Well, it seems I haven't got a whole lot to write about (at least until later tonight). But I stepped into the Apple store today to get my hands on the latest iteration of the Macbook line. I laughed, I cried, I was touched, but I have my criticisms.
Pros:
!) Amazingly solid and lightweight construction, feels totally solid.
2) Everything plugs into the left side, which is very neat and tidy.
3) Easy access to the hard drive and battery, this is much improved.
4) The trackpad is super smooth, and the new gestures are very useful, albeit may take a while to get used to using.
Cons:
!) Glosssy black border around the screen. It almost feels as if there's some plastic coating on there that is meant to be removed when you get it out of the box. it gives way a little bit and doesn't feel quite attached to the bezel. Being someone who uses a mac for professional purposes I feel that this is important. Having a glossy black bevel will make colors look more vibrant than they actually are. This is an optical illusion and this change represents a demographic shift from professionals to the high-end casual consumer. Also the standard Macbook's screen has never impressed me, the vertical viewing angle is sub-par.
2) The click button also being the trackpad is neat, but it's attached at the top, so I was a little confused originally when I moved the mouse up and attempted to click, and just got resistance. I later realized that it is meant to operate more like the old one, but have no seam.
3) No firewire 400. But hey, movin' on up in the world and goin to 800 is the thing to do. An Apple-made 800-400 converter that is very slim AND cheap would be a great way to keep everyone happy I think.
WTFs: There's really big rubber standoffs on the bottom. They curve nicely into the body but their diameter seems unnecessarily large, so that it looks a little odd.
Conclusions:
Overall it's great, I kinda wish I waited one more year to get one. However, I'd have to say that I still prefer the old keyboard, not aesthetically though, and I prefer my bezel that makes colors look more accurate (it also is easier on my eyes because I have astigmatism). My older revision Macbook Pro is very solid though, I was happy to have waited until they ironed out problems from the first-gen models, and beef'd up the graphic processor. I'm still choking on having only 128mb of texture memory though. But Hey, if you're a pro you should'nt be using it for games anyway right.
"Saving the world, one image at a time."
~Photoshop Hero
