY providers of the hardware. If a Matte option is not produced and they migrate the 17" Pro to glossy this is going to be a real area of contention between apple and its longstanding core of graphics professionals. For me the Pro's outweigh the cons on the glare but I can see where it would not for some folks. Do go check this out at the store or through a friend if possible before purchasing (also applies for the new macbook as well). And be sure you move it around to catch lights at the less than optimum angle.

Trackpad Woes. Yes I love the trackpad and yes it is in the good section. However some of the magic is having problems. Since it is so large that your palms are generally in contact while typing there is some smarts in play trying figure out when you are trying to use it. It works for the most part but it is fairly slow to switch to accepting inputs at times. Also While I personally have not been having the problem there is a pretty big uproar on the Apple forums with folks reporting some click problems on the new laptops. IE clicks do not register. There is word that Apple will be releasing a software update to address the problem. I am hopping it is tied in with the issue I am having and both will be resolved.

Lack of an included VGA/DVI/S adaptor for the mini display port. Even Apple does not yet have a screen out that directly utilizes the new port on these machines. The first (the new drool inducing Cinema display) should be shipping later this month if it is not already... but it is insanely priced for a monitor at 800 bucks vrs 3-400 for a decent non-mac alternative. To not include the dongle and then have the nerve to sell them for 30 freaking dollars is uncool in the extreme and is pretty much the only sour note in my experience thus far with my transition to Apple.

Lack of the native ability to close the screen without sending the device to sleep. I am fine with a default behavior to do this. But there should be an option to change it as needed. One truly annoying example of why this is needed is airtunes. I use my laptop to drive nice speakers. While I am not actively utilizing the laptop I like to keep it closed so that the display does not get dusty and is better protected against accidents. I also like to remain logged into messenger and to have up to date E-mail without having to leave the display open. For me this is a really annoying issue. For others it might not be a big deal. There is an application available for free that enables this behavior however I have read of a few instances in which people had problems with the device over heating. It seems the screen stays on as a result of this program. What truly annoys me is obviously this mode of operation is allowed by the OS as the system does operate with the lid closed when an external monitor and input devices are attached. Granted in the grand scheme of things this problem is a paper cut... highly annoying but ultimately not a huge deal.

Battery life. It sucks. Dedicated graphics battery life is 2-3ish. Integrated is better so long as you are not doing video/flash etc... Previous generation was a solid 4-5 hour machine. What really bites is the reduced the battery size. The new CPU and Graphics were supposed to make this a zero sum change in battery life. In reality not so much. This is not a Morning to lunch machine. You need to close the lid as often as possible if you need to actually stretch much beyond 2 hours of use with any kind of safety margin. While not a major issue for me I have go to think it verges on a deal breaker for some eyeing it for a college machine where lectures are long, and accessible power outlets scarce. I have little doubt the drop in battery size was directly tied to the weight. The unibody gained weight over the previous iteration even with the battery diet. When will manufacturers learn that useable battery life is one of the few acceptable weight penalties most real mobile users are willing to pay. If I were after a truly svelte portable machine this is not where I would be looking. The macbook and or air both are more attractive from a portable standpoint. They should have left the battery capacity alone. On the brighter side there is a chance for a software update that may improve the battery issue as evidently there are issues with the new Nvidia chips. However the improvement there is likely going to be related to the sleep drain. Currently it is more than a percent an hour which is quite annoying compared to most other laptops that often loose only 2-3% a DAY in sleep mode including the previous Macbook Pro.

Conclusion:

This is a real slick machine and you will be hard pressed to find a sexier design... especially in this class of machine (mobile muscle). But like most bombshells it comes with baggage. Only you can decide if you are willing to put up with the 'drama' in order to have this baby on your arm. All in all this is a damn nice machine. But its quirks are not to be 'glossed over' lightly. Hands on experience is highly recommended prior to plunking down hard earned money for what will likely be a long term companion in your life. One thing that cannot be denied is that Apple set a new bar in construction with the new unibody style. One can only hope it is a sign of things to come for Laptop design in general. If initial net reviews are any indication the new display is polarizing... from the glare, to the LED, to the Imac style black bezel it engenders strong opinions from both extremes... sometimes from the same person. Lack of Blue Ray/HDMI is a major bummer for many but of limited concern from my view point. HDMI has limitations and Apple may just be right when it says that Blu Ray is likely to be short lived in the face of HD online content. Lack of higher resolution options is largely off set by the reality of utilizing external displays when such is needed... besides if you really need it in a laptop it is available in the 17 inch machine which is almost as portable as most other manufacturers 15.4 designs.

President Elect Obama: Thoughts, Concerns and What Comes Next

And the winner of the poison pill is of course Obama. While he didn't take the crown quite as decisively as Reagan against Mondale he certainly did not suffer the fate of the last two elections going down to the wire... hell past the wire. Unlike 'W' Obama can now claim a decent mandate from the people without qualifying for a straight jacket. Considering that, I think it is very important to consider that one of the first points made in his victory speech was not one of vindication. It was to reach out to those who did not vote for him and to promise to be their president too. Here is hoping that statement was not so much pandering and was a sincere statement indicative of how he will act once sworn in. It would be a welcome change.

So much is being said about the Obama campaign effort and the folks that ran it I cannot resist a few comments. One... the Obama campaign was not 'new'. It was the epitome of a campaign. At least that dewy eyed idealistic view to which most subscribe at some point or other in the course of learning about how our democracy works. I wrote a post about "The Audacity of Hope" which I somewhat snidely referred to alternatively as "Mr. Obama goes to Washington". Well I stand corrected. Occams Razor says the simplest explanation is probably the correct one. To explain the success of the Obama campaign one must subscribe to one of two theories. One, they were that savvy and that good at reading the tea leaves and called all the right shots.... or that there was something fundamentally different about them from typical campaigns. Namely that they were not trying to 'create an image'. They were campaigning for a candidate who knew where he stood and who was not searching for what to say to make people more likely to vote for him... but was instead searching for better ways to say what it was he believed in so that people could decide to vote for him. And they did that.... they didn't do it where they were 'supposed to' according to the 'book'. They did it EVERYWHERE. If the Obama camp actually did pull off creating 'the image' of Obama... well frankly they should go work for Madame Cleo and be banned from Vegas. I have had my doubts about Obama... and many remain. But of one thing I am fairly certain at this point. He is a new breed. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing remains to be seen. Whether or not he even would have won a more typical election will be a discussion for years to come. Bush, Iraq and a number of other factors had the deck stacked pretty hard against the Republicans.

The Obama campaign is Amazon when it first came on the scene. Before Amazon nobody had really figured out how to make 'online' business work. After it the game is different. Nobody will win a national election from this point forward without harnessing the internet at least as effectively as Obama. This was what gave them the ability to pull in small money on a scale simply not believed possible before just as Amazon was able to deliver 'wholesale' to the public in a way previously thought impossible. It is what allowed them to reach out and touch so many people.

So what about the massive turnout? Well it didn't really happen. More ballots were cast than in any other election... but as a percentage of registered voters the turn out was effectively the same as for 2004. The big story of the Obama campaign in history books is most likely to be the money... not who it put in the voting booth. The story regarding turnout and the difference in the campaign is the defeat of Hillary in the Primaries... not as much the presidential win vrs McCain.

Obama's first moves:

Obama continues to show a mix of old school vrs new school. Campaign team ? New. VP ? Old. Chief of Staff? Old. His first major staff appointment is a 7 year vet of the white house in the same roll circa Slick Willie. Has a nasty history of partisan dealing. A lot of Obama's image is riding on how he allows his chief of staff to operate. I do not immediately assume that his past history in the Clinton White House is an indication of how he will operate in an Obama White House. He will take his lead from Obama just as he did from Clinton in the past.

As for fears of how Obama would treat with shall we say 'questionable' leaders of the world? I think Obama should be putting some fears to rest based on his initial response to Iran. Granted the true test is yet to come.

The decision to create a national CTO (not to mention the campaign in general) gives me hope that this administration will a hell of a lot more technically savvy and might just push at least some aspects of US Bureaucracy into the 21st century.

Personal Tech Review: Making the Mac Jump

So the time for new laptops rolled around. It was time for a change. And not just any change, we decided to make the leap from PC to Mac. So a Macbook for her and a Macbook Pro for me. Baseline models which are running $1400 and $2000 respectively.

Why Mac?:

To some extent my decision to go with Mac was a process of elimination. I have used Windows and several flavors of Linux over the past few years and have just found them lacking. All things being equal my first choice would have been to get a new XP laptop however, since Microsoft has decreed that XP will die so I would have to pay extra to get an older OS these days. Vista bites the wax tadpole and I have zero interest in paying one single penny of my money for it much less extra to get the OS I want in the first place.

All that aside Apple has had one thing I have been drooling over for the last few years. The Macbook pro design. I have been waiting patiently for the PC laptop equivalent for going on 5 years... and the closest yet has been the freakin HP netbook. Seems simple enough, make a high quality, durable case in as slim a package as possible. And yet Apple remains alone in the field of a high end aluminum laptop design. Dell is working on their magnesium composite designs but they just can't seem to get them as slim. Lenovo has gotten into 'air' territory with their exorbitantly priced X300 but still missed the boat on style. Form does not trump function. However when it comes to Laptops, form is function when they are your daily companion. A Nice Keyboard is a necessary element. A good screen is a MUST have. A Durable case a key element. Take two equally functional laptops... and the one with better form wins. The new Macbook and Macbook Pro bring all of this in spades. Clean, elegant and incredibly solid design. Superb LCD evenly backlit screen. New gigantic multi-touch capacitive glass trackpads that is also a multi-function button. Credible speakers (at least on the Pro). Glassed screen and of course aluminum case. In short the design is just out of this world.

Apple has long had a design edge but in the time that Jobs has been back he has engineered two other HUGE changes in Apple computers which is leading to their growth. OS X, and the move to Intel chips. The Intel Chips and boot camp have changed a major issue with regards to making a jump.... now you can jump back to windows even after taking the plunge if you absolutely have to. OS X provides a solid OS which makes a strong argument for not needing to jump back. It is stable. The programs are intuitive and consistent in a way Microsoft can only dream about.

The Apple Premium:

Much has been made of the premium nature of Apple with regards to equipment cost. Apple does not go after the bottom of the market. But if you compare them with equivalent PC equipment (ie of similar quality, spec etc...) you will find they are certainly not the most expensive. A great example is the cost comparison between the Mac Air and it's only real competitor in the Lenovo X300 and X301. Suffice it to say that Macbook's and Macbook Pro's are very competitively prices for the specs they bring to the table.

The Transition:

Once upon a time the switch from PC to Mac was one of no return. Incompatible file formats, completely different software etc... meant you faced a completely new world and often couldn't even talk to the old one. Today? AIM, GMAIL, Yahoo Mail, POP Mail, Exchange accounts make for a seamless transfer. If you know all your account information then you can be up and running on typical activities in no time. Itunes is by and large the most common media management option and it is cross platform these days. If you get by with windows media player then you probably have an issue... at least if you have a large wmv collection as there is no solution for that out of the box with Mac.... just as there are no out of the box solutions for quicktime on PC.

However think of it this way... if your most common interactions with a computer involves a url, mp3 or mpg... PC, Mac or LINUX makes relatively little difference these days. And Mac is probably easier to deal with than PC. In a week of playing with OS X and its default applications I am in awe. Apple has long been about ease of use but it has been elevated to high art since the old days. What quirks there are largely are consistent meaning you only have to learn them once and then they apply pretty much every where else. OS X has a consistency of design that Microsoft users can only dream of.

The remaining major concern of such swaps has to remain Microsoft Office. Currently Office users have relatively little issue since a current version of Office for Mac is available ( this has been an on and off again situation with Mac software ). So while it is not free you can make a relatively easy transition either by buying the apple native suite, or by loading up your existing office disc in an XP install on boot camp or fusion. For those just worried about being able to to office type tasks you should remember that open office is free and quite capable... and can even read/edit all but the newest office formats. There is also the iWork suite available very reasonably from apple (70 bucks).

Basic file transfers which used to be such a bane of OS swaps is now almost childishly simple with usb thumb drives, or even external hard drives.


Conclusion:
I think the best way to sum up our choice is that the question is no longer " Why Mac?". The questions is now "Why NOT Mac?".