New 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro Review

The new 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro landed on my desk yesterday morning. I wanted to bring you this video review as soon as possible, well at least after I had completely used a fully charged battery... this was important as I needed to let you know about battery life. Well, sit back and enjoy the review.

 

Apple MacBook (unibody 2008) Mini Review

I had the pleasure, or should I say experience, of using a new MacBook 2.4GHz for a couple of days. This was the new late-2008 version with the unibody, one piece aluminium chassis. With it's sleek new lines, it certainly felt like a grown up MacBook Pro, but in a slightly smaller form with dressed-down graphics performance and screen resolution.

The first thing of note is just how tight and solidly made this new version feels. All of the top seams have gone, with the casing made from one piece of metal. This has the effect of making the MacBook feel really rigid. There are no case-fit problems to deal with. What you must take into account though, is that there has to be some openings and seams somewhere, so that Apple can get all the technological wonders into the case. So, the bottom is where you will find the joins. Just over half the bottom casing is held on with screws, under which you gain access to the main computer gubbins and the memory. The other part of the bottom is held on with a clever catch mechanism, under which you find the battery and hard drive. This makes for easy upgrading and servicing. Don't be fooled though, all the hype about this 'unibody' construction, just means Apple have turned things upside down, so all the seams (or joins) are underneath. What this does acheive though, is the most solid and pro-feeling MacBook to date.

The top section houses a lovely black keyboard and on this particular model it is backlit. The key travel and spacing is superb and it is lovely to type on. The trackpad is very big, with no physical button this time. Instead, the whole trackpad is hinged and clicks from about half way down the device. You can assign the bottom right hand corner of it to a right click (in system preferences) if you wish. It also support multi-touch gestures, for using two, three of four fings in different ways. In my opinion, this was a nice idea, but over-engineered. It would have been nicer to keep things simple, at least they work properly. This trackpad does work, but I found that I was getting the wrong clicks a lot of the time.

The screen is nice and bright. LED backlit with a 1280 x 800 resolution. Yes, it is glossy and you do get reflections. Angling the laptop gets around most of these problems and/or adjusting the brightness... so it ends up to be a little annoying, but easy to rectify. The built-in iSight camera (as on previous models) is superb and adds to the usefulness of this wonderful machine.

In use the 2.4GHz model really flies. It feels a lot snappier than my similarly specced MacBook Pro. The NVidia 9400M graphics certainly make it very useful for all the applications I tested. These included iMove, Final Cut Express, PhotoShop and Quark Xpress, all of which showed no real struggle. The most lasting impression that I was left with, was a cool a lap. Yes, this MacBook ran for two or three hours and was only just very very slightly warm on the underside. The top area around the keyboard was still cool. This is a great acheivement and finally these little babies can be called 'laptops' again.

Product: Apple MacBook (late 2008) 2.4GHz
Price: £1,149.00
Supplied by: Apple Inc.
Contact: 0800 039 1010

Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station Review

The new Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) got me all excited when it was first announced. Imagine 802.11n wireless connectivity, all wrapped up in Apple goodness. When I received the unit at my office, there was one big low that I had overlooked, but this was over-shadowed by what seemed to be an awesome product. Read on to find out if this new piece of kit will remain in my set-up…

First up is the product design (and packaging). Apple manage to make what should really be a boring run-of-the-mill product into their usual fulfilling unboxing experience. Everything neatly tied and once unwrapped the AEBS oozes quality. It is the same shape as a Mac Mini and about half the height. The front sports a single LED light and the back has the input for power, a USB port, 3 ethernet ports, and a third ethernet port to go to your ADSL or broadband modem/router. There is also a pinhole reset button and a security port for if you want to lock your device down.

Now let's get the negatives out of the way. The big low that I mentioned earlier is that the AEBS does not have a modem built in. This is a shame, as with a modem a lot of people (including myself) could have replaced their existing connection to the outside world completely with this unit. The only other feature I would like to have seen is gigabit ethernet ports, instead of 10/100 speed.

OK, back to the set-up, which is really a case of plugging the unit into either your existing network, or to make a completely new one. The software installation consists of two main items, the AirPort Utility and the AirPort Disk Utility (with a few other bits installed into the background). There is also the 802.11n enabler, for anyone who has a compatible Mac, which includes most of the MacBook range. Running this patch enables the 'n' part of your Mac, so you can take full advantage of the speed increase of your AEBS. Of note, the software included has been upgraded a couple of times, so make sure you grab the latest AirPort Base Station Update 2007-001 to ensure things run smoothly.

Setting things up once the software is installed is really easy, and one of the nice features of the AEBS is the ability to attach a USB hard drive. You can then set (via the software) the access privileges, plus the hard drive can be set to mount on your desktop every time you log in. I tested this with a couple of different USB drives and it worked flawlessly, with data transfer rates more than acceptable. It is also possible to connect a powered USB hub, which in turn can be connected to multiple hard drives and even printers.

Getting things working as a new network was really easy. Things were a little more tricky when trying to extend an existing wireless network, mainly due to compatibility issues with my Belkin N1. It was also a shame that I could not configure the AEBS via an internet browser, only a minor complaint, but I found the Airport Utility a little restrictive in the way it presented the options.

The Verdict is pretty easy to predict. The Apple Airport Extreme Base Station is a fantastic piece of kit. Very nicely designed, and extremely (pun intended) easy to set up. If you run an all Apple network it just works, in other environments it works with a little cajoling. Once up and running, it is virtually impossible to fault and the ability to connect external hard drives is fantastic. I can highly recommend the AEBS if you are looking to add wireless connectivity to your home or office.

Product: Apple AirPort Extreme Base Station
Price: £119.00
Supplied by: Apple UK
Contact: 0800 039 1010