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…not nor no blue LED neither, dammit.
Makes a knife look like a technical solution.
You know you’re in trouble when the “feature list” is as follows:
•Your personalized logo on the Avocado Cutter
•A customized recipe card
•Sealed in a clear poly bag
• Free digital pre-press and color seperations
•Shipped in easy storage cartons
•A digital version of your card
“Sealed in a clear poly bag”?? With this packing, Ambassador, you really spoil us.
As I was about to leave Littlewoods, handing back my laptop in the ceremony of stripping of the tech (think of Beau Geste and ripping off the epaulets of the legionnaires – you get the picture), I get call from the lovely people at Square, the Mac centre on New Oxford Street, saying that they did after all have a “spare” MacBookPro… Did I want it?
One quick fumble to extract my credit card later and it was mine. They “only had the 2ghz” (heh) and I was pleased with the specs. Lots of everything. My 15″ G4 powerbook had been running like a dog: a combination of Firefox memory leak (which I hadn’t realised was happening), years of crap software, betas, rubbish and finally no disk space was making it painfully slow. Oh, and an old processor, and no RAM. Anyway, it had served well. I was however looking forward to the promised greased lightning computing.
Two weeks in, with the first coffee stains on the lovely speakers, and scratches on the lid, here’re my thoughts. This isn’t a full review cos hey I’m lazy, underqualified and others have done it better. These are the views of a Mac Addict on his new toy (^W ‘necessary business expenditure).
1) Packaging to die for. I assume the box is matt-laminated to withstand frequent licking by happy purchasers? Thin, elegant, stylish. What an experience. It’s probably “eco” too, just to add to the smugness factor! I’m keeping the box.
2) Power chord. It’s lovely. Great idea – especially in a house with galloping 3-year olds. The downside is that the transformer unit is significantly bigger than the last PB unit and so plugging it in (on trains, odd corners, underfloor power boxes etc) is a pain. Speaking of pain, there’s now a need to acquire – at £65 a pop – spare power adapters. Strike two on the gullibility scale.
3) Illuminated keyboard. Why didn’t I specify this on the last PB? Excellent.
4) Screen. Denser pixel count, brighter. Pleasant.
5) Startup: whoosh – that’s fast.
6) Speed overall. Well, it’s certainly faster for most things. iCal is still a total, barking, mangey dog. It was conceived in an evil plot to sap power from ‘puters and make us upgrade. It’s now just “awful” instead of “suicide-inducing”. Firefox suck, Mail.app flies, searchlight is fiendishly quick and iPhoto is on performance-enhancing drugs! 10,000 images scrolling briskly. Impressive. That aside though it’s simply a brisker overall experience.
7) YE GODS IT’S HOT!! If this is the “cool” option (ie the Intel dual core because G5 chips run too hot) then I’m going to buy an asbestos mat for the G5. I’ve never had a laptop this hot: it really is not safe for laps! The heat seems to come from the left hand side by the power supply so I blame that. I don’t know why, but I do. You may remember those “take a break” reminder widgets so you didn’t get RSI: this is ‘take a break or your hand will fry!”
That’s it.
Is it wortwhile? Not sure. It’s nice to have a new ‘puter (fewer scratches, chance to start over on the organisational front, smell of the box etc), but it’s an evolutionary step rather than a total speed revolution. A G5 desktop is still way faster for about everything, and – as we Maccies get reminded – most PC desktops are faster still. Just shows that a) you don’t really need that much power for mobile computing and b) what Mac Addicts will put up with just to use OSX and be touched by the Power of Jobs.
Now, time to order that G5
A shot from the crapcam (while stationary, of course) of the odo on our car: 111,111 miles. Not bad.
I’m not sure whether it’s having driven some 35,000 miles last year on motorways (Ms 1, 6, 62 featuring most highly in my list) between London, Manchester and Liverpool that’s made me ponder interesting, symmetrical, well-kerned combinations, or whether an innate pull towards numerology, but whatever the reason it’s still a pretty number.
It’s the only time I’m likely to see the same number “all up” on the odo: I missed 000000 and I’m not sure I’ll still have the car at 222222.
That’s it. Welcome to my private musings from the driver’s seat
MMS to Combat London Grafitti at MobHappy
Yay – at last a sensible purpose for MMS (other than sending photos of the kids with mucky faces to all and sundry): calling in the White Knights of the local authority to clear up graffiti, fly-tipping and other antisocial behaviour.
While not quite as satisfying as calling up close air support (think choppers, “Ride of the Valkyries” and “Platoon”), I have visions of Rapid Response Units, armed with picture phones, awaiting our text…
It shows though the innovation happening in local authories in the UK, opening up services and responsiveness. With move mobile phones in the UK than people I reckon that we can’t even call them elitist
All I want now is a phone with sufficiently good resolution to scan in the barcodes of expired Road Fund Licences and/or the VIN number of cars without. A mobile crushing lorry could then render the car into a heap of diced metal and plastic, ready for recycling, while the camera then catches the look on the face of the tax dodging, insurance-free, polluting, congestion-charge-evading tossers when they get their just deserts.
You’ll see me in the picture cowering behind the Very Large Gentlemen – joy being balanced by fear, natch.
Three cheers for Lewisham. Not sure what it’ll do for the People’s Art of Graffiti, but hopefully we’ll now get a better view when the rubbish, fly-tipping and abandoned cars are removed 
Angstrom Power Inc. :: Better than Batteries™
Is it wicked and/or weak to desire this torch (oops, “flashlight”) so much? This is like CSI-style torchiness on turbo-charged steroids.
Never mind what on earth fuel cells might be, just remember that it recharges with hydrogen. Yes. “Whoomph + pshhht”.
Best of all is that the recharger is so, well, Judge Dredd. “R1 Refueling Station”. Swoon.
Quoth the blurb:
http://www.angstrompower.com/products_r1.html
.
Someday, all battery-powered thingies will be this way.
Now, is it better, while on an extended back-country trek, to moan about taking spare batteries or carting a small cylinder of compressed hydrogen?