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110% satisfied Macbook Aluminum customer...
- Thread starter mousouchop
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I sold my blackbook (no problems at all with it) for the new 2.4 Macbook and I hate it. This new aluminum crapbook has had 4 problems since I had it. Never once did I have a problem with the blackbook in the 2 years I had it. The screen on the new one is a tiny bit better, but still is horrible compared to other makers. The blacks are the worse I have ever seen on a modern computer. They should be ashamed of this. The new one feels like it was made from Coke cans instead of quality one piece alu.. It is going back today or tomorrow for a Pro. I know they are made similar, but the Pro seems to be made better for whatever reason and I know the screen is superior to the crap that is on the new one.
The new Macbook should be called the crapbook. My friend is also returning their new 2.0 Macbook with me.
By the way you people do realize backlit keyboard are nothing new to the computer world, right? My friends $700 Dell has it also. Big deal.
The new Macbook should be called the crapbook. My friend is also returning their new 2.0 Macbook with me.
By the way you people do realize backlit keyboard are nothing new to the computer world, right? My friends $700 Dell has it also. Big deal.
Yes I realize backlit keyboards are by no means new technology. This is just my first exposure to them, so I am merely sharing my opinion on them.
Under what menus can I find the display info? Checked system profiler but couldn't find anything of that sort.
I got the 2.4 the day it came out at my local Apple Store and so far I'm really enjoying it. I got the apple store to put 4gb of ram in it and I upgraded the HDD to a 320gb seagate momentus 7200 rpm. This thing is very fast and so far had no problems handling whatever I trew at it.
It's been at least 10000000 times more reliable (so far) than my previous penryn 15" MPB. I had to get it replaced 3 times in 3 weeks!
It's been at least 10000000 times more reliable (so far) than my previous penryn 15" MPB. I had to get it replaced 3 times in 3 weeks!
I have to say this one thing, the MR community of forum members is a very talented group of people (techie wise) but I am disappointed at the amount of people here who keep saying that the 2.0 is a downgrade from the previous white or black MacBooks and it's not true at all.
The previous gen's had a 667 Mhz system bus and DDR2 memory with 667 Mhz. The new MacBooks now sport 1066 MHz bus and DDR3 memory with 1066 Mhz. How is this a downgrade.
I have a 24" iMac with a 2.8 Ghz, 800 Mhz bus and 4GB DDR2 667 Mhz memory. My new 2.4 Ghz Alu MacBook launches apps faster and runs extremely cool. The faster system bus in the MacBook makes for a more efficient processor. Clock speed doesn't tell the story, all you geeks here should know that by now.
I have to say this one thing, the MR community of forum members is a very talented group of people (techie wise) but I am disappointed at the amount of people here who keep saying that the 2.0 is a downgrade from the previous white or black MacBooks and it's not true at all.
The previous gen's had a 667 Mhz system bus and DDR2 memory with 667 Mhz. The new MacBooks now sport 1066 MHz bus and DDR3 memory with 1066 Mhz. How is this a downgrade.
I have a 24" iMac with a 2.8 Ghz, 800 Mhz bus and 4GB DDR2 667 Mhz memory. My new 2.4 Ghz Alu MacBook launches apps faster and runs extremely cool. The faster system bus in the MacBook makes for a more efficient processor. Clock speed doesn't tell the story, all you geeks here should know that by now.
Because it is the truth. Before I bought this new 2.4 crapbook, I had the 2.4 blackbook. My friend bought the new 2.0 alu Macbook before I sold my blackbook. We compared the speeds and how each one did on a number of apps. The new 2.0 didn't do nearly as well. Just like the benchmark scores indicated (they say the new 2.0 is 20% less performing than the previous 2.4 and that is what I experienced in real world test). I bought the new 2.4 alu Macbook and it isn't any faster than my previous Macbook and actually did worse on a couple of things.
Speed wise the 2.0 new one is a downgrade from the previous gen 2.4. The new 2.4 benchmark tests show a slight improvement from the last gen, but like I said I didn't see any difference.
Office vs. Open Office vs iWork
My two cents. The choice of office or not really depends on what you need to do, and who you need to hare it with. I found that in my work, (i exchange docs back and forth all the time) Formatting gets lost between iWork and Open Office. If you don't need to retain formatting or track changes, and of these suites will get the job done. iWork works VERY differently than Word does, so if you are a long time word user, you will have a learning curve.
I love Keynote, for the snazzy presentations, but it is a poor choice if you go back and forthe iwth powerpoint or present on powerpoint enabled machines. Doesn't work well to share with PPT users.
Numbers, I haven't used it enough yet, but for me conditional formatting supporting formulas was critical, so I need to go back to office. Also if you need to be a full fledged exchange network member, you'll also need to upgrade to office.
On the otherside, all of these things work well for basic work on word processing and spreadsheets. For presentations, Open office is crappy. I'd stick with iWork.
My two cents. The choice of office or not really depends on what you need to do, and who you need to hare it with. I found that in my work, (i exchange docs back and forth all the time) Formatting gets lost between iWork and Open Office. If you don't need to retain formatting or track changes, and of these suites will get the job done. iWork works VERY differently than Word does, so if you are a long time word user, you will have a learning curve.
I love Keynote, for the snazzy presentations, but it is a poor choice if you go back and forthe iwth powerpoint or present on powerpoint enabled machines. Doesn't work well to share with PPT users.
Numbers, I haven't used it enough yet, but for me conditional formatting supporting formulas was critical, so I need to go back to office. Also if you need to be a full fledged exchange network member, you'll also need to upgrade to office.
On the otherside, all of these things work well for basic work on word processing and spreadsheets. For presentations, Open office is crappy. I'd stick with iWork.
Well clock speed never tells the full story. And early benchmarks will be worse than future benchmarks once tests are optimized. I think in the near future you'll see that the new "glassbooks" will be pretty good once the GPU is optimized for. But I think that buying a new "glassbook" to replace a recent vintage macbook expecting dramatically difference performance is crazy. The big difference between the machines is the GPU, if you aren't doing anything that is GPU intensive you will not see any improvements. I know that the shiny new metal notebook looks exciting, but if you have a recent notebook skip the new books. It is pretty useless.
I agree the new crapbooks are pretty useless and that is why I'm returning mine and getting the Pro. I have never had so many problems out of a laptop in my life.
Some on here say the screen and graphics are way, way better than the previous ones. Maybe by a little, but my 2.4 new one nor my friends new 2.0 shows that much of an increase. The blacks on it are much worse. The brightness is better though.
I don't play many games on it b/c I think you have to be a complete moron to buy a Macbook to play intensive games on it. Even the new ones don't play them well. That is why I own a playstation hooked up to my plasma tele.. Buy a PC, gaming system, or a Pro if you want to game. A Macbook for gaming is like buying a Ford Escort and expecting it to keep up with a BMW. It was never meant to do that.
I also got a 2.4 GHz MacBook. I skipped the plastic generation of MacBooks because I obtained my PowerBook G4 after having to return my plastic iBook G3 4 different times because of the display cable through the hinge problem. I decided then and there, that I would never buy another plastic laptop...the fact that I loved my 12" Powerbook helped too.
It turns out that going from a 1.33 GHz G4 to a 2.4 GHz Core Duo is a HUGE leap. Also, the LED display is unbelievably bright compared to the fluorescent display.
As for the office suite, I installed the newest version of NeoOffice (which is basically OpenOffice that has some Mac OS-specific enhancements to make it feel a little more integrated with the Mac. I had an older version of OpenOffice on my Powerbook, and it had to open X11 every time I opened a document, then the program itself felt very foreign compared to other programs on the Mac.
It turns out that going from a 1.33 GHz G4 to a 2.4 GHz Core Duo is a HUGE leap. Also, the LED display is unbelievably bright compared to the fluorescent display.
As for the office suite, I installed the newest version of NeoOffice (which is basically OpenOffice that has some Mac OS-specific enhancements to make it feel a little more integrated with the Mac. I had an older version of OpenOffice on my Powerbook, and it had to open X11 every time I opened a document, then the program itself felt very foreign compared to other programs on the Mac.
Care to elaborate? You have mentioned all of these problems twice, but have yet to say what the problems actually were.
my trackpad actually just stops responding sometimes (cursor disappears and it seems to be just dead), then magically it will come back
other than that it is very difficult to use a windows notebook after using a mac notebook, the trackpad functionality is just plain awesome
other than that it is very difficult to use a windows notebook after using a mac notebook, the trackpad functionality is just plain awesome
I think you like to complain just for the sake of complaining. The only real issues I have seen in this forum are a loose batter/HD compartment cover and slightly slanted function keys. Neither of those affect usability, and from all reports, Apple isn't hesitating to make the situation right with free replacements or repairs. The rest of the threads seem to be bitching about the glossy screen or lack of firewire...both of which were known issues before you bought your computer.
I'm curious as to what your supposedly major issues are with the new Macbooks, but not enough to wade through all of your whiny posts.
I dont know her issues, but mine have been as follows:
1. dead pixels
2. dents and scratches
otherwise I like the computer. Lack of firewire is known before purchase so I cant say thats a problem, right?
I found this is another thread where she is complaining:
Hardly seems worth the considerable time she's spent complaining lately. I mean, "The space bar is loud"? Are you kidding me?
I would be pretty pissed about dead pixels. Did you try to return it based on that?
Are the dents and scratches caused by you, or did the machine come that way? If it is the latter, then you should get a free replacement, but if it is the former, then you should get used to it...my old Powerbook had all kinds of dents and scratches.
So, 2 of the problems have been proven to be persistent problems in the first batch of Macbooks (slanted keys and loose battery cover), but Apple is issuing replacements for these issues which I consider to be acceptable compensation.
The specs were clearly listed on Apple's website for comparison with previous generation notebooks. And seriously..why do you need to upgrade a computer that is less than 2 years old?
I don't consider a "loud" space bar (whatever that means) or a black-level issue that people have fixed by tweaking the display settings to be "major issues", but like I said, MacJenn just seems to like to hear herself bitch.
You don't want to wade through all my 20 posts b/c it is a waste of time(you ask me a question--I told you how to find the answer--next time don't ask), but you would spend sometime making a post to me about how I'm being whiny. Grow up. I know you probably don't want people to be critical of the new one b/c you probably own it and it is sooo special, but it has a lot of problems. A lot more than you just stated and it has been discussed on here and on Apple.com. Call it whiny all you want. I call it shotty work by Apple. I guess I don't like spending $1600 on a crappy machine that has a screen that is worse than my friends $600 Walmart Dell. It is going back and I'm getting a Pro. Keep your crapbook, bud, but don't make it seem like it is more than it is.
I must of struck a nerve with the people who have one of the new crapbooks and it makes them feel sad others don't think they are as special as they do.
Those are legitimate complaints. Legitimate enough that the guy I bought my Macbook from at the Apple store said numerous people have been bringing them back for exactly the same reasons I stated.
If it was just that one reason you highlighted I wouldn't of complained and wouldn't be taking it back. I would keep it then. It is all the things added up.
Well the display can't be fixed by just tweaking display settings. It is THE major issue. I've had enough love for this thing to try that before I came to the conclusion the display sucks. Period. Bad & Hard.
If you go to the washed out display & post your calibration threads you'd see the lengths some people have gone to to make it a workable machine.
Well lets just say I think you've made you point by posting relentlessly about your, lets face it, relatively minor problems. Sorry you don't like your new computer, why don't you get your Pro and give us all a break from the complaining?
For what it's worth, I sold my Blackbook much like you, and purchased the new GlassBook. I think it's a superior machine in almost every way. Opinions are just that.