I wasn’t even born when Apple Computer, Inc. (now Apple Inc.) came into existence.[1. I was born January 10th, 1987.] It has been over 31 years since the first Apple computer was sold. Within those years, the company has had its ups and downs, victories and failures, home-runs and strikeouts, and, well, you get the idea. Steve Jobs co-founded the company, and Steve Jobs prevented its imminent doom throughout the mid to late ’90s.[3. Apple failed to keep up with Windows 3.x and Windows 95.]

Since the turn of the century, Apple has put its foot down on Microsoft’s turf, and the company has never backed down to the numerous challenges presented to it. Some believe this to be a great achievement, but I think of it as nothing less than extraordinary.

That was quite an impressive introduction, wouldn’t you say? Deservedly so—Apple really has done the impossible by standing up to Microsoft. However, when you only have to compete with Microsoft Vista and the Zune, it might not seem like such an advantage nowadays.[2. I have no bias against Microsoft, but I just think it is pathetic when your best software release within the past few years is Windows Live Writer.]

As Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference 2008 (WWDC) comes to a finish, I can’t help but recall my first experiences with my newly purchased MacBook. From the first moment I observed the beautiful intro movie which greeted me in various languages, I knew I was in for a treat.

My recently purchased MacBook features a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo “Penryn” Processor, a 250 GB Hitachi SATA hard-disk drive, two 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM (for 2 GB total), and a beautiful—yet fingerprint prone—black matte finish.

(I must make it publicly known that before I purchased my MacBook—only three months ago—I had never owned an Apple product. That’s right, I have never owned an iPod, iPhone, or any other iThing. It was not because I did not like Apple products—on the contrary, I enjoyed using them back in high school—but I felt they were too over-priced.)

What I Hate

I was questioning if I would annoy some of you which have subscribed with me by stating that there is something wrong with an Apple product. Unfortunately though, there are a few issues that need to be addressed with the MacBook (non pro) line of products. Let down your guard for a few moments if this is the case.

Some issues I have with the MacBook:

• I feel like I paid a $200 premium for a coat of black paint. Considering a few of the following issues, I would have expected better for the higher priced “BlackBook.”
• The fact that the MacBook is without a dedicated graphics unit is disheartening. For $1,500, I would have expected some kind of capability to pull off some basic 3D gaming, but, unfortunately, it is not there.
• The new iMovie application is fairly limited. Interestingly, the fact that there is no dedicated graphics chip means that using an alternative application for video editing is nearly impossible. The MacBook obviously wasn’t the best choice for video editing tasks, but I expected more; $1500 should have allowed some decent video editing potential.
• Leopard compatibility with Firefox renders the system unstable.[4. Since switching to Safari, I have had no issues at all.] This is a confirmed issue, and it is really disappointing to hear.
• There has been no official car charger released by Apple. Why the hell not? I am fairly certain that Apple is losing money with this glaring omission, but maybe they know something I don’t?

I will not be getting my money back nor receiving a graphics chip upgrade, but there is still hope for a Firefox/Mac update and an official Apple MacBook car charger. 

The lack of a dedicated graphics card really does suck, but when I consider the issues I have had with previous systems, the cost is justified. Regardless, I knew what I was getting before I placed the order. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

What I Love

Now that I got the problems off my mind, I can focus on the things that make me jump for joy when using the MacBook. There are quite a few things to love, and while I don’t have the time to list everything, I will touch on the most important bits.

Where to begin:

• First, I must state that the Mac operating system—Leopard—is superb. It is beautiful, it is efficient, it is powerful, and it just works—all things I can appreciate. Previously, I used an earlier version of OS X in high school, but now, Leopard amazes me on a daily basis. The dashboard, the dock, the terminal, it is pure class.
• The applications made available to the Mac operating system are well done. Almost every application I have tried, easily over 250, has been a great experience. These are applications that you really wouldn’t mind paying for. Some of my favorites include BBEdit, NetNewsWire, Scrivener, iCal, iTunes, and Linkinus. More great applications are arriving on a daily basis.
• My first experience with Apple support occurred yesterday. A nice support representative from Canada was helping me with an issue—the MagSafe connector was becoming separated from the wire.[5. The MagSafe adapter is both a blessing and a curse. It helps those prone to accidently pulling out the power connector, but the unit becomes dangerously hot with time.] After I called up and provided my serial number for the MacBook, I was informed that my 90-day complimentary telephone support had expired 4 days ago, but the customer service representative helped me out anyways. He had a new power brick shipped to me yesterday—it has already arrived. Overall, a great experience!
• Finally, I love being part of the Apple community. Sure, everyone thinks that Apple users are biased towards the company, and that might be true. However, I really do believe that the Mac operating system makes Vista seem outdated. I believe the iPod is better than the Zune, and I believe that iTunes is better than Windows Media Player. I can assure you that I am not an Apple fanboy, but I do understand why so many people are.

All the aforementioned really sums up my feelings about the MacBook laptop, the Mac operating system, and Apple corporation in general. The company is not perfect, but it is making much more progress than what Microsoft has been able to muster up.

This is Apple’s time. The next two to three years are very opportunistic moments for the once troubled company. If Apple can’t take a significant portion of the market-share within this time, it will be nothing less than disappointing.

For now, things are looking up, but nothing is certain in the technology industry.

Thank god I did not purchase my new MacBook Black around a week ago. I would have been totally pissed. But now I am even more confident in my decision to buy.  However, I am now only questioning if I should be paying $200 more only for the black MacBook. I will be getting an after-market hard drive and memory, and as a result, I am simply paying for the color.  I am simply questioning which I should purchase.

I especially loved the part where he said that “the MacBook crashes just as much as the PC.”  I will be the judge of that.  I am the king of crashing computers.  Trust me when I say it is not something I am proud of.  I just manage to find ways to break stuff.

I don’t intend on installing a bunch of crap on my MacBook, but for the first time around, I will probably install a crap-load of applications to test them out at first, and then I will reinstall Mac OS X 10.5.  It will be for business purposes only.  I did notice, unfortunately, that the MacBook Black will easily get beyond dirty with a few touches.  To put it simply, it will blend to my room perfectly.

Rock Band

I saw some people playing Rock Band on the Xbox 360.  My sister’s husband has that.  I’m going to check it out one day.  I think I will like playing the drums.  I watched a few YouTube videos of other people playing, and I think some of those levels are insanely difficult.  Oh well, it looks like good fun.

Verizon Voyager

It was only a dummy model, but I now know what a Verizon Voyager looks like.  It is smaller than I imagined, but I really like how it can flip open with access to a full QWERTY keyboard.  When the Verizon Wireless contract is up, that might be my phone when I re-sign with the company.  We shall see.

iPod

My sister had an iPod Nano, but exchanged it for an iPod Classic.  I think the iPod Nano is much more interesting to look at, but I would be afraid of losing such a small device.  I wish I had thought of purchasing a MacBook last month.  I could have received a free iPod with my purchase at the Apple Store.  Oh well.

Nintendo DS Lite

I saw the Nintendo DS Lite again a few times.  I don’t really know if I want one, but I just think it would be cool to play around with.  I really enjoy the Brain Age games on it.  I also think that once I get my laptop, my PSP will be 100% absolutely useless to me.  I only purchased one game with the PSP, and I hated it.  What a waste of money it was.

CompUSA

Oh, and CompUSA is still open!  It has nine days left before the store closes.  I wish I had taken a picture with my camera phone; it was just amazing—and somewhat depressing—to see the store in that state.  They had 20% off of the MacBook Black.  I, unfortunately, did not have enough credit to charge for it though.

Sleep!

Anyways, it is now nearly 9 AM.  How many hours of sleep might you ask?  Zero!  It is time to change that.

I’m tired of the driver errors, the blue screens of death, the security flaws, the Microsoft genuine advantage, and the feeling of always being second class with the evil Windows machines.  I’d love to run Linux to avoid the pain, but even my computer’s hardware doesn’t want to play nice.  It just feels like being stuck behind a bubble that will not burst!

No more I say!  I am finished with this wretched operating system that has given me nightmares of nuclear destruction due to a critical system error!  No more I say!  I am through with being under Microsoft’s control!  No more!

In a few short weeks, I will be celebrating my MacBook, and sure it will be somewhat of a struggle to break my years as a Windows user.  It will not be easy, and there might be some frustrations along the way. However, once the dust clears and the screen shines, my perspective on computing will be forever changed.

All this for a mere $1399.  Yeah, it is expensive—well okay, it is very expensive, but if I’m going to pay $999 for a MacBook, I might as well toss in $400 more and get the whole nine yards.  With that in mind, it will be one of my most expensive investments ever.  Until that time, unfortunately, I am stuck looking through only a window.

Regardless, I am happy with the results.  I think it is the start of a great time contributing to Performancing, and I am thrilled about it all.

In other news, I am still prepping Tech In Demand for a move to the new server.  I’m still somewhat worried that once I move everything over that my time at the VPS servier is going to turn into a hellish nightmare.  I’m usually optimistic about things, but I haven’t the slightest idea about moving a server and content.  What makes it worse is there is absolutely no support for me on this either.

Trying to think of the worst case scenarios, I came up with the following possibilities:

1. The server completely fails and my site just comes up as a blank white page or something else
2. The server works, but the movement of all the data becomes a nightmare and WordPress fails to work.  It then displays a white page or something else.
3. The move goes well at first, but after awhile of enjoying myself, I realize that there is some error in a database or something else that completely compromises any new data I put on the site.

I think that all of those cover the basis for worst case scenario.  If anything worse happens, I will just be living a nightmare.  Other than that, hopefully everything goes well during the transition!

In other news, I have been bouncing back and forth through my mind trying to decide which MacBook I want to purchase.  More on that later though.