Arty's Mac Week

[arty]

Hello again The money juices are starting to flow a little and for various reasons I'm thinking about getting a Macbook.

Now, I remember hearing about the following problems when the range was first released:

1. Heat
2. Noise
3. Discolouration of the plastic
4. Screen quality (particularly with regards to response time)

I'm pretty sure I read that 3 is resolved, but what do people know of the others? I can't really justify spending a much larger sum on a Macbook Pro when I am only really using my Mini for 'simple' purposes at the moment (browsing, email, office-like stuff, web development, source control, calendar management etc.) and still using my PC for gaming. I'm particularly interested to hear honest opinions from Macbook owners, warts and all

A related question: are there any well-established ways of transferring personal data between Macs? I'm thinking particularly of my Address Book and iCal calendar, as well as Mail emails and ideally all of my settings and 'profile' information. Any info here would be most welcome.

Cheers as always for all responses, comments, feedback and answers

arty

 

[JonB]

I bought a macbook at christmas. Mine suffered from 1,2 and 4.

Mine actually broke not long ago and resulted in my macbook been completely replaced by apple. I now no-longer suffer from 2 or 4. 1 is a bit hit and miss and depends what surface the laptop is placed on etc.

 

[Deleted member 329]

i ve never suffered from any probs...screen can look dodge in certain lights... its gets hot... but never enough to be a problem...
i have a black macbook and its on pritty much on 24/7

 

[arty]

I bought a macbook at christmas. Mine suffered from 1,2 and 4.

Mine actually broke not long ago and resulted in my macbook been completely replaced by apple. I now no-longer suffer from 2 or 4. 1 is a bit hit and miss and depends what surface the laptop is placed on etc.

If you don't mind my asking, how did it break?

i ve never suffered from any probs...screen can look dodge in certain lights... its gets hot... but never enough to be a problem...
i have a black macbook and its on pritty much on 24/7

Sounds good. With regards to the screen, would you say that the dodginess would be down to the fact that it's glossy? If so, I'm not too worried as my current main monitor is glossy and I really like it

arty

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I've got a glossy Macbook Pro and it's the same as the matte I had, just looks nicer

Haven't had any issues with reflections at all.. definately recommend the gloss

 

[punky_munky]

I've had the HDD and battery replaced and the top casing replaced because of discoloration. The screen is fine, I often use it on the train with no problems. Heat can be a problem especially as one the fans seems to make a right racquet at certain speeds. Also, it seems to be more prone to total lock ups and crashes than my old G4 Mac Mini and iBook. All in all, a bit disappointed but I imagine they're better now they've had time to iron out the bugs.

 

[arty]

I've had the HDD and battery replaced and the top casing replaced because of discoloration. The screen is fine, I often use it on the train with no problems. Heat can be a problem especially as one the fans seems to make a right racquet at certain speeds. Also, it seems to be more prone to total lock ups and crashes than my old G4 Mac Mini and iBook. All in all, a bit disappointed but I imagine they're better now they've had time to iron out the bugs.

OK, that's some interesting feedback. Did you buy a fairly 'early' Macbook, soon after they came out? I don't like the sound of heat, noise and crashes

Maybe a Macbook Pro would be a better choice

arty

 

[Jet]

A related question: are there any well-established ways of transferring personal data between Macs? I'm thinking particularly of my Address Book and iCal calendar, as well as Mail emails and ideally all of my settings and 'profile' information. Any info here would be most welcome.

arty

.mac

http://www.apple.com/dotmac/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.mac#Mac_OS_integration

Whilst expensive, I don't regret it one bit and couldn't live without it if i'm honest.

I use it primarily to sync my bookmarks/iCal entries with my iMac and iBook. Plus you get a nice professional email address.

For mail messages the only way I know of to get near to what you want is to use .mac and sync the accounts. Then make sure you tick 'leave a copy of the message on the server' and the mails will download to both. You'll obviously have to delete the junk twice though. Not sure if there is a better way.

 

[arty]

.mac

http://www.apple.com/dotmac/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.mac#Mac_OS_integration

Whilst expensive, I don't regret it one bit and couldn't live without it if i'm honest.

I use it primarily to sync my bookmarks/iCal entries with my iMac and iBook. Plus you get a nice professional email address.

For mail messages the only way I know of to get near to what you want is to use .mac and sync the accounts. Then make sure you tick 'leave a copy of the message on the server' and the mails will download to both. You'll obviously have to delete the junk twice though. Not sure if there is a better way.

Hmm, paying for that sort of thing probably isn't something I'll consider for the moment - but thanks anyway. I'll have a poke about

arty

 

[JonB]

If you don't mind my asking, how did it break?

One of the usb ports stopped functioning 100%. It would work (albeit slowly) with USB Memory sticks, but refused to work with my mouse!

The apple genii's said it was the first time they had ever seed the kind of behavior that it showed!

All is good now though, my new one works 100%.

 

[punky_munky]

OK, that's some interesting feedback. Did you buy a fairly 'early' Macbook, soon after they came out? I don't like the sound of heat, noise and crashes

Maybe a Macbook Pro would be a better choice

arty

I ordered one about 30 minutes after they went on sale so yes, fairly early. My friend got a fairly early model too and has had the motherboard, battery and magnetic lid sensor replaced.

My flatmate has a new Core2Duo model and it is fairly flawless - much cooler temperatures and noticeably snappier to use around OS X.

 

[arty]

One of the usb ports stopped functioning 100%. It would work (albeit slowly) with USB Memory sticks, but refused to work with my mouse!

The apple genii's said it was the first time they had ever seed the kind of behavior that it showed!

All is good now though, my new one works 100%.

That sounds pretty obscure and hopefully a one-off

I ordered one about 30 minutes after they went on sale so yes, fairly early. My friend got a fairly early model too and has had the motherboard, battery and magnetic lid sensor replaced.

My flatmate has a new Core2Duo model and it is fairly flawless - much cooler temperatures and noticeably snappier to use around OS X.

Great, that's good to know. I'm going to have a bit more of a think about it this weekend but everyone's help on here has been very useful - a lot of this information can only really come from people who have owned and used the machines for a decent period of time, rather than reviews who have them for maybe a week or two. Thanks all

arty

 

[Dredd]

sorry to go bit off topic, but how do you resize a window in macos?

my msn contact list window is very very wide now, don't know how to resize it

 

[chex]

from the botton right corner

 

[Deleted member 329]

i think all the problems had been worked out by the core 2 duo release.
but saying that i had a core duo one before that and i was also great.. no problems no heat issues...

i am not sure i would get one now tho... dont get me wrong , its genuinely the best bit of kit ive owned, never let me down, solid as a rock, looks nice too plus i can do all my windows based shananagins on it too.
yeah anyway the reason i wouldnt buy one now is that i believe in the next few months there will be a big update across the whole mac line.. upgraded macbooks or even totally new models, worth waiting until june

 

[arty]

i am not sure i would get one now tho... dont get me wrong , its genuinely the best bit of kit ive owned, never let me down, solid as a rock, looks nice too plus i can do all my windows based shananagins on it too.
yeah anyway the reason i wouldnt buy one now is that i believe in the next few months there will be a big update across the whole mac line.. upgraded macbooks or even totally new models, worth waiting until june

Any particular reason why June? Sounds like you've heard a rumour I will hold off for the moment if the general consensus is that a refresh is likely. Thanks for the heads-up.

arty

 

[chex]

santa rosa comes out may 6th so...

 

[Deleted member 651465]

Actually, the next range is believed to be delayed now.

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/04/27/apples-subnotebook-delayed-until-late-2007-early-2008/

 

[WotDa]

Actually, the next range is believed to be delayed now.

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/04/27/apples-subnotebook-delayed-until-late-2007-early-2008/

That makes me weirdly happy!

I can't say I've got much noise on my MBP at all though, the odd HDD twitter every now and then.

But then there's the superdrive, which eally does sound quite super.

 

[arty]

Actually, the next range is believed to be delayed now.

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/04/27/apples-subnotebook-delayed-until-late-2007-early-2008/

As the 'Macbook Mini' will probably be out of my price range, I'm not so worried about that, though that article does quite reasonably suggest that Apple might be working on other models based on the Santa Rosa platform. If that's the case, I suppose an updated Macbook could be out shortly after Intel's new chipset is released.

It's always so difficult to know when to wait and when not to; last year I decided I'd had enough of waiting when I went ahead and put together my new PC with AMD's new AM2 platform. Almost as soon as I had finished building it Intel finally released some solid dates for the Core 2 range and I was most unhappy

arty