The New Setup

The New Setup
Originally uploaded by smithfischer

This is a shot of the new computer system. I'm going to try and continue my article sometime today.

New Computer Setup: Part 1

As some of you may know, or perhaps you don't, Apple released an updated set of MacBook Pros on Tuesday. Each model is based off of Intel's new Santa Rosa chipset, and they feature faster processors, new NVidia graphics cards, and for the two 15" models, LED-backlit displays. I've been saving and waiting to buy a MacBook Pro since last year, and this was the update that I was waiting for.

Yesterday

Yesterday was the day that I planned to get one. I called the Portland store and had them reserve my order. After my dad got done with his meeting, we all traveled down to Oregon to get it. (If you're wondering why I went to Oregon... there's a little thing in Washington called "sales tax" and it gets spendy on large purchases.) So we drove 4 hours down there, and we arrived aI checked out the mround 6 in Portland, just in time for the rush-hour traffic. To make matters worse, we missed the 6th avenue exit and had to drive halfway around the city to get to the Hawthorne Avenue bridge where we drove through the city center. The streets there are horribly narrow, and it's pretty hard to navigate the multitude of one-way streets. We parked in a parking garage across the street from the Pioneer Square shopping mall.

We made our way inside and to the Apple store. I checked out the MacBook Pros that were on display, and they were NOT the updated versions. While we were talking to the sales reps, another guy was switching them out. After looking at the multitude of computers, notebooks, and iPods we looked at my order, and had a little trouble getting the correct total the order. It appears as though the total they gave me on the phone didn't include the wireless keyboard and wireless laser mouse as well. We figured it out, and we purchased the order. It was really cool because although I purchased a lot, I was able to carry it myself due to the small Apple packaging and a really cool "backpack" bag. After that, we drove back home.

Once I got home, I still had to clean the glass on my desk. There's this CPU rack that I used to hold my Dell system that was now not needed. I took it off. I unpackaged the wireless keyboard and mouse first, then the new 20" Cinema display. Finally, I unpackaged the MacBook Pro. I have to say that Apple does an extremely good job of packaging their products and minimizing space in the packaging. I'm sure they save a lot on shipping costs and storage. Like I said, I was able to carry a 15" notebook, a 20" display, a wireless mouse, a wireless keyboard, and a iPod Nano quite easily. I set it up on my desk and started the setup, which was a absolute breeze. I didn't have to tell it that I was connecting to a WPA Personal TKIP encrypted network; it simply asked me if I wanted to connect to "home" and to enter the passkey for it. Overall, it was an extremely easy setup. Once I got it started, I played around with it. OS X isn't that hard to get used to if you've used GNOME on Linux (I think they stole some ideas from Apple). I popped in Pirates 1, and was extremely impressed with the quality of the video playback. It was so absolutely smooth that you quickly became so enthralled with the movie that you forgot that you were watching it on a notebook. After that I made sure the software was up to date, installed the wireless mouse and keyboard, made sure they worked and then hit the sack.

New Apple Macbook Pros

As of Tuesday, the 24 of October, Apple officially released the updated Macbook Pros with the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors. I'm sure that the first generation Macbook Pro users are very jealous. Apple claims that they have a speed increase of up to 40%, which isn't too bad. The 17 inch model (the one that I'm looking at) got a few upgrades over just the processor. It now has 2GB of RAM (over 1GB) and a 120GB hard drive. It's still the same price; $2600 for me, because I can get an educational discount. Also, I'm just over halfway there for funds, so that's looking pretty good. If you guys have any questions, be sure to comment here.

Notebook Computer

Since I've started school at Olympic College in Bremerton, I've learned how useful it would be to have a notebook computer. In foresight, I've started saving up money to by one. Early this summer, I applied for various jobs to supplement my web design/development company, Arctic Designs. I am currently working at Papa Murphy's Pizza in Silverdale, which helps me to make a little money towards the notebook. My notebook of choice is the 17" Apple Macbook Pro, although I may have to go with the 15" if I don't make the extra $300 it takes to get to the 17" Macbook Pro. I'm waiting until sometime early next year to buy it for three reasons. The first is that I don't have enough money to buy it yet! (I'm a little over 1/3 of the way there) Secondly, I want to wait until Mac OS X Leopard comes out in early 2007. Thirdly, there are rumors (more and more each day) that Apple intends to update the existing Macbook line with the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors. There have been rumors of a flash-based RAM module being added to help speed up the startup and overall system performance. With all this said, I'm pretty glad that I'm waiting to get it, even though I want it right now every once in a while.

Welcome to Arctic Aspect!

Welcome to Arctic Aspect! This is a blog of information that I find interesting about technology. Throughout this blog I'll talk about different web standards, new software and hardware, and my company, Arctic Designs. Thank you for reading this, and stay tuned in.