MacbookPro
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Does the MacBook Pro fan constantly run? And a note about the whiney noise [Update]
I have a minor dilemma, folks. If you remember, I reported on numerous problems with my MacBook Pro, some of which Apple acknowledged, some it didn't.I'm having a new difficulty: the left-side fan of the machine is constantly running, non-stop, from the moment I turn on the machine. The Apple Store Geniuses continually tell me this is "normal" and "within Apple parameters," but I can't seem to remember my pre-replacement MBP sounding like a small aircraft auditioning for a spot on O'Hare's runway. So I ask you, dear MBP-owning readers: Is the left-side fan on your machine always on, making a sturdy and constant whooshy hum?Oh, and one other thing: While the Genius was "testing" my machine in the back room, I glanced at his PowerBook's screen, which was open to a page diagnosing MacBook Pro problems. It mentioned the infamous processor whine, and described it as a problem with an internal component (obviously) and listed various serial numbers affected. It also -- brace yourselves -- seemed to indicate that the problem was fixed, and could be fixed on affected machines. The Geniuses seemed to be trained to tell you the problem is "normal" and a fact of life, but this page said that it certainly could be fixed by a replacement part if, and I'm paraphrasing here, the customer deemed the noise to be 'unacceptable' and threatened to return the machine. So, if the processor whine bugs you, just go to a Genius bar and demand a fix -- they'll probably oblige.Update: In response to the 1,435,987 questions all asking the same thing: Yes, I am 100% positive the page I read involved the processor noise and not the LCD, because right above that paragraph about the whine was another paragraph describing the LCD inverter problem. They are two very separate issues, and I do -- despite allegations to the contrary -- understand the differences between them.
30 years in Apple products: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Has it really been 30 years since two buddies named Steve sold off their prized possessions (Woz's HP calculator and Jobs' VW van) to raise money and launch a company? Has it really been 30 years since the two Steves, tired of selling blue boxes, built the Apple I and began selling it for $666.66? Yes, it has, and if you don't believe it, just compare Jobs' hairlines from '76 and today. And while the company has become known for many things, from its groundbreaking GUI to the iTunes Music Store, we know Apple has always been a hardware company at heart. So here's to you, Apple: the good, the bad and, yes, the ugly from the past 30 years. Happy Birthday.
Roundup: what you are (or will be) doing with Windows on your Mac
While I'm sure the results will come as no surprise, I still wanted to do a roundup of our TUAW reader survey: What will you do with Windows on your Mac, as there were some interesting comments outside of the norm. Obviously, most of you are planning on using Windows solely to play games (which says something in and of itself about the utility of Windows), but I was more interested by the other uses you had in store, which include: AutoCAD/3D design .NET programming web development, testing IE sites those workplace-specific apps that simply don't have OS X counterparts - yet One commenter, Yaknowho, also brought up the idea of using Windows on a Mac to run some of the larger apps that haven't gone Universal yet, like Photoshop. I actually just touched on this topic over at The Unofficial Photoshop Weblog, where I found a few tests that show the MacBook Pro (ironically) not only runs Windows faster than most Core Duo PC notebooks, it also runs Photoshop - under Windows - faster than the competition as well.We live in a strange world when a Mac can run Windows faster than machines designed to run Windows.
Mac Book Pro has cons (and pros)
Our good friend Giles Turnbull (whom I have never met, nor spoken to but still consider a friend. Ain't the internet wacky?) lists the pros and cons of the Mac Book Pro. Other than a little noise and heat, he seems to be enamored with his Mac Book Pro.How about you? If you have a Mac Book Pro are you loving it, or wishing you have waited for the second rev?
MacBook Pro vs PowerBook 2.0 GHz benchmarks
No, that headline is not a typo. I found an extensive set of MacBook Pro benchmarks over at Bare Feats that pits the machine against a Dual Core G5 2.0 GHz, an iMac Core Duo 2.0 GHz, a MacBook Pro Solo 2.0 GHz (for good measure I guess) and a PowerBook G4 that has been upgraded to 2.0 GHz, thanks to Daystar Technology. Yes, from checking out their site it looks like it's possible to upgrade some PowerBooks to 2.0 GHz G4 chips, but it'll cost ya - the upgrade is $499.Getting back to the benchmarks topic: Bare Feats ran the typical Cinebench and Photoshop tests between these machines, and as usual the iMac Core Duo typically won out, with the MacBook Pro pleasantly nipping at its heels. They also produced some pleasant frame rates when testing Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004. Bare Feats also tested whether matching memory pairs - such as two 1 GB sticks - made any difference in performance over a 1 GB 256 MB configuration. Fortunately, there was virtually no difference in their tests, save for small, single digit improvements in iMovie and Photoshop CS that aren't really anything to write home about.[via IMG]
Rig of the Day: Powerbook, MacBook, iMac, Newton
Remember our "Rig of the Day" feature? Yeah, me too. Today's entry features a Powerbook, a MacBook Pro, an iMac, an iPod and an oh-so-beautiful Newton 2100. Isn't it nice to see siblings getting along so well?"My New Improved Setup" posted by \~{Foolery}~/ . If you'd like to see your own rig featured here, simply upload photos into our group Flickr pool. We'll select an image every day (usually) to highlight.
XP on a MacBook Pro
You had to know that XP on a MacBook Pro would quickly follow the same on an iMac. Nirlog has a nice, step-by-step how to, including links to the files you'll need to get the job done. Stop worrying about VirtualPC and enjoy the dual-boot goodness.[Via Make]
MacBook Pro noises, LCD, touchpad, other problems
Fabienne posted something a little earlier updating you on the widely-reported hissing noise affecting the MacBook Pro. I've been trying to hold off updating you on my status, because it just keeps changing. But since it looks like this is a bigger problem than even I anticipated, I'm going to post my experiences with the Pro, and things I've found that may benefit current or future MBP owners. Click on, my friends.
High pitched squeal defect on some MacBook Pros
While I certainly can't vouch for this problem myself as I don't own a MacBook Pro, there seem to be quite a few owners of the new laptop with complaints over a high pitched noise emanating from their machines. Our own Dan Pourhadi had a whine on his new MacBook Pro, even though it may not be the whine being heavily discussed on Digg today. Dan seems to have solved his whine by disabling the second core of his processor (described in Update 3 on his post). I no longer see this thread Digg links to on the Apple Forums, however I did find another active thread about the high pitched squeal/noise/whining. Some Apple users on the Digg thread and the Apple Discussions thread seem to think this may be repairable in firmware by Apple at a later date. I am by no means dissing Apple (or the Digg crowd) with this post, but simply would like to remind everyone about early adopter syndrome. The first revision of a new hardware platform or change in manufacturing is bound to engender certain flaws or bugs. Please, let us reflect for a moment on the Mirrored Door G4 and the PowerBook 667MHz (aka The "666") computer lines. This current flare in comments on Digg and the Apple Forums doesn't mean that all MacBook Pros will be affected by this noise, and certainly does not mean that people shouldn't be entitled to a worry-free machine when purchasing a Mac. I hope this all gets cleared up quickly and with some sort of patch or replacement from Apple. We at TUAW are bound to keep you posted. Update: Please see Dan Pourhadi's new follow-up post about his MacBook Pro woes.
Migrating to a MacBook Pro
Enterprise Mac's Tom Yager posted about his recent transition from a PowerBook to a MacBook Pro using Tiger's integrated Setup Assistant. Using Setup Assistant one can easily transfer old data, settings, applications and more to a new Mac over firewire. His migration took a little under two hours to transfer 60GB of data rather painlessly.What I found insightful with Tom Yager's post is that with Rosetta one can still use most old PowerPC applications without having to search for upgrades. This makes switching (or cloning) to a new machine a hopefully trivial experience. Have you had a breezy time of upgrading your Mac using Tiger's built in Setup Assistant? We're all ears.
MacBook Pro is Time's Gadget of the Week
Time Magazine's love affair with Apple continues (Tiger was Gadget of the Week, iPod shuffle was Gadget of the Week, G5 iMac was Gadget of the Week, Intel iMac was Gadget of the Week, Steve in Time's Top 100) as they name the MacBook Pro the Gadget of the Week. Wilson Rothman writes:"It's easy to talk specs and features, but the MacBook's strengths come to light while in use...It's not easy to watch the highest-definition QuickTime movie trailers on a G4 PowerBook, and on many Centrino-based Windows notebooks, it can look pretty choppy, too. But on the MacBook Pro, 1080p movie trailers are smooth running."For some odd reason, however, there's still a little voice in my head telling me to wait on purchasing one of these things. Or maybe it's my Powerbook sending me subliminal messages.Thanks, Pieter!
Apple rewards college-bound seniors
Attention, college-bound high school seniors: Apple is currently looking for 10 recipients of its scholarship program. The students who demonstrate the most innovative use of technology in academics will receive $2,000 (which should just about cover your books, actually), plus a MacBook Pro and an iPod nano! To enter, you must be a high school student who will attend a 2-year or 4-year accredited college or university in the fall of 2006, and a legal resident of the U.S. Good luck!Thanks, Matt!
MacBook Pro: A great HD portable
HD Beat has taken a nice look at the MacBook Pro as a portable HD machine (the "ultimate," as they call it). Ben Drawbauch sings the machines praises:"It can decode two HD videos at once and watch them in Expose, but not without dropping a few frames...The most impressive thing is how well it plays H.264 HD encoded material, the CPU never goes over 60% and is usualy closer to 50% and scrubs perfect."Hmm, maybe 2006 is the "year of HD," not 2005. Check out the rest of the post, it's a good one.
MacBook Pro Complete Disassembly guide
Have you received your MacBook Pro? Are you saddened by OWC's lack of instructions on how to rip apart said new machine? Don't be sad, rejoice, for iFixit (the site formerly known as PBFixit) has released a screw-by-screw guide to Performing Complete Disassembly of a MacBook Pro. Each page of this guide to MacBook Pro destruction has pithy commentary on hardware you may find inside your new lappy using only iFixit's guide, a #0 Phillips screwdriver, a T6 Torx screwdriver and um, a Spudger. If this bare-circuit-board guide doesn't knock your mad scientist socks off, frankly, I really don't know what will. [via Slashdot] [pictured to the right is the MacBook Pro's nekid logic board via iFixit's guide]
MacBook Pro vs PowerBook benchmarks
If you are like me and enjoy a good clean fight, check out these benchmarks at Geek Patrol using their own pre-production software: Geekbench, a multi-platform benchmarking utility. These numbers reflect benchmarking on a 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 with 1.25GB RAM vs a 2.0GHz MacBook Pro with 1GB RAM (the latter benchmark running as a Universal Binary not in Rosetta). I took it upon myself to average their twenty benchmark results. Using Geek Patrol's benchmarking results, the MacBook Pro they used is 3.74 times faster than the PowerBook they tested. If I throw out the low results they received from Stdlib Allocate (which they note: "depends more on library performance than raw hardware performance"), the MacBook Pro is on average, 4.26 times faster than a PowerBook.We all know that real world testing is what will really determine whether or not the MacBook Pro can severely outperform the PowerBook, but we will have to wait for more pro apps to be released as Universal Binaries before anyone takes a crack at graphing those statistics. Until then, all of you who have a MacBook Pro, enjoy your zippy new laptop.[via Slashdot and reader Ernest Leitch]
MacBook Pro: Inconsistent backlight, hissing LCD [Updated x3]
I'm almost done with my answer-your-questions MacBook Pro review. But before I post that, I thought it was appropriate to inform you of what appear to be Rev. A glitches in most MacBook Pro models I've tested:The bottom of the LCD is noticeably brighter than the rest of the display, with a translucent white stripe (no affiliation to the band) stretching from one end to the other. Also, at the back of the bottom of the display (near the vent area) there seems to be a high-pitched hissing noise, presumably (?) emanating from the LCD (as the sound is consistent from one end of the lid to the other).Everyone I spoke with who bought one of these new laptops also has these problems, and so did all the MacBook Pros at my local Apple Store.Reader input time: If you have one of these suckers, are you experiencing the same LCD-inconsistency/hissy noise problems?Click on to see a semi-poor quality image of the problem.Update: Reader Paul makes an interesting observation: The high-pitched hissing noise, despite the consistent volume around the edge of the machine, seems to be coming from under the keyboard. And when the hard drive spins up to perform a task, it stops. I'm still testing this, but if the observation is apt then that would mean the noise is hard drive-related, and not the LCD as originally thought.Update 2: OK, this just gets more thrilling: A hardware guru tells me that the hard drive is in the front-left of the machine, not the back by the noise, which means this is probably not a hard drive issue and could very well be the fan. Or the GPU. Or the CPU. Or even the speakers. Anyone else with any technical insights?Update 3: Well, for me (and probably for most of you, too), the noise problem is the processor: I installed Apple's CHUD tools (located on the included OS X disk with the Xcode installer) and found in the new Processor preference pane that when I disabled the Core Duo's second core, the high-pitched hissing noise went away. A troubling problem, for sure, but if the noise is really that bad for you, you could always enable the Processor menu item and just turn off the second core when you don't need it.
MacBook Pro dissected
I don't have a MacBook Pro, and yet OWC has the gall to rip one apart. What's up with that? Actually, I'm quite glad someone did because that saves me from buying one and voiding my warranty something fierce. Thomas Ricker, over at Engadget (you might have heard of them), noticed that there is nary an Intel logo to be found. Very interesting.Tip o' the hat to iFelix.
It's here! The MacBook is here!
If the title isn't clear enough: My MacBook Pro has arrived.I am currently in a euphoric world of speed and beauty, and if I were enjoying myself any more this little laptop would probably be dubbed an illegal narcotic by the Food and Drug Administration and I'd be thrown in jail for substance abuse.Anyway -- I'm unpacking and settling myself in, and I plan to put this thing through its paces over the next few days. I intend to post a First Impressions, but instead of going with things that simply pop into my head, I want to know: What do you want to know about Apple's first Intel notebook?Post anything you'd like me to test/examine/report on in the comments and I'll compile them all and post a quickie review as soon as I can.
Waste time with the MacBook Pro VR
I'm incredibly impatient, and there's nothing worse than eagerly waiting for a brand new speedy computer that's scheduled to arrive at your door in just days.To kill time and ease the pain, I've taken a liking to playing with the MacBook Pro's QuickTime VR at Apple's website. Sure, it's a bit excessive and quite literally the virtual equivalent of tech pr0n, but it's a perfect way to build up excitement and admire the beauty that is MacBook Pro before you're fortunate enough to actually have one.Hours of fun -- and you can get some great-looking angles.Don't thank me. I'm just doin' my job.
First MacBook Pro unpacking pics
Here is a Flickr set of some pictures of a Macbook Pro being unpacked making the rounds today. The MacBook Pro has a label on it that says 'Apple Development Team,' so the theory is that the pics were snapped somewhere on Apple's campus. I have no idea if that is true, but look at that slim box!Thanks to all who sent this in.
