I’m a Mac Switcher - Officially
I wrote previously about how I had reached my limit - my tipping point - with my PC. Despite the greatness of having a Tablet PC, the overall experience with Windows has finally beaten me down. So, I declared that I was switching to a Mac … just as soon as I could.
The day has finally come, now, when I can, and so I have. My new white 2.0 GHz MacBook just arrived, and I’m so excited. I’m going to document and share at least parts of my initial “out of box experience” to convey my excitement. Here are a few pictures and a few of my first impressions.
opening the box:
Even the Apple packing styrofoam is cool:
Out of the box:
Open:
Of course the design is impressive - the laptop is smooth to the touch, solid to the feel, clean to the eye. Holding it feels like holding some amazing piece of sculpture - chiseled to perfect dimensions, smoothed to create appealing lines. Strange to talk about a computer like this? Yes, but this is as much of a work of art as it is a computing device.
The keyboard is firm but responsive, with a bit of space between each key that makes it fit perfectly into the form factor and to help larger hands like mine spread out more comfortably.
The trackpad is large, sensitive, and controlled smartly enough not to pick up stray or incidental touches. One feature I absolutely love is the two-finger scrolling: when you move on the trackpad with two fingers, you scroll the window either vertically or horizontally, depending on your motion. What an incredibly useful and artful innovation! I understand that this two-finger scrolling feature is not new with the MacBooks or MacBook Pros, but it’s the first that I’ve encountered it.
And the somewhat controversial glossy screen: I’ve heard some people get very excited about it’s brightness and higher contrast, while others have expressed their apprehension about the increased susceptibility to glare and reflection. My first impressions? I like it a lot. It is very bright, though it will indeed pick up and reflect any bright light sources that are shining directly on it. But, the depth of color is quite nice - blacks are so deep, blues are very rich, and reds sparkle with life. At this point I really enjoy it, and will see how it works out over time as I use it more for photo editing.
As you can tell by now, I’m very excited and can’t wait to explore more of how this works. I will write more about my experiences in the coming days - what I learn, questions I have, comparing experiences and apps between the PC and the Mac.
I’m writing this post from my MacBook using a trial version of the MarsEdit blog editor. I’m going to try out Ecto as well and see how they compare to what I’ve been using on the PC - BlogJet.
More to come…
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