New MacBooks/Buyer's Temptation

A part of last evening was spent inside of an Apple Store to take a look at the new MacBook line, and I didn't really have any sudden urge to get excited over its recent facelift. Whether this resistance to buying a new Mac is due to my financial situation or my contentment with my current MacBook Pro is not as important as the consumer reactions I witnessed at the store. Of course I heard regret from a few who had recently purchased a new Apple laptop and felt cheated that they weren't warned of this new release, but what surprised me was the disappointment of one particular Mac user. He showed a very sour face as his wife stood next to him before the new incarnation of the MacBook Pro because he would have preferred the aesthetics of the newer model. This wasn't a situation where he had bought his laptop within 2 weeks past, but instead he had been using his unit for at least a year. What shocked me was the anger he felt toward the Apple Store for not giving him fair warning that such a upgrade would arrive to the MacBook line. He somehow felt that the store was to blame for cheating him out of an opportunity to get the latest and greatest computer, and I simply felt sorry for his skewed sense of reality. It is a fact of life that things do evolve and people can definitely be left in the dark with what they think is an inferior product once a new version arrives...especially one that looks considerably different. I guess I had my fair share of that man's feelings when I was angry about my previous iPod Touch not being compatible with the new Nike Sport Kit software.

The new look of the revived laptop line is truly a sight to see and continues to boldly preach Apple, Inc.'s philosophy of minimalist design and clean lines, but I wonder if the upgrade worthiness only runs skin deep. I completely understand that there are some improvements underneath, but overall I don't really feel that those changes are much of a far cry from the previous generation MacBook line. When I studied the outer form of those new laptops I was mostly impressed with the new multitouch trackpad, but after only a few minutes of usage I concluded there was no huge benefit gained from this new innovation. Sure, I could spin and control zooming on a picture in the Preview application which had its short-lived novelty, but there really was no other feature from it that I had discovered. While it may be appropriate for me to reserve judgement on this part of the machine since I haven't spent more than a few minutes with it, I still can't help but feel a preference for the old trackpad model on my own MacBook Pro model. The new thinner profile and unibody construction had made a terrific impression on me in regards to product appeal, but the operating system was nothing new and looked like any other modern Mac I had worked with. At that point I was done with my introduction to the new computers, and after a brief moment of browsing the accessory shelves for anything eye-catching I walked out of the store without a second thought. I realized then that my MacBook Pro is really enough for my daily computing and multimedia library management, and it felt great to resist that urge to want a brand new toy that would have grown old too fast anyway.

While it felt great to briskly walk the mall with such confidence in having defeated the enticing advertising of the Apple, Inc. conglomerate, I was not totally free from danger as of yet. Later that night I drove to Best Buy and came across an Asus EEE PC 1000HD model for $379. My mind began to race with thoughts of how I could benefit from owning a smaller Asus by selling my 17inch Toshiba P305 model, and I was back at square one of succumbing to buyer's temptation. As much as I did like the smaller footprint of the Asus, I would have to be comfortable with giving up some features from the bigger computer. While the loss of some RAM, hard drive space, an optical drive and those amazing harmon/kardon speakers didn't seem too unbearable, I had to consider the workable real estate of the screen for my schoolwork. I remember how much I detested working with even the slightly larger HP tablet I used to own, but I am wondering if that was mostly due to the AMD chip which wasn't exactly the fastest choice for extensive multi-tasking. Overall I didn't like the cramped spacing of the screen and plenty of times preferred the 17inch screen for multiple windows in the midst of online research and writing term papers. Speaking of writing I also noticed that the EEE PC only had Microsoft Works and not Office 2007. Since taking that introductory course for Office 2007, I have learned how to comfortably navigate its many features and use them quite often in my papers. I would hate to let go of all that to go to Works for all of my word processing. Even if I could install Office onto the Asus, whose to say that the 1GB of RAM wouldn't be taxed to the point where OS freezing would occur? The more I consider the comparison between my Toshiba and the Asus, I lean more toward keeping my 17inch model. I think it wiser to do this in case my Mac dies off and I need a comparable replacement...knock on wood!!

If I am really in need of a portable writing machine, I've got my Nokias equipped with Quickoffice apps!! My E90 is a goldmine in this regard with its widescreen and my comparable E71 is even more impressive with its portability. If there's ever a chance to gain the Asus as an extra unit to my two laptops, there might be a possibility. But saving money and being resourceful is the name of the game for now, not tech toy extravagance.

TRENT
Sent from my Nokia E71-2