Here’s my review of a brand spanking new MacBook 2.4Ghz Core Duo 2 with 2GB memory, 160GB HDD, and Superdrive. Overall I’m very happy with the size, weight, craftmanship, OS, and performance. I’m comparing it to a 3+ year old PowerBook running the PowerPC 1.67Ghz chip. This machine blows that machine out of the water in every way but one. The display.
Now, to be fair the MacBook display doesn’t look all that bad to me when you’re just using it as a laptop and viewing the built-in 13″ screen. It’s not great, but not something I’d complain about. Hook up your MacBook to an external display though and you’re in for a very nasty surprise. It looks so bad running on my 22″ Samsung SyncMaster 225BW and my Sony 17″ LCD that I’m considering taking my new MacBook back and exchanging it for either the MacBook Pro or the 20″ iMac for $200 more (my MacBook cost $1,299, the base iMac is $1,499 and the base MacBook Pro is $1,999).
What I see on my external display is extremely bad pixelation of graphic images such as photos on iPhoto or on web pages (logos, fonts, images, etc.). It’s like seeing a highly optimized jpg file from a 1999 bannner ad gone wrong. Here are some example high resolution pictures of the display’s dithering problems I found on Apple’s forum. Here’s the forum thread where people are reporting all sorts of unexpected problems with build quality (inconsistency) poor display quality and pixelation like I talk about.
Frankly, I’m stunned that Apple has botched the implementation of the Intel GMA X3100 graphics processor with 144MB of DDR2 SDRAM so badly. You don’t read about these problem with other Wintel Machines with the same video card.
My Mum just sent this to me (OMG a form email letter that I actually enjoyed!) and it is struck me as so spectacular that I had to share it.
Enjoy
Text from email form letter below…
“This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. And, you also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want to pass it on to others. The Chinese have a saying that goes something like this: “When someone shares with you something of value, You have an obligation to share it with others!’ “”
Ah yes, that’s how we know it’s a chain letter. Oh the guilt!
Enjoy your day and I pray for many many more for you that are filled with smiles, dancing, laughter and challenges that bring your best out. Fill up your heart with life and women and love and song.
Shannon recently found a very interesting New York born musical artist by the name of Krishna Das. We were able to pick up one of his albums called Pilgrim Heart from our eMusic subscription and both of us really like him.
Our favorite track so far is Mountain Hare Krishna, which features Sting (yes, the one and only) providing backup vocals. Sting plays bass on another track. This song has amazed us both for the beautiful contrast between Das and Sting’s voices and the mashup of a traditional Indian chant with lyrics and sounds from Amazing Grace. Wow! I recommend that you head on over to eMusic to buy Pilgrim Heart or get it from iTunes or your favorite local music store.
On the lighter side, given that Das is singing and playing Eastern spiritual music we both had a good laugh over this view of his album (pictured below) in my iTunes playlist. Das is flanked by KISS and Kylie Minogue. I mean come on, that’s classic!
I was checking out a music site I found on Alltop (hint: aggregators are new and useful again!) today called The Music Slut (great site) and saw this video featuring Kanye West’s song called “Stronger” performed by baratsandbereta.com. You just have to watch – very creative.
