The Unlawyer

Who would have thought I would quickly buy into the Mac lifestyle? Just scant weeks after I acquired the iMac that now sits in our house, I found myself in Hong Kong’s Stanley Street (史丹利街) Wednesday afternoon, the proud owner of a brand-new 13-inch MacBook laptop computer with an Intel 2.0 GHz Core 2 Duo processor.

Not bad for a birthday gift to myself.

The MacBook package I selected cost HKD 8,600 from The Ultimate Mac and PC Gallery, and while I thought that it was a very good deal, especially when compared to what it would cost me if I bought it here in Manila [The price of the same model from an official Apple dealer in the Philippines is about PHP 66,000 - Ed.], the salesman probably sensed my hesitation in giving into my gadget lust, and he goaded sweetened the deal further by quickly offering a wired Mighty Mouse and a Macally MacBook leather protective cover into the bargain.

I quickly made a few exchange rate calculations, and I was hooked.

[Updates below the fold - Ed.]

For a 13-incher, the MacBook is quite hefty for its size, weighing in at 2.31 kg.,a lot heavier than my other laptop, an IBM X31, which tops the scales at 1.66 kg., leading some to call it the MacBrick. I suppose the extra weight comes from the built-in optical drive – the X31 has none – and the bigger screen size. What it takes in heft, however, it gives in extended battery life: some reviews peg it at just under four hours.

There are two other things I’ll have to get used to with my MacBook: using a track pad instead of a pointer – not a real biggie there – and its less-than-perfect keyboard, which, I’m sorry to say, can’t hold a candle against IBM’s.

I don’t really miss the absence of a PCMCIA slot on the MacBook, much less the absence of a CompactFlash slot, as I carry a USB card reader at all times even with my old machine.

One of the innovations Apple included with the MacBook is its MagSafe power adaptor which was first introduced with the MacBook Pro.

“The MagSafe connector is held in place magnetically. As a result, if it is tugged on—for instance, by someone tripping over the cord—it comes out of the socket safely, without damaging it or the computer or pulling the computer off its table or desk.”

MagSafe, however, is not without its hair-raising problems, documented by Appledefects, such as hissing and sizzling sounds, excessive heat generation, and worst of all:

“Users have reported MagSafe adapters to get so hot they begin to melt and burn, causing damage to the adapter and the laptop it is plugged into.”

Ayeeyah!