Thoughts on Macbook 2 weeks in from a "Switcher" + tale of good Apple Store Service

[mrploddy]

Hi,

I've had my macbook for 2 weeks now and I thought I'd post my thoughts. So far it's been working an absolute charm. The build quality is just so much nicer compared to the build quality of the Sony Vaio which it replaced. It just feels a lot more secure.

So far I've not seen any RSD problems. I installed the firmware update pretty quickly after it came out and it's worked a charm. The heat was noticeable reduced.

I've not really done anything productive with it yet but what brief experience I have had makes Mac OSX seem leaps and bounds over and above Windows. Theres just no messing around like there used to be with Windows. To quote stuff just "worked". I've not had any major problems installing apps and I'm ready and raring to go for the start of term.

The battery life is just so much better compared to my Vaio and actually lasts a reasoable length of time. I don't have to put it on charge every single day. It's also noticeably quieter. Even just the little thing makes the Vaio's fan turn on but with Mac OSX it's not the case.

Couple of questions...
1) Can anyone recommend a good site whcih explains Japanese input for Mac OSX as I'm a Japanese student and so I'd like to know what the equivalent is of the Microsoft IME.
2) How do you maximise Safari windows to take up the WHOLE screen as the maximise button doesnt seem to work.

Moving on a tale of good customer service from the Apple Store. I bought my Macbook but later found that they had not charged me the correct Educational discount price as my University is an "affiliated" institution. I went back in to the store and it was sorted out there and then and took very little convincing. I also ended up taking Apple Care for 50 quid compared to the usual 200. So I got a Macbook + 3 years service for just short of $1400. The Sony Vaio (if I'd kept it for a full 3 years would have priced out at $2640. There is just NO comparison.

So all in all knock on wood things are going great. I just need recommendations about where to buy RAM.. If I bought Samsung ram would it be possible to convince Apple Care it's their RAM if I bought it and fitted it myself or do RAM upgrades and such like get logged against the computers details when you do the upgrade ???

Regards


mrploddy

 

[26139]

One answer..

Question #1, no clue sorry.

Question #2, Safari only makes its window aas big as it needs to in order to display the entire page, rather than simply making it full screen with white space on each side.
This is a common complaint from Windows users, but I honestly don't see why. Do you need that extra white space for something?

 

[Cameront9]

Just to clarify: The green "plus" button is NOT the same as the Maximize button in Windows. The green plus is the "Zoom" button. It adjusts the window to the optimal size for the content of the window. This may make the window bigger. Sometimes, it might make it smaller.

I, too, used to drag out the safari window (lower right hand corner) to the max size, but then I realized that not only was that unecessary, but that I could work more efficiantly without the Big huge broswer window.

 

[suneohair]

Question 1.

Japanese input is really easy to setup. All you do is make sure the Japanese language pack is installed (which it should be from the start on a new one). Then you open up international in the system preferences. And turn on kotoeri input. You are done. You will now see a US flag in the top corner(if you are in the US). You click on that flag and select from Romaji, Katakana, or Hiragana.

I usually just type in Hiragana and use the spacebar to convert it to Katakana. It all works very similar to the Microsoft IME but much better IMO.

You can also use keyboard shortcuts to switch between the languages.

Here is some info from Apple.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/international/