Soon to be switcher. How long does shipping take?

Hello everyone. I am in the process of ordering a new black Macbook. I will be upgrading the RAM to 1GB. I'm ready to be free of PC problems, still going to be keeping it around but hoping to completely let it go.

My main question though. How long did it take for you to get your Macbook once ordered? I talked to my authorized campus dealer and she said a guy ordered one Monday or Tuesday of last week and picked it up today. So around a week.
Is this probably going to be the same ordering online?

Also, I have been reading on various forums for switchers and think I've got my stuff together but is there any extra reading material/tips anyone could give?
Thanks again everyone.

 

Should normally be pretty quick, especially if you aren't having Apple customize it (and you definitely should get the RAM elsewhere, as it should be cheaper than what Apple charges).

There's a great sticky guide here in this forum that you should definitely read. It answers a lot of questions and points to a lot of useful resources that will help you out.

Good luck!

 

I ordered mine on thursday, got it on following monday.

Of course this was JUST before apple started getting an insane amount of orders (before school season)

update: also welcome to the mac family!

 

I just got my black MacBook last thursday (should have been wednesday but there was weather problems), And I orderd it somewhere under 2 weeks before that, and that's during the back to school craze. And I live on the coast of B.C. in Canada. So, I was happy with their shipping.

 

One more question for you guys.
Is there anything else different between the Macbook and MBP besdies obviously the bigger screen, a dedicated graphics card, and the super drive?
I'm just going to be using this for school and leisure. I am thinking about getting into design and I wonder if I might better safe gaurd myself and go ahead and get the pro.

What do you guys think? Will the Macbook handle it or go for the Pro? Also, whats the difference in battery life between the two? I have came across a size of the batteries anywhere.

 

If your looking at getitng into anything like graphic design or using any pro apps, get the MBP. Really, tyring ot do any photo editing on a screen any smaller than this sucks.

Max battery life from my MBP is about 4 hours 10min. Thats at low brightness (still quite usable for taking notes and surfing web) while browsing web and taking notes. I can get just over 3 hours with normal operation. The macbook can push 6 hours.

If you have the money, get the pro. Ovearall size and weight aren't that much of a difference. The MBP is half a pound heavier, a bit thinner and not much wider (surprise!).
Either one are excelent machines though. After playing with both, I had a hard time actually sticking with the MBP, but overall, it's a better decision for me.

And no, it doesn't get that hot anymore. Under constant heavy load, yes, it will get hot, but no more so than other core duo machines.

 

But other than the screen size do you think it could handle it with the integrated graphics card and all?

Thats another reason I was going to go with smaller of the two is because of fear of battery life. My Compaq that I have right now only has a 6 cell battery and does well to make it through 2 classes, thats thats with brightness as low as it will go, almost unbareable to work with, and using Notebook Hardware Control set to max battery.

 

Yeah, I go through 4 hours of classes with a bit to spare on my MBP. Again, thats primarily taking notes. I do a bit of web browsing too, but not that much. Keeping the brightness down low is a big factor. I use mine on 1-2 noches and it's fine. That brightness level is maybe comparable to an older LCD matte screen. Still plenty easy to read, though not in bright light.

 

I'm actually surprised by what is considered "low brightness" on these notebooks, because quite frankly its not that much lower in brightness compared to some others I've seen.

 

i ordered it last friday. suppose to get it tomorrow or on monday. so that's about a week. i customize it via the telp, add 1GB of RAM, 80GB HDD, and the APP. the APP arrived yesterday

 

Takes about 7 days

 

As long as you can deal with the scren size and the glossyness the MB will do those tasks just fine. There are other feature that the MBP has besides video and screen size. Express Card, full Dual-Link DVI, SuperDrive in every config, larger hard drive standard, faster processor standard. If any of those are really important to you, you may want to consider the MBP. Otherwise, the MacBook is an excellent machine.

 

I'm about to order people, but I'm still torn!!!
I don't know whether to get the Macbook or MBP.
I'm thinking better battery life and more portable with the Macbook.
But thinking better in the long run and for schoool the MBP.

Just a refresher for everyone. I'm a freshman in college and majoring in Digital Media Communication so later on I will be getting into web page design and so forth. I know anything will be fine right now but when I actually get to designing pages and so forth what do you guys suggest? Does everyone agree the Macbook will be fine if I can deal with the small screen?

Anyone have any last minute tips to help me decide?!?!

 

The MacBook should still be fine for you, but if you will be doing a lot of web page design, you might find that the 15.4" widescreen will be more useable for you than the 13.3" one on the MacBook. It depends a lot on how you work though, but for many designers, the more screen real estate they have to work with (i.e. so they aren't constantly switching back and forth between browser and text editor, etc.) can be beneficial.

But again, many designers find the MacBook to be perfectly capable and can adapt their design flow to it, so you can still generally work fine with it.

 

Of course you can take the extra money you saved and get an external monitor. You should be fine making small changes on the notebook screen itself, but when you're hard at work on something use an external. There are browsers out there that have quick switch, which by pressing one button it quickly switches through its own windows and whatnot. Tons of different options you can do.

 

Yeah, you could get one of those super expensive cinema displays.

The main driving point that made me stick with the MBP over the MB is that I would really need to get a nice monitor with it.

By the time I added that in, I wasn't much short of a MBP.

Though honestly... I don't hook mine up to external monitors all that often. I have a nice 19" at home, but the screen is so nice on the MBP, that I don't often use it. Plus the whole moving the mouse between 2 screens is kind of odd to me still.


BTW, 2 full weeks for MB shiping in virginia for everyone i know who bought one. Took me 6 days to get my MBP and that was mainly due to issue with my bank (ordered tuesday night, got it monday). Otherwise I would have gotten it in like, 3-4 days.

 

That's another factor actually, if you will be doing a lot of design work on the laptop itself, a MBP with the matte screen would be a wise decision; the glossy screens are great for some things, but many designers prefer matte screens for better color accuracy, etc.

 

Of course thats if your doing graphics though, in the actual industry web designers just use what the graphic arts department gives them to use.

Unless you're one of those self-employed ones that do your own, then a matte screen is nice.

 

I actually find the color accuracy quit good on the glossy screen. Granted I don't keep it up all the way, but it's pretty good.

Either screen is good though. I'm sure a pro graphic designer would have their own external high end display unit anyway.

 

Alright, well I ordered this morning guys.

Macbook Pro 15.4"
2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo
1GB 667 DDR2- 2x512 SO-DIMMS
80GB Serial ATA drive@5400rpm
SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
Glossy Widescreen Display
No optional SW
BkLit Keyboard/Mac OS
Airport Extreme Card&BT

Along with a 2gb Nano.

The only thing that sucks is they are "esstimating" my MBP won't be shipped until the 12th and delivered until the 19th. I'm hoping it really is around 7 days like you guys said and they just give themselves a grace period. I don't know if I could wait that long. I'm ready to be a part of the Mac community.

 

I wouldn't necessarily read much into it, but there are some rumors of the MBP being updated on October 10th (nothing much to substantiate this though), which could possibly explain the shipping delay; normally when they do have an update imminent, they will sometimes delay existing orders and automatically upgrade them to the new model.

Or it could just be a normal delay.

 

Hrm... thats an interesting delay...
Maybe they will update it. But it could just be a shortage of CD chips.
Anyway, I'm sre you'll be super happy with it

 

Alright, well the computer and my auxiliary cable shipped just a little while ago, but not my ipod. Haha, oh well.

What was is about the computers that was rumored to be updated?

 

There was (is, actually) some very loose speculation that the MacBook Pro will finally be updated to Core 2 Duo on Tuesday, October 10th. There isn't much basis for this, beyond just that it is seen as overdue for an update, and the feeling is that an update is due "any day now". If they don't get updated on 10/10, rest assured that people will be sure it will be on 10/17 (and so forth).

-Zadillo

 

Heh, I wish I could get the C2D upgrade... but not really a big deal. I don't think 64bit will be taken advantage of for a while yet.

 

Is the Core 2 Duo just the 64 bit processor? Or whatst the difference between it and just the Core Duo?

 

Well, apparantly there is a Core2Duo shortage. If the MacBooks and MacBook Pros are selling well and there really is a C2D shortage, I see no reason to update, and I am sure Apple would feel the same.

 

That's pretty much, it's a 64-bit dual core processor while the Core Duo is a 32-bit dual core processor. The big deal with 64-bit processors generally is the ability to access more RAM (so if you do want 4GB of RAM for your laptop, Core 2 Duo is definitely the way to go). Conceivably there might be some performance improvements with 64-bit versions of Vista or Leopard, but I'm not totally sure what they might be.

In terms of practical differences right now, for most stuff you use a laptop for it's not likely you'd notice much of a difference.

-Zadillo

 

The other main difference is 4MB of L2 cache. That actually probably has more of a performance increase than 64-bit at the moment.

 

Hmm, well guys. A week and a half after registering online and two days after making my first purchase, I get an e-mail from Apple. Save 40 dollars on your first order of 300 dollars or more. Well great timing, I made my first purchase 2 days ago, bought a brand new computer and ipod, don't think I need much else from you. I called to see if it could be applied to my ordered or if I could get a rebate or anything and was told no because those e-mails go out by luck of the draw, but it can be used for my next order. It's only 40 bucks so it isn't that big of a deal, but it just doesn't make much sense to me.

What do you guys think?

 

I got one of those coupons too, they usually send those out after a large order was placed, when you placed the order your e-mail became eligable for it.

 

Not sure, normally I've seen those coupons get sent out after something was already ordered, although from the wording ("first order"), it sounds like this was something designed to encourage someone to buy. I think the thinking probably might be that after someone has registered and hasn't bought something, they might send the coupons out as an extra incentive.

If it does concern you, conceivably you could cancel your existing order and then place a new order to use the coupon.

But anyway, I doubt that whatever mechanism they have that sends those coupons is based on whether you had already placed an order.

 

See, thats what got me, is the wording "first order." It would have been different if it had of said next order or something like that.

 

My macbook took 6 or 7 weeks to come...but thats Australia for you

 

That seems a bit weird considering the manufacturering plant is in China, one would think you'd get your computer faster than Americans would.

 

Wow... 6-7 weeks? Maybe apple doesn't keep a stop of them for Aussie's like they do in the US.

Hey, I just got a $30 coupon for a "first order" on apple.com because I bought some songs off itunes. Pretty cool. Now I can order my ipod even cheaper

 

AH, the anticipation is killing me, I tell you! My iPod came yesterday though and I'm lovin it, I just want my computer now! My Computer did get pushed back till Friday but at least it wasn't any longer.

 

So I got my computer about 30 minutes ago guys!
Its freaking sweet. I'm still downloadind updates right now but after that I'm going to start making it mine. I'm like a little kid on Christmas.

 

Haha, grats jparker
I still find it fun using OS X. I mean, it is enjoyable.

 

I bet you are also feeling less stress too. I swear whenever I get on a Windows platform, I start feeling depressed and a bit stressed out.

 

Heh, except for when I get these **** kernal panics. That and it's still a bit slower to do things. I miss the run command... I miss it a lot.
Overall it is nice

 

I highly highly highly recommend checking out Quicksilver:

http://quicksilver.blacktree.com/

Makes it incredibly easy to do just about anything...... just bring up quicksilver and start typing an app name and you can run it. Start typing the name of a document and you can select the document and then choose what to do with it (e-mail it, open it with a specific app, etc.).

Dan Dickinson's tutorials give a really good sense of what all you can do with Quicksilver:

http://vjarmy.com/archives/2004/03/quicksilver_a_b.php

http://vjarmy.com/archives/2005/02/quicksilver_fro.php

 

hrm, thanks. I d/l quicksilver a while ago, but never really used it. i'll take a look at the tutorials

 

Trust me, it's definitely worth learning how to use......... it's definitely one of the slickest things I've ever seen. Especially since it does such a great job of combining searching for documents and apps and performing actions with those things, and makes it so quick to do. I think that especially since you mentioned missing the Run command, and found other things kind of slow to do, you should really like this...

 

i ordered my hp dv 8000 online.
it took three days to deliver it.
if somebody interested here is link.
it's kind a laptop shop
Good luck!!!

 

Well ordering from a Russian website seems to be a bit odd, the link doesn't work at all just does weird things. Windows users I'd probably NOT click that link.

 

Alright guys.A little update for you all. I have been without internet since I last posted and haven't been able to get on. That has just given me extra time to toy with the machine itsself. And my concluding sentence. I FREAKING LOVE IT!
I think I have switched over rather well and I am still learning little new things everyday but the ease of use of this machine and just how it works makes it a beauty alone without the added styling which is also stunning. I can't say that I will ever use a PC again unless its something that I absolutely have to for.

 

Awesome, great to hear you're enjoying it so much!

 

Hah, right on man.
It is a lot of fun, and I only use windows if I need to access the network drives (I feel OS X really needs to catch up on the way it maps drives). But yup, i'ts great

 

Don't know how some people here are getting so many kernal panics, I haven't had one yet. When I first got a Mac, I thought the company (Apple) paid to much attention to style and the what mattered was a system that actually runs without problems to me. After using Mac OS for a while I started thinking 'jeez Apple really nailed this OS stuff' after that I started truly looking at the design of my Mac and thought 'Wow, it is pleasing to the eye and nice to look at' and discovered all the litte things about it.

I still discover new things almost everyday like extra menulets, and awesome programs like ClearDock, and when I do it's like finding a 10 dollar bill lying on the ground.

Not sure what your problem is with network drives, OS X uses samba for networking drives and Samba has proven to be a powerful services in both linux and OS X platforms. I can connect to anything even Active Directories too.