I love my 13" Macbook Pro! (questions)

[shelovesMAC]

I picked up my laptop Microcenter this morning and I'm so in love. I had a crappy 17" HP laptop before and thought the 13" display would be too small but it's not. I figured out how to make the Safari window bigger!

Can someone link me to a Macbook Pro 101 guide? I need the following questions answered:

1. Do I leave the charger plugged in at all times? I think I ruined my HP by charging it all the time. How do I preserve my battery?

2. Should I buy the Moshi keyboard, trackpad, and palm rest protectors?

3a. Will the Speck or Incase hard case scratch my laptop when I put it on and take it off? I have a clear plastic case on my Droid and it scratches it so I definitely don't want to scratch this baby.

3b. Should I buy the Invisible guard sticker instead? (I just need something to protect the bottom, top, and palm rest area)

4. The guy at Microcenter kept pushing me to buy a Seagate 500GB hard drive but I don't know if the WD Scorpio Blue is better. Any recommendations?

Any tips and suggestions are welcome

 

[robbieduncan]

1) Apple have a page just for you

 

[GoCubsGo]

Mac Guides
Apple Batteries Notebook batteries
I highly recommend a palm rest. Moshi is great. I don't think you need or want a trackpad protector. It takes away from the overall wonderful feel of the trackpad.
The speck case has been reported to scratch your laptop. It gets dirt inside of it and can scratch. YMMV. I would not put one on my notebook.
I prefer invisible shield or in my case best skins ever for notebook protection.
Seagate or WD Blue
Or this one
Or this one

 

[TopHatPlus]

I picked up my laptop Microcenter this morning and I'm so in love. I had a crappy 17" HP laptop before and thought the 13" display would be too small but it's not. I figured out how to make the Safari window bigger!

Can someone link me to a Macbook Pro 101 guide? I need the following questions answered:

1. Do I leave the charger plugged in at all times? I think I ruined my HP by charging it all the time. after 4 years of having mine plugged in everyday all day it has 129 cycles on it and has 100% battery health and can last me over 5 hours (hehe)

How do I preserve my battery? set the lifespan, ie kill it!! charge it kill it!!! charge it kill it!!! run it through few solid cycles

2. Should I buy the Moshi keyboard, trackpad, and palm rest protectors? no...unless you really want them, i run nothing and its great no moving things or packing them with me when i go

3a. Will the Speck or Incase hard case scratch my laptop when I put it on and take it off? I have a clear plastic case on my Droid and it scratches it so I definitely don't want to scratch this baby. no idea... i am one of those people that use the computer the way i bought it, yes 4 years will show some wear but it wears like iron and i have a plastic macbook >_<

3b. Should I buy the Invisible guard sticker instead? (I just need something to protect the bottom, top, and palm rest area) no... once again aluminum

4. The guy at Microcenter kept pushing me to buy a Seagate 500GB hard drive but I don't know if the WD Scorpio Blue is better. Any recommendations? no idea >_<

Any tips and suggestions are welcome

LOVE your mac, always run time machine back up!! on an external hard drive, it will save your life some day!!! ask before taking anything apart or look it up, DO NOT SPILL A WHOLE MCDONALD'S CUP OF COKE although my computer on and open sustained no damage but a few sticky keys for a few days I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT!!! haha but most importantly just enjoy the computer, mac has fine tuned these things so much >_< and yes the 13" screen is amazing!!!! wait till your curled up on the couch watching a movie IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!!!

 

[DewGuy1999]

The only question I can help with is the battery one:

Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance

 

[aeboi]

I've taken my speck case off 15+ times for cleaning, no such scratching has occurred, and I check every time.

 

[RossMc]

I just got my Speck today. While I can't say if it scratches or not as its only been a day, I think that it will be okay if you just take it off say once a week or so to clean any dirt that has gathered inside.

Same with say an iPhone case if you leave that on for a long time without taking it off once in a while for cleaning you risk the dirt collecting inside and maybe scratching your phone.