Recycled Computing

MacBook Pros and Cons: Leaving the Past Behind

- 2010.07.12

Popularity: LEMLEMLEMLEMLEM

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Alert readers have pointed out that my last column contained an embarrassing error. I incorrectly used sawbuck to refer to $100. Naturally, I should have used C-note (since corrected - ed). It's really bad when you can't even get your slang right.

As a challenge, let's see how many people know what "large" means in terms of currency. Example - "They paid him 20 large to rebuild their servers".

A New MacBook

On to new business. My wife gets a new Apple laptop every three years. This lucky woman works at a school with a purchase agreement that automatically updates laptops for its administrators. She recently received a late 2009 white MacBook. Naturally, I have been playing with it when she doesn't notice.

Let's just hit the high points and then get to the part where I complain about the things that curmudgeons complain about. This new MacBook has curvy sides and a nonskid bottom. It has all sorts of processing power (at least for me in comparison to my 12" 867 MHz PowerBook G4 and nearly-10-year-old Pismo PowerBook). The MacBook has a 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 940M graphics, and a 250 GB hard drive, along with the usual CD/DVD burner. It's running Snow Leopard and can beat up my PowerBook G4 any day of the week. I dare not leave them alone together due to computer envy.

I like the ability of the Intel chip (with the Nvidia chip) to render streaming video on the Internet. The MacBook can run the latest and greatest software, while I am limited to running Leopard on my G4. The trackpad allows all those iPod gestures, which I love, to be used on the MacBook. Coolness, and almost worth the price of admission.

I really like the change in styling on the MacBook. It is much smoother and more rounded while still retaining the Apple design ethos. Progress marches on.

Two Strikes

However . . . you knew this was coming. You just knew that I would have some howevers, because I've got to make my case for recycling old computers. So on with the excitement!

I have said this in the past, and I'll say it again: Where's my FireWire? I still have FireWire devices, and I can't be the only one. I still use Target Disk Mode, and I can't be the only one. Geeez, Louise. I know money is tight, but does removing one FireWire port save that much?

Now let's talk replaceable batteries. The MacBook is a laptop. This means that you may be in the middle of nowhere (rural New Hampshire counts) when your battery dies. Can you put in a spare battery to continue operating? Ah, no.

Yes, I can buy one and defy the gods of Apple by removing the bottom to put it in. But can you do this in a pickup while bouncing down a secondary road in the middle of nowhere? No.

Laptops have always had removable batteries for a reason. I don't care what Apple thinks. I need 'em. Of course, this means a new market in external batteries for Apple laptops. You heard it here first.

Living in the Past

I know that I am going to have to buy an Intel Mac at some point, but I am going down fighting. I like the future, but darn it, there are some things that just work and shouldn't be abandoned.

I guess I'm living in past, but it's still comfy back here. LEM

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