My new MBP 13″ MB990LL/A

I finally bought the new Macbook Pro 13″ MB990LL/A last Saturday. It’s replacing my first gen Macbook Pro 15″ MA464LL/A. It’s 3 years old and still works great but it overheats. I was able to get a free iPod Touch 8GB and a $100 towards a printer – after rebate. I thought I could pull out my old hard drive from my 15″ and swap it with the 13″ but I was wrong. I’m guessing because the processor is different – Core Duo and Core 2 Duo. It took half of Saturday to transfer my files over but I got it to how I had my old laptop on the new one. With the help of Migration Assistant, the task was simple. It only took longer than I thought because I had a lot of files to transfer over.

I’ve already upgraded the storage with a Seagate 500GB hard drive and I’m planning on upgrading the ram to 4GB. So far, what has impressed me is the battery life compared to my old MBP. Here’s a comparison between my old and new MBP current setup.

My old MBP was a work horse so I expect nothing less with the new one. I am however, taking a big hit on the video card being shared but I won’t be doing much video editing as I thought I did in the beginning.

Here is my initial Pros and Cons on the MBP 13″ compared to my old MBP 15″.

Pros:

• Improved battery life
• Upgrading HDD and ram is painless
• Runs at a lower temperature
• Trackpad gestures similar to the iPhone
• Firewire 800
• SD Card reader
• Cheaper
• Ram is expandable to 8GB
• Core 2 Duo

Cons:

• Shared video memory. I noticed a much lower FPS while playing WoW and visit a heavy populated area – while running other programs in the backgroun (ie: iTunes, Firefox, Quicktime, and other apps)
• No ExpressCard slot
• No Firewire 400 port
• Scratches easier
• Being a pound lighter, it doesn’t feel at all lighter

I’ll probably extend my list more as I continue to use it. So far I’m impressed. It’s a great upgrade for me. Here’s some pics I took http://www.flickr.com/photos/w1n78/sets/72157621866087202/.

Apple announces their new toys for Summer 2009

Today Apple announced new products: the iPhone 3G S and a 13″ version of the Macbook Pro. First, the new iPhone 3G S. I’m not too excited about this one. Most of my excitement has been sucked dry by AT&T’s lack of coverage area. It’s supposedly 2x faster, has video capture support, 32GB model, voice activated controls, and better battery life – it’s still doesn’t help get a better reception with AT&T. My iPhone is a cell phone first before any other goodies that it can do and unfortunately, it doesn’t do a good job of being a cell phone. I just can’t wait until AT&T’s exclusive deal is over and hope that a better and a more reasonable monthly cost provider gets the deal.

The second new hardware announced today is the 13″ version of the Macbook Pro line. After reading the headline and initial stats, I was excited and glad I didn’t get a new laptop to replace my old MBP yet. This is basically the black Macbook with added power and ports. There are 2 models, one with 2.26GHz and 2GB ram and the 2.53GHz and 4GB ram. I almost decided on getting the 4GB ram model until I did a comparison between all the models. Now the prices have decreased but here’s where I get disappointed. Both 13″ model have Firewire 800 support – great! But how many devices do I own or reasonably priced devices that support this connection? Nowhere did I see a listing for Firewire 400 support excep the 12″ Macbook model. The video card is also shared memory, unless you go for the high end 15″ model or the 17″ model. Another missing port is the ExpressCard / 34 slot. This is only available on the 17″ MBP model. Currently, I am using this slot for my Verizon V70 internet card. They did however, gain a SD card slot. Haha, I’d trade that slot in for any of the other missing ports I mentioned in a heartbeat any day!

I really do want a new laptop and a smaller one. I’d have to look at what I’ll be using it for and if the lacking hardware will be an issue. Either way, I’m looking into getting one in a few months.

Hurray, iPhone OS 3.0 preview

Today, Apple held a preview of their upcoming iPhone OS 3.0 and SDK. A lot of my wants will be coming. I may keep my iPhone 3G longer than planned – even though AT&T’s coverage is garbage. Here are a few that I’ve read about so far.

• MMS support (Finally! Welcome to half a decade ago, if not more.)
• Copy and paste (The pics during the demo looked promising and easy to use.)
• Spotlight search (Though I don’t use it enough on Leopard, it’s a great tool to search across multiple locations.)
• Peer to peer connection via Bonjour
• Multiple players for games
• CalDAV support
• Voice memos
• Sync notes
• Turn by turn map
• Modem tethering was mentioned but not demo’d ( I wonder once this capability is available, how much will AT&T charge extra? )

Those are just some of the new features that will be released sometime this summer (damn, that long?). Beta is available for developers today. I may look into the SDK more this time and maybe develop some stuff too – not sure yet though.

You can read the play by play on Engadget’s website – http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/17/live-from-apples-iphone-os-3-0-preview-event/. Thanks Apple, I’m a little excited about my iPhone again.

Apple rebates under 1 week

My cousin Von just bought a Macbook last Monday February 2. Apple is giving a $100 rebate with a purchase of a printer. He didn’t want a printer so I bought a Canon Selphy for $100 which made it free after rebate. You can now submit this rebate online at www.apple.com/promo. You will need to enter the ID number at the bottom of the receipt. I submitted the rebate that same night and today I got the rebate in the mail. I didn’t even need to enter any serial number or submit the UPC. It’s fast and convenient. Some companies are  already using this method but even then the rebates take around a month or more. Kudos! to Apple.

iPhone 2.2 released

Apple has recently released iPhone version 2.2. Safari has been updated and now has the Google search box next to the URL box. I don’t like it myself since it looks like it was squeezed in there. There are other fixes and updates but…

I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. The iPhone 3G is an international and supports multiple languages. But what if your country isn’t listed and you want to text or email people in your native language that isn’t supported? Well for months I was faced with this and the auto-correction bugged the crap out of me until I hacked my iPhone just so that I can disable the auto-correction. But now, Apple has finally implented the setting and am back to the original settings.

Why did it take so long Apple?