My first 60 hours with a MacBook Pro....
 

Well. I have spent the weekend working with the new Macbook pro 17 I bought on Friday. Here are my thoughts so far....

1. Very simple to setup, The biggest issue I have had so far is seting up my wireless interent. For some reason the airport does not like WEP enabled on my neatgear. Just need to find the fix I'm sure. But without WEP it works fine.

2. I do photography.. So I figured I might as well get Apature and see if I like it, words still out on that for me.

3. Photoshop c2s, Bibble, dreamweaver 8 etc... all work great. FACT I belive this laptop is actually faster than my twin athlon desktop system. Going to do some encoding test to find out.

4. I get about 1 email every 4 days from a MAC user that can't play the WMV from my site. So I took this as a chnace to figure out the issue myself. Had it solved in about 10 minutes. Found a FREE utility that allows WMV to be played in quicktime, works flawless, still in beta though, will offer link to it on my site for other mac users.

5. HATE the fucking one button mouse. Had to plug in an external mouse... now I have my right clicking back and am a happy camper, I like the external mouse better anyways, more control.

6. Widgets... interesting, have actually found a few that I actually use. Nice idea.

7. built in software... seems nice so far. I'm running iDVD for the first time right now, doing a "magic DVD" I pluged in my vx2000 via firewire, started this program, it asked my to put a blank DVD in, then rewound the TAPe, started the capture and is creating the DVD from the tape... ALL by itself. No driver issues, no fucking around with equipment... it just worked the first time... That to me is impressive. Also a great way to be able to give copys of contnet to others dureing shoots, as I can copy a dvd in about 11 minutes using another program I own.

8. Operating system... yes mac does crash.. at least I have gotten a few programs to hang. I'm pushing it pretty hard, still a lot more stable than XP so far.

9. Networking. worked flawless, saw my network automatically, allowed me to connect to my XP machines, been moving files around with no problem. Very simple.

10. web surfing... well I have to admit the first thing I did was download firefox for mac.. Like it a lot better than the built in "safari" But I'm use to it. Looks and works the same as my XP version.

All in all, I'm very happy with this laptop. But, for almost 4k I better be... LOL. I would not be afraid to suggest the switch to anyone. At first I thought I was going to try Boot Camp to allow me to dual boot to XP but, I have been able to find every program I use native osx, with the exception of Nikon Capture, which I'm sure is coming out soon, since they already have versions from the non Intel CPU Macs. But the only reason I need and use capture is to remote control my D2x using the wt-a2 wireless device... so no big hurry anyways. On that note, the wireless unit for the d2x found and worked with the laptops FTP the first time, total time to set it up, less than 5 minutes... NICE! fucked with XP for hours to finally get it working, but than, only after configuring it to run though an external router... pain in the ass.

Ok thats my report to date!

With WEP, you have to select the right encryption type.

Which type?

Ehm, 128 I believe. Not on my mac right now, so I can't tell you where to do it. Anyway, this was what went wrong with me the first time.

I want a macbook :(

When I get home I will look for you. I remember having a problem like this too.

:thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup :thumbsup

1. I am pretty sure it is the 128 bit encryption also.

2. Would be very interested to hear more about how you like apature. Initial reports weren't very good.

5. you MUST get this http://www.apple.com/mightymouse

:thumbsup

That one button mouse thing... to right click you already know that you hold ctrl and click, right? I'm on my Powerbook right now. When on my iMac or the G5 Power PC I use a normal mouse (Microsoft mouse - I love them) but on my Powerbook I've gotten used to the ctrl + click for right click and actually like it better than a two button mouse. It took some getting used to at first but now it's awesome.

Also... take some time with Safari. That'll grow on you too. You'll need to configure it how you want it. It'll do tabbed browsing just like Firefox and it uses up less system resources (I think - I've never tested that theory but it seems to be the case).

Also... I love surfing GFY with Safari. I Apple Click on the threads I want to read and they open in new tabs immediately. I believe you can also do the same in Firefox but seriously... give Safari a chance once in awhile. :)

Care to share?

how much was it? if I may ask..

http://www.flip4mac.com/wmv.htm

Microsoft has given up supporting anything beyond WMP 9 on macs so you're pretty screwed for anything with DRM in the future. Not many ways Microsoft can stick it to mac users, but this is one..

I know about ctrl click, but the macbook pro 17s pad is far enough away from the rest of the keyboard thats it really not that handy of the reach. external mouse, still the answer.

Laptop, 2gigs ram, the 120 gig HD, basically the top system you can buy right now... Plus Aperture, a 3 year service agreement 3800 bucks. They tossed in 56 hours of MAC private training on any program I would like to learn, going to use it with Final Cut pro, Need to actually learn it.

Yup this this the program, but I found links to the NEW beta and was able to download it, it works perfect.

I have always encoding using version 9 with WM for several reasons.

1. The Mac issue, has always been an issue and I knew that some mac users seemed to be able to get it to work, now I know why.

2. MAS- I use MAS to run my members area. I have a feature that will automatically create the thumbs for all my video and all the seperate chopped clips of that video. But only works with version 9 or WMV and below.

Honestly.. I have really started thinking about droping WMV for something more open source like Divx. Sure the surfers have to download the codec, but it's free and it seems to work great. The MOV. format would be something else I would use, since every windows computer I have ever owned has been able to play them. MPeg, It's way to big a file to get good quility video, not the answer. Would like to hear other opinions on this...

awsome write-up.

awsome write-up.

good deal wish I had less probs with my new laptop

good to know..i have been camping in the mac stores trying to get the balls up to buy one

Well if you do, download the free "Evil Money" widget... LOL It's quotes from the family guy show... fits you it looks like... :)

Mine got here an I FUCKING LOVE it. I'm using it for strictly personal purposes for the time being. We'll see how long that lasts.

I have the "futurama" quotes widget too.

:1orglaugh

congratz to your new NOTEBOOK

I got my 17 inch Macbook Pro about a month ago, and I love it! Safari ain't that bad once you get used to it. In my opinion, it renders webpages much faster than Firefox - what I do miss are the SearchStatus and Adsense Notifier extensions, I wish Safari had them available.

I'll keep the tread going as I find out stuff. I'm about to install Final cut Pro to it and check it out for the first time.

:thumbsup :thumbsup We should start a "MacBook Pro for Porn" Club!

MAcs are really great and macbooks are really sexy. I love my MAC for sure. Too bad I still have to use a PC for submissions and other silly stuffs :(

:thumbsup

I've actually learned that Firefox is pretty buggy on the Mac... after heavy use without restarting it, it often has troubles rendering the pages as I scroll up and down the page. The text seems to "stick" to the screen, as the backgroud scrolls around - this effect is pretty annoying, I need to Apple-R to re-render the page.

Other than that, the Macbook is a pure workhorse, it virtually makes me get work done. My windows box offers so many more distractions.

You can always run something like Parallel and do your PC based submissions on your Mac.

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

Very interesting! Thanks for the update!

iView Media Pro is FAR better than Aperture in my opinion.

Is that "Flip4Mac"? If so in my opinion it really sucks in the long run.

I love the mac mice. Control-Click is the equiv. of right click.

I've turned them off - they just use up A LOT of RAM

Safari is actually the bomb if you get used to it. Tabbed browsing is awesome.

i dont make enough money to aford a mac.

why did you buy any mac? :\

So, another update for those that care....

iDVD just finished it's job...

Plugged in my vx2000... No drivers nothing... Started the program Idvd, did a "magic movie" option, The program asked me to insert a blank DVD Then it Rewound the DV tape with 59 minutes of video, started the capture, Encoded the video and burned it to the blank DVD... ALL TOTALLY on it's own... no input or anything from me needed, simple start it and wal away.. total time to finished DVD popping out, almost 2 hours exactly. That including the hour it took to capture the footage from the tape!

I grabbed the DVD stuck it in my XP computer... it's beautiful! Actually, one of the best DVDs I have encoded... I'm fucking impressed as hell here..

So, the program (iDVD) when it was done with this first DVD, prompted me to insert another Blank DVD if I would like another copy.. So I did, for shits and giggles, to see what it would do... When directly to burning the second copy, no reencoding anything.. total time to second DVD popping out the machine ready to use... 10 minutes. On a LAPTOP DVD burner non the less!

All this with a built in, free piece of software.No hardware to setup... just plugged it in, No fucking around with a capture program, switching to an encoding program, fucking with settings, Then switching to some DVD buring program and hoping it all worked. I love this...

XP has Nothing on this program.

I did the same thing when I bought my first mac laptop. Finally one day I came in with the cash and told them that today I would be buying. :1orglaugh

Gerco-

Love your Mac story
One suggestion I would like to make is on the mice, try a 5-button Kensignton programmable. There are prolly others out there but I have always used Kensington.
Check this page:
us.kensington.com/html/1420.html

I just bought the 72129 wireless and I love but I don't like that fact that under heavy use the batteries only last a day. Even with rechargeable ones, still a pain. I'd get the non-wireles as other than that can't recommend it highly enough.

Because some people evolve into more intelligent beings over time.