Tags: MacBook Pro, Mac, Apple, Windows, Lenovo 3000 N100, Lenovo Notebooks, Andy Piper, Twitter
Last week was one of those weeks that I could have certainly done without, and for several various reasons. From the disastrous fires that created a massive havoc in both Gran Canaria to Tenerife (And a bit in La Gomera) to the fact that my shiny Lenovo 3000 N100 notebook decided to die on me after just one year and three weeks of usage. Well, the LCD display, that is.
I am not sure if there was an issue with it because of the extreme heat we went through for a few days or what (Hard Drive Inspector indicated my notebook’s hard drive reached a whopping 50 degrees C!), but the fact is that last Thursday the LCD display decided to play funny with purple colours and vertical lines making it almost impossible to use. Goodness, I thought. This is the last thing I need now, for sure. A broken LCD display just three weeks after the one year guarantee expired! Ha! It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Things are no longer built todayΒ like they used to be a few years ago, I tell you!
Anyway, I decided to play along with it and called the customer service centre to arrange an appointment to bring it along and have it fixed. I talked to the folks who would be fixing it and they told me that it would probably take between a couple of hours to a full week, depending on the damage of the LCD display. Ouch! I am not sure I can afford another week of forced vacation after the recent problems I have been having with my Internet connection (Been running just fine for the last few days though).
I love the Lenovo 3000 N100! It really is a good machine and has served me very well all along. However, for a long while now, I have been thinking that one day I would be switching to the Mac. Not a chance that I would move on to Vista any time soon. So I decided to play safe and prepare my way towards having a backup machine, that by the looks of it, it is now turning itself into becoming my main primary machine.
Yes, indeed, I am now a proud owner of a brand-new shiny MacBook Pro 15”4! YAY! Finally! I made it to the other side! The Mac side! heh. I am not going to share any pictures with you, since I am sure you have seen it all over the place, but, boy, do I like this machine or what? I thought it would be my backup machine while I am getting the Lenovo 3000 N100 repaired, but in the last couple of days it has become my main machine and do I feel ever so much more productive?!?! You bet!
I know plenty of you folks out there are feeling the exact same way. So I will spare you any further comments on that. At this very moment though I am continuing to have a number of different applications installed in it that I am using in the Windows environment and which I consider essential for me to be able to do my job and stay connected with everyone, an everything, so probably in an upcoming weblog post I will mention which ones those applications are and see how it goes from there.
For the time being, I have been reading with great and avid interest the good number of posts that the one and only, Andy Piper, one of my fellow IBM colleagues and a good friend of mine, has put together beautifully in his own external weblog and which I am going to find incredibly helpful as I suspect I would be finding there plenty of Mac gems to enjoy.
It surely is going to be quite an experience, while I am getting the Lenovo notebook fixed, to continue playing around with the MacBook Pro and even more when I will be testing it out very shortly as my work machine while the repairs take place. If it makes it successfully, I bet that the Windows notebook would become then the back up machine and not the MBP one. We shall see. Although I bet you already know the answer, right? π
Ahhh, it is good to be on the Mac side. I must confess though that there is a little bit of a learning curve, but quite enjoyable at most times, which is not what I can say from the various Windows OS I have been using thus far. Yes, if you ask me, it was a very expensive move, but so far, and from what I have seen till now, very worth while! And I will be sharing some more insights in that respect as time goes by. You bet!
(Special thanks to all of my Twitter friends and to my fellow colleague, Andy Piper, for the initial help provided thus far. You have all certainly made that learning curve a lot less steep and quite an enjoyable journey! Looking forward to some more soon!)
Welcome to the GOOD side… if you need any help just shout.. I have *lots* of Macs π and more to come π
Just now that I was ready to publish the post about my switch to Mac. You have advanced me though I switched 1 month ago! π
I have to say that I never saw myself as an Apple fan but now I’m not sure what ever stopped me.
I’m really glad that you’ve found my posts useful. I do need to post another round-up of useful utilities and hints.
Have you discovered the two-fingers-on-trackpad-scroll yet? What about the zoom?
The one single thing I’m annoyed about at the moment is that I bought iWork06 for Keynote about 2 weeks ago, and today they go and bring out iWork08! Looking forward to getting my hands on that…
Hello folks! Thanks very much for the feedback comments and for dropping by. I am really glad to be able to have your help and advice as I get things going with my Mac experience.
Andrew, goodness! I didn’t think you had some many Macs around you and from what you have just been mentioning in your twitterings with all of today’s announcements I bet, indeed, they would not be the last ones! heh I am certainly looking forward to reading some more from your experiences with them, so that I can learn my way through it as well.
Ferdy, what can I say? I wasn’t planning on buy a MBP so soon, after our conversations and everything, but giving the recent issues I have been having with the Windows machines (I still hope to get the Lenovo notebook fixed!) I thought it would be a good time to get things going and see how things would go from there and so far I am loving the experience. Quite some fundamental changes, I must admit, but I am pretty sure I would get around them, heh
Andy, I have never consider myself an Apple fan, and probably I am not still. It will have to prove itself when I move all of my work apps. into the Mac and see if it would be taking the load just as nicely as the notebook did. We shall see. One thing though that was stopping me from not having bought one of the MBPs was actually the price tag. Over here it is rather expensive, over 2100 Euros, and that is why I am seriously hoping that it would be able to put up with the test to get all of my tools working, because otherwise I think I will be looking for another machine π
I have found your blog posts incredibly helpful and very handy to get myself up to speed with what I need to get in my MBP to be productive right away. So thanks a bunch for putting those together!
Errr, I don’t think so. I will probably have to have a look and see what the fuss is all about, heh
I am not too worried about iWork08, as I think I am going to be waiting for the Lotus Notes 8 client for Mac so that I can use the Lotus Applications components, so for the time being I will use the Windows machine for that π And already looking forward for when the Mac client for Notes 8 becomes available. We shall see.
Again, thanks everyone for the feedback and, much more importantly, for the great support thus far! Greatly appreciated!
It was hard to make the switch – but once you have had mac you cannot go back – so much less trouble – though I had my first iBook die just after the 1 year free warranty.
I have an iBook and an iMac and am now drooling – I want a 24inch new imac
Loved the earlier iWork and have just ordered iWork8
Hi Rob! I tend to agree with you that making the switch has not been that easy, yet, as I get more and more comfortable with it I completely agree with you that once I get into the swing of things with it, I doubt I would go back! I will also keep my fingers cross on the 1 year guarantee and hope that this time around it will not break, either.
The new 24inch iMac looks very very good. I could well do with that awesome screen resolution, I tell you, but I think it will have to wait for a little bit π
I will be reading off your experiences around iWork08. As I said, at this point in time I am going to hold it for a bit and see how things would move forward from here. Perhaps a bit too early, so may need to have some time for it to settle down a bit and check it out at a later time.
Either way, thanks again for the feedback and the great tips!
Luis, Keynote versus Office/OpenOffice is a revelation. Trust me.
Hi Luis,
well, that’s good news for you. Welcome to the Light Side (or rather, the Brushed Aluminum Side these days :-)). If you want help with the learning curve, you might do worse that trying the Macuarium forums.
Although I’m warning you, if you do join us I’ll expect first hand news from those corporate apps (Notes included :-)).
Best regards,
Miguel