For those of you who are curious, here is what I ordered. It's a very basic setup.
13" White MacBook with nVidia 9400m chipset
2.0GHz Core2Duo
2GB RAM
250GB HDD (upgrade)
iWork '09 (option)
mini-DVI to DVI adapter (option)
Apple Remote (option)
So with the Unboxing Fetish portion of the program out of the way, I opened the lid and pressed the power button. After answering a few configuration questions (primarily for language settings), I was greeting by the MacBook with "Welcome" in more languages than I can remember. During the account setup, I was surprised to see myself on the screen, when I remembered the iSight camera. It was then that I realized that I really needed to brush my hair. After a quick brush, I had my account set up, and my MacBook was configured and on my wireless network. It really was as simple and painless as that. I even had access to my Windows shares when I looked in Finder.
I then connected my digital camera (Canon PowerShot G6) with a USB cable, and iPhoto came up shortly thereafter and asked how I'd like to handle importing my pictures. No additional drivers or software was necessary. Next, I tried importing some pictures from my Windows share, and within minutes, I had pictures of my son in iPhoto. The face recognition feature was almost criminally easy to use and just as effective in detecting faces in the pictures. I can't wait to import more of my pictures and really test this application.
Moving on, I opened a video file, but Quicktime didn't have the appropriate codec to play it. A quick Google search directed me to Perian (www.perian.org), which is similar to the Combined Community Codec Pack (CCCP) for Windows. With Perian installed, Quicktime was now able to play my video file. Now here's another key difference between the Mac and Windows: I was actually able to playback the video in reverse. None of the media players that I use in Windows allow for reverse playback. Either they simply can't, or I haven't figured it out. At any rate, this is a nice capability to have, seeing as how a lot of videos that I watch are subtitled, and sometimes a subtitle flashes by a little quickly for me to read. It will be nice to punch that rewind button instead of having to reach for the mouse to reset the progress indicator. In one of my multimedia apps, you can't even skip using the progress indicator, so if you miss something or worse, accidentally hit the Stop button, you're screwed.
The only negative really isn't a negative, and that's the controls. It's simply going to take time to re-train my fingers to use the Mac keyboard and the trackpad. Some of the immediate editing keystroke differences that I've come across are:
- delete instead of Backspace - delete
- fn+delete instead of Delete - forward delete
- command+X/C/V instead of Ctrl+X/C/V - cut/copy/paste
- control+Up/Down instead of PgUp/PgDn - Page Up/Down
- command+Up/Down instead of Ctrl+Home/End - Beginning/End of Document
- option+Left/Right instead of Ctrl+Left/Right - skip previous/next word
Overall, it has been a very positive out-of-the-box experience.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Unboxing Fetish
No doubt, you are wondering what an "Unboxing Fetish" is. I know I did when I first heard the term, which by the way was maybe 10 minutes ago. The term refers to people who take lots of pictures documenting the unboxing of new items. My first reaction, of course, was denial. I mean, it does sound freaky. On the other hand, I did take pictures as I was unboxing the MacBook, but it's not like I do that with everything. So I started thinking about it, and the idea of sharing pictures of unboxing the MacBook did seem rather goofy. After all, I'm certainly not the first one to do so, and many others have already "experienced" this event. So why bother? Well, the point of this blog is, as you'll recall, to chronicle my return to Apple Land, and part of that is noting how the Apple Experience differs from the Windows Experience, and even the simple act of unboxing revealed a large gap. So if this makes me an Unboxing Fetishist, then I guess I am. Labels...why must we always apply labels to people? Can't we all just get along?
Alrighty then. Around 9:30A, FedEx shows up on my doorstep with a box for me. After signing for the package, I look down to find a much smaller box than I was expecting. You see, I have never seen a modern Mac in its boxed state (see also Justification for Unboxing Fetish). So for the many Windows users out there who wish to avoid becoming Unboxing Fetishists, the following pictures are for you. The shipping box is a simple, unassuming box, that isn't much bigger than the product box, which is safely wedged in there with environmentally friendly cardboard corner supports. No huge pieces of styrofoam to wrestle out or packing peanuts to litter the floor.
Now the thing that makes the shipping box noteworthy is its efficient use of materials. There's just enough space for fall protection and not much more. By contrast, a certain PC manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, shipped a notebook in a box that was easily three times the size of this box in volume, and included a large box for the power supply and CDs which was largely empty and pretty much unnecessary if you ask me. I give Apple props for their packaging. The actual product box is even smaller and looks to be only somewhat larger than the MacBook itself. It gives the impression of being as big as it needs to be and no bigger.
Looking inside, the contents are arranged very compactly and neatly. A foam pad on the lid provides cushioning and holds the MacBook in place. The MacBook is wrapped in a thin sleeve to protect it from scratches, and it lies on top of a shallow molded plastic tray containing the power supply, extension cord, video adapter, Apple Remote, and package containing the software DVDs and manual. Apple had enough foresight to include a small paper tab underneath the MacBook to make it easy to lift it out of the box. Then they cut a tab in the software package sleeve so that you can pull on it to conveniently remove the package from its tray.
Another big difference from my experience with Windows computers is that all the Apple accessories are bound with re-usable plastic bands. This is a huge improvement over those twist ties that often tear up your fingers. On the whole, I think it's quite possible to toss every last bit of packaging into next week's recycle bin. At least I could if I weren't a fanatic about holding on to packaging just in case. It's not a fetish so much as OCD, but it has served me well on more than one occasion.
That pretty much concludes the Unboxing Fetish. For those of you who don't know what the MacBook looks like, here it is freshly opened along with the accessories in their bound state.
Next stop, powering it on.
Alrighty then. Around 9:30A, FedEx shows up on my doorstep with a box for me. After signing for the package, I look down to find a much smaller box than I was expecting. You see, I have never seen a modern Mac in its boxed state (see also Justification for Unboxing Fetish). So for the many Windows users out there who wish to avoid becoming Unboxing Fetishists, the following pictures are for you. The shipping box is a simple, unassuming box, that isn't much bigger than the product box, which is safely wedged in there with environmentally friendly cardboard corner supports. No huge pieces of styrofoam to wrestle out or packing peanuts to litter the floor.
Now the thing that makes the shipping box noteworthy is its efficient use of materials. There's just enough space for fall protection and not much more. By contrast, a certain PC manufacturer, who shall remain nameless, shipped a notebook in a box that was easily three times the size of this box in volume, and included a large box for the power supply and CDs which was largely empty and pretty much unnecessary if you ask me. I give Apple props for their packaging. The actual product box is even smaller and looks to be only somewhat larger than the MacBook itself. It gives the impression of being as big as it needs to be and no bigger.
Looking inside, the contents are arranged very compactly and neatly. A foam pad on the lid provides cushioning and holds the MacBook in place. The MacBook is wrapped in a thin sleeve to protect it from scratches, and it lies on top of a shallow molded plastic tray containing the power supply, extension cord, video adapter, Apple Remote, and package containing the software DVDs and manual. Apple had enough foresight to include a small paper tab underneath the MacBook to make it easy to lift it out of the box. Then they cut a tab in the software package sleeve so that you can pull on it to conveniently remove the package from its tray.
Another big difference from my experience with Windows computers is that all the Apple accessories are bound with re-usable plastic bands. This is a huge improvement over those twist ties that often tear up your fingers. On the whole, I think it's quite possible to toss every last bit of packaging into next week's recycle bin. At least I could if I weren't a fanatic about holding on to packaging just in case. It's not a fetish so much as OCD, but it has served me well on more than one occasion.
That pretty much concludes the Unboxing Fetish. For those of you who don't know what the MacBook looks like, here it is freshly opened along with the accessories in their bound state.
Next stop, powering it on.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
So why a Mac? Why now?
What you are about to read is actually the second iteration of the first post. The original version went into a long and involved back history of my computing experience, which really isn't all that interesting now that I've written it. So here's the quick and dirty: I was an Apple user a long time ago, then I became a power PC user because that's what all the companies I worked for use, and now I'm back in the fold having just ordered a new 13" MacBook. Be grateful, I just saved you from reading five pages of rambling to get to this point.
As the title asks: So why a Mac? Why now?
I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS (1st Generation) notebook serving as my HTPC. I originally bought it as a mobile gaming platform, but over the years, that has become its secondary role by a large margin. It has a utility called the Dell Media Center, which works well for a majority of the files I want to watch, and it has an add-on remote control, which I can use to launch the application and navigate. With my relatively recent switch to HDTV, the XPS is having issues. Here they are in no particular order:
1) It's loud. I mean really loud. It's no surprise, really, considering it's running a desktop 3.4GHz Pentium-4 with HyperThreading as well as an ATI Radeon Pro 9800 Mobility. This means lots of heat load and lots of cooling required. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Oh well.
2) Even with the remote control set to be able to wake the XPS and put it to sleep, the XPS never seems to fully go to sleep. The fans will still run, which makes me not really bother to put it to sleep since they'll run anyway. And even when I try to wake it up, it doesn't always do so, and when it does, I never see the screen anyway.
3) My TV only has HDMI inputs, which I didn't think would be a problem since it's the same standard as DVI only with a different connector and HDCP. Well for some reason (I suspect a shoddy DVI standard re: EDID and peripheral handshaking), the computer will randomly forget that the TV's there if I change the TV's input or power it off. This kind of ruins the whole integrated home theater experience. It works, but it's not a simple matter of turning everything on. Had I known this, I probably would have gotten a TV with a VGA and/or DVI input, since my previous TV had no problems over VGA.
4) This really isn't an XPS-specific issue, but it's one of the things kind of driving this change. Dell Media Center cannot handle Matroska video containers, which is a favorite container not only for high-definition video, but for videos with embedded subtitles. A lot of anime fan-subbers like to use the Matroska container, so it would be nice if I could view those files using only the remote rather than having to pull out the mouse and keyboard.
5) The XPS is now five years old, which is ancient in computer years. It would be nice to have something that might be able to handle some current games, realizing that it won't need to be a hard core gaming rig.
With these thoughts in mind, a good friend of mine recommended the Mac Mini -- small form factor, whisper quiet, DVD drive, and 2.0GHz Core2Duo processor. The only drawback was the craptacular Intel GMA950 integrated graphics, which was questionable even just for regular video use. Then Apple released the aluminum MacBooks with the nVidia 9400m chipset. I immediately thought that if they upgraded the Mini with that chipset, I would have my ideal hardware setup. Unfortunately, MacWorld Expo came and went without such an announcement, so I started looking at what would be involved with building a small form factor PC.
There were all sorts of options, including AMD's excellent 790GX chipset with the integrated Radeon HD300 graphics and Intel's G45 chipset with its integrated X4500HD graphics. Unfortunately, the cost of parts for what I wanted usually ended up around $600-700 before taxes and shipping, and that doesn't include an OS or a remote control. I just couldn't see going down this path, when there was evidence in Mac's Leopard OS that indicated the Mini would be receiving the nVidia chipset at some point in the future.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an article stating that Apple had updated the White MacBook with the same nVidia 9400m chipset that its aluminum sibling received last year, and its price would remain the same. So here's the MacBook with virtually identical specs to the Mac Mini I was eyeballing, only it had that key ingredient for which I was waiting. Sure, the MSRP is $200 more, but it has a screen and keyboard, and it's portable. Well worth the cost differential. Sure, the footprint is a bit larger (6.5"x6.5" vs 12.75"x8.92") but it's still smaller than the XPS and quite a bit shorter. Most importantly, it's also very quiet. Plus, it has provisions for Apple's Remote, so the IR port is integrated and not an extra dongle, and the OS is designed to work with it.
Now that the hardware issues were addressed, I turned to the software side of the equation. One of the more popular media viewers (after QuickTime, of course) for the Mac seems to be VideoLAN's VLC Media Player. This app seems to be the best Mac counterpart to Windows Media Player Classic. The best part is that VLC actually now supports the Apple Remote. For a more integrated solution, there's also the XBMC Project (XBox Media Center) which provides a media center interface for the Mac based on the XBox. I even found a site which details how to set up a Harmony 880 universal programmable remote to control it using Remote Buddy and logical Apple Remotes. The sheer customizability available through a combination of the OS and third party apps is amazing. I'm fairly confident at this point that I can configure the MacBook to be fully controllable as I need it using only the Harmony 880 remote.
As for the the video handshaking issue, even if the MacBook also forgets that the TV is there, the Apple Remote can fully put the MacBook to sleep (powered off) and wake it. This means I only need to set up the Harmony 880 to turn on the TV first before waking the MacBook, which should then re-initiate the handshake when it wakes up. Worst case scenario, it behaves the same as the XPS, but with all the other features, it's still an overall improvement.
And that, my friends, is how I came back to Apple.
Knowing that I was considering this purchase, one of my online gaming buddies said I should ping one of our other gaming cohorts, as she is an Apple employee. So on Monday, I talked to her, and she graciously allowed me to take advantage of her Friends and Family Employee Purchase discount on a brand new White MacBook. The only upgrades I made were a 250GB drive, which I thought was a good $/GB compromise, a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, the Apple Remote, and iWork '09 because it was $30 off.
I plan to update this blog with my experience as a Windows Power User in Apple Land, so if this wall-o'-text hasn't scared you off, please come back and join in the journey.
As the title asks: So why a Mac? Why now?
I currently have a Dell Inspiron XPS (1st Generation) notebook serving as my HTPC. I originally bought it as a mobile gaming platform, but over the years, that has become its secondary role by a large margin. It has a utility called the Dell Media Center, which works well for a majority of the files I want to watch, and it has an add-on remote control, which I can use to launch the application and navigate. With my relatively recent switch to HDTV, the XPS is having issues. Here they are in no particular order:
1) It's loud. I mean really loud. It's no surprise, really, considering it's running a desktop 3.4GHz Pentium-4 with HyperThreading as well as an ATI Radeon Pro 9800 Mobility. This means lots of heat load and lots of cooling required. Looking back on it, it probably wasn't the best idea in the world. Oh well.
2) Even with the remote control set to be able to wake the XPS and put it to sleep, the XPS never seems to fully go to sleep. The fans will still run, which makes me not really bother to put it to sleep since they'll run anyway. And even when I try to wake it up, it doesn't always do so, and when it does, I never see the screen anyway.
3) My TV only has HDMI inputs, which I didn't think would be a problem since it's the same standard as DVI only with a different connector and HDCP. Well for some reason (I suspect a shoddy DVI standard re: EDID and peripheral handshaking), the computer will randomly forget that the TV's there if I change the TV's input or power it off. This kind of ruins the whole integrated home theater experience. It works, but it's not a simple matter of turning everything on. Had I known this, I probably would have gotten a TV with a VGA and/or DVI input, since my previous TV had no problems over VGA.
4) This really isn't an XPS-specific issue, but it's one of the things kind of driving this change. Dell Media Center cannot handle Matroska video containers, which is a favorite container not only for high-definition video, but for videos with embedded subtitles. A lot of anime fan-subbers like to use the Matroska container, so it would be nice if I could view those files using only the remote rather than having to pull out the mouse and keyboard.
5) The XPS is now five years old, which is ancient in computer years. It would be nice to have something that might be able to handle some current games, realizing that it won't need to be a hard core gaming rig.
With these thoughts in mind, a good friend of mine recommended the Mac Mini -- small form factor, whisper quiet, DVD drive, and 2.0GHz Core2Duo processor. The only drawback was the craptacular Intel GMA950 integrated graphics, which was questionable even just for regular video use. Then Apple released the aluminum MacBooks with the nVidia 9400m chipset. I immediately thought that if they upgraded the Mini with that chipset, I would have my ideal hardware setup. Unfortunately, MacWorld Expo came and went without such an announcement, so I started looking at what would be involved with building a small form factor PC.
There were all sorts of options, including AMD's excellent 790GX chipset with the integrated Radeon HD300 graphics and Intel's G45 chipset with its integrated X4500HD graphics. Unfortunately, the cost of parts for what I wanted usually ended up around $600-700 before taxes and shipping, and that doesn't include an OS or a remote control. I just couldn't see going down this path, when there was evidence in Mac's Leopard OS that indicated the Mini would be receiving the nVidia chipset at some point in the future.
Imagine my surprise when I saw an article stating that Apple had updated the White MacBook with the same nVidia 9400m chipset that its aluminum sibling received last year, and its price would remain the same. So here's the MacBook with virtually identical specs to the Mac Mini I was eyeballing, only it had that key ingredient for which I was waiting. Sure, the MSRP is $200 more, but it has a screen and keyboard, and it's portable. Well worth the cost differential. Sure, the footprint is a bit larger (6.5"x6.5" vs 12.75"x8.92") but it's still smaller than the XPS and quite a bit shorter. Most importantly, it's also very quiet. Plus, it has provisions for Apple's Remote, so the IR port is integrated and not an extra dongle, and the OS is designed to work with it.
Now that the hardware issues were addressed, I turned to the software side of the equation. One of the more popular media viewers (after QuickTime, of course) for the Mac seems to be VideoLAN's VLC Media Player. This app seems to be the best Mac counterpart to Windows Media Player Classic. The best part is that VLC actually now supports the Apple Remote. For a more integrated solution, there's also the XBMC Project (XBox Media Center) which provides a media center interface for the Mac based on the XBox. I even found a site which details how to set up a Harmony 880 universal programmable remote to control it using Remote Buddy and logical Apple Remotes. The sheer customizability available through a combination of the OS and third party apps is amazing. I'm fairly confident at this point that I can configure the MacBook to be fully controllable as I need it using only the Harmony 880 remote.
As for the the video handshaking issue, even if the MacBook also forgets that the TV is there, the Apple Remote can fully put the MacBook to sleep (powered off) and wake it. This means I only need to set up the Harmony 880 to turn on the TV first before waking the MacBook, which should then re-initiate the handshake when it wakes up. Worst case scenario, it behaves the same as the XPS, but with all the other features, it's still an overall improvement.
And that, my friends, is how I came back to Apple.
Knowing that I was considering this purchase, one of my online gaming buddies said I should ping one of our other gaming cohorts, as she is an Apple employee. So on Monday, I talked to her, and she graciously allowed me to take advantage of her Friends and Family Employee Purchase discount on a brand new White MacBook. The only upgrades I made were a 250GB drive, which I thought was a good $/GB compromise, a mini-DVI to DVI adapter, the Apple Remote, and iWork '09 because it was $30 off.
I plan to update this blog with my experience as a Windows Power User in Apple Land, so if this wall-o'-text hasn't scared you off, please come back and join in the journey.
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