Thoughts on the Replacement

It had been a month since I own the new MacBook Pro. It was certainly more powerful than my old laptop despite the smaller footprint. It was kinda larger than my Air which I carry around but not by much. And I could see myself using this unit for many years to come.

Yes, the dongle was an issue and the keyboard needed some getting used to at the beginning, but it has since grew on me. In fact, I kinda like the new keyboard. Even this entry was done using the new machine.

Reading the review before buying the unit clearly did not inspire me. The review was downright negative. It was apparently not worthy of the Pro tag. Yes, it was underpowered in the true Pro sense. But I have the Mac Pro to do the real heavy lifting. This would be more of a laptop I carry with me to work, use for my presentation, write patient letters and take notes during meetings. Certainly it lived up to that billing and more.

The quality of the screen was much better than I expected, and then came the sound from the speakers. I never heard laptop speakers sounding this good. And those two facet added up to make this an excellent media consuming device, on par with the iPad Pro.

The machine was powerful enough to run Photoshop and Final Cut Pro without breaking a sweat. I was able to do some editing on 4K files, and it didn’t feel slower than my previous MacBook Pro.

How about the battery life? I could easily get 6 hours and since I have yet to travel with the new unit, I always charge it when I got home never running the risk of running out of juice.

And of course, the elephant in the room was the touch bar. Yes, it was a gimmick, but over time I was starting to warm to it. Safari really took advantage of the display, allowing the shortcuts to show up on the strip as well as the tabs displayed as a row, making switching between tabs that much easier.

Over time, there would be more apps taking advantage of the touch bar. Today, I just downloaded the latest version of Microsoft Office. This version has shortcuts using the bar.

Another feature of the new MacBook Pro was the Touch ID. It allowed me to both unlock the laptop and buy apps from the App Store just with my fingerprints. It worked out neatly in the end.

Would I recommend this laptop? Of course if this is not your main machine. I still do my editing both for the photographs and videos on my Mac Pro. Since I have a USB 3 card ready, I found using the desktop that much easier. No new dongles needed. I had also used the laptop to give a couple of presentations so far. No issues. Using the Apple adapter, I was able to connect to the projector without much hassle.

Idlan's First Lesson

Since joining his new school, Idlan felt that he was left behind in two aspects; swimming and music. Most of his classmates were able swimmers and almost all of them can play a musical instrument. It ended up being rather intimidating when he was having PE lessons especially around the pool.

Last week, Anita asked for names on the apartment Facebook page if anybody knew of any swimming instructors. She got a name and made a few phone calls last week. Idlan was keen, so today he had his first lesson.

5 pm on a Sunday was just about right. It would mark the end of his weekend while making him tired enough to hit the bed early for school the next day.

He hit it off very nicely with his coach and they spent the first half an hour on breathing exercises. Idlan was very happy in the end and hopefully in the coming months, swimming in school would become less intimidating.

And now we had to do something about music. We had problem arranging somebody to teach him drumming in school since he had to skip class to do so. We were still trying to figure out the best way for him and it sounded like we may to engage a teacher to come over to the apartment as well .... Unfortunately Dad can't teach him...

Sunny Walk

My favourite kind of Sunday would be when I was not on call, it rained early in the morning, and then the cloud cleared up by midmorning, in time for me to finish my rounds. From then on, it would be sunny all day, capped off with gorgeous sunset and serene blue hour!

They were few and far in between but I had such a Sunday recently. So, I decided to bring my gear out and just walk around town.

Sundays in the centre of town nowadays felt like you were being transported to another realm. The area around Central Market were filled with foreigners enjoying their day off work and truth be told. It could be off-putting and intimidating. This was especially so when they appeared in such large group. You often fear for your safety and walking alone, I do not fell safe carrying my expensive cameras anymore.

But my Ricoh GR was no slouch and I was able to snap around without much notice. It would have been nice if I could have hooked up with a few mates ....

The Lone Droner

The weather on the two afternoons we were in PD was great. And the tides were high before sunset when we went to the beach. That made for some nice strong waves and great condition to hit the sea. The boys certainly enjoyed it.

The warm sun contrasted well with the cool sea water - sunscreen needed of course. Once you got in, you felt like staying in all day since to was really nice and refreshing in the water. The great breeze also was an added bonus.

But somebody had to fly the drone. Despite the heavy breeze, the drone held its position well and flying was not a problem at all.

I managed to get some great 4K footage and the customary photographs as well. Unfortunately there were clouds on the horizon, hence I was not able to get the red sunset as the sun kiss the horizon. I was happy enough however.

I brought the drone out on both afternoons and managed to fill up my memory card. Good thing I brought the charger along, otherwise I would be out of juice by the end of the first afternoon.

Now came the part of doing editing on those huge 4K files ..... That could wait I supposed ....

CNY at NU Sentral

NU Sentral didn’t want to be left behind for this year’s Chinese New Year decorations. But this year was not a vintage. They had one huge rooster right in the middle of the foyer!

And when I said huge, I meant three-stories tall, and its tail formed a series of lantern.

I managed to catch it on the way Masjid India - NU Sentral happened to be a convenient place to park your car if you plan to take the LRT or the Monorel.

Apart from the huge rooster, there were nothing much to see really. I remembered their classy effort from a couple of years back, and that particular theme which involved village scenes complete with life-sized dolls were being copied at other venues - this year being Berjaya Times Square.