Damn it, I'm turning into a fanboy

[Pliablemoose]

Just got an Apple wireless keyboard, paired it with my Vista based HTPC, it's the most attractive keyboard I've ever owned, it's beautiful....

Wow... It makes everything else I've owned look like they were purchased from Toys R Us...

 

[rdp6]

Yes, I love the Al BT keyboard. It is everything you need for HTPC from the sofa and nothing more. It is far better than I expected for typing, too. It's damn near perfection.

 

[Kaido]

They make computers to go along with the keyboards too, y'know

 

[sjwaste]

What's the range on the cordless kb? I like my logitech wave, but it's not pretty. On the other hand, that nice aluminum KB would match my Acer AL2416 a bit better

 

[rdp6]

Originally posted by: Kaido
They make computers to go along with the keyboards too, y'know

Yes, I love my macbook pro, too. I so wish I had Spaces and Expose at work. FWIW they gave me a Dell 630m (decked out for engineering apps) which seems very nice, but dealing with many documents and apps simultaneously in Windows XP after using OS X for two years is a bit like being forced to wear a football helmet & chinstrap in order to eat a turkey & swiss sandwich.

I took a chance on the mbp based on the reputation for good hardware and the ability to use XP natively. After a week of OS X I felt right at home there and am just blown away at how nice the whole experience is. I used to enjoy fixing/tweaking computers to fix minor annoyances/performance issues. Now I am very happy to always have a machine that is ready for me to do what I want. There is none of that "Windows just got dumber"-type balloon tips about increasing 'virtual memory'/security updates/impending forced reboots/whatever. Dialogs/prompts never take focus away from what I'm doing in OS X; windows' nagging is very irritating to me.

Damn, did I just turn this into an Apple vs PC thread?

I'm fine with Linux/Compiz, just haven't had great luck with hardware compatibility/stability, even with popular Dell models. I haven't used Vista, but Flip3D doesn't appear to be nearly as useful as the tools on the other systems.

 

[sourceninja]

I went with the wired keyboard. I love it, its has a great feel to it, and I lvoe all the F key shortcuts. My ONLY complaint is the numberpad. I am a die hard numberpad users (this is why I did not get the wireless keyboard). Why did they feel the need to move the *, /, and - keys. That screws me up to no end. Really frustrating. I also don't understand the need for an = key either. But other then that I love the keyboard.

I'd go wireless if it had a numberpad. I also decided not to go wireless on my mouse because of the usb ports on the keyboard. The cord doesn't get in my way and hte apple mouse cord is nice and short and works great sticking out of my keyboard.

 

[Kaido]

Originally posted by: rdp6
I took a chance on the mbp based on the reputation for good hardware and the ability to use XP natively. After a week of OS X I felt right at home there and am just blown away at how nice the whole experience is. I used to enjoy fixing/tweaking computers to fix minor annoyances/performance issues.

Describes me perfectly. I was helping a friend with his winbox recently and we installed Zonealarm, Avast, Spybot, Adaware, and CCleaner and set up a Start Menu folder with those apps plus Disk Defragmenter and then explained how to use them weekly to keep things clean. After that, we set up Firefox with Adblock Plus and took away the Internet Explorer shortcuts.

Man oh man do I love OS X! lol

 

[rdp6]

My BT keyboard pretty much lives on my coffee table, so I really appreciate the small size. Before I got it for a birthday gift, I used a Logitech cordless keyboard which was absolutely enormous in comparison. No doubt a numpad is a lifesaver in some situations, but mostly it's surfing/email/videos/music/photos/Diablo 2 on the 52" LCD from the sofa. My VX revolution just died, can anyone recommend a good BT mouse?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[rdp6]

Originally posted by: sjwaste
What's the range on the cordless kb? I like my logitech wave, but it's not pretty. On the other hand, that nice aluminum KB would match my Acer AL2416 a bit better

I just checked by the one toe-heel-toe measurement, about 35 feet with no problem. My size 10.5 feet are pretty close to a foot long. I'd have gone further, but it is 21F out right now. Besides, I don't think that having a foam-core steel door obstruction is a fair test.

If I had to guess, I'd say the batteries are at least a month old and I never use the power button on the keyboard to turn it off.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: Kaido
They make computers to go along with the keyboards too, y'know

If someone would find his way to the UPS counter, I'd be a Mac owner, sorta, kinda...

 

[randomlinh]

that blasted BT keyboard has one fatal flaw. no number pad =( I was quite disappointed at that, and am stuck w/ the wired (though, it is cheaper too, heh)

 

[EGGO]

That thing is so small. I love this wired one more.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Originally posted by: EGGO
That thing is so small. I love this wired one more.

If I was doing any kind of stuff besides using it for HTPC, it would be a problem, I suspect, but for the limited use with a HTPC, it's perfect and looks classy as hell on the coffee table.

 

[JC86]

I gave in and picked up a Macbook after being blown away by the intuitiveness and quality of the iPhone. I'm on these forums because I used to love building and upgrading my own rig. Right now, I have a water cooled monstrosity in a Coolermaster Tower that is never turned on anymore. I don't know what to do with it because I just find my Macbook that much easier to use plus I figure i'm saving some electricity too.

 

[Tyranicus]

Originally posted by: JC86
I gave in and picked up a Macbook after being blown away by the intuitiveness and quality of the iPhone. I'm on these forums because I used to love building and upgrading my own rig. Right now, I have a water cooled monstrosity in a Coolermaster Tower that is never turned on anymore. I don't know what to do with it because I just find my Macbook that much easier to use plus I figure i'm saving some electricity too.

That's why I have a Hackintosh. It gives you the best of both worlds.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: JC86
I gave in and picked up a Macbook after being blown away by the intuitiveness and quality of the iPhone. I'm on these forums because I used to love building and upgrading my own rig. Right now, I have a water cooled monstrosity in a Coolermaster Tower that is never turned on anymore. I don't know what to do with it because I just find my Macbook that much easier to use plus I figure i'm saving some electricity too.

I was sort of the same as you about 2 or so years ago. I needed a laptop for school, and got the macbook because i had a gaming desktop so didn't think i needed the extra power or anything. Within about 2 months of getting the MacBook (actually probably less now that I think about it) I had traded the desktop to Tyranicus for an old iBook G4 and a beat up Alienware Sentia. The Sentia died a few months later and the iBook I gave to my sister, but I barely missed my desktop during the year that followed. It wasn't until I was out of school and home again that I wanted to game.

MacBooks are great little machines, I love mine to death and can't wait to upgrade to the latest generation since it finally looks like there is significant gains in enough areas to actually make me take notice.

 

[mmntech]

Originally posted by: JC86
I gave in and picked up a Macbook after being blown away by the intuitiveness and quality of the iPhone. I'm on these forums because I used to love building and upgrading my own rig. Right now, I have a water cooled monstrosity in a Coolermaster Tower that is never turned on anymore. I don't know what to do with it because I just find my Macbook that much easier to use plus I figure i'm saving some electricity too.

Same here. Modded it, overclocked it, installed the best coolers at the time in the best mid-tower case. When they started going nuts with the DRM last year, I stopped gaming. I haven't really touched it much since. I just keep it as a DLNA media server right now. I used to know everything about gaming PC hardware but I've fallen so far behind on it. Miss a year and it's almost like starting from square one again.

I bought an iBook (Mid 2005) for university back in 2005 and I just loved it. Really the perfect laptop for that. I had looked at PC ones but its 6hr battery life was unbeatable at the time when PC ones were maybe 4hr tops. I could go the whole day on one charge, which was why I settled on it. The thing was virtually indestructible too compared to the cheap plastic shells used in most PC laptops. OS X was great for work, especially with Expose. Plus, it also sorted my notes by date created, which Windows lacks for some reason. I just bought one of the new Macbooks to replace it. The reason I never got a Macbook before then was because of the Intel GMA graphics. I like the 9400M, it's plenty good enough for the older games I have. I just have KotOR installed on the Windows side for now though. I have Vista 64-bit on it so I really don't even need my desktop now. It's nice to have everything all in one.

 

[rdp6]

Integrated graphics is a show-stopper for me, too. I've really fallen away from pc gaming, but I do consider a computer with IG as crippled in that respect. I can't justify buying a computer without the capability to run games.

That said, I spent yesterday working on the gaming rig I built for my brother-in-law last June. I had not seen any modern games running on it until yesterday, man it is sweet. I just may have to build a hackintosh instead of getting a mac mini to drive my HDTV. For now I use my mbp, so it is getting a lot of wear on the DVI port as I move it around. No problems so far with 13 months of that, but nothing lasts forever.

 

[sourceninja]

I'm basically done with computer gaming. The companies have just made it too hard to use and too hard to keep up. I play games now and then on my wii or 360, but that is about it. If I had to do it over again, I would go for a regular macbook instead of a pro.

 

[mmntech]

Off topic but I personally think the quality of PC games has dropped dramatically this decade. Bioshock was the last straw for me. I think developers just don't see it as a viable platform anymore, and the stuff they do release is often plagued with bugs or is incapable of running on a typical system (Crysis). Developers are only interested in turning it into an MMO platform because they can charge people $12 a month to keep playing.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Only PC game I'm looking forward to is Diablo 3.

 

[sourceninja]

Actually, I will be buying starcraft 2 and diablo 3....for my mac, so I guess the macbook pro was a good idea.

 

[rdp6]

I'm committed to Diablo 3, too, and I'm pretty certain there will be a mac client. C'mon, Steve, give us a discrete graphics processor in the intel mac mini!

 

[theblackbox]

since i work with apple software for a living, i use a mbp in the field, and a mac pro at home. I haven't had a "gaming rig" for 2 years, but i sure am enjoying left 4 dead, dead space, far cry 2 and some other games on my mac pro. nothing better to get you in the mood then gaming on a dual quad machine with 12gb ram and a ton of hard drive space. i only have a 3870 but i haven't found a game that'll run it ragged yet, running vista 64.
i would say i am an apple convert, but it ain't true. i have always been an apple user, i just didn't know it.