Shiny new Mac!

[krasnoludek]

I got my new MacBook Pro in the mail today! This was a total shock, since I was only supposed to get the free iPod Touch in the mail today. When I checked last night, the laptop was still on a flight from Shanghai, having been delayed since 1) FedEx took over a day (local time) to pick it up after Apple gave them the shipping info and 2) FedEx had

Comments

[once_a_banana]

Heh, this is why I thought you were excited about the 13" one, and I was surprised when you announced you had ordered the 15"! These are not small laptops!

I don't know why they decided to go with the less practical layout for the ports. On mine, one of the last before they switched to the unibody design, it's got power, one USB, audio in, audio out, and PCI slot on the left side, then DVI, ethernet, Firewire 800, Firewire 400 (yeah this is back when they still offered two Firewire ports), a 2nd USB, and a security hole on the right side, and the disc drive in front. It works quite well and rarely do I have issues, though I kind of wish the power was on the right side instead, and most of the important stuff on the left, since that would leave my right hand more room on the desk for those times when I do use a mouse. It's kind of silly now that they've got nothing at all in front, and then everything except the disc drive all on one side like that. But hey, here's an idea: how about trying it out without your silly mouse for day to day browsing and so on, maybe you'll actually grow to like the trackpad! It's especially great when you want to scroll around in any direction while looking at a zoomed in photo, and the like (and no mouse will work as well for that).

[krasnoludek]

yeah, I didn't realize it would be so heavy. Oh well.

I was surprised about the port layout too, since Christian's Mac didn't have this issue at all. It did seem like the older layout was much better to work with.

I've now had to deal with the trackpad a deal and even though it's far better than the previous trackpads, I'm still not crazy about it. I haven't taught myself the scrolling and zoom yet, but for dragging something to the trash, for example, it's really annoying because I can't do it in one motion.

[once_a_banana]

Yeah, I'll give you that -- that rapid and precise pinpoints of the pointer for things like clicking and dragging are a bit easier with a mouse for me too. I still use it for when I'm involved in "srs bizness" like editing a movie soundtrack, since there is a lot of precise clicking at places on a large screen (coupled with mostly key commands). The rest of the time I'm getting up and moving around a lot and also not pointing and clicking nearly as often (e.g. working on dissertation at cafes), while simultaneously having to scroll a whole lot, so there you go...

The other advantage is being able to shift-click and command-click with one hand. Though *not* being able to right-click at all, or even ctrl-click with one hand, is a bit annoying. I suppose I should try to get used to doing the trackpad's version of a right-click, which is to leave two fingers on it like you're scrolling and then click. Hmmm, it does seem to work pretty well. I wonder why I usually ctrl-click instead?

[krasnoludek]

the non-existence of right-click by default on Macs was one of the design issues that most irked me about them. I just set up my trackpad to have the lower left corner be the "right-click" area. I find that works well.

But yes, the trackpad is worst for precision clicks or for drag and drop across "large" distances.

[once_a_banana]

Interesting! That's a new feature that mine doesn't have. Do you find it at all disconcerting that the button and the trackpad are all one big square? That was something I didn't immediately like the feel of when I tried it at the store. On mine, the button is still entirely separate (and has no regional touch sensing). But I'm sure I would get used to it.

What about the rest of your user impressions? Working with photos, music, browsing, various applications, etc?
You can set up the Mail program to be IMAPed to Gmail. This is what I do, since I much prefer the Mail interface to the web one, even though it doesn't always synchronize immediately and there a few other confusing weirdnesses.
I also just set up iCal to be synced with my Google calendar, which works really really well. It's a pretty new feature that didn't exist a year ago when I last tried setting it up. There are instructions on Gmail/Google Calendar for setting it up. Once it's switched on, you can simply right-click and delete the original "home" and "work" categories in iCal, since they are pointless.

[krasnoludek]

i don't mind that it's all one big square.

Ummm... other impressions? When you wrote this I really hadn't had much time to fiddle around with the computer. Even now I've only managed to install most things without using them. Browsing is the same, since Opera is basically cross-platform in its implementation. Photos I've barely looked at, and I've been using Macamp for some music lately, but it's a poor sibling of Winamp, not even having the ability to scroll through a song. However, I wasn't a fan of Audion either and I detest iTunes.

I don't know that I'll use the mail program and have already removed it from my dock. Haven't had a chance to explore other things like that Space program and other doohickeys on the dock. I installed Aquamacs and MacTex, but so far haven't done any LaTeX editing. Still don't know how to configure my city on the Dashboard for weather forecasts. I've installed VLC and that seems to play most files, but some are a little jumpy for browsing ahead. I haven't tested out a DVD yet and I don't even have a DVD-R disc to test the burning abilities.

The speed of this computer is absolutely awesome right now, and that's what I've been mainly enjoying. Finding files is instantaneous, transfering things between my external and the laptop is super fast and even file compression/joining is extremely quick. I still have so much to install/configure to before I can think of playing around, but my activities and errands in NJ have sufficiently prevented me from getting around to this.