Is *anyone* happy with their new MBP?

Hi Debra,

Well, quite a lot of ppl have asserted their positive opinions here and you probably must be already enjoying your new machine.

I am one of them, but I can add a few more tips for your new machine. Mine is MBP base model but the power is more than I need. Ordered from US in late April and used in Paris. If there were a problem, it could be a killer going to Apple authorized agents here in Paris where ppl don't speak English even if they can. Anyway, a jammed DVD in the drive was the only problem I experienced. Tips from Apple discussions helped. I both installed boot-camp XP on a separate partition as well as Parallels. Both doing fine in terms of any aspects.

Here is how I cope with the heat issue. A cheap way thought. All you need is a rubber eraser and a few square-clips. I cut the rubber eraser to get two tubes of about 1 cm height. Make a clip-on hook with the square-clip to snatch the eraser to the body (back end after the speakers grill). In this way, the bottom of the machine (the back end) is raised by 1 cm enabling better ventilation. With the slightly slopped keyboard, it's easier to type as well.

Another tip is that I juse palm-rest pads which I bought from Japan. I still can't find such thing here in France. It's like those hand-rest for your mouse with the soft fabric and gel inside. Mine are two square pads with about half cm thick. Really nice. I never feel the heat on my hand, never.

Oh, another tip is to take out of the battery while plugged in and your battery is fully or partially charged. They say it's not good to keep the fully chaged battery in the machine all the time letting it suffer the excess heat from the machine.

I have the photos of those home-made tubes to raise the laptop and the palm-rest pads. I don't know how to put photos here. If you wan to see, you can send your email to fsvoyager@gmail.com

I've had a few bugs, but I would do it again.
Apple will take care of you if you experience any of the minor annoyances and the MBP, like other MACS, are just fun!
Enjoy your machine. All the reported "quirks" have been found and reported.
NB

Hi Debra,

Well, quite a lot of ppl have asserted their positive
opinions here and you probably must be already
enjoying your new machine.

I am one of them, but I can add a few more tips for
your new machine. Mine is MBP base model but the
power is more than I need. Ordered from US in late
April and used in Paris. If there were a problem, it
could be a killer going to Apple authorized agents
here in Paris where ppl don't speak English even if
they can. Anyway, a jammed DVD in the drive was the
only problem I experienced. Tips from Apple
discussions helped. I both installed boot-camp XP on
a separate partition as well as Parallels. Both doing
fine in terms of any aspects.

Here is how I cope with the heat issue. A cheap way
thought. All you need is a rubber eraser and a few
square-clips. I cut the rubber eraser to get two
tubes of about 1 cm height. Make a clip-on hook with
the square-clip to snatch the eraser to the body
(back end after the speakers grill). In this way, the
bottom of the machine (the back end) is raised by 1
cm enabling better ventilation. With the slightly
slopped keyboard, it's easier to type as well.

Another tip is that I juse palm-rest pads which I
bought from Japan. I still can't find such thing here
in France. It's like those hand-rest for your mouse
with the soft fabric and gel inside. Mine are two
square pads with about half cm thick. Really nice. I
never feel the heat on my hand, never.

Oh, another tip is to take out of the battery while
plugged in and your battery is fully or partially
charged. They say it's not good to keep the fully
chaged battery in the machine all the time letting it
suffer the excess heat from the machine.

I have the photos of those home-made tubes to raise
the laptop and the palm-rest pads. I don't know how
to put photos here. If you wan to see, you can send
your email to fsvoyager@gmail.com

I ENJOY YOUR TIPS!

Here's another option for the slope and ventilation: I just bought a folding unit from Macally; it's adjustable for the slope and provides more air circulation. It's better than another I have from www.laptopdesk.net, I think the site. It's lighter and fits in my shoulder bag.

I also have two self stick "bumpers" designed for picture framing industry for the lower corners of back of a frame; I pt them on the top side of the folding "desk" providing more air circulation. They are also about half cm.

I recently saw a friend's PWB with self stick pads he had on either side of touch pad; they were like the mouse rugs I have seen. Nice place to rest side of a hand. However, I'd want to know that the screen does not contact them when closed, as I think we want to minimize skin oils on the screen.

George

Enjoy it. I wouldn't even have noticed the minor things like the whine until I came here and read what it is and how to test if you have it. The rest probably affects very few users.

mine is great and i have had no problems with it so far. i would say dont worry about it

I was in the very first wave of MBPs shipped, and ordered only a day after keynote. This is my first personal Mac, having come from a Windows world. My wife owns the PowerBook G4 1.63gHz, the 15" model with the 17" features.

I am a developer, and somewhat of a gamer. I use my MBP for Photoshop (my wife is a photographer, and I help in retouch when needed), and all sorts of development work (Java, C/C++, Ruby, PHP, Cocoa, and more). I also work from home, so I am on it all day long practically. If ANYONE puts their MBP through a ringer, I would probably qualify for at least the top 5%. That said, I can honestly say I am more happy with my MBP that ANY other PC I have ever had! I would also recommend the AppleCare option.

One thing to note, and this was true for my wife's PB so I assume its true now, you can add AppleCare up to 1 yr, as long as the hardware is functional when you add it. Its totally worth 3yrs peace of mind.

Your boxed computer is the result of many months of learning and improvements on Apple's part. You know, the future MBP's, even with the new chip, is machine #1, of a new run. I am not trying to talk you out of, or into anything, but the minor improvements of the next generation of MBP, speed bump, etc. may have it's own version of unknown problems. My MBP is a wonderful machine, and so far, so good.

iMac Intel Duo/MacBook Pro 2 Gigs RAM ea. Sony VAIO/ 3 keyboards 2 hands Mac OS X (10.4.7) iMac 20" Intel core duo-250Gig HD-2Gig RAM/Bootcamp-Macbook Pro Parallels

VERY HAPPY!!!. Things did get off to a rocky start as my 1st MBP died 6 hrs into its life. Total failure. Returned for a new one and no further issues. I upgraded to 2GB Ram as I am running Parallels/XP Pro. This machine is a delight to use. Having a full XP environment up and running along side OSX is making the transition from the Windows world to MAC a lot less stressful (especially my addiction to Outlook and no clear path to MS Entourage). Parallels is amazing and wickedly fast on the MBP. I also got an Apple Mighty mouse so that the XP experience would be less trying (ie the need for the right mouse button)

david

Hi Debra,
I switched from my PBG4 400Mhz to a PBG4 1,8Ghz and now I've got my MBP 2,16Ghz 17'' - and I love it. But I guess you already took it out of the box and found out that there is no real alternative for another Mac notebook.
Enjoy your MBP,
Ingo

MBP 17'' 2,16GHz, 2GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I am happy and I don't even own a MBP yet!
When the time comes to buy one, I will appreciate it even more!

Powerbook 12" DVI Mac OS X (10.4.7)

hey!! I have a MBP 1.83Ghz , 1gig RAM .. i must tell you.. it's the best notebook i've ever owned.. dont even think twice about all the bad rumours you may have heard.. It is an absolute Joy to use my MBP ... by the way, this is my first Mac!!

I upgraded to 2GB Ram as I am running
Parallels/XP Pro. This machine is a delight to use.
Having a full XP environment up and running along
side OSX is making the transition from the Windows
world to MAC a lot less stressful (especially my
addiction to Outlook and no clear path to MS
Entourage). Parallels is amazing and wickedly fast
on the MBP. I also got an Apple Mighty mouse so
that the XP experience would be less trying (ie the
need for the right mouse button)

david

I'd like to know more about parallels. I have the install CD of XP, and not done anything yet. I'd like to use two windows apps and then sell my PC!

George

Well, I have had mine for about five months. I have had to replace the battery and now send it in due to a logic board error. In both cases, apple has been very quick with the service and shipping (overnight DHL both ways) All was under the standard one-year warranty. In that timeframe, I have had to reinstall windows twice on my desktop, manually kill two nasty viruses, and dea with many tedious windows phenomena that i could do without. I'd take the Mac anyday. No computer is completely trouble free. Apple stands by their products and the problems people are having are similar and are resulting in free repairs and recalls to address them. I can't wait for my desktop to die so i can justify buying a Quad Mac Pro!!!~D