Abby and Win’s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘macbook pro’

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.

	MB990LL/A (new)	MA464LL/A (old)
Processor:	2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo	2.0GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory:	2GB 1066MHz DDR3 (Upgradeable to 8GB)	2GB 667MHz DDR2 PC2-5300 (max)
Hard Drive:	500GB SATA 5400rpm	100GB SATA 5400rpm
Grapics Card:	Nvidia GeForce 9400m 256MB shared	ATI Mobility Radeo X1600 256MB GDD3 dedicated
Display:	13.3-inch LED-backlit glossy 1280×800 resolution	15.4-inch TFT 1440×900 resolution
Expansion:	One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps), two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps), SD card slot	One FireWire 400, two USB 2.0 ports, and ExpressCard/34 slot
Network:	Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet	Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet (didn’t know it had Gigabit)
Wireless:	Built-in AirPort Extreme Wi-Fi (based on IEEE 802.11n draft specification); built-in Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate) module	Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g standard); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Weight:	4.5 pounds	5.6 pounds

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/.

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.

I just want to let you know the experience I had with upgrade to Leopard from Tiger. The upgrade went smooth on my PowerMac G5. It took about 48 minutes. All my apps seem to still be compatible.

Then I started to upgrade my MacBook Pro. Things looked normal. The trouble started after my laptop restarted once the upgrade process completed. It was stuck in the all too familiar blue screen of death (Apple version). I felt like I was back in Windows again. Apparently, it’s giving many people problems as well – http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1195031&tstart=0.

I left it on that screen over night and woke up this morning still in the same screen. There are 2 possible solutions that I’ve read so far in that long list of discussion.

Option 1: Archive and Install. This is the route I took and so far it seems to work. There are reported issues with Mail crashing when doing this method though. I don’t use Mail much so it is not a concern. This will require more hard drive space, I believe an extra 4GB is needed.

Option 2: Restart in Single User mode and enter some commands. I would’ve tried this by the time I read the post, I was already doing the Archive and Install. There is a chance that your administrator rights will be removed.

So far:

- Time Machine lives up to the hype. You are still able to use the selected external hard drive as a regular storage drive along with using it with Time Machine.
- Browsing other computers on the network have never been easier.
- Spotlight will be indexing your files after the install/upgrade. Depending on how much data you have, will determine how long it takes. On my G5 it took about 30. It will not prevent you from doing other things. It runs quietly in the background.
- Quick Look is great and fast. Viewing files from Windows displays the “blue screen of death” as the icon.

Hope this helps you guys. Even though I had problems upgrading my laptop, I still feel it’s worth the upgrade. Just make sure to back up.

And finally, I am glad I got to experience an Apple release event. There were about 200 people in line as they started to sell Leopard. It’s interesting that even though there are not many Apple users as Windows users; whenever Apple has something new to offer, majority of its users respond.

UPDATE: My MBP was affected by the admin bug. I was worried for a moment and I didn’t feel like doing a clean install tonight. Here’s what I did:

1. Shutdown
2. Turn on the computer and hold down Apple + S to get in to single user mode
3. Type: /sbin/mount -uw /
4. Type: passwd
5. Enter your new password for root
6. Confirm it by retyping it again
7. Type: reboot
8. Once your back in, go to System Preference and edit your user accounts. When it asks for the admin’s username and password, enter root and the new password
9. Logoff and log back in and your set

Hope that helps some of you.

I was using my Blackberry Pearl tethered to the laptop before and it uses EDGE to get internet access while away from home or work. It was horrible at best. I was lucky to get over 70kbps. On average I would get 48kbps. So I started to look for an alternative. I checked out AT&T since they started to use 3G. According to one of the sales associate, T-Mobile no longer rents towers from AT&T. Instead they sold all their old towers to them. Not sure how much truth is in that, but thought it was interesting. Basically, T-Mobile bought old technology from AT&T. Again, this is from an AT&T sales associate. There is no confirmation whether it is true or false or he’s just trying to get my business.

Then I went to Verizon and checked out what they have. To my surprise, they have a deal where all of their broadband access cards are free with a 2 year contract. I’m hesitant on getting the whole 2 year contract thing but I went with it anyway since in California you get a 30 day trial whereas 14 days elsewhere. I picked up the Verizon V740. So far it has been great. Areas where it is predominantly Verizon coverage, I’m getting over 900kbps down and 300kbps up. Otherwise I’m getting an average of 200kbps down and 100kbps up. Browsing is a lot better either way compared to what I had with T-Mobile. Playing World of Warcraft in areas where I get slower connection isn’t that great but tolerable.

The $60 monthly is a bit high but it may be worth it in the long run. Also, the V740 can only be used with the new Express slot.

Looking at the picture above, I’m beginning to miss my Nokia N80IE and it’s 3MP camera