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Detroit Free Press Mike Wendland Column: MacBook Pro the Best Ever

Posted on: Tuesday, 14 March 2006, 06:00 CST

By Mike Wendland, Detroit Free Press

Mar. 14--The new 15-inch MacBook Pro laptop from Apple is the finest portable computer I have ever owned.

It's just a little ahead of itself; software and hardware companies need to catch up.

And Apple may be prematurely overstating its case. For if the new MacBook Pro laptop computer really is -- as Apple claims -- up to four times faster than the PowerBook G4 line the new machine replaced, I sure can't tell in everyday use.

It is indeed zippier than the PowerBook on some things. But with all the hype from Apple about how powerful these new computers are with those spiffy Intel Core Duo processors, I was expecting to have my breath taken away.

But it's not necessarily Apple's fault.

That's because to really see the speed boost, you need software written to take advantage of the change in Apple architecture, software made to work with maximum efficiency on those new chips as well as the older PowerPC chips on the previous Apples.

That software is being labeled as Universal -- meaning its underlying binary code works with both old and new.

Apple's core

All of Apple's core applications, like the iLife suite of photo, music, Web, presentation and video management and production tools, are Universal. So are the Apple Safari Web browser and Apple's calendar and mail programs. They are noticeably faster on the MacBook Pro.

But some of the most popular applications are not -- such as Microsoft's Office for Mac, including the Excel spreadsheet and Microsoft Word programs.

Don't get me wrong. They work just fine on the MacBook Pro. But I can detect no difference from the way they performed on my old PowerBook G4. A behind-the-scenes Apple application called Rosetta translates the Microsoft apps and most other software written for the PowerPC architecture and seamlessly ports them over to work with the Intel chips.

There are, however, some programs that won't work at all on the MBP, like Virtual PC, which lets Macs open up an emulation window that will then boot in Windows for those users who must also have PC capability.

That program will probably never be Universal because Microsoft is doing a major upgrade of Windows later this year. Many experts predict the new version of Windows -- called Vista -- may, with some third party tweaking, even be able to directly boot on the Intel-based Macs.

But I'm making more of the software issue than I should. Already, there are 1,000 applications released on Universal, with more coming every day. Gail Nishimura, a senior product manager for Apple's Pro Portables, says the software industry wasn't expecting the Intel Macs until summer and their early release has just caused them to move up their schedule.

Nishimura calls the MacBook Pro "the largest performance leap ever made in Mac history."

More than software

It isn't just software, though, that needs to catch up with the MBP. A special card that connected me to Verizon's EVDO Wireless broadband network on my PowerBook is unusable on the MacBook Pro. That's because the card, which works on a standard known as PCMCIA, has been replaced on the MacBook Pro with a faster, more efficient connection called ExpressCard. By next year, some industry experts say, 70% of all laptops will have an ExpressCard.

The problem is, there are no EVDO cards on the market yet and very few devices to plug into that slot, though, Nishimura insists, that will be changing very soon.

Meanwhile, I really am impressed by this new machine. An Apple Migration Assistant let me transfer all my files and applications from the PowerBook in about 40 minutes. I've never set up a new computer so easily.

The screen is noticeably brighter and crisper (there's a better graphics card on the MBP), it comes with a built-in iSight camera for video conferencing (be aware, though, that some businesses and government offices don't allow you to bring in a camera and could ban your laptop from the premises), and it comes with a very cool magnetic power adapter that, if someone trips on the cord, will disconnect easily without pulling it to the floor.

It's a mighty fine machine -- even as it waits for the rest of the world to catch up.

Hear MIKE WENDLAND's podcasts and read his blog at www.pcmike.com. You can contact him at 313-222-8861 or

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Copyright (c) 2006, Detroit Free Press

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Source: Detroit Free Press

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