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As some of you might have known, I have migrated to the OSX platform about a month back upon my purchase of a 13″ Aluminum MacBook. In a way, this notebook is pretty similar to the one I’ve been using previously, the HP nc6510b while I was employed in my previous company.

The decision of jumping ship is not triggered by Steve Job’s keynote speech, preachers of the Apple fanboys nor my internal desire to own a Mac (well that last one might support it), but I was told that the new venture that I am currently pursuing uses Mac as their everything – office, factory, servers, etc. I had to make myself more compatible, right?

Okay let’s get down to business.

Before I proceed though, please take note that this is purely my own opinion, and looking from the aspect of a long-time Windows user. I could be biased at some part of this article. So please excuse me for that.

Initial Experience

Naturally, like many people, I was both impressed and annoyed when I first got my Mac.

I absolutely love how the unibody aluminum chassis is built. It’s solid, sturdy and it just feels right in your hands (or lap, if you want it that way). The backlit keyboard is perfect for me, as I am a somewhat psychologically-challenged touch-typist. I get my fingers wrong if I can’t see the letters even though my hands seems to know where they are. The LCD screen needs a little bit getting used to initially, as it is generally warmer than any displays that I’m used to. By ‘warmer’ I mean the color hues, not the temperature.

Right after I got the unit, of course, I wanted to put the “it just works” tagline to the test. Can it “just works” when I want it? True enough, for most daily applications, OSX pretty much have everything I need. Printers “just works” whenever I plug them in. Apple seems to include most printer drivers into their OSX. I’ve tried with my Canon iP4200, Canon LBP 2900 and Canon iRC 3220N in my office. No complaints here.

The iLife suite is good enough for me. I actually don’t miss my Adobe Lightroom so much on this one (i still do, but not so much), mainly because iPhoto does offers the degree of tweaks that I need from Adobe Lightroom. Most of the software that I use daily is available in Mac platform, including Adobe CS series, Microsoft Office, Aptana Studio, Filezilla, SSH Terminal, iTunes, Firefox, Opera and all the popular IM’s. I managed to get everything up and running within a few hours (downloading, installing, configuring).

The multi-touch-capable touchpad is fantastic. I was a little bit nervous when I noticed that the touchpad comes with no buttons at all. However, I calmed down when I discovered that the touchpad itself is a whole button on its own. You can actually push it down and click. Right-clicking is possible too, by clicking the touchpad on the lower right corner (you can actually set which corner you want, but hey it’s called right click right? So I set it on the right). Touchpad gestures are fun. One finger to move the mouse, two finger to scroll in four directions (ala the scroll wheel of the mouse), three fingers to go back and forth (works with web browsing, folder navigation and all the stock apps), four fingers upwards to show the desktop, and four fingers downwards for expose. Four fingers sideways will trigger the application switcher (alt-tab kind). The sheer size of the touchpad surface makes the gestures easy as well (see photo above).

Like most notebooks nowadays, the MacBook comes with a webcam on top of the LCD screen, which Apple happily calls it an “iSight”. They really tries to rename everything don’t they?. I am not a big fan of webcam chats, but I do find the combo of iSight and Photo Booth (a webcam photo application) can be pretty amusing for a while. The quality of the images captured by the iSight is generally better than many built-in webcam I’ve seen before. It even handles low light properly. Another cute thing that Apple did was that they have a secondary function of the iSight – it is also a ambient light sensor for the MacBook, on which it will either brighten or dim the LCD screen and the keyboard according to the amount of light around it. Something like what most phones do these days. Pretty neat for saving battery power.

The absence of taskbar in OSX does makes me go bonkers for a while, but I manage to get used to the dock, and after a while, it’s a norm.

The Good

I do not intend to prove which Operating System is better here, but rather, OSX does do things a little different. To start off, it is a UNIX-based operating system, which isn’t really a problem for me since I have pretty good command of the UNIX platform. Actually, it’s good to see those UNIX paths in my everyday computing without needing to fiddle with annoying setup and configuration routine (read: LINUX) just to get simple thing like your second monitor to work.

Going around with the Mac is wonderful. The time it takes to enter and exit the “Sleep Mode” is pretty quick (usually just a few seconds) the moment you close down or open the lid. This explains my observation of other MacBook users before this where they just fold and go, rather than fold, wait and go or click, wait, fold and go (cough, Windows). I have yet to discover the ability to put MacBook in the “Hibernate” mode which I sometime would love to, when I want to freeze my work and travel for a while before I power on the unit again. Sleep uses battery, a tiny bit.

When the MacBook is in the “Sleep Mode”, there will be a white LED slowly blinking (actually, more like fading in and out) on the front part of the unit, next to the IR receiver, which gives me an impression as if the MacBook is really snoozing off (see video above, and excuse the McD.FM songs on the background and my shaky wobbly hands).

Display is fantastic. The colors and brightness is totally even everywhere on the screen. No strange extra-bright areas on the top or bottom. I guess part of the secret is that the display is actually powered by the LED, rather than the traditional cold cathode tube, which sits at the bottom (or top) of the screen.

The sound produced by the built-in speaker is pretty much how you would expect from any decent notebook speakers out there. I couldn’t figure out where is the speaker initially, as it was actually hidden at the hinge of the unit. The hinge also contains the openings of the cooling vents.

MacBooks comes with what Apple called the “MagSafe” power connector. Basically, the end of the power supply cable that connects to the unit is attached magnetically (unlike the usual fit-n-snug kind), which they claim can avoid accidental trip-on-the-table troubles, where the cable will happily disconnect and prevent your MacBook from flying across the room. It also attracts stray staple bits that sits in your bag. Which can be initially amusing then annoying.

The optical media drive is a slot-loading type, which appears like a very long slit on the right side of the unit. These days I hardly use the DVD/CD-ROM discs for anything but occasional burning of materials for my clients or my own use. Ejecting the media can be the fun part, where you either hold the eject key for a while, or just drag the CD/DVD icon into the Trash (read: Recycle Bin) and it will be spit out of the drive.

Battery life is pretty good, it’s anywhere between 4 to 5 hours of usage (with WiFi turned on). This makes me happy.

The Bad

This is my favorite part. Like any human being, I do enjoy ranting and complaining when I can :D. So let’s start with the “Maximize” button. Apparently, OSX doesn’t really have a “Maximize” button in their system. The green button with a “+” symbol is actually called the “Zoom” button. When clicked, it won’t make the window of the application fill the screen, but rather, resize it large enough so you can see everything that is there to see. Coming from the Windows background, I have some problems getting used to this. Sometimes I really want my windows to be scaled as large as the screen but the button just refuse to do so.

The CD/DVD-ROM drive is a slot loading type, which means I am only able to stuff in my normal-sized discs into the drive. I can’t use those little CD/DVD discs, nor can I use those wedge or business-card shaped discs, of which will cost me a visit to the Apple Store to get it yanked out.

The arrow keys on the keyboard is half-height of the other keys, which can be pretty annoying if I am trying to move around a certain document, or heck, games quickly. Speaking of keyboard, Apple have jinxed some of the most useful keys that I’m used to – Home, End, Page Down, Page Up keys. While multi-tap-scrolling on the touchpad is fun, but sometimes I just want a quick one-button-scroll-up solution. Apple also get rid of the “Delete” key. Well, actually they do have a “Delete” key, which is positioned, and behaved like a “Backspace” key.

Their main command button is, no surprise – the “Command” key (sometimes it’s called “Cloverleaf” since it sports the four-leaf-clover-like symbol). So to cut, copy and paste, its Command-X, Command-C and Command-V. Pretty similar to Windows, just replace Ctrl with Command. But there’s one annoyance here, that is, the “Command” key is actually located to the left and right of the Spacebar key. I am so used to the “Ctrl” key in most Windows keyboard where they are located on the far left or far right. So keyboard shortcuts feels a little weird because now I have to use a combo of my thumb+finger to press it, as compared to pinky+finger in Windows. This took me three weeks to get used to. Damn.

While the LCD screen is fantastic, it is also glossy, which is VERY VERY annoying and distracting when Im using the unit in bright places, as you can see from the photo above. Does anyone know of any anti-glare coating for MacBooks? It feels kind of weird while typing on a MacBook, while looking at your own shadow staring at you.

My geek side is complaining of the lack of the Hard Disk status light on the MacBook. I am not particularly obsessed with seeing the HDD light blinking off and on, but at times I would like to know what my Mac is doing. Is it idle? is it busy? I still haven’t got used to this till now.

Ports – Apple only provides two USB ports that I can use for my peripherals. This can be quite limiting especially when I wanted to transfer some data to and fro multiple storage devices. I had to fork out another RM50.00 to get a USB hub just in case. There’s also no FireWire port offered in this version of MacBook (the newer one have them, damn you, Apple). So I need to be extra careful when I’m buying a Digital Camcorder next time.

Another annoyance is the Apple DisplayPort. Part of the secret of Apple’s success of making the MacBook pretty thin is to jinx the VGA or DVI display port altogether, create their own port called “Display Port” and make it smaller than then RJ-45 LAN socket. This means I had to buy an adaptor if I want to connect an external display to this unit. That converter costs me RM99.00. Tch.

Conclusion

That pretty much sums up of what I feel after a month of using the MacBook. In general, it is a very good piece of carved metal, and while it does annoys me quite a number of times, I do get impressed, and more importantly, happy. I still find it funny that Apple calls their WiFi device as “Air Port”, and no, owning a MacBook does not elongate my phallus.

tags: apple, computer, experience, feedback, Mac, macbook, operating system, osx
posted on Monday, July 20th, 2009 at 15:00 in Toys & Gadgets.