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neuronbob
Health Care Reform Now
join:2000-03-30
Bedford, OH
| Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review I was at the Legacy Village (Cleveland) Apple Store today to play with the MacBook Pro. At first glance, niiiiiiiice. This will most likely be my next Mac purchase. A few comments for those of you who haven't had the luck to see one in real life yet:
Appearance. It looks just like the 15" AlBook. There's a USB port on each side of the machine, nice feature. It'll be tough to adjust to the DVI port on the right side of the machine as I'm used to plugging in the cord in the rear of my TiBook 1GHZ. The magnetic power cord lock is cool. Otherwise, not much to say here.
Function. The most important thing I can say about the use of the MBP is that MacOSX for Intel is functionally exactly the same as for PPC. I mean, there's a Dock, System Profiler looks the same, iTunes looks and works the same, etc. There is no learning curve in using this machine. However, the 2.0 GHz machine I used is WICKED fast. Apps open in one bounce on the Dock. Even Safari opens faster than on my TIBoook.
I used Microsoft Word and it is just as fast as on my TiBook, maybe even a little faster--important to me, since I use it every day.
I unplugged the fully charged battery and the battery indicator showed 2:46 left, and this remained the case as I used one or two programs at a time. however, with heavy processor use, the time left plummeted in a few minutes, to 1:40. This was with MS Word, iTunes (playing a TV show), Safari, and Garageband running simultaneously, more than I'd ever do. 2:46 is about 15-20 minutes less than what I got with my TiBook brand new. In other words, it's not bad and I could live with it.
Bluetooth woks on this machine, too. It picked up my Treo650 without any issues (as well as several other BT phones in the immediate vicinity--careful if you try to demo this in the store!  )
I asked whether I could order a custom build--I'd max out the memory and buy the 7200 RPM drive. I was told that locally, the 1.83 GHz machine was sold out, and that there was a waiting list of 33 people, and that there was a shorter waiting list for the 2.0 GHz machine, and hardly any people waiting for the 2.16 GHz machine. So these seem to be selling like hotcakes.
So what kept me from whipping out my credit card on the spot and getting myself on the waiting list? I HAVE to use VirtualPC to access lab info from my two hospitals. That is a deal-breaker for me, so my TiBook will soldier on until MS releases VPC for Intel, or someone cracks the code on running Windows natively on these machines. Or Rev.2 appears. Whichever happens first.
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Mauricio9
Premium
join:2001-12-04
Vancouver, BC
| Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review Duh, so you can actually get one buying locally? I just ordered the 2.0 GHz with the 7200 RPM drive one at the Apple Store Canada (same as US) for my sister, and have been given an estimated shipping time of 3-4 weeks.
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neuronbob
Health Care Reform Now
join:2000-03-30
Bedford, OH | Yeah, if they get XP to work reliably. The final solution will be M$ getting off its duff and finishing VPC for Intel.
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metsfan489
METS - 2006 NL EAST
join:2004-10-11
Oakland Gardens, NY
clubs: 
| Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review said by neuronbob  :The final solution will be M$ getting off its duff and finishing VPC for Intel. Microsoft will have to rewrite the entire app from scratch to get it to work on intel, so its going to be a long wait. | |
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neuronbob
Health Care Reform Now
join:2000-03-30
Bedford, OH
| I know it could be a long wait. However, if Apple gives MS the keys to the hardware....maybe we could be seeing dual-boot Macs soon, and no Virtual PC at all. That'd be the ideal solution. But that's getting off topic...
The TiBook is still going strong, so I don't have to give it up just yet...
If this Q pans out, though...sayonara, TiBook!
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| | rugby
I think I know it all.
VIP
join:2000-09-26
Camby, IN
 ·Comcast
 ·Callcentric
1 edit | Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review I personally think that dual booting is NOT the ideal solution for people who need both platforms. Rebooting the computer each time to use the other environment will be a complete pain in the ass.
VMWare or some other software that allows the OS to run at near native speeds will rock.
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leXicon5
Pelosi, SHUT YOUR Fing Pie Hole
Premium
join:2000-12-27
Saint Louis, MO
| Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review said by rugby :I personally think that dual booting is NOT the ideal solution for people who need both platforms. It wasn't THAT big of a deal when I had to boot back to OS 9. Classic didn't/doesn't allow for hardware layer access for some apps like Pro Tools. It was necessary.
Now that the OS is actually running on an Intel chip and VPC doesn't need to emulate one...it should be a LOT faster. That is if M$ gets moving on a dual binary.
As far as having to do a complete re-write...I'm sure they are looking at the code of their x86 version of VPC and seeing how much can be brought over if any.
Not everybody is having to do total re-writes of their apps. VPC shouldn't be THAT different especially now that they don't have to emulate. Maybe I'm way wrong but the logic does follow....let's see if form does. | |
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Crypto
Premium
join:2001-01-07
Saint Charles, MO
| Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review I agree. booting to windows is /not/ the answer. that's a kludgy solution. I'd much rather see vmware running.
Dont forget, MS is not the only game in town for x86 emulation. I'd buy a copy of vmware workstation long before I bought a copy of VPC.
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I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend your right to encrypt it. | |
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The Dv8or
DSLReports Forums -- The Mouse House 2.0
Premium
join:2001-08-09
Danbury, CT
clubs:
| Why not set up a dummy PC and just VNC into it when you need to do PC stuff? VNCing into some dummy box and running VPC are not all that different if you have a constant network connection the whole time.
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You're so vain... I bet you think this post is about you. | |
| | | rugby
I think I know it all.
VIP
join:2000-09-26
Camby, IN
·Comcast
·Callcentric
| Re: Bob's MacBookPro pre-purchase review said by The Dv8or :Why not set up a dummy PC and just VNC into it when you need to do PC stuff? VNCing into some dummy box and running VPC are not all that different if you have a constant network connection the whole time. This is exactly what I do now for software that needs a PC. IT works well even over a dsl connection.
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Bob, David, Eric, and Shane get back to work before I report you. | |
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neuronbob
Health Care Reform Now
join:2000-03-30
Bedford, OH
| said by The Dv8or :Why not set up a dummy PC and just VNC into it when you need to do PC stuff? VNCing into some dummy box and running VPC are not all that different if you have a constant network connection the whole time. That's an interesting option. I've never run a VNC program before but looking at OSXvnc, it doesn't look very difficult. I have a DSL connection at the office,so it'd likely work. I'd obviously have to purchase a PeeCee to do this, however. 
And thinking about it, shutting down and rebooting whichever OS I need would get tiresome, the way I use my Powerbook now.
Go Q or VPC!
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