New 13" MacBook

Originally I was gonna wait for the Macbook. I made the mistake of reading the rumor sites for a month while I was thinking it over. They got me crazy about the MBP so I bought a refurbished one two weeks ago. It's been insanely great (mac nerd joke, I guess I am one now). As I read the specs of the Macbook on Tuesday, I started to sweat thinking about how I wasted my money, but after thinking about it some more, the few differences that there are between the top end Macbook and low end MBP are actually kinda substantial. I don't want a glossy screen, I don't want to squint at a tiny screen, I don't my graphics to look sub-par, and I don't want to pay extra for black (yeah, yeah and 20 gigs). I like thin, I like aluminum, and I like my lighted keyboard. My refurbished MBP is pretty damn close to perfect for my needs (slight aluminum warping by the latch) and I don't regret the decision to get it anymore. I dunno, maybe this'll help somebody who's deciding between the two. The refurb MBP's now are only about a hundred bucks more than the top Macbook.
-Ryan
 
sorry.. had to catch a flight to NY and cant get to it till monday.. i have been playing with it in other programsw and after a hefty memory upgrade i can see it working pretty damn fast.
 
I bought a Macbook today, got it home, installed Alias Sketchbook (a drawing program I use for doing storyboards) and it didn't work at all. It turns out that because it's OpenGL based it wouldn't work at all without a dedicated videocard (and this program runs fine on a very old eMac).

I couldn't help thinking that this problem would keep popping up down the road, so I raced back to the store and swapped it for a tweaked out macbook pro. THey were kind enough not to charge me the restocking fee, and I have to say this computer kicks so much ass. It just rips. Got my program installed and it worked great, my final cut arrives this week.


Spend the extra cash if it's in within the realm of possibility.

p.s. the macbook was uncomfortably hot on my lap to. (not just the pro although the pro is hotter)
 
Both the hd and ram are user servicable parts, I've seen pictures off the apple site walking you through how to do that. It's not a warranty void.
 
Jarred Land said:
one thing to note is that the nice, small, petite little magsafe power adapter that comes with the macbook wont work on the macbook pro. I was really crossing my fingers for that one, as the macbook pro power block is stupidly large.
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From macworld:

I already own a MacBook Pro—can I use the power supply that came with it on a MacBook?
If you hold the two power supplies side by side, you’ll notice that the MacBook Pro’s is larger. That’s because the MacBook Pro uses an 85-watt power supply, while the MacBook uses a 60-watt power supply. Apple says you can use the more powerful, 85-watt power supply with a MacBook without any problems, and that in 80 percent to 90 percent of situations, you can use the MacBook’s power supply with the more-demanding MacBook Pro as well. If you’re really taxing the MacBook Pro’s processor with some heavy-duty work, the MacBook’s adapter will still be able to power the MacBook Pro—but it may not have any power left over to charge its battery.
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http://www.macworld.com/2006/05/firstlooks/macbookfaq/index.php
 
One thing I can say about the heat...I got this Radtech bag for the MBP. I leave it in there pretty much all the time, even on my lap, and the heat is no issue whatsoever. Its even raised up off the surface of the bag itself, and has a built in stand for further cooling and better angling for typing. I'm very happy with it.
 
i wonder if you just used fcp, focussed on logging and basic editing how it would work. i prefer to do my editing on my desktop, but some minor stuff on a macbook would be nice.

also if you do offline editing on fcp i wonder if all would be good. maybe get some good speed too.
 
Final Cut STUDIO isn't officially supported because of motion. It's already been verified by several people that everything else works flawlessly. Even motion works great though it does have some slowdown when things get complicated.
 
Gorilla King said:
Final Cut STUDIO isn't officially supported because of motion. It's already been verified by several people that everything else works flawlessly. Even motion works great though it does have some slowdown when things get complicated.
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Do you have any links on this?

And, does anyone know if the RAM in the Macbook and MacBook Pro has to be installed in pairs? I'm wondering if I can buy 1GB now and 1GB later.
 
darwinandpaine said:
And, does anyone know if the RAM in the Macbook and MacBook Pro has to be installed in pairs? I'm wondering if I can buy 1GB now and 1GB later.
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Since the video memory is shared with the RAM, pairs is going to give you better performace as the computer will be using one channel and the graphics card will be using the other (that's an oversimplification, but you get my meaning.) Doesn't mean it won't work with a single stick, it will just decrease performance.

Edit: that only applies to the Macbook. The Macbook Pro doesn't share the video memory so it doesn't have the same situation.
 
Does anyone know if Final Cut 3 (which i still use because it takes up a lot less drive space and gets the job done for me) will work on the black Macbook?

Final Cut Pro 3 is a PowerPC based program.. Will it work on an intel processor machine??
 
Biz said:
Does anyone know if Final Cut 3 (which i still use because it takes up a lot less drive space and gets the job done for me) will work on the black Macbook?

Final Cut Pro 3 is a PowerPC based program.. Will it work on an intel processor machine??
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I don't know the compatiblity off hand.

So it either

a) won't work (i think this is the answer)

b) Will run off rosetta and be much slower then the intel native version.
 
so can you use this laptop to view dailies on-set with an external HD monitor? (Samsung 24" HDTV monitor/tv) is this lil guy powerfull enough to display the HVX hd footage...no editing just viewing all your footage that you shot in a day, dumped on to hard drives and view on a nice big monitor?
i dont think it has a DVI out on it actually, use an adapter? quality loss?
 
Biz said:
Does anyone know if Final Cut 3 (which i still use because it takes up a lot less drive space and gets the job done for me) will work on the black Macbook?

Final Cut Pro 3 is a PowerPC based program.. Will it work on an intel processor machine??
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Dude! Seriously! This EXACT question was just asked and answered 2 pages back.

For questions regarding Apple hardware and software, you can always go to the apple website!

It's all there, I promise - besides which, it just makes more sense to get your Apple questions answered in Apple's support documents (which are easily searchable) than on the dvxuser website.
 
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