MacBook Pro

[AMink]

I pulled the trigger and got the 13" MacBook Pro last night. This thing is great! I honestly can't tell you if it's "better" than other laptops but it is tight. I looked at a lot of laptops. There were a lot that have great assets, but these just seem better made, less prone to viruses, and I really like the pad. The swipe feature makes it so much easier to work than a regular PC-type pad. Now I can check out the TDR when traveling without having to squint on my telephone! I also think the software that comes with it is better than what was coming on the PC's. Since I already had the iWork software and am familiar with it, I finally came to the conclusion that this is what I wanted. The only thing better would have been the 15 or 17" version, but I'm not sure if my wireless will reach to the doghouse out back!

 

[bheiting]

I second the MacBook Pro. If you're traveling light, the ipad is great if you don't need a full blown computer. The new smart phones used as wi-fi hot spots are changing everything. Good riddance cable. Years ago the Mac was the CIA's computer of choice. They must know something.

 

[sarj]

I need a laptop & the only thing I was waiting for was the Lion OS to come out in the summer. Having traveled quite a bit with a larger PC notebook, I'm thinking 13" is probably what I'm looking for. Have you gotten any info on the OS upgrade since (or before) you bought it? They've been advertising that new OS pretty hard & since I'm going to use it to replace my last windows machine, I was going to put VMWare in it to run finance software within windows. I didn't want to go through all that, and then upgrade the OS when it comes out. That's also why I'll be going with a pro instead of an air. No one has stepped up with good financial software for the Mac yet. I figure I can run it to a large monitor on the desk, and pack light when I travel. I'm still really torn between the 13 & 15.

I've been using an iPad since they came out, and those things are amazing for document management. I have a huge library I manage, and the iPad stomps all over every notebook I've ever used for that, not to mention picture imports off cameras, and mobile internet use. It's an amazing device. When they add a USB port, it will take off in terms of real function.

Either way, I'd be recommending a Mac to all but hard-core business travelers, and even then, I think that's doable nowadays. Good choice Mink.

 

[guldam]

Congrats. You now have the best of both worlds, or all three worlds (mac os, windows and linux) if you desire. Yep, you boot off BootCamp and Windows if you desire, or the Mac OS, or you can run VMWare like I do to test my UI work on various flavors of IE. I gave away one of two Windows laptops I own a couple days ago, and as soon as I can wipe the other one clean I'm giving that one away too. No need for three machines when one will do.

The iPad is the future of computing and you can already see features from the iPad moving over to the Mac OS, as you will soon see these sorts of features crop up on Windows. Apple is rather quickly changing the world of computers.

Oh, one more thing. If you haven't loaded it up with the max ram you can, do it, especially if you edit movies, run photoshop, or run VMware with Windows. Those apps are ram hogs. And if you run Photoshop, add a separate external hard drive and designate it as a primary scratch disk for Photoshop.

GulDam

 

[AMink]

The MacBook will be for travel and light duty work. I have the iMac for all the big stuff. I will copy my iPhotos over to it and then I'll have my pics on two computers and two external hard drives. Anyone use one of the online backups? I can't stand the thought of losing thousands of pictures!