[Macworld]

Post your comments for The book of MacBook here

[fletc3her]

I finally got a chance to play with thew new MacBook trackpad at an Apple store and was pleasantly surprised at how natural it felt to use the built-in button. I am definitely going to get one of the new MacBook Pros in the next couple months.

[Grapho]

We got one after a week of them being announced. Mine has the titled keys too, which I initially attributed to the lighting in the room. My wife didn't notice, so I will not say anything since it's really not that big of a deal. Certainly not enough to take the time to fix it.
I agree with every thing you state.
Good read.

[goose]

I agree with Grapho, great article, it was a solid review that was enjoyable to read while still giving out the facts.

[macwilf]

We have the cheaper model, because here in Norway you pay more than 1500 US $ for it and that was what we could afford now - not that I am complaining:) It is a very good and nice replacement for my close to 4 year old and trusted iBook and it fits nicely in with my aluminium iMac as well.
But I have to mention the migration; it did not run smoothly from the iBook G4 running 10.4.11 to the MacBook. Actually, it did not run at all. We had no problem migrating one account from the old iMac G5, though, so could it be that there is a problem migrating from a G4 to an IntelMac? I saw a few posts from other people having the same problem at the Apple Discussions. Neither Ethernet nor WiFi worked. So we had to do it manually.
I suspect that Target Mode would have worked although it is pure speculation.
As for the trackpad, I have only had problems working with in Photoshop, positioning images exactly etc. Perhaps I need to remember to bring a mouse always or I just have to get used to it, but exact dragging seemed to be a bit awkward. Not so outside Photoshop, though.
But I have a thought when it comes to multi-touch. Of course it would only be stupid to add it to a monitor which sits vertically in front of you - but what about the keyboard? I was thinking of those Russians or whoever it was who were working on a keyboard with which you could change the keys to your needs, but what if one would use an iPhone-like keyboard? It would have one great advantage for a person like me who writes almost daily in four languages; Norwegian, Swedish, English and Portuguese. Of course I do have all four keyboards set up in Sys Prefs so I can easily switch between them, but the keys remain the same and from time to time I do forget which is the right key to get ~ or ç or ä or whatever. Imagine if the keys were not physical? Just pixels? And perhaps the keyboard could be more advanced than the one on the iPhone. Haptic, tactile.
That in addition to a multi-touch trackpad would be a nice invention, I think. No more problems with key-symbols getting worn out or keys to be replaced or whatever. Just update the software.

[jdb8167]

I replaced my first generation 2.16 GHz MacBook Pro with the 2.4 GHz MacBook. It has a better video card than that MacBook Pro according to CINEBENCH 10, almost twice as fast at rendering. The real video card was the only compelling thing that made the Pro better than the MacBook to me. The lack of video performance in the original MacBook made it a non-starter.

I love the size and the phenomenal amount of performance packed into the small case of the MacBook. Hooked up to a large display, it is the best desktop system I've ever owned and unplugged, the size is tremendously convenient--much more so than the 15" MacBook Pro.

The trackpad problems are driving me nuts though. About 1/3rd of the time I don't get a click when I want it. About 1 out of 20 times, I can't click for multiple seconds. And the worse, about 10 times a day the cursor completely freezes for several seconds. Maddening.

I seriously considered the MacBook Air. From a connectivity point of view, you lose ethernet, one USB port and the audio in. Neither the extra USB port nor the audio in is critical for what I use. I could also easily live without a DVD drive built in. I use the DVD to rip audio/video and install software. Neither ripping media nor installing software is generally something I do away from my desk, so no loss there either. But losing the ethernet is a problem and the hardware performance isn't quite there yet. Moving down in performance from the 2006 MacBook Pro is really not acceptable.

It should be interesting to see where the Air is in 3 years time when I'm ready to move on from this MacBook. If the progression works like the MacBook Pro to the MacBook, the Air will be sufficient and I will be able to get even smaller and lighter while still meeting my notebook needs.

It's funny, I don't consider the new MacBook to be consumer only as I did the original MacBook. The performance is so much better than the original that I can't find many reasons to stay with the 15" MacBook Pro. If you are a video pro or have some other compelling reason to need Firewire, that would be important or if you need the card slot for some reason but other than that, the Pro offers nothing worth the price that I can see. The screen resolution isn't enough to justify the larger size and price-maybe if the screen was 1920x1080 but at just 1440x900, it just isn't enough pixels for when size really matters anyway. And paying $1200 more for the 2.8 GHz or $900 for a mere 0.13 GHz more CPU speed just doesn't cut it with me. So thanks Apple for saving me a bunch of cash with the new designs.

[Kieran]

ended up getting a mbp. download multi-clutch for gesture support on non apple programs. it had been driving me crazy i couldn't swipe backwards in firefox. now i can swipe backwards in google chrome in windows xp under vmware fusion.

[HalanR]

"It’s the shiny case."
I guess some people just can't resist shiny, pretty things. Too much money for just too little improvement. I work too hard for my money. I'll keep my original MacBook and see where Apple goes on the next revision. But, I'm happy yours is working out for you.

[tokyojerry]

I am still running a 2006 vintage MacBook Pro as my main machine. I sold off my white MacBook (the road warrior) prior to the 10/14 announcements. I am really tempted to sell off the MacBook Pro (auctions) as well and go for the new MBP Highend model (15"). But on second thought, with Macworld Expo 2009 less then a couple months away (Jan. 5th-9th) I intend to hold off on any upgrade until I see what new product(s) might be announced at the Keynote. If the current release is only a minor iteration release and something more advanced comes out in January, I'd rather wait the couple months. who knows? We might eventually even see a Quad core MacBook Pro? :-) Worse comes to worse, I can buy the current release after the Expo if nothing major or new is announced.

[timglasgow]

The following is from an email i sent to sjobs, among others:
A few days ago i bought the first MacBook Pro with the new glass trackpad off the delivery truck at the local store, and while i love it, it seems we could make the new multi-touch trackpad a lot more intuitive:
1) Have an option to invert the two-finger scrolling direction, so it feels like we're actually moving the page, like an iPhone.
2) If the mouse pointer is hovering over the title bar of a window, two-finger scrolling should move the whole window around. This just makes obvious sense.
3) three fingers should be a click and drag. This is the last reason most of us still have to use the physical trackpad button and it's cumbersome. The current click-and-a-half drag is a bullshit kluge from before we had multitouch.
4) If we're going to do the above, we might want to switch the two and three finger functions, so it works like this:
- 1 finger move the mouse pointer and clicks
- 2 fingers drags and right-clicks
- 3 fingers scrolls and moves windows if the pointer is in the title bar (2 fingers would do this also)
- 4 fingers can do whatever. i don't care.
Pinch-and-zoom, Rotate, and Swipe can stay the same.

[montgomery_burns]

Apple laptops were not the first to have glossy screens. HP and Dell laptops had glossy screens long before Mac laptops did. But during that time, how many Mac users actually said "Gee, those glossy PC laptop screens sure have better color quality, I wish Mac laptops had the same screens."? No, it was always "You can't see anything on those Dell laptop screens". But now these same Mac users are saying "Glossy is better, all computer screens should be glossy".

Before Apple made the MacBook Air or removed Firewire from the MacBook, Mac users were rubbing Firewire in PC users faces. "All Mac laptops have built in Firewire, target disk mode is so great". But now that Apple has removed Firewire from the MacBook, these same Mac users say "Who needs Firewire, just use USB".

So with all the apparent self contradiction from these Mac users, one has to wonder. Do these Mac users really believe what they are saying, or are they just echoing Apple's current party line and rationalizing after the fact? Partisanship at its finest.

[stephenrea]

The MacBook never had the option of a matte display, nor did it come with display adapters.
Those were features of the MacBook Pro. (which has eliminated both).
What has been elimintated from the original models is the remote, which is now optional.
The reason to no include adaptors is that they can't know which you'll need, and to include them all would raise the price of the computer by almost $100 ($200 now with the dual-link adapter being $100 by itself). So, they could include the wrong one any you'll be upset; or all of them and pay more. much better to include none and let you decide which it use

[JakeB]

Thanks for the observations, Dan, though there were a couple of places where you lost me. To wit:
1. No video adapters to save the environment? Gimme a break! Apple will make extra millions from all those who NEED to hook up their laptops. If Microsoft pulled such a move, all the fanboys would be crying about money-grubbing scumbags.
2. Most consumers don't use firewire? Hey, you got an old camcorder which relies on firewire? Go out and buy a new one, bub!
2.a. I guess if I walked away from my computer for an hour I'd find modem downloads no hassle either. If your time is precious, firewire transfer is considerably faster than USB. Ditching a superior technology? NOT a good idea.
3. The big one; I went to my local 'premium' Apple Reseller to take a look at the new MacBooks and MacBook Pros. The store is VERY white with very bright lighting -- under those conditions, holy s*, I could see EVERYTHING that was happening behind me while looking at the glossy screens -- very useful if you're James Bond.
This idea that if you're getting reflection you should just change position really bugs me. In the real world you walk into a crowded café, or you're sitting round a conference table, etc. and if you're getting bad reflection, tough, you're out of luck. This frequent NEED to change viewing angle, married to the UNCERTAINTY as to whether you'll encounter favorable lighting conditions, all adds up to glossy screens being less convenient than matte ones, given the reasonable assumption that a portable user will wish to work in multiple environments with variable lighting conditions.
And cranking up the brightness, as I did at the store, didn't solve the problem. It's like cranking up the volume on your iPod in a noisy room -- it's tiring and damaging to your eyes to stare at an overly brightened screen.
I'm very glad I bought my early 2008 matte-screen MacBook Pro. Apple should bring back up the option, the choice of matte or glossy. I think us consumers can handle it.
best,
Jake

[alanhoyle]

Will Henderson wrote the free "MultiClutch" prefs panel which lets a user add gestures to any program. http://wcrawford.org...-touch-my-cell/

This is a great addition to any multi-touch mac. I was used to using mouse gestures for most of my web browsers on my desktops, and I was resigned to using Safari for my "on-the-go" browsing. With MultiClutch, I can use gestures whatever browser I wish after configuration, or configure it for any application.

I am not related to the app in any way, just a satisfied user.

-a