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Right on!

I bought a black macbook on black friday. just waiting for it to arrive!

I thought long and hard about paying the extra bit to have a good desktop, or having a cheap macbook.

With the capacity to have the macbook upgraded to 4gb, it's now more future proof than the iMac.

And plus, the future is the trackpad, not the mouse.

Nov 28, 07 - 07:35 pm Comment from: WBFS

Even before the much maligned "glossy screen" iMac I had decided to switch from a G5 iMac to the then new 15" MacBook Pro. A 20" Cinema display for critical editing and all is good! Apple needs to get larger HD's standard in the portables then the sales will really skyrocket. Desktops may never die, just slowly fade away.

Nov 28, 07 - 07:36 pm Comment from: Murasaki

OK. This is probably heresy but....

...I don't like touchpads. I prefer the little nubs that some laptop makers put on their laptops,but the only one that is worth anything is the one on the ThinkPad series.

But that is just me. I hate pads.

"Desktops may never die, just slowly fade away"

Nothing better (price wise) then a 24" 2.8Ghz iMac on the desk, with leopard screen sharing to the MacBook.

Giddy up

MW: need - I need my iMac

Nov 28, 07 - 07:48 pm Comment from: coolfactor

"..I don't like touchpads. I prefer the little nubs that some laptop makers put on their laptops,but the only one that is worth anything is the one on the ThinkPad series."

You've got to be kidding me! Those little "nubs" are horrible input devices. At least I've never found them intuitive or easy to use.

As for the trackpad, do you use the two-finger scrolling technique? That's highly addictive.

37!

Nov 28, 07 - 08:01 pm Comment from: alansky

The fact that "Apple continues to consistently sell more laptops than desktops" may not be entirely the result of the overall growth of the Mac market. My guess is that it's also specifically related to the growing popularity of Macs among the younger generation, who are perhaps choosing the Mac in larger numbers than their older counterparts and who are also much more likely to live a mobile lifestyle.

Well,
If I have a notebook, and my wife has a notebook, and we still have a desktop then that means twice as many notebooks in our house. Notebooks tend to be more "personal" than the desktop, so you may see multiple folks in a household with a laptop. A desktop is still nice to have, tho.

Some people shy away from all-in-ones and the Mac Pro is more than they want, so.....

Nov 28, 07 - 08:43 pm Comment from: qka

OS X has long supported the "right click" for context sensitive menus. Apple released the Mighty Mouse, that supports "right click". When will they make a "right click" for the Mac Books, be it a second button or something wonderfully innovative in the Apple tradition ? <Ctrl> click just doesn't cut it!

(For the lefties out there, please replace "right" with "left".)

Maybe we're all tired of waiting for an affordable desktop that we can upgrade!

Don't get me wrong, I love my cheese grater (G5) but it's getting long in the tooth and I need to replace it.

as far as the contextual menus go...how about they just re-institute how it was in like OS 8 where you could simply hold down the mouse button and the contextual menu would appear?
Unsanity's Fruit Menu for Tiger allows this. Hasn't yet been updated for Leopard though.

Nov 28, 07 - 09:20 pm Comment from: Arnold Ziffel

Amazing that folks just gotta have them "right clicking blues" or else they'll never be able to get anything done with their Macs. I never right click on anything, and yet I am able to get things done on our Macs.

Simpler is better.

Can anybody take a guess when those new Macbook Pros come out? I wanna buy one (17") for Christmas, but I don't wanna be stuck with dead tech if Apple comes out with something new in January. It's been about 2 years that the MBP has been on the market. Suggestions?

Nov 28, 07 - 09:52 pm Comment from: kirkgray

To "right click" on your MacBook or MacBook Pro trackpad:

Goto System Preferences >> Keyboard & Mouse. Check "For secondary clicks, place two fingers on teh trackpad then click the button."

Now point to something. Drop a second finger anywhere on the trackpad. Click. Voila!

With 2 finger scroll and 2 finger "right clicks", the MacBook's trackpad is the best mouse I've ever owned!

Nov 28, 07 - 09:59 pm Comment from: Big Al

Ian B.,

Buy a 17" HP or Dell.

That way you'll be screwed from the get go.

Nov 28, 07 - 10:05 pm Comment from: kirkgray

"Can anybody take a guess when those new Macbook Pros come out? I wanna buy one (17") for Christmas, but I don't wanna be stuck with dead tech if Apple comes out with something new in January. It's been about 2 years that the MBP has been on the market. Suggestions?"

History:
Intro'd -- 01/10/2006
Update -- 05/16/2006 ~ 5 months
Update -- 10/24/2006 ~ 6 months
Update -- 06/05/2007 ~ 7 months
Update -- 11/01/2007 ~ 5 months

Next update (best guess, based on history): between April and June 2008.

Got both, prefer a tower, more power, larger screen, insanly fast video card and hard drives.

MacBook is good for the mobile basics, but once you have tasted pure speed, you won't look at a laptop the same way again.

Nov 28, 07 - 11:23 pm Comment from: ElderNorm

Sorry, but I tend to prefer the iMac. Mine is a 20 in G5 but I could learn to love a 24 in iMac. Drool Drool

Nov 28, 07 - 11:27 pm Comment from: macaholic

@FUDsucker
How does not liking "all-in-ones" lead to buying MacBooks (or any laptop)? Aren't they the ultimate All-in-One?

Desktops hold extreme value over laptops in pro markets.
An 8-core Mac Pro has no comparison in laptop markets and
won't for an extremely long time.

Touchpads = lame. Logitech Marble Mouse = awesome!

I like the MacBooK, But it's the damn Integrated Graphics that get to me.

I Will keep trailing with my OL Reliable 12' iBook G4 1.2GHz with 768mb Ram and with Leopard Happily running on it.

IF Apple drops the price to $999 and a capable graphics card, then I might consider it. I paid $699 for my iBook back in Mid 2005 because it was leftover inventory before the last iBook Update. Still Runs strong and trouble free. Only the battery's juice doesn't stay up for 6 hours anymore, It's Like 4 now.

I used Powerbooks for years and finally got tired of all the spinning beach balls. I got a Mac Pro tower (four cores) in July and I am hooked. It's wonderful with three monitors.

@ qka: besides what kirkgray just said, you can also have a "right click" on a MacBook by tapping the trackpad with two fingers. Just activate this in the System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Trackpad.

IMHO even better than a right mouse button!

I have a very nice MacBook (Intel) from last year, but.. amazingly, cannot run Leopard. I have had the BaseSystem error and it has NO "3rd party" RAM in it.

Can someone PLEASE tell me what I can do to get Leopard on this baby? (please email me with any ideas. )

Thanks guys, I have Leopard at home but when I tried to install it: disaster~

I resucitated my baby with Tiger, but I'm jonesing for the new OS.

My Big-screen iMac Airported to my MacBook Pro

=

Ideal marriage


ps. Prefer my cordless Mighty Mouse to a trackpad though

Regarding Mike's query as to why he is unable to install Leopard -- you MAY have a bad install disk -- mine was defective -- would install an operational Leopard on both my Xeon Mac tower, as well as my Macbook -- but BOTH had hinky issues that were inconsistent and unpredictable -- would sometimes slow down randomly, with spinning beach ball, and Finder sluggishness on occasion -- traded in my defective Leopard install DVD for a replacement at my local Apple store, reinstalled Leopard, and both machines now work perfectly -- full of Leopard goodness.

BTW, have new Macbook with 4 GB of RAM -- this machine is quite the superstar -- am able to run 10-12 simultaneously open applications with no "spinning beach ball" -- and STILL have 1.5 GB of RAM free, according to the activity monitor -- which still allows me enough free RAM to run WinXP under VMWare.

Niffy

Too bad it's GLOSSY!!

*sorry, just have to, lol.

The only way i can work with a laptop is to use it with a mouse or a tablet...

It used to be that when you bought a laptop, you'd get (roughly) half the capability of a desktop at twice the price.

That's not the case anymore. Now, the only real difference for someone other than an image, sound or movie professional to buy an iMac, Macbook Pro or Mac Pro are the graphics cards over the integrated graphics. Everyone also has at least one extra monitor lying around, and laptops now support display spanning.

I really can't think of a compelling reason to get a iMac or MacPro, to be honest. Okay, desktop lovers, bring on the flame (sigh).

Thanks for the advice Niff Stipples, anyone else get PAST the Base System error, could you let me know how you did?

I read about this problem around the web, and I'm worried a new DVD won't do the trick. Needless to say my experience with the 'Leopard Install' was very disappointing, what makes it worse is my roommate just got a new Macbook with Leopard pre-installed and it looks amazing~~~

I'd install it with his disk but those grey 'backup disks' cannot be used that way..

damn. . thanks a mil, you guys~

As Apple grows market share, the number of units of each model sold should increase. At some point it should make sense to introduce a smaller tower, even if it appeals to only a small fraction of buyers. Providing room for only a single processor module would avoid undercutting Mac Pro sales. For me, the advantages are: room for two hard drives (this seems like an obvious need now that Time Machine is out), room for two optical drives (so the CivIV disk can stay parked in one), the potential for more than 4G of RAM, although that is the current sweet spot, and the ability to swap the video card 2-3 years into the life of the system. As a testament to the advantages of this approach, I still have a couple G4s around that are quite usable (my current machine is a Core Duo 20").

Nov 29, 07 - 08:53 am Comment from: dab2

clyde, no flame here, but come on. You can't see the advantage to 8 cores over two or the advantage to the better cooling found in a tower system? I love my powerbooks and macbook, but the Mac Pro is way more computer.

Nov 29, 07 - 09:05 am Comment from: Jamie

I love my BlackMacBook, it goes everywhere with me.

right click problem was solved with a bit of brain thought - tap 2 finger onto the trackpad and the contextual menu appears.

One question - I got a 2.16Ghz with 2GB of RAM - can I put 4GB in? Or is that only the new MacBooks that can handle that amount?

Nov 29, 07 - 10:21 am Comment from: Think

@ Mike

Check here for your problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=235

If no one else has reported it, create a new post with your info. You may be surprised by how helpfull the other users are.
Later.

touchpads suck.
My notebooks all have a USB mouse attached.

My next computer will be a desktop...

Nov 29, 07 - 10:43 am Comment from: auren

I've been using Mac Books ever since the Pismo PowerBook, one of the original 'Black Beauties'. Right now I have a MacBook Pro, my daughter has an iBook and our household has the last generation Power Book. I never really thought about it before, but the laptop transition became complete 2 years ago when I 'converted' my sister-in-law by giving her our faithful iMac 'lamp' style desktop.

And fwiw, the track pad is WAYYYY ahead of any eraser-head input device.

Hope all our American friends had a great Thanksgiving Holiday!

Nov 29, 07 - 01:44 pm Comment from: kirkgray

@ Jamie who asked "I got a 2.16Ghz with 2GB of RAM - can I put 4GB in? Or is that only the new MacBooks that can handle that amount?"

The 2.16 Ghz MacBooks officially support 2 GB of RAM. But tests show they will run 3 GB (one 1 GB SIMM and one 2 GB SIMM). I'm running 3 GB in mine. The extra memory is quit nice.

The new 2.2 Ghz MacBooks are the only ones to handle 4 GB.

Nov 29, 07 - 07:54 pm Comment from: LorD1776

Hey Hummer,
Do you drive them or give them.

i love my 1 gen black MacBook. when i look into a new laptop next summer, i'll strongly consider another one, and sell the old one on ebay. very nice design. i thought the 'flat' keyboard would take a while to get used to, but no problems at all.