I had posted an article on what I hated about Sayuri, and I guess it’s time I say what I love, nay, lurve about her.
The main strength of the MacBook as my workhorse, in my opinion, is its.. Keyboard. Ever since I got the feel of the flat, well-spaced, clickety keyboard, I fell in love with it so hard that I’m looking for a big-keyed keyboard for Phoenix the clunky desktop now. Somehow, even Logitech fatness isn’t enough anymore. I guess I shall forever be attached to how wonderful the MacBook keyboard is. Thus, though I crave to work on Phoenix sometimes, as I like the feel of its arrangement (makes me feel like I’m on a spaceship console), I can’t bear to, because the narrow keys on the keyboard really annoy me now. After I pay the bills, I’m buying a Logitech keyboard! Hmph! But I digress.
Another great thing about the MacBook as a productivity machine is that I can leave it on for days on end and it doesn’t complain. I have rarely restarted lately. In fact, when I sleep, I just leave her on. It is just lately that I’ve taken to letting her sleep again.
Expose is a great tool for multi-taskers. With several windows of one application open at once, and you scrambling to find which one you need at the moment, Expose minimizes the confusion. Just assign a corner of your screen to the “Application Windows” function on System Preferences>Dashboard and Expose. When you drag your mouse there, the windows of your current application all line up or tile up on the screen and you can pick the window you needed. 🙂 There are other functions of Expose, but I assigned only the “Application Windows” and “Desktop” function. The desktop function shows your desktop. I assigned only two on the lower corners of my screen because the top corners always get the “stray mouse syndrome”. I might risk doing something funny if my mouse ambles over there and I’ve set commands on Expose.
The AddressBook is very useful if you want to back up your cellular phone numbers. With iSync, you can transfer your contacts/phonebook and calendar from phone to Mac, through Bluetooth. Thereafter, when you sync, what changes there are on your phone will also be applied to your calendar and AddressBook and vice-versa.
The Bluetooth function is extremely useful for me right now in a different way. When I transfer files from Sayuri to Phoenix, or if I take pictures with Slivvy the Motorola SLVR L7 phone and ferry them between computers, I use Bluetooth, because I haven’t sat down to figure out Samba yet. There is only one downside to my Bluetooth on Sayuri open all the time: I have had several experiences when Nokias would just be sending me files out of nowhere, unprompted. One explanation: virii. Ew. So I kill my Bluetooth on Sayuri in public. Slivvy’s Bluetooth is turned off by default, too. Pesky virii are pesky. Period.
FrontRow just kicks butt. Period.
I can play my media files in Finder. Whether music or video. But I bet Vista has that, too.
And I just love my pink flower background and beach screensaver. :p
There is so much more to love on the MacBook and OS X, but nothing else beats this reason: no matter how I jostle and bump Sayuri, because she is built solidly, I have yet to experience any glitches because of the several bumps she’s had already.
That being said, please let me make it clear then, that I am not out to pit people on the Apple vs. Microsoft debate. It’s just that ever since I got to use a MacBook, I’ve gotten so sold, that I swore never to use any other laptop brand other than Apple thereafter. If I can still hold out without buying another laptop to wait for Apple prices to plummet next time I’ll need to buy another laptop, I will try my darnedest to hold out. I have had my fears with laptops before, when I broke my dad’s IBM Thinkpad 365 beyond repair, and from horror stories of keyboards malfunctioning before the year is out with friends’ laptops. But when I got the MacBook, my fears were allayed, and I have become an Apple convert now.
I do not mean to insult anyone with my strong opinions against MS, especially the OS’s. I try to be fair, honestly, but that was how I experienced MS Windows before. I just hope you could respect my opinions against that OS. If you have complaints with Linux and OS X, go ahead and air them out in comments or in articles. All I ask is that you be kinder to me (as the person who talks about these OS’s), please. I don’t gripe about the people loyal to the Operating Systems, I gripe about the Operating Systems themselves. This has been my experience of them, and I am just talking about my story, because I know that so many people out there have similar complaints. If they didn’t, my mother wouldn’t be calling me every other day to help her understand why IE won’t open websites anymore. I hope we can all delineate between a review and a story of one’s experience with software, and separate the story from the person behind the story. The person behind the story has feelings, too.
I honestly welcome comments. I can actually take criticism well, if they were constructive and if they were objective. If I have been mean to other people, if I have been abrasive, if I have been female dog-ish, I extend my apologies. The world needs peace, and why shouldn’t gadzooki be a place of peace, too? 🙂