Zit Seng's Superwall

Last weekend, I ordered a MacBook, my first ever original Apple product. The MacBook arrived earlier than expected, and it was really cool. Today, I ordered my second ever Apple product, the MacBook again. Unfortunately, it wasn’t because I was so impressed with the first that I had to order another, but that there was a defect with the first one and, oddly enough, the fastest way to get it fixed was to buy another. Sadly, my otherwise pleasant experience with Apple has been marred by this hardware defect.

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I’ve finally clicked the “Buy Now” button and followed through to order the MacBook 2.4GHz. It will be delivered in a couple of days. It has taken me quite a long while to decide on going ahead with the MacBook. Originally, I was actually looking at the MacBook Air. Then, there was the consideration of, if I were to get the MacBook, whether or not to wait for the upcoming model refresh. Well, here’s the story of how I ended up clicking “Buy Now”.

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Look at how this baby is all over the Mac notebook. I think she totally wants to own this Mac. Nevermind that it is a bit dated and no where as slick as the latest MacBook Air. Nevermind that she actually doesn’t have very much use of the Mac. At least not in the traditional sense of what the notebook is intended to be used for. But still she is having so much fun with the Mac. That’s even before she has figured out how to open the notebook!

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Yes, by now it must already be in Singapore shops, although I haven’t gone around looking. I did notice the “pre-order” link at the Apple Singapore Store has been removed, and the “2-3 weeks” delivery is now “8-10 business days”. Yeah, so they are now really shipping in volume and catching up with the back orders.

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Finally, I laid my hands on the real MacBook Air. It isn’t mine, but well, it’s my first sighting of the real thing in Singapore. It’s actually a bit of an anti-climax. The MacBook Air is exactly as I have expected it to be. After so much media attention on the new gadget, tons of detailed reviews on the Internet, just reading about it is almost as good as having held it. The most spectacular thing, as we have already all known, is the thinness. However, as it has become “expected”, the thinness failed to evoke the “wow” factor now. It is definitely still a pretty cool notebook. Should I get the MacBook Air? Ang Pow money hasn’t added significantly to my MBA fund leh.

It’s funny how sometimes you chance upon a game and remain attached to it even while the rest of the world has mostly moved on to newer stuffs. For example, I’m still playing Warcraft 3. It’s actually Warcraft 2 that I like to play, but sadly Warcraft 2 is long gone, I can’t find the CDROM and even if I could, I don’t think it will run on Windows XP anyway. I like Warcraft 2 because the game is so simple that it’s almost like playing a game of chess. I’ve just realized this Warcraft 3 CDROM is supposed to run on the Mac too! Hopefully my oldish Powerbook G4 is “up to spec”.

The most exciting Mac news this week has to be Apple’s new MacBook Air, currently the world’s thinest notebook. At the Macworld 2008 keynote address, Steve Jobs walked over to the podium, picked up a typical office manila envelope, opened it up, and pulled out the new MacBook Air in front of a completely awed audience. It was simply spectacular and stunning.

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Yes, PC World has declared the world’s fastest Vista notebook is a Mac. How ironic is that? Apple has quite cleverly turned it into one of their TV ads. For those who aren’t aware, do check out their really  fascinating series of advertisements. The series has been running over a year now. I actually do return to the site from time to time to check out any updates. They’re really funny and hilarious. Some nice entertainment during this holiday season.

I was just clearing out some junk from my cupboard when I chanced upon a bunch of technology relics such as this Xircom “CreditCard Modem”. I’m sure kids a few years down the road are going to find this amusing. What is a modem? Why would you want to use a modem? Notebooks used not to come with modems, so you needed a PCMCIA card like this one. Then, all notebooks started to come with modems built-in. Ah, and then now, modems are disappearing from notebooks again, because no one uses them anymore. My PowerBook G4 had a built-in modem, but now the newer MacBooks don’t.

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Apple posts updates to their Mac OS X operating system from time to time, much like what Microsoft does for Windows XP, Vista, etc. As I was installing the latest update, 10.4.11, I was just thinking how simple this version numbering is. Mac OS X “Tiger” is version 10.4, and updates to Tiger are numbered 10.4.x, such as 10.4.1, 10.4.2, … 10.4.11. It’s simple, and it lets users easily tell if they are up-to-date.

Apple lives up to their reputation to keep simple things simple, even when it comes to updates versioning. If there is any way to do something in a more complicated and confusing way, Microsoft will do it. I cannot even think how to begin explaining to ordinary users how Microsoft Windows XP updates are versioned. Sure, you have the rare Service Pack 1 and Service Pack 2, but that’s about it. The rest of the time, your Windows XP updates are but complicated nomenclature.

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