My new sexy thing

More first impressions of my MacBook Pro:

  • I still hate the name. Just sayin’. Sounds dorky. I tend to call it “MBP”, or “That sexy thing” or (if someone else is eyeing it) “My precioussssss”.
  • It is definitely fast, the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. I can’t wait to compile some software (gotta have my Unix tools) or (finally!) actually be able to play some games on a Mac. I was worried that my older applications that I don’t feel like upgrading (I’ve got an old copy of MS Office X and I am not giving Microsoft any more money; and Intuit wants $40.00 more for the Mac version of Quicken 2006 than the Windows version? WTF?!) would be too slow, since they’re not optimized for Intel and have to run under Rosetta. Um… I needn’t have worried because, even with the emulation, they’re running faster on the MBP than they did on my G3 iBook.
  • Field reports are talking about two “problems” with the machines: first, a white “stripe” (not these guys) or lines along the bottom edge of the screen. If I’m looking for it, on certain desktop backgrounds, in the dark, I can see it. But even then it doesn’t bother me, and the rest of the time I don’t notice it.
  • …and second, a “hissing” or “chirping” noise when the display is dimmed. Try as I might, I can’t hear this at all. At least, not over the ringing in my ears… Some reports suggest this is the second processor as the sound disappears when the second processor is turned off.
  • My SuperDrive is really noisy on bootup – just whirs and clicks a lot. Startled me at first. Stops doing that before I even get to the login screen, though. I will watch this one and if it continues, I’ll bring it in to the Genius Bar. It reads disks just fine, though, and doesn’t seem to be noisy while reading the disks. Luckily, I don’t reboot very often.

More details this weekend, and more pictures coming.