The white menace!
Tomorrow will be the end of an era… and the beginning. At the moment, I’m just brimming with excitement. Why? Well, friends, let me tell you.
I just got a friendly e-mail from Amazon.com to let me know that my recent order has shipped. Now, when I placed my order barely 3 days ago, Amazon listed the ship-time as 1-2 weeks. Weeks? Yes, weeks. But I placed the order anyway, because it would save me $170+ over buying… “it”… in the local store.
Now, before I tell you what “it” is, I’m going to gush about Amazon Prime. It’s an added-value “club” at Amazon, where members get free 2nd-day shipping or $3.99 next-day shipping. I signed up for the free trial when they first introduced the program, and then I paid the $79/year to continue my membership.
So now I don’t have to combine purchases to reach that “eligible for free shipping” threshold. I simply order whatever I want, whenever I want it, and I don’t have to find some DVD for $5.99 to round out my order and save on shipping. These days, I just order the 50-pack of slimline CD/DVD cases, or the red Henckels kitchen sheers (for my lovely wife), or… whatever. Needless to say, I get my value out of Amazon Prime.
But I’ve probably milked the “it” mystique for all it’s worth, so I’ll tell you why I’m so excited.
Tomorrow, UPS will deliver my first personal Macintosh, a shiny white MacBook.
Now, I started working on Macs “back in the day,” on an original black and white Mac, circa 1986. In college, I did my first professional resume on a Mac II, in 1989. And then through the early- and mid-90s, I did lots of software development on Macs (working in Macromedia Director, which had the benefit of running on both Macs and PCs).
So I’ve been a Mac user for something like 20 years, but I’ve never owned one myself. The PC has always been cheaper—not to mention more entrenched in the “real” world of business (not the Ivory Tower world of, feh, academia)—so I’ve stuck to PCs for my personal computers. But not anymore.
My company recently upgraded our dark-ages Macintoshes (most of them mid-90s technology) with new OS X machines. It was a painful process for my business partner, since he doesn’t like change. But I’ve been badgering him for a while now, and our main printer finally said “no more camera-ready artwork, send us PDFs, dammit!” So my partner bit the bullet and we shelled out a hunk o’ cash to completely upgrade our office computers. Sweet.
Anyway, I’ve wanted a Mac for a while, to round out my computer niches. Believe it or not, I don’t have a notebook computer. So when Apple announced the MacBook Pro with the new Intel Core Duo chips, I perked up. What? A stylish Mac notebook which can run both OS X (stunningly beautiful) and Windows XP (pretty enough, but with 99% of the applications I use)? Could I have my cake and eat it too? A notebook computer, an OS X machine, a Windows XP machine, and a Linux machine?!? Holy synergy, Batman!
But I balked at the price: $2000 for an entry-level MacBook Pro, and a staggering $2500 for the model I wanted. Sorry, Steve, but I can build two top-notch Wintel gaming machines for $2500, or I could buy a Dell notebook and a top-notch gaming machine for the same price. So my burning desire simmered, unrequited.
Until… the MacBook! It has the same processor as the Pro model, in a smaller form factor (13″ screen, versus the Pro’s 15″ screen). Even better, the MacBook comes in that eye-catching white polycarbonate that just screams “see how hip I am?!?” (For the record, I agree with the pundits who ask, “why spend $150 more for a black MacBook that looks just like a Thinkpad?”)
So I went down to my local Apple store—which just opened a few weeks ago—and did a side-by-side comparison of the MacBooks (white and black) and the MacBook Pro. I took one look at the chicklet-style MacBook keyboard and went “ugh!” But then I started typing on it, and I was surprised: I really liked it. Compared to the Pro’s metallic keyboard with the bevelled keys, the MacBook’s keyboard is crisp and clean. And I liked the look of the white MacBook better than the black, and even better than the Pro’s metallic case.
I decided on the MacBook then and there, and I started shopping for the best deal. Since Apple sells online, they’re very, very strict about pricing, and dealers toe the Steve Jobs line (i.e., they all sell for the same price, give or take $5… yes five measly bucks). Finding the best deal pretty much involves whatever the resellers are willing to throw in for free to get you to buy from them instead of Apple. Well, I shopped around, and Amazon.com was the best deal: no sales tax and a $100 rebate… except they had the 1-2 week ship date.
In the end, I decided to save $170+ (compared to buying in the local Apple store… instant gratification = more money). Apple charges a whopping $500 for a 2Gb memory upgrade, but I bought two top-notch Patriot 1Gb chips from Newegg for $80 each. So I basically traded a 1-2 week wait for a 2Gb memory upgrade. Easy decision.
But wait, there’s more! Today, I was feeling a little MacBook jones, so I went to the Apple site to look at the MacBook page one more time. And what did I find when the page loaded? Why, the Wireless Mighty Mouse, of course. I don’t much like a trackpad for everyday use, so I wanted to buy a mouse. I wanted a Apple wireless mouse, which matched the shiny white MacBook, but the previous version didn’t have the neat little scroll-ball. I didn’t want to buy a bluetooth Microsoft Explorer mouse, because it wouldn’t match the shiny white MacBook (are you getting the idea that I really, really like the shiny… white… MacBook?). So today, I ordered a cool new Wireless Mighty Mouse… for a staggering $69 + tax. Ugh and double ugh! But hey, you pay for shiny white goodness.
Now, what else would I like with my shiny white MacBook? Well, I want an extra MagSafe power supply—one for home, one for work. But I can’t justify the $80 price tag… yet. Also, I want a custom WaterField SleeveCase (about $75, the way I want it). And when I started looking at sleeves, I started lusting after the custom WaterField Cargo Bag combo with the SleeveCase (total price for both? $265… ugh!). Oh, and I want to add a Hitachi 100Gb 7200rpm hard drive from Newegg, to replace the “anemic” 60Gb 5400rpm stock HD, but that’s a $175 luxury right now.
Ah well, I can spend all that money some other time. My new shiny white MacBook (!!) will arrive tomorrow. Fortunately, my memory is scheduled to arrive tomorrow too. So I can upgrade that white beastie and scream along with 2Gb of RAM. Then I can install all my software (Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, Macromedia Studio, etc.). Finally, I’m sure I’ll spend the day making sweet geek-love to my shiny new toy.
So… looks like I’ll have my hands full tomorrow, which is why I’m writing in the blog tonight. Wish me luck!
- Nick
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20 Responses to “The white menace!”
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*rolls eyes*
What is it about computer geeks that makes them soooo happy with a bunch of circuits in a plastic case?
be287m
Shiny white goodness?
- Nick
Leave Nick and the new love of his life to enjoy their honeymoon, Ed…
“The only difference between a man and a boy is the price of their toys” *chuckles*
Of course, the real secret to Mac pricing is the education discount. If you have a child in school, or you or your spouse work in education, then you probably qualify for the educational discount. Even board members of PTAs qualify for the education discount. The discount varies from 5% up to 20%, depending on the item. Average is about 10%. Works on desktops, laptops, iPods, and most everything in the Apple store, both online and brick-and-mortar.
isnt school great lol gotta love that discount
if you know how to talk to the salesman even homeschoolers can get it. lol
anyways nick i hope you enjoy your new toy i know we will enjoy all the stories you write on it .
Nick,
Damnit, now you force me to buy mine and you have shown the way.
OMG - you sound JUST like my husband!
A Mac? You have my sympathy Nick.
Of course I remember when SGI Indigos were the hippest thing around.
May your Mac live longer than my G4 did. A few years ago, I forgot and left the phone line in during a thunderstorm. A close strike killed it –and a cow in a nearby pasture.
A MAC.
Well, there is truth in the old sayings then…..
There’s a sucker born every minute.
Personally, I just went with a regular Intel Based laptop, and the used the resources at OSx86 to load a legal copy of OSX on it.
cost me about 1/3 of what you just spent….
C’est la Vie…..
Well, bully for you. Enjoy your Franken-laptop.
At least you can use the money you saved to buy some cool clothes or something… so you don’t look like the rest of the drones.
I’ll take my shiny white MacBook any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
- Nick
[...] Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. Not surprisingly, I’ve been busy with my shiny new MacBook. I’ve also been busy with lots of other things, but the MacBook is the most fun. (Well, that’s not entirely true… I did host a nice party Saturday. That was fun.) [...]
How long does the office test drive last? How much additional for the full product. Hidden costs, hidden costs.
Actually, the MacBook doesn’t come with an Office test drive (the old G5 Macs did). At least, I don’t have an Office test drive pre-installed on this machine.
Now, it might be on a disc that Apple included in the box, but I haven’t even taken those out of their cellophane.
I have a personal copy of MS Office 2004. That’s how I’m using it.
- Nick
Nick
As a Mac user from the early ’80s and an owner from 1989 - mine was an SE with 20M hard drive and 1 m of RAM.
It is great to hear you speak so well of the Mac. Yes a classy machine and the one I will always use.
Keep up the publicity so that others will realise that quality costs and you get what you pay for.
Except of course in the case of your great on-line FREE stories.
Love them
David
My boss just got a MacBook, and every day he’s coming to tell us something new he’s learned that he loves about it. He had me just about completely SOLD on my next laptop being a Mac, until I discovered that there is no PCMCIA slot on them, and no EVDO cards available for them at all(yet). I was really disappointed…I can’t really afford a laptop I can’t use on the road, and they’ve had me traveling a lot the last few months.
Why would you need a PCMCIA card for a MacBook? It’s got inbuilt wifi, usb, and firewire. I can’t honestly think of many other uses for a pcmcia card slot.
just got a new shiny macbook a week ago…
The PCMCIA is for the 14.400 modem which comes for the CIA application to phone home, the Name says it.
[...] Last week I finally ordered the computer. Much as I love Apple, they charge sales tax (9.75% here), so Amazon.com got my business again. Even better, they were offering a $100 rebate. I bought my MacBook through them, also with a rebate, and was very happy. This time I saved almost $300 from what Apple would have charged me. [...]