Update #2: We have now moved to Macweek.ca, please navigate to: The Macbook Reviewed After 6 Months of Wear and Tear

It was 6 months ago, to the day, that I received my shiny new Macbook in the mail, a 2.0 Ghz Core Duo if you’ve been wondering. It’s been quite a ride, especially being my first Mac after years of being a hardcore PC user, and realizing my Mac envy was too much to bare. I was exhilarated just a few weeks before then when I was notified, after much deliberation, that my father would finally purchase a Macbook for my daily use.

My Macbook was great to me during my first week of ownership. I had configured it to my hearts content, installing programs and transferring files, at last switching to OS X as my primary OS. Then…It happened, I was sitting down quietly, surfing the web on
my glossy white ‘book and BOOM! I obviously hadn’t realized it when I had gone to sit down, but my to younger brothers were playing Soccer in the house, much to my despise, and regret, they had launched a soccer ball directly into my glowing Apple. My sexy new Macbook’s screen had been smashed to bits, leaving nothing left but a backlight to illuminate the shattered screen. I called AppleCare that night and brought my “little issue” to their attention. Argument after argument, I had finally convinced them to replace my screen.Apple had referred me to an authorized reseller to do the job, I went to dmac. Even though I was quite relieved that I would have my Macbook to hold in my arms (or on my lap in this case) again, I hadn’t done so for a full two weeks, and I reckon those weeks may have been some of the longest in my life. My Macbook was working, but not as it should’ve been. The screen was periodically shutting off every few minutes, and I put my Tech-Support troubleshooting abilities to use, and I concluded it must’ve been a video inverter problem. I called AppleCare again, and without trouble, they again referred me to dmac. The video inverter problem was diagnosed and fixed within a few days. Recently, I had smelled something odd while working on my Macbook, after investigating the fume, I had found the culprit, my Magsafe! It was melting! I unplugged it, careful not to burn myself. I called AppleCare immediately, and without hesitation, they shipped me a new one, which I received a couple days later. In the meantime I borrowed Ethan’s (My fellow blogger here at Mactropolis) Magsafe to ease the pain.

Throughout these ordeals, I was still immensely enjoying my Macbook. There is very little I can complain about, though the build quality and durability is questionable the rest is simply awesome! I had never before enjoyed using a computer as much as I enjoy using my Macbook.

I can do everything I’ve ever wanted to do with it: code, surf the web, chat, blog, audio and video & audio editing, email as well as blogging of course. I can also do many things I would not do if I did not have a Macbook, Skype and iChat video-conferencing, Garageband, Photo Booth, Quicksilver, and plenty of virtualization in Parallels! Overall, there are many features I can now proclaim I cannot live without:

-My iSight, mic included (for video-conferencing)

-Expose (being the fact It’s my first Mac)

-Spotlight (I never have trouble locating files)

-Parallels (I can run almost any app, in almost any OS on-demand, on one little laptop)

-Xcode (In my opinion, there is no better Objective- C environment)

-Quicksilver (Though I’m not the most efficient with it, it’s one of the best apps out there for OS X, period)

and…That’s about it! I’m still envious of the Core 2 Duo’s, with their Wireless N capabilities, I’ve been keeping my eye on that Airport Extreme!

Update: After looking at many comments both on digg, and this site, I am aware I was being far too “fanboy-happy” with this review I’d like to write about the “aging” of my Macbook.It has become slow, I mean SLOWWWW! It takes nearly 6 minutes to start up, and launching programs is significantly slower than it used to be. It scratches far too easily, after a few weeks with it my wrist-rests and case were far too scratched up. In response to this, I purchased a Tucano Second Skin, a neoprene case. It does help, though only when I am NOT using my computer, which is a minority. The Macbook’s screen actually lost it’s gloss, and there is a significant, I believe, permanent smudge which is highly bothersome. There are many,fairly large, extremely bothersome particles of dirt, which are completely suck in my keyboard and irremovable. The Macbook sides are blade-like, and I have significantly injured myself many times due to this. I am also experiencing slight case discoloration, but it’s nothing compared to the issues with the first generation Macbooks. I’d like to mention that I use my Macbook extensively, at least 10 hours a day. The screen breakage, though not an issue with durability, was extensive for the amount of force in the collision, very little….I just wanted to mention that. Though it is not perfect, It’s still a solid computer, especially for the money.

LifeHacker has posted a great tutorial on using GeekTool. GeekTool is a cool little preference pane which allows you to run terminal commands, show logs, or even display pictures (e.g. from the net) directly on your desktop. Common uses include running the command top which displays which processes are utilizing the most system resources, displaying the console log, or even putting a live weather map (from the net) on your desktop. Gina at Lifehacker also has an extensive Discussion on how it can be used.

Geektool is Open Source Donationware, and is available for a free download from Tynsoe.

Geek to Live: Monitor your Mac and More with Geektool

“Are Macs just for hipster designers? Not at all! Maybe you’ve wanted to switch to a Mac, but you were afraid it wouldn’t work with your Office files. Maybe you can’t convince your parents they won’t lose their vacation photos. Maybe your boss thinks Macs are toys not meant for serious adults.”

Valleywag, one of my favorite tech gossip blogs have answered all these, and more. You are probably already convinced if you are using a Mac, 80% of our reading audience are, but if you want to convince someone to “Get a Mac” this is a great place to start.

APPLE: 42 Reasons Normal People Can Switch to Macs

Have you ever wondered where all those extra gigabytes dissapeared to the moment you opened your new Mac, and when you looked at your free disk space after a month or two?

Formatting surely wastes space, and it’s clear you’ll lose some while translating between classic and new and improved gigabytes. BUT, the real culprit has got to be iPhoto, this application uses such an unbelievable amount of disk space, that we can only conclude Apple’s iPhoto group is receiving kickbacks from the hard drive manufacturing industry.

Surf over to Infinite Loop and take a look at the evidence: The iPhoto-Disk Space Conspiracy

Brisbane Creative has posted quite a nice article outlining the positives and negatives of nearly every OS X web browser on the planet. I very much agree with this, both the positives and negatives, as well as the neccesity to use several browsers daily. Personally, I alternate between Safari, Firefox and OmniWeb as well as Camino from time to time. I have used all of the browsers listed, and if you’re looking for a browser to fit your needs, I highly recommend this article.

Brisbane Creative>> A Guide to OS X Web Browsers

Scott Stevenson’s Theocacao blog has brought Locomotive from Ryan Rauum to my
attention with his post regarding the Apple Design Awards. Locomotive is an environment for developing Ruby on Rails applications on your Mac. It allows you to “try Ruby on Rails without worrying about breaking your current system, it’s an entirely self-contained environment.This seems very similar to MAMP, but for Ruby on Rails. If you’ve ever wanted to try out Ruby on Rails, which is a great development environment for Web 2.0, without the annoyances of getting Ruby and Rails properly set up, this is a perfect opportunity.

Locomotive is donationware and is available for free download.

Just Kidding, but this video is pretty hilarious. Apple’s increasing popularity is making Steve Jobs more recognizable outside of the usual circles of computer geeks. In this MadTV skit, steve introduces the “iRack.” Jobs has shown he is ripe for satire and much social commentary.

I noticed this nicely modded MacBook over on TUAW’s Flickr pool

It Features:
-A See-Thru shell from Speck (I’ve been wanting to get one…)

-The keys from a black MacBook (which the owner notes eases use with Ableton Live)(I’ve been hoping to do this sometime as well)

-An Airport Card from a Mac Pro, for 11n Airport spec goodness (Nice!)

-A custom rainbow Apple logo in the lid from iColours.ca (Was considering purchasing, they look awesome)

One nicely done mod.

Modded MacBook

Credit cards all over the world are beginning to be charged for delayed product orders. Apple Discussion Forums lit up yesterday regarding credit cards being charged (finally) for the Appletv orders.

Online Apple Store and Apple’s 1-800 number don’t yet reflect it (as of yet). But, a quick and simple question to the sales agent on the phone confirmed Apple will only bill the order once the shipping is “imminent”.

AppleTV is now Shipping