So what do you use your MacBook for?

I bought a MacBook because it is ridiculously quick for the price I paid, it runs Mac OS X, it runs everything I throw at it (bar games) and it looks gorgeous

I'm a student and the Macbook is perfect! I own a 2.0 White Macbook with the x3100 graphics card. I use to be a huge gamer and really thought I would be utilizing Bootcamp more but instead... but school comes first now! I love using Leopard for basic needs as a student. Office 2004, Web surfing, and Tv shows from BT. I can't really ask for more.. its lightweight, great for note taking, stylish, and quite speedy!

Where do I start?

All I've ever known are Macs. I was given a Fujitsu 9" LifeBook, and I've used it twice, 'cause it's too slow and the desktop on windows xp looks like an auto junkyard!

On my BlackBook 2.4 Penryn 250GB I run Guitar Pro 5, InDesign CS, Illustrator CS, Microsoft Office Mac '08, Photoshop CS, Final Cut Pro HD, iMovie, iDVD, iWorks '08, HandBrake for ripping DVDs for my iPhone, DivX movies and the rest is bundled software from my purchase of 6 days. I can do most of this on my Mac Pro 3.0, but when I'm on the road the BlackBook is my portable racehorse!

I'm a graduate student so I'm constantly transporting my BlackBook around campus 5 days a week. So, you'll love the fact that you're toting around 5 lbs. and not 7+lbs. Today I sat in 2 classes to test the battery, and after a total of about 4 & 1/2 hours of Word '08, Safari searching, iChat (I'm a bad grad student) and some text messaging I still had 71% of battery left. Not bad for my first test without using my power cord.

OMGosh everything..
pages, keynote, numbers are used weekly for school
umm i would go crazy with out my ical..seriously
ichat is great... i use it all the time with my AIM
internet..
umm lots of video ripping for my iPod
lots of music on here...
lots of photos
i do my taxes on here.. keep all that info on here and backed up
play games when i'm bored
mail app is great if you have gmail
i dunno what i do on here but i do it alot lol...
this thing is my life..

Nowadays, I primarily use it when I'm in bed and am too lazy to walk to my Mac Pro.

It sits on a Griffin Stand and looks pretty next to my Mac Pro.....

seriously though I use it on my travels every other week and also it plays great 1080p HD films in 5.1 in the back room.

SFStateStudent said:

I'm a graduate student so I'm constantly transporting my BlackBook around campus 5 days a week. So, you'll love the fact that you're toting around 5 lbs. and not 7+lbs. Today I sat in 2 classes to test the battery, and after a total of about 4 & 1/2 hours of Word '08, Safari searching, iChat (I'm a bad grad student) and some text messaging I still had 71% of battery left. Not bad for my first test without using my power cord.

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you're saying you used it non-stop for 4 1/2 hours and still had 71% left? Seems kind of dubious because even if that remaining 71% went at a rate twice as fast as the first 29% you'd be looking at over 7 hours of battery life...

Porn, mainly.

Actually, I bought an iBook 2 1/2 years ago when I went to university because I wanted (needed) a computer that I could depend on working whenever I turned it on; no driver conflicts, no spyware, no (unpatched) viruses.

Now I'm using a 2.2GHz Macbook because the iBook was getting a bit long in the tooth, but my brother is still using it and it's never had a problem. Mostly I use my macbook for lab reports, literature reviews ect, but do some photoshop and audio editing now and then too.

watching movies in bed
blogging in coffee shops
taking stupid photos in photobooth
playing music of course
photoshop
burning dvds
garageband
usual stuff i guess
i think the only 3rd party software i have on mine is photoshop,illustrator,toast,firefox and msn.everything else is just ilife and included software.can't see windoze doing that.

tremendous said:

you're saying you used it non-stop for 4 1/2 hours and still had 71% left? Seems kind of dubious because even if that remaining 71% went at a rate twice as fast as the first 29% you'd be looking at over 7 hours of battery life...

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I agree, there must be something wrong there, no way he's getting over 7 hours from a macbook battery unless you leave it idle.

I use mine for web development ( php & ror ), bought a macbook because it worked out cheaper than a xps1330n.

priller said:

I agree, there must be something wrong there, no way he's getting over 7 hours from a macbook battery unless you leave it idle.

I use mine for web development ( php & ror ), bought a macbook because it worked out cheaper than a xps1330n.

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I'm amazed that people can even type that without going 'hold on, that's not right...'

ah, you're using it for the same things i will when I get it, when the ol' pb dies. 'cept no rails here - all python/django

I use my BlackBook for practically all my computing needs.
Surfing
Email
Office = Word, Excel, PowerPoints (Pity I have to share with Windows only cow-orkers)
Matlab = for serious number crunching that I do
XAMPP for Mac = minor web development
Music
Videos
Games

Did I miss out anything?

I got my Macbook for business and vacation trips. I also have an iMac.

The thing I really love is the integration. By synching all of my settings, calendar events, bookmarks etc. to my .Mac account, my iMac and Macbook always have the same info. When I had a Windows machine, I always had to transfer info manually between the two machines. It was really a pain.

Everything, except games!

Pictures, iTunes, carry it around everywhere, movies in bed, blogging, research papers in the library, etc etc etc.

College eats my free time so no games! It's actually a good thing I can't really get on Vent or play some games anymore. More time for studying lol.

High school student. I actually have an iBook G4, not a MacBook. I chose it because I wanted a small, cheap, durable laptop, and hating Windows with a burning passion. I use it mainly for iTunes, DVD's, Reports, powerpoints, surfing the internet, etc. Just basic stuff and it works perfectly.

Student. Use mac for adapting video and photos. Then for skype, iTunes... I use parallels to run windows to have some progs which mac doesn't have alternatives.

I am a college student and this computer has seen a lot of use, and being a finance major i have used many native Finance Apps that are amazing! Aside from the usual Word processor, excel, and powerpoint presentations used for school, I could not live without iTunes, calender, and of course the web; always on line trying to find what apple will do next.

I use my macbook to check my e-mail, read about mac stuff, check my checking accounts, buy junk on ebay, read the newspaper, talk on ichat, look at porn, listen to music, do homework, and watch arrested development.

Everything. I'm curious to see if it'll see me through 5 years of usage before replacement. So far (3 months), so good.

Mostly surfing the web
Photoshop
Watching Movies and TV (I can't think of the last time I turned on my TV loi)
Torrent downloading
listening and editing music
Writing papers for school
instant messaging...

same stuff everybody else said.. I don't even touch my desktop anymore and I see no reason to ever go back to using a desktop. Why? when I can have a really powerful computer with all my stuff.. and take it with me wherever I go.

My next computer will def be another BlackBook...

By then I'm hoping for a 12 inch version but if not I'll stick with the 13... have it hooked up to a dope monitor at home for sure, but typically I just use the screen it comes with.

well i am still in high school but i bought my macbook for college, but for now i mainly use it for word processing, powerpoint, browse around forums, mac the ripper for my collection of dvds, Snes9x emulator for my classic games. i thought that i would be running alot of games on it but i actually enjoy my computer, that i have grown away from computer games. i usually just spend my time watching tv shows online (legally) growing my collection of musicand every once in a while some starcraft. i have a pc but windows is just boring. always fixing it never enjoying it.

Lots of college students here! I'm actually a faculty member at a University. Blackboard used for pretty much everything (writing, data analysis through SPSS on Parallels, DevonThink Pro Office to organise stuff, Skype to talk to colleagues around the world, iPhoto to collect photo of our 10-month-old daughter).

I give lectures/seminars/conference papers using keynote. Always get a chuckle when students come up afterward and ask for the 'powerpoint slides'.

I sometimes get very long breaks between classes in college, so I use it to download and read powerpoint lecture notes or continue watching The Sopranos


besides web surfing, im'ing and all that of course.

priller said:

I agree, there must be something wrong there, no way he's getting over 7 hours from a macbook battery unless you leave it idle.

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That's probably what he meant. Plus, using my Macbook nonstop with Nocturne/low-backlight and stuff like that, I can get about 5 hours of use for Web browsing, iTunes, and a bit of logic if I don't use it too long.

Edit: Forgot to respond to the thread I use my Macbook for schoolwork/taking notes, and Logic, Finale, et cetera. I make, compose, and listen to music only. No big-time gaming going on here.