I have had my MacBook Pro for a month now and so far I believe it is the best machine I have ever owned. I have owned a lot of machines! The key to loving the MacBook Pro was to make it my main box — my ThinkPad T43p is still here — but over there as my secondary machine now. Now I do everything with my MacBook Pro.

I have been able to nearly replicate my entire Windows experience on my MacBook Pro by purchasing or cross-grading over to the Mac version of the software. Here are the Top Ten Reasons I am loving my MacBook Pro:

1. Mail: I do a lot of email every day. I get a lot of Spam and Junk. I need to easily reply to 11 email accounts throughout an 18 hour workday using IMAP. The bundled Mail application in OS X is truly magnificent. It beats Outlook 2003 and Entourage 2004 in every conceivable way. The application is fast, robust, reliable and super-easy to setup and manage. I could not ask for a better way to manage my mail and the fact that Mail is bundled for free as part of my MacBook Pro experience is a delight unlike no other.

2. Dictionary: I use words all day long. Sometimes I want to know the second or third definition of a word and I jump online to do an unabridged search on Merriam-Webster.com. My MacBook Pro has the Oxford American Dictionary dictionary and a thesaurus bundled for free with the machine. The great thing about this dictionary is I can check spelling as I work in Pages. I can Right-Click on a word and have it looked up in the Dictionary and Thesaurus application.
3. Screen: The 17-inch screen is bright and vibrant! I have no dead pixels. I could not want for a better display.
4. Bluetooth: Setting up a wireless mouse via Bluetooth is easy. Unlike Windows, getting a Bluetooth mouse working is as simple as clicking a few buttons.
5. Networking: I have an Airport Extreme working as as a wireless internet and wireless printing hub for my MacBook Pro and Janna’s MacBook. It was a delight to set up and it took all of sixty seconds per machine to get everything communicating. Try doing that on Windows.
6. Power Cord: The power cord for the MacBook pro is unique because you can pick how much cord you need. If you’re traveling, you take the short cord. If you’re at home and you have a longer reach to the power outlet, you plug in the “extension” and you’re in fine power shape. The power brick for the MacBook Pro is large and, in my experience, it doesn’t sit well in my surge protector because its weight keeps pulling it loose from the power socket. Having the extra cord length means the brick can sit on my desk where it can work out of the way of the floor and stay plugged in at all times.
7. .Mac: I know a lot of Mac die-hards hate the .Mac portal. I think it is a wonderful service worth every bit of the $100 I pay a year. I can synch all my vital information to .Mac. I can pull down that information from another Mac or even my Windows machine! .Mac also curries belonging and a shared vision of the Mac environment and I entirely support that blend of belonging. As a newbie, .Mac makes me feel part of the game.
8. Keyboard: The keyboard — but not the giant wrist rest — is superb. The keys are magical and responsive and the fact the keyboard lights up in low light is a welcome event when you’re working in a dark room.
9. iCal: The power of iCal is your ability to conveniently share calendars across people and projects. I also really like the calendar “views” I can create and then turn on and off at will. I have a “Books” calendar in purple, an “ASL” calendar in red, a “Janna” calendar in pink, a David calendar in blue and an “Urban Semiotic” calendar in green. I can turn each calendar on and off in my basic iCal view. I can drag an “Urban Semiotic” event onto a “Janna” event and that event goes to her calendar in her color. That allows me to view and manage individual projects as I wish without having to look at everything else.
10. Spotlight: I know some die hard Mac fans do not like Spotlight because they feel it isn’t very robust or customizable. However, coming from the Windows platform I can tell you there is nothing on that side of computing world that compares with the ease and richness of Spotlight on a Mac. Spotlight is fast, simple and it just works. That wraps up my Top Ten MacBook loves. I many more MacBook loves, but I’ll save them for another day. Tomorrow we’ll discuss the Top Ten Reasons I Hate My MacBook Pro.

20 Comments

  1. Great review! I have the 15 inch version. I think MacBook is great. Does yours get hot?

  2. Hi Roger!
    Welcome to the blog!
    Thanks for the comments on the Top 10 list.
    Oh, yes, my MacBook gets hot. Really hot. I’ll talk more about that topic tomorrow.

  3. That sounds sure good. I’ll be here tomorrow. Do you like Garage Band?

  5. I sure like it, too. The iDVD program is pretty nice. Thanks for the great review.

  6. I’m with you on iDVD, Roger, it is a fine program. I look forward to getting more feedback and inspiration from you tomorrow!
    😀

  7. Sounds like an awesome piece of machinery. Of course, I’ve never heard anything bad about anything from Apple, except for the little deal with the iPod batteries a while back that has since been corrected.
    I’m looking forward to reading today’s post so I can continue to feel good about being stuck in the Bill Gate’s MS world.
    I don’t think I’ve ever heard a Mac user complain about his or her machine.
    There must be a reason for that.
    Be careful.
    Maybe they send a crew out to repossess it if you do! 😉

  11. Anyone have any experience with the airport express. I just got one onine and should be here any day.
    Thanks!

  13. Worth it?
    Works as advertised?
    Do tell!
    My setup is just one macbook pro, one printer, cable modem

  15. I got my macBook Pro, my first Mac after suffering Microsoft since they began….I love it…finally I’m relatively free to compute, instead in a constant battle to simply manage and keep one step ahead of the next attack or crash…
    but there are still those applications out there that only work on a windows platform..my question is, should I wait for Vista?…I hate to pay more $ for xp pro(running on two pc’s in the house already)..
    but I need a microsoft platform for some specialized apps, will Vista work on these intel Macs?

  16. You ask an interesting question, eric. I’m not sure of the answer but welcome to Urban Semiotic anyway!
    😀
    Perhaps someone else will step forward with your answer.

  17. I’ve been an ardent Mac fan since 1989 when I bought my SE. I’ve had several Macs since, and have been happy as a clam with every one of them.

  18. That’s great to know, icedmocha! I don’t know how I lived so long without one. I want 10 more!
    Now I have to decide if I update my one and only Windows box to Vista or not…

  19. I got my Macbook Pro 13″ about a week and a half ago and i love it. it only paused for a second when i was running imovie-stabilization software, iphoto-i was manually editing, safari-google, pages, and email-reading mail and downloading sent images all at once. it was great.

    1. It’s a magical machine, Matt. Mine is still the main box I use every day to get my life done. It feels fast and responsive in every way.

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