The cool thing about this MacBook Pro is, that it is like 99% identical to my previous one. It’s bit heavy if you compare it to the MacBook Air, but I admit, I like that. It’s solid

Specs
- MacBook Pro 7,1
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz CPU
- 4GB RAM DDR3-1067
- nVidia GeForce 320M graphics (256MB)
- Matshita DVD-R/RW Writer
- 13.3″ Glossy display at 1280×800 with LED backlit
- came with a 250GB Hitachi 2.5″ HD, but replaced it with my Intel 80GB SSD

Ports
- 1x MiniDisplay Port
- 1x FireWire 800 (yey! )
- 2x USB2.0
- 1x RJ45/10/100/1000MBit/S NIC
- 1x SD-Card slot
- 1x Headphone 3.5mm jack

Special Features
- Sleep works
- Keyboard backlit – this is awesome – a thing that I really missed at Dawn
- runs pretty cool

One of the first things I did was to remove the original RAM und HD and put in my 8GB of RAM and the Intel SSD. And then I quickly ran into trouble. Booting the SSD presented me a Kernel Panic. Running the Installer from the MacBook Pro DVD failed (never came behind the grey screen) – same for the Snow Leopard original Installer DVD. Hm… so I removed the RAM, and installed the 2x 2GB that were built-in before. Works – booted immediately from the SSD.

It seems that the 1333MHz Samsung RAM that I have here was compatible with the MacBook Late 2008, but not with the MacBook Pro Mid 2010. Strange – no idea. I was sick in real and also sick of testing and playing around, so I stick with it or maybe will get 2x 1066/1067MHz 4GB RAMs soon.

Temperatures & Noise
I mainly bought this “old” model, because I had the bad feeling that there’s something wrong with the i-CPUs in the new MacBook Pros – or better said: with the cooling of it. I read a bunch of posts in different forums and as resumé all versions (13″ i5 & i7 and even the 15″) running at 2000upm, some hear that, some not – but all are getting hot pretty quickly and the fan(s) starts to rotate faster very quick. This ends up in a lot of noise. I’m happy that I was able to grab this MacBook Pro Mid 2010 for a very good price from Amazon. It normally runs at 29°C in idle, which is VERY low in my mind. Even when doing bigger stuff like watching a YouTube HD video or working with Aperture a bit, I haven’t heard the fan so far.

What I like
It’s silent, it has the keyboard backlit and it’s solid. It’s the perfect machine for my work. Additionally: Ever wanted to have a FW800 port to connect my G-Drive when I’m taking photos “on the road”.

The battery is AWESOME! By running out of battery after 2-3h’s meanwhile on the MacBook – or even quicker, it’s a good thing to have such a great battery in the new MacBook Pro. I was installing, testing and configuring the MacBook Pro on Saturday AND Sunday without having to recharge it for about 7-8h’s. That’s nice!

What I don’t like
The display is the same as the MacBook had. 1280×800 – that was fine when I bought the MacBook in Early 2009, but today, I wish it has a higher resolution, but even on the new “Early 2011″ models, a higher resolution is not available for the 13.3″ model. Wonder how Lenovo for example manages that

The name
Again, I’ve chosen a name from the Animé/Manga world. It’s taken from the series “Serial Experiments: LAIN“, which is a very good Animé – one you have to think about after watching the episodes. The computers used in this Animé are looking a bit like Macs and the message of BeOS is very clear I recommend to watch this Animé.

This shows me how often I used my MacBook, it’s deeply within my workflow. At this point, I would love to thank you guys for commenting on my last blogpost about the Apple ban. You guys told me that it’s wrong to switch the brand because of some people in a little store. That’s right! I’ve bought a bunch of software in the last year, all for Mac – and of course I will need to continue to use it for my work.

I explained in my open letter in the last blog post what was wrong with the MacBook Pro i7 13″ – the noise of the fans. I’ve read a lot through different forums on the web, and it seems that it’s not better with the i5 13″ not with the 15″ versions. Hm… I also looked out for ThinkPads. The T410s is a VERY nice one, the T400 is a better one (because of longer battery life). But let’s be realistic: I would not use Linux, because I’m not a real fan of Linux on the desktop – as I maybe mentioned earlier here and there. Alternative OS? Windows… Yey… Well, you guys know I’m also not a fan of Windows. It was fine working with it when it were the computers of my employees like the ThinkPad R51 that I’ve got from Cisco. Windows XP – I could live with that, but it was not pure fun. I can see myself sitting in front of my ThinkPad T400 in a few weeks and thinking “Why the hell have I bought a Windows machine?!”.

So I decided to go another route. In a forum I found a hint that Amazon sells off the previous version of the MacBook Pro’s (13″ Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz) for 999€. Hmm… that’s not a bad deal! It has keyboard backlit, LED display, FireWire 800 (yey! My G-Drive will love that) and I could recycle my 8GB of RAM (DDR3-1333 2x4GB) and the Intel 80GB SSD that is currently built into my dead MacBook. Sounds like a good plan. As an Amazon Prime member, it will be delivered tomorrow

More on this: Tomorrow, once it arrived.

A few last words about why I bought something from Apple again: Some may not understand this, because of the way I was treated; for me – the consequence is not to buy ANYTHING from ANY Apple Store (Hardware) anymore – Amazon is a reseller; that’s the reason why I bought it. Not to mention, in a real case of returning something, Amazon was ALWAYS very good and fast. Just because a store manager thinks he should ban me, it’s no reason to change my own workflow. Sorry, but with Macs, it’s the very best workflow I ever had.

I did, what I normally don’t that often on Macs – I reinstalled the whole system. First, it looked like it was a successful “repair”. I had in mind, that the software did something wrong, so I invested a few hours in installing and configuring it carefully. I was nearly done with my complete configuration and all my software I use and need, when the displays went off. Completely. I restarted the MacBook several times, but after a few seconds, the displays alway turned black. That’s it.

Some may think: Uh! That’s a bit too emotional, it’s just a computer. Well, yes and no. It was THE notebook for me. I simply enjoyed using it that much. It even couldn’t beat the MacBook Air I reviewed end of last year. So.. Rest in peace Dawn!

I went out the same day to fine a new notebook, a bit angry and sad, but I simply need a notebook for my work. I do most of my stuff on くるみ (Kurumi), my Mac Pro, but I mostly do some stuff late in the evening on the couch. First I had in mind to get a ThinkPad and use Linux on it. I mostly used the MacBook for coding and there it doesn’t matter that much if it’s a Mac OS I’m typing on or a Linux box. Vim is Vim

I compared the MacBook Air with the new MacBook Pros (funny, they came out the exact same day) and some ThinkPads. The ThinkPad I would chose would be a X301, but that’s kinda expensive – way more than the MacBook Air. I had called the Apple Store a few days ago, because Dawn was behaving very strange and I had the feeling that it will not make it much longer. The configuration they had on stock which is not the lowest one is this:

* 11″ model
* 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo
* 4GB RAM
* 128GB SSD
* 1.329€

Yey… a bit more than I wanted to invest. The smalled new MacBook Pro with Core i5 was ~200€ cheaper, but it’s the same design and thickness that Dawn was, so I couldn’t go this way. Not only because of the same design (I liked it.. but c’mon – compared to the MacBook Air…), but also because I don’t need a Core i5 on my laps when doing small CPU usage stuff like coding.

In the store, I finally compared the 13″ to the 11″ model – and bought the 11″ one. I have it for 4 days now and I’m very very impressed. Sure, it’s not a superfast high performance machine, but that’s what my Mac Pro is for, but it’s super cute, light weight and silent. It has a bit more power than the one I reviewed at the end of last year (that was the 1.4GHz, 2GB RAM, 64GB SSD, 11″ model).

I gave here the name ありあ (Aria). That’s a name that could sound a bit complicated because I’m from Germany, but it has NOTHING to do with any names some idiot has given to a group of people. No, Aria is the name of a cute, a bit slow and young lady from the Manga/Animé “Sister Princess” (シスター・プリンセス). In my mind (and also in my wife’s mind) this name fits perfect to the cute MacBook Air.

Here’s a photo of her, sitting on the stand that was bought for a bit bigger MacBooks

If you wonder about this USB connector – that’s the Apple USB to Ethernet adapter. That was really helpful after giving くるみ (Kurumi) a fresh install on Friday.

The reason why I did that was the arrival of this package

What’s a better reason to give a Mac a fresh install than a (way too expensive) huge software package? Of course, it’s a lot of work, I just had it in mind from the Dawn reinstall procedure from last Thursday, but also ありあ (Aria) needs some software. Oh dear くるみ (Kurumi) needs A LOT more software, because some of them are just licensed for only one Mac (grml…) and some are way to heavy for the cute ありあ (Aria)

So I ended up today, after being offline yesterday’s Saturday with a bunch of software on my desk…

Not to mention ALL those software I have bought online over the last few months that needs to be installed and configured, too.

Speaking of software – here is a list of my current MUST HAVE software that makes working with a Mac (in my mind) much more comfortable:

* 1password
* TotalFinder
* Divvy
* HyperDock
* Chrome
* Alfred

Oh! I also used this moment to give the cables a fresh resorting and hiding them a bit more. The great thing about Macs is, that if they run, you hardly need to touch them a lot. So I moved くるみ (Kurumi) behind the Expedit rack where my IP phone and ありあ (Aria) are sitting one.

Update from June, 9th

All notebooks I tried after Dawn death were not as well / worth the money. In late May, I gave Dawn a last chance and fixed some broken cables on my own. For my surprise, for meanwhile 3 weeks, Dawn is working fine! I had to remove the SuperDrive and still the ctrl has to be mapped to the left CMD key for Terminal stuff. The battery LEDs are not working and the sleep mode does not work when closing it – but at least, it works for my mobile stuff I’ve put in the 8GB RAM + a 80GB Intel SSD and for 3 days, I’m working only on this MacBook. It’s great – but I already miss the power of my Mac Pro; I will return to use it for the normal work in the next days (currently too busy to relocate).

We’ve moved both desks facing the “clock wall”. Working watching right into the window all day long raised bad headaches, so it was time to try something new. It’s not a good feeling to end the day with headaches for some days in a row. We’ve also attached new LED lamps, but with warm colors which are flexible and of course – I remind myself to wear my “reading glasses” more often

My “temporary” desk. Both screens are connected to the MacBook, one via Mini DisplayPort to DVI, to other one with the USB2DVI adapter which works great for chats, Twitter etc.

Soja’s desk, now also facing the “clock wall” with her new iMac “Indy”

More to come Soon!

Yesterday, we finally had the chance to touch an iPad the first time at the new Gravis store in Essen (Germany). When it was introduced I thought: Hmm… nice, but is it really worth 499$ (or here in Germany 499€!)?

With more and more reports and videos that I’ve read and seen in the last few weeks since it came out officially in the US and now also in Europe, I was really warming up for this device, though – I haven’t ordered one from the Apple store. I wanted to buy it on my own, but that’s another story.

By having the chance to test it in a quiet atmosphere, I found some painpoints that hinders me from getting one (not mentioning that you have simply no chance to get one until July).

For example: It’s really heavy. If you see it, you don’t think it’s that heavy. Sure, compared to a good reference book, it’s a lightweight, but that wouldn’t be my main function for this which drives me to the result that I simply don’t need it: checking websites. You can check websites also on the iPad simulator with the same effect and you could be sure if it works or not.

I’m having my MacBook around pretty often and it’s very comfortable to work with. Sure, playing videos makes it hot easily, but I don’t see the reason to spend 499€ for this device as I don’t see a real usage for myself in it. It’s hyped, that’s it. If you’ve read some of my last articles or my old blog, you know, that I enjoy to use Apple products since software is mostly better designer and more intuitive compared to their Windows competitors, but I also try not to react “Fanboy”-like. Apple does a lot mistakes in my mind when it comes to politics, but that’s not what I want to discuss here. Just to highlight: At the moment, Microsoft is more congenial than Apple – they are opening more and more stuff to OpenSource which is a step into the right direction and letting me do more with Windows 7 than I could ever do on my Mac (for example: customize it). With one leg, I’m already back in bed with Windows :/ Now: Complain! Just as an argument why: Outlook. I haven’t tried Entourage yet, but Outlook for Windows is in my mind THE BEST eMail & Collaboration software in the world – shout at me, but in my mind it is (if it’s connected to a great working Exchange Server).

I wouldn’t say that I would never get an iPad for me or my wife. I also can’t see the future through a glass bowl and I’ll try to keep my mind open.

Another issue I run into is the cellphone. Not “THE”, but mine. I’m happily using my iPhone 2G for 3 1/2 years now, but I would love to make the next step and get a 3G connection when I’m out of my office. iPhone 4G/HD – whatever, will be 100% sold by T-Mobile in Germany and you can’t select another provider. I guess there’s nearly no chance to get an unlocked one unless you’ll get one from Belgium or Italy. No big deal, because Bruxelles is just 200km from here, but… I don’t know. Having the iPhone was nice and so, but again: mixed with Exchange it’s nice, but also you can’t use all the stuff that Exchange provides. Call it: Tasks for example.

So, I’ve also taken a deeper look onto unlocked cellphones on the market and let me say one thing: It’s horrible! The only GUI that is nice enough is Android, and guess what: you can’t upgrade it as easy as an iPhone to a new software version. Why? Well, because the companies like HTC and Co want to sell phones! New version of Android called “Froyo”? Yes, but the best chance to get it to buy a new phone. In some ways I miss the old times. I was a happy user of my SonyEricsson K600i – it simply worked, could do some videos and photos, play some MP3s and that’s it. Sure, eMail and Web was horrible, but in the past it doesn’t matter that much. As resumé – I will see what will come at the WWDC tomorrow and then I will take my time (and give Apple time to ship it to the local stores) and then choose if I want to get one or not. My iPhone 2G is phone and would be perfect if it wouldn’t miss the 3G Maybe I should get an iPhone 3GS when the 4G comes out

Now I’ve written a lot and need to change the title from “Hmm… iPad” to a better fitting title yey…

Have a great day!

Ciao
Dennis 

As recent blog reader you know that I’ve 2 Onnto DataTale RAID5 boxes which are connected to my Mac Pro via eSATA (PCIe x1 card). Well, as much as I appreciate the stability and the good performance, I hate the noise they create.

Turning off the Mac Pro and not using it is no option – in my mind that would be a waste of money. Also selling it is no option. I’ve gone through this process times 3x already (bought G5, sold it, bought used G5, sold it a few months later, bought the Mac Pro 2008 – and sold it 3/4 year later). Why? No idea I was switching between Windows & Mac OS X too often. Both systems have it ups & downs. While appreciate the openess of Windows (I know how crazy that sounds, I’m talking about expansion options), I really enjoy the workflow, the look & feel and of course the design of Macs.

The reason to use the MacBook only in my home office were:

• I don’t NEED the power on my desktop
• With the RAID boxes, it was too noisy

So, I’d put the 80GB Intel Postville G2 SSD from my Mac Pro back into the MacBook, bought the Mini DisplayPort to DualLink DVI cable (as posted earlier) and installed Snow Leopard from scratch. I’m still very happy with the performance and while using it for the last 2 weeks often enough I asked myself why I had bought the Mac Pro and if I should sell it. The answer on this question was, that I love to work with different systems: OSX, Windows Server, Linux, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris – I’ll try a lot and I see a lot pros in using them mixed. Because of that I’d bought 12GB of RAM for the Mac Pro.

Funny enough, my 3D tool and Photoshop are more than fast enough on my MacBook (with 4GB or RAM) – I just need some decent speed if I want to render something, if it’s a cut movie, a 3D still or animation.

Yesterday, I decided to put the Mac Pro into the basement. Attaching the RAID boxes there is a great way for still being able to access them via the GBit house network and also having the needed silence in my home office. I admit, I love silence. Currently, typing this, I just hear the little fountain in the garden. The MacBook is superquiet, not even a click from the HD since it’s a SSD now. For my satisfaction, the 30″ display offers me great screen real estate. Sure, it’s not what I had before nor is it more than 1x 30″ – but it’s very ok and I’m happy with this compromise.

The Mac Pro is running in the basement, but just using it as fileserver would be a huge mistake and a waste of power. I gave him a real job, serving me a Mac OS X Server in a VMWare Fusion session side by side with a Windows Server 2008 R2 x64 session that has an installed and full useable Exchange 2010 server. It’s really amazing what the Xeon says about it – the cores still have not much to do, yeah it sucks RAM. OS X Server got 2GB and the Win Server 4GB, so I still have 6GB left. I’m also running a Parallels version 5 on the Mac Pro for my previously “desktop” Windows 7 (Home Premium) which I need for some Office 2007 stuff.

For rendering, Apple’s QMaster will do the job, but I think I’ve to dig into the documentation to see how this works. I must say that I’m very happy with OS X Client as base OS for this kind of “server”. I quickly connect to it using the VNC/Screensharing to control it if I don’t use ssh. The VMs are running quiet fast and so I use VNC/Screensharing for the OS X Server and Microsoft’s Remotedesktop for Mac to connect to the Win server.

Using the Mac Pro as fileserver also has some (in my mind) special pros. One is the software KNOX that I’ve just bought 2 days ago. It’s a great software to easily encrypt volumes or even complete harddisks. I’ve encrypted the external RAID boxes using this great software. Why? Because I care about my data

Another pro is that the Mac Pro delivers a LOT ports for expansion. Using the 2 eSATA ports, I could expand to FireWire 800 and USB2. The overall capacity of the system is stunning. I’ve made a text overview of the storage that I’ve connected to it. Here’s a screenshot:

Returning to the MacBook, I just can recommend, if you don’t use VMs like a devil and want to buy a new Mac, be sure not to spend too much money on a desktop machine. I did and in some way I regret that buy. I’m happy to run my stuff on it now and so it’s still the perfect solution for my usage, but most people would be fine with a MacBook or MacBook Pro in my mind. Having a silent and cool (yeah cool – the Mac Pro creates a lot of heat ) home office is worth thinking about your buy several times.

Ciao
Dennis 

So we went to the re:Store in the CentrO. Oberhausen and bought 3 fancy things:

The already mentioned (pretty expensive in my mind) MiniDisplayPort to Dual Link DVI adapter to be able to connect my MacBook to the 30″ Cinema HD display, a Magic Mouse (yey!) and a BT wireless keyboard (wohooo!).

For my surprise, when I moved the stuff out of the bag, I saw that the sales guy has NOT booked the keyboard, but the VESA adapter for the Cinema display I was asking for (too bad, it will not fit to my new LX arm from Ergotron, because it’s too heavy). As result of this wrong scanning, I’ve saved 40 Euros + 5 Euro shorting on my request

More soon!

Ciao
Dennis

So I bought distilled water and now the keyboard and the plastic frame which is mounted below the keyboard is taking a bath for a couple of hours. Hopefully it will work, if not, I had ruined a 1.100€ MacBook within a few seconds (it’s the 2008 Unibody Alu version).

For amusement – or shocking – here are 2 pics showing the keyboard in the water.

Press thumbs, guys!

Ciao
Dennis