New 13″ Macbook (Aluminum)

Wow, I’ve got the new 13″ Aluminum Macbook! What’s more, I’ve got my grubby hands all over it and I’m ready to tell you my experience going from the 1st generation White Macbook to this spanking black and silver one. I’m not going to call it a beauty per se, because my heart’s still with the white plastic finish, but I’m closing an eye because this aluminum unibody feels solid. And the glass trackpad’s finish is extraordinary. But I’m gonna stop rambling and try organise this into coherent paragraphs (hopefully).

The Trackpad:

Glass finish with iPhone gestures, as promised. I haven’t gotten used to them yet, especially the scrolling function which now requires you to scroll with two fingers. Not that the old one didn’t need two fingers – if you’re a White Macbook user you’ll be familiar with the one finger stationary, one finger scrolling gesture, but the one on the aluminum one requires you to move both fingers. The rotating/pinch functions are quick to get used to, though I think they only work for certain applications. Most useful here is the four-finger swipe to get Expose (F8), and uh, Spread (F3 or F9). Since the 1st generation White Macbook didn’t have media keys, the swipe is particularly useful if you’re not so keen on using the Fn button together with F8/9/10/11/12 on this aluminum one. I still keep pressing F12 to get Dashboard when it’s F4. 

Overall though, the trackpad is the best improvement for me since my old one got really over-sensitive and had a horribly smooth/oily/sticky/shiny trackpad due to wear and tear. I hope the glass surface doesn’t wear down as easily. Another thing to note: the entire trackpad is clickable, but gets harder to click as you’re nearing the keys at the top. There’s a new section just for the trackpad alone in the System Preferences, and you can configure the trackpad to include left and right clicks on the bottom of the trackpad itself. One potential problem of the larger size trackpad: accidental input as you’re typing. I’ve experienced it once or twice, so it isn’t a major problem.

Free Essential Applications for Mac OS X Tiger

Before I begin, it’s good for you to know that I don’t have the new OS Leopard. I know, it’s pretty damn depressing. Also, this is my first post on gadgets, and I’m quite a huge leap from being a computer genius. I don’t own the lastest technologies, I certainly can’t do crazy stuff like stress-test them, and I don’t go around meddling with microchips and what have you. I freak out when I have to pry the keys off my MacBook to clean them for fear they’ll break. Long story short, I am your everyday MacBook owner and technology consumer. Everything you’ll read here will be from the point-of-view of a consumer, and my opinion is certainly not law. Ready? Here we go.

Tiger comes with fairly useful applications, but you know how it works: the people over at Adobe and Microsoft Office are hell bent on getting some profit for their hard work, so you can either get a legit copy and pay a mighty sum for them, or download a copy somewhere else. I don’t aim to promote piracy, but S$2,000 for Final Cut Studio? I don’t operate a bank here.

There are, thankfully, other apps that come free. Below is the list I’ve compiled, and how useful I think they are. But who cares what I think? Try them out yourself!

• Adium: This is the Mac version of Microsoft Messenger or Windows Live Messenger on a PC. Of course, there’s still MSN for Mac, and I confess to having two just in case I run into network problems (the school I used to go to somehow stopped me from signing in to MSN), but there are other reasons to have Adium installed as well. First, Adium works with many other messaging platforms, like AIM, iChat and MSN. Second – and this is most relevant to me and for anyone else having to communicate via a shared airport signal – Adium allows iChat entries to appear together with your MSN list, so you don’t have to open iChat at all. I believe that saves some RAM, but even if it doesn’t, you have one less application to clutter your screen.