Hello MacBook Pro
I should probably mention that I got a MacBook Pro on my birthday last week, so Apple clearly knows how to make me feel happy and stuff. Thank you Apple. I’m still using my PowerBook HD 15″ for day to day work, but I’m going to be doing some heavy playing with the MBP, in terms of making sure lots of software runs and if not why.
First things I notice and dislike about it are the lack of an S-Video port. I mean, how am I to display things out to a television? My Powerbook had this. My iBook’s have had this with an optional adapter. And now the MacBook doesn’t?
The loss of Firewire 800 isn’t too bad when you notice the loss of a, *drumroll please* PCMCIA/PC Card slot! What are they thinking? My mobile broadband Internet needs a PC Card slot, as does my CF card reader. I am not very pleased. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. I have a lot of Type II PCMCIA devices lying around from the old days that I tend to use from time to time.
And then, the lack of a modem. How, oh how, am I to live without one when I travel? Believe it or not, when I’m in Malaysia and Streamyx dicks me around I actually dial-up. Heck, when I spend time in Tasmania, I still dial up!
What about the MagSafe connector? I tried “tripping” on it, and I think my Powerbook’s connector is no different. Now this new connector is annoying – I can’t use the existing connectors that I already own, for starters. And I wanted to buy a battery pack (those 3rd party ones that go for about USD$200 at Fry’s) but I couldn’t because the MagSafe connector isn’t licensed to third-parties yet. Major bummer.
macbookpro on top of the powerbook hd
The new remote gadget is actually quite nice. On my to-do list include getting Linux running on this (properly), getting better iSight support in Linux (I wonder if I can still use the Firewire based work that’s already been done), and getting the FrontRow/remote integration bits sorted.
(and yes, I know they just released a MacBook. The black one looks, to say the least, sweet).
Congrats the new present man :) and happy uhh…belated birthday
Forgive me please, but as the owner of both a PowerBook and a MacBook Pro, does not the small trackpad of the top system and larger size of the bottom system, with the presence of an IR port, show that photo is of a PowerBook on top of a MacBook Pro and not t’other way around? :)
At a guess if its going in the direction of a lot of the newer webcams (logitech and some other integrated) it may well be using the USB Video Cam standard and there’s a linux driver available here -> http://developer.berlios.de/projects/linux-uvc/
thanks aizat.
and yes, Alex, you’re right. This is clearly labelling in haste!
Thanks for the link Peter, I’ll take a gander in a bit
hey bittyee who bought you a laptop for your birthday???
hey bitttyee check out this link…. can you do this with your macbook? fsat OS switching… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gE1XQyT_IbA&feature=Views&page=2&t=t&f=b
OK missX, you’re getting to be rather annoying with no real name and some rather silly comments. You’re coming in via the Monash proxy, so who in Monash are you?
If silly comments persists, and you don’t want to reveal yourself, I’ll be sure to mark a complaint down to ITS to ask them to provide some interesting fun to you =)
(and I doubt missX@hotmail.com works as an email address)
– love,
colin
[…] are all now coming with built-in iSight’s (and thinking back, I’ve been Intel-Mac for a little over a year now). Shiny happy people, […]
At a guess if its going in the direction of a lot of the newer webcams (logitech and some other integrated) it may well be using the USB Video Cam standard and there's a linux driver available here -> http://developer.berlios.de/projects/linux-uvc/