Category: Apple

zMacShop just emailed me a list of prices of some of their products.
Here they are:

iPod Video 60GB – KD130 KD138
iPod Video 30GB – KD115
iPod Nano 4GB – KD85
iPod Nano 2GB – KD75
iPod Nano 1GB – KD55

MacBook Pro 17inch – KD975
MacBook Pro 15inch (2.16Ghz) – KD890
MacBook White (2Ghz) – KD490

I think I finally found a replacement for TextEdit and its called WriteRoom. This is how the creators describe it:

For Mac users who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a full screen, distraction free, writing environment. Unlike standard word processors that focus on features, WriteRoom is just about you and your text.

You set the software to full screen and thats it, you are suddenly in a different place. You could also change the background color to blue and the text to white and pretend you are Doogie Howser. Whatever colors you go with, the most important thing is this software is free! [Link]

My MacBooks temperature usually hovers around 53 degrees to 67 degrees Celsius which really isn’t that bad. Nats PowerBook used to get way hotter. I don’t know what all the fuss is about…

I don’t usually have postive things to say about Mac & More but today I passed by them and turned out they had 2 Black MacBooks. They were already sold to clients and they were busy installing software on them but atleast Nat was able to see in person how the black MacBook looked like. She told her PowerBook and was considering either the 2ghz white MacBook, the 2ghz black Macbook or the 1.8ghz MacBook Pro. The prices between the three were very close, $1300, $1500 and $1800.

Well the blackbook turned out to be pretty boring. It just looks like an ordinary computer which wasn’t very exciting. This instantly took the black book out of the picture and Nats options were either the 2ghz $1300 white MacBook or the $1800 1.8ghz MacBook Pro. $500 difference for a larger screen… not worth it. So I just placed an order for the white book.

Something funny happened while at the Mac store. One employee saw me taking a picture of the black book and he asked me if I had a problem. I thought that was weird cuz the correct question would have been why are you taking a picture? Anyway I replied back asking him if he had a problem. He was like no he was wondering if I had a problem because I was taking pictures. I asked him why is that a problem? He was like no. I was like o..k.. weird.

I have had the MacBook for around a week now and I have decided to write about my experience so far. This isn’t a review because it wouldn’t be fair. I have always had a thing for ibooks and I had already given the MacBook a 5 star even before I got it. So this isn’t a review, its just what I experienced.

When I first got the Mac it had around 30GB of empty space from a total of 60GB. Thats because the MacBook came installed with everything including trial runs of Microsoft Office, Pages, Keynote and a couple of other softwares plus the whole iLife package was installed. I ofcourse didn’t need most of these so first thing I did was format the Mac and reinstall it with the softwares I needed… iMovie, iTunes and iPhoto. This resulted in over 46GB of space being free which is a big difference. The MacBook came with a small remote control and its still in the plastic wrapping in the box. I don’t like FrontRow (XBMC spoiled me) so no need for the remote. Another thing that I will probably never use is the built in iSight. I tried it a bit and I can imagine it being very handy but its not for me.

Anyway, the MacBook is incredible. Its super fast and I just have 512MB of RAM installed. FireFox launches in 1 second, System Preferences in less then a second and iPhoto in 2. The wifi reception is also unbelievable. Suddenly all these wifi hotspots started appearing while sitting on my living room couch, hotspots I hadn’t seen before. Its like where did all these come from??

So far in the week I have been using the Mac it only gotten REALLY hot once when I was busy installing Adobe CS, browsing the web and downloading software updates all at the same time. The MacBook just got really hot, but it didn’t crash or anything. Currently I have been surfing the web for over 3 hours and the MacBook feels warm but not hot at all. The battery life is really good, it easily lasts me 4 hours and even more if I lower the screens brightness. Speaking of the screen, its really really bright, like blinding bright. I have to decrease the brightness most of the time since I would be watching TV and the MacBook’s screen would be brighter which is distracting. Its even brighter then my Lacie CRT at work!

I also installed Windows XP on my MacBook using Apple’s Bootcamp. I don’t have a major need for it but its only occupying 5GB of space and I am going to install Red Alert 95 on it plus the Dos version of DopeWars. Its cool to have since when I play around with the sites template for example I always want to see how it would look like on a PC. Plus it has a “wow effect” when I show my PC friends that my Mac can now run Windows.

Other then that I don’t know what else I can talk about. If anyone has any questions I could answer them in the comments below. I am very pleased with my MacBook and I am very happy I got it over the MacBook Pro. Nat on the other hand doesn’t like the plasticness of the MacBook and so is going to get the Pro version. This I realized might be true for other people also. The plastic feel could put off people who are looking for a serious looking laptop. The MacBook is more funky and trendy then serious. It will grab a lot of attention if you are surrounded by ordinary looking Dell and Toshiba laptops, attention you might not want. But, I still believe this is a better built laptop then the Pro version and I believe this one can take a beating while the Pro version can’t. Everyone to his own though..

With the new Intel Macs you can run Windows XP. To do so you have two options, the first is using Apple’s free beta software called Bootcamp or you can pay $49 and use Parallels. Which should you choose and which is faster? Cnet took both softwares and ran a bunch of tests and it turns out Bootcamp is the way to go. [Link]

I just took some more pictures of Nats PowerBook. They are higher quality so you can see exactly what you would be getting. [Pictures]

If you are interested in it, here is more info. [Link]

I was at Sultan Center and I spotted the new packages of Lucky Charms. The new packages have a cool promotion where they now come with codes inside that let you get a free song of your choice from iTunes. Now thats cool..

12-inch Apple PowerBook
G4 867mhz
640MB Ram
40GB Hard Disk
Combo Drive (CDwriter + DVD Reader)
Builtin Bluetooth and Airport Express (wifi)
Brand new battery

Extras included: Fire engine red foof case, old battery (holds over an hour charge), original cds, regular mouse, external display adapter

Laptop condition is very good except for minor issue with screen, there is a dark shadow on the bottom left corner of the screen. Here is a picture of it.

Asking price: KD250

Update: Its been sold

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have a habit of naming my devices after Transformer characters. I took a screenshot of my home wifi access points and my hard drives on my main Mac to better show what I mean. Whats cool about naming them after Transformers is that it would be hard to run out of names because there are so many. Its very practical to do this and consistent.

My MacBook is here!! Its soooooooooooooo white (like me!!!). As with all my electronic devices I name them after characters from the Transformers cartoon. My MacBook is going to be called Ratchet who was the white doctor transformer. Everyone say hi…

update: Here are my first impressions…

– The edge of the MacBook below the trackpad where my wrists rest is sharp and so is causing red horizontal lines to appear
– The screen is fucking bright, brighter then my Lacie CRT which is right next to me
– The battery life is amazing, I got the MacBook at 12:30 and it had a 75% charge. I played with it a bit and then played it with through out most of my lunch (1-2) then came back to work and I have had my MacBook open ever since installing software and stuff and it still tells me I have 1 hour of juice left and its currently 4:06PM.
– It feels a lot bigger then the 12″ PowerBook
– No overheating issue so far and I haven’t even heard the fan come on
– I need more RAM, haven’t had any problems yet but I imagine everything would be moving a lot faster once I install 2GB of RAM
– Wifi reception is amazing, suddenly I see 5 networks where with the PowerBooks in the office I usually only see 1
– They keyboard feels normal, nothing weird at all
– The trackpad button feels a little soft
– I have absolutly no use for iSight
– I hate FrontRow and Dashboard, just disabled both
– I love how the MacBook closes.. no more latch, just like the old clamshell ibooks

And thats all for now…

…but I can’t touch it! Its held in customs and will be cleared only by tomorrow morning. I mentally prepared myself to get it today and now I am left hanging with no MacBook. Urgh I can’t wait till tomorrow!

I know I keep picking on Mac&More but I can’t help it. So today I walk in and a salesgirl comes up to me and asks if she can help, this is how the conversation went:

Me: Yeah Hi, do you have the MacBooks?
Her: The laptop?
Me: Ummm yeah…
Her: Yes we do
Me: Oh cool how much are they?
Her: well we have the 15″ and the large 17″..
Me: Hold on, the MacBook is only 13″
Her: ?
Me: ?
Her: ??
Me: I am not asking about the MacBook Pro, I was asking about the MacBook
Her: ?
Me: The regular MacBook.. the white and black ones
Her: Ah, yes we get them in 2 days
Me: Thank you bye

Yeah so that didn’t go very well. On the bright though they have some Crumpler Bags although they have the ugliest colored models. Don’t know why they didn’t get any of the cooler colored ones. On another note my MacBook is in my U Shop We Ship mailbox in the States and is going to ship today and arrive hopefully on Sunday.

Items shipping soon:
Delivery estimate: June 9, 2006
* 1 of: Apple MacBook MA254LL/A 13.3″ Notebook PC (1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Drive)- White

Ok so the delivery estimate is kinda fucked up but atleast its shipping soon!!

One plant has over 200,000 workers who get paid only KD14 a month! [Link]