Posting from my brand new MBP

[eVolcre]

Hi All,

Yes! It's here. I set it up in about 5 mins. And I thought my first post should be here on MacRumors.

Initital impressions,

I spent 10 mins just staring at the box. Then when I opened it, I spent another 10 mins staring at the computer. It is absolutely beautiful. Form following function. I was griping about the 'old' form factor but this really is ideal. I'm not sure how they could change it without losing some of the elegance.

The 'cool' things so far. I am stoked with the trackpad. It's so much fun to scroll using 2 fingers. The built in i-sight is way cool too. When I was starting up, it gave me the option of taking a picture of myself and using it as a log in account. I thought that was a neat touch.

Physical problems - everything looks ok. I have a minor gripe though. On the right side, the top of the laptop doesn't meet the bottom. There is about a 2 mm gap between the top and the bottom. I guess it's not a big deal, but I noticed it, and will probably keep noticing it. I'm a symetry freak.

Heat - my 12" Rev A G4 was hot. I have this siting on my lap and it is definitely hot. Not uncomfortable yet, but definitely hot. And it started heatin gup within 5 minutes of placing it on my lap. My plan is to keep it here until I start calibrating the battery - about 3 hours - lets see if it becomes unbearable.

I haven't checked for thr whine yet or done the extended hardware test. That's next. Waiting for the battery to charge up completely first.

I will keep posting here as a running commentary. If you are expecting one soon and want to ask me questions .. go ahead. As I said, I opened it 10 mins ago and am going through a step by step troubshooting check.

eV

BTW, it was love at first sight. I was wondering if I had done the right thing by spending 3500 on a machine. The second you open the box, all buyers remorse goes out the window. It is truly truly beautiful.

 

[Benjamindaines]

Awesome, hope you enjoy it

Just don't install XP

 

[jamesW135]

I know you just got it but some people say that dvd's lag when you play them is this so?

 

[robert-a-hudson]

...I haven't checked for thr whine yet or done the extended hardware test. That's next. Waiting for the battery to charge up completely first.

I will keep posting here as a running commentary. ...

conga-rats!

I just received my shipping email - i have a tracking number with TNT, but unfortunately there tracking details for my consignment are just "Not found" so i have no idea where its come from, or where it is!

Anyway, yeah, a commentry of checks to run (e.g. how to run this hardware check) would be most appreciated, hopefully save me time muddling about trying to understand everything (as a mac newbie!).

Hope the relationship is going well

 

[MIDI_EVIL]

Hello,

Congratulations on the MacBook Pro!

I think you would have noticed the whine problem if you had it, i'm sure i read it's pretty noticeable. So, it might be safe to say you don't have it!

Keep us up to date with your findings, and enjoy !!!

Rich.

 

[eVolcre]

I'm in LOVE.

I had a MAC before but this is like falling in love all over again. The latest discovery is how damn easy it is to set up. I spent 2 mins setting up my .mac account with my activation key. And it AUTOMATICALLY sets up OSX mail to read and download emails from .mac. Same with finder and idisk. All automatically set up.

The integration of hardware and software is absolutely superb. Windows may have won the business war, but as soon as people see what OSX can do, and more important, what it does NOT do, you'll see people switching to macs.

Believe it or not, the heat has actually GONE down. Now I don't know if its because I am getting used to it, but my perception, for what it's worth, is that it heated up for the first 10 mins, and then went down to 'normal.

I know for sure it hasn't got warmer. I've been running it on my lap for close to 30 mins now.

I'm doing something 'silly. I'm using OSX the old way. WIthout expose and dashboard. Once I realise how much fun it is to use a mac again (my last OS was jaguar), then I'm going to start playing with the tiger features and see how much easier it has gotten.

The only apps I have used thus far is Safari. (sorry, will check DVD later but that isnt a priority right now). It is mindbogglingly fast. I mean, no lag, it just zooms. Pretty damn cool.

The keyboard is great. The handrest part is bigger than my old 12" G4. WHich makes it easier to type, since you can rest your wrists on the palm rest. Very comfortable and much easier than my old machine where your hands would hang off the edge ...

Keep posting questions if you have any. I will keep answering.

Im keeping my fingers crossed on the whine and the hardware test. But I won't be able to get to those until the battery is completely charged up so that I can unplug it.

So far, it us super quiet. Can hear the fans running but that is normal I guess. Although the fans have been running non stop as far as I can tell. Again, I'm not sure if they are supposed to go off though.

No dead pixels at all. The screen tilt angle problem has been over emphasised. It's perfectly fine. I am using it sitting on my lap. I lifted up my knees to angle the machine, and tilted the screen back, it works fine.


eV

(.mac might be expensive but man, it is cooler than hell to have a xxx@mac.com address. ) Mine wasn't taken so I got the exact one I wanted.

Hello,

Congratulations on the MacBook Pro!

I think you would have noticed the whine problem if you had it, i'm sure i read it's pretty noticeable. So, it might be safe to say you don't have it!

Keep us up to date with your findings, and enjoy !!!

Rich.

I thought you only hear it when the battery is on Rich? Right now its running off the power supply. Anyway, if this is the 'whine' it isn't noticable at all. Lets see what happens when I unplug it.

Oh - MAGSAFE, its 'minor' I guess, but pretty damn cool. The cord gets drawn in and makes a slight snick when it engages. And there's a tiny dot on the connector that glows green or red. Very subtle.

I don't know what it is . It's not one thing, but a combination of things that make a MAC such a good user experience. I'm in heaven right now, and this isn't even my first MAC. It's a very cool, very sexy machine. And, maybe I'm in denial, but even if they do change the form factor in a few months, I'm ok with the one I have. It really is perfect. We talk about all these things in the forum but , once you hold the machine, you fall in love. And the design is very very elegant. ROlex and Porsche haven't changed their basic form factor in 30 years, but, they make slight improvements that keep it fresh. That's the way I feel about this MBP.

More in a bit.

 

[student_trap]

Congrats, i think this is the start of a beautiful friendship

I know you just got it but some people say that dvd's lag when you play them is this so?

So far i have watched about 10 DVD's on my girlfriends mbp, and all was perfect! what a display! shame you can't turn off the backlit KB though!

 

[Malcster]

Course you can, F8 i believe, or adjust the timeout settings for it in system preferences.

eVolcre, can you hear any buzzing from the right hand side when you adjust the screen brightness? my MBP has just gone back to apple for the second time to have this fixed.

Congrats tho, love mine too!

 

[student_trap]

Course you can, F8 i believe, or adjust the timeout settings for it in system preferences.

excellent, i tried to fade it out using the dim light button (as you would do for the screen), but it would only go to one dot left, and so wouldn't turn off.

 

[eVolcre]

well, ****, maybe i spoke to soon. my ENTER key just popped off. I was typing and It came out of the socket. I *think* I can just snap it into place. Not a big deal for me, but if Joe Blow out there buys a 3500 machine and the key pops off, he's going to be PISSED. Anyway, how do I snap it back?

 

[student_trap]

well, ****, maybe i spoke to soon. my ENTER key just popped off. I was typing and It came out of the socket. I *think* I can just snap it into place. Not a big deal for me, but if Joe Blow out there buys a 3500 machine and the key pops off, he's going to be PISSED. Anyway, how do I snap it back?

i think you can just pop it back, and it'll click right back in. its difficult to explain, but there are usually male and female parts on the key and the key holder, bush one into the other and your done.

Thats got to be dissapointing though!

 

[thegreatluke]

excellent, i tried to fade it out using the dim light button (as you would do for the screen), but it would only go to one dot left, and so wouldn't turn off.

You're hitting F9.

F8 automatically turns the keyboard backlight off without dimming it first. F9 dims it, and F10 brightens it.

 

[eVolcre]

i see the male and female parts but theres some kind of a 'bar' there too. hmm. lets see if i can try again. how wierd though does this happen a lot with new laptops? do these keys come loose in transit?

 

[student_trap]

You're hitting F9.

F8 automatically turns the keyboard backlight off without dimming it first. F9 dims it, and F10 brightens it.

thanks,watching DVD's in the dark had become a bizarre experience! Bring on the movies that don't have a lit keyboard behinf them!

As for the OP, I'm not by my 'puter right now so i'll shy away from giving any other advice, anyone else know how to get the key's back on?

i see the male and female parts but theres some kind of a 'bar' there too. hmm. lets see if i can try again. how wierd though does this happen a lot with new laptops? do these keys come loose in transit?

I know that the keys can come off and on, but not on their own. the enter key must never have been seated properly.

 

[eVolcre]

Whew, It's back on. Not sure what I did but it kinda just snapped back into place. I forgive her. New relatiopnships sometimes have a rocky start

Although, as I said, a new Apple switcher who just dropped 3k on a machine would NOT be happy.


OK, back to having fun and telling you guys all about it.

So, this post has a few things in it. Expose and the screen.

Expose - holy camolee. It is SO convenient and within 5 mins I can't see how I ever used a computer without it. It's bloody brilliant. I have the hot corners set up and I don't see a simpler way to swicth between apps. One swoop of the keypad to the right and BOOM all windows show up. I haven't used the 'same application' one yet. And don't see why I would. All my browsers are usually in tabs. Maybe multiple word docs? But the screen is big enough that I could place two next to each other. I was playing with the desktop picture and 'show desktop' was amazing. I mean, no minimising a hundred windows, just one swoop and BOOM there's the desktop.

The screen .. WHEW. I'm coming off a Rev A 12" so maybe I'm overawed but this damn thing is amazing. I had the brightness on at halfway (didnt know what it was set opn) and thought it was fabulous. Then, I checked the settings, turned it up all the way and man .. unbelievable.

The screen real estate is great too. Again, I'm coming off a 12" machine so I could be biased, but it just seems huge. Almost ... too big, believe it or now. Im glad I went for this machine as opposed to the 17". With expose and this screen resolution / size, it is the perfect lend of portability and real estate.

Heat, it's been sitting on my lap for 90 mins now. The bottom is not noticeably warmer than before. All the reposrts of burning legs, balls or hands are ridiculous. The area above the speakers is warmer than the rest, but i dont plan on keeping my jands there. The palmrest is fine. Cool in fact and much much cooler than my old PB. The area above the F keys are the warmest of all but it's not so warm that i have to yank my fingers away in a second or they would burn. I had my finger there for 30 seconds and while it was warm, it wasn't uncompfrtable.

So far, I can live with any 'issues' I am seeing, because I don't even notice any issues. Great machine. Next up, within 90 mins, whine test and extended hardware test.

WOuld you all like me to do or check anything else?

 

[student_trap]

how did you get the new lines in with no enter key....
your mpb sounds healthy appart from this, i hope i dont have any issues :nervous:

I remember from using old laptops with missing keys that you can push the thing that the key itself pushes, its just quite awkward thats all

 

[eVolcre]

how did you get the new lines in with no enter key....
your mpb sounds healthy appart from this, i hope i dont have any issues :nervous:

It's the new input device, didn't you hear? You stare at the isight, wink left eye, right eye, left left right and it gives you a new line.

Actually, the key popped off but that is just an interface into the actual key. So I looked into the gap and pressed THAT button.

OK, one mroe cool thing, the remote. It's really cute. I haven't used it yet but it's nice and tiny. Only thing about that though, is that its white. So it seems like it is an iMac accessory that was added to the MBP as an afterthought. It's white and black though which makes me thing the iBook might be offered in black or white. Would match perfectly.

 

[student_trap]

It's white and black though which makes me thing the iBook might be offered in black or white. Would match perfectly.

good detective work, i too believe that the new macbooks will follow the trend that the ipods have set

 

[bella92108]

Hi All,

Yes! It's here. I set it up in about 5 mins. And I thought my first post should be here on MacRumors.

Initital impressions,

I spent 10 mins just staring at the box. Then when I opened it, I spent another 10 mins staring at the computer. It is absolutely beautiful. Form following function. I was griping about the 'old' form factor but this really is ideal. I'm not sure how they could change it without losing some of the elegance.

The 'cool' things so far. I am stoked with the trackpad. It's so much fun to scroll using 2 fingers. The built in i-sight is way cool too. When I was starting up, it gave me the option of taking a picture of myself and using it as a log in account. I thought that was a neat touch.

Physical problems - everything looks ok. I have a minor gripe though. On the right side, the top of the laptop doesn't meet the bottom. There is about a 2 mm gap between the top and the bottom. I guess it's not a big deal, but I noticed it, and will probably keep noticing it. I'm a symetry freak.

Heat - my 12" Rev A G4 was hot. I have this siting on my lap and it is definitely hot. Not uncomfortable yet, but definitely hot. And it started heatin gup within 5 minutes of placing it on my lap. My plan is to keep it here until I start calibrating the battery - about 3 hours - lets see if it becomes unbearable.

I haven't checked for thr whine yet or done the extended hardware test. That's next. Waiting for the battery to charge up completely first.

I will keep posting here as a running commentary. If you are expecting one soon and want to ask me questions .. go ahead. As I said, I opened it 10 mins ago and am going through a step by step troubshooting check.

eV

BTW, it was love at first sight. I was wondering if I had done the right thing by spending 3500 on a machine. The second you open the box, all buyers remorse goes out the window. It is truly truly beautiful.

Isn't this DEJAVU from every other post of someone who's got a MacBook pro in the last 6 months? Comon, we know the issues, we know the stories of opening the box... I don't know why people post if they don't have any useful information to share.

 

[robert-a-hudson]

Isn't this DEJAVU from every other post of someone who's got a MacBook pro in the last 6 months? Comon, we know the issues, we know the stories of opening the box... I don't know why people post if they don't have any useful information to share.

Dont be mean!

eV is excited!

And (s)he has solved the problem with his key popping off, and more useful stuff is to come!

Also (s)he commented on the heat issue - reassuring for me, since all i have heard is "moan, its hot"

 

[g0gie]

Tell me if you hear the whine please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[robert-a-hudson]

WOuld you all like me to do or check anything else?

are you gonna test bootcamp then?

 

[Benjamindaines]

are you gonna test bootcamp then?

Dont' encourage him...Boot Camp is evil

 

[robert-a-hudson]

Dont' encourage him...Boot Camp is evil

Why is Boot Camp evil?

It simply enables windows on the mac, a very useful notion for many (e.g. at my uni - they rather like 'doze so it makes life easier there)

Plus, spider solitaire!

 

[eVolcre]

are you gonna test bootcamp then?

Nope, sorry pal, I draw the line there. No MSFT OS will have the honour of gracing my beatuiful new baby.

And, bella, if you took the time to read the rest of this thread, you would realise that only the first few paragraphs were about the opening. I have a great idea, instead of adding yet another post, which has been done before, complaining about my post, you have the option of not clicking on the thread title. I sugest you execrize that option.

OK, so, right now I'm playing with dashboard. It's pretty cool. The ripple effect when you add a widget has to be seen to be appreciated. I'm coming from Jaguar straight to Tiger, so that may explain some of the fascination.

The other thing worth commenting on is the screen size. It is HUGE. If I didn't know better, I would have thought this was a 17" MBP. It seems to be thinner and wider than the old PB. I can't see needing any more real estate with this size, resolution and expose.

In fact, if I wasn't going to be travelling so much, I could have got away with a smaller screen. But, since I'm on the road pretty much all the time, the screen will be great for DVDs.

I am using it on my lap exclusively so check for heat and tilt angle Both are fine right now. I have had it running for 2 hours and 30 minutes and can see nothing that concerns me. The heat, for me, is a non issue. Yeah, it's hot. But it's a frigging computer. It's supposed to get hot. Next up is the whine test and the hardware check.

Oh, another quick tidbit. I put it to sleep for about 5 minutes. The second it came back on I put it back on my lap and it was absolutely cool. Like it hadn't been running at all. So, if anyone is burning their testicles with the heat put it to sleep for 5 mins. It literally wakes up absolutely cold.

More in a bit.