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UPDATED FRIDAY TWICE - see bottom - took outdoors, installed RAM, then minor Monday update

Well, I broke down and got myself a black MacBook (aka "BlackBook" I hereby dub them for all time, vs a WhiteBook) last night unexpectedly - a buddy hookup led to a quick run over to a store and I laid my mitts on a bone stock black MacBook.

As any proper geek would, pics here of the OOBE with commentary, as well as side by side pics with my 12" PowerBook that it is replacing. (Note - link was changed, apologies for confusion)

And, as any rational, post production consultant would, my first thoughts on getting it home are captured at left, best summed up by "MineMineMine! PRECIOUS!"

: )

I'm still definitely in fanboy mode, so gimme a few days to get reasonable, and then a few more to get cranky and nitpicky. So far, I like it, and it's a good update to the 12" PowerBook that I've known, loved, and worn out the handrests on.

First thoughts - oooooh, it looks good in black. Fully clientable. The only thing that says "consumer" to me after a day with it is the fact that I've got keys that jingle jangle jingle - what, my keyboard has boots and spurs? No, there's a loose, jangly sound when I type on the keyboard in a hurry, like two lightweight pieces of metal clattering/bouncing off of each other. I wonder if it will grow to drive me mad.

Turns out RAM and hard drive are snap to upgrade, so I'm going to do that. I have a FireWire 400 external case that I can disk image the contents of this drive onto, and then swap them out. More details here.

The setup was a snap - I used the FireWire cable methodology that the Mac setup software instructed me on how to use, and it was super easy - after transferring over all my user accounts, settings, files etc., the new laptop was "mine" in every sense - I fired it up and Hey! All my stuff was there. Most excellent and painless.

More thoughts:
-the remote for the IR port is white is my only aesthetic quibble so far.
-the feet on it are STURDY - I lost a foot off my primary battery for my 12" Powerbook that this is replacing, and it forever teeter tottered on a solid surface. These are large and round and don't look to be going anywhere anytime soon.
-it does get warm on my lap - I might have to do the Thermal Paste Surgery Thing, but I hope not. It is just dumb, Dumb, DUMB to have a laptop you're not supposed to, you know, set on your lap. Come on guys, get with it.
-the MagLoc power cord thing is very cool - and it goes in either side up, so there's not Just One Way like a USB or FireWire port - NICE.
-I haven't taken it out in public yet, but I'm going to make a point of doing so in the near future, because I'm That Dorky. Curious to see if anyone comments on it.
-right now I have a bone stock black one, "MikesBlackBook," and it is slooooooooooooow until I change out the 512MB to 2GB of RAM
-after transferring over my stuff, it's getting full, pronto - I haven't installed the Adobe Creative Suite nor Final Cut Studio yet, and I only have 13GB free of the 80GB it came with (my pics and MP3s are "only" 18 GB)
-I'm curious to see how the glossy screen does outdoors, haven't tried it yet
-Front Row is dreadfully slow, I'm going to consider that due to RAM starvation and withhold final analysis until I can get this thing all RAMmed up
-I was a bit worried about the keyboard action when I first saw one of these in the store - but the key action is stiff, or rather firm, and takes a little getting used to. In comparison to my 2 year old PBook 12" keyboard, this newer one has a shorter, stiffer throw. So far I'm fine with it, but YMMV - keyboards are a very personal thing
-as a replacemet for my 12" PowerBook, it's presently a mixed bag - I MUST get more RAM & HD ASAP to get this thing to run at a proper speed and get rid of the durn beachball, but even after that I'll still have some issues - Adobe apps won't run at full native speed, but how fast will they be relative to the G4? If in the ballpark, overall I'm still a winner.
-I expect apps like Mail, Safari, iPhoto and iWeb to thoroughly trounce the G4 once I'm all RAM'd up.

That's all I can think of so far - go check out the pics (link above).

-mike

FRIDAY UPDATE - just had lunch at Freddie's Place with laptop sitting outside while I was (still!) transcribing notes from NAB 2006 (the text file is about 14,000 words right now). Some thoughts:

-sitting outdoors in the shade of a giant live oak tree on an otherwise cloudless Texas day, the screen was perfectly viewable. This was not always the case with the 12" PowerBook.
-sitting out there with my computer on the table, there was a splotch of direct sunlight on the right side of the computer. When I went back to work on it after eating for a while, OUCH it was hot! From leaving a matte black thing in direct sunlight. So beware.
-after ordering food, working until food arrived, then set BlackBook aside until I finished, then put computer in lap to keep working.
-once again, Apple's blown it in terms of having a laptop you can actually use in your lap - for sitting down like you're often doing with a laptop without a table surface to work on, it gets waaaaaaaaaay too uncomfortably hot to let it sit on your legs, ESPECIALLY if you're wearing shorts and it is sitting on your bare leg. Dumb!
-but screen was fine, I didn't pay too much attention to battery life, from a full charge I still had well over 3 hours after spending an hour or so at lunch

update later that day

RAM came in, and was no biggie to install - took about 10 minutes, and all I knew about it I got from one viewing yesterday of this video (same link as above in article).

I'll be replacing the hard drive when it comes in, should be similarly easy - I popped out the HD and checked it out, then put it back in.

And WOW, as always, RAM makes a HUGE difference in how fast the machine runs. Instead of lengthy beachballs when switching between a few carefully selected apps, I'm now running Safari with a buncha windows open, Mail, NetNewsWire, Finder, iMovie HD, iPhoto, Activity Monitor (to check on CPU loads and available RAM), TextWrangler, iCal, and DSS Player (plays back the audio files from my voice recorder). And I STILL have 700 MB free of RAM.

So for anyone considering it: GET 2GB RAM FOR YOUR MACBOOK. And get it third party, will be $200-$250 depending on which reasonable place you get it from. NO reason to pay Apple's stupendous premium. All it takes is a smaller screwdriver, ten minutes, and thumb pressure. (had to push harder than I woulda thunk to get the RAM to seat right).

It's so little more money if you do it right, and it is SO worth it in terms of productivity.

-mike

quick Monday udpate - the keyboard is slightly annoying at times, as it doesn't register/I didn't press hard enough for some keystrokes (and I type FAST). Also, while Flip4Mac has a version for regular Macs, they do NOT have a version for MacIntels, so there isn't an easy way to watch Windows Media on my MacBook. Anybody got an answer for that one?