Warped products

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

I'm rather disappointed in Apple's product announcements today, especially the Intel-based laptop. First there's the name: MacBook Pro? Ugh. Hardly rolls off the tongue. It certainly has all the elegance of any other Intel notebook. They couldn't come up with a better name? Sad. I'm sure they eliminated the "Power" moniker because it no longer uses the PowerPC chip; but I should point out that the PowerBook name came about when the Mac was still using the 68000 series chips, four years before the PowerPC chip.
Then there's the form factor. It is the same aluminum case as the other PowerBooks, which is disappointing to me because I've had nothing but trouble with Apple's metal cases. My current Aluminum PowerBook has severe pitting of the aluminum on the wrist rest, probably caused by an interaction between the low level of electrical current going through the case and the sweat from my hand. The plastic edging around the case is separating, and the top of the case is separating from the sides. The feet on the bottom have fallen off, as has one of the plastic nubs on the lid. The backlit keyboard ceased to work a long time ago, and there seems to be some kind of short-circuit somewhere around the power button -- when pressure is applied to the case, it makes the machine sleep.
And the lid doesn't close flush. The lid is warped, and when closed the right side is higher than the left. This sometimes causes problems with the latch and the lid doesn't stay closed.
Here's the kicker: on the Apple website, they have a large image of a MacBook closed... and you can see that the right side of the lid has a gap, it doesn't close flush like the left side does. Trust me, that gap will widen over the years. (The effect is even more pronounced on this page.)
I was hoping for an update to the iBook line, so that I would have an excuse to switch. Since I use my laptop mostly for web and email, I can't see spending more than $2,000 on a new Power... um, MacBook when an iBook is less than half the price. And made of sturdy plastic.