Well, I didn’t make the eclipse this morning. I got up in time. I always do, but the moon was already too low in the west to see from the condo. I guess I’m getting lazy, but if I couldn’t see it from the front balcony with coffee in my hand, I wasn’t going to see it. The moon was beautiful from the lakeside back balcony last night and I was hoping it would be a little higher at 5 am this morning.
After I couple of cups of coffee I hit the road to St. Louis, dragging along my only hope for connectivity, a Mac mini I used at the lake.
I got in town, found an old monitor and keyboard, then setup the Mac mini on my desk. Now, I use this computer as a desktop at the lake, but I have a much nicer monitor there. I didn’t want to have to drag the everything back and forth , so I just took the Mac mini.
After I got the mini, my dusty old 15 inch monitor, and a keyboard setup on my desk, I decided this was going to be unpractical. The mini works at the lake, it doesn’t work here. I needed a new laptop.
I guess I’m sort of an impatient person, but I did take the time to call a friend of mine, a Super Friend of 20+ years, Mike B. I wanted to ask him about the screens on the new MacBook Pro’s. Glossy or anti-glare, that was the question.
I decided on the glossy, which I was more than a little nervous about, but Mike thought the glossy would be a little higher contrast and thus a little better for photography.
I called the Apple Store to see if they had what I wanted, drove there, and bought it. I’m the proud new owner of a MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Do, with 2GB of memory (4 times what I had before), and 160GB hard drive (twice what I had before, but still not enough, there is never enough).
I guess I’m not a total geek, because I didn’t (or forgot) photograph it as I unboxed it. Sorry about that. Apple packaging is always worth taking note of.
I must say I am very impressed. I love the screen. It is bright and crystal clear, perhaps the clearest I’ve ever seen on a laptop. The speakers are improved. The mag-safe power adapter is awesome. The built-in iSight is great, no more carrying around my external iSight, cable, and mount. The speed and responsiveness of the laptop is fantastic. What an improvement 4 years can make!
There was at least one let down. I got all excited when I saw Aperture loaded on the machine, unfortunately, it was a demo. What a drag. More bad news, I just bought iLife 08 a few days ago, of course it came preloaded on the new machine. Good news? So did iWork 08. The battery life seems improved, but that could be just a new battery.
So I’m a happy camper. I am enjoying the fun, trials, excitement and disappointment of setting up a new laptop.
Tonight I’m migrating.
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