Review rated by 7 Ciao members on average: very helpful
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A previous review covered the main points of interest for the new MacBook Pro 17" so here I cover my own experiences.
I've been a Mac user since the 1980's starting with the Mac SE30. More recently I had been using the PowerBook G4 12" which is a great small laptop. I used it in my teaching of computer graphics using OpenGL. However I needed something that would let me do both video processing and Windows graphics programming. So the Apple MacBook Pro 17" with the Intel Core Duo processor seemed like the ideal combination.
To give you an idea of the speed improvements; starting with Video processing, iMovie encodes Quicktime movies to streaming versions for the web in just a few minutes compared with tens of minutes on the PowerBook G4 or Mac Mini G4. Note the speed-up comes because iMovie and other programme ssupplied with the MacBookPro are recompiled as "Universal Binaries" to take advantage of the Intel CPU.
Apple's Safari web browser is also a universal binary but if you have any old plugin's using the older PPC code you will have to use the Command-I keys to change Safari to run as a PPC application - so that Safari and the old plugins can still work together.
Simlarly some major third party packages, commonly used by Apple users, like Microsoft Office and Adobe Flash Studio are still supplied as older PPC applications, so there's no speed up with these programmes. However as this laptop is more powerful than my office desktop I haven't noticed any particular slowness.
I also do quite a bit of programming and I have been more than pleased with the Pro Book's ability to let me recompile a number of open source programs and libraries using Xcode and gcc. You can simply compile your own programmes as what Apple calls "universal binaries" by using the -arch switch when using gcc. Be sure to read the Compiling Universal Binaries guidelines on Apple's developer webpages.
BootCamp is an Apple beta programme for installing and booting Windows XP on your Mac Intel machines including the MacBook Pro. The most recent version, 1.2 includes drivers for the built in iSight WebCam so you can take pictures and do webcam chats in Windows XP. I am not a fan of Windows but it runs as well as expected on the MacBook Pro. Be sure to install your favourite virus and spyware checkers on your Windows MacBook Pro. It's as vulnerable to Windows viruses, when running Windows as any other Windows machine.
The MacBook Pro is a fast Windows machine. I downloaded VIsual Studio Express and the DirectX9 SDK . The DirectX9 demos were superb and ran without problems using the Radeon X1600 graphics!
Any negatives?
The 17" machine is heavy to carry around for extended periods. For travelling PowerPoint presentations and graphics demos I would still use the 12" powerbook.
In the hot July 2006 weather, the MacBook Pro was barely usable as a laptop machine - it was so hot. I recommend investing in a laptop fan to sit under the machine.
Glossary
PPC - Power PC, the type of processor used on older Apple Machines
SDK - Software Development Kit
iMovie - Apple's entry-level video editing application.
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by (43%):
01.09.2006 06:00
The main points being in another review aren't really going to help a comsumer.
31.08.2006 23:35
Good review CMS. I want one but may have to wait a while longer whilst my review points stack up!
31.08.2006 22:35
I have never used a Mac and know nothing about them but that was very informative.