The news of my main hard drive death was partly mitigated that same evening by an email I received from Apple notifying me that my ordered MacBook Pro (MBP) was finally leaving the largest Commie nation in the world. A BTO unit with 15.4" glossy screen, 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB RAM, DL-burning SuperDrive and hard drive bumped up to a 160GB 5400RPM job. I was pretty psyched to say the least.
I've generally had pretty good luck with shipping when it came to ordering from the online Apple store. Even though I pay just for regular shipping, my purchases arrive in what seems like FedEx 2-Day service. This time was no different. My MBP was picked up at 1:38 am on 10/30 and reached my front door at 8:57 am on 10/31. I was pretty stunned.
The box is current standard Apple fare. Looked exactly like the box that my black MacBook had come in except the box was black (instead of white) and had a picture of the MBP on it. Inside was pretty much exactly the same.
While it's still a little disappointing that Apple hasn't seen fit to change the overall style since the Aluminum Powerbook G4, I can live with it. ;-p One thing I did notice is that the display hinge doesn't seem to tilt backwards as much as it did on the older models. Not really a big deal though. And I was still a little annoyed that the USB 2.0 ports were still split (one on each side of the machine). I would have much preferred that they kept both on one side. My luck with LCD screens continues to hold steady with this latest model as there were no dead pixels on this one either. Very, very nice. Moving back from a 1280x800 screen to a 1440x900 screen was pretty noticeable even though it doesn't look like much on paper. I likey, I likey a lot.
As this one is going to have to last me for quite some time, I was tempted in getting this SeeThru Hard Case for it. Unfortunately the current version only fits the previous MBP model since this new one has a new Firewire 800 port and the new version of the case won't be out till the end of November at the earliest. Although I'm still a bit hesitant on getting it as it will probably make the MBP bulky enough so that it'll no longer fit in my Waterfield Sleevecase. It just fits perfectly in there now so there's no room for growth.
So for now, I just use the Marware Protection Pack for MacBook Pro. The hand rest part isn't exactly the prettiest but it does its job and is pretty comfy. And the keyboard cover is pretty nice too.
And with this, my notebook stable is complete. I now have a grand total of one notebook in my possession. This move to Intel chips has been pretty great. Parallels works fantabulous for .NET development and other Windows stuff that I may need to do so no need really for me to have a separate PC notebook anymore. Now if I could only just figure out what I really want to do with my aging PC desktop...
