It’s about time!

There was a new 13″ MacBook Pro announced at WWDC 2009 yesterday.  They’re available starting today.  New features include:

• built-in (non-removable) 7 hour battery
• new Display (has better color, etc…)
• SD Card slot
• Firewire port
• up to 8Gb of memory
• up to 500Gb hard drive
• and a backlit keyboard.

They also start at a lower price of $1199, but have faster processors than the previous models.

I was watching a session from MIX09 this morning titled “Deep Dive into Microsoft Silverlight Graphics.” The session was hosted by Seema Ramchandani and surprisingly (though, not too surprisingly) she was conducting the session from her 17″ MacBook Pro. She’s teaching the intricacies of a Microsoft product from the comfort of Mac. Wonderfully ironic!

The only reason I bring this up is that I constantly get comments from people about my MacBook while traveling through meetings and offices at Microsoft’s Redmond campus and recently at a Silverlight Training that I was conducting.  I’m sure she got lots of comments as well.  A few things are commonly agreed upon:

1. having a MacBook in a Microsoft office is just wrong – it involves too much cross-pollination of kool-aid,
2. MacBooks are definitely sexy,
3. and Everybody wants one.

Everybody wants one and they want to know how it runs Windows.  “How’s the performance?”  “How’s the driver situation?” Of course, they also want to know what I like about it compared to other notebooks.  The typical “why buy a Mac?” question.

The answer really isn’t that complicated.

One of the immediate reasons that tops the list among the nerdier crowd is that as a developer I feel that I need a machine that can code for the Mac OS and for Windows.  Developers are just more 1337 that way (and coding for Mac is more important nowadays too).

I think this was a cop out for the real reason that I bought a MacBook, however.

The real reason is that I just feel a little spoiled with my MacBook.  It’s like buying an expensive car.  I bought it because I appreciate the craftsmanship, the attention paid to the details.  I don’t just “go fast” – I enjoy the ride.

A very bold statement sir, I’ll give you that.  But I can’t help but want to put you in the same category as this guy, Steve Ballmer, below.  Maybe that’s a low blow.  I’m just going to hope that you’re wrong on this one.

The sleeve will prevent the aluminum body from getting scratched when shoved into a backpack with books and wire-ringed notepads (among other various nick-knacks you might shove into your bag).  Even if you just want to drive to the local coffee shop and don’t want to worry about carrying an entire bag with you, the Incase sleeve will be plenty of protection to guard against the laptop bumping around in the front seat or on the floor (though I might be hesitant to set it in the trunk unless you have some sort of net to keep it from flying around too much).

The interior of the sleeve is ridiculously soft.  I say “ridiculous” because the interior of the sleeve probably doesn’t need to be so soft to the touch in order to keep the laptop protected.  That being said, I do feel like I got my money’s worth because attention was paid to the presentation.  Also, the padding around the edge of the inside of the case separates the laptop from the zipper so you don’t have to worry about the case of your MacBook getting scratched by the zipper.

The Incase Neoprene sleeve was an all-around great buy to me and was well worth the money.  It’s much nicer than other sleeve’s I’ve owned and I recommend this one to everybody!

Typically, under extreme operating conditions you could potentially draw more power than the AC input is providing and in this case the MacBook would draw the extra power from the battery.