New Toy

In a fit of impulsiveness, I ordered two MacBooks from Amazon.com. I think the expiring $75 rebate enticed me, but they renewed it after I bought them as expected. Learning Mac OS X for the first time coming from a lifetime of Windows (except the Apple IIE) reminded me of the culture shock of when I first moved to Detroit. But you get used to it and it grows on you. The keyboard, shortcuts, menus, tricks, etc. are all brand new and awkward for this nerd.

The hardware itself is a little underwhelming considering all the rage existing Mac users. With cheap looking and feeling solid white plastic for the casing and dirt magnets instead of keys on the the keyboard, this Mac doesn’t feel like it’ll last more than a few years. I wish Apple offered some kind of Accidental Damage policy like most of the other hardware manufacturers. Peace of mind would be easily worth a few hundred more.

There are many little features that Apple has thought of to make the experience more enjoyable like the sleek look, the Mag-Safe power adapter, a built-in camera, and much more. They did leave a lot to be desired too, however, such as a memory card reader, back-lit keyboard, and a screen with a better viewing angle or even LED backlight to name a few, but I guess this is the entry-level Mactop.

Performance-wise, this thing seems like it handles most tasks well. Sometimes I do notice it gets bogged down though and flash-movies can make the thing sound like it is about to take off. However, the disk is really quiet, which I love. The AirPort (fancy name for the wireless card) seems to connect quite fast.

Ultimately, I think the allure of Mac is this: it just works.

Will I feel the same in a few years? I hope so. Unfortunately, I only have a couple more weeks to figure that out before the return period ends.

Here’s a little thing iPhoto did for me in literally 2 minutes. I’m sure it could’ve been done just as easily in Windows but I was inspired by my new Mac. :clap: