About a week ago, I bought a new MacBook Pro. It’s been years since I’ve owned a laptop (over a decade) and I’ve wanted one for a while – I need a Mac to publish apps for iOS and my old Mac Mini is cumbersome to use for that purpose; a MacBook is much more convenient. I’ve also never really used a Mac before. I mainly used my Mac Mini as a media center, so I rarely interacted with the OS. With all that in mind, I decided I’d do some blogging about what I like, what I don’t like, and what I experience as I get used to my expensive new toy.
I’m going to start with my favorite feature thus far: the “Force Touch” trackpad. While I’m not sure about the name (feels to Star Wars for me), I love the device. I know it’s completely stationary, but it does a great job of making it feel like it’s clicking. The extra “deep” press also provides a new way to interact with things and it’s great where it’s used… Which is the only downside: there are very few places where that extra interaction is actually made useful. With that said, however, the trackpad works great – it feels amazing and works wonderfully.
I’m also loving the multiple desktops and “Mission Control” view of all my desktops and windows. It’s easy to set up and use, and I’ve already organized different desktops for different tasks. My only disappointment is that I can’t name the desktops to help me organize; “Desktop 1” through “Desktop 4” is kind of boring. (For what it’s worth, the next update for OSX, El Capitan, seems to include this feature.) Switching between them is a breeze, though.
I started out hating “Launchpad”. I’ve never been particularly fond of the iOS home screen (I don’t think the wall of icons is a particularly elegant view), and I didn’t think a desktop OS would benefit from it. After using it for about a week, I’ve grown used to it. I see it as a replacement for the old “Applications” folder – just a list of all your applications. It’s customizable enough, though some apps create duplicate icons (I’m looking at you, Blizzard) which is annoying because there’s not an easy way to remove them. Steam has issues getting icons set up properly too, so it needs a lot of babysitting to get the icons to show up properly. The Dock still holds the apps I use most often, so I don’t have to visit the Launchpad unless I’m opening an app I don’t use very often.
The hardware itself is fantastic. Fast, light, durable, and pretty. The speakers sound good and the display is beautiful. The power adapter is wonderfully designed (definitely the best cable management in an adapter that I’ve seen). The MagSafe connector works fine. I’ve very rarely had a problem with tripping over cables but I know I’ll be thankful when it eventually happens and it keeps me from yanking my laptop off a table.
In fact, my only major annoyances so far have been with XCode, but I’m planning a separate post for that. I’ll post more in the next few weeks if I find anything new I especially love or hate, but overall I’m happy with the new laptop.