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.

The Replacement

So, it was finally here! The new MacBook Pro to replace my 5 year-old MacBook Pro. And the new unit will also be replacing my MacBook Air which was almost equally as old. The old MacBook Pro was still working and now it would be occupying the space on Idlan’s desk. A kind of a hand-me-down scheme!

The main drawback would be to get the dongles and connectors for the new laptop. That would be during the weekend after I decide on which connectors were needed. I already bought a mini-hub for starters. I would in the future need another charger for the office, one which connects to the projector for my presentations. I may also get myself a small mouse but at the moment it was kinda difficult to get a USB-C ones. A trip to Low Yat might just solve that!

The keyboard was actually better than I hoped. Reading from the reviews I thought it would be a major drawback. In fact, I thought I could type faster with it. It was kinda noisy though.

Enough for the early impressions. Time to take it for some proper test in the coming week ....

Smitten

I finally had the chance to have a go at the latest offering from Apple, the new MacBook Pro, the one with the touch bar at the top of the keyboard.

The 13-inch model looked the one for me, but the problem now would be to get going with the right dongle. Armed with 4 USB-C connections, I had to employ another way of utilising my MacBook.

Currently I have both the 11-inch MacBook Air from 2010, and the 2013 15-inch version of MacBook Pro Retina. The 11-incher was the one I always had with me, although I did flirt around a bit with the Microsoft Surface - which I still use occasionally at the coffee shops.

I plan to get the higher spec 13-inch model in the near future. But first, I had to wait fir the dongles to be available in Malaysia ....

The New Typecover

The new Surface Pro 4 certainly looked appetising to say the least. Better processor and higher resolution screen. But to be honest, I couldn't really justify an upgrade to my knee year old Surface Pro 3. The old unit was still going strong and the processor was still fast enough, certainly for what ever I was using the computer for.

It was mainly for letters in clinic, the odd email and of course scheduling into my Google Calendar.

But the new types cover which was launched with the new Surface was a big jump from the old one. And the good news was, it was compatible with the old notebook. Great!

It took a while before I could find a store that had it available far sales. So far, they only bundle it with the new Surface. And even harder to find one in black. I guessed I was lucky today and managed to pick one up. Not cheap, but it was certainly worth the investment.

It felt like I now own a new Surface!

Balloons!

To take my mind of the fact that I will be heading to Ipoh tomorrow alone without the boys, I decided to take them to the hot air balloon show over in Putrajaya. There were balloons alright, but unfortunately not of the hot air variety. We arrived there at around 10.30 am and the main exhibits have already brought their balloon down in preparation for this evening’s ‘Night Glow’. What was left in terms of balloon were four tethered baskets for the tethered balloon ride, which cost a bit to get into. Apparently the quota for the day have been sold out.

But the balloons were not all. There were helicopter rides, a big bazaar and stalls area, ‘waterball’, songstage and other activities. I reckoned there was easily 500 people in the crowd, so in terms of audience number, the fiesta looked a success. It was a shame that we came at the wrong time and the weather was getting warm then as well. It would have been better to get there either earlier in the morning or late evening, in time to watch the ‘Night Glow’ as well. Just pray that it won’t be raining.

Already coming downWaterball!The funny bikeThe thing that caught our eyes were this interesting looking tricycle, where instead you stand to peddle, you actually lie on a mini-platform and kick out to paddle. Unfortunately the queue was too long for us to try but it sure looked fun. We spent a few more minutes at the stalls, but by the time both Idlan and Irfan were already getting restless. We left the area before midday, and head over to the Marriott for lunch.

The vast lobby filled up with tables for todayWhat Chee Chee made for Puan AnitaWe were amongst the first to arrive and quickly get our food for buffet. Then in walk the clown. Put it this way, we saw more balloons from the clown than at the balloon fiesta! Since there was only a couple of table with kids, he lingered around quite a bit. He happened to be Chee Chee the Clown. He was the one that we got for Irfan’s second birthday party back in 2008. He also had him over for Imran’s birthday later that year, so I recognised him straight away! He spent some time doing his balloon tricks and entertaining the boys. The buffet hall was fully booked but they were for a corporate event which lunch did not start until way after 1 pm. Even the music trio got bored as there were hardly any crowd at the beginning and came over to sing for the boys. As usual, Idlan asked for an Abba song and they duly obliged.

Irfan looking bemusedThe boys just finished their crumbs only! Spoilt!Chee Chee joining in the singingWhile waiting around to burn the boy’s sugar down after lunch, a couple of people called on me. They were old friends who I thought during their Masters program at UMMC. There was a pharmaceutical company meet-up at the hotel the same afternoon and it was nice to meet up with old colleagues. We left for home just after 2 pm and then rushed out again. Just me and Puan Anita. We had some business to attend to ……

Puan Anita's new laptopPuan Anita has been fed up with her old 3 year-old laptop. She needed a new one. It was a shame that she did not want a Mac. Vaio was a bit too expensive for what it can do, so we got an HP for her. A good discount, decent package, with free upgrade to Windows 7 which I am currently installing. Apparently it takes a while to install.