Apple MacBook Pro MA601LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop Review
Apple MacBook Pro MA601LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop Review from Matthew Clower. Best of All Worlds and Then Some, This MacBook comes ready to serve and includes all the amenities. Including, but not limited to, a built-in video camera (which has amazing quality, btw), multi-language support (with easy regional keyboard switching), bluetooth, light AND motion sensors, and multimedia remote control, not to mention an Intel-based processor that allows you to do so much more.
After a few steps, this machine can become the ultimate machine.
First off, if anyone else plans to do something like this in its entirety, you may want to upgrade your RAM from the 1gb to 2gb (mine came with 1 1gb stick in it already so all I had to do was add another one). The following are important pieces of extra software:
VirtueDesktops: a free utility that allows you to configure your own virtual desktops to run other programs in many virtual desktops. The current version of VirtueDesktops already supports the light and motion sensors to switch between virtual desktops.
Adium: a free IM aggregator that lets you log into all your IM services (currently except Skype) in one program. This utility automatically sorts and creates meta-contacts from the entries in your mac address book. It does not automatically synchronize in both directions, but there are add-in that help you do that.
Parallels: unfortunately Parallels is not free. It is a virtual machine handler that allows you to run other operating systems at close-to-native speeds simultaneously, any other equivalent is your option, but this is what I use.
Subsequently, I have a machine that has 4 virtual desktops, which run Mac OSX, Windows XP, and Fedora Core 5 and switching between them is as easy as a hotkey or even waving my hand IN FRONT of my screen.
SMACKBOOK: the motion sensors allow new areas for ingenuity and new types of applications. One of the more useful is what has been affectionately termed “smackbook” — the configuration that allows you to switch between virtual desktops by literally hitting your macbook (please be gentle, don’t hit it too hard). The current version of VirtueDesktops also comes with support for this configuration. Many interesting games have also been developed that take advantage of those motion sensors, such as a pinball game, and even the old Labyrinth game! You should be able to find several online, and more are coming out all the time.
For me, as a developer, I have a found a way to very seamlessly do work across all the platforms I employ from a single machine.
Other helpful tools:
1. A bluetooth mouse with a scroll wheel and right mouse button: Keep in mind that like other macs, you can scroll by dragging 2 fingers over the track pad. Parallels and other virtual machine hosts support key combinations to emulate right and middle clicks, but I find it easier to just get a bluetooth mouse that has them already.
2. TextMate: A very reasonably priced and useful text-based editor that recognized syntax in quite a few languages. Packages can also be downloaded for free that recognize even more languages.
3. MS Remote Desktop Connection: This program will allow you to bring up remote desktops of Windows machines on your network.
Anything else that you might want would depend on what you plan to do with your system.
The only bad thing: the display goes back just as much as any other MacBook or iBook, but not as far back as its IBM counterparts that flip all the way back into a straight line.
To check price or purchase Apple MacBook Pro MA601LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop.