So I’ve had my MacBook Pro for about a week now and thought I’d let those of you that care know what I think so far.
There’s definitely a learning curve. Things are in different places than on a PC. For instance, you don’t resize photos in the image information or edit area, you resize when you export an image to a different file. Kind of cool and useful in it’s own way, but hard to find. Same deal with mirroring an image. You know, flipping it? It’s not where the rotate functions are. It’s a control click function that’s only available after you put a photo into a book or other form of document. Again, makes a twisted sort of sense that it’s available where you might need it, but it wouldn’t have killed them to make it available in the iPhoto editing area. I’ve learned how to ctrl-click in place of right clicking and that’s not that big a deal. Actually, I’m finding the ctrl click, fn click, option click, apple click thing pretty easy. But a lot of that has to do with the fact that my first word processor on a computer was WordStar and there were tons of keystroke shortcuts.
Hardware wise, I couldn’t be happier. The whole, “It gets too hot.” issue that I read about doesn’t stand up because I own a Toshiba Satellite. THAT’s a machine that gets hot. I bought a cool pad to put between the Toshiba and my lap about four hours after the Toshiba came home. I’m one of those weirdos that actually uses my laptop in my lap. Usually in my oversized LaZ Boy recliner. The keyboards is very nice. The keys are bigger than on my Toshiba and that means a LOT to a guy like me. I’m an old touch typist. I don’t mean to brag because nobody cares anymore, but I can type wicked fast. I came in when speed and accuracy in your keyboarding mattered. Having a keyboard that doesn’t cramp my hands into little claws by the end of a writing session is HUGE in my mind.
Now I don’t know if it’s just because of the duo core processor or if it’s because it’s a Mac, but performance wise, there is no comparison to any PC I’ve ever used. It’s just FAST. Programs OPEN. Tabbing between open applications is freakishly seemless. Civilization IV in fully tricked out animation mode? Smooth as buttah.
So far the applications that came with the computer work just fine. I may look around for a more powerful photo editor just because I like to play a bit more than is allowed in iPhoto. For regular cleanup and “family” style stuff, it works just fine. For mashups and goofing? Not so much.
I bought mine with iWorks installed. I’ve read good and bad reviews about the Pages word processor. I’m in the “It works just fine.” category. Actually, I prefer it to Word in a lot of ways because it comes with in a plain vanilla editing mode and you have to tell it to do something before it starts getting “creative” on you. One of the ways I knew the Air Force was in trouble a few years back? We changed the way we formatted our correspondence to fit the MS Word Standard vs bothering to explain to our folks how to use the technology to fit our standards. I’ve only played a little with the Keynote Presentation software, but it’s very cool. Much easier to drag stuff out of the iPhoto app or iTunes than it is to do any of that in Windows. Formatting, grouping, centering, etc. is cake. No worries there at all.
So, I’m not angry at myself for not waiting for the core duo, I’m angry that I didn’t go Mac with my first laptop a couple of years ago. For me it’s just easier and more comfortable.
Your mileage may vary.
Did you know that holding down two fingers on the trackpad while clicking is the same as a ctrl-click (right click)? I’ve got a early 15″ MacBook Pro myself, and I believe this functionality came with OS X 10.4.7.
If it doesn’t work right off the bat, look for the checkbox in system preferences.
You can also scroll by using two fingers on the trackpad instead of one. I’ve found this more useful than sliced bread.
Comment by rlpm — 20061030 @ 0850
RLPM,
I knew the latter but not the former. I’ve got the Bluetooth Mighty Mouse but find that a lot of times I just use the pad because, again, unlike my Toshibe, it’s big enough to actually be able to get around the entire screen without having to take my finger off the pad.
Lovin’ it.
Comment by Timmer — 20061030 @ 0930
Actually, all you have to do is tap 2 fingers at once on the touchpad and it will do the same thing as ctrl+click/right clicking.
Just make sure this is turned on in your Keyboard and Mouse Preferences under the Trackpad tab.
Comment by Matt — 20061030 @ 1157
Get Photoshop for your photo editing and you’ll never look back.
Comment by scogind — 20061030 @ 1437
Actually, since Mac OS X 10.4.8, you can activate trackpad zooming in the same pref panel. Just hold the Ctrl key and scroll up and down using two fingers!
Comment by TriangleJuice — 20061030 @ 1630
ChocoFlop is photo editing between iPhoto and Adobe. It leverages the OS and its built-in features to create a light weight (4.7 mB) package. Please do yourself a favor and check it out before you part with your megabux for Photoshop.
http://www.chocoflop.com/
Comment by psandiford — 20061030 @ 1840
Okay, I don’t want to spend the bucks on Photoshop and I want a bit more than chocoflop.
Anyone ever tried Aperture?
Comment by Timmer — 20061030 @ 2127
Adobe’s Elements ($80) is what you are looking for. Elements gives you everything from Photoshop but the print prepress and the price. Aperture is mostly for professional work flow and management of images.
Comment by Roger — 20061030 @ 2150
Timmer;
You can flip an image in Preview.app, both horizontally and vertically, too. Export it from iPhoto (unless you want to dig up the original in iPhoto), flip it (from the Tools menu), save it wherever.
Another vote for Photoshop Elements, unless you want to download and run the Gimp, which runs under X11, the which you can install from the DVD that came with your MacBook.
The big advantage to Gimp is that it’s free.
Aperture? Likes *lots* of memory and *really* likes large displays. It’s more a workflow tool (think giant lightbox) for photographers than a Photoshop rival; they’re more complementary than competitive.
Have fun.
Comment by SteveH — 20061030 @ 2332
See? This is why you ask questions. I’d never heard of “elements” before. Always used Paint Shop Pro on the PC.
Comment by Timmer — 20061031 @ 0619
Have you tried Graphic Converter? Powerful, but with some learning curve discomfort. The compact interface is kind of archaic in this day of huge displays, but still welcome once you have set the palettes to your liking.
Comment by FredrichH — 20061031 @ 0651
Downloaded Elements this morning but haven’t had time to play with it much. Looks like just what I wanted.
Comment by Timmer — 20061031 @ 2344
Here’s another vote for Elements. Although you might want to scarf up Graphics Converter for its file conversion capabilites.
Comment by Yak — 20061101 @ 0233