Migrate Windows Boot Camp Partition to a New Mac

Although I love getting the latest and greatest Mac notebook, one of the things I always dread is having to setup my Windows Boot Camp partition all over again from scratch. Apple makes it really easy to migrate your Mac to a New Mac. You just run the Migration Assistant and it will handle transferring [...]

Written by Terry White on December 1st, 2008 with no comments.
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Reading SDHC cards via the ExpressCard slot

I’ve been using ExpressCard media readers for about as long as I’ve been using a MacBook Pro (years). I’ve used ones from SanDisk, Griffin Technologies, Synchrotech and now Belkin. Hands down my favorite Compact Flash reader/writer is the Synchrotech CF Express Card Reader. This is one of the only ones that takes true advantage of [...]

Written by Terry White on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on Digital Photography and Gadgets and MacBook Pro and Peripherals.

2008 MacBook Pro Review

I use my MacBook Pro more than any other computer I own. I would dare say that I use it probably 90% of the time over the desktop computers in my house. So anytime Apple introduces new models, I’m interested. Fortunately my MacBook Pro is supplied to me by my employer. It’s my work computer. Therefore, [...]

Written by Terry White on November 17th, 2008 with no comments.
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MacBook Pro Tradeoffs

When Apple redesigned its laptops earlier this month, most of the attention, including mine, was focused on the entry-level MacBook. That was because of its popularity, and because Apple managed to make over the machine in a way that added some oomph and lots of style while actually making it thinner and lighter and preserving battery life. But what about the MacBook’s big brother, the 15 inch MacBook Pro, a powerful, if pricey, laptop favored by many power users? My verdict on the Pro’s makeover isn’t nearly as favorable, because there were more tradeoffs.

The new MacBook Pro costs the same, high, $1999 price as the old one, and Apple (AAPL) does give you more for your money — a faster discrete graphics processor; the same radical new button-free trackpad that’s in the MacBook; bigger hard disks. It’s also a tad thinner.

But some of the new model’s design features that were a dramatic upgrade on the entry MacBook were already present on the older Pro — an aluminum case, a bright LED screen, and the ability to perform some iPhone-like gestures on the trackpad.

And the new MacBook Pro is actually a downgrade from the old model in a few areas. For one, it has grown slightly larger and heavier, with a 4% bigger footprint and a bit more weight (5.5 pounds versus 5.4 pounds for the old one.) These aren’t huge sacrifices, but I believe that when companies strive to redesign laptops without increasing screen size, they should try for smaller and lighter, not the reverse.

Much worse is the loss of battery life. When used with its discrete graphics processor, the natural mode for the kind of audience at which the Pro is aimed, Apple claims it will get just 4 hours of battery life, versus the 5 hours it claimed for its predecessor, which also used a discrete graphics processor. That’s a whopping 20% reduction in battery life.

To compensate, Apple built in a second, alternate, graphics system, the same wimpier integrated graphics chip that’s used in the lower-end MacBook. Only when you switch to this alternate chip — a clumsy process that involves changing a preference in software — can you hope to retain the old 5-hour battery life.

Because I didn’t do a full review of the MacBook Pro for my Wall Street Journal column, I didn’t run my own battery tests on it. But MacWorld magazine did, and the magazine declared that battery life diminished to a significant degree compared with the previous model.

In addition, Apple now offers the 15 inch MacBook Pro only with a glossy screen, having removed the option for a matte screen that is often preferred by pros who work heavily with photos and videos, because of the glare and fingerprints it can attract. This glossy-only choice is also present on the MacBook, but it matters less there, because that machine isn’t usually the choice of graphics pros.

My bottom line on the new MacBook Pro is that it still provides a satisfying upgrade for power users willing to spend the money to move up from the MacBook or from a less powerful, or similarly powerful, Windows machine running the inferior Vista or XP operating systems. But, for owners of the most recent prior MacBook Pro, the new model’s tradeoffs make an upgrade an iffy choice.

Written by Walt Mossberg on October 26th, 2008 with no comments.
Read more articles on AAPL and Apple and MacBook and MacBook Pro and Mossblog and Windows and vista.

New MacBooks and MacBook Pros Announced

The event today proved to be quite an exciting event for fans of Apple notebooks. The MacBooks and MacBook Pros got plenty of revamps and they look stunning. You should definitely check out the Apple webpage to get the nitty gritty specs, but here are a few of the things that were rumors and I love that they turned out the way they did:

- The trackpad is glass and doesn't have a button; instead it is a button itself and it is bigger and allows for much more multitouch support
- The NVIDIA graphics cards are confirmed so the graphics are going to be a lot better on the new MacBooks and especially the MacBook Pros which incorporate not only one graphics card, but two so that it can use one for lower power consumption and one for better performance.
- The screen are all LED and this means less power consumption and thinner brighter screens.
- The ports are all on one side and the disc drive is on one side so plugging cords in only mean manuevering the notebook to one side and the DVD will eject more easily if the notebook is in my lap



There are plenty of other great features that I have not mentioned here just because of course it will be better explained at Apple and with more pictures and videos; get it from the source if you really want to know everything there is to know. Now there is one great thing and one bad thing about the notebooks. The bad thing is that they appear to only include DVD drives and not blu-ray support; bummer, I was really looking for the blu-ray. The great news is that these puppies are available tomorrow, so check em out and order it now.

Written by Muratos on October 14th, 2008 with no comments.
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