First, let me tell you why I got a MacBook Pro, and why I was the first on the block to get the newest (shipped yesterday, in stores today–they didn’t even have them out when I arrived, I had to beg!). Previously, I had always put together my own machines (with the exception of a laptop here and there–latest being an Asus EeePC which is awesome in it’s own right, but way too small for PHP development). Today, something changed. I wanted something that just worked, worked well, and could do everything I threw at it and more. Enough of those chincy Vista crap outs (got rid of Vista, all my Windows PCs run XP at this point), and frankly, enough tweaking and modifying my linux installs to get it to play nice with everything else. So I should have gotten a MacBook? Nah…with the Pro, I’ll have the extra firepower to play some Windows games with it’s built in GeForce 9600 (or save battery life with the integrated 9400M–cool beans).

Anyway. Here’s my unboxing (click the pics for a bigger view):

Here is the spiffy new box. Notice how small it is compared to previous packaging.

Magsafe, ethernet, Firewire 800, two USB, mini DisplayPort, audio in and out, and an ExpressCard slot along with the battery meter.

I had a little trouble at this point getting the cover back on. It seems the little tabs on the cover don’t have anything on the case to align with, therefore you just have to get lucky! Could be a problem for someone changing a battery often…

If you look closely, it’s glossy enough to see the unfinished paint job on the wall behind me–how embarrassing.

So there you have it. The new MacBook Pro 15″ unboxed, up and running. It’ll take some time for me to get into the general workings of a new operating system (I haven’t used MacOS since…oh…1995), but I’ll be sure to post more impressions of it after I do! Of course, I’ve written this entire post on the thing, including the picture uploads, so I’m going full force.

A couple things I’ve noticed while taking pictures. As I said above, the LCD is highly glossy. I’m interested in seeing how well it’ll handle outdoors use. There are a few extremely minor flaws in the anodization…nothing I’m going to worry about. Also, FireFox has crashed three times during this posting. Maybe I’ll try Safari next time.

Next up, installing my development environment so I can get some productivity going on…I’ll probably start with a nice simple XAMPP install, but we’ll see. Anyone know of a good Mac PHP/text editor?

Update: The strange black thing? It looks like an Apple-branded napkin. Maybe it’s a mousepad. Or a microfiber cleaning cloth for this insanely glossy screen. Yeah, that’s it.

Update 2: Added a couple of notes.

A bit over a week ago, I got an update notification from Biostar saying that there was an update for my motherboard’s bios.  Usually this is no big deal…I download it, flash it and be happy.  This time, however, was different.  I got lazy and used the provided Windows flash utility instead of putting together a boot disk for the task.  Horrible move.  As it turns out, bios flash utilities for Windows are much more prone to failure than their DOS counterparts…me being a cocky know-it-all SOB (no, my mother does not approve of that comment) did it anyway.

In any case, upon rebooting, the computer didn’t post.  Not a single beep.  I tried Biostar’s emergency flash steps to no avail.  Because of my poor judgment in putting my trust in a Windowsapp, my computer was dead.

Luckily, I have a few other computers laying around so I was able to hop on the Internet to do some research and it was then I stumbled across BadBiosFlash.com.  I had a quick email interchange with Paul at BadBiosFlash.com to confirm he could perform the flash and to discuss the time frame.  Paul has, by far, the cheapest rates amongst the recovery bios companies, and is extremely quick.  In fact, I sent my chip via regular mail, he sent it back via regular mail and the round trip was only three business days.  Total cost to me $11 instead of $80-$150 for a new motherboard.

Anyway, I just thought I’d write this post to thank Paul for his extremely good service and to recommend him to anyone in need of a reflashed bios chip…he definitely does not disappoint.

Thanks Paul!

When it comes to computer components, I usually don’t skimp, inside or out. I like cases with lights and windows, I like mice with removable weights so I can customize it’s feel, I like slapping new user interfaces on top of Windows so I don’t have to deal with the Windows GUI.

That said, last year, I put together an entirely new system based on a decent dual core Pentium chip. I tossed in a GeForce 8800 (bloody expensive…but I wanted to play Crysis in all it’s glory) and 4 GB of RAM. I had just purchased a Logitech G5 laser mouse (awesome mouse) so I didn’t need a new mouse. But I needed to cut corners somewhere so I’m still stuck with a CRT and my old keyboard. They both worked just fine, they were just a bit basic compared to the rest of the system…

I only had a couple of requirements this time when I started doing my keyboard research after the old one crapped out. Price wasn’t a concern (though I’m not nearly crazy enough to drop $1500 for this beauty). I just wanted a quiet keyboard with backlighting and programmable macro keys. What I found, though, went far beyond my requirements.

Normally, I’d be turned off by it’s Star Trek-ish angular features, but when I say it looks 100x better in person, I’m not kidding. Plus, it more than fulfills my needs. The backlighting features are awesome (6 different zones, each can have it’s own color hue and brightness, or the backlights can be turned off altogether). 12 programmable macro keys. Media buttons (volume, mute, play, stop, etc.). Touch-sensitive control panel (this is tough to explain…basically the buttons aren’t buttons, they respond when you touch the plastic, kinda like the iPod control wheel–very cool). Metal caps on the arrow and WASD keys to help guard against wear and tear from heavy usage. Anyway, I could go on, but believe me, after using a generic Logitech for so long, this is downright luxurious.

So now, I am one step closer to achieving my perfect setup. Barring an utter system failure, my next purchase will be two 22″ LCDs. I think the HP swiveling monitors are probably what I’ll get, but we’ll see!