My Hot Unibody

When I bought my MacBook Pro in late 2006, it was a little hard to justify because my Powerbook was only a year and a half old. However I really wanted one because I was taking a job with a consulting company and wanted to work on a Mac instead of a company issued PC and the new Intel-based MacBook Pros could run Windows when I needed it. After making my purchase, I told myself I would try to keep it for about three years.

I didn't quite make it.

I am typing this on my new unibody MacBook Pro, which I've owned for about a week now. I did my best to be frugal, I bought it off of Craig's List for $500 off of the list price and it was only 4 weeks used, plus I sold my old one for $1,200.

My rational this time around was similar to my rational two and a half years ago, my old laptop would run Windows in a virtual machine, but I struggled to run other apps at the same time due to the amount of memory I was giving the VM. This new machine has four gigabytes of RAM and it has made a huge difference.

Of course the new unibodies have other interesting features. The LED backlit screen feels much more vibrant and the keyboard is much nicer to type on. Also, it's the little things like the magnetic latch and the solid feel of the construction.

The biggest adjustment for me has been the new trackpad. The glass surface does glide a little smoother and it's nice to have the larger tracking surface, but there's no button. Of course the entire pad itself is now a button, and originally I tried to push it for clicks, but it's nosier than the old button and feels clunkier, so I'm trying to get by with tapping on the pad without pushing down instead, which is how I'm guessing this trackpad is meant to be used.

I'm still getting used to how dragging is done, where you tap and hold to drag, then tap again to release. It's a little slower than the conventional way, but it feels better and is probably helps me avoid an RSI.

Using this new method for clicking, plus the gestures for zooming, navigating back and forth, and Expose, evokes the feel of a different interface, that of the iPhone. While most smartphone makers are adding physical buttons to their devices so that they will feel more like your computer, Apple is removing buttons from their computers to make them feel more like iPhones. I don't know whose strategy will win out in the end, but it isn't hard to guess who I'm rooting for.

So far I'm really enjoying my new toy, right now it is the hot new thing... at least until a newer, younger model comes along.